February 28, 2021

UK's Sutherland Spaceport Likely Moving Forward Despite Landowner's Opposition (Source: Sunday Times)
A senior figure at the UK Space Agency said he is confident a controversial spaceport planned for the Scottish Highlands will achieve lift-off, despite opposition from Britain’s largest private landowner. Anders Holch Povlsen, the Danish fashion tycoon, is against a launch site on the A’Mhoine peninsula in Sutherland which he believes would damage nearby peat bogs and harm wildlife. The spaceport would see rockets being launched close to his Kinloch estate near Tongue.

Ian Annett, deputy chief executive of the UK Space Agency, said Britain is in a race against European countries to win lucrative contracts for launching satellites that can be used by private and public sector bodies to monitor climate change, improve communications, and even tackle crimes such as illegal fishing. (2/28)

Follow Perseverance on Interactive NASA Map (Source: NASA)
Scroll and pan around this map to see the latest location and traverse path for the Mars Perseverance rover at Jezero Crater. The goal of the mission is to seek signs of ancient life and collect samples of rock and regolith (broken rock and dust) for possible return to Earth. This map is composed of two layers: a grayscale Jezero Crater map, and a true-color base map. The greyscale base map was created with images from the HiRISE camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, while the color base map is from the European Space Agency Mars Express High Resolution Stereo camera. Click here. (2/26)

Vice President Kamala Harris Calls NASA Astronaut Victor Glover (Source: SpaceRef)
In celebration of Black History Month, NASA astronaut Victor Glover welcomed Vice President Kamala Harris to the International Space Station for avirtual chat. In the video recorded Feb. 24 and shared Saturday, the conversation ranged from the legacy of human spaceflight to observing Earth from the vantage of the space station, Glovers history-making stay aboard the orbiting laboratory, and preparing for missions from the Moon to Mars. Victor Gloveris a long-duration crew member on the ISS. He served as the Crew Dragon pilot and second-in-command for NASAs SpaceX Crew-1 mission. Glover is responsible for spacecraft systems and performance. (2/27)

US Needs Better Space Defenses, Including Weapons: CSIS (Source: Breaking Defense)
The US must make near-term policy, technical and investment decisions about how it intends to defend space assets from growing military threats — including putting ‘active defenses’ such as lasers on satellites, says a new study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). “If space is to remain a source of economic and strategic advantage, the United States must prioritize and expedite its efforts to improve space defenses. Robust space defenses make conflict in space less likely,” argues Defense Against the Dark Arts in Space: Protecting Space Systems from Counterspace Weapons.

The first-of-its-kind study takes a serious look at the technologies available to protect and defend US satellites, and articulates the policy issues that need to be addressed in using them. The report reviews the growing threats in space, especially from Russia and China — both of which have tested anti-satellite (ASAT) technologies in recent years. “Russia and China are arguably making advances in counterspace weapons faster than the United States is improving its defenses against these threats,” the study argues. (2/26)

Launched by India, Brazil’s First Homemade Satellite Will Put an Extra Eye on Dwindling Amazon Forests (Source: Science)
Brazil’s satellite program—and the country’s capacity to monitor disappearing Amazon forest—saw success on Sunday. Amazonia-1, the first satellite entirely developed by the country was launched by India. If the mission goes well, Brazil will join about 20 countries that have managed the whole chain of design, production, and operation of a satellite. Amazonia-1 will give researchers more frequent updates on deforestation and agricultural activity in the world’s largest tropical rainforest. But other challenges await, as Brazilian scientists deal with increasing cuts in research funding and a political split on the country’s space program.

The satellite represents “a milestone for Brazil,” says Adenilson Silva, an engineer at Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) who leads the mission and overaw the launch at the Indian space center on the island of Sriharikota. The satellite’s development, which began in 2008, has involved more than a dozen Brazilian companies and an investment of 360 million real ($60 million)—about one-sixth what it would cost to import ready-to-use equipment, Silva says. Amazonia-1 is the first of three Amazon-monitoring satellites INPE aims to build with the same manufacturing platform.

The new satellite is a 2.5-meter-long metallic cuboid weighing 640 kilograms. It’s loaded with 6 kilometers of cables and three wide-angle cameras capable of detecting any area of deforestation bigger than four soccer fields. A planned launch in 2018 was postponed because of a lack of funding and delays in the supply of key components from collaborating companies. (2/28)

China Has Over 300 Satellites in Orbit (Source: Xinhua)
China's satellite application system has made great progress in 2020, with more than 300 satellites in orbit for various applications, according to a recent report released by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. Among them are Beidou navigation satellites, remote sensing satellites for meteorological and marine monitoring, and communication satellites.

China started the construction of a high-throughput broadband satellite communication system in 2020, with the APSTAR-6D telecommunication satellite launched in July. Based on satellite communication capability, China provides communication services for users on the ground and in the sea and air. The total number of direct broadcasting satellite service users has exceeded 145 million. (2/27)

Russia Launches Arctic Weather Satellite (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
Russia launched a Soyuz rocket Sunday through a veil of fog over the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying the first spacecraft in a new program to monitor Arctic weather systems and relay emergency communications. The Soyuz-2.1b rocket lifted off from Baikonur and quickly disappeared into a shroud of fog hanging over the frozen steppes of Kazakhstan. The Soyuz launch Sunday occurred in conditions that were at the “very limit” of the rocket’s weather constraints, according to Rogozin. The winds up to an altitude of 2 kilometers were particularly strong, Rogozin tweeted. (2/28)