August 4, 2021

EchoStar Secures S-Band Slot With Nanosat (Source: Space News)
EchoStar succeeded in sending a nanosatellite to secure an S-band slot it was in danger of forfeiting after two previous nanosatellite propulsion failures. EchoStar was facing an Aug. 10 deadline to bring the slot into use or risk losing it under International Telecommunication Union rules. EchoStar currently uses S-band for voice and data mobile satellite services across Europe and parts of Africa and the Middle East. The U.S. company plans to extend the frequencies worldwide. (8/4)

Netflix to Air Documentary Series Covering Inspiration4 Mission (Source: Parabolic Arc)
This September, four civilians will launch into space for a three-day trip orbiting Earth and reaching an altitude higher than that of the International Space Station (ISS). The SpaceX Dragon mission, dubbed Inspiration4, is the most ambitious step to date in the rapidly developing age of civilian space exploration, making history as the first all-civilian mission to orbit.

Netflix members around the world can follow these civilian astronauts and their historic journey throughout the month: Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission To Space, the first Netflix documentary series to cover an event in near real-time, will premiere in five parts leading up to and following the mission. (8/4)

Rocket Lab Global Facilities Tour (Source: Rocket Lab)
Join Peter Beck and some of the team for a look at Rocket Lab's global manufacturing, test and launch facilities. Click here. (8/3)

Boeing Starliner Launch Delayed Indefinitely (Source: Phys.org)
Boeing's Starliner won't launch Wednesday as had been planned following problems with its propulsion system that prevented a key uncrewed test flight to the international space station a day earlier—and it's not clear when the troubled spaceship will fly next. The aerospace giant said in a statement that valves in Starliner's engine were in "unexpected" positions, forcing the mission team to halt the countdown.

NASA added that engineering teams have ruled out several potential causes, including a software glitch, but need more time to understand the issue. "We're going to let the data lead our work," said John Vollmer, vice president and program manager of Boeing's Commercial Crew Program. Boeing needs to succeed with an uncrewed test flight before it can be entrusted with flying humans. SpaceX, the other company given a multibillion dollar contract by NASA for taxi rides, has moved forward faster, having now undertaken three crewed missions. (8/4)

German Startups Developing Small Launchers (Source: Space Daily)
Car-manufacturing powerhouse Germany is rushing to join the private sector space race as it looks to ride a boom in mini-launchers for small satellites and compete with major US firms such as SpaceX. Three projects in particular are making Germany a serious player in the race to provide mini-launchers for the increasing number of small satellites which observe the Earth and provide connectivity for the internet of things and smart vehicles.

At the end of July, German company Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) carried out a first successful test of its "RFA One" rocket, igniting the engine for eight seconds at its development site in Kiruna, Sweden. The rocket's "staged combustion" system is used by Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin, but is yet to be rolled out in Europe.

Another German firm, Baden-Wuerttemberg based HyImpulse, has also made waves with a 20-second engine test on the Shetland Isles in May, using a candle-wax-based fuel to maximise efficiency. "Our technology is advanced enough to serve the mini-launcher market," said HyImpulse co-founder Christian Schmierer. Isar Aerospace, which is run from just outside Munich by three directors in their thirties, is yet to carry out its first engine test, but is the most well-financed of the three. (8/4)

SpaceX's Starship 'Orbital' Mission Profile (Source: Space News)
That FCC filing outlined the plan for that orbital launch. The Super Heavy booster would fire for 169 seconds before the Starship vehicle separates. The booster would “land” in the Gulf of Mexico 32 kilometers offshore from Boca Chica. Starship would use its engines to go into orbit, but reenter after less than one orbit, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean 100 kilometers northwest of the Hawaiian island of Kauai. (8/4)

FAA Environmental Approval a Showstopper for Starship Mission (Source: Space News)
Despite the light-speed buildup at Boca Chica, SpaceX's Super Heavy launch can’t take place until SpaceX receives a launch license from the FAA. That license is dependent on the completion of an environmental assessment of Starship/Super Heavy launches from Boca Chica currently underway. The FAA has released few updates about the development of that assessment. However, even when complete, the draft version will be released for public comment, which would then be incorporated into the final version.

The report could recommend the FAA perform a more thorough environmental impact study, which would further delay any launch license. An FAA spokesman said Aug. 3 that that the agency doesn’t have a schedule for completing the environmental assessment. “SpaceX cannot launch Starship / Super Heavy until the FAA licensing process is completed, including the environmental review and any potential mitigations put in place,” the FAA added. (8/4)

NASA Wants Standards for Evaluating Claims of Extraterrestrial Life (Source: Air & Space)
The burgeoning field of astrobiology and its search for life beyond Earth has high hurdles aplenty, from hunting for habitable exoplanets to trying to understand life as we don’t know it. All the steps in this research are challenging, but the last step may be the most daunting of all: How to prove to fellow scientists that claims about extraterrestrial life are sound, then how to communicate the findings to the public in a responsible way.

With more such claims expected in the future, NASA’s Chief Scientist Jim Green and his colleagues have become increasingly interested in coming up with community standards for evaluating such findings. As far back as the Viking exploration of Mars in the 1970s, and as recently as last year’s speculations about possible life in the Venus atmosphere, claims of possible extraterrestrial life have been met with strong pushback and contentious debate from other scientists. Some researchers in the field worry that recurring strife puts the credibility of astrobiology at risk, or diminishes the actual scientific importance of some findings because they are ultimately found not to be life detections.

As a result, more than a hundred scientists representing a variety of disciplines are convening (virtually) under NASA auspices this week. They’ll be hashing out issues ranging from how to increase scientific confidence in “biosignature” detections to how best to convey the level of confidence in new discoveries to non-scientists. The hope is that this will lead to formal “best practices” and perhaps even reporting protocols for scientists working in the field. (7/20)

Everything You Need to Know About the Chinese Space Station (Source: Dongfang Hour)
China has been swiftly assembling its Chinese space station, basically a large 60+ tons space laboratory that will be orbiting the Earth at an altitude of 350-450 km. Over the period 2021-2022 alone, 11 launches will take place, sending 3 core modules of the space station as well as 4 crewed missions (Shenzhou) and 4 cargo missions (Tianzhou). But did you know that China's crewed spaceflight projects date all the way back to the 1960s? Click here. (8/3)

Lockheed Martin CFO Resigns/Retires (Source: Bloomberg)
Lockheed Martin's chief financial officer abruptly retired Tuesday. The company announced that Kenneth Possenriede retired, effectively immediately, citing only "personal reasons." The company stated in a regulatory filing that his retirement had nothing to do with any financial issue at the company or disagreement with the company's activities. John Mollard, company treasurer, will step in as acting CFO. (8/4)

SatNav Systems Drive Economic Development (Source: Space News)
Society is more dependent than ever on satellite navigation services. A 2019 study estimated the impact of a loss of GPS on the U.S. economy of at least $1 billion per day, which could be even higher now with the sharp rise in consumer solutions and location-based rideshare and delivery services. A 2017 study offered a similar assessment of the impact of the loss of navigation services in the United Kingdom. While there have been scattered outages, including a weeklong outage of Europe's Galileo system in July 2019, a simultaneous failure of all global navigation satellite systems is improbable. (8/3)

Space Force Can Learn From Navy for Cislunar Operations (Source: Breaking Defense)
The head of U.S. Space Command says there are similarities between cislunar space and the high seas. In a speech Tuesday, Gen. James Dickinson compared the strategic importance of Lagrange points in the Earth-Moon system, where spacecraft can be stationed, to "several very small islands of the Pacific," a reference to the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. He also said space operators can learn from their naval counterparts on how to develop norms of behavior and best practices for safe space operations. (8/3)

Lucy Asteroid Probe Arrives at Cape Canaveral Spaceport for October Launch (Source: NASA)
A NASA asteroid mission has arrived at Cape Canaveral for final launch preparations. An Air Force cargo plane transported the Lucy spacecraft last week from the Lockheed Martin facility in Colorado where it was assembled to the Cape. The spacecraft will complete final preparations there for its launch on an Atlas 5 during a three-week window that opens in mid-October. Lucy will travel beyond the main asteroid belt to study Trojan asteroids in two clusters ahead of and behind Jupiter in its orbit around the sun. (8/3)

Japan's ispace Raises $46 Million for Lunar Lander (Source: Space News)
A Japanese lunar lander company has raised $46 million. Tokyo-based ispace — not related to the Chinese launch company iSpace — raised the Series C round from several Japanese investors, led by venture capital firm Incubate Fund. The company will use the funding for its second and third lunar lander missions, scheduled for launch in 2023 and 2024. The company's first lander, already fully funded, is currently being assembled in Germany for launch in the second half of next year. (8/4)

Nauka Rotated ISS (Source: Space Daily)
The International Space Station spun around 1 1/2 times on its main axis last week when a new Russian segment of the orbiting platform malfunctioned, a NASA spokesman said, as new details emerged about the incident. "Mission control got alerts on the ground at the same time astronauts got an alert that the attitude [position] of the space station was changing," said NASA's Dan Huot. "The astronauts didn't even know they were moving, because the motion was very slow, until they looked out the window and saw the Earth and stars moving." (8/3)

Japan Approves New Iridium Services (Source: Space Daily)
Iridium Communications reports that Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) has approved regulatory amendments necessary to allow for Japanese adoption of Iridium Certus broadband, Iridium Controller-Pilot Data Link Communications (CPDLC) and other aeronautical services for aviation and Iridium's Global Maritime Distress and Safety System service (GMDSS).

Over the past several years, Iridium has been working on regulatory amendments with the MIC to incorporate these services into the Japanese regulatory framework, while many other Iridium services have long been approved. Following all required processes of the regulatory amendments, Japanese flagged aircraft, ships and other customers can begin use of these Iridium services. (8/3)

Bezos’ Blue Origin Calls Musk’s Starship ‘Immensely Complex & High Risk’ for NASA Moon Missions (Source: CNBC)
Jeff Bezos’ space company remains on the offensive in criticizing NASA’s decision to award Elon Musk’s SpaceX with the sole contract to build a vehicle to land astronauts on the moon, despite the government last week denying Blue Origin’s protest. In an infographic published on Blue Origin’s website and seen on Wednesday, the company called SpaceX using Starship to transport NASA astronauts to the lunar surface an “immensely complex & high risk” approach. Blue Origin is referring to a criticism that NASA officials made in evaluating Starship for the lunar lander program.

The company wants NASA to award a second contract under the original Human Landing System acquisition structure. While NASA has said it would offer future contracts under HLS through Lunar Exploration Transportation Services awards, those contracts are expected to be $45 million or less each. Beyond criticizing Starship’s complexity, Blue Origin emphasized that SpaceX’s facility in Texas has “never conducted an orbital launch.” Yet Musk’s company has launched more than 100 successful orbital launches with its Falcon 9 rockets, and Bezos’ company has yet to reach orbit at all. (8/4)

NASA to Extend $500M REMIS Contract for Low-Earth Orbit Commercialization Push (Source: GovConWire)
NASA intends to exercise a two-year option on its $500 million indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract that supports research and engineering requirements of the ISS. The agency said Saturday it will extend the performance period for the Research, Engineering, Mission Integration Services Contract in a strategy to establish a self-sustaining supply of commercial services to low-Earth orbit missions by the public and private sectors.

Sixteen vendors originally secured positions on the REMIS contract, which took effect on Sept. 6, 2017, and is scheduled to expire on Sept. 5, 2022. Tasks include support for spaceflight and ground platforms, research mission operations, payload facility integration and sustaining engineering functions. (8/2)

Implications of Limited US Spaceport Access (Source: Quilty)
At Cape Canaveral, modernized range equipment and the implementation of automatic flight termination systems are expected to boost the site’s flight rate to 48 times per year on an interim basis, and perhaps twice per day in the long run. Likewise, the FAA is proposing streamlined (Part 450) launch and reentry licensing requirements, and just began using its new Space Data Integrator (SDI), a tool that is intended to provide air traffic controllers and pilots with near-instant information on launch activities, reducing the size and duration of airspace restrictions.

While these efforts should enable the FAA to support a two- to three-fold increase in the annual launch cadence, the U.S. will still remain precariously dependent on a handful of key spaceports – a dependency that, if not resolved, will undermine U.S. interests strategically and commercially in the next decade. Click here. (8/3)

Next Batch of OneWeb Satellites Set to Launch August 20 (Source: Space Daily)
Russia will launch the next batch of OneWeb satellites from the Baikonur cosmodrome on August 20, said Dmitry Rogozin, the director general of state space corporation Roscosmos. The launch was originally set for August 5, but was postponed due to some of the satellites having faulty parts. Earlier in the month, a space industry source told Sputnik that the launch was rescheduled for August 20-21. The UK company plans to have 648 satellites orbiting Earth, providing broadband access to the Internet to everyone across the globe. (8/3)

Chinese Commercial Launcher Fails During Climb to Orbit (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
The launch of a solid-fueled rocket developed by the Chinese commercial space firm iSpace failed Tuesday, the second launch failure in three orbital attempts by the startup company. A Hyperbola 1 rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan launch base in what was described as a “flight test.” China's news agency said the rocket exhibited “abnormal performance” after liftoff. Officials did not immediately specify when during the flight the rocket failed.
A satellite carried by the rocket “did not enter orbit as scheduled.” Chinese officials did not identify the payload lost on the mission. (8/3)

Boeing Starliner’s Launch to ISS Delayed Again Due to a Problem in the Propulsion System (Source: Yellow Telegraph)
The flight of Boeing Starliner to ISS was delayed again due to an issue with a component in the propulsion system as per a report by Boeing Co and NASA. The unexpected problem was reported by NASA about two hours prior to the slated launch time of 1:20 pm ET Tuesday. (8/3)