March 10, 2024

UK Space Agency Selects ispace as Part of Space Exploration Funding Plan (Source: iSpace)
The UK Space Agency (UKSA) funding plan, which supports several international exploration projects, including one involving ispace, has the aim of strengthening the UK’s role in international exploration of the Moon, Mars, and Venus. As part of the plan, the UKSA announced funding for the University of Leicester and ispace to develop a Lunar Spectrometer for future exploration missions to investigate water ice on the Moon. ispace EUROPE S.A., the Luxembourg-based subsidiary of ispace, has entered negotiations with the University of Leicester for a payload transportation services. (3/5)

Advanced Space Hires Yasmine Almond as Director of Communications and Public Relations (Source; Advanced Space)
Advanced Space, LLC, a leading space tech solutions company today announced the hiring of longtime industry member, Yasmine Almond to join the team as the Director of Communications and Public Relations. Almond has made an impact in various ways over the years serving in the community and industry.  (3/7)

Aerospace Pioneer Joins Zenno Astronautics Team as CTO (Source: Zenno Astronautics)
New Zealand headquartered space-flight systems company Zenno Astronautics (Zenno) today announced the appointment of Dr Malcolm Snowdon as its Chief Technology Officer. As Chief Technology Officer, Malcolm will lead the technical strategy and product development for Zenno’s proprietary high-temperature superconducting electromagnet technology. Bringing to market a range of space applications for satellite operators and manufacturers, kicking off with fuel-free attitude control. (3/7)

The Stages for the Inaugural Ariane 6 Flight Currently Being Assembled (Source: Ariane Group)
The main stage and the upper stage for the inaugural Ariane 6 flight are currently in the central core final assembly line in the Launcher Assembly Building (BAL) at the ELA4 launch complex. The central core is made up of the main stage and the upper stage, assembled together with an inter-stage interface structure. Once assembled, the central core will then be transferred from the BAL to the launch pad.

On the launch pad, the central core will be raised to the vertical position and placed on the launch table. The two boosters will then be added, one on each side, to form an Ariane 62. Finally, the upper composite consisting of the fairing and the payloads will then be added to the launcher on the launch pad. (3/5)

Funding Boost to Grow Aussie Space Sector (Source: ASA)
12 new Australian space projects are being supported that will build capability in our local sector, as well as respond to key challenges and opportunities like climate change. More than $9 million has been awarded to projects which align with NASA’s Artemis program, helping Australian organisations to deliver products and services into global space supply chains.

Head of the Australian Space Agency, Enrico Palermo said this demonstrates how Australian companies are contributing to global space missions. “These projects show the agility and innovative nature of Australia’s space companies, and how we can carve our niche in big international missions,” Mr Palermo said. “Space is a global endeavour and by working with our partners like NASA we can create outcomes that benefit Australia, while also contributing to solutions to global challenges.” (3/1)

New Funding to Boost Space Sector Growth Across the UK (Source: UKSA)
Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL), one of the nation’s leading satellite manufacturers, has won a project from the UK Space Agency’s flagship Space Clusters Infrastructure Fund (SCIF).  The £250,000 public investment, matched by the company, will enhance SSTL’s facilities with a Research and Development Imager Cleanroom in Guildford. This will support the development of cutting-edge, space-based imaging technology – the ‘eyes’ of satellites that monitor our planet and the space environment. 

SCIF, which has awarded £47 million to date, for projects ranging from a space skills centre in Newcastle to a microgravity research centre in Cardiff, builds upon the UK Space Agency’s wider investments to develop the UK space ecosystem. As set out in the Space Industrial Plan, the government is committed to continuing its support for space clusters across the UK and providing the tools needed to drive collaboration between them and catalyse further investment. (3/7)

Spire Global Announces Strong Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Results; Achieves Positive Cash Flow from Operations (Source: Spire)
Spire Global announced results for its quarter and year ended December 31, 2023. Fourth quarter 2023 revenue was $27.7 million, representing the 10th consecutive quarter of record revenue. Full year 2023 revenue was $105.7 million, representing 32% year-over-year growth, and meeting our objective of over 30% annual revenue growth. Fourth quarter 2023 cash flow from operations was positive $4.1 million, a sequential quarter-over-quarter improvement of $9.2 million. Fourth quarter 2023 free cash flow was ($2.2) million, reflecting a $13.9 million sequential improvement quarter-over-quarter. (3/6)

MDA Rebrands to MDA Space (Source: MDA)
MDA, a trusted mission partner to the rapidly expanding global space industry, today announced it has rebranded to MDA Space, an identity evolution that honors the past, recognizes the present, and further positions the company to lead in a new era of space innovation. MDA Space has seen extraordinary growth in recent years, with an expanding operational footprint and a rapidly growing workforce that now numbers 3,000 space engineers, scientists, technicians, and business leaders across Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. (3/7)

Deal Agreed for 999-Year Lease on RAS HQ (Source: Royal Astronomical Society)
The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) is delighted to announce that an agreement has been reached with the Government to secure a 999-year leasehold on the Society’s headquarters in London. It protects the 150-year-old scientific and cultural ecosystem at Burlington House by transferring ownership of the 19th century building to the Learned Societies that call it home, including the RAS, the Geological Society (GSL), the Linnean Society (LSL), the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and the Society of Antiquaries (SAL). (3/8)

Pioneering Space Enrichment Program Celebrates First Cohort of Graduate Emirati Students (Source: Yahsat)
Al Yah Satellite Communications Co., the UAE’s flagship satellite solutions provider, and the National Space Science and Technology Center (NSSTC) have successfully concluded the first round of their pioneering Space Enrichment Programme – a first-of-its-kind initiative in the UAE - with the participation of 70 UAE students.

The program was implemented in cooperation with the Emirates Schools Establishment (ESE) and UAE University Science and Innovation Park and seeks to boost awareness and knowledge of space technologies among high-school students. It enabled gifted and high-achieving Grade 11 and 12 students to learn about real-life space applications through a variety of technical tools such as 3D modeling, simulation, and 3D printing. (3/8)

How the SNP Backed the Wrong Horse in the Scottish Space Race (Source: Sunday Times)
When Jeremy Hunt announced a £10 million UK government investment in SaxaVord spaceport in last week’s budget, the chancellor confirmed something the industry had known for years. The rocket launch site at an old RAF base on Unst in Shetland will win the country’s very own space race this summer when it beats its rival, Sutherland spaceport, to become the first place in Europe to send satellites into orbit. Any delight felt by Frank Strang, chief executive and founder of SaxaVord, was tempered by anger at his treatment by the Scottish government and its agencies who had offered scant support to his business over more than seven years while pouring money into his competitor. (3/10)

The Pentagon’s Growing Interest in SpaceX’s Starship (Source: San Antonio News-Express)
Someday, instead of a U.S. military ship or a humanitarian organization’s truck, a SpaceX Starship might be the first vehicle to bring help to people suffering amid disasters, conflicts or other crises around the world. DoD says the commercial space company’s spacecraft, which is  in development at its Starbase facility near Boca Chica Beach, eventually could carry out some of its most complex missions moving tons of cargo around the globe quickly and safely. DOD has invested more than $120 million in contracts with the company and others to develop a way to move 100 tons of cargo anywhere on Earth in two hours or less. (3/9)

Orion Space Solutions Launches an Electro-Optical/Infrared Weather System (EWS) Satellite for DoD (Source: Arcfield)
Orion Space Solutions (Orion), a wholly owned subsidiary of Arcfield, announced today that its Rapid Revisit Optical Cloud Imager (RROCI) satellite successfully launched on Monday, March 4. This state-of-the-art electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) weather system (EWS) spacecraft will provide high-resolution Earth observations and infrared data, allowing for accurate and up-to-date weather forecasting for the U.S. Space Force's (USSF) Space Systems Command (SSC). (3/7)

Elon Musk Has a Giant Charity. Its Money Stays Close to Home (Source: New York Times)
Before March 2021, Elon Musk’s charitable foundation had never announced any donations to Cameron County, an impoverished region at the southern tip of Texas that is home to his SpaceX launch site and local officials who help regulate it. Then, at 8:05 one morning that month, a SpaceX rocket blew up, showering the area with a rain of twisted metal. The Musk Foundation began giving at 9:27 a.m. local time. “Am donating $20M to Cameron County schools & $10M to City of Brownsville for downtown revitalization,” Mr. Musk said on Twitter.

At the same time, he runs a charity with billions of dollars, the kind of resources that could make a global impact. But unlike Bill Gates, who has deployed his fortune in an effort to improve health care across Africa, or Walmart’s Walton family, which has spurred change in the American education system, Mr. Musk’s philanthropy has been haphazard and largely self-serving — making him eligible for enormous tax breaks and helping his businesses. (3/10)

Ursa Major’s Hadley Rocket Engine Flies for the First Time (Source: Space News)
Rocket propulsion startup Ursa Major announced March 9 its Hadley engine successfully flew for the first time powering a Stratolaunch hypersonic test vehicle. Stratolaunch operates a giant aircraft — a modified version of a double-fuselage Boeing 747-400 — that serves as a mobile launchpad. It carries hypersonic vehicles underneath its center wing until reaching the desired altitude. This allows hypersonic vehicles to reach higher speeds before ignition and avoids the complexities of ground launching

The March 9 test off the coast of California, over the Pacific Ocean, was the first powered flight of Stratolaunch’s Talon hypersonic test vehicle. The company said the vehicle reached high supersonic speeds approaching Mach 5. Laurienti said the flight of the Stratolaunch Talon TA-1 test vehicle marks a major milestone for the Hadley, a 5,000-pound-thrust liquid oxygen and kerosene, oxygen-rich staged combustion cycle rocket engine. The company uses 3D printing to speed up the manufacturing process, and claims it can build engines in a matter of days. (3/9)

Scientists Intrigued by Water Planet Where Ocean Appears to Be Boiling (Source: Futurism)
About 70 light years away from our solar system is a planet that may potentially be covered entirely with water. But before you start imagining oceans just like the ones here on Earth, astronomers at the University of Cambridge say the planet-wide sea could be as hot as a pot of boiling water. The astronomers uncovered this planet after interpreting data they had picked up using the NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. (3/9)

The Pioneer Anomaly: What Happened To Old NASA Probes At 20 Astronomical Units? (Source: IFL Science)
What NASA got from Pioneer 10 and 11 was a weird and intriguing mystery. At around 20 astronomical units (AU), with one AU being the distance between the Earth and the Sun, both spacecraft began accelerating towards the Sun. The probes were still heading out of the Solar System, but a force was acting on them, pushing them in the direction of the Sun and slowing their progress. While this may sound trivial, the fact that both probes went through this at around 20 AU led some physicists to propose that there was something wrong with our theory of gravity. (3/9)

Luxembourg Leaders Focus on Lunar Exploration at Visit to NASA Ames (Source: NASA)
The challenges of working on the surface of the Moon are at the center of a facility at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. The Lunar Lab and Regolith Testbeds help scientists and engineers – from NASA and industry alike – study how well science instruments, robots, and people might be able to safely work, manipulate, navigate, and traverse the tough lunar terrain. On March 7, three visitors from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg learned more about the work happening here. Luxembourg was one of the first nations to sign the Artemis Accords and has taken steps to enable commercial space exploration. (3/8)

BlackSky Secures Back-to-Back U.S. Air Force Contracts (Source: Space News)
Earth imaging and analytics company BlackSky won a $3.5 million contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory to supply satellite imagery and analysis in support of “global moving target engagement,” the Air Force said. This award comes on the heels of a research contract last year, and a $2 million award announced March 4 to supply the Air Force satellite imagery data and access to the BlackSky data analytics platform. Under the $2 million contract, the AFRL will use the data for studies and to help train artificial intelligence models focused on detecting and tracking moving objects and targets from space. (3/9)

France Prepares for Space Wars in ‘AsterX’ European Exercise (Source: C4ISRnet)
In silent orbit around Earth, a potentially hostile satellite approaches an allied communication node, intentions unknown. French Space Command has determined the move is deliberate, and intelligence shows the enemy spacecraft is equipped with a robotic arm that would allow it to de-orbit the friendly asset. The French-led blue team moves a “patroller” satellite into a protective position – a capability France is working on, but now lacks – to block any hostile action by the U.S.-led red team. (3/8)While fictional, the scenario played out on Thursday during Europe’s largest space wargames is credible and based on real capabilities, said Colonel Mathieu Bernabé. (3/8)

SpaceX Targeting Sunday Night for Next Falcon 9 Launch From Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Florida Today)
SpaceX is targeting Sunday night at 7:05 p.m. for its next Falcon 9 rocket launch from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport — hours after a series of showers and thunderstorms should sweep off the Space Coast. In fact, the Space Force's 45th Weather Squadron predicts 95% odds of "go for launch" weather conditions. (3/9)

Congress Clears FY2024 Funding Bills for NASA, NOAA, FAA (Source: Space Policy Online)
FY2024 funding for NASA, NOAA and the FAA cleared the Senate tonight hours before funding would have run out at midnight. President Biden is expected to sign the bill expeditiously. Funding for departments and agencies, including DOD, in six other appropriations bills are still pending with a March 22 expiration date. All of this occurs more than 5 months into FY2024 and just days before Biden submits his budget request for FY2025.

After months of wrangling and four Continuing Resolutions (CRs) to keep the government operating after FY2024 began on October 1, 2023, Congress has finally passed a $467.5 billion FY2024 “minibus” bill for six of the 12 regular appropriations bills: Agriculture, Commerce-Justice-Science (including NASA and NOAA), Energy-Water, Interior, Milcon-VA, and Transportation-HUD (including the FAA and its Office of Commercial Space Transportation). Negotiations over funding for the other six, including DOD, continue with March 22 as the deadline. (3/8)

First Stars in the Universe Found by JWST (Source: Cosmos)
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has yet again peered into the early universe giving scientists new insights into how the first stars formed galaxies. Our universe is about 13.8 billion years old. The JWST has wowed astronomers by revealing ancient galaxies that challenge our understanding of how they form. Within the first 6 months of its scientific operations in 2022, JWST broke Hubble’s record for the furthest confirmed galaxy. JWST’s galaxy, known as JADES-GS-z13-0 is believed to have formed “only” 325 million years after the Big Bang. This is more than 100 million years earlier than Hubble’s record which was held by the galaxy GN-z11, discovered in 2015. (3/7)

ISS Schedule Conflicts Delay Starliner Crewed Test Flight to May (Source: Space News)
The first crewed flight of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner has slipped from late April to early May because of International Space Station schedule conflicts and not due to any issues with the spacecraft itself. In a media advisory released by NASA late March 8, the agency said the Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission, previously scheduled to launch no earlier than April 22, was now scheduled for early March. The agency said the slip was “due to space station scheduling” but did not elaborate. (3/8)