June 14, 2021

India’s Satellite Launch Customer Base Shrinking Considerably (Source: Financial Express)
The Covid-19 pandemic has put India’s space activities into suspension. PM Narendra Modi’s administration wisely carried out much-needed space reforms in May 2020. A year later, the future of India’s private space industry looks bright, with space start-ups raising nearly US$ 30 million. But ISRO’s space launch activities have come to a halt. To maximize the impact of reforms, the government must end hibernation of the space launch sector.

The competition is stiff; during the pandemic, countries like Iran carried out their first-ever space launches on indigenous launch vehicles. Monaco, Slovenia, Guatemala, Myanmar, Tunisia, Moldova, and Paraguay had their first satellite launches via commercial launch contracts. In comparison, India’s space activities slowed. India’s global share in the total space launches continues to be low at 1.8%. (6/14)

New Virginia Spaceport Head Seeks to Increase Launch Activity (Source: Space News)
The new head of Virginia’s commercial spaceport on Wallops Island says he wants to increase launch activity at the site, while acknowledging that there are limits as to how big it can grow. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) announced June 10 that Roosevelt “Ted” Mercer Jr., a retired Air Force major general, will be the next chief executive and executive director of the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority, which operates the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at Wallops Island.

Mercer will take over Aug. 1 when the current head of the authority, Dale Nash, retires. MARS hosts only a few orbital launches a year currently. Northrop Grumman conducts an average of two Antares launches a year from Pad 0-A, sending Cygnus cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station. Neighboring Pad 0-B hosts occasional launches of Northrop Grumman Minotaur rockets, including a Minotaur 1 launch of a National Reconnaissance Office mission scheduled for June 15.

Mercer said at the briefing that growing the spaceport’s launch business was a top priority, second only to looking out for the needs of spaceport personnel. “One of the cleanest ways we can begin to grow this business, without doing much in terms of infrastructure, is simply get aggressive about getting out and bringing more customers to our launch port and to our range,” he said. (6/13)

When it Comes To The Urgent Issue Of Space Congestion, U.S. Space Command Is Little More Than A Weather Forecaster (Source: Forbes)
Space congestion and space junk are becoming a serious global problem and a potential flashpoint for international conflict. But publicly at least, America’s defense establishment in general and U.S. Space Command in particular can do little about it. Like NOAA’s National Hurricane Center, SPACECOM can’t prevent a storm — they can just tell us when its coming.

A recent article detailing the unabated proliferation of space junk and low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites called the problem “a Space Age tragedy of the commons.” Fifty-plus years of launching objects into space at an ever-increasing pace is creating a near-Earth traffic jam of flotsam and jetsam from old space vehicles, scattered debris from collisions, and a dense mixture of just-launched and dying satellites.

While the space congestion-space junk problem is widely recognized (and widely reported), solutions don’t appear to be at hand. The technology to efficiently remove debris (most of which is small) from orbit is not readily being examined by the few private firms experimenting with on-orbit removal technology. (6/13)

General Atomics UAS to Demo Satellite Laser Link (Source: Sen. Hoeven)
Senator John Hoeven (R-ND) announced a $6 million award from the Space Development Agency (SDA) to General Atomics to demonstrate satellite to MQ-9 Reaper laser communications. Currently, satellite communications rely on radio frequencies, which require significant amounts of power and are vulnerable to interception and jamming. By utilizing laser communications, this project will enable transmissions between the satellites and unmanned aircraft to use less power and be more secure against detection and interference. (6/10)

A New Era of Spaceflight? Exciting Advances in Rocket Propulsion (Source: SciTech Daily)
The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) has recently commissioned three private companies, Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin and General Atomics, to develop nuclear fission thermal rockets for use in lunar orbit. Such a development, if flown, could usher in a new era of spaceflight. That said, it is only one of several exciting avenues in rocket propulsion. Here are some others. (6/11)

NASA Approves Further Development of Asteroid Hunter (Source: Space Daily)
NEO Surveyor is a new mission proposal designed to discover and characterize most of the potentially hazardous asteroids that are near the Earth.
NASA has approved the Near-Earth Object Surveyor space telescope (NEO Surveyor) to move to the next phase of mission development after a successful mission review, authorizing the mission to move forward into Preliminary Design (known as Key Decision Point-B).

The infrared space telescope is designed to help advance NASA's planetary defense efforts by expediting our ability to discover and characterize most of the potentially hazardous asteroids and comets that come within 30 million miles of Earth's orbit, collectively known as near-earth objects, or NEOs. (6/14)

Seraphim Capital Bundles Space Startup Investments (Source: Space News)
Seraphim Capital announced Friday it is bundling its stakes in space startups into an investment trust that will trade publicly. The Seraphim Space Investment Trust will eventually comprise bets in 19 international startups, with an IPO planned on the London Stock Exchange. Seaphim says the IPO will open up space beyond billionaire entrepreneurs and other private investors. Four of the 19 companies — Arqit, D-Orbit, Iceye and Spire — will be left out of the fund initially because, according to Seraphim, they are currently subject to corporate activity that may have a material impact on the value of these investments. Both Arqit and Spire are in the process of going public through SPAC mergers. (6/14)

G7 Nations Support Space Sustainability, Endorsing UN Guidelines (Source: UK Space Agency)
The G7 nations backed the sustainable use of space. In a joint statement released Sunday at the end of the summit, the countries said they recognized "the growing hazard of space debris and increasing congestion in Earth's orbit." The statement endorsed the UN's Long Term Sustainability Guidelines and also backed both government and commercial efforts for orbital debris removal and on-orbit servicing of satellites. (6/14)

China Plans Missions to Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Asteroids (Source: Xinhua)
The China National Space Administration outlined its plans Saturday for upcoming exploration missions. Those plans include two more lunar lander missions, Chang'e-6 and 7, scheduled for launch in the next five years. An asteroid sample return mission is scheduled for launch in 2025, with a Mars sample return mission and a Jupiter mission projected to launch by 2030. (6/14)

Cosmonaut Krikalev 'Demoted' After Opposing ISS Filmmaking (Source: Times of London)
A former cosmonaut has been demoted from a high-ranking position in Roscosmos. Sergei Krikalev, who had been executive director for piloted spaceflights, leading Roscosmos' human spaceflight program, was recently assigned to be a "special adviser" to the director general of Roscosmos, a move widely seen as a demotion. Krikalev told a Russian publication that he was reassigned because of his opposition to filming a movie on the ISS later this year, which involves flying the movie's director and lead actress there. (6/14)

A New Animation Shows 'A Day Without Space' (Source: Space Daily)
What would happen if all the satellites orbiting Earth stopped working? In short, global chaos would ensue. "Satellites have long been an integral part of our day-to-day lives. The services they provide are indispensable for mobility on land, at sea and in the air, for all power and communications networks, for the international systems used for financial transactions, global weather forecasting and the energy transition. If these satellites were to stop working, our modern world would be set back decades in a matter of seconds," says DLR's Walther Pelzer. Click here. (6/14)

ISS National Lab to Host Session at World Stem Cell Summit (Source: Space Daily)
The ISS U.S. National Laboratory will host a panel of industry experts on the impacts of health, aging, and human survival research onboard the orbiting laboratory at the World Stem Cell Summit. This annual event brings together noted science, industry and policy experts in regenerative medicine. It also provides multiple forums to discuss the impacts of current research on the ISS and future opportunities in space that promise to accelerate the translation of cell-based therapeutics for patients on Earth. The summit is taking place virtually from Wednesday, June 16, through Friday, June 18. (6/14)