June 13, 2021

Space Force Invites Modeling and Simulation Technology Projects for Catalyst Accelerator Program (Source: USSF)
The Space Force and the Air Force Research Laboratory are seeking Modeling and Simulation (M&S) technology projects for a three-month fall accelerator program. Applications are being accepted through July 12 for small businesses and startups possessing dual-use technology that can be used by the Space Force. Training is one of the most employed M&S applications, but there are many other ways that M&S enables Space Force functions. In particular, M&S is used to analyze and inform decisions in acquiring new capabilities, adopting new tactics, processing intelligence, and testing systems before they are put into the hands of our fighting forces.

The Catalyst Accelerator program is co-located in Colorado Springs alongside space-based DoD units and contractors. By locating the Accelerator on the resource-rich Catalyst Campus in proximity to the customer, the customer discovery process is significantly reduced, from an average of two years in the typical government market to less than three months through the Catalyst Accelerator. Participating companies are designated an Space/Air Force Liaison to help companies navigate DoD and a Commercial Sherpa to assist companies to make vital connections they need to accelerate their business. Click here. (6/8)

Rocket Lab Considers Repaying $2.85m New Zealand Wage Subsidy (Source: Stuff)
Rocket Lab is conducting an internal audit to assess whether the company was eligible for the $2.85 million wage subsidy it received. The company claimed the subsidy for its 408 New Zealand employees last year. But Rocket Lab’s financial statements, uploaded to the Companies Office on Friday, noted it was “unlikely that the conditions of the grant have been met”. A Rocket Lab spokeswoman said the company would pay back the subsidy if the audit found it was ineligible for the funds.

The spokeswoman said the company had experienced significant uncertainty due to the Covid-19 lockdowns and border restrictions. “Unable to launch, and with our manufacturing operations suspended, our ability to generate revenue was impacted in 2020,” she said. (6/13)

Blue Origin Auctions Seat on Bezos Rocket for $28 Million (Source: Bloomberg)
Blue Origin raised $28 million by auctioning a seat to accompany Jeff Bezos on a July 20 rocket ride –- the first time the company will carry people to space. The identity of the winner won’t be revealed for a few weeks. The day’s live auction followed weeks of online bidding with more than 7,000 submissions from people in 159 countries. Bezos’s brother, Mark, will also make the trip. The 11-minute excursion from Van Horn, Texas, will carry as many as six passengers. Blue Origin hasn’t yet revealed who else will be aboard the New Shepard spacecraft. The automated flight will be the company’s 16th but first with humans aboard. (6/12)

Exploring Outer Space in Florida (Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
The space shuttle Atlantis attraction was just one of the high points of my all-too-short day at the visitor complex last year just before it closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Atlantis and many other attractions have reopened but some restrictions remain: face coverings required, temperature screening, social distancing and limited attendance.

The space center takes its name from President John F. Kennedy whose patriotic “We choose to go to the moon” speech in 1962 helped persuade the public to support the Apollo space program. Americans, he insisted, choose to take up challenges such as space exploration “not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” The center’s attractions and exhibits demonstrate just how challenging and just how hard. (6/12)

Watch Out, Vladimir! UK Planning RAF Space Force - Warfare Heads to Final Frontier (Source: Express)
Space will become an "active" theater in future wars and the "beginnings" of a British Royal Space Force are being created, according to the head of UKspace. Will Whitehorn, formerly the president of Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, warned the UK must be able to launch rockets into space from its soil. He urged the Government to provide funding so the first launch from Spaceport Cornwall can take place in 2022.

Mr Whitehorn said: “I did talk quite a long time ago about forming a Royal Space Force and to some extent the beginnings of that are happening. “The RAF, acting on behalf of the three services and the MOD [Ministry of Defence] generally, is going to have Space Command. It’s just opened at High Wycombe, the buildings having a lot of work done at the moment and they’re already staffing it up.” The Government is increasing its focus on space and hopes a number of UK spaceports will begin operation in the coming years.

Its integrated defence review, published earlier this year, focused heavily on the future of space in warfare. Mr Whitehorn argued the role of space is going to change dramatically. He commented: “The military traditionally, particularly in the UK, has seen space as a place to garner information and communicate." (6/12)

Russia To Launch More OneWeb Satellites This Fall If Lunar Mission Faces Delays (Source: UrduPoint)
Russia could launch 36 OneWeb satellites from the Vostochny spaceport in October, if there are delays with the launch of the "Luna-25" lunar mission, a space industry source told Sputnik. "If the launch of 'Luna-25' is moved from October 2021 to May 2022, then on October 7 a Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket will be launched from Vostochny with 36 OneWeb satellites," the source said. This information was confirmed by another source.

Earlier, a space industry source told Sputnik that the next launch of British OneWeb communications satellites using the Russian Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket was planned for July 1, 2021. The first such launch this year was successfully performed in March. It was followed by more successful launches in April and May. Earlier this week, Dmitry Rogozin, the chief of Russian space agency Roscosmos, said that the "Luna-25" spacecraft would be ready by the end of the year and that depending on technical readiness, the lander mission to the moon would either be launched in 2021 or at the beginning of 2022. (6/13)

Pegasus Rocket Deploys DoD Satellite (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
A Northrop Grumman Pegasus rocket dropped from the belly of a carrier jet over the Pacific Ocean early Sunday and streaked into orbit with a small U.S. military space surveillance satellite named Odyssey, completing a successful rapid launch exercise in partnership with a secretive new Space Force special projects unit. The mission’s goal was to demonstrate how the military can develop and launch satellites on faster timescales. The small spacecraft, which a Space Force spokesperson said is named Odyssey, was buttoned up inside the nose cone of a Pegasus XL rocket. (6/13)

Astra CEO Previews Rocket 4.0, Daily Launches (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
In 2020, Astra launched Rocket 3.2 to space. Rocket 3.3 will make Astra’s first flight with a payload on board as early as this summer, launching on a monthly basis through the end of the year. In 2022, Astra is planning to debut Rocket 4.0 in order to launch missions weekly. CEO Chris Kemp ultimately plans daily launches from around the world. “Between Rocket 3.2, which flew a few months ago, and Rocket 3.3, we’ve increased its length by five feet. Because additional efficiencies in the engines mean that we can actually burn more fuel. And so because the diameter was already large enough, we could simply extend its length.”

Following the Rocket 3.3 launch, the equipment will remain in Kodiak Alaska to support more flights while Astra will send another launcher to a new site to support missions beginning later this year. “We were actually only planning on making about eight of these rockets. So we’ve increased the production run for the Rocket 3 series to a dozen. And we’ll be flying those monthly starting in the fourth quarter. And then that monthly rate will ramp up to weekly with the Rocket 4 series starting next year.”

Kemp says reusability will not play a part at Astra. “The way to optimize the economics of a high-volume, low-cost system like the one that we’re building is to not attempt to reuse the system...If it costs millions of dollars to make the rocket, you totally want to reuse it, and so I can see why companies like Rocket Lab — when they have a Ferrari, carbon fiber, expensive thing — totally don’t want to throw that away...But for Astra, where our target is to make the entire rocket for a couple hundred thousand dollars, it just doesn’t make any sense for us...Virgin Orbit, with a vehicle that they sell for $12 million. That’s three times more expensive. Carbon fiber. You need to deploy a 747 every time you fly it. With twelve shipping containers behind it. That’s our competitor.” (6/12)

Falcon 9 Completes Static Fire Test, Targets Thursday Launch of GPS III-05 (Source: America Space)
SpaceX is gearing up for its third mission of June, following Saturday’s successful Static Fire Test of the once-flown B1062 core stage at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. Liftoff of the veteran Falcon 9—in what promises to be SpaceX’s fourth consecutive month of 2021 to see at least three launches—is targeted to occur at 12:09 p.m. EDT Thursday. Primary payload is the fifth Block III Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite for the U.S. Space Force. (6/12)