June 11, 2021

Space Florida Supports Venture Funding for Winning Companies (Source: Space Florida)
Space Florida and the Florida Venture Forum have selectedMiles Space, Inc., ecoSPEARS, Doroni LLC and OptiPulse, Inc., as the winners of the all-virtual 2021 Aerospace Innovation and Tech Forum. The sixth annual aerospace-focused conference hosted in partnership with the Florida Venture Forum, featured a competition of 20 presenting companies. A panel of judges reviewed each selected company’s presentation and supporting materials.

Grand Prize Winner Miles Space will receive $40,000 of Space Florida’s Accelerating Innovation (AI) Award, while 1st Runner-Up ecoSPEARS will receive $30,000 and joint Second Place winners Doroni LLC and OptiPulse, Inc., will each receive $15,000. Tampa-based Miles Space specializes in Signal Processing for Military Passive Radar,SatComs, Drone Detection technology, and our Water Vapor-Based Thruster for satellites and space probes.

ecoSPEARS of Altamonte Springs has developed green solutions to eliminate toxins from the environment. ecoSPEARS has obtained an exclusive license to NASA-developed environmental cleanup technologies that can permanently eliminate the world’s most persistent and toxic environmental contaminants from impacted sediment, soil, and groundwater. Doroni LLC of Parkland is developing a revolutionary new eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) platform with semi-autonomous capability. OptiPulse of New Mexico has developed a communications link which could be described as a wireless extension cord for fiber installations. (6/10)

DiBello: Other States Seek to Replicate Space Florida's Success (Sources: Florida Today, SPACErePORT)
Space Florida's Frank DiBello told a National Space Club audience that Florida has invested upwards of $1 billion in spaceport infrastructure. But he cautioned that complacency is not an option. "Other states are breathing down our necks. We must be more ready, more competitive and more attractive than our competitors.” Part of that will include upgrading the infrastructure in and around KSC and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to handle the next generation of rockets set to come online and all the facilities needed to support them."

That means more than just new launch complexes, DiBello said. It means improved roads and bridges, new power sources and upgraded water and sewage systems. But unlike the earlier days of the Space Age, the federal government won't pay for all the needed upgrades. The state and local governments will have a role to play partnering with private companies to foot the bills, DiBello said.

In addition to launch pads and processing facilities, DiBello described some of the infrastructure projects and the innovative financing to support them: a helium pipeline to serve the spaceport's launch complexes; electrical substations to meet spaceport power needs; bridge and roadway development to support spaceport access, and airfield tarmacs and hangars for both cargo and spaceflight operations. (6/8)

DiBello: Talent Development a Priority for Growing Florida's Aerospace Industry (Sources: Florida Today, SPACErePORT)
Space Florida's Frank DiBello said Florida is currently ranked seventh among states for its aerospace workforce. He says his goal is for Florida to move up to No. 4 by the end of the decade. DiBello pointed to an apprenticeship program Space Florida brokered between Eastern Florida State College and local space companies such as Blue Origin as a good starting point, but said this program needs to expand significantly.

One possibility, he said, could be regional training centers across the state where the curriculum is set to meet industry needs. The "talent war," as DiBello dubbed it, "is a war we cannot lose." Another key to continued growth in the local space industry is making sure Florida has the workforce ready to support the needs of companies looking to move or expand here.

DiBello also said the state and local communities need to embrace a holistic vision for attracting and accommodating aerospace talent, with affordable housing, education, lifestyle, cost-of-living improvements, and access to capital. He said this feeds into another long-term priority for Space Florida: supporting and relying on private sector innovation. (6/8)

New Leader Selected to Take Virginia Spaceport 'to the Next Level' (Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch)
A retired U.S. Air Force general will lead Virginia Space into an era of expanded opportunity for commercial and defense rocket launches from state-owned pads at a regional spaceport at Wallops Island on the Eastern Shore. Maj. Gen. Roosevelt “Ted” Mercer will become CEO and executive director of the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority on Aug. 1. He will succeed Dale Nash, who will retire after nine years of leading the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, one of four regional spaceports in the United States and a major part of Virginia’s hopes for economic development on the Eastern Shore.

Virginia has invested more than $160 million in the spaceport to win contracts for commercial and national defense missions, as well as testing of unmanned systems. Under a new transportation funding structure approved last year, the state will contribute $21 million annually to Virginia Space, an increase of $5 million.

The spaceport also operates a runway and hangar for testing unmanned aviation systems, or drones, in the restricted airspace over the sprawling NASA complex, which also includes operations for the U.S. Navy and NOAA. Mercer promised to aggressively seek new business for the spaceport and expand its capacity for launching a broader range of booster rockets. The complex generates almost $1.4 billion in estimated economic impact for the Eastern Shore and the surrounding region, creating jobs and boosting the local economy of Chincoteague and other neighboring communities. (6/11)

Chemical Contamination Levels Remain High Near Patrick Space Force Base (Source: Florida Today)
As federal regulators mull limits for a group of cancer-causing compounds, new tests keep finding these so-called "forever" chemicals in Brevard County and throughout Florida, sometimes at several orders of magnitude above what scientists think are safe. High levels of PFAS — short for per-and poly fluoroalkyl substances —  turned up recently in Cocoa Beach sewage, South Patrick Shores soil and groundwater, and in drinking water systems statewide. And more sample results are coming soon.

The city had found higher levels in 2018, and blames it on the sewage coming into the plant from Patrick Space Force Base (PSFB), because of PFAS levels in the ground there measured as high as 4.3 million parts per trillion in 2018. Until phasing them out about five years ago, the base used firefighting foams containing the chemicals. Cocoa Beach has been sampling at its treatment plant headworks, which combines all sewer flow from the city, Port Canaveral and PSFB. On average, they find PFAS levels are near or slightly above EPA's lifetime health advisory limits for drinking water. (6/9)

Pegasus Rocket to Launch DoD Satellite From California (Source: Space News)
A Pegasus rocket will launch a "space domain awareness" satellite Sunday in a demonstration of responsive launch. Gen. John Raymond, head of the Space Force, said Thursday that the launch of the TacRL-2 technology demonstration satellite on a Pegasus XL, flying out of Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, is part of a new program called "Space Safari" to meet what the service calls "high-priority, urgent space needs." The satellite was built in less than a year using off-the-shelf components and Northrop Grumman was given 21 days to prepare for the launch. The Space Force didn't disclose additional details about the satellite itself. (6/11)

Russia Wants You to Buy a Seat on a Soyuz Mission to the Space Station (Source: Space.com)
If you've got very deep pockets and an adventurous spirit, Russia's space agency has a vacation idea for you. Glavkosmos, the marketing and international-management arm of the Russian federal space agency Roscosmos, is inviting folks to consider buying a trip to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a Soyuz spacecraft. "If you're tired of the lockdown and closed interstate borders, we think we know how to organize an unforgettable journey for you: come fly to space with us!" Glavkosmos officials said. (6/9)

Russia Selling Imaging Satellite to Iran (Source: Washington Post)
Russia is planning to sell Iran a high-resolution imaging satellite. The Kanopus-V satellite was built by Russia and could be launched in months. The satellite is capable of producing images at a resolution of 1.2 meters, which is not as sharp as commercially available imagery. However, the Iranian military would be able to task the satellite as required to observe areas of interest in the Middle East. (6/11)

Effective Power Supply Energizes China's Space Station Project (Source: Xinhua)
Highly efficient power supply has kept the combination of the Tianzhou-2 cargo craft and China's space station core module Tianhe operating stably. China sent into space the Tianhe module on April 29, kicking off a series of key launch missions that aim to complete the construction of the space station by the end of 2022. The country launched Tianzhou-2 on May 29, which successfully docked with Tianhe in about eight hours to deliver supplies, equipment and propellant.

Both the core module and cargo craft are equipped with independent power supply systems. After docking, the two systems can form a connected grid and achieve mutual transmission of electric power. "The two independent systems work like two smartphones," said Yu Lei, an engineer in charge of power supply to the Tianzhou-2 project. "They can undergo both separate and mutual charging." (6/9)

Phase Four Raises $26 Million for Plasma Thruster Production (Source: Space News)
Phase Four, a company developing electric propulsion systems, has raised $26 million in a Series B round. The company plans to use the funding to accelerate production of its Maxwell plasma thruster, which is attracting more business after gaining flight heritage earlier this year. Phase Four will also use the funding to support work on a version of Maxwell that uses iodine rather than xenon propellant. New Science Ventures, which previously invested in ABL Space Systems and PlanetIQ, led the round. (6/11)

Space Spending Grows 13.8% in DoD Budget (Source: Space News)
Space was a "clear winner" in the Defense Department's fiscal year 2022 budget proposal, according to a report. The study by Avascent found that proposed spending on national security space investment, including both procurement and R&D, grew by 13.8%, versus 1% for the rest of the Defense Department. The report predicted that Congress will not make major changes to the Space Force budget, and is more likely to increase it rather than cut it. (6/11)

ESA to Also Send Probe to Venus (Source: Space News)
The European Space Agency has selected a Venus mission, just a week after NASA selected two. ESA announced Thursday that EnVision will be its next M-class, or medium-class, mission, launching no earlier than 2031. The orbiter is equipped with various instruments, including a NASA-supplied radar, to study the planet's interior, surface and atmosphere. M-class missions in ESA's Cosmic Vision program have costs of about $610 million. NASA picked two Venus missions, an orbiter and an atmospheric probe, for its next Discovery planetary science missions last week. (6/11)

UK Space Agency Gets New Leader (Source: Space News)
A health care executive is the next head of the U.K. Space Agency. Paul Bate is currently vice president of commercial at Babylon Health, a U.K.-based virtual health care services company. The British government said it selected Bate because of his experience working in the public and private sectors "to deliver growth and value for money." Bate succeeds Graham Turnock, who earlier this year said he would step down after a four-year term. Bate will take over in September. (6/11)

AWS Picks Startups for Space Accelerator (Source: Space News)
Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced Thursday the first class of startups for its space accelerator. The 10 companies from the U.S. and Europe will participate in a four-week program to learn how they can grow their business using cloud computing and analytics technologies provided by AWS. The companies range from space traffic management company LeoLabs to radio-frequency tracking company HawkEye360 to D-Orbit, a space logistics and transportation services company. The accelerator program is run by AWS Aerospace and Satellite Solutions and the U.K.-based venture investment firm Seraphim Capital. (6/11)

ESA to Distribute Iceye Data (Source: Space News)
ESA will provide free access to radar imagery by Iceye to scientists. Iceye said Thursday it had been approved for inclusion in ESA's Earthnet Program Third Party Missions (TPM) data portfolio. Under the TPM program, ESA will acquire Iceye data that complements data from its own satellites, making it freely available to researchers. Iceye is the first entrepreneurial radar imaging company included in TPM. (6/11)

SOFIA Continues Operations Amid Threat of Cancellation (Source: Space News)
Another threat of cancellation is not affecting operations of NASA's SOFIA airborne observatory. NASA's fiscal year 2022 budget proposal once again called for terminating operations of SOFIA, arguing its scientific productivity did not justify its high operating costs. A SOFIA official said at a conference this week that operations of SOFIA are continuing without interruption, with a new series of observations, called Cycle 9, starting next month. (6/11)

China Releases Images from Mars Rover (Source: AP/BBC)
China has released new images from its Zhurong Mars rover. The images include one taken by a remote camera deployed from the rover, showing it next to its landing platform. China's space program has released only a handful of images since the rover's landing nearly a month ago. NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has also taken images of the landing site, showing the rover having moved a short distance from the lander. (6/11)

ULA to Launch Uncrewed CST-100 Test on July 30 (Source: ULA)
A commercial crew test flight will be the next Atlas 5 launch. In a tweet Thursday, United Launch Alliance said preparations were now underway for the Orbital Flight Test (OFT) 2 mission of Boeing's CST-100 Starliner vehicle, an uncrewed test flight scheduled for July 30, calling it "our next Atlas 5 launch." OFT-2 moves ahead of the Space Test Program 3 mission, which was to launch on another Atlas 5 launch later this month but was postponed last week to investigate an issue seen with the Centaur upper stage on an Atlas 5 launch last month. (6/11)

Online Bidding Ends at $4.8 Million for Blue Origin Suborbital Seat (Source: WKMG)
The second phase of bidding for a seat on Blue Origin's New Shepard suborbital vehicle has closed. The online bidding ended at 5 p.m. Eastern Thursday with a high bid of $4.8 million. The company will hold a live auction Saturday afternoon to select the winning bid. Interest in the auction grew this week after Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos said he would be on New Shepard's first crewed flight July 20, along with his brother Mark and the winner of the auction. Proceeds of the auction go to Club for the Future, an educational nonprofit affiliated with Blue Origin. (6/11)

Long-Delayed Georgia Spaceport Decision Nears Final Countdown (Source: The Current)
The saga of Camden County’s ambitious plans to launch rockets off Georgia’s coast could finally be resolved this summer. The FAA is planning a June 18 release of the Final Environmental Impact Statement for the controversial Camden Spaceport and the agency plans to either sign off on the project or stop the countdown. And as the FAA’s July 19 permit date nears, critics who complain the proposed rocket launches pose safety hazards to nearby barrier islands continue to urge the agency to delay the review process or kill Camden’s space dream.

Meanwhile, the Camden County Commission and other supporters say they remain optimistic that the Spaceport will become a significant job generator that ignites Georgia’s aerospace industry. Camden’s permit application calls for building a site that launches rockets in a scaled-down operation from the county’s initial plans for rockets as large as the 230-foot tall SpaceX Falcon 9. Still, environmentalists worry that the published review won’t take into account the higher failure rate among smaller rockets and the potential damage from debris, and the chance of wildfires. (6/9)

Senators Introduce Companion to Rep. Posey's Space Competitiveness Bill (Source: Parabolic Arc)
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), ranking member of the Senate Subcommittee on Aviation Safety, Operations, and Innovation, along with Marco Rubio (R-FL), Rick Scott (R-FL), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and Alex Padilla (D-CA), introduced the bipartisan, bicameral American Space Commerce Act. The bill would bolster U.S. leadership in the space industry, enhance public-private partnerships with American companies, and further increase U.S. innovation. In addition, U.S. Rep. Bill Posey (R-FL) introduced companion legislation in the House of Representatives. This bill was introduced previously in June 2020. (6/9)

NASA Selects New Science Investigations for Future Moon Deliveries (Source: NASA)
As NASA continues plans for multiple commercial deliveries to the Moon’s surface per year, the agency has selected three new scientific investigation payload suites to advance understanding of Earth’s nearest neighbor. Two of the payload suites will land on the far side of the Moon, a first for NASA. All three investigations will receive rides to the lunar surface as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS, initiative, part of the agency’s Artemis approach. The payloads mark the agency’s first selections from its Payloads and Research Investigations on the Surface of the Moon (PRISM) call for proposals.

Lunar Vertex, one of the three selections, is a joint lander and rover payload suite slated for delivery to Reiner Gamma – one of the most distinctive and enigmatic natural features on the Moon, known as a lunar swirl. Scientists don’t fully understand what lunar swirls are or how they form, but they know they are closely related to anomalies associated with the Moon’s magnetic field. The Lunar Vertex rover will make detailed surface measurements of the Moon’s magnetic field using an onboard magnetometer.

NASA also has selected two separate payload suites for delivery in tandem to Schrödinger basin, which is a large impact crater on the far side of the Moon near the lunar South Pole. The Farside Seismic Suite (FSS), one of the two payloads to be delivered to Schrödinger basin, will carry two seismometers: the vertical Very Broadband seismometer and the Short Period sensor. The Lunar Interior Temperature and Materials Suite (LITMS), the other payload headed to Schrödinger basin, is a suite of two instruments: the Lunar Instrumentation for Thermal Exploration with Rapidity pneumatic drill and the Lunar Magnetotelluric Sounder. (6/10)

Queqiao: The Bridge Between Earth and the Far Side of the Moon (Source: Space Daily)
Because of a phenomenon called gravitational locking, the Moon always faces the Earth from the same side. This proved useful in the early lunar landing missions in the 20th century, as there was always a direct line of sight for uninterrupted radiocommunications between Earth ground stations and equipment on the Moon. However, gravitational locking makes exploring the hidden face of the moon - the far side - much more challenging, because signals cannot be sent directly across the Moon towards Earth.

In 2019, China's lunar probe Chang'e-4 marked the first time a spacecraft landed on the far side of the Moon. Both the lander and the lunar rover it carried have been gathering and sending back images and data from previously unexplored areas. But how does Chang'e-4 probe communicate with the Earth? The answer is Queqiao, a relay communications satellite. Queqiao is an unprecedented satellite designed specifically for one purpose: to act as a bridge between Chang'e-4 probe and the Earth. Queqiao was launched in 2018 and put into orbit around a point 'behind' the Moon.

This point is known as the Earth-Moon Libration point 2, where a special case of gravitational balance allows Queqiao to maintain an orbit such that it has almost constant direct line of sight with both the far side of the Moon and the Earth. Getting the satellite into this peculiar orbit required careful planning and maintenance management, and the success of this operation set a precedent for future attempts at putting satellites in orbit around other Earth-Moon libration points. From its stable place in space, Queqiao helped guide the soft-landing and surface operations of Chang'e-4 probe and has been our intermediary with it ever since. (6/11)

China Launches Commercial Earth Observation Satellite and Secondary Payloads (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
A Chinese Long March 2D rocket has successfully lofted four satellites into Low Earth Orbit. The primary spacecraft on board was Beijing-3, a commercially developed and operated Earth observation satellite. Despite being named Beijing-3, the satellite is actually set to become the fifth in a constellation of Earth observation spacecraft in Low Earth Orbit. (6/10)

Nuclear Monitoring Stations Identify Distinctive Deep Infrasound Rumbles of Space Launches (Source: AGU)
After their initial blast, space rockets shoot away from the Earth with rumbles in infrasound, soundwaves too low to be heard by human ears that can travel thousands of miles. New research used a system for monitoring nuclear tests to track the infrasound from 1,001 rocket launches.

They examined 7,637 infrasound signatures recorded at IMS stations from 2009 to mid-2020, a period that included 1,001 rocket launches. The team only examined rocket launches that occurred up to 5,000 kilometers from an IMS station, but found the acoustic signals from rocket launches could sometimes be detected up to 9,000 kilometers away

The researchers found infrasonic signatures for up to 73% of these rockets. The other 27% of launches they couldn’t detect because the rockets had smaller thrusts or the atmospheric conditions didn’t favor the propagation over long distances. For the ones they did detect, they could determine the type of rockets launched. (6/9)

Was the Space Program Worth the Cost? (Source: New York Times)
Hyperbole shrouds few topics in history so much as the human encounter with outer space. Astronauts are heroic pioneers, their missions testament to humanity’s “hunger to explore the universe and discover its truths,” as Ronald Reagan put it in 1986. At the dawn of the American space program 25 years before that, John F. Kennedy had gone so far as to declare exploration of the heavens no less than “the key to our future on Earth.” Through the rhetorical haze, it can be hard to see just how contingent and contentious the whole endeavor really was, especially at its inception.

Space exploration, Kennedy intoned, was a “great new American enterprise” that would affirm the nation’s global leadership. But Kennedy’s grand words hid private worries. Affirming other studies revealing Kennedy’s essential cautiousness. Kennedy embraced a dramatically expanded space program not out of genuine conviction of its value so much as a desire to bolster national prestige at a time when many Americans believed the Soviets held the upper hand in the Cold War.

Was the effort to launch humans into space, at its heart, more an enormously expensive public-relations exercise than a consequential scientific undertaking, as both Kennedy and John Glenn seem to have suspected? Recognizing that the answer might be yes does not necessarily mean that the whole endeavor lacked serious purpose. Americans had good reason to believe that their nation was losing its edge in the late 1950s and to respond rapturously to Glenn’s flight. (6/9)

Iridium Announces Operation Arctic Lynx (Source: Space Daily)
Iridium Communications has announced Operation Arctic Lynx (OAL), a series of partnership-driven field exercises deploying Iridium and Iridium Connected technologies and involving more than 20 organizations, primarily focused above 60 degrees north latitude and stretching as far as 82 degrees north latitude.

Taking place between June 11 and June 26, 2021, OAL involves an international contingent of organizations including existing Iridium customers like the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. federal agencies, Alaska state and local organizations, Canadian government organizations, research organizations and multiple aerospace industry companies. During OAL, Iridium and Iridium Connected weather resilient satellite communications technology will be deployed through a combination of on-base, communications-on-the-move (COTM), at-the-halt (ATH) and remote environment applications. (6/11)

Team Studies Bandwidth Capacity of Proposed Megaconstellations (Source: Space Daily)
Researchers in MIT have run a comparison of the four largest global satellite network proposals, from SpaceX, Telesat, OneWeb, and Amazon. They calculated each network's throughput, or global data capacity, based on their technical specifications as reported to the FCC. While the networks vary in their proposed number and configuration of satellites, ground stations, and communication capabilities, the team found that each constellation could provide a total capacity of around tens of terabits per second.

As proposed, these megaconstellations would likely not replace current land-based networks, which can support thousands of terabits per second. However, the team concludes that the space-based fleets could fill in the gaps where conventional cable connections have been unfeasible or inaccessible, such as in rural areas, remote polar and coastal regions, and even in the air and overseas. (6/11)

DOGE-1 CubeSat to Fly to the Moon Atop a Falcon 9 Rocket (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
Last month, Geometric Energy Corporation announced the first mission to the Moon paid entirely with the Dogecoin cryptocurrency. Geometric Energy Corporation, a Canadian Engineering company, plans to send its 88-pound (40-kilogram) DOGE-1 CubeSat to the Moon via a SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare mission in 2022. It is designed to collect lunar-spatial intelligence using a combination of cameras and sensors. (6/10)

ESA Adds Research Payloads to Wooden Satellite (Source: Space Daily)
Riccardo Rampini, heading ESA's Materials' Physics and Chemistry section, comments: "It's been a tight schedule but we welcomed the opportunity to contribute to Woodsat's payload in return for helping assess its suitability for flight. "The first item we're embarking is a pressure sensor, which will allow us to identify the local pressure in onboard cavities in the hours and days after launch into orbit. This is an important factor for the turn-on of high power systems and radio-frequency antennas, because small amounts of molecules in the cavity can potentially cause them harm.

"This sensor is being built for us by Sens4 in Denmark, who have done a great job to strip down their standard design to fit limited onboard volume and power constraints." ESA materials engineer Bruno Bras adds: "The good thing here is we have ended up devising a low-cost device that could find all kinds of further uses, both in orbit and down on the ground in test environments."

Next to it will be a straightforward LED with a photoresistor that senses as it lights up. But the LED's power will come through a 3D-printed electrically-conductive plastic called 'polyether ether ketone', or PEEK for short, opening up the prospect of printing power or even data links directly within the bodies of future space missions. (6/11)

Illinois Teams Look to Shine in Rocketry Challenge (Source: Chicago Tribune)
The Redhawk Rocketeers and Atlas, both from Illinois, are among the top 100 student rocketry teams that will compete for a chance to win prizes ranging from $7,500 to $20,000 in the American Rocketry Challenge. The annual student competition is sponsored by the Aerospace Industries Association to encourage participation in STEM. (6/10)

Teams From Presidio, Texas, Ready for Rocketry Finals (Source: Odessa American )
Presidio Independent School District in Texas has two teams in the American Rocketry Challenge finals this weekend. "The kids are really amazing. It is passed on from generations; from their family members to them so it keeps them going and with the help of the community and foundations," said team mentor Sheila Condino.  (6/10)

Seattle-Area Students Flying High Again as 6 Teams Will Compete in American Rocketry Challenge (Source: GeekWire)
Finals for the world’s largest student rocket contest will kick off this weekend with 100 teams competing to become national champion — and six of the teams are from the Seattle area. The American Rocketry Challenge is the aerospace and defense industry’s flagship program to encourage students to pursue study and careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). It gives students the chance to design, build and launch model rockets, and the contest attracts more than 5,000 students and 600 teams annually. (6/9)

Perseverance Rover Begins Its First Science Campaign on Mars (Source: Space Daily)
On June 1, NASA's Perseverance Mars rover kicked off the science phase of its mission by leaving the "Octavia E. Butler" landing site. Until recently, the rover has been undergoing systems tests, or commissioning, and supporting the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter's month of flight tests. During the first few weeks of this first science campaign, the mission team will drive to a low-lying scenic overlook from which the rover can survey some of the oldest geologic features in Jezero Crater, and they'll bring online the final capabilities of the rover's auto-navigation and sampling systems.

By the time Perseverance completed its commissioning phase on June 1, the rover had already tested its oxygen-generating MOXIE instrument and conducted the technology demonstration flights of the Ingenuity helicopter. Its cameras had taken more than 75,000 images, and its microphones had recorded the first audio soundtracks of Mars. (6/10)

How Risky Is It to Send Jeff Bezos to the Edge of Space? (Source: WIRED)
The rich-guy space race between Bezos and Branson (SpaceX’s Elon Musk is the odd man out for now) may convince other well-heeled space tourists who want assurances that a rocket ride is both fun and safe. But experts note that space travel is always risky, even when spacecraft have undergone years of testing. Blue Origin’s flight will be its first launch with human passengers; previous flights have only carried a mannequin. For Virgin Galactic, it will be only the second time the rocket plane has carried people.

Blue Origin’s New Shepard capsule is 100 percent automated. There’s no pilot and the passengers can’t maneuver or adjust course. The only task that passengers have to accomplish is to unbuckle and then rebuckle their seatbelts, so they can float around and watch the Earth roll by through the capsule’s massive windows. New Shepard has made 15 successful flights, including three tests of its capsule abort system that will allow it to detach from the rocket in case something goes wrong on the launchpad or while aloft.

Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity is more like a rocket plane. The polished-chrome six-seater is carried to about 50,000 feet in altitude by a specially built double-fuselage aircraft called WhiteKnightTwo. The rocket plane is released from underneath the aircraft, and then powers up its engines for 60 seconds to blast to the 50-mile-high edge of space, drifting there for a few minutes of joy.  The whole trip lasts about 90 minutes from start to finish, and there’s no bathroom on board. In 2007, three employees of Scaled Composites, a firm building the craft for Virgin, were killed at a Mojave Desert facility during early testing of SpaceShipTwo’s rocket engines. Scaled Composites was financed by Branson at the time. (6/10)

New Air Filtration Hardware Readied for ISS Delivery (Source: Space Daily)
New air filtration technology developed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center is bound for the International Space Station. The 4-Bed Carbon Dioxide Scrubber, was shipped to the spaceport at Wallops Island, Virginia, for flight aboard the Cygnus NG-16 commercial resupply mission. It will demonstrate advanced life support system capabilities that could help future explorers on the Moon and Mars breathe easier.

The scrubber is one of two next-generation Environmental Control and Life Support System technologies set to be tested on the space station for one year, helping recycle and regenerate most of the air and water necessary to sustain its crew - and proving advanced regenerative technology solutions for upcoming Artemis missions to the Moon and eventual human excursions to Mars. The Thermal Amine Scrubber, delivered to the station in early 2021, uses actively heated and cooled amine beds - water purification technology used around the world - to remove carbon dioxide from the air.

Once installed, the new carbon dioxide scrubber will use commercial adsorbent materials to retain water vapor while filtering carbon dioxide out of the space station's airflow. Adsorption is the use of beaded porous materials, known as "molecular sieves," to separate metabolic carbon dioxide to be discarded or recycled. (6/11)

Nelson Lobbies for NASA Funding From Jobs and Infrastructure Bills (Source: Politico)
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson is leveraging his nearly four decades in Congress to lobby hard for additional funding to plug a major hole in the Artemis program to return astronauts to the moon and also give aging facilities a facelift. "We're going to have to have some more money,” he told us in a wide-ranging interview this week. “I've suggested to them that a way to do it is in the jobs bill. There's an R&D section of the jobs bill. I am very optimistic because of the support that I've heard directly from senators and congressmen.”

He is separately trying to secure more money to upgrade NASA centers that he says are falling apart. "I have clearly articulated the need for $5 billion of infrastructure needs for all 10 NASA centers and an additional 10 NASA facilities," Nelson said. “We've even got holes in the roof at the Michoud facility outside of New Orleans where they put together the core of the SLS rocket.” (6/11)

Bipartisan Senate Group Announces Infrastructure Deal (Source: The Hill)
A bipartisan group of 10 senators Thursday afternoon announced an agreement on a “compromise framework” to invest $1.2 trillion in infrastructure over the next eight years. Sources familiar with the deal said it would provide $974 billion over five years. They also said the framework is focused on “core, physical infrastructure” and would not increase taxes, though it includes an option to index the gas tax to inflation. Further, it would provide $579 billion in new funding over what would otherwise be spent without any new legislation.

“Our group — comprised of 10 senators, five from each party — has worked in good faith and reached a bipartisan agreement on a realistic, compromise framework to modernize our nation’s infrastructure and energy technologies,” members of the bipartisan group said in a joint statement. The bipartisan framework would spend only a fraction of the $4.1 trillion President Biden has called for and includes an option to index the gas tax to inflation, which could make it a tough sell within the broader Senate Democratic caucus. (6/10)

Giant Blinking Star Spotted Near Center of Milky Way Galaxy (Source: CNN)
A giant star is blinking near the center of our Milky Way galaxy like a stellar beacon, according to new observations by astronomers. The star is located more than 25,000 light-years away from Earth. Known as VVV-WIT-08, the star dimmed so much that it almost disappeared from view as astronomers observed it over time.

It's not uncommon for a star's brightness factor to change. Some stars pulsate, or one star within a stellar pair, called a binary, can be eclipsed by another. But it is incredibly rare for a star to grow faint and brighten again, or blink. The observation of this star has led researchers to believe that it may belong to a new class: a "blinking giant" binary star system. This class includes giant stars a hundred times larger than our sun being eclipsed every few decades or so by an unseen companion, which could be a planet or another star. (6/11)