November 25, 2019

UAE Space Agency Chief Calls on Region to Create Arab Space Agency (Source: Sputnik)
The Director General of the UAE Space Agency, Mohammed Al Ahbabi, said on Wednesday that the creation of an Arab space agency would ensure that all countries in the region have a future in space exploration. "Arab states' collaboration will be key to the success of any future steps in space exploration, including the UAE projects, from the National Space Strategy 2030 to the Mission to Mars project," Al Ahbabi said on the sidelines of an international air show in Dubai.

In addition, he stated that any initiative by the UAE regarding space exploration was aimed at all Arab countries, and alluded to the European Space Agency and the African Space Agency as examples of models to follow. "Any space science projects cannot be implemented without cooperation with other countries. We hope that one day we will have an Arab space agency. I believe we are next," the directoradded. The UAE Space Agency was established in 2014 to develop the country's space sector and encourage scientific research and innovation in the field. (11/22)

India's Space Agency to Launch Three Satellites to Boost Border Security (Source: Sputnik)
A third-generation Earth-imaging satellite Cartosat-3 and 13 commercial nanosatellites from the US will be launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, in Andhra Pradesh. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) announced on Tuesday that it will launch three Cartosat earth observation satellites between November 25 and the first week of December to beef up border security surveillance.

Cartosat satellites are part of the Indian Remote Sensing Program (IRSP) and are used for Earth's resource management, defence services, and monitoring. Besides these three primary satellites, the launcher Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) will carry over two dozen smaller foreign satellites. (11/20)

The Myth of the “new Space Race” (Source: Space Review)
Policymakers have tried to play up a competition between China and the United States in space, with echoes of a Cold War-era Space Race. Benjamin Charlton says there’s less to such a race than meets the eye. Click here. (11/25) 
 
Joining the Lunar Lander Club (Source: Space Review)
Last week NASA announced it was adding five companies to its program of commercial lunar lander services. Jeff Foust reports on what’s now a crowded field of companies proposing to land spacecraft on the Moon, and the technical and other difficulties they face. Click here. (11/25)
 
Will Artemis Fail in the Halls of Congress? (Source: Space Review)
While NASA presses ahead as fast as it can with its plans to return humans to the Moon, Congress has yet to fully get on board, or provide the needed funding. Jonathan Coopersmith argues that the agency faces steep challenges in Congress to win support. Click here. (11/25)

UAE Eyes New Frontiers With Law to Regulate Space Tourism, Mining (Source: Space Daily)
The United Arab Emirates, which sent its first astronaut into space this year and has plans to launch a probe to Mars, is looking at other new frontiers -- space tourism and mining. But first, says the chief of the Emirates Space Agency, there needs to be regulation. Within a few months the UAE will enact its first space law, he said, designed to attract investment and regulate the activities and services of companies operating in the country. (11/24)

The Space Economy is Rapidly Expanding (Source: Open Markets)
The space economy is believed by some Wall Street analysts to be a multi-trillion dollar industry.  Those estimates include a far-reaching and complicated system of businesses that go far beyond human travel to space. It also means the days of NASA being the the primary American investor in space exploration are long gone. “We’re working on commercializing low-earth orbit specifically so that NASA can be one customer of many customers, and we can have numerous providers that are competing against each other on cost and innovation.” Click here. (11/20)

Congress Nears Budget Agreement (Source: Washington Post)
House and Senate negotiators have reached an agreement on budget allocations that could pave the way for final spending bills by next month. The agreement, the details of which appropriators did not immediately release, sets spending allocations for the 12 appropriations bills for fiscal year 2020. With those allocations in place, negotiators can now work to settle differences between the House and Senate appropriations bills. Congress passed, and President Trump signed, another continuing resolution last week that funds the government through Dec. 20. (11/25)

ESA Nears Budget Agreement (Source: Space News)
Ministers from the European Space Agency's 22 member states will meet this week to make funding decisions for the next three years. The ministerial meeting, known as Space19+, will take place Wednesday and Thursday in Seville, Spain, where ministers will make final decisions on what programs to fund and at what levels. ESA's proposed 12.5 billion euro ($13.8 billion) budget includes funding for science and exploration programs, such as participation in NASA's Artemis program, as well as Earth science and navigation programs, launch vehicles and other enabling capabilities, and a space safety line that fearures space weather and planetary defense. The proposal also seeks funding for Ariane 6 upgrades and other innovative technologies. In an interview last month, ESA Director General Jan Woerner said he was "really optimistic" that ministers will approve the full budget. (11/25)

Virgin Galactic Shares Dropped One Third in First Four Weeks (Source: Space News)
The investment community is taking a wait-and-see attitude about Virgin Galactic's public listing and its prospects for other space company IPOs. In its first four weeks of trading, shares in Virgin Galactic have fallen by about a third, although the company is taking the long view as it prepares to enter commercial operations next year. Financial analysts said at a conference last week that the company has still managed to maintain a "lofty valuation," but how it performs as it begins commercial service will play a big factor in whether other space startups pursue public offerings of stock, and how they will be treated by the markets. (11/25)

Cold Gas Thrusters Tested on Small Satellites (Source: Space News)
Two companies reported success last week in testing of cold gas thrusters for smallsats. ThrustMe's I2T5 cold gas thruster, a spinout from the French startup's electric propulsion work, performed the first propulsive operations last week on a  smallsat built by Chinese company Spacety and launched earlier this month. ThrustMe is developing small electric propulsion systems powered by iodine and xenon, but found that the iodine propellant storage subsystem for one of its propulsion systems could become a cold gas thruster. Additional tests of the cold gas thruster for orbital maneuvering are scheduled for sometime in early 2020 after Spacety tests other payloads on the satellite.(11/25)

NASA Shares Mid-Sized Robotic Lunar Lander Concept with Industry (Source: NASA)
As NASA presses forward with the agency's mission to the Moon, Mars and beyond, the development of top-tier technology is critical to success. With emphasis on lunar exploration and scientific investigation, the desire to deliver a wide variety of payloads to the Moon has increased. For NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative -- which is leading the effort -- this is no new concept. NASA has already awarded commercial contracts for payload delivery to the lunar surface, and expects to establish additional partnerships to support upcoming lunar ventures. Click here. (11/25)

SpaceX Starlink Satellite Constellation Aims to Become World’s Largest After Next Launch (Source: Teslarati)
On May 24th, Falcon 9 lifted off for the first time ever on a dedicated Starlink launch, placing 60 ‘v0.9’ prototype satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), where they deployed solar arrays and fired up their own electric krypton thrusters to reach their operational ~550 km (340 mi) orbits. Of those 60 prototypes, several were intentionally deorbited while another handful suffered unintended failures, while 51 (85%) ultimately reached that final orbit and began operations.

Previously expected in mid-October, unspecified delays pushed SpaceX’s next Starlink launch – deemed Starlink-1, the first launch of ‘v1.0’ satellites – into November. On November 11th, Falcon 9 B1048 and a flight-proven payload fairing lifted off with 60 more Starlink satellites, also marking the first time a Falcon 9 booster completed four orbital launches and the first operational reuse of a recovered fairing. Upgraded with four times the overall bandwidth, improved structures, new Ka-band antennas, and more steerable ‘beams’ on each of those antennas, those 60 Starlink v1.0 satellites rapidly came online and began raising their orbits.

This time around, SpaceX received FCC approval to test satellites at a substantially lower altitude of ~350 km (220 mi) and launched to a parking orbit of just 280 km (175 mi), ensuring that any debris or failed spacecraft will reenter Earth’s atmosphere in just a matter of months while also completely avoiding added risk to the International Space Station (ISS) (~400 km). After a brisk ten or so days of active propulsion, 55 of those 60 satellites have raised their orbits to ~350 km, while ~20 of those 55 appear to be aiming for a final altitude somewhat higher, likely the start of a separate orbital plane. (11/25)

Will SpaceX’s Starlink Mega-Constellation ‘Ruin’ Astronomy’s Biggest Ever Eye On The Sky? (Source: Forbes)
Will Elon Musk's SpaceX’s Starlink project end ground-based astronomy as we know it? Despite only 122 of a planned total of 42,000 broadband internet satellites being in orbit so far, astronomers are now gravely concerned about the mega-constellation’s effect on the $466 million Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), one of the world’s most new important telescopes currently being built on the Cerro Pachón ridge in Chile’s Elqui Valley.

From 2022, the LSST will survey the entire visible sky in just three nights, effectively producing a motion picture of our Universe. “For anything that changes in the sky, the LSST will be the finderscope,” says Aaron Roodman, an experimental cosmologist at Stanford University involved in instrument construction and preparations for the LSST. “We’re going to find a hundred thousand supernova by the time the project is over.” (11/23)

Inside the Little-Known Kenyan Space Program (Source: The Star)
Although many countries claim to have a space programme, only only three per cent of the world’s countries have an active space agency. Though not known to many, Kenya indeed has a space agency, which is the successor to the National Space Secretariat. The Kenya Space Agency was established by President Uhuru Kenyatta through a March 2017 gazette notice.

However, space activities in the country began in the 1960s, with the establishment of a Satellite Launching and Tracking Base in Malindi. It was a collaboration between Kenya and Italy. Over 20 sounding rockets and nine satellites have been launched from the facility over the years. Kenya is the fourth country in Africa to have a space agency after Algeria, Nigeria and South Africa. (11/25)

Russian Space Agency Plans to Place Telescopes on Moon to Track Dangerous Asteroids (Source: TASS)
Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos plans to place telescopes on its future lunar base in the southern pole of the Earth’s natural satellite to monitor dangerous asteroids and comets, Roscosmos Executive Director for Science and Long-Term Programs Alexander Bloshenko said. The telescopes on the Moon together with the satellites at the Lagrangian points of the Sun-Earth system are set to make up the global system of monitoring asteroid and comet dangers. The system will track potentially dangerous objects against the Sun’s background and in deep space, the scientist said. (11/25)