March 25, 2024

UK Space Agency Expands with New Offices, New HQ (Source: BBC)
The U.K. Space Agency is opening new offices across the country. The agency said Monday it will open a new headquarters in June at the Harwell Science Campus as well as regional offices in Cardiff, Edinburgh and Leicester. The new offices are intended to help the agency better work with companies across the country. (3/25)

China's Comms Relay Satellite Enters Lunar Orbit (Source: Space News)
China's Queqiao-2 communications relay satellite entered lunar orbit on Sunday. Queqiao-2 began a 19-minute-long braking burn at 12:46 p.m. Eastern , allowing the spacecraft to be captured by the moon's gravity, the China National Space Administration announced early Monday. The spacecraft will maneuver into an elliptical orbit of 200 by 16,000 kilometers to provide relay services for missions like the Chang'e-6 farside lunar sample return mission, expected to launch in May. (3/25)

Astronauts from US, Russia, Belarus Launch From Kazakhstan Days After Aborted Attempt (Source: Space News)
A Soyuz spacecraft is on its way to the ISS after launch Saturday. A Soyuz-2.1a rocket lifted off at 8:36 a.m. Eastern and placed the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft into orbit. The spacecraft carried a crew from Russia, the U.S. and Belarus. The original launch attempt Thursday was scrubbed by a low-voltage reading in the rocket's first stage. Saturday's launch took place a little more than an hour after a Dragon cargo spacecraft, launched Thursday, docked with the station. (3/25)

SpaceX Launches Starlink Satellites From Florida, Ties Booster Reuse Record (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
A Falcon 9 launched a set of Starlink satellites Saturday night. The Falcon 9 lifted off at 11:09 p.m. Eastern after a one-day delay caused by poor weather at Cape Canaveral, deploying 23 Starlink satellites. The Falcon 9 booster used for the flight completed its 19th launch, becoming the second active booster, and third overall, to reach that milestone, a record for the company. (3/25)

Advanced Space Revolutionizes Moon Navigation with AI-Powered CAPSTONE Experiment (Source: Space Daily)
Advanced Space, LLC has successfully deploying machine learning tools for space navigation technology in cislunar space. The CAPSTONE spacecraft embarked on pioneering software tests, establishing a foundational shift towards autonomous orbital navigation. This advancement, known as SigmaZero, employs a Neural Network (NN) to identify and address navigational challenges, such as detecting subtle accelerations that could otherwise disrupt the spacecraft's course. (3/22)

New Strategies for Astronaut Helmet Safety and Fire Suppression (Source: Space Daily)
The NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) has made significant strides in ensuring astronaut safety. One critical area of focus has been on mitigating water hazards in astronaut helmets during EVAs. The discovery of water accumulation in helmets, posing a significant risk to astronauts, prompted the NESC to engage in comprehensive research and development efforts. By simulating two-phase flow behaviors in microgravity and testing mitigation hardware, the team successfully devised strategies to prevent liquid water formation in helmets, incorporating absorbent materials and enhancing helmet designs for safer spacewalks.

Another significant achievement is the evaluation of terrestrial portable fire extinguishers (PFEs) for use in microgravity environments. Through analytical modeling and custom-designed testing stands, the NESC identified the potential challenges and benefits of utilizing these PFEs in space, marking a crucial step in enhancing fire safety aboard spacecraft. (3/22)

Artemis II's Orion Spacecraft to Undergo Critical Manual Handling Test (Source: Space Daily)
Astronauts aboard NASA's Orion spacecraft will engage in a first-of-its-kind test drive during Artemis II, assessing manual control capabilities critical for future expeditions. A major segment of this mission involves the proximity operations demonstration, where astronauts will manually maneuver Orion in space, using the SLS rocket's upper stage as a reference point. (3/22)

W. Brian Keegan, Chief Engineer of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Dies at 83 (Source: Baltimore Sun)
W. Brian Keegan, a chief engineer at NASA, died of cardiac arrest March 12 at Keswick Multi-Care Center in Baltimore. He was 83. William Brian Keegan was born in the Irvington neighborhood of West Baltimore to William and Madellyne Keegan. Mr. Keegan’s father was an engineer with Westinghouse, and his mother was an administrative staffer for a surgical practice. (3/25)

Gen. Howell Estes—NORAD, Space Command Chief—Dies at 82 (Source: Air and Space Forces)
Gen. Howell M. Estes III, who served as the triple-hatted commander-in-chief of NORAD, U.S. Space Command, and Air Force Space Command in the late 1990s, died March 18. Estes held a number of key jobs in the Air Force and the Department of Defense, notably as the Director of Operations for the Joint Staff and deputy chief of staff for Strategic Air Command during the 1991 Gulf War. He was also one of the first commanders of the 4450th Tactical Group, which flew the highly secret F-117 attack jet in the years before the stealth aircraft was publicly revealed. (3/22)

This Giant, Solar-Powered Sail Can travel Forever, and it’s the Future of Space Exploration (Source: Fast Company)
Over the last two decades, Les Johnson and his team of engineers have quietly been pushing NASA into a new era of space exploration while nobody was paying attention. As an engineer at the legendary Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama—the birthplace of the Saturn V rocket that first took humans to the Moon—Johnson led the complex design of a 17,780-square-foot sail that will push spaceships across the solar system without using a single ounce of fuel.

Called a “solar sail,” the silvery sheet of fabric is 32 times thinner than a human hair and stretches the size of three basketball courts. Over a recent Zoom call, Johnson says the sheet of fabric works much like a sail used for boats—if a boat sail were designed for high-speed space travel. “Just as a sailboat uses the wind to push it through the water, solar sails use the pressure of sunlight to push them through space,” Johnson says.

This seemingly impossible feat is, in fact, not impossible at all. Avi Loeb, an astrophysicist and Director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard University, says solar sails represent one of the most promising technologies for future space exploration. They offer a sustainable and efficient way to navigate the cosmos, with the potential to propel spacecraft to unprecedented speeds and distances. (3/25)

The Tricky Quest to Create an Artificial Solar Eclipse (Source: Washington Post)
For scientists, a total eclipse is also a brief, once-in-awhile quirk of orbital mechanics that lets them view of one of the most consequential parts of our star: the atmospheric layer called the corona. This dim outer region is mysteriously hotter than the solar surface, generating a long-standing scientific puzzle. It’s also churning with activity that can have major effects on Earth, disrupting radio communications or even knocking out the power grid.

To better understand the solar corona, scientists have been simulating eclipses for nearly a century using specialized instruments called coronagraphs. These devices are outfitted with black “occulting disks” and specialized optics to blot out the sun’s brightest light. Only then does the wispy corona come into view. Their occulting disk, made on a 3D printer, was suspended about two and a half feet in front of the telescope on thin, carbon-fiber rods. They were trying the setup on the day of an annular eclipse, when the moon would already be doing much of the work by mostly covering the sun. (3/22)

Launching a Dedicated MicroGEO Communications Satellite for Argentina (Source: Astranis)
Astranis announced a partnership with Orbith, a fast-growing, Latin American Internet Service Provider, to provide a dedicated MicroGEO communications satellite for Argentina. This deal is an exciting opportunity in a country that has proven its openness to disruptive technologies and ideas. This new partnership with Orbith is a great opportunity to expand our services to another fast-growing market, and to work with a local partner who deeply understands the communications needs of the Argentinian people. (3/18)

Airbus Continues to Collaborate with NASA to Monitor Climate Change From Space (Source: Airbus)
Airbus has been awarded a contract to design and build the GRACE-C twin spacecraft by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory JPL (Pasadena, California). This new mission of NASA and the German Space Agency at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) will strengthen the more than 20 year long partnership between the USA and Germany to ensure uninterrupted measurement of the Earth's gravity field, which started in 2002 with GRACE and continues with GRACE Follow-On, launched in 2018. (3/19)

Billionaires Going to Space to Industrialize the Moon, Asteroids, and Mars. It's Time to Set Some Ground Rules (Source: Business Insider)
Elon Musk has said he plans to fly 1,000 Starships to build and populate a city on Mars. Bezos envisions a trillion people living in giant space stations across the solar system. Other space startups have ambitions including asteroid mining, in vitro fertilization (IVF) in space, and space hotels.

What's to stop companies from putting giant advertisements on the face of the moon? Or industrializing craters that scientists want to use for telescopes? Or mining a single asteroid for $100 quintillion worth of precious metals, bringing it back to Earth for sale, and destabilizing the global economy? What will keep the budding deep-space industry in check?

So far, the US government has deliberately avoided regulating the emerging space economy, for fear of suffocating it before it takes off. The FAA is quite active in regulating passenger safety on airplanes, for example, but has no rules for spaceflight passenger safety, even as Blue Origin, SpaceX, and Virgin Galactic fly tourists to the edge of space or around the planet. Click here. (3/23)

Antenna Work Delays NISAR Launch (Source: Space News)
Modifications to a large deployable antenna on a joint U.S.-Indian radar spacecraft will delay its launch, likely to the second half of the year. In a March 22 statement, NASA said a new launch date for the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission will be set at the end of April because of work to protect the spacecraft’s reflector, an antenna that is 12 meters across when fully deployed, from temperatures when in its stowed configuration. (3/24)

Casey Honniball: Finding Her Space in Lunar Science (Source: NASA)
Lunar scientist Casey Honniball conducts lunar observations and field work near volcanoes to investigate how astronauts could use instruments during moonwalks. Click here. (3/19) 

Astronomers and Megaconstellations Learn to Get Along (Source: Space News)
The problem of satellite interference on astronomy has not been solved, astronomers made clear at the AAS meeting. “There’s some not-so-good news and some good news,” said Connie Walker, co-director of the International Astronomical Union’s Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference, or CPS. The not-so-good news, she said, was that the number of satellites “is increasing exponentially.”

“The good news is that companies are increasingly aware of the situation,” she continued. “Some of these companies are willing to take mitigation approaches to minimizing down below seventh magnitude.” That brightness makes satellites invisible to the naked eye and reduces their impacts on sensitive astronomical instruments. (3/23)

Blue Origin Passes Key Pee Milestone for NASA Contract (Source: Business Insider)
On Wednesday, NASA reported that Orbital Reef passed four key milestones for some of its most crucial technology, including a system to recycle future astronauts' and tourists' urine. "These milestones are critical to ensuring that a commercial destination can support human life," Angela Hart, manager of NASA's Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program, said in NASA's announcement.

The milestones involved passing a series of tests on Orbital Reef's regenerative system. This system will provide clean air and water for humans to breathe and drink while on the space station. (3/22)

Private Satellite Operators Make Case for Helping Military Track Ground Targets (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Air Force and the Space Force are working with the NRO to develop a dedicated constellation of sensor satellites specifically designed for Ground Moving Target Indication (GMTI). This technology would replace the large radar surveillance aircraft like JSTARS previously used by the Air Force to track the movement of troops and vehicles on the ground.

At the same time, hundreds of commercial remote sensing satellites are orbiting the Earth, leading industry executives to question whether the military should leverage these commercial systems for GMTI. They pointed out that while military systems optimized for persistent custody of specific targets will still be required, regularly updated commercial imagery could potentially handle general monitoring of areas of interest and tracking of slower-moving targets and patterns of life. (3/23)

NASA Conducts Full-Duration Artemis Moon Rocket Engine Test (Source: NASA)
NASA continued a key RS-25 engine test series for future Artemis flights of the agency’s powerful SLS (Space Launch System) rocket March 22 with a hot fire on the Fred Haise Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. It marked the 10th hot fire in a 12-test series to certify production of new RS-25 engines by lead contractor Aerojet Rocketdyne, an L3 Harris Technologies company. (3/22)

Largest Map of the Universe Includes 1,300 Supermassive Black Holes (Source: Cosmos)
Astronomers have created a new map of the universe which includes 1.3 million supermassive black holes (SMBHs) at the center of galaxies. SMBHs have a mass between 100,000 and 10 billion times that of our own Sun. (3/19)