February 12, 2024

ULA Shows Confidence Following Successful Lunar Mission (Source: Space News)
Tory Bruno says the successful Vulcan launch is a vindication of ULAs's transformation. Bruno said the inaugural Vulcan launch last month was "perfect" with no issues, contrary to many other first launches of new rockets. He said the success demonstrated the transformation of ULA after he took over as CEO nearly a decade ago to make the company more competitive. His comments come as rumors continue to swirl about a potential sale of ULA, currently a Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture, to either Blue Origin or private equity firm Cerberus. (2/12)

Russia Launches Military Satellite (Source: Russian Space Web)
Russia launched a military satellite on Feb. 9. A Soyuz-2.1v lifted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia at 2:03 a.m. Eastern and placed the Cosmos-2575 satellite into orbit. Russian media released no details about the satellite, but the launch was similar to one in December that placed another satellite, Cosmos-2574, into the same sun-synchronous orbit. (2/12)

SpaceX Launches Starlink Satellites From California (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
SpaceX launched a set of Starlink satellites on Feb. 9 after several days of delays. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California and deployed 22 Starlink satellites. Weather delayed the launch by several days, including scrubs on Tuesday and Thursday. (2/12)

Space Force X-37B Spaceplane Spotted in Unusual Orbit (Source: Ars Technica)
Amateur satellite observers have found the U.S. Space Force's X-37B in an unusual orbit. Satellite trackers said last week they found the spacecraft in a highly elliptical orbit of 323 by 38,838 kilometers and an inclination of 59.1 degrees. The uncrewed spaceplane launched in December on a Falcon Heavy into what was widely expected to be a higher orbit than past flights of the vehicle, and the orbit it was found in closely matches some pre-launch predictions. The Space Force has not disclosed what the X-37B is doing in that orbit or how long it will remain there. (2/12)

Aalyria Demonstrates Innovative Satellite Software (Source: Space News)
Aalyria has successfully tested software to manage a mesh network of satellites. The startup, spun out of Google's parent company Alphabet, said Monday it demonstrated its Spacetime software in December at the Naval Research Laboratory in a test funded by the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) as part of a larger effort to create a multi-layered satellite architecture of different vendors and orbits. The company said it showed how its software could manage a hybrid network involving satellites from different constellations. Such a hybrid network provides wider coverage and lower latency, crucial for time-sensitive intelligence and defense operations. Aalyria has an $8.7 million contract from DIU to implement the Spacetime software. (2/12)

True Anomaly to Launch Jackal Satellites in March Transporter Mission (Source: Space News)
True Anomaly, a startup developing spacecraft for proximity operations with other satellites, is preparing to launch its first mission. Two of its Jackal satellites are scheduled to launch on SpaceX's Transporter-10 rideshare mission in March. True Anomaly, founded in 2022 and fresh off a $100 million fundraising round, intends to demonstrate the capabilities of its Jackal spacecraft to perform in-orbit activities known as rendezvous and proximity operations. The two spacecraft will maneuver around each other while taking high-resolution images and video on the mission. (2/12)

Polaris Astronaut Mission Slips to Summer (Source: Space News)
The first flight of the Polaris program of private astronaut missions has slipped again. The program, backed by billionaire Jared Isaacman, said last week that the Polaris Dawn mission was now scheduled for no earlier than this summer. The Crew Dragon flight, originally planned for late 2022, will conduct the first spacewalk from that spacecraft, and development of spacesuits needed for that has been a pacing item. The mission will also go to a higher altitude than any crewed mission since Apollo 17 and test the use of Starlink for spacecraft communications. (2/12)

Greece Joins Artemis Accords (Source: Space News)
Greece is the latest country to sign the Artemis Accords. Greece's foreign minster signed the Accords at a State Department ceremony on Friday. The Artemis Accords, which outline best practices for safe and sustainable space exploration, have now been signed by 35 countries, and Greece is the 12th member of both the European Union and European Space Agency to join. (2/12)

Tiny NASA Cameras to Picture Interaction Between Lander, Moon's Surface (Source: Space Daily)
As Intuitive Machines' Nova-C lander descends toward the Moon, four tiny NASA cameras will be trained on the lunar surface, collecting imagery of how the surface changes from interactions with the spacecraft's engine plume. Developed at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies (SCALPSS) is an array of cameras placed around the base of a lunar lander to collect imagery during and after descent. Using a technique called stereo photogrammetry, researchers at Langley will use the overlapping images from the version of SCALPSS on Nova-C - SCALPSS 1.0 - to produce a 3D view of the surface. (2/12)

Europe's Space Technology Center Bolsters Power Infrastructure for Advanced Space Activities (Source: Space Daily)
In an essential upgrade to its power distribution network, the European Space Agency's (ESA) European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in the Netherlands has undertaken a significant infrastructure enhancement. Over four kilometers of heavy-duty 10 kilovolt (kV) cables have been installed beneath the site, marking a pivotal step in ensuring the robustness and reliability of power supply to the continent's technical heart of space activities. (2/9)

How India Plans to Enhance Ocean Monitoring with INSAT-3DS Mission (Source: India Today)
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is gearing up for the scheduled launch of the INSAT-3DS satellite aboard the GSLV-F14 rocket. This mission, fully funded by the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), represents a critical step forward in India's meteorological capabilities. The INSAT-3DS is engineered to enhance meteorological observations and monitor land and ocean surfaces, thereby improving weather forecasting and disaster warning systems. It will work in conjunction with the currently operational INSAT-3D and INSAT-3DR satellites, augmenting the meteorological services provided by these predecessors. (2/12)

A Bunch of New Research Puts This Winter’s Wild Weather In Frightening Context (Source: Mother Jones)
The earth is already breaking all sorts of records this year, and they’re not good ones. As I type, California’s historic rainfall pours down the coast and residents face over 300 mudslides, on top of widespread flash flooding. At the peak of the storm, over 800,000 lost power. Just weeks before, snowfall across the US shattered expectations. In Nashville, residents got their yearly average of snow in less than a day. And that’s just the tip of the (quickly melting) iceberg.

Since the start of 2024, countless scientific studies have been published with big repercussions for our understanding of climate change and weather events. Hurricane strength is generally rated on a scale from 1 to 5, based on wind speeds. Category 5 is flexible, for wind speeds ranging from 157 mph to infinity. The trouble is, with climate change, the wind speeds just keep increasing. 2015’s Hurricane Patricia, for example, saw wind speeds up to 215 mph.

The Earth is warming at a rate almost two decades faster than expected. In 2015, 174 nations came together to draft the Paris Accords, an international treaty on climate change, and agreed on one thing: it was crucial to stop the world from getting 1.5 degrees Celsius hotter by 2100. “One-point-five has become an iconic figure,” Sir David King, former lead negotiator from the UK Foreign Office at the UN climate summit, told BBC News. We have left that iconic figure in the dust though, as the study in Nature Climate estimates we passed the 1.5 threshold in 2020. (2/9)