August 27, 2021

Blue Origin New Shepard Launches Again, Testing NASA Moon Landing Equipment (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Blue Origin sent up its New Shepard rocket again, except this one didn’t have a billionaire on board. The uncrewed flight from the company’s West Texas launch facility is instead dedicated to flying science and research payloads to space and back including NASA lunar landing technology for a second time on the exterior of the booster. The rocket lifted off just after 10:30 a.m. EDT.

The NASA technology attached includes the Navigation Doppler Lidar and Descent Landing Computer, which “would work together to determine a spacecraft’s location and speed as it approaches the surface of the moon,” according to a press released from Blue Origin. “The technologies could allow future missions — both crewed and robotic — to target landing sites that weren’t possible during the Apollo missions, such as regions with varied terrain near craters.”

Among other experiments is a reflight of a payload from Kennedy Space Center called the Orbital Syngas / Commodity Augmentation Reactor, or OSCAR, which looks to “reuse and repurpose common spaceflight waste products by using heat and an oxygen supply stage to transform the trash into useful resources, such as water and propellant.” The mission once again passed 100 km, which is known as the Karman line, the altitude that is internationally recognized as having made it into space. (8/26)

White House to Revise Charter and Membership of Space Council Advisory Group (Source: Space News)
The Biden administration plans to revise both the charter and the membership of the National Space Council’s advisory group to better reflect its priorities. Chirag Parikh said the administration would update the Users’ Advisory Group (UAG) to ensure it offers the council the views of the commercial space sector. Parikh said a formal nomination process for UAG positions would be released shortly but didn’t otherwise offer a schedule for either selecting new members of the group or revising its charter. (8/26)

ESA Pursuing European Space Summit to Discuss New Flagship Space Projects (Source: Space News)
The head of the European Space Agency says plans are moving forward to host a European space summit early next year to discuss proposals for new major space initiatives. Josef Aschbacher said that summit, which he proposed shortly after becoming ESA director general in March, is expected to take place by next spring. France will host the event as the country will have both the co-presidency of ESA as well as the presidency of the European Union in the first half of 2022.

“France is in a very good position to invite people to and host such a summit,” he said. The summit would likely take place before the French presidential elections in April. The summit would host ministers from ESA and EU member states, and possibly some heads of state as well. “This is a very important moment where, I hope, we have a discussion on the ambition of Europe in space,” he said. (8/26)

Global Microelectronic Shortages Trickle Down to Military Satellite Programs (Source: Space News)
Defense Department satellite programs are feeling the effects of the widespread microchip shortage that has stymied carmakers and consumer electronic manufacturers. DARPA is hoping to launch as many as 12 satellites into low Earth orbit next year for the Blackjack program, but supply shortages are creating schedule risk for the military space network demonstration. (8/26)

University of Zurich and Airbus Grow Miniature Human Tissue on the International Space Station (Source: Space Daily)
With the next supply flight to the International Space Station (ISS), the Space Hub of the University of Zurich (UZH) and Airbus Defence and Space are bringing an experiment into space, which is intended to further advance the industrial production of human tissue in zero-gravity conditions. With this step, space could become a workshop for producing miniature human tissue for terrestrial use in research and medicine. Initial preparatory tests on the ISS 18 months ago were successful.

The process for the joint "3D Organoids in Space" project comes from Zurich scientists Oliver Ullrich and Cora Thiel, pioneers in research on how gravity influences human cells. Together with Airbus, they have developed the process to project maturity. The Airbus Innovations team led by project manager Julian Raatschen is developing the hardware and providing access to the ISS. (8/27)

Amazon Calls on FCC to Reject SpaceX’s Amended Second-Gen Starlink Plan (Source: Space News)
Amazon is taking aim at SpaceX's second-generation Starlink system. In an FCC filing this week, Amazon argued that a revised plan SpaceX recently submitted for nearly 30,000 satellites should be dismissed as too speculative. SpaceX offered two options, one launched on its new Starship vehicle and the other on its existing Falcon 9. Amazon said filing for two doubles the technical effort that operators face to review interference and orbital debris concerns. Amazon is developing its own broadband constellation, Project Kuiper. (8/27)

SpaceX Starlink Satellites Upgrade to Laser Links (Source: Space News)
SpaceX says all future Starlink satellites will have laser inter-satellite links. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said at this week's Space Symposium that its decision to add laser crosslinks, enabling the satellites to communicate with each other to reduce their reliance on ground stations, is "why we have been struggling" to launch a Starlink mission since June 30. Such links can reduce the number of ground stations needed and can also lower latency because they reduce the number of hops between satellites and ground stations. Shotwell said Starlink launches should resume in about three weeks. (8/27)

Germany's Mynaric Unveils Laser Terminals for Satellites (Source: Space News)
German antenna maker Mynaric unveiled a new optical satellite terminal amid its push into the U.S laser communications market. The CONDOR Mk3 antenna adds a smaller, lighter and low-power option to Mynaric's portfolio, with configurable data rate speeds of between 100 megabits per second to 100 gigabits per second. The terminal is designed to comply with standards for the up to 150 operational satellites that the Pentagon's Space Development Agency (SDA) plans to order early next year. Mynaric is positioning its products for the SDA amid wider expansion plans for the U.S. market, including listing its shares on an American exchange. (8/27)

Investment in Chinese Space Startups Slows (Source: Space News)
Investment in Chinese space companies appears to be slowing. The number of funding rounds fell from a high of 62 in 2018 to 42 in 2020 even as total investment grew to nearly $1.5 billion in 2020, according to the Chinese Business Network. So far in 2021, both investment rounds and amounts raised appear to be down. It's unclear what causing the decline, but upcoming tests and launches by several companies could spur more investment in the second half of the year. (8/27)

BlackSky Using AI and Satellite Imagery to Analyze Global Supply Chains (Source: Space News)
Satellite data is providing insights on supply chain problems. Geospatial intelligence company BlackSky uses artificial intelligence to fuse the imagery it gets from imaging satellites with other data streams. It's used that technology to monitor supply chain issues globally, and a company executive says it's been able to predict an uptick in the automotive markets, which have been in a slump amid a shortage of semiconductors. (8/27)

ULA Halts Atlas 5 Sales Ahead of Vulcan Availability (Source: The Verge)
United Launch Alliance is no longer selling the Atlas 5. ULA CEO Tory Bruno said that the company has 29 Atlas 5 missions remaining on its manifest through the mid-2020s, and will no longer offer the vehicle to new customers. Those remaining missions are for a mix of NASA, national security and commercial customers. By the mid-2020s ULA will be exclusively launching its new Vulcan Centaur rocket. (8/27)

Webb Telescope Readies for Trip to French Guiana Spaceport (Source: NASA)
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is getting ready to ship to its launch site. NASA said Thursday the spacecraft has completed its final tests and is being prepared to ship from Southern California to French Guiana, where it will launch on an Ariane 5. NASA and ESA have not announced a launch date for JWST, but it's expected to be no earlier than late November. (8/27)

Companies Vying to Produce India's PSLV Rocket (Source: Economic Times)
Three companies are bidding on producing India's PSLV rocket. The Indian space agency ISRO said it received three bids on a proposal to take over production of the rocket as part of a broader privatization effort in India's space program. ISRO expects to select the winning company by the end of the year. (8/27)

How the Billionaire Space Race Benefits Us All (Source: AEI)
Many felt that in the midst of a pandemic, a space race among some of the world’s richest men was a hedonistic waste of resources. This knee-jerk reaction is shortsighted. The new space race represents far more than a billionaire vanity project. And while it’s unclear which titan will win, it’s obvious who will ultimately benefit: mankind.

Importantly, these projects are not simply interstellar hot rods for billionaires with money to burn. Like any good businessman, Branson, Bezos, and Musk hope to profit. Their private gains are likely to be dwarfed by the public benefits facilitated by this new space race. While the original space race sparked technological breakthroughs that improved our lives beyond mere lunar travel, the new space race is likely to generate a similar multiplier effect. These companies have already dramatically reduced space launch payload costs. (8/26)

Virgin Orbit and SwRI Plan Missions Together (Source: Virgin Orbit)
Virgin Orbit has signed an agreement establishing a new collaboration with the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI). Under the terms of the agreement, Virgin Orbit and SwRI will explore multiple specialized mission opportunities using the LauncherOne system coupled with SwRI’s deep expertise in space mission development. Additionally, the two organizations will explore potential opportunities for joint manufacturing of SwRI’s space platforms and delivery of space services to Virgin Orbit’s customers. (8/26)

UMG Seems to Think it Copyrighted the Moon (Source: PetaPixel)
British filmmaker Philip Bloom recently filmed the Moon during sunset Skiathos in Greece. After sharing it on social media, he was surprised when the video was blocked due to a claim by Universal Music Group, which claimed copyright to the generic shots of the Moon. Soon after the video was uploaded, Bloom was met with a notice stating: “Your video is blocked and can’t be viewed in 249 locations.” The reason for the block? A copyright infringement claim by Universal Music Group, the global music corporation. The notice informed Bloom that his “video matches 30 seconds of video owned by UMG.” (8/26)

NASA Moon Rocket Flight Software Readied for Artemis I Launch (Source: NASA)
As crews at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida assemble the Moon rocket for the Artemis I mission, teams have installed the flight software that will help steer, fly, track, and guide the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket during launch and ascent to space. Engineers loaded the flight software onto the rocket on Aug. 6 after powering up the core stage that contains the flight computers for the first time since stacking began.

With the software installed, the engineers that developed the flight software at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, are supporting final checkouts and completing tests to certify the software for the mission. (8/27)

Three SPAC IPOs Tap Public Markets For $410M Combined (Source: Law360)
Three blank-check companies, including one targeting minority-controlled businesses, went public Thursday after pricing initial public offerings that raised a combined $410 million to fund future acquisitions. The trio add to a steady spate of blank-check IPOs, which continue to flood public markets this summer albeit at a more restrained pace compared with early 2021. Also known as special-purpose acquisition companies, blank-check companies raise money in IPOs in order to acquire a private business and take it public.

Minority Equality Opportunities Acquisition Inc., which hopes to acquire a minority owner-controlled business, raised $110 million by offering 11 million units at $10 a unit. Cascadia Acquisition Corp. also went public Thursday, raising $150 million each by offering 15 million units at $10 per unit. Cascadia said it is targeting a company that specializes in advanced technologies with potential to "transform the physical, digital and biological worlds." Target industries could include artificial intelligence, gene sequencing or blockchain.

Springwater Special Situations, backed by European investment firm Springwater Capital, raised $150 million by offering 15 million units at $10 a unit. The company said it will pursue an acquisition in industries well understood by its management, which could include media, engineering, food and beverages, aerospace, software, hospitality, retail, oil and gas, precious metals, and environmental services. (8/26)