November 19, 2021

UCF Names Its Microgravity Research Center in Honor of Stephen W. Hawking (Source: UCF)
The University of Central Florida today is one step closer to becoming the first American university to name a research center after the late, world-renowned theoretical physicist Stephen W. Hawking. The UCF’s Board of Trustees unanimously approved on Thursday that UCF’s Center for Microgravity Research, would now be known as the Stephen W. Hawking Center for Microgravity Research and Education. The last step will be approval by the Space Florida Board of Directors.

The establishment of this Center brings to fulfillment Professor Hawking’s personal aspiration to support microgravity space research in the United States. That enthusiasm was generated years ago after a Zero-gravity flight at the Cape sponsored by Space Florida, which then connected him with UCF. In the ensuing years, UCF continued to build its reputation as a space research institution and a team of specialists formed the Center for Microgravity Research. Physics Professor Joshua Colwell, who has worked on multiple NASA missions, began collaborating with a team of colleagues and students to build expertise in microgravity research – a key area of interest for Hawking.

Editor's Note: As I recall it, this would have happened years ago if an influential local legislator didn't object to the re-naming on the grounds that Dr. Hawking was an atheist. (11/19)

Sierra Space Raises $1.4 Billion for Commercial Space Station (Source: Space News)
Sierra Space announced Friday it has raised $1.4 billion to further development of key elements of a commercial space station. The company, spun off from Sierra Nevada Corporation in April, raised a Series A round led by General Atlantic, Coatue and Moore Strategic Ventures, with participation from several other investors. The round values Sierra Space at $4.5 billion. The company says the funding will accelerate development of its Dream Chaser spacecraft and LIFE habitat, both part of the Orbital Reef commercial space station concept announced last month. (11/19)

New Report Calls for US Long-Term Strategic Vision for Space (Source: Space News)
U.S. national security space organizations released a report Thursday proposing ways to boost the nation's space economy and technology base. The "State of the Space Industrial Base 2021" report concluded that while investment in space is at an all-time high, it lacks a long-term vision that poses strategic concerns. The report argues that the government, particularly the Defense Department and intelligence community, should better support the space industry by procuring commercially provided services rather than develop systems in-house. It also backs plans for a "space superhighway" that takes advantage of commercial innovations for in-space logistics to build infrastructure. Both NASA and the U.S. Space Force endorsed the report. (11/19)

SES Orders Two Satellites from Thales Alenia (Source: Space News)
SES ordered two replacement Ku-band communications satellites Thursday for broadcast services. Thales Alenia Space will build the ASTRA 1P and ASTRA 1Q spacecraft for a launch in 2024 to 19.2 degrees East, where they will serve major broadcasters across Germany, France and Spain. ASTRA 1Q will feature a software-defined payload that will allow it to be reprogrammed for other applications if needed. (11/19)

Court Concluded Blue Origin Had No Chance of Winning Lunar Lander Contract (Source: Space News)
A federal court opinion released Thursday explained why Blue Origin lost its lawsuit regarding NASA's Human Landing System program. The court concluded that Blue Origin did not have standing in the case because it did not have a "substantial chance" of winning an award, and that even if it had standing, it would have lost on the merits of the case. The opinion revealed that Blue Origin, which in July offered to cut its price by $2 billion, increased its offer during court arguments to more than $3 billion. It also claimed that it would have proposed a single-element lander, like SpaceX's Starship, had it known how NASA would treat flight readiness reviews. The court rejected those and other Blue Origin arguments in dismissing the case. (11/19)

Iceye and US Army Explore Use of SAR Imagery (Source: Space News)
The U.S. subsidiary of Finnish synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging company Iceye has signed a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Army. Under the cooperative research and development agreement with the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Technical Center, the organizations will work together to explore ways the Army can benefit from access to SAR imagery and data. The topics include SAR satellite tasking, SAR data downlink, image processing and image dissemination to meet various Army and Defense Department requirements. [SpaceNews]

SPAC Fatigue Slows Deal Development (Source: Space News)
SPAC deals, which were very active in space and other industries early this year, are waning in interest. At a conference this week, a Morgan Stanley director said the market "fatigue" in SPACs is demonstrated by a sharp decrease in funding going into concurrent investment rounds called PIPEs, as well as higher rates of redemption by shareholders of SPACs. That creates significant uncertainty in how much capital a company will get through a SPAC merger. The SPAC market likely won't improve, he concluded, until companies that have gone public through SPACs demonstrate they can meet their technical and financial milestones. (11/19)

Tyvak to Put Air Force Satellite in Very Low Orbit (Source: Space News)
Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems has won an Air Force contract for an experimental satellite in very low Earth orbit (VLEO). The $8.4 million contract by the Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles Directorate is for the Precise flight experiment, which seeks to better understand the physics of the upper atmosphere. Tyvak will supply a spacecraft for the experiment that will be capable of maneuvering between LEO and VLEO, defined as altitudes of 250 to 450 kilometers, for conducting sensor payload measurements. The mission is scheduled to launch in 2024. (11/19)

Astra Scrubs Alaska Launch Attempt, Plans Friday Night Try (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
Astra scrubbed a launch attempt of its Rocket 3.3 vehicle last night. After more than two hours of delays, the company scrubbed the launch a little after 2 a.m. Eastern with about 11 minutes left in the countdown, but did not disclose the reason for the scrub. Astra said earlier in the evening it was monitoring upper-level winds. The launch is rescheduled for Friday night in a window that opens at midnight Eastern. (11/19)

Wilson to Lead Northrop Grumman Space Unit (Source: Northrop Grumman)
Northrop Grumman has selected Tom Wilson as the new head of its space systems unit. Wilson will become corporate vice president and president of Northrop Grumman Space Systems in January. He is currently general manager of Northrop Grumman's Strategic Space Systems division. Wilson will succeed Blake Larson, who is retiring in February after more than 40 years with Northrop and legacy companies. (11/19)

Ukraine's Plus Ultra Plans Lunar Satcom Constellation (Source: Space News)
Plus Ultra will launch the first in a series of communications satellites to provide services at the moon.That mission, set to launch in the fourth quarter of 2023, would see the roughly 400-kilogram satellite sent into geosynchronous transfer orbit, then use its electric thrusters to go to lunar orbit. The satellite is the first in a constellation called Harmony intended to provide high-bandwidth communications for missions on and around the moon. (11/19)

Startup Outpost Plans Inflatabe Heat Shield for Returning Payloads to Earth (Source: Space News)
Two Made In Space co-founders teamed up with a paragliding expert to found a startup focused on returning satellites and payloads from orbit. Outpost plans to return satellites weighing about 200 kilograms using an inflatable heat shield and guided landing by paraglider. Outpost executives are talking with prospective customers who are developing space hardware, sensors and payloads that they would like to return from orbit. (11/19)

Minerva Space Technologies Raises $150 Million for NFT Space Applications (Source: Space News)
A startup seeks to use a technology associated with cryptocurrency and digital collectables for space domain awareness. Minerva Space Technologies has secured a $150 million credit facility to fund work on technology using non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that would contain information about observations of satellites and debris. Minerva plans to correlate visual observations with radar and telemetry from public and private sources to provide a clear picture of the space domain. In addition, Minerva plans to operate satellites and sensors in geostationary and cislunar space. (11/19)

Schedule Complications Delay ULA Launch of GOES-T Satellite From February to March (Source: NOAA)
The launch of a NOAA weather satellite has slipped a couple weeks. NOAA said Thursday that the GOES-T weather satellite will launch on an Atlas 5 on March 1, rather than Feb. 16 as previously announced. NOAA said that "shifts in launch dates for missions scheduled ahead of GOES-T" caused the delay. GOES-T is the third in a series of four GOES-R geostationary weather satellites. Editor's Note: No specifics as to whether this delay was caused by ULA scheduling or Eastern Range scheduling. This mission was previously delayed from Dec. 7 and Jan. 8. (11/19)

Life on Mars Search Could Be Misled by False Fossils (Source: Space Daily)
Mars explorers searching for signs of ancient life could be fooled by fossil-like specimens created by chemical processes, research suggests. Rocks on Mars may contain numerous types of non-biological deposits that look similar to the kinds of fossils likely to be found if the planet ever supported life, a study says. Telling these false fossils apart from what could be evidence of ancient life on the surface of Mars - which was temporarily habitable four billion years ago - is key to the success of current and future missions, researchers say.

Astrobiologists from the Universities of Edinburgh and Oxford reviewed evidence of all known processes that could have created lifelike deposits in rocks on Mars. They identified dozens of processes - with many more likely still undiscovered - that can produce structures that mimic those of microscopic, simple lifeforms that may once have existed on Mars. (11/18)

NASA's Perseverance Rover on Mars Just Collected its 3rd Sample (Source: Space.com)
NASA's Perseverance rover has socked away another Martian sample to send home to Earth. The car-sized Perseverance rover drilled a core sample on Monday (Nov. 15), filling a titanium tube with Red Planet rock for the third time ever. "Another little piece of Mars to carry with me. My latest sample is from a rock loaded with the greenish mineral olivine, and there are several ideas among my science team about how it got there...," Perseverance team members wrote via the rover's official Twitter account . (11/17)

NASA Scientist 'Certain' of Life on Mars After Taking Images on Planet's Surface (Source: Mirror)
Before his death earlier this year aged 97, NASA scientist Gilbert V. Levin was convinced he had found life on Mars. It was sparked by Levin supervising NASA's Viking space probe programme 45 years earlier, where a pair of unmanned space missions landed on the red planet. The aim of the program, which was the first from earth to touch down on Mars, was to detect any gas or microorganisms on the planet's surface. Using a testing method called Labeled Release (LR), the Viking landers conducted experiments in four separate locations. They also took the first high-resolution pictures of its surface.

Why didn't other scientists believe Gilbert V. Levin's theory of life on Mars? Levin's discovery wasn't steadfast with another experiment using a different method, the Viking Molecular Analysis Experiment, returning no evidence of organic substances. The second discovery led to the conclusion that what Levin's probe had found was instead likely to be, "mimicking life, but not life." Levin however, didn't accept the conclusions from the second probe. In 2019 he wrote: “Inexplicably, over the 43 years since Viking none of NASA’s subsequent Mars landers has carried a life detection instrument to follow up on these exciting results.”

Levin also claimed that much of the microbial discoveries on mars could have actually come from earth. This theory was supported by NASA scientist Chris McKay who agreed that the two planets had undoubtedly been “swapping spit” for billions of years. Levin's findings may have since gained backing after an experiment that indicated that micro-organisms could survive in the brutal cold and radiation was carried out on the outside of the International Space Station, indicting that microorganisms could also live on Mars. (11/18)

McDowell: Starlink Satellites Threatened by ASAT Debris (Source: Business Insider)
Some of the Russian ASAT debris is likely to fall into similar altitudes as Starlink, the network of satellites that Elon Musk's SpaceX sent into orbit to beam internet back to Earth. Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said the debris could crash into Starlink satellites as it spreads. Starlink's network is made up of close to 2,000 satellites, so the impact of any individual loss on the overall network would likely be small.

"If [a satellite] gets hit by one of the bigger pieces of debris... it could completely destroy the satellite into thousands of more pieces," McDowell said. That in turn could create a small chain event. "You could see debris hitting the satellites, causing more debris that then hits more satellites." (11/17)

Russia Ready to Discuss All Space Security Issues With US (Source: Sputnik)
Russia is ready to discuss the entire spectrum of space security issues with all interested countries, including the US. "We confirm our readiness to discuss the entire spectrum of space security issues with all interested states, including the United States. We are convinced that the launch of negotiations on an international agreement prohibiting the deployment of any types of weapons in space, the use or threat of the use of force against or with space objects - the right way to reduce tensions and relieve states' concerns in the context of ensuring the safety of space activities," Maria Zakharova said. (11/18)

Russian MoD: US Perfectly Aware Fragments of Downed Satellite Pose No Threat to Space Activities (Source: Sputnik)
The Russian military confirmed Tuesday that it has carried out a successful test Monday involving the destruction of a dead Soviet Tselina-D radio-surveillance satellite, and stressed that the United States is well aware fragments of the satellite pose no threat to space stations, satellites or space activities in general.

"The Russian Ministry of Defence considers hypocritical the statements of the representatives of the State Department and the Pentagon, who attempted to accuse the Russian Federation of causing 'risks' to cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station and called for the 'development of universal norms that would govern the world community in space exploration'," the ministry said in a statement.

Russia, the military stressed, has repeatedly proposed initiatives at the United Nations to prevent the deployment of weapons in outer space, but these initiatives have been struck down and blocked by the United States. "The draft treaty has been submitted to the UN. However, the United States and its allies are blocking its adoption. Washington openly declares that it does not want to be bound by any obligations in space." (11/18)

France Boosts Space Surveillance (Source: Space Daily)
France on Tuesday boosted its space surveillance capabilities with the launch of three electromagnetic-monitoring military satellites, one of only four nations known to operate this kind of technology. A Vega rocket carrying the Ceres satellites took off from Kourou in French Guiana, and placed them into orbit soon after.

Unlike conventional surveillance satellites, these are able to locate items emitting electromagnetic energy at all times of the day and night, in all weather including from behind clouds. France joins the United States, China and Russia in operating such technology, part of a space defence strategy unveiled in 2019 to deal with emerging threats to its interests in orbit. (11/16)

China and Russia Set Up Space Weather Monitoring Center (Source: Space Daily)
A space weather center set up by China and Russia began operating on Tuesday to provide services for aviation operators around the world. The China-Russia Consortium Global Space Weather Center monitors space weather events including solar activities and releases advisories for aviation operators, said Zhang Xiaoxin, director of the National Satellite Meteorological Center's space weather department. (11/18)

Latest Vega Launch Paves Way for Vega-C (Source: Space Daily)
Last week's Vega mission will be followed by Vega's successor, Vega-C, which will take its first flight in 2022. This starts the transition to Vega-C where for a period, both vehicles will be used. ESA's Vega-C, developed and built by prime contractor Avio in Italy, will be able to perform more launches per year than Vega and offers 800 kg more payload capacity to multiple orbits.

Vega-C is more powerful than Vega and has a larger fairing but will keep the same launch cost as Vega. This is partly achieved through sharing the same P120C motor with Ariane 6 to reduce recurring costs and thus reduce the launch cost per kilogram. Vega-C will use a range of payload carriers for different shapes and sizes of payloads from 1 kg to 2300 kg.. (11/18)

Spain's Pangea Aerospace Hot Fire Tests World's First MethaLox Aerospike Engine (Source: Space Daily)
Pangea Aerospace, a company from Barcelona, has fired several times the first MethaLox aerospike engine in the world in their first try, at DLR Lampoldshausen facilities. The company has reached a major milestone for rocket propulsion, after the success of the hot fire test campaign of its aerospike engine. Pangea Aerosapce has ignited and hot fired several times a 20kN regeneratively cooled aerospike engine, called DemoP1.

The engine is extremely low cost to produce, as it is completely additively manufactured (metallic 3D printing) in only two pieces. Pangea Aerospace has been able to improve solve the thermal problem of this kind of engine (they are very difficult to cool down) thanks to additive manufacturing and new materials, such as GR Cop42 (a NASA developed copper alloy). (11/18)

Spain's PLD Space Exhibits the First Privately-Developed Spanish Rocket (Source: Space Daily)
PLD Space has achieved a new milestone with the official presentation in Madrid of its MIURA 1 rocket, that has been exhibited fully assembled for the first time in the capital's National Museum of Natural Science. This suborbital vehicle is a key step in launch vehicle development, a pathfinder for MIURA 5 development. From the beginning, the objective of PLD Space has been to become the European Microlauncher Company, through the use of reusable rockets dedicated to the launch of small satellites. (11/18)

Germany Calls for Space Security Rules After Russian ASAT Test (Source: Space Daily)
Germany's government said Tuesday it was "very concerned" by Russia's destruction of one of its own satellites during a missile test, calling for urgent measures to "strengthen security and confidence." ... "We call on all states to engage constructively in this process and in the development of principles for responsible behaviour in space," the Germany foreign ministry said in a statement. (11/16)

Pentagon Scrambles to Defend ‘Juicy Targets’ After Rivals’ Space Tests (Source: Defense One)
Russia’s direct ascent anti-satellite launch Monday is adding urgency to the U.S. Space Force’s efforts to better defend U.S. space assets, and has left the Pentagon questioning the implications of Russia’s decision to launch, even when it put its own cosmonauts in danger. “What we’re seeing Russia demonstrate is a weapon. If they can destroy a Russian satellite, they can destroy an American satellite,” U.S. Space Force Lt. Gen. Nina M. Armagno said Wednesday at the Ascend space conference in Las Vegas. “It’s not just Russia, it’s China as well.”

Monday’s ASAT test and China’s July test of a hypersonic missile that entered space and orbited the globe has the Pentagon working quickly to develop countermeasures, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters Wednesday. “We are concerned about the weaponization of space,” Austin said. “We're working as hard as we can to ensure that we can defend ourselves against a range of threats going forward.” (11/17)