June 4, 2021

United Airlines Unveils Plan to Revive Supersonic Jet Travel (Source: AFP)
United Airlines announced plans Thursday to buy 15 planes from airline startup Boom Supersonic in a move that could revive the high-speed form of air travel. Under the commercial agreement, United would purchase Boom's "Overture" aircraft once the planes meet "United's demanding safety, operating and sustainability requirements" with an aim to start passenger travel in 2029, the companies said in a joint press release.

The agreement covers 15 planes and includes an option for United to obtain another 35 aircraft. The companies did not disclose financial terms. Founded in 2014, Denver-based Boom Supersonic said it is also working with the United States Air Force on a military version of the Overture. (6/3)

Virgin Galactic Announces Another Science Mission (Source: Ars Technica)
Virgin Galactic revealed a new contract Thursday for human-tended research aboard its suborbital spacecraft, VSS Unity. The company said that Kellie Gerardi, a researcher and science communicator, would conduct two experiments during an upcoming flight that could happen as early as 2022, Ars reports.

More regular astronauts ahead ... The announcement is notable because it suggests there may be a viable business for Virgin in this kind of microgravity research. Virgin's announcement also suggests that "regular" people may one day be able to go into space as more companies start flying there. (6/4)

Firefly Expanding in Texas (Source: Ars Technica)
Firefly plans expansion north of Austin. The launch company will purchase a 40,000 square foot space in Cedar Park, a major suburb about 15 miles northwest of the Texas capital, where it is already based. The agreement was approved by Cedar Park and "allows Firefly to solidify their roots in the community," according to a news release.

A jobs bonanza ... The release also states that the expansion will bring "more than" 680 new jobs to the Cedar Park area, with an average salary of $90,000. This is probably related to the $93 million NASA contract recently awarded to Firefly to deliver its "Blue Ghost" lander to the Moon in 2023. (6/4)

South Korean Rocket Moving Toward October Launch (Source: Ars Technica)
A qualification model of the Korea Aerospace Research Institute's first native-built rocket, the "Nuri" or KSLV-II vehicle, has been rolled to the launch pad at Naro Space Center in Goheung, one of the southernmost parts of South Korea. The country is seeking to launch a flight version of the rocket, with a dummy payload, in October of this year, The Register reports.

First launch in eight years ... If this mission goes well, the space agency plans to use Nuri to launch a 200 kg payload in May 2022. South Korea flew a rocket known as KSLV-1, which placed a satellite into low Earth orbit, in 2013. However, its first stage was built in Russia. South Korea also hopes to launch a lunar orbiter later next year. (6/4)

Dawn Aerospace Receives "Significant" Funding for Spaceplane (Source: Ars Technica)
The New Zealand spaceplane startup said the funding came from the country's largest tech investment firm, Movac. The amount, which remains confidential, comes from Movac's quarter-billion dollar multistage technology fund, Stuff.co reports. Movac partner Mark Stuart described Dawn's technology and level of ambition as "really compelling."

Orbit, eventually ... Dawn Aerospace is developing a 4.8-meter-long spaceplane, called Mk-II Aurora, capable of suborbital flights to an altitude above 100 km. The goal is for the small plane to fly a suborbital trajectory, land on a runway, and fly again after being refueled. Customers for the Mk-II service are expected to include weather agencies, government entities, and startups. A future iteration, Mk-III, will be capable of putting about 100 kg into low Earth orbit. (6/4)

Environmental Concerns Raised Over Aussie Launch Site (Source: Ars Technica)
A small Australian company, Southern Launch, is seeking to develop a couple of launch sites to polar orbits from the country's rugged southern coast. However, environmentalists are starting to raise concerns about these small-rocket launches, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reports.

Protected areas ... "It's a really special conservation area," said Julia Peacock, an official with the Nature Conservation Society of South Australia. "It's actually specifically protected under environment legislation that's called a heritage agreement, which means a private landholder agreement to protect that area, so we would really like to see that agreement honored." An environmental impact statement is required before any construction begins. (6/4)

Back-Channel Space Cooperation with China (Source: Politico)
U.S. law bars NASA from working with China’s space industry but academics and nongovernmental organizations from the erstwhile competitors are steadily increasing their engagement. And they are eying stepping it up a notch this fall, planning focused, elevated, and difficult discussions between space industry stakeholders in both countries via so-called “Track II” back channel diplomacy, a pair of the American organizers tells us.

The informal contacts have been taking place since April 2019 in the form of three workshops, a hybrid of in-person and online, to discuss broad topics of common interest and engage in Q&A. The sessions have also included government observers from the U.S. embassy in Beijing. But the two sides are now eyeing this fall for a more robust engagement, according to Ian Christensen, director of private sector programs at the Secure World Foundation, and Rob Ronci, executive director of the Caelus Foundation.

“Everything up until now has been a pretty rapid but steady building up of the relationship and how the process works,” said Christensen. “I’d say it’s moving to more systematic discussion." As for the U.S. government side, he said that State Department officials have been briefed on the developments, and that "they are aware of our intent to move in that direction." The State Department did not respond to a request to comment. (6/4)

Revived OTA Could Counter "Luddite Streak" in Congress (Source: Politico)
Anyone remember the Office of Technology Assessment, the office in Congress that used to compile scientific and technical analysis but was shut down in 1995 after the GOP sweep of both houses of Congress? Could it be time to revive it? Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) seems to think so. “There's a Luddite streak in the American character, which doesn't skip Congress, sadly,” he said. “However, I think it’s pretty clear that as technologically dependent as we were in 1995, we are much more so. Bringing back the Office of Technology Assessment would be a great idea." (6/4)

SpaceX Launches Supplies, Experiments, Equipment to ISS (Source: Space News)
A Dragon cargo spacecraft is on its way to the International Space Station after a launch Thursday. A Falcon 9 lifted off at 1:29 p.m. Eastern and placed the CRS-22 Dragon spacecraft into orbit 12 minutes later. The rocket's first stage, making its first flight, landed on a droneship in the Atlantic.

The Dragon is carrying more than 3,000 kilograms of cargo, ranging from experiments to a pair of solar panels to be installed on the station later this month. The spacecraft is scheduled to dock with the ISS around 5 a.m. Eastern Saturday. SpaceX, meanwhile, is gearing up for another Falcon 9 launch, of the SXM-8 satellite radio spacecraft, at 12:29 a.m. Eastern Sunday from Cape Canaveral. (6/4)

Climavision Raises $100M for Weather Venture (Source: Space News)
A startup has raised $100 million to use satellite and terrestrial data to improve weather forecasts. Climavision emerged from stealth mode this week after raising $100 million from private equity firm TPG. It has an exclusive agreement to use GeoOptics' radio occultation satellites to improve the accuracy of its forecasts for agriculture, insurance, renewable energy and other markets, combining the satellite data with a network of weather radars it plans to build. (6/4)

LeoLabs Raises $65M for Tracking Radars (Source: Space News)
LeoLabs announced a $65 million Series B round Thursday to scale up its network of tracking radars. LeoLabs said the funding round, led by venture capital firms Insight Partners and Velvet Sea Ventures, will allow it to build a series of radar stations around the world used to track satellites and debris. The funding will also support the development of new analytics products using that radar data. (6/4)

Bill Would Classify Spacecraft, Launcheers, Spaceports as Critical Infrastructure (Source: Space News)
A bill to be introduced in the House would classify space as critical infrastructure. The bill, sponsored by Reps. Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Ken Calvert (R-CA), would designate spacecraft and launch vehicles, as well as launch sites and other facilities, as critical infrastructure alongside 16 other sectors of the economy. The Department of Homeland Security and other agencies would be charged with developing guidelines to protect that infrastructure. (6/4)
 
Nelson Talks With Rogozin (Source: Space News)
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson met virtually with his Russian counterpart. Nelson said earlier this week he would talk with Dmitry Rogozin, head of Roscosmos, on issues such as Russia's future on the ISS. Russian officials earlier this year suggested they could pull out of the ISS partnership as soon as the mid-2020s as they develop their own national space station. Nelson described as "concerning" growing cooperation between Russia and China in space exploration, including plans to establish an international lunar research station. Rogozin, in an interview with Russian media Thursday, said the high cost of maintaining the aging ISS was a factor in its long-term plan to exit the ISS, but he did not set a date for doing so. (6/4)

How Congress Wrecked Its Own Science Bill (Source: Vox)
Earlier this year, it looked like Congress would do the unthinkable: pass a truly big, bipartisan bill. The legislation would provide a huge funding boost to American science research — framed as a way to outcompete China. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) led the charge, and it looked like the bill would pass with support from both parties. But as the legislation worked through the Senate process, it was watered down, reducing how much new funding would go to research. Then last week, a vote on the bill was delayed, as Republicans threatened to kill the legislation altogether.

To put it another way: A bill meant to show the US could own China instead proved how dysfunctional the American political system is. The bill, renamed the US Innovation and Competition Act as it grew in scope, was originally meant to provide a $100 billion boost to NSF research. The original bill wasn’t perfect. The $100 billion would go to a new NSF technology directorate. Some advocates worried that money would warp NSF’s culture, shifting focus from basic research to the applied sciences work of the new directorate.

Some also criticized the bill for not reforming how science funding works instead of merely increasing it. Still, it was a promising start — a level of investment into science that advocates had wanted for years. But the bill was dramatically changed in committees. A lot of loosely related pieces were added. Most importantly, the $100 billion was effectively cut down: The Senate rolled NSF’s existing funding into the $100 billion, cutting the amount of actual new funding by about half, with a 30 percent boost for the agency. (6/4)

NOAA Constellation for More Than Weather (Source: Space News)
Future NOAA weather satellites could do more than just monitor the weather. A next-generation constellation of geostationary satellites, scheduled to begin launching in 2032, is expected to carry instruments to monitor coastal ocean conditions and air quality. Those payloads would include the first hyperspectral instrument flown in GEO, which could provide significant additional data to feed into weather forecasting models. That future GEO-XO system would include a third satellite over the central United States, in addition to satellites currently over the eastern and western parts of the country. (6/4)

California Group Plans to Boost Space Business Around Vandenberg (Source: KCBX)
A California group released a new plan to build up commercial space activity at Vandenberg Space Force Base. The report by the Regional Economic Action Coalition set goals of attracting more businesses to the Central Coast region of California around Vandenberg as well as investing in infrastructure and building up a "space identity" for the region. Vandenberg currently has an economic impact of $4.5 billion a year in the region, which could grow by a third in 2030 if the area does attract more commercial space businesses. (6/3)

Engineers Try Something New to Clean Mars Lander's Solar Panels (Source: NASA JPL)
Engineers took an unusual approach to cleaning the solar panels on NASA's InSight Mars lander. After past efforts to clear dust accumulating on the panels failed, engineers used the spacecraft's robotic arm to pick up sand and pour it near the panels. Wind caused some particles to hit the panels, which then bounced off, in the process taking with it some of the dust on the panels. Controllers saw an "instantaneous bump" in spacecraft power as a result. That approach will provide some margin to the spacecraft's power supply, which had diminished because of the accumulating dust and led controllers to prepare to temporarily turn off instruments. (6/3)

Pioneer Patti Grace Smith Wins 2021 Lifetime Space Achievement Award (Source: Space Foundation)
The Space Foundation has selected Patti Grace Smith for the 2021 General James E. Hill Lifetime Space Achievement Award — the highest honor bestowed by the organization. As a public servant, Ms. Smith was a champion of private space travel whose regulatory work, leadership and advocacy helped open new worlds of opportunity for the exploration and development of space. Ms. Smith passed away in 2016. The Patti Grace Smith Fellowship was established in 2020 to provide jobs, mentorship and community for black undergraduates seeking aerospace careers.

Her background includes posts in the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, U.S. Department of Defense, and Federal Communications Commission (FCC), where she began working in aerospace with an increasing interest in the field of satellite communications. She eventually moved to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DoT) and joined the Office of Commercial Space Transportation, rising to the position of chief of staff. With a move from the DoT into the FAA in 1995, she was soon named the head of that office and an associate administrator of the FAA. (6/2)

With Over 350 Private Space Companies, India in Fifth Place Globally (Source: Times of India)
Amid all the pandemic gloom, good news emerging from India’s space tech sector is that the number of private firms — more than 350 — is already more than Japan, China and Russia, putting India in fifth place globally. Of the 10,000-odd firms analysed as part of a global report that projects the space tech economy to touch $500 billion by 2025, over 5,500 are in the US, followed by the UK, Canada and Germany. (6/3)

Intelsat and SES Vacate C-Band Spectrum (Source: Space News)
Satellite operators Intelsat and SES met a June 1 internal deadline to clear C-band spectrum. The companies said they moved customers from the lower 120 megahertz of their current C-band spectrum allocations to higher parts of the band, and are now working to install filters on ground antennas. The two operators will receive more than $2 billion in incentive payments from the FCC if they hand over that 120 megahertz of spectrum by Dec. 5 so that it can be used for 5G terrestrial services. (6/3)

DoD and General Atomics to Test Optical Comm with Cubesats (Source: Space News)
The Pentagon's Space Development Agency (SDA) will test optical communications using a pair of cubesats launching later this month. The two cubesats, built by General Atomics, are on the manifest for SpaceX's Transporter-2 dedicated rideshare mission that will launch later this month. SDA will use these satellites to test optical crosslinks as well as communication between satellites and a Reaper drone made by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems. (6/3)

Space Force Broadens Commercial Services Office Mandate (Source: Air Force Times)
The Space Force plans to broaden the mandate of an office handling commercial communications services. Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. David Thompson said at a conference Wednesday that an office within the new Space Systems Command that currently manages commercial satellite communications will also oversee other commercial services, like imagery. That transition will take place once the command, which replaces the Space and Missile Systems Center, is formally established later this summer. (6/3)

Data Suggest Satellites are Underestimating Global Warming (Source: Space.com)
Satellites may be underestimating the severity of global warming. Research at Lawrence Livermore National Lab found that satellite measurements of temperature and moisture of the troposphere diverged from well-defined rules not seen with other data sets. What's causing that divergence is not clear, but scientists said it suggests that satellite data may be underestimating the amount of warming in the lower atmosphere. (6/3)

ExoTerra SBIR Project a Collaboration with Virgin Orbit (Source: Virgin Orbit)
NASA has awarded Colorado-based ExoTerra Resource a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award for the firm’s solar electric propulsion upper stage, currently under development in partnership with California-based Virgin Orbit. The upper stage will be able to deliver 150 kg of payload to cis-lunar orbit and 180 kg to Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO), as well as enable exciting interplanetary missions — opening up a path to space beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO) for small satellites. (6/3)

Data Show Starlink Satellites Increasingly Involved in Close-Call Collision Events (Source: Quartz)
The US isn’t keeping up with the proliferation of new spacecraft in low-earth orbit, and the potential consequences are serious. Megaconstellations, like those developed by SpaceX and OneWeb, will add tens of thousands of new satellites to the environment around the planet. University of Southampton professor Hugh Lewis used data from the Center for Space Standards & Innovation to visualize how often satellites are expected to pass by each other, based on their present positions.

Satellite operators become concerned when their satellites are expected to pass within a kilometer of another spacecraft, given the uncertainty involved in predicting their movement. The data show a significant escalation in close conjunctions involving satellites in the new megaconstellations. In 2019, for example, SpaceX’s Starlink satellites were involved in about 1% of all satellite conjunctions within 1 kilometer; today, the constellation is involved in about 10% of those close passes—after you exclude close passes among Starlink spacecraft. (6/3)

Small Launchers Expect Growth, Despite Forecasts (Source: Space News)
Small launch companies say they expect growing demand for their vehicles despite forecasts that are more pessimistic. At a conference Wednesday, executives of launch vehicle companies say the problem with the industry is not a lack of demand but instead a shortage of operational vehicles as many small launchers are still in development. They argued that there is huge demand from smallsat developers, although some cautioned that the demand may shift more towards medium-class launchers. (6/3)

Air Force Budget Includes Money for Point-To-Point Launches (Source: Space News)
The Air Force wants to continue studying the use of rockets to provide point-to-point cargo delivery. The service's fiscal year 2022 budget proposal requests $47.9 million for a "rocket cargo" project, which will soon be formally called the Vanguard project. The rocket cargo program would continue work that started last year when the Air Force signed agreements with SpaceX and Exploration Architecture Corporation to study concepts for rapid transportation through space. The Air Force allocated $9.7 million in 2021 for that project, and the 2022 request would fund prototypes to be used in field experiments and tests in simulated environments. (6/3)
 
China Launches Weather Satellite (Source: Space News)
China launched a weather satellite Wednesday. A Long March 3B lifted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 12:17 p.m. Eastern and placed the Fengyun-4B satellite into a geostationary transfer orbit. The 5,400-kilogram satellite will be used for weather analysis and forecasting, and environmental and disaster monitoring, and will operate from 123.5 degrees east in GEO. (6/3)

Accountability for Trashing Earth Orbit (Source: Space Daily)
"One of the problems with space junk is the lack of accountability. It is difficult for these agencies and companies to admit their satellite has failed - which makes collision with debris inescapable', says Dr Cheong. "As for tiny undetectable debris, if we don't know it's up there, we can't account for it in future space missions. This increases the chances of future collision." (6/3)

Worms on a Mission to Research Muscle Loss in Space (Source: Space Daily)
Hundreds of tiny worms are being flown to the International Space Station (ISS) as part of an experiment to understand more about human muscle loss and how to prevent it. Led by scientists from Nottingham and Exeter University, with hardware designed by Oxford-based Kayser Space, a research team aims to determine the causes of muscle changes during spaceflight and find ways to mitigate these biological changes. (6/3)

UK Government Fund Will Support New Ideas for Cleaning Up Space (Source: Space Daily)
Space firms are being invited to apply for a share of up to 800,000 pounds in funding from the UK Space Agency to develop ideas for space debris removal missions. The UK Space Agency is looking to fund two active debris removal feasibility studies through its Space Surveillance and Tracking (SST) program, which aims to make space safer and more sustainable. The feasibility studies will develop a debris removal mission concept and system design. The deadline for applications is the 13 July 2021 and the opportunity is open to businesses, non-profits and academics.

This is the latest investment the UK Space Agency is making in cleaning up space. In 2020 it awarded seven UK companies a share of over 1 million pounds to help track debris in space. It also recently awarded 2.5m pounds to Astroscale to develop the technology to remove communication satellites. The UK is also the leading contributor to the European Space Agency's Space Safety programme which provides collaboration and funding opportunities for UK scientists and industry. (6/3)