November 30, 2024

Space Force Awards Raytheon $196.7 Million for Additional Work on GPS Ground Control System (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Space Force awarded Raytheon a $196.7 million contract extension for the Global Positioning System Next Generation Operational Control System (OCX), a critical upgrade to the GPS infrastructure that is years behind schedule. The contract, announced Nov. 27 by Space Systems Command, targets the next software upgrade to be delivered by November 2025. This latest award brings Raytheon’s total OCX contract value to nearly $4.5 billion since the program’s inception in 2010. (11/29)

You Can Take a Selfie With the Earth Using This YouTuber’s Satellite (Source: The Verge)
The stunt escalation on YouTube may have reached new heights with Mark Rober’s offer to snap anyone’s selfie with the planet Earth using a satellite he’s launching into orbit with the help of Google and T-Mobile. Rober is a former NASA engineer who made a name for himself on YouTube by glitter bombing porch pirates, creating the world’s largest Super Soaker, and building an obstacle course for squirrels. Now he’s merging his interests with the launch of a satellite that can take photos of anyone’s portrait displayed on a Google Pixel with the Earth — yes, Planet Earth — in the background. (11/29)

Starlink Mission Launched at Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Florida Today)
SpaceX's Starlink internet constellation grew by another two dozen satellites with a 12 a.m. EST Saturday Falcon 9 rocket liftoff from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. After ascending from Launch Complex 40 along a southeasterly trajectory, the Falcon 9's first-stage booster touched down aboard the SpaceX drone ship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean roughly eight minutes after liftoff, wrapping up its sixth flight. (11/30)

Russian Rocket Attack Targets Ukraine Rocket Factory (Source: Ars Technica)
Another grim first in Ukraine. For the first time in warfare, Russia launched an Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile against a target in Ukraine, Ars reports. This attack on November 21 followed an announcement from Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier the same week that the country would change its policy for employing nuclear weapons in conflict. The IRBM, named Oreshnik, is the longest-range weapon ever used in combat in Europe and could be refitted to carry nuclear warheads on future strikes.

Putin's rationale ... Putin says his ballistic missile attack on Ukraine is a warning to the West after the US and UK governments approved Ukraine's use of Western-supplied ATACMS and Storm Shadow tactical ballistic missiles against targets on Russian territory. The Russian leader said his forces could attack facilities in Western countries that supply weapons for Ukraine to use on Russian territory, continuing a troubling escalatory ladder in the bloody war in Eastern Europe. Interestingly, this attack has another rocket connection. The target was apparently a factory in Dnipro that not long ago produced booster stages for Northrop Grumman's Antares rocket. (11/29)

Record Turnaround for Falcon 9 Booster (Source: Ars Technica)
SpaceX flies same rocket twice in two weeks. Less than 14 days after its previous flight, a Falcon 9 booster took off again from Florida's Space Coast early Monday to haul 23 more Starlink internet satellites into orbit, Spaceflight Now reports. The booster, numbered B1080 in SpaceX's fleet of reusable rockets, made its 13th trip to space before landing on SpaceX's floating drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. The launch marked a turnaround of 13 days, 12 hours, and 44 minutes from this booster's previous launch November 11, also with a batch of Starlink satellites. The previous record turnaround time between flights of the same Falcon 9 booster was 21 days. (11/29)

Second Ariane 6 Incoming (Source: Ars Technica)
ArianeGroup has confirmed that the first and second stages for the second Ariane 6 flight have begun the transatlantic voyage from Europe to French Guiana aboard the sail-assisted transport ship Canopée, European Spaceflight reports. The second Ariane 6 launch, previously targeted before the end of this year, has now been delayed to no earlier than February 2025, according to Arianespace, the rocket's commercial operator. This follows a mostly successful debut launch in July. (11/29)

Reusable Rockets...in the 1960s? (Source: Space 3.0)
We tend to associate reusable rockets with SpaceX’s Falcon family and reusable space vehicles with the Space Shuttle. But a Creating Space blog post by Dave Ginsberg of Planet Pixel Pictures discusses “Retro Rocket Reusability,” which stretches back to the space program's earlier days. Ginsberg discusses the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) version of Gemini that flew not once but twice (with an innovative heat shield hatch) and concepts for reusable Saturn rocket stages, such as the S-IC and S-IVB stages. It’s a fascinating look into what might’ve been while the U.S. space program ramped up its efforts to go to the Moon. Click here. (11/28)

Dead Stars Within Supernova Explosions Could Solve the Dark Matter Mystery in 10 Seconds (Source: Space.com)
Gamma rays emerging from neutron stars at the hearts of supernova explosions could solve the mystery of dark matter — in just 10 seconds. That is, if dark matter is composed of axions, which are hypothetical lightweight particles that are currently the leading candidates for dark matter. If this theory is true, a supernova erupting close enough to Earth would allow us to detect its emissions of high-energy light, confirm the mass of axions and therefore wrap up the whole dark matter puzzle.

The required supernova explosion would need to come from a massive star dying and exploding either within the Milky Way or one in of its satellite galaxies, like the Large Magellanic Cloud. These types of events happen every few decades, on average. A detection of telltale gamma rays would require humanity's only space-based gamma-ray telescope, the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, to point in the direction of the nearby supernova when it explodes. When factoring in Fermi's field of view, this has a 1 in 10 chance of happening.

The team thinks that just one detection of gamma rays from a neutron star at the center of supernova wreckage would be sufficient to determine the mass of the axion from a wide range of theoretical masses currently suggested for these hypothetical particles. The team is particularly interested in the detection of a type of axion called the QCD axion. Unlike other hypothesized axions, the QCD axion's mass is dependent on temperature. (11/29)