October 1, 2021

FAA Extends Public Comment Period for Boca Chica (Source: Reuters)
The FAA is extending the public comment period for an environmental review of SpaceX's Boca Chica launch site. The agency said it was pushing back the deadline for public comment on a draft environmental review from Oct. 18 to Nov. 1, and rescheduling two public meetings from early October to Oct. 18 and 20. The review examines the environmental impacts of SpaceX's proposed initial Starship/Super Heavy orbital launches from Boca Chica, and is required before the FAA will issue SpaceX a launch license. (10/1)

FAA Reviewing Safety Allegations Against Blue Origin (Source: Space News)
The FAA says its reviewing allegations of safety issues at Blue Origin revealed by a group of current and former employees Thursday. In an essay, the group claimed that a push by company executives to increase the flight rate of its New Shepard suborbital vehicle "was seriously compromising flight safety," with one stating that the company was "lucky" nothing had gone wrong so far. The essay didn't offer specifics about those safety issues beyond a concern there weren't enough resources available for teams working on the vehicle.

The FAA said it was reviewing the information, but did not state if it was aware of any specific issues on New Shepard flights it has licensed. Safety was just one of several issues about Blue Origin raised in the essay, which argued there was a toxic workplace environment at the company, including sexism and intolerance for dissenting views. Blue Origin rejected those arguments and said it believed New Shepard is the "safest space vehicle" ever built. (10/1)

Chinese Investments in US Space Startups a Concern for DoD (Source: Space News)
A Pentagon official says Chinese investments in U.S. space startups and use of Chinese software by Defense Department suppliers are issues of growing concern. The Pentagon created the trusted capital program in January due to concerns that China is using its financial clout to access segments of the U.S. defense industrial base, the official in charge of the program said at a conference Thursday. The program vets venture capital firms so they can be declared sources of "clean capital" without any ties to China. Some in the finance sector are concerned that companies may, as a result, turn down some sources of capital to avoid any potential issues. Separately, the Space Development Agency says it is making supply chain security a priority to address counterfeiting and cybersecurity worries. (10/1)

Japan Scrubs Launch of Epsilon Rocket (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
The Japanese space agency JAXA scrubbed the launch of a small rocket Thursday. JAXA halted the countdown of the Epsilon rocket seconds before its scheduled 8:51 p.m. Eastern liftoff, eventually scrubbing the launch. JAXA said a ground station malfunction halted the launch and did not announce a new launch date. The rocket is carrying a technology demonstration smallsat called RAISE-2 along with eight secondary payloads. (10/1)

Dragon Capsule Splashes Down Off Florida Coast with ISS Experiments (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
A Dragon cargo spacecraft splashed down off the Florida coast Thursday night. The Dragon, flying the CRS-23 mission for NASA, splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean off the northeast Florida coast at 10:57 p.m. Eastern, more than 13 hours after it undocked from the International Space Station. The Dragon returned about 2.1 metric tons of experiments and cargo from the station. (10/1)

Standards Being Developed for Satellite Servicing (Source: Space News)
An industry group is working on several standards intended to support the nascent satellite servicing field. The industry consortium CONFERS said three standards are in various stages of development, covering principles and best practices for satellite servicing as well as fiducials, or markings, on spacecraft intended to support servicing and refueling interfaces. CONFERS argues that the standards can help promote the growth of the satellite servicing industry by making it easier to repair and refuel spacecraft. NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy, speaking at the conference, endorsed the standards effort as part of a "collaborate to compete" strategy for the satellite servicing field. (10/1)

NASA Advances Next ISS Crew Launch to Oct. 30 (Source: NASA)
NASA has moved up the launch of its next space station crew by a day. NASA says it's now targeting Oct. 30 at 2:43 a.m. Eastern for the launch of the Crew-3 mission on a Crew Dragon, one day earlier than previously announced. NASA didn't disclose the reason for the schedule change. The mission will send NASA astronauts Kayla Barron, Raja Chari and Tom Marshburn, along with ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer, to the station for a six-month stay. (10/1)

Starlink Expects India Growth (Source: Economic Times)
The new head of SpaceX Starlink operations in India expects to have 200,000 terminals active there by the end of next year. Sanjay Bhargava took over Friday as head of Starlink operations in India, setting the goal in a LinkedIn post. He said he was hopeful that SpaceX would secure government approvals in the next few months for at least a pilot program to demonstrate the broadband internet satellite system in the country. SpaceX is one of several companies seeking approval from the Indian government to offer satellite broadband services. (10/1)

ESA Probe Made Mercury Fly-By (Source: BBC)
ESA's BepiColombo spacecraft will make its first flyby of Mercury on Friday. The spacecraft will make its closest approach to the innermost planet at 7:34 p.m. Eastern, passing within 200 kilometers of its surface. The spacecraft will collect some images and other data, but won't use its high-resolution camera on this flyby. The flyby is the first of six BepiColombo will perform through January 2025 before it enters orbit around Mercury in December 2025. (10/1)

Lucy Probe Launching to Jupiter’s Trojan Asteroids This Month (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
Lucy, the first spacecraft to explore Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids, has completed eight weeks of preparation ahead of its planned Oct. 16 launch. Named Lucy after the human ancestor fossil found in Ethiopia in 1974, the spacecraft, which will launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 rocket, will embark on a 12-year mission to study Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids, two asteroid groups that orbit with Jupiter — one ahead of the planet and the other behind it.

These asteroids are “fossils” that have remained unchanged since the formation of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago. Scientists hope studying them will shed light on both the formation and current arrangement of the solar system’s planets. (10/1)

Virginia Company Has Connected Mobile Phones Directly to Satellites (Source: Ars Technica)
A space startup says it has successfully demonstrated the ability to use ordinary, unmodified mobile telephones to connect to satellite Internet services. The Virginia-based company, Lynk, sent its "Shannon" satellite into orbit three months ago as part of a rideshare mission on a Falcon 9 rocket. After some initial tests, the company said "hundreds" of mobile phones in the United States, United Kingdom, and the Bahamas were able to connect with the satellite as it passed overhead, as if it were a virtual cell phone tower in space.

"Basically, our satellite looks to your cell phone like a standard cell tower," said Charles Miller, the co-founder and chief executive of Lynk. Satellite Internet is all the rage in the space and telecommunications industry, with companies such as SpaceX, OneWeb, Amazon, Telesat, and more launching or planning large constellations of satellites to deliver broadband Internet. But all of these services will require a terminal of sorts, perhaps akin to a DirecTV satellite dish, to send and receive signals to low Earth orbit.

The difference with Lynk, Miller says, is that with its 1 m × 1 m satellite there is no terminal needed, nor even software to download. To make it all work, Lynk had to solve a number of technical problems, Miller said. Chief among these was being able to send uplink signals from a mobile phone to a satellite through the "noise" of other phones. Another challenge was compensating for the huge amount of doppler shift between the satellite and mobile phone on the ground. (9/29)

Shadowed By Controversy, NASA Won't Rename New Space Telescope (Source: NPR)
NASA does not plan to rename its new $10 billion technological marvel, the James Webb Space Telescope, despite concerns about it being named after former NASA administrator James Webb, who went along with government discrimination against gay and lesbian employees in the 1950s and 1960s. The space agency tells NPR it has investigated the matter and decided to keep the telescope's name as is, ahead of the long-awaited launch in December. "We have found no evidence at this time that warrants changing the name of the James Webb Space Telescope," says NASA administrator Bill Nelson. (9/30)

Former UK Trade Minister & UK Space Startup on UK Space Strategy: Where’s the Beef, and Who’s in Charge? (Source: Space Intel Report)
A former British trade minister and a UK space startup urged the British government to sharpen its just-released national space strategy by spelling out who’s in charge of it and what financial incentives will be put in place to stimulate it. They both expressed the hope that a government spending review set to be published on Oct. 29 will provide some answers on budget directions and whether tax incentives are foreseen to favor space investment. (10/1)

The US Cooperates With Russia in Space. Why Not China? (Source: The Diplomat)
In the most recent continuation of a rare success story of cooperation between the United States and Russia, Washington recently extended its agreement on cooperation in space with Moscow, which has survived deteriorating relations on Earth, until September 2030. In 1975, two space modules, one American, the other Soviet, docked in the first international manned mission to space, Apollo-Soyuz. At the time, it seemed like an isolated example of rapprochement in space, but it set the stage for future cooperation.

Through the Shuttle-Mir program in the 1990s and the ongoing International Space Station program, NASA and its Russian counterpart, Roscosmos, have maintained cooperation despite otherwise frosty relations between the two countries. While the previous four decades of space exploration had been characterized by extensive international cooperation, the U.S. Wolf Amendment passed in 2011 essentially prohibits any direct cooperation between NASA and its Chinese counterparts and leaves China as the odd one out. What explains this discrepancy in U.S. relations with its two main rivals in space?

It is worth noting that the Wolf Amendment does not explicitly ban any cooperation between NASA and its Chinese counterparts, but merely states that NASA is banned from using government funds to cooperate with China in the absence of direct Congressional approval. The effect of the policy, however, has been to prevent nearly all contact between NASA and China. (9/30)

China Urges US to Join Talks on Preventing Arms Race in Outer Space (Source: South China Morning Post)
The US has been urged to join China and Russia for talks on banning weapons in outer space. Beijing and Moscow have already proposed a treaty, but Washington has so far refused to join talks on the issue. In a speech to a UN conference in Geneva, Li Song, China’s ambassador for disarmament affairs, urged the US to stop being a stumbling block. “After the end of the Cold War, and especially in the past two decades, the US has tried its best to get rid of its international obligations, refused to be bound by new treaties and long resisted multilateral negotiations on PAROS [the 1967 UN resolution on the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space],” Li said. (9/30)

Space Force, Purdue Partner on STEM Education, Innovation (Source: USSF)
The Space Force established an agreement with Purdue University Sept. 29, making Purdue the latest entrant into the Space Force’s University Partnership Program. Purdue President Mitch Daniels and Gen, David D. “DT” Thompson, USSF vice chief of space operations, signed a memorandum of agreement in Hovde Hall on the Purdue campus.

The signing was part of a two-day campus visit for Thompson, who received his master’s degree in aeronautics and astronautics from the university in 1989. Thompson said the UPP will leverage the internationally-renowned research and educational opportunities available at Purdue to take on the engineering, science and technology issues facing the Space Force. (9/29)

The Moon Is Leaving Us (Source: The Atlantic)
Each year, our moon moves distinctly, inexorably farther from Earth—just a tiny bit, about an inch and a half, a nearly imperceptible change. There is no stopping this slow ebbing, no way to turn back the clock. The forces of gravity are invisible and unshakable, and no matter what we do or how we feel about them, they will keep nudging the moon along. Over many millions of years, we’ll continue to grow apart.

The moon used to be closer. When it first formed, about 4.5 billion years ago, molded out of rocky debris that had been floating around Earth, the moon orbited 10 times nearer to the planet than it does today. The debris, scientists believe, had come from a collision between Earth and a mysterious Mars-sized object. (9/30)

A Megacomet—One So Big, It Was Previously Misidentified As a Dwarf Planet!—Is Approaching Our Solar System (Source: Weather Channel)
In 2014, two astronomers discovered a celestial object that appeared to be a dwarf planet, but was later reclassified as a comet after it showed signs of activity. Now, scientists from the International Dark Energy Survey Project have determined that the new "megacomet", named Comet C/2014 UN271, has a diameter of a whopping 160 km! Its mass is more than ten times the mass of the Hale-Bopp, and it's currently heading towards our solar system.

Will Gater, an astronomer and a science journalist from UK, tweeted this about the C/2014 UN271: Also known as the Bernardinelli-Bernstein Comet, named in honour of the astronomers who found it, the celestial giant is estimated to be around seven times larger than Phobos—Mars' satellite. Astronomers believe that this mysterious object will pass through our planetary system at its closest approach a decade from now, in the year 2031. (9/27)

How to Grow Plants on Mars (Source: Cosmos)
If we ever want to move to Mars, we’ll need to learn how to grow food right there on the Red Planet. But the soil there is harsh and unsavoury for most plants. Well, somebody call Matt Damon because astroagriculturalists have found a way to give clover plants a microbial “buddy” that will help fill the soil with nutritious, growth-promoting nitrogen. Nitrogen is an important fertilizer for plants and is essential for their growth and development. On Earth, special microbes live in the soil that pull nitrogen out of the air and convert the molecules into a form of ammonium that can be easily used by the plants – a process called nitrogen fixation.

An international team of researchers found a way to inoculate clover plants with a nitrogen-fixing microbe (Sinorhizobium meliloti) – commonly found in clover roots on Earth – that helped the clover to thrive in regolith. Clover was already known to grow in regolith, but the inoculated clover exhibited 75% more root and shoot growth compared to the “normal” clover. Interestingly, the surrounding regolith didn’t contain any extra ammonium, suggesting that the symbiotic relationship created enough ammonium for the plant to grow better but not enough to contaminate the soil. (9/30)

Fast and Furious Floods Shaped Martian Surface (Source: Cosmos)
US scientists have discovered that overflowing lakes on Mars caused floods that carved out a quarter of the planet’s river valleys, creating deep chasms and shifting vast amounts of sediment. Today, the Red Planet is a cold and dry desert, but in its early days it had an active water cycle. Before about 3.5 billion years ago, the planet’s denser atmosphere and higher surface temperatures supported water that flowed across the surface, with lakes bigger than some small seas on Earth.

Evidence for this is written in the rocks: the planet is covered in telltale geological clues, including flood-scoured outflow channels extending for hundreds of kilometers, networks of river valleys, deltas, lake beds, and rocks and minerals that could only have been formed by liquid water. (9/30)

Virgin Galactic Stock Takes Off after FAA Investigation Ends (Source: Market Watch)
Virgin Galactic shares jumped more than 9% in after-hours trading Wednesday, after the space-tourism company announced the end of an investigation into its first flight. The FAA has finished an inquiry into the company’s test flight with founder Richard Branson on board, which flew out of its protected airspace. The company said that the FAA had requested that it designate a larger protected airspace for future flights and introduce new procedures to provide real-time information on flights to air-traffic control. (9/30)

NASA Selects Crew for Simulated Trip to a Mars Moon (Source: Space Daily)
Beginning Oct. 1, 2021, four people will live and work for 45 days inside a unique, ground-based habitat at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. Designed to serve as an analog for isolation, confinement, and remote conditions in exploration scenarios, this small habitat is called the Human Exploration Research Analog, or HERA. HERA will house crew members who will simulate the long trek to Mars' moon Phobos. Similar to other HERA missions, once the habitat's doors close, the crew will need to stay inside for 45 days until the mission ends on Nov. 15. (10/1)

Galileo Ground Control Segment Ready for Full Uperational Capability (Source: Space Daily)
In early July the European Union Agency for the Space Program (EUSPA) announced the upcoming upgrades of the Galileo GCS infrastructure in preparation for the next launch. Today the new GCS V3.0 infrastructure has been completely deployed in the Galileo Ground Control Centers in Oberpfaffenhofen (Germany) and Fucino (Italy) and is being used to operate the Galileo Satellite Constellation since early August. (10/1)

Phantom Space to Build and Launch 72 Satellite Constellation for Ingenu (Source: Space Daily)
Phantom Space Corp. has signed an agreement with Ingenu, provider of one of the leading Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technology platforms. The agreement includes the production, manufacturing and launch of a 72 satellite constellation (AFNIO) that Ingenu will use to host their RPMA IIoT payloads. This will allow Ingenu to offer full end-to-end solutions anywhere on earth.

AFNIO will focus initially on end-to-end solutions for Smart Grid, Smart Factory, Smart Agriculture, Smart Cities, Oil and Gas, Mining, Asset Tracking and Logistics. Phantom will be responsible for developing the spacecraft buses, system integration and launch of all 72 spacecraft. The majority of the satellites are expected to launch on Phantom's Daytona launch vehicle set to first launch in 2023. (10/1)

As SpaceX's Starlink Ramps Up, So Could Light Pollution (Source: WIRED)
With some 1,800 satellites already orbiting Earth, providing internet access to about 100,000 households, SpaceX’s Starlink broadband service is poised to emerge from the beta testing phase this month. Just a decade ago, there were only a few thousand spacecraft orbiting Earth. Now Starlink engineers aim to build up to 12,000 satellites, and SpaceX launches scores more on its Falcon 9 rockets almost every month. The “mega-constellation” currently dominates the satellite internet industry, but other players, like Amazon and OneWeb, have plans to launch thousands of satellites of their own.

As the Starlink fleet grows, SpaceX and its competitors will have to address some potential problems. One is that more orbiting bodies means that, eventually, there will be more space junk, creating more chances for collisions. And astronomers, environmentalists, and indigenous groups, among others, express concern that Starlink will irrevocably light up the night sky, thanks to the sunlight reflected off its satellites. For telescopes, astronomers are trying to develop software to mitigate the effects of a sky filled with more private satellites, but they will inevitably leave streaks on their images of the cosmos.

Over the past few years, astronomers have already spotted many Starlink satellites in the night sky. “If I walk on my porch and look up at night, I’ll see a bright satellite going across the sky, and usually I’ll see several. It’s a very weird sensation: All the stars then seem to move, like an optical illusion,” says Aaron Boley, a planetary astronomer at the University of British Columbia and codirector of the Outer Space Institute. “It’s going to have a much larger effect than people appreciate.” (10/1)

Bezos Wants to Create a Better Future in Space. His Company Blue Origin Is Stuck in a Toxic Past (Source: Lioness)
We are a group of 21 former and current employees of Blue Origin. Many of us have spent our careers dreaming of helping to launch a crewed rocket into space and seeing it safely touch back down on Earth. But when Jeff Bezos flew to space this July, we did not share his elation. Instead, many of us watched with an overwhelming sense of unease. Some of us couldn’t bear to watch at all.

Workforce gender gaps are common in the space industry, but at Blue Origin they also manifest in a particular brand of sexism. Numerous senior leaders have been known to be consistently inappropriate with women. One senior executive in CEO Bob Smith’s loyal inner circle was reported multiple times to Human Resources for sexual harassment. Even so, Smith personally made him a member of the hiring committee for filling a senior HR role in 2019. Click here.

Editor's Note: Blue Origin responded to the Lioness essay and its primary author with the following statement: "Ms. Abrams was dismissed for cause two years ago after repeated warnings for issues involving federal export control regulations. Blue Origin has no tolerance for discrimination or harassment of any kind. We provide numerous avenues for employees, including a 24/7 anonymous hotline, and will promptly investigate any new claims of misconduct." (9/30)

Microgravity On Demand with Earth Return Through ESA's Boost! (Source: Space Daily)
A new round-trip commercial space transportation service from 2022, backed by ESA, will enable companies to manufacture in space very pure and more capable materials, discover new pharmaceutical drugs and bring them back for use on Earth. Space Forge, based in the UK, is working with partners to develop ForgeStar - a reusable suitcase-sized vehicle that can be lofted to space and which will return to Earth after an extended stay in low Earth orbit.

With its quick mission turnaround, ForgeStar will be part of a complete commercial service offering 'microgravity on demand' as a routine access to and return from space service, that can be launched from a variety of launch vehicles. It promises to be more flexible and responsive than existing opportunities, ensure a confidential setting and offer possibilities for customisation and a comfortable return to Earth. (9/28)

Space Force Upskilling Guardians with Process Mapping and Automation (Source: Space Daily)
The Space Force held its first Robotic Process Automation Workshop to explore how to effectively leverage bots to execute repetitive processes, as part of efforts to modernize the world-class fighting force at the speed of relevance. Permanent staff from the U.S. Space Force Space Operations Command, Headquarters U.S. Space Force, Air Force Personnel Center, and Air Force Reserve Personnel Center attended this brief seminar as students to learn how to leverage automation to "delegate away" the repetitive nature of manual tasks.

This class taught students to acknowledge the need to critically assess and identify a higher value process ecosystem to address, not just automate any repetitive process. Furthermore, RPA is all about getting to value up front. During the week-long workshop, students received a brief immersion into the technology from a mix of both government and commercial automation subject matter experts. In order to accommodate students with previous and varying levels of knowledge of RPA technology and/or programming experience, the class also incorporated breakouts for ideation sessions, Human Centered Design, Orchestrator, and advanced developer topics. (9/29)