January 8, 2024

ULA’s Vulcan Rocket Launches as the Newest Challenger to SpaceX (Source: CNBC)
United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket successfully launched its long-awaited inaugural mission from Florida’s Cape Canaveral early Monday. Vulcan successfully deployed its main payload, the Peregrine lunar cargo lander for Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic, which aims to land on the moon on Feb. 23. ULA’s Vulcan represents the latest challenger to the launch business of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, with the companies fiercely competing for lucrative national security rocket contracts. (1/8)

Lawmakers Agree to $886B Defense Deal (Source: Roll Call)
House and Senate negotiators have confirmed an agreement on the final fiscal 2024 appropriations bills, setting spending limits at $886.3 billion for defense and $772.7 billion for nondefense programs, in line with last year's debt limit agreement. Republicans secured cuts to pandemic aid and IRS funding, despite the White House's reluctance to accept further IRS funding reductions. (1/7)

NASA Gets FAA OK to Test Drones in Air Taxi Research (Source: Electronics Weekly)
NASA deployed drones for research on air taxis after securing approval from the Federal Aviation Administration for flying beyond the visual line of sight. Lou Glaab, branch head for the aeronautics systems engineering at NASA Langley Research Center, said, "We have to ensure the automation technologies of these vehicles are capable of safely handling a high volume of air traffic in a busy area." (1/5)

DTI Develops Innovative Plasma Engine for Spacecraft: Reduces Earth Fuel Dependency (Source: Space Daily)
Diversified Technologies, Inc. announced the development of a new spacecraft engine that promises to significantly alter the dynamics of space travel. The Atmosphere-Refueling Magnetic Induction Plasma Engine (AR-MIPE) represents a novel approach in space propulsion technology, emphasizing the use of in-situ propellants to enhance in-space maneuverability and increase payload capacity. This new propulsion system eliminates the traditional requirement for spacecraft to carry heavy fuel payloads from Earth. By employing the AR-MIPE, spacecraft can potentially rely on propellants available throughout the solar system. (1/8)

NASA, United Arab Emirates Announce Artemis Lunar Gateway Airlock (Source: NASA)
NASA and the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced Sunday plans for the space center to provide an airlock for Gateway, humanity’s first space station that will orbit the Moon. The lunar space station will support NASA’s missions for long-term exploration of the Moon under Artemis for the benefit of all. (1/7)

Mapping the Biggest Tech Talent Hubs in the U.S. and Canada (Source: Visual Capitalist)
While cities like San Francisco and New York remain centers of tech talent and innovation, many other cities are growing extremely quickly in terms of the tech labor pool. This infographic draws from a report by CBRE to determine which tech talent markets in the U.S. and Canada are the largest. The data looks at the total workforce in the sector, as well as the change in tech worker population over time in various cities. (12/26)

Questions About NASA's Mars Sample Return Mission Put JPL Jobs in Jeopardy (Source: LA Times)
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory laid off 100 contractors last week and will scale back part of the first-ever effort to bring pieces of Mars to Earth, after a cost-cutting order from NASA that lawmakers called “short-sighted and misguided.” In an email to staff on Thursday, JPL director Laurie Leshin said that NASA is bracing for a federal budget that could cap spending on the Mars Sample Return mission at $300 million this fiscal year — just 36% of the previous year’s $822-million budget and less than one-third of the $949 million the Biden administration requested for the program. (1/7)

USSF Accepting Proposals for Third Research Opportunity Under the USSF University Consortium (Source: US Space Force)
In partnership with the Air Force Research Laboratory, the United States Space Force is currently accepting proposals for USSF University Consortium/Space Strategic Technology Institute 3, focused on Advanced Space Power and Propulsion (ASPP). The USSF posted a Request for Information (RFI) Dec. 21, 2023 inviting universities and their partners to submit white papers for collaborative research projects by Feb. 2, 2024.

This SSTI effort, which is the third in a series of research opportunities under the USSF University Consortium, will facilitate ASPP research, enabling game-changing improvements in agility, resilience, affordability and performance for Department of Defense spacecraft. Click here. (1/3)

SpaceX Launches Starlink Mission From Florida (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
SpaceX launched a set of Starlink satellites Sunday evening. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 5:35 p.m. Eastern and placed 23 Starlink satellites into orbit. A SpaceX executive said that the launch set a new company record of going from rollout to launch in 6 hours and 33 minutes. (1/8)

China Launches Weather Satellites (Source: Xinhua)
China launched another set of weather satellites Friday. A Kuaizhou-1A lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 6:20 a.m. Eastern and deployed four Tianmu-1 commercial weather satellites. Eight other Tianmu-1 launched on two other Kuaizhou-1A launches in late December. (1/8)

NASA and SDA to Collaborate on Laser Comm Tech (Source: Space News)
NASA and the Space Development Agency (SDA) will collaborate on the development of laser communications technologies. NASA has been concentrating on the ground component of optical communications networks while SDA focuses on space-to-space communications. Those efforts will intersect in two to three years when NASA determines whether the commercial terminals SDA is adopting for satellite-to-satellite communications can transmit data to Earth. Space-to-ground optical communications is more challenging because of atmospheric interference, although NASA has demonstrated the ability of such systems to peform high-bandwidth downlinks in several tests. (1/8)

Orbex Lands “Stellar” CEO and Chair Team to Accelerate Growth (Source: Orbex)
Orbex has today announced two new high-level appointments, as former Director General of the Spanish Space Agency Miguel Belló Mora joins as Executive Chair. Tech scale-up expert and investor Phillip Chambers rounds off the leadership team, joining as CEO. They will work together to realize Orbex’s position as the leading orbital launch company in Europe, as it prepares for the completion of its Sutherland Spaceport in Scotland. (1/8)

Venus’ Clouds Have a UV Secret. Scientists Might Have Cracked It (Source: Cosmos)
Venus still has plenty of secrets under its thick sulphuric clouds. How much oxygen is really there? Could there be extreme organisms hiding in the clouds? We don’t know everything even about the very tops of the clouds that we can see.

We know that it is made up of sulphuric acid, water, chlorine and iron. But there has to be something else to form patches and streaks in the clouds, visible in ultraviolet (UV) light. New research suggests that two iron-bearing sulphate materials called rhomboclase and acid ferric sulphate could be the missing link. The research has been published in Science Advances. (1/8)