October 29, 2021

Air Force is First to Face Troops’ Rejection of Vaccine Mandate as Thousands Avoid Shots (Source: Washington Post)
Up to 12,000 Air Force personnel have rejected orders to get fully vaccinated against the coronavirus despite a Pentagon mandate, and officials say it is too late for them to do so by the Tuesday deadline, posing the first major test for military leaders whose August directive has been met with defiance among a segment of the force.

The vast majority of active-duty airmen, more than 96 percent, are at least partially vaccinated, according to data from the Air Force. But officials have warned that, barring an approved medical or religious exemption, those who defy lawful orders to be fully immunized are subject to punishment, including possible dismissal from the service, or they could be charged in the military justice system.

Editor's Note: Apart from the Covid-19 vaccine, DoD already administers 17 different vaccine requirements for the prevention of infectious diseases among military personnel. The vaccines are administered to military personnel on the basis of military occupation, the location of the deployment, and mission requirements. (10/29)

Jupiter's Great Red Spot is "Breaking Our Rules," NASA Data Show (Source: Axios)
Massive and drifting slowly across Jupiter, the Great Red Spot extends hundreds of miles into the planet's atmosphere, new data from NASA's Juno mission reveals. By studying the depths of Jupiter, researchers can learn more about how the planet formed and shaped the development of others in the solar system, and how weather works on other worlds.

Data from two instruments on NASA's Juno mission show the Great Red Spot is between 300 and 500 kilometers, or 186 and 311 miles, deep, according to two papers published today. The white, red and brown hued jet streams surrounding the Great Red Spot are up to 3,000 km (1,800 mi) deep. The intrigue: The roots of the storm extend below the cloud tops, and where, at least on Earth, sunlight warms the atmosphere and creates water vapor that rises, condenses and forms clouds and rain.

Jupiter then goes "beyond our simple ideas of water and sunlight being the only driver of weather. That was really surprising," says Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute and principal investigator of the Juno mission. The finding could help to answer a question that fascinates scientists: how has the storm persisted for centuries? (10/28)

Russia Will Fly Four Tourists Into Space in 2024 (Source: Sputnik)
Earlier this month, a Russian actress and a film director spent 12 days in orbit making the world's first movie in space. Director General of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin said that the space mission for the film crew of "The Challenge" was "a solid five". Glavkosmos, a subsidiary of the Russian State Space Corporation Roscosmos, has signed a preliminary agreement under which two commercial flights of Soyuz spacecraft will be carried out in 2024. (10/28)

Toward the Detection of the Nanohertz Gravitational-Wave Background (Source: Space Daily)
The European Pulsar Timing Array (EPTA) is a scientific collaboration bringing together teams of astronomers around the largest European radio telescopes, as well as groups specialized in data analysis and modelling of gravitational-wave (GW) signals. It has published a detailed analysis of a candidate signal for the since-long sought gravitational-wave background (GWB) due to in-spiraling supermassive black-hole binaries.

Although a detection cannot be claimed yet, this represents another significant step in the effort to finally unveil GWs at very low frequencies, of order one billionth of a Hertz. In fact, the candidate signal has emerged from an unprecedented detailed analysis and using two independent methodologies. Moreover, the signal shares strong similarities with those found from the analyses of other teams. (10/28)

NASA, FEMA Host Alliance For Climate Action Series (Source: Space Daily)
NASA and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) co-hosted the Alliances for Climate Action, a virtual series to address rising demand for accurate, timely, and actionable information at a time of rapid global climate change. The first event, featuring NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, took place on Oct. 6. Attendees throughout the series will learn about progress in climate research, engage with industry peers, and identify opportunities for collaboration. The series is free an open to the public. (10/26)

Are We Alone in the Universe? NASA Calls for a "New Framework" (Source: Space Daily)
How do we understand the significance of new scientific results related to the search for life? When would we be able to say, "yes, extraterrestrial life has been found?" NASA scientists are encouraging the scientific community to establish a new framework that provides context for findings related to the search for life. Writing in the journal Nature, they propose creating a scale for evaluating and combining different lines of evidence that would ultimately lead to answering the ultimate question: Are we alone in the universe? (10/28)

To Shore Up U.S. Space Dominance, Biden Administration Must Boost Japan-U.S. Alliance (Source: Space News)
“While America is still the dominant military power on the planet today, we are being more effectively challenged militarily than at any other time in our history,” said U.S. Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall in September. Nowhere has this been more evident than in space. Gen. John Raymond, chief of the U.S. Space Force, pointedly stated that China is “developing a series of capabilities to deny us our access to space and to keep us from having those advantages.”

Of particular concern, Raymond cited reversible jammers, directed energy weapons, such as lasers, and kinetic missiles as examples of technologies that China could use to disable or destroy U.S. or allied satellites. Enter Japan. For several years, Washington and Tokyo have coordinated on military projects, but they have been inhibited by structural impediments on both sides. As the Biden administration looks for ways to counter China in space, here is a recipe that leverages Japan’s considerable capabilities. (10/28)

Florida Is Suing Biden Administration—and NASA—Over Federal Vaccine Mandate (Source: Daily Beast)
The state of Florida, under Gov. Ron DeSantis, is filing suit against the Biden administration—and NASA—to halt the COVID-19 vaccine mandate imposed on federal contractors. The lawsuit, announced by Attorney General Ashley Moody, argues that even if Biden had the authority to carry out such a mandate under the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949, doing so would still be unconstitutional because “the manner in which they were enacted violates fundamental principles of administrative and procurement law.”

The lawsuit alleges the government is simply paying “lip service” to improve the economy and federal procurement efficiency and that the real goal is to “get more people vaccinated and decrease the spread of COVID-19.” However, the latter has been made very clear by the Biden administration since day one. The state unabashedly claims that the mandate would cause irreparable harm and “interfere with Florida’s employment policies and threaten Florida with economic harm and the loss of federal contracts,” including its frequent collaborations with the U.S. space program. Florida has reported nearly 59,000 deaths from the virus. (10/28)

First Lunar Constellation Satellite to Travel to the Moon in 2023 (Source: Parabolic Arc)
Plus Ultra Space Outpost (Plus Ultra) and Rocket Factory Augsburg AG (RFA) have jointly signed an agreement for launching a demonstrator mission to the Moon. RFA will launch Plus Ultra’s demonstrator mission towards the end of 2023 on the RFA ONE launch system. Plus Ultra’s first satellite will launch into a geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO), from where it will use its own propulsion to reach lunar orbit and become the first satellite to initialize Plus Ultra’s cis-lunar constellation “Harmony”. The satellite will also be the first private orbiter with electric propulsion going to and orbiting the Moon.

Through Harmony’s commercial communications and navigation services for upcoming lunar missions, Plus Ultra will change the paradigm of lunar operations. It’ll turn communications and navigation from a carefully managed resource into an on-demand, dependable service that enables new capabilities on the Moon, like continuous remote operations, pinpoint landings, precise surface navigation, and polar and far side access. The satellite will reach its operational orbit in 2024, providing the first 24/7 high-speed broadband communications of up to 100 Mbps per user between the Moon, including cis-lunar orbit, and anywhere on Earth. (10/28)

A Once-Quiet Battle to Replace the Space Station Suddenly is Red Hot (Source: Ars Technica)
The sprawling International Space Station—so long a beacon of hope, unity, and technological achievement; so gleaming and bright it can be seen from a city's downtown as it passes overhead—is nearer the end of its life than the beginning. And time is running out to replace the station before it's gone. Now, we're finally getting a glimpse of what the future might look like and how fierce the competition may be.

A Houston-based company called Axiom Space has been most public about its intentions, talking for a few years now about developing the world's "first commercial space station." But this week, two other options emerged for NASA: Nanoracks and Lockheed Martin announced their intent to build a space station called "Starlab," and another team led by Blue Origin and Sierra Space revealed plans to construct an "Orbital Reef." There will likely be more bidders soon offering private station concepts as well.

For the first time, Congress looks like it will appropriate significant funding for what NASA calls "Commercial LEO Destinations." And the government money may eventually get much, much bigger. Presently, NASA spends about $4 billion annually for its low-Earth-orbit program. This includes maintenance of the space station itself, cargo and crew transportation, space communications, and more. No one expects NASA to spend this much on commercial space stations, but it will need to spend a sizable fraction of its current ISS budget if any of these commercial stations are to be fully realized. (10/28)

‘Hundreds’ Of China Hypersonic Tests vs. 9 US; Hyten Says US Moves Too Slowly (Source: Breaking Defense)
In what may be his valedictory remarks as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. John Hyten continued his quest to prod the Pentagon acquisition elephant to move faster. One telling example: China, he said, has performed “hundreds” of tests of hypersonic weapons in the last five years, compared to nine the United States has performed.

How did it come to this? Hyten pointed to a a painting, located on the fourth floor of the Pentagon, to illustrate how things have changed for the US military since the days of the space race. [With our first satellite launchers] our approach at the time was to test and instrument the heck out of it, fail, learn what failed, build another one, fire, learn what failed. Build another one, fire it, learn what failed. If you want to go fast,” he said. “That’s what you do.”

But for the Pentagon, there are myriad obstacles in the way of such an approach these days. There’s the bureaucracy. There’s Congress. And, Hyten said, of course there’s the media. “So now, whatever you’re testing, whether it’s a missile, an airplane, missile defense system, if it fails, you guys put it on the front page of every newspaper in the world, in the country, that says, ‘missile defense test fails.’ There’s one test that we actually meant to fail because we were trying to drive it to failure. And the headline still said, ‘missile defense test fails,’ and there’s hearings and everything that we go through and we stopped for two years.” (10/28)

On the 50th Anniversary of Black Arrow, British Space Industry is on the Verge of a Return (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
Fifty years ago, a small rocket lifted off from the Australian Outback on a mission of contradictions. While the launch of Black Arrow R3 with the Prospero satellite aboard would be Britain’s first successful satellite launch, it also marked the end of the country’s ambitions to be a major player in the space industry. Over the following decades, the British space industry has re-grown and now stands ready to reach again for the stars.

Deploying Prospero was the last in a series of four missions for the Black Arrow program, which included two suborbital tests and a failed orbital launch attempt before the successful launch, which took place on 28 October 1971. Successfully orbiting a satellite – making the UK the sixth country to demonstrate an orbital launch capability – marked the pinnacle of Britain’s rocketry program. However, by the time of the launch, the end of the project had already been confirmed, with foreign launchers seen as a cheaper alternative.

The advent of small commercial launch vehicles around the world in the last few years has drawn interest from companies in Britain, with two startups – Orbex and Skyrora – now in a race to succeed Black Arrow and make Britain’s second satellite launch. Orbex is developing its Prime rocket, while Skyrora is building the Skyrora-XL vehicle. With both companies currently targeting late 2022 for their first launch and developing launch facilities in the United Kingdom, the race is on. Two US companies, ABL Space Systems and Virgin Orbit, have also expressed an interest in launching from the United Kingdom. (10/28)

DoD Space Agency Changes Course on Satellite Procurement in Wake of Maxar’s Protest (Source: Space News)
In response to a protest filed Oct. 8 by Maxar Technologies, the Defense Department’s Space Development Agency is canceling a solicitation issued Aug. 30 seeking bids for 126 satellites and will start over with a new procurement, the agency said. SDA is pulling back the request for proposals (RFP) for the Transport Layer Tranche 1 — a mesh network of small communications satellites in low Earth orbit projected to start launching in 2024.

The RFP drew a protest from Maxar which filed a complaint with the Government Accountability Office challenging the solicitation on grounds that the terms unfairly favored certain companies over others. “There was an appearance that we limited competition,” said SDA Director Derek Tournear. GAO dismissed the protest after SDA agreed to cancel the solicitation and reopen a new one under a different contracting mechanism known as Other Transaction Authority. (10/28)

Moon Motorcycle Concept by Russian Automotive Designer is Just Wild (Source: Space.com)
Andrew Fabishevskiy, a Moscow-based automotive and industrial designer, has created a concept design for a lunar motorcycle and hopes to build a full-size prototype. Inspired by the Lunar Rover Vehicle used on Apollo 15, 16 and 17, Fabishevskiy took the notion of a simple electric bike and conceptualized a trellis framework that would contain the battery and integral component parts. Click here. (10/28)

Satellite Maker Terran Orbital Strikes $1.58 Billion SPAC Deal (Sources: Wall Street Journal, Space News)
Satellite maker Terran Orbital Corp. is merging with a special-purpose acquisition company to go public at a $1.58 billion valuation, the companies said, the latest in a string of space-related companies to list through a SPAC. Florida-based Terran designs and builds satellites for customers including NASA, ESA, DoD, and EchoStar Corp. , a provider of satellite and internet communication services.

The transaction, expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2022, would list Terran Orbital shares on the New York Stock Exchange with an initial valuation of $1.58 billion. Terran Orbital is merging with Tailwind Two Acquisition Corp., a SPAC that holds $345 million in capital. A concurrent private investment in public equity (PIPE) round is providing an additional $50 million.

Terran Orbital announced an agreement last month with Space Florida to establish a manufacturing facility at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport large enough to produce more than 1,000 satellites per year. In addition to filling customer orders, Terran Orbital is establishing its own constellation of small Earth-observation satellites to offer customers speedy access to global imagery captured day and night thanks to synthetic-aperture radar. (10/28)