April 21, 2024

Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck on Challenging Elon Musk’s SpaceX (Source: Opto)
Out of necessity, Peter Beck, Founder and CEO of Rocket Lab, built his company as a smaller, scrappier underdog. However, he believes that these humble beginnings now give the company an advantage compared to larger competitors, particularly Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Since the early days of Rocket Lab [RKLB], Founder and CEO Peter Beck was used to coming up against larger, better-funded competitors.

“We were tracking, at one point, 140 start-ups in small launch,” Beck tells OPTO Sessions. “We were not picked to be the favourite. I think Virgin Orbit had over $1.2bn poured into it; that’s $1.1bn more than we spent getting our first rocket into orbit.” Virgin Orbit ceased operations in May 2023, following a major mission failure, and sold its assets for less than 1% of the $3.5bn valuation it reached in 2021, according to the Guardian. Rocket Lab, however, is still going strong.

The valuations of their competitors perplexed Beck and his team at the time but fostered an intense focus on delivery, which he feels has given Rocket Lab an edge. “Sometimes having too many resources makes you lazy,” he says. “We can’t outspend our competitors. We have to outthink them or outwork them.” Click here. (4/20)

Japan to Create a 1-Trillion-Yen Fund to Bolster Space Business (Source: Asahi Shimbun)
Setting its sights on becoming a key player in the global space industry, Japan will set up a 1-trillion-yen ($6.47 billion) fund to achieve that goal. The space strategy fund will be managed by the Japan Aerospace and Exploration Agency over a 10-year period to support technological innovation by companies and universities.

As early as this summer, JAXA will begin soliciting private-sector organizations that have the expertise to make things happen with the aim of bringing them aboard by the end of this fiscal year. Specific areas of technological development will be decided at a meeting of the Committee on National Space Policy under the Cabinet Office this month at the earliest.

The science ministry, the industry ministry and the communications ministry have proposed 22 candidate areas. They include a 95-billion-yen project to create a communication network based on satellite constellations; a 23-billion-yen project to develop a fuel-cell system for use on the lunar surface; and a 15.5-bilion-yen project to establish technologies to launch rockets more frequently and cheaply. (4/21)

China Launches New Remote Sensing Satellite (Source: Xinhua)
China on Sunday launched a Long March-2D carrier rocket, placing a remote sensing satellite in space. The rocket blasted off at 7:45 a.m. (Beijing Time) from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the southwestern province of Sichuan and sent the Yaogan-42 02 satellite into the preset orbit. It was the 517th flight mission of the Long March series rockets. (4/21)

China Publishes World's First High-Definition Lunar Geologic Atlas (Source: Xinhua)
China Sunday released a set of geologic atlas of the global moon with a scale of 1:2.5 million, which is the first complete high-definition lunar geologic atlas in the world, providing basic map data for future lunar research and exploration. This set of geologic atlas, available in Chinese and English, includes the Geologic Atlas of the Lunar Globe and the Map Quadrangles of the Geologic Atlas of the Moon, according to the Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). (4/21)

Space Force Extends Deal with L3Harris to Enhance Space Domain Awareness (Source: Broadcast Pro)
L3Harris Technologies has received an award of option year five of the Maintenance Of Space Situational Awareness Integrated Capabilities (MOSSAIC) programme. The contract, worth up to $187m from the US Space Force, continues the modernisation and sustainment of critical space infrastructure enabling the Space Force core competency of space domain awareness. (4/21)

Archaeological Study of Cape Canaveral's First Rocket Launch Site Expands to 3D Mapping (Source: The Guardian)
Wielding a handheld optical scanner, Jorge González meticulously maneuvered across an archaeological grid of white string and metal pins, creating a 3D digital map of a newly excavated steel-mat corridor that led into the long-demolished Bumper blockhouse. Military technicians walking along that Marston-mat entryway made history on July 24, 1950, by entering that tarpaper shack and using bulky electronics to launch Bumper 8 — America's first rocket to soar skyward from what is now Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

"We're documenting this with 3D technologies. For something like this, we're using what's called a close-range structured light scanner," said Travis Doering, co-director of the University of South Florida's Center for Digital Heritage and Geospatial Information, pointing at the entryway. "This was the first blockhouse ever built out here. And it was built as a temporary one, made out of wood," Doering said. Click here. (4/21)

UF Professor Prepares for a Suborbital Mission (Source: WCJB)
A UF professor is getting ready for a trip as part of a commercial space crew. Rob Ferl, the director of UF’s new Space Institute is conducting an experiment on how micro-gravity impacts humans at the cellular level. He’ll be aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket for a sub-orbital mission. Blue Origin hasn’t yet announced the target launch date. (4/19)

Lueders: State Highway 4 is Crucial to SpaceX’s Texas Starbase Facility (Source: Rio Grande Guardian)
Kathryn Lueders, general manager of SpaceX’s Starbase, has given an update on the company’s plans for developing its rocket launching facility at Boca Chica. Lueders, the first woman to head human spaceflight when she worked for NASA, gave an in-depth presentation when she spoke at a Border Trade Advisory Committee meeting held at the Brownsville Events Center on April 16.

On more than one occasion, Lueders stressed the importance of State Highway 4. TxDOT has plans to expand the highway to four lanes. “We have over 2,100 personnel go down Highway 4 every day, plus over 500 contractors that are helping support (SpaceX),” Lueders said. Lueders said there is no other way in or out of SpaceX – just SH 4. (4/19)

China Accuses US of ‘Militarizing Space’ with SpaceX’s Starshield Satellite Network (Source: South China Morning Post)
PLA Daily warns that a deal between US military and a new SpaceX unit poses huge security challenges for ‘other countries’. The official newspaper of China’s military has accused the United States of “militarizing space” by supporting Starshield. The Starshield unit is reportedly developing a constellation of hundreds of low-Earth orbit satellites that would allow the US government and military to “quickly spot potential targets almost anywhere on the globe”.

The planned Starshield network “has not only upgraded its secure communication capabilities” from the Starlink satellite internet system, “but further expanded its Earth observation and payload capabilities”, according to the PLA Daily. (4/19)

NASA Flying Drone Planned to Explore Titan (Source: Forbes)
NASA has confirmed that its exciting Dragonfly mission, which will fly a drone-like craft around Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, will cost $3.35 billion and launch in July 2028. Titan is the only other world in the solar system other than Earth that has weather and liquid on the surface. It has an atmosphere, rain, lakes, oceans, shorelines, valleys, mountain ridges, mesas and dunes—and possibly the building blocks of life itself. It’s been described as both a utopia and as deranged because of its weird chemistry. (4/19)

India Needs Regulatory Framework for Financial Risk Coverage of Space Industry (Source: The Hindu)
India urgently needs a comprehensive insurance strategy, combining regulatory clarity, financial market development and alignment with industries to ensure the success of India’s space sector, said Eshaan Bansal, Young Graduate Research Fellow at Spaceport SARABHAI. Mr. Bansal is the author of the report, Financial Risk Coverage of India’s Commercial Space Launch Industry: Need for Developing Insurance and Reinsurance Capabilities, which was released on Friday by Spaceport SARABHAI a dedicated space think tank based in Bengaluru. (4/20)

ESA and the EU Agree to Accelerate the Use of Space (Source: ESA)
ESA will work closely with the EU to use space to improve life on Earth, following an agreement signed today by ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher and the European Commission’s Director-General for Defence Industry and Space, Timo Pesonen. The world faces challenges stemming from climate change, natural disasters and human actions. Space is crucial to help tackle these challenges, but many organisations have yet to realise its full potential. ESA has proposed three ‘accelerators’ – recent initiatives that contribute to sustainability and resilience on Earth and in space – and will work with the EU to realise their full potential. (4/19)

NASA May Alter Artemis III to Have Starship and Orion Dock in Low-Earth Orbit (Source: Ars Technica)
Although NASA is unlikely to speak about it publicly any time soon, the space agency is privately considering modifications to its Artemis plan to land astronauts on the surface of the Moon later this decade. Multiple sources have confirmed that NASA is studying alternatives to the planned Artemis III landing of two astronauts on the Moon, nominally scheduled for September 2026, due to concerns about hardware readiness and mission complexity.

Under one of the options, astronauts would launch into low-Earth orbit inside an Orion spacecraft and rendezvous there with a Starship vehicle, separately launched by SpaceX. During this mission, similar to Apollo 9, a precursor to the Apollo 11 lunar landing, the crew would validate the ability of Orion and Starship to dock and test habitability inside Starship. The crew would then return to Earth. In another option NASA is considering, a crew would launch in Orion and fly to a small space station near the Moon, the Lunar Gateway, and then return to Earth. (4/19)

Space Tourism: The Next Great Leap (Source: CBS Reports)
In the aftermath of the Titan submersible tragedy, extreme travel has come under fresh scrutiny. But one industry stands out for both its allure and the lack of regulation protecting participants' safety: space tourism. CBS Reports explores the next great leap for humankind and whether regulators and industry stakeholders are striking the right balance between encouraging innovation and ensuring safety. Click here. (4/15)