January 14, 2020

UAE Satellite Switches to Soyuz Rocket (Source: Space News)
A United Arab Emirates reconnaissance satellite will launch on a Soyuz rocket rather than a Vega. Arianespace said the Falcon Eye 2 satellite will launch on a Soyuz rocket in March rather than wait for the smaller Vega rocket to return to flight. The Vega has been grounded since a July launch failure that resulted in the loss of the UAE's Falcon Eye 1 satellite. Both Arianespace and Airbus, manufacturer of Falcon Eye, said the switch was related to launch schedules and not a lack of trust in the Vega. (1/14)

Pentagon Seeks Commercial Satellite Imagery Analytics (Source: Space News)
The Pentagon's Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) is looking for proposals from companies that can provide commercial remote sensing imagery and data analytics services. The project, called "Peacetime Indications and Warning," is an effort to supplement the military’s own remote sensing capabilities with commercial products. DIU is interested in a wide range of options, from conventional imagery to hyperspectral, synthetic aperture radar and radio-frequency services. Imagery and data will be collected during an 18-month pilot program and will be made accessible for use as training data sets to support the development of artificial intelligence algorithms. (1/14)

NOAA to Update Space Weather Capabilities (Source: Space News)
NOAA is preparing to update its aging fleet of space weather instruments. Congress provided NOAA funding in the 2020 budget for Space Weather Follow On (SWFO), a satellite destined for the Earth-sun L-1 point that will carry instruments such as a Compact Coronagraph to monitor solar activity. SWFO is scheduled to fly in 2024 as a secondary payload on the launch of NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe mission. NOAA is preparing to send a second Compact Coronagraph into orbit in 2024 on the GOES-U weather satellite. (1/14)

Raymond Sworn In as Space Force Chief (Source: Voice of America)
Gen. Jay Raymond will be sworn is as the first head of the Space Force today. Vice President Mike Pence will lead the ceremony at the White House to swear Raymond in as the Chief of Space Operations. Raymond will retain his current position as head of U.S. Space Command, which was reestablished last year. (1/14)

Sierra Nevada Explores New Applications for Dream Chaser (Source: Space News)
Sierra Nevada Corp. is examining other applications of its Dream Chaser vehicle. In a call with reporters last week, company executives said one area of focus is the vehicle's "Shooting Star" cargo module attached to the aft end of Dream Chaser, increasing the vehicle's cargo capacity to the station and enabling the disposal of cargo from the station. That module could be repurposed for a variety of applications, from transporting cargo to the lunar Gateway to serving as a small habitation module. The company remains interested in developing a crewed version of Dream Chaser as well, but has set no timetable for its development. (1/14)

Russia Plans Budget Increase for New Crewed Spacecraft (Source: Sputnik)
Roscosmos plans to increase spending on a next-generation crewed spacecraft. Procurement documents state that Roscosmos plans to spend 8 billion rubles ($130 million) on the Oryol spacecraft starting in 2021. The vehicle, formerly known as Federation, is intended to eventually replace the Soyuz spacecraft in transporting cosmonauts to low Earth orbit and, later, to the moon. RSC Energia will build two prototypes of Oryol, one of which will be launched on an uncrewed flight on the Angara-A5 rocket in 2023. (1/14)

Russian Spy Satellite Has Broken Up in Space (Source: Space Daily)
Russia launched the Kosmos-2491 military satellite into orbit in 2013, with few details made available regarding its capabilities and mission, leading to speculation about its true purpose. Russia's Kosmos-2491 military satellite may has disintegrated in space, either by accident or after deliberately self-destructing, Harvard-Smithsonian astronomer Jonathan McDowell believes. Earlier, the US Air Force's Project Space Track reported that ten fragments thought to be the remnants of the Kosmos-2491 military satellite, assigned the numbers 44912-44913 and 44987-44994, were observed orbiting at altitudes between 1,329 to 1,699 km. (1/14)

Euroconsult Forecasts Satellite Demand to Experience a Four-Fold Increase Over the Next 10 Years (Source: Space Daily)
In its latest analysis of satellite manufacturing and launch services, Satellites to be Built and Launched by 2028, Euroconsult projects that the satellite market will experience a radical transformation in the quantity, value and mass of the satellites to be built and launched with a four-fold increase in the number of satellites at a yearly average of 990 satellites to be launched, compared to a yearly average of 230 satellites in the previous decade. The market will reach $292 billion over the next decade. This reflects a 28 percent increase over the previous decade which totalled $228 billion in revenues. (1/14)

How Would the Space Force Wage War? (Source: The Hill)
While the United States Space Force knows how it will fight wars beyond the atmosphere, those plans are so highly classified that industry is not able to build the things that will make war in space possible. “In recent years, Pentagon officials have said future satellites need to be able to defend themselves and be more maneuverable. Most military satellites orbiting the Earth – collectively worth many billions of dollars – are unable to do that, which has prompted military officials to warn that China and Russia could easily shoot them down, jam their signals, or blind their cameras.”

Clearly the Space Force is going to need more capabilities than satellites that can be maneuvered out of the way of threats. But a 2007 Chinese anti-satellite weapon test illustrated the perils of combat in Earth orbit. One could imagine a nightmare scenario that could happen if war were to break out between two super powers, such as the United States and China. China could launch multiple strikes to destroy or cripple those satellites that the United States relies on, not only for its national security, but for its economic life. Such an attack could fill Earth orbit with hurtling debris that would make it impassable indefinitely. (1/13)

Group Criticizes Blessing of 'Official Bible' for Space Force (Source: The Hill)
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) condemned the blessing of an "official Bible" for the swearing-in of commanders of the newly created Space Force. The group issued its statement after Washington National Cathedral held a ceremony to bless an “official” King James Bible on Sunday and tweeted that it “will be used to swear in all commanders of America’s newest military branch.” A spokesperson for the cathedral told The Hill that the Bible, donated by the Museum of the Bible in Washington, will be used to swear in Gen. John Raymond as the first chief of space operations.

It was unclear if the Bible is to be used for every commander in the branch or just its top leaders, Military.com noted. But the ceremony included mentions of blessing Trump, Raymond and “all the men and women of the newly created United States Space Force, wherever they may go.” Several people as well as the MRFF denounced the designation, saying officers are not usually required to use religious texts to take an oath of office and that the move could ostracize non-Christians. The MRFF has promised to take the matter to federal court in Northern Virginia if it cannot settle it through the Defense Department’s “administrative remedies.” (1/13)

NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility Gears Up for a Busy and Historic Early 2020 (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com
For the first half of 2020, Antares will launch the Cygnus NG-13 mission to the International Space Station, Minotaur will launch a National Reconnaissance Payload, and Rocket Lab will launch their maiden flight from Launch Complex-2 (LC-2) on their Electron rocket. The next Minotaur IV mission, launching from Pad-0B will launch a national security payload for the National Reconnaissance Office. The NROL-129 mission and is scheduled for no earlier than Feb 15. Rocket Lab’s first flight out of LC-2, called STP-27RM for the US Air Force is scheduled for around the summer of 2020.

Wallops may also gain another tenant in the Astra rocket. Astra Space Inc is aiming to launch a small satellite rocket, listing the Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska (Kodiak Launch Complex) and Wallops as its launch sites. The move to Wallops is understood to be related to a competition arranged by DARPA, subject to the vehicle conducting one successful flight, which has yet to be achieved.

NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility has been in existence on Virginia’s Eastern Shore for 75 years. Before the establishment of Wallops as a launch site, the nearby airfield was part of NAAS Chincoteague, a U.S. Navy Auxiliary Air Station where pilots, including former President George H.W. Bush trained for aircraft carrier operations during World War II. Wallops was established as a launch site in 1945 by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics or NACA, the predecessor to NASA. At the time, Wallops was known as the Pilotless Aircraft Research Station. When NACA became NASA in 1958, Wallops became known as Wallops Station. (1/13)