August 30, 2021

Space Force Expects Blue Origin's BE-4 Engine to be Ready for Vulcan This Year (Source: Space News)
The head of the U.S. Space Force launch enterprise said that while delays in the development of the BE-4 engine are "unfortunate," the engine should be ready for ULA's Vulcan Centaur by the end of the year. Col. Robert Bongiovi said that Blue Origin has suffered delays in BE-4 testing for a "multitude of reasons, some of them reasonable for development programs, some of them not as reasonable," although he did not go into details. The engine, while running late, is performing well in tests, and Bongiovi said his focus is on the rest of the engine's development and getting Vulcan ready for its first launch next year. [SpaceNews]

Landsat Launch Delayed at Vandenberg With Liquid Oxygen Shortage (Source: Noozhawk)
The launch of the next Landsat satellite will be delayed at least a week because of liquid oxygen supply chain problems.The Atlas 5 launch of Landsat 9, which had been scheduled for Sept. 16 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, is now scheduled for no earlier than Sept. 23. NASA said Friday the delay is because the company that supplies liquid nitrogen to Vandenberg has focused on liquid oxygen deliveries to hospitals. Launch industry executives warned last week that demands for liquid oxygen, used by hospitals for ventilators, could impact their launch schedules. [Noozhawk]

Dragonfly Shifts to Microsatellite Development (Source: Space News)
Dragonfly Aerospace is moving up from building cameras to manufacturing microsatellites. The South African company, purchased by Ukrainian entrepreneur Max Polyakov earlier this year, is building a facility to allow it to produce up to 48 satellites a year. A Dragonfly executive said the company is "negotiating with various companies" who want to purchase satellites and will announce deals in the coming months. but did not disclose any customers. (8/30)

FAA Approves Virgin Orbit Guam Launch Plans (Source: Space News)
The FAA says there is no significant environmental impact from future Virgin Orbit launches from Guam. The agency released an environmental review Friday finding no significant impact for the proposed flights from Andersen Air Force Base there. Virgin Orbit proposed to conduct up to 25 air-launch missions from Guam over the next five years. The environmental review brings the company one step closer to getting a launch license for flights from Guam. (8/30)

NASA's EscaPADE Mars Smallsat Passes Review (Source: Space News)
A NASA Mars smallsat mission will move into full-scale development after passing a review. The Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (EscaPADE) will proceed into final design and instrument development after clearing a review earlier this month. EscaPADE will use two Photon satellites made by Rocket Lab and launch no earlier than January 2024 on a commercial rideshare opportunity yet to be selected. EscaPADE was forced to revise its mission design a year ago after it was bumped from the launch of NASA's Psyche mission when that mission changed its launch vehicle and trajectory. (8/30)

South Korea Plans Lunar Orbiter Launch in 2022 (Source: Yonhap)
A South Korean lunar orbiter is on schedule to launch next year. South Korea's science ministry said workers recently installed a NASA-supplied instrument on the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter and expect to finish assembly in October. The spacecraft will launch on a Falcon 9 next August for a one-year mission. (8/30)

Indian Astronaut Candidates Getting Fitted for Spacesuits (Source: India Today)
Four Indian astronaut candidates will return to Russia next month to be fitted for their spacesuits. The four, all Indian Air Force pilots, had previously undergone training at Russia's cosmonaut training center but will return to get fitted for the suits they will wear. The four are training for India's Gaganyaan human spaceflight program, with three of them flying on a mission previously scheduled for August 2022 but likely to be pushed back because of development delays caused by the pandemic. (8/30)

Florida Author Adds Children's Book to Firefly Payloads (Source: SPACErePORT)
The inaugural Firefly Alpha launch was loaded with various non-technical rideshare payloads, including a children's book, Henry The Astronaut, authored by a Florida writer. The author, Jonna Ocampo, has worked with students and organizations from Minnesota, Hawaii, and Brazil to participate in launch viewing events on YouTube. Firefly's Dedicated Research & Education Accelerator Mission (DREAM) project aims to inspire young people to pursue STEM education. They invited educational institutions, start up space entrepreneurs, and other institutions that have big space dreams (including private individuals) to fly inspirational items into space. (8/29)

DOD Seeks Cost Estimates For Military Space Cargo Missions (Source: Aviation Week)
U.S. Transportation Command (TRANSCOM) has asked launch companies and academics to provide cost estimates for delivering military cargo via space over the next 20 years. A special notice published on Aug. 19 by TRANSCOM adds another step in an already lengthy process of considering how the military can use space launch companies in ways similar to the existing Civil Reserve Air Fleet.

The notice says TRANSCOM plans to establish Cooperative Research and Development Agreements with various industry and academic officials to produce co-funded studies on the topic. The agreements follow the Air Force Research Laboratory’s (AFRL) decision earlier this year to establish a Vanguard program called Rocket Cargo, which aims to transition space launch for military cargo missions from a technology demonstration to a program of record. (8/20)

Boeing Australia Seeks Milsatcom Contract (Source: Aviation Week)
Boeing Australia is hoping to leverage Boeing’s U.S. military satellite technologies to build a system that can win a $3.5 billion contract from the Australian Defense Force for the nation’s next-generation military satellite communications system. Australia, in a request for proposals issued in April for Joint Project 9102, said it is seeking to develop its own system that includes a narrowband or legacy UHF wideband capability, as well as wideband commercial and military Ka-band technology, and X-band services. (8/24)

Virgin Orbit To Launch, Offer Own Satellite-Based Data Services, Fleet (Source: Aviation Week)
Virgin Orbit apparently will build and offer a fleet of Earth-observation (EO) and internet of things (IoT) satellites starting in 2023, according to investor materials. A test fleet of four satellites, two each for EO and IoT services, are slated for critical design review in early 2022. Air launch via Virgin Orbit’s 747-based system in 2023 is targeted around spring.

The company expects to devote a quarter of its proceeds from its business operations and investments to develop the satellite system in 2021-23. The Virgin Orbit approach also entails investments in complementary constellations. Partner agreements for the space-enabled data and analytical services include Arqit, BigBear.AI, Redwire, HyperSat and SAS. The system will offer electro-optical, synthetic aperture radar and infrared-hyperspectral imagery.

Among efforts to differentiate its service, Virgin Orbit will lean upon its air-launch system’s seemingly easier and locale-friendlier approach to lofting satellites off the ground via aircraft, rather than competitor launchers’ more fixed-base rocket systems. In turn, that could allow national customers of the satellite service to have full local, legal control over the fleets and data that are launched from runways in their own countries.(8/23)