September 28, 2021

What Drew Terran Orbital to Florida? (Source: Florida Today)
Terran Orbital co-founder Marc Bell said three key reasons helped push Terran to the Cape Canaveral Spaceport: equipment financing and other financial support made available by Space Florida; the LLF's strategic and historic location; the availability of skilled workers and supply chains; and the state's "business-friendly environment." He could not confirm specifics on how much of the $300 million was contributed by the state, but did say most of the company's investments to date have been private. (9/27)

Terran Factory Kicks Off Broader Improvements at Spaceport's Launch/Landing Strip (Source: SPACErePORT)
Space Florida has ambitious plans for expanding the number and types of facilities and infrastructure at the former Shuttle Landing Facility at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. Space Florida leases the vast property from NASA and acts as a spaceport authority there, with 'municipal' responsibility to maximize the productive use of the site for space transportation and related uses. New hangars, fueling infrastructure, tarmacs, and other improvements are planned, for use by launch companies like Sierra Space, Starfighters, and others.

The Terran Orbital project allows Space Florida to lay the foundation the broader infrastructure expansion at the site. Although not revealed in detail, the Terran project will receive substantial incentive funding from state and local governments to develop the facility, and it may be developed under a lease-back arrangement with Space Florida. Among the state's typical incentives for such a project are investments for road/rail/air transportation infrastructure for access to the site. Done smartly, these investments can be designed to support the larger community of users at the launch/landing facility, as part of its master plan. (9/28)

Canada's MDA to Replace Radarsat-2 (Source: Space News)
Canadian company MDA revealed more details Monday about its replacement for Radarsat-2. The new satellite will have a C-band synthetic aperture radar designed to cover large geographic areas with a resolution of 50 meters. MDA has not yet announced how or when it will launch the Radarsat-2 Continuity Mission, but says the satellite will operate in a 700-kilometer inclined orbit that will allow it to observe regions at different times of day. (9/28)

Isotropic Systems Raises $37 Million for Antenna Systems (Source: Space News)
Isotropic Systems has raised a new round of funding that will support the company through the introduction of its first antenna products. The company said Monday it raised more than $37 million in a round led by Seraphim Space Investment Trust. The British company has raised more than $100 million, enough to complete development of its flat-panel antenna systems it will begin offering next year. Those antennas are designed to communicate with multiple satellites in different orbits. (9/28)

ULA Atlas 5 Launches Landsat Satellite From California Spaceport (Source: Space News)
An Atlas 5 launched the latest Landsat Earth observation satellite Monday. The Atlas 5 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 2:12 p.m. Eastern and deployed the Landsat 9 satellite into sun-synchronous orbit an hour and 20 minutes later. Landsat 9 is similar to the existing Landsat 8 spacecraft, with some improvements in its instruments, and will operate in conjunction with Landsat 8. The new Landsat will ensure the continuity of data from the Landsat series of spacecraft dating back nearly half a century. The launch also carried four smallsat secondary payloads, two science satellites sponsored by NASA and two technology demonstrations from CesiumAstro. (9/28)

Chinese Payload Fails After Launch (Source: Space News)
The payload on a second Chinese launch Monday was lost. A Long March 3B rocket lifted from Xichang Satellite Launch Center at around 4:20 a.m. Eastern Monday and deployed two payloads into an inclined geostationary transfer orbit. However, Chinese officials did not announce a successful launch, which is usually reported shortly after confirmation of mission success. Early Tuesday they did confirm "abnormal function" of the Shiyan-10 satellite after a normal launch, but offered no additional details. (9/28)

DoD's SDA Reduces Size of Planned Constellation (Source: Space News)
The Space Development Agency (SDA) is reducing the number of satellites it is procuring for a communications network. SDA is now seeking 126 satellites rather than the original 144, with the 18 other satellites to be procured at a later date. SDA Director Derek Tournear said Monday that the agency found that the original plan to launch six stacks of 24 satellites each would not work due to launch vehicle constraints, and it will instead launch stacks of 21 satellites at a time. The other 18 satellites, known as partner payload program or P3 satellites, will be procured and launched separately. (9/28)

China and Russia Formalizing Lunar Collaboration (Source: TASS)
China and Russia will present a "declaration" of their joint lunar exploration plans next month. Roscosmos said representatives of the two countries will offer that document about its International Lunar Research Station at the International Astronautical Congress in Dubai. In June, the countries discussed their plans, which featured a series of robotic missions before establishing a base at the south pole of the moon in the 2030s. (9/28)

SpaceX's Inspiration4 Highlights the Coming Age of Space Tourism, But it's Still Far Off (Source: Florida Today)
Even with Inspiration4's success, a full-fledged commercial spaceflight industry is still far off. As seen throughout history, the early days of exploring the next frontier belong to the ultra-wealthy and well-connected – the Vasco da Gamas, Ferdinand Magellans, and Christopher Columbuses of the 21st century.

In the short term, space tourists who can afford the flights can orbit Earth and enjoy spectacular views. But looking further, there need to be destinations and things to do, all of which are lacking in the oft-mentioned analogy that spaceflight today mirrors the early days of aviation. At least then there were cities to visit, family and friends to see, and new places to explore. (9/24)

China Unveils Gravitational-Wave Research Center (Source: Space Daily)
A gravitational-wave research center under the China National Space Administration (CNSA) was inaugurated on Sunday in the city of Zhuhai, in Guangdong province. According to the CNSA, the gravitational-wave research center, located at the Zhuhai Campus of Sun Yat-sen University, will develop a series of experimental satellite platforms and payloads to promote China's space gravitational-wave detection. (9/28)

Russia, US Plan to Make More Movies in Space (Source: Space Daily)
Russia and the United States are ready to cross new frontiers for filming movies in space as a way to promote growing commercialization of orbital spaceflight and beyond. Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, plans to launch a Russian actress, film director and cosmonaut to the International Space Station early next month to produce the first full-length feature film shot in space, with a working title of The Challenge.

Russian film director Klim Shipenko and actress Yulia Peresild are to spend 12 days in orbit, during which 10 days will be devoted to shooting the film. Russia's TASS news agency describes the plot as a thriller about a doctor (Peresild) traveling suddenly to the space station to save a dying cosmonaut. Peresild and Shipenko also trained quickly for their mission, reflecting the urgency in the script, TASS noted.

"More and more movies and videos will be shot in space as the price of launches falls due to competition from firms like SpaceX and Blue Origin," James Neihouse, a long-time IMAX movie cinematographer who has trained astronauts to shoot film in orbit, told UPI. "The question is, if you've got a good story, do you really need to go to space for filming?" Neihouse said. "We have so many good films filmed with CGI [computer-generated imagery], and by using airplane flights to simulate zero gravity, that flying actors to space for up to $60 million per seat may not be necessary." (9/28)

Masten Space Systems Partners with AdaCore to Land on the Moon's South Pole (Source: Space Daily)
When Masten Space Systems was awarded a NASA contract to land scientific payloads on the Moon, the company chose to work with AdaCore's software development and verification tools for its XL-1 Lunar Lander spacecraft. Masten Space Systems will use the Ada and SPARK programming languages and AdaCore's GNAT Pro integrated development environment and SPARK Pro static analysis verification tools in the exciting exploration project.

Masten Space Systems was awarded the $75.9 million contract by NASA to transport scientific research payloads to the lunar South Pole in April 2020. The NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) project contract encompasses everything from initial lab work to transportation to the Moon's surface and a landing to take place in late 2023.

There will also be a host of post-landing payload services. The terrain at the lunar South Pole is of huge geological interest, but also very uneven, making it difficult to land a spacecraft and explore with a rover. Once it is in orbit, the Masten lander must navigate the polar region, determine where to land and navigate several potential hazards - all autonomously. (9/28)

Exotic Mix in China's Moon Rocks (Source: Space Daily)
On 16 December 2020 the Chang'e-5 mission, China's first sample return mission to the Moon, successfully delivered to Earth nearly two kilograms of rocky fragments and dust from our celestial companion. Chang'e-5 landed on an area of the Moon not sampled by the NASA Apollo or the Soviet Luna missions nearly 50 years ago, and retrieved fragments of the youngest lunar rocks ever brought back for analysis in laboratories on Earth.

Early-stage findings, which use geological mapping to link 'exotic' fragments in the collected samples to features near the landing site, have been presented by Mr Yuqi Qian, a PhD student at the China University of Geosciences, at the Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) 2021 virtual meeting. The Chang'e-5 landing site is located on the western edge of the nearside of the Moon in the Northern Oceanus Procellarum. (9/28)

Project Kraken Revealed: Satellite Manufacturer to Invest $300M on Space Coast, Ccreate More Than 2K Jobs (Source: Talk of Titusville)
Terran Orbital Corp. will invest $300 million in a Space Coast satellite manufacturing facility that will create 2,100 high-wage jobs, a project previously referred to as “Project Kraken.”, to the Space Coast by bringing its commercial spacecraft and constellation facility to Space Florida’s Launch and Landing Facility. The new project is expected to create more than 2,000 new jobs with an estimated annual wage of $84,000 by the fourth quarter of 2025, Gov. DeSantis said.

The new campus will handle everything involved in the satellite manufacturing process “from the smallest components to the final product,” including the creation of circuit boards and space vehicles. “Satellite manufacturing is an important part of the economy here in the Space Coast and this really ups the ante,” DeSantis said. “We know that this will have a hugely positive impact on this area.”

The facility will be located at Space Florida’s Launch and Landing Facility, the former landing site for the Space Shuttle Program next to Kennedy Space Center. Terran Orbital CEO Mark Bell said he’s thrilled to make the move. The company, headquartered in Boca Raton and Torino, Italy, will create the jobs by fourth-quarter 2025. The satellite production facility’s first phase will include 660,000 square feet of space capable of making 1,000 satellites each year. Terran Orbital picked the Space Coast as an expansion site because of the hub of aerospace companies around the Launch and Landing Facility. Space Florida expects the project to be completed in early 2023. (9/27)

Last Week: Terran Orbital Leases California Facility for Satellite Design/Engineering (Source: Space News)
Terran Orbital, the parent company of Tyvak and PredaSAR, has leased four stories of a building in Irvine, California, to house satellite design, engineering and development. Terran Orbital is growing rapidly, both in terms of its workforce and facilities, due to strong demand from government and commercial customers, said Marc Bell, Terran Orbital co-founder and CEO.

One of Tyvak’s recent orders was from Lockheed Martin, a Terran Orbital investor. Lockheed is buying a pair of 12-unit cubesats for LINUSS, short for Lockheed Martin In-space Upgrade Satellite System, to demonstrate satellite servicing in geosynchronous orbit. Tyvak also developed and built the spacecraft bus for the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE). (9/22)

Oscar Mayer Offers NASA a Wienermobile to Transport Moon Astronauts (Source: C/Net)
Some day, in the hopefully not-too-distant future, NASA's next moon-bound astronauts will catch a ride to the launchpad to board their Orion spacecraft atop a massive SLS rocket. Oscar Mayer, the food company known for hot dogs, would like to offer a bold and dignified vehicle to take them there. A Wienermobile.

NASA actually is looking for some new astronaut ground transportation. It put out a call last week for commercial providers to chime in on possible replacements for the shiny Astrovan that once moved shuttle astronauts the nine miles from their crew quarters to the launchpad. "The proposals should be unique, embrace new technology and visually embody Artemis to the public," NASA said. NASA's vehicle request came to the attention of Oscar Mayer, which tweeted "Hey, NASA, we got you" on Friday along with a photo of a Wienermobile. (9/27)

Two Directorate Heads are BetterThan One (Source: Space Review)
Last week NASA shook up the management of its human spaceflight programs, splitting its exploration development efforts from its operations of the ISS and commercial successors. Jeff Foust reports on the reasons for the restructuring and both the distinct and shared problems the two new organizations face. Click here. (9/27)
 
Criticism of Space Cowboys Isn’t Enough (Source: Space Review)
Some voices inside and outside the space community have questioned the “space cowboy” billionaires that are playing a growing role in the industry. Blake Horn argues such criticism is only a start. Click here. (9/27)
 
Covid and Mars (Source: Space Review)
For many over the last year and a half, sending humans to Mars seems like a distant dream compared to the battle against the coronavirus pandemic. Frank Stratford explains why he believes the pandemic has given a new impetus for human expeditions to Mars. Click here. (9/27)

Germany's DLR is Developing a Launch Coordination Center (Source: Space Daily)
The increasing commercialisation of space travel - often referred to as 'New Space' - will lead to significantly more spacecraft launches. More than 15,000 new satellites are expected to be launched in the current decade. Many of these satellites will be used for communications, navigation or Earth observation. To ensure continuity of operations, regular replacement of some of these satellites will be required, particularly those operating in low orbits.

In addition to the established space operators, an increasing number of new suppliers are entering the dynamically developing market with smaller rockets, referred to as micro-launchers. Other providers are taking on transport tasks to and from the ISS. In addition, space tourism is now also being offered by private space companies. (9/27)

Should Brevard County be Renamed Space Coast County? (Source: Florida Today)
County Commissioner Bryan Lober says he has been asked by residents from time to time whether Brevard County can change its name to something more contemporary — Space Coast County. So the commissioner decided to broach the subject during the latest monthly meeting of the advisory Brevard County Tourist Development Council, of which he is a member. Some of his fellow Tourist Development Council members were initially intrigued.

Lober said he wants to see if there is any groundswell of support for the idea before deciding whether it's worth pursuing — and what legally would be required to make the change, including whether the Florida Legislature would need to get involved. Florida has 67 counties. The last county to change its name was Miami-Dade County, which changed its name from Dade County in 1997 through a voter referendum.

Brevard County has been called "the Space Coast" for years, and is one of many "themed" coasts within Florida, among them the Gold Coast, the Nature Coast, the Sun Coast, the Treasure Coast, and a number of others. In fact, Brevard County government's tourism department is called the Space Coast Office of Tourism. (9/26)

UK Embraces Space With New Space Policy (Source: Seraphim Capital)
Today the UK government made history through the publication of their first ever national space strategy. No longer content to sit on the sidelines the UK government is going “all in” to position the nation to benefit from the long term growth of the space domain.

In particular is their intention to fight climate change with space technology. A recognition that the UK will not reach its goal of net zero emissions by 2050 without a clear understanding of how climate change is impacting the Earth, to guide crucial decision making and investments. To address this the aim is stay at the forefront of Earth Observation (EO) technology and know-how. Cutting-edge innovations use real-time satellite data to reduce carbon emissions and looking further out space-based solar power systems offer a potential zero carbon energy source. (9/27)

Louisiana's Missing Moon Rock Found in Florida Thanks to Broken Gun (Source: CollectSpace)
A long lost piece of the moon belonging to the state of Louisiana may have remained missing had the plaque on which it was mounted not attracted the eye of a Florida gun collector. The Merritt Island man was looking for wood samples to use in the repair or replacement of his damaged gunstocks. He purchased the Apollo 17 moon rock display without realizing what it was. He said he probably purchased the plaque at a garage sale sometime over the past 15 years.

It was not until the past two years, when he was seeking a particular color wood for a repair, that he pulled the moon rock-adorned plaque from one of the 15 to 16 boxes of plaques that he had amassed for his hobby. Of the moon rocks gifted to U.S. states, New York and Delaware are missing their Apollo 11 displays, and Louisiana, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio and South Carolina have been unable to locate their pieces of the Apollo 17 moon rock.

After realizing what he had, the Florida man who had bought the moon rock reached out Louisiana's governor office. He was directed to the Louisiana State Museum, and he hand-delivered the long-missing item. Though now restored to the state to which it was originally gifted, it is still unknown how the moon rock made its way to another state, let alone turn up in a private sale. The museum has no plans for a further investigation, instead choosing to focus on the outcome. (9/27)

Tomorrow.io Orders Demo Satellites for Rain-Tracking Constellation (Source: Space News)
Meteorological intelligence startup Tomorrow.io says it picked California-based Astro Digital to build the first two of potentially dozens of small satellites equipped with storm-tracking radars to improve weather forecasts. The two initial demonstration satellites, both about the size of a mini-fridge, will be based on Astro Digital’s Corvus-XL satellite platform and deployed in late 2022 on an undisclosed rocket, according to Tomorrow.io director of strategy for space Aravind Ravichandran. (9/21)

Ovzon Raises ~$27 Million for Satellite (Source: Ovzon)
Ovzon secured about $27 million in new equity for its Ovzon 3 telecom satellite, after its launch was delayed from “by the end of 2021” to the “second quarter of 2022.” (9/27)