March 9, 2021

Momentus' Russian Founders Have 3-Year Divestiture Plan (Source: Space News)
The Russian founders of in-space transportation company Momentus will divest their shares in the next three years as the company works to address Defense Department concerns about its foreign ownership. In an SEC filing Monday, Momentus said former CEO Mikhail Kokorich and Brainyspace LLC, a firm owned by co-founder Lev Khasis and his wife, placed their shares into a voting trust controlled by the company's board earlier this month, and agreed to divest those shares by March 2024.

Those moves, as well as Kokorich's resignation as CEO in January, are among the steps Momentus is taking after being informed of the Pentagon's concerns that the company "posed a risk to national security" because of its foreign ownership. Those concerns also forced the company to delay its first launch in January when it could not get a payload approval from the FAA. Momentus said an ongoing review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) should not affect its merger with a special-purpose acquisition company, Stable Road Acquisition Corp. (3/9)

Vega Launcher Launching Again in April (Source: Space News)
Europe's Vega small launch vehicle will return to flight next month. Vehicle manufacturer Avio, along with Arianespace and ESA, conducted a flight readiness review for the VV18 mission last week, clearing the mission for an April 20 launch from French Guiana. The launch will be the first since a launch failure in November blamed on improperly connected cables on the rocket's upper stage, causing it to lose control moments after the upper stage's ignition. The VV18 mission will launch the Pléiades-Neo 1 high-resolution imaging satellite for Airbus, along with several secondary payloads. (3/9)

China Prepares for Long March 7A Return to Flight (Source: Space News)
China is preparing for a launch of its Long March 7A rocket, the first since a failed mission a year ago. The 60-meter-long rocket was rolled out late Sunday, with a launch scheduled as soon as Wednesday night from the Wenchang launch site. The Long March 7A is a version of the Long March 7 with an additional third stage to support missions to geostationary orbit. The first Long March 7A launch failed in March 2020, reportedly because of a loss of pressure following first stage separation, leading to an explosion. (3/9)

SpaceForce Supports SDA Satellite Procurement (Source: Space News)
The Space Force's Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) has been helping the Space Development Agency (SDA) procure small satellites. SDA was established two years ago as a stand-alone agency, which positioned itself as a disrupter that would challenge the traditional procurement culture centered around large satellites associated with SMC. SDA, though, has leveraged SMC's expertise as it works to procure constellations of small satellites with only a small staff, while SMC says its focus is shifting to low Earth orbit given the direction the commercial space industry is headed. (3/9)

SpaceX Expanding Boca Chica for Starship Operations (Source: Ars Technica)
SpaceX is planning to expand its Boca Chica, Texas, test site for its Starship vehicle. Documents filed with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers showed plans to add a second orbital launch mount, second suborbital launchpad and second landing pad. The expansion would also include additional test stands, an expanded propellant tank farm and a parking lot. The facilities would all be in a relatively compact area at the current location next to Boca Chica Beach on the Gulf of Mexico. The Corps of Engineers is seeking public comment on those plans through April 5. (3/9)

Telespazio Charts Five Year Plan for Growth (Source: Space News)
European space mission integrator Telespazio hopes to double its revenue in the next five years through new international initiatives. Telespazio, a joint venture of Thales Group and Leonardo, recently acquired the space activities of Italy-based Vitrociset to strengthen its support services. The company is seeking other "opportunities in terms of both organic and inorganic growth" in order to reach one billion euros in annual revenue in five years. (3/9)

Georgia Spaceport Proponents Upbeat Despite Latest Delay (Source: Space News)
Backers of a controversial proposed Georgia spaceport remain optimistic despite another delay in the licensing process. The FAA informed stakeholders in the Spaceport Camden project last week that a final environmental impact statement, which was to be released this month, has been delayed until as late as April 20. That will push back the deadline for a formal "record of decision" on the spaceport's FAA license application to June.

Environmental groups and some local residents strongly oppose the spaceport, which would host launches of small launch vehicles, because of fears of damage from a launch accident. The spaceport's backers said in a presentation Monday that they still believed they would win FAA approval and expected to line up customers who are unable to launch from Cape Canaveral or Wallops. (3/9)

Florida Spaceport Director Takes New Job at California's Mojave Spaceport (Source: Bakersfield Californian)
The Mojave Air and Space Port has hired the director of a Florida commercial spaceport as its new CEO. The directors of the California airport and FAA-licensed launch site said they hired Todd Lindner, who had been director of Cecil Spaceport in Jacksonville, as its new CEO, effective next month. Cecil Spaceport is also an FAA-licensed spaceport but has not yet hosted a commercial launch.

Mojave hosts Virgin Galactic, Masten Space Systems, Stratolaunch and a wide range of other aerospace companies. The former CEO of Mojave, Karina Drees, left in January to become president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. (3/9)

Amazon Developing Mars Rover Documentary (Source: collectSPACE)
A Mars rover will be the subject of a documentary. "Good Night Oppy," a feature-length documentary under development by Amazon Studios, Film 45, Amblin Television and Tripod Media, will tell the story of the Opportunity rover from its landing in 2004 through its final communication with Earth in 2018 during a dust storm. Producers say the documentary will focus on the bond that the spacecraft's controllers forged with the rover over its long mission. The producers didn't disclose when the film will be released. (3/9)

NASA, Blue Origin Partner to Bring Lunar Gravity Conditions Closer to Earth (Source: NASA)
At one-sixth that of Earth, the unique gravity of the lunar surface is one of the many variable conditions that technologies bound for the Moon will need to perform well in. NASA will soon have more options for testing those innovations in lunar gravity thanks to a collaboration with Blue Origin to bring new testing capabilities to the company’s New Shepard reusable suborbital rocket system.

Currently, NASA can approximate the Moon’s gravity on parabolic flights and in centrifuges on suborbital vehicles – both invaluable options for maturing promising innovations. But these methods provide only seconds of lunar gravity exposure at a time or limit the payload size, compelling NASA to explore longer-duration and larger size options. Blue Origin’s new lunar gravity testing capability – projected to be available in late 2022 – is answering that need.

New Shepard’s upgrades will allow the vehicle to use its reaction control system to impart a rotation on the capsule. As a result, the entire capsule essentially acts as a large centrifuge to create artificial gravity environments for the payloads inside. Blue Origin’s first flight of this capability will target 11 rotations per minute to provide more than two minutes of continuous lunar gravity, exposing the technologies to this challenging but difficult-to-test condition. (3/9)

Turkish Lake May Hold Clues to Ancient Life on Mars (Source: Reuters)
As NASA’s rover Perseverance explores the surface of Mars, scientists hunting for signs of ancient life on the distant planet are using data gathered on a mission much closer to home at a lake in southwest Turkey. NASA says the minerals and rock deposits at Salda are the nearest match on earth to those around the Jezero Crater where the spacecraft landed and which is believed to have once been flooded with water.

Information gathered from Lake Salda may help the scientists as they search for fossilised traces of microbial life preserved in sediment thought to have been deposited around the delta and the long-vanished lake it once fed. “Salda ... will serve as a powerful analogue in which we can learn and interrogate,” Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA associate administrator for science, told Reuters.

A team of American and Turkish planetary scientists carried out research in 2019 on the shorelines of the lake, known as Turkey’s Maldives because of its azure water and white shores. Scientists believe that the sediments around the lake eroded from large mounds that are formed with the help of microbes and are known as microbialites. NASA's Perseverance team wants to find out whether there are microbialites in Jezero Crater. (3/9)

Space Coast Brewery Offers "Space Guardians" Beer to Honor Space Force (Source: Playalinda Brewing Co.)
Deep in outer space an intergalactic threat approaches. None better to protect the planet from an extraterritorial menace than Space Guardians IPA. When it comes to defending Earth, no other brew is up for the heroic challenge. Space Guardians IPA is now available in 4-packs. (3/9)