December 13, 2024

Army and Navy Team Up for Hypersonic Missile Launch from Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Sources: Orlando Sentinel, Defense News)
The Cape Canaveral Spaceport had a different kind of launch on its plate Thursday when the Army and Navy teamed up to complete a test of a hypersonic missile. The U.S. Army’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office, in collaboration with the U.S. Navy Strategic Systems Programs, launched a conventional hypersonic missile from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Thursday, Dec. 13.

The Common Hypersonic Glide Body was developed jointly between the two services. The Army plans to integrate its version of the system, the Long Range Hypersonic Weapon, into a mobile ground platform. The Navy will integrate its version, dubbed Conventional Prompt Strike, into a ship-launched capability. Leidos is the prime contractor for the Common Hypersonic Glide Body, and Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor for both LRHW and the Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike program. Editor's Note: From the photo accompanying these articles, it appears the rocket was launched from Space Florida's Launch Complex 46. (12/13)

Isaacman Speaks at Embry-Riddle Graduation, Earns Honorary Doctorate (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Billionaire and nominee to become the next head of NASA Jared Isaacman is certainly a fan of SpaceX having relied on Elon Musk’s company for his two trips to space. But he shared the love across SpaceX competitors during a commencement speech for the fall graduation class at Daytona Beach’s Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University on Thursday.

The ERAU alumnus earned a fortune as founder and CEO of credit-card processing company Shift4 Payments, which allowed him to pursue his love of aircraft and eventually spaceflight. He received a bachelor’s degree in aeronautics in 2011, and was given an honorary doctorate at the ceremony while also encouraging the graduating class to “a journey into one of the most interesting and really opportune times that aerospace has ever seen.” (12/13)

Trump’s Second Term Can Achieve the Bipartisan Goal of Resilient Satellites (Source: Space News)
One issue that can unite Americans is the need for bipartisan accomplishments that serve the nation’s interests. One such goal is satellite resilience, which refers to the ability of space systems to withstand and recover from disruptions, including intentional attacks. This resilience ensures that space continues to provide vital support for both military and civilian operations essential to national security and economic well-being. While the two parties disagree on many aspects of President-elect Donald Trump’s policies, space resilience remains a nonpartisan priority, with Americans from all sides calling for it. (12/13)

Company Town: Musk Wants to Turn SpaceX's Starbase Site Into a Texas City (Source: Inc.)
SpaceX is launching a new mission: making its Starbase site a new Texas city. Billionaire Elon Musk 's company on Thursday sent a letter to local officials requesting an election to turn what it calls Starbase — the South Texas site where SpaceX builds and launches its massive Starship rockets — into an incorporated city. Residents of the area known as Starbase submitted the petition, according to the company. The area is on the southern tip of Texas at Boca Chica Beach, near the Mexican border. Earlier this year, Musk announced he was moving the headquarters of SpaceX and his social media company X from California to Texas. (12/12)

Google Says its New Quantum Chip Indicates That Multiple Universes Exist (Source: Tech Crunch)
Google on Monday announced Willow, its latest, greatest quantum computing chip. The speed and reliability performance claims Google’s made about this chip were newsworthy in themselves, but what really caught the tech industry’s attention was an even wilder claim tucked into the blog post about the chip. Google Quantum AI founder Hartmut Neven wrote in his blog post that this chip was so mind-boggling fast that it must have borrowed computational power from other universes. Ergo the chip’s performance indicates that parallel universes exist and “we live in a multiverse.”

Unlike classic digital computers that calculate based on whether a bit is a 0 or 1 (on or off), quantum computers rely on incredibly tiny qubits. These can be on/off or both (somewhere in between) and they can also tap into quantum entanglement — a mysterious connection at the tiniest levels of the universe between two or more particles where their states are linked, no matter the distance that separates them. (12/12)

Space Mountain's Actual Spaceflight Heritage (Source: Space 3.0)
If you’ve visited Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom in Florida, you may have experienced the ride known as Space Mountain, a dark, turbulent roller coaster. You likely have seen its futuristic vista throughout the Tomorrowland section of the park. You may not know that Space Mountain was designed with help from NASA, boasted astronauts at its opening including Gordon Cooper, Scott Carpenter, and Jim Irwin, and only reaches top speeds of a whopping…28 miles per hour (the ride’s visual effects make it seem much faster!). Space Mountain will celebrate 50 years (!) in operation in January 2025, making it the oldest active roller coaster in Florida. (12/10)

Space Force to Test Modular Satellite Technology in Upcoming Mission (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Space Force plans to use a “plug and play” satellite interface developed by The Aerospace Corporation for an upcoming mission under its Tactically Responsive Space (TacRS) program. The program seeks to validate technologies and tactics to shorten the timeline for launching payloads, such as surveillance sensors, into orbit. (12/13)

L3Harris Ramps Up Satellite Production in Response to Military Demand (Source: Space News)
Space Coast-based defense contractor L3Harris, one of the primary contractors for the U.S. military's missile-tracking satellite constellation, is scaling up satellite manufacturing and is moving to automate the production of infrared sensor payloads, a senior company executive said. L3Harris,  has secured orders for 38 satellites from the Space Development Agency (SDA) Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) program. The agency aims to deploy a Tracking Layer of hundreds of satellites in low Earth orbit to enhance missile detection and tracking capabilities. (12/13)

ESCAPADE Team Looking at 2025/26 Launch Opportunities (Source: Space News)
A NASA Mars smallsat mission that missed its launch window this fall is looking at new options for launches in 2025 and 2026. The ESCAPADE mission was to send two smallsats to Mars on the first flight of Blue Origin's New Glenn in October, but NASA called off launch plans in September when it concluded the rocket would not be ready in time for a narrow launch window.

The mission's principal investigator said they are now looking at launch options in 2025 and 2026, with the spacecraft flying around the Earth-sun L-2 point before making an Earth gravity assist and going to Mars, arriving in September 2027. That change won't affect the overall science mission for ESCAPADE, to study the interaction of the solar wind with Mars' magnetosphere, and does not require changes to the spacecraft. (12/13)

China Launches Five Experimental Satellit3es on Long March 2D (Source: Xinhua)
China launched five experimental satellites Thursday. A Long March 2D rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 2:17 a.m. Eastern and placed the five satellites into their planned orbits. The five satellites are described as part of the "High Speed Laser Diamond Constellation Test System" but with few other details about them. (12/13)

Rocket Lab Provides Details on HASTE Launches (Source: Rocket Lab)
Rocket Lab provided details about a recent Electron suborbital launch as the company appears to be preparing for another. The company said this week it performed the launch of its HASTE version of Electron from Wallops Island, Virginia, in November as part of the Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonics Test Bed (MACH-TB) project. Rocket Lab conducted the launch and also provided the experimental hypersonic instrumentation flown on it. Airspace notices suggest another, similar launch is planned from Wallops as soon as Friday night. NASA's Wallops Flight Facility said Thursday a suborbital launch is scheduled between Dec. 13 and 19 but provided no other details. (12/13)

Cofactr Raises $17.2 Million for Supply Chain and Logistics Management (Source: Space News)
Cofactr has raised $17.2 million to improve supply chains and logistics for aerospace companies. With the new funding, Cofactr will hire engineering and customer-service personnel to support its supply chain and logistics management platform designed for high-compliance industries like aerospace. Stoke Space, one of Cofactr's early customers, helped the founders recognize the rigorous data sovereignty, traceability and quality-management requirements space companies face.  Cofactr also operates warehouses for electronic components used by high-compliance industries, and will expand those facilities with the new funding. (12/13)

Locus Lock Raises Funds for GNSS Receivers (Source: Space News)
Locus Lock has raised funding for producing global navigation satellite system receivers. The Colorado startup develops receivers for maritime, airborne, terrestrial and space applications intended to provide high-end performance at lower prices. The company will use the undisclosed amount of funding it raised from several investors to expand its staff, scale up manufacturing and convert pilot program customers to regular customers. (12/13)

FAA Chief to Step Down (Source: Politico)
The head of the FAA plans to step down. Mike Whitaker informed FAA staff on Thursday that he will resign effective Jan. 20. Whitaker was confirmed to a five-year term a little more than a year ago and was not required to resign in the change of administrations. Whitaker faced some criticism from industry and Congress for the slow pace of launch licensing and for fines the FAA levied against SpaceX for license violations. (12/13)

Company Town: SpaceX Wants to Incorporate Starbase (Source: AP)
SpaceX wants to formally incorporate its Starbase test site as a city. The company submitted a letter to the leadership of Cameron County, Texas, seeking a special election to incorporate Starbase as a city. SpaceX said that incorporation of Starbase is needed to "continue growing the workforce necessary to rapidly develop and manufacture Starship." The company said that residents of Starbase submitted the petition for incorporation, but did not disclose how many people reside in the area. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk suggested three years ago that Starbase be incorporated, but did not advance the plans at the time. (12/13)

Companies Seek Added Space Force Support for CASR (Source: Space News)
Companies are seeking more support from the Space Force on a proposed commercial space reserve. The Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve (CASR) would allow the military to tap into commercial space assets during a crisis, and is modeled on the Civil Reserve Air Fleet. During a panel at the Spacepower Conference this week, executives said while they feel CASR is going in the right direction, they want more details and firmer commitments from the service on how it would use CASR. That could include early, meaningful contracts to support training and collaboration, as well as clearer guidance on the requirements for commercial players. (12/13)

NOAA's GeoXO a Substantial Improvement Over Current Monitoring Systems (Source: BAE)
After many years undertaking comprehensive studies, NOAA has developed the next generation Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) satellite system, which will add powerful new measurements of Earth’s atmosphere and oceans. BAE Systems was selected to develop three of five instruments for GeoXO: the Atmospheric Composition (ACX), Ocean Color (OCX) and GeoXO Sounder (GXS) instruments. They will provide measurements every one to two hours, improving forecast models and subsequently increasing the accuracy of warnings and alerts related to severe weather events, air quality and harmful algal blooms. (12/12)

U.S. Military Increases Reliance on Commercial Industry for Space Intelligence (Source: Space News)
The U.S. military is increasingly turning to commercial satellite companies to gain critical intelligence about potential threats in space, reflecting the growing role of the private sector in national security operations. Gen. Stephen Whiting, head of U.S. Space Command, highlighted the recent expansion of the Commercial Integration Cell (CIC), a collaborative platform that has become a key mechanism for sharing sensitive information about space-based disruptions. Established in 2015 as a pilot program, the CIC has grown from a small initiative to a more robust network now comprising 15 companies. These firms represent a mix of communications satellite operators and remote-sensing companies that operate Earth observation satellites. (12/12)

Virgin Galactic Partners with Italy’s Ente Nazionale per l'Aviazione Civile to Conduct Spaceport Feasibility Study (Source: Virgin Galactic)
Virgin Galactic and Ente Nazionale per l'Aviazione Civile (ENAC), the civil aviation authority of Italy, today announced the signing of an Agreement of Cooperation to jointly study the feasibility of Virgin Galactic conducting spaceflight operations from Grottaglie Spaceport in the Puglia region of Southern Italy.

The study will evaluate the necessary technical requirements for suborbital spaceflight operations at Grottaglie Spaceport, the surrounding area’s ability to support private and research suborbital spaceflight customers, and the compatibility of Italy’s suborbital regulations with those in the United States, where Virgin Galactic is headquartered. (12/12)

Starlink vs AST SpaceMobile: Tortoise or Hare? (Source: Advanced Television)
SpaceX’s Starlink has managed to launch 349 of its Direct-To-Cellular (D2C) satellites in less than a year. While this is an admirable achievement the fleet is currently only able to manage simple Text/SMS messages to users in remote areas. The 349 launched craft represent some 90 per cent of the target constellation. The first Starlink D2C satellites were launched on January 2 2024.

However, observers are arguing that this impressive SpaceX beginning might count for very little when rival AST SpaceMobile gets its build and launch momentum up and running. Currently, AST has just five of its BlueBird Block 1 satellites in orbit. Another Starlink rival, Lynk, has just eight satellites in orbit, while the GlobalStar/Apple emergency text services are tapping into only 24 satellites. In other words, this could be a true ‘the tortoise and the hare’ scenario, with Starlink ‘winning’ this first lap of the race but being rapidly overtaken by AST (and perhaps in time by Lynk and GlobalStar). (12/12)

The Secret Reason the USA Beat the USSR to the Moon (Source: Big Think)
Back in the 1950s and early 1960s, the Soviet Union was far ahead of the USA in the space race, launching the first satellite, the first human into space, and many other spaceflight “firsts.” This dominance continued for several years, and by the mid-1960s, they were planning a 1967 Moon landing: years ahead of even the most ambitious schedule for the United States. But the unexpected illness and death of one supremely competent but unsung Soviet figure, Sergei Korolev, changed everything. Click here. (12/12)