November 30, 2021

Pulsar Fusion Demonstrates Green Mach-7 Rocket in Switzerland (Source: Space Daily)
On Saturday 26 November, In the sleepy mountain town of Gstaad - Switzerland, British company Pulsar Fusion demonstrated its latest green hybrid rocket engine.

An impressive visual plume effect of supersonic shock diamonds, typical of a high temperature high mass flow rate rocket exhaust, could be seen through the snowstorm as the team operated the engine in quickly changing conditions. The exhaust speeds of the engine were recorded at Mach 7. This engine would be capable of launching a small rocket to an altitude of several 10s of km, well above UK airspace, or powering the upper stage of a rocket with a larger booster stage into orbit. (11/30)

A  New Approach to Flagship Space Telescopes (Source: Space Review)
The long-awaited astrophysics decadal survey, with its recommendations for future space-based observatories, was finally released in early November. Jeff Foust reports on how the decadal, rather than recommending a single large mission, offered a new approach for doing a series of such missions in the next few decades. Click here. (11/29)
 
How America Wins the Future (Source: Space Review)
The National Space Council meets this week for the first time in the Biden Administration. Frank Slazer argues the meeting is a prime opportunity for the White House to demonstrate its commitment to securing American leadership in space. Click here. (11/29)
 
Space Law hHasn’t Been Changed Since 1967, But the UN Aims to Update Laws and Keep Space Peaceful (Source: Space Review)
Russia’s antisatellite test comes as the United Nations considers a proposal for studying norms of behavior for space activities. Michelle Hanlon and Greg Autry explain how that UN effort is a major step forward in addressing the limitations of existing international space law. Click here. (11/29)

No Damage to JWST as NASA and Arianespace Prepare for Dec. 22 Launch (Source: Space News)
NASA says engineers found no signs of damage to the James Webb Space Telescope from a payload processing incident earlier this month. The agency said late Wednesday that tests showed no evidence of harm to any components after a clamp band securing the spacecraft to a launch vehicle adapter unexpectedly released, imparting vibrations to the spacecraft. Fueling of JWST was scheduled to start late last week, keeping the spacecraft on track for a revised launch date of Dec. 22. (11/29)

Raytheon, SEAKR Merger Finalized (Source: Defense News)
Raytheon Technologies has completed the acquisition of SEAKR Engineering, with SEAKR and its 540 employees coming under the Raytheon Intelligence & Space unit. SEAKR's autonomous mission management is part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Project Blackjack. (11/30)

Intelsat and SES Now Eligible for $2 Billion for Clearing C-Band Spectrum (Source: Space News)
Intelsat and SES will get more than $2 billion after beating a deadline for clearing part of the C-band spectrum in the U.S. The companies said the FCC validated the completion of activities necessary for vacating a 120-megahertz swath of the spectrum by Dec. 5, making them eligible for accelerated clearing payments. Satellite operators have two more years to clear the rest of the 300-megahertz band for terrestrial 5G services, with $9.7 billion in total payments offered to them. (11/29)

Astroscale Raises $109 Million for Satellite Servicing and Debris Removal (Source: Space News)
Astroscale raised $109 million in a new funding round Thursday. The company raised the Series F round from Japanese and European investors, bringing the total amount raised by the Tokyo-based company to $300 million. Astroscale says it will use the funds to accelerate several projects to service satellites and remove debris. It plans to continue tests of its ELSA-d satellite, demonstrating technologies to capture debris, later this year. (11/29)

430-Foot Asteroid Expected to Swipe Past Earth on Monday (Source: Space Daily)
An asteroid that measures the same size as the height of the Great Pyramid of Giza, is expected to pass by Earth on Monday afternoon, according to NASA. The 430-foot asteroid, 1994 WR12, will pass by our planet at a distance of 3.8 million miles. The space rock was first identified in 1994 by American astronomer Carolyn S. Shoemaker. NASA's official measurement puts the asteroid at closer to 390 feet and says it will whisk past Earth by 3.82 million miles. (11/29)

OneWeb May Use Astroscale to De-Orbit Satellite (Source: Space News)
OneWeb may consider Astroscale's services to remove a defunct satellite. OneWeb says that one of its satellites, launched last February, failed in orbit because of a software issue shortly after completing its orbit-raising maneuvers. The company, which has emphasized its commitment to space sustainability, says it will consider options from companies like Astroscale to deorbit that satellite but added it's still "very early days" in those plans. (11/29)

Russia Launches Military Satellite (Source: TASS)
Russia launched a military satellite Wednesday night. A Soyuz-2.1b rocket lifted off at 8:09 p.m. Eastern from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome and placed its payload into a highly elliptical orbit. Russian officials did not disclose the mission of the satellite, but it is believed to be the latest in a series of missile early warning spacecraft. (11/29)

Here’s What it Takes to Transport a NOAA Satellite to From Colorado to Florida (Source: Florida Today)
The unmistakable roar of four jet engines broke the dead-of-night silence at Kennedy Space Center earlier this month, marking the arrival of a massive Air Force transport at the landing facility once used for space shuttles. But this red-eye flight from Buckley Space Force Base near Denver, Colorado, had more than just a few dozen passengers onboard. Deep in the belly of the C-5M Super Galaxy was a full-blown semitruck ready to roll out with a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather satellite in an attached container. Click here. (11/28)

Spain's PLD Space Prepares for Suborbital Test Flight (Source: Space News)
PLD Space, the Spanish launch vehicle startup, is preparing for a suborbital test flight next year. The company showed off a fully assembled Miura 1 reusable suborbital rocket earlier this month ahead of tests that will lead up to a flight in the second half of 2022. The rocket is designed to reach a maximum altitude of 150 kilometers while carrying a payload of up to 100 kilograms and is a stepping stone to the company's Miura 5 orbital rocket. (11/29)

Companies Want to Extend Crypto and Blockchain Networks to Space (Source: Space News)
Companies are examining ways to extend cryptocurrency networks to space. Blockstream Satellite and SpaceChain are among the companies testing the use of satellites to transmit cryptocurrency transactions either using capacity on existing communications satellites or by developing their own spacecraft. SpaceChain installed an Ethereum node on the ISS in August to conduct tests to ensure the node can perform secure transactions. (11/29)

Biden Taps Former Air Force Procurement Official LaPlante to Run Pentagon Acquisitions (Source: Space News)
President Biden has nominated William LaPlante to be the Defense Department’s top procurement official, the White House announced Nov. 30. LaPlante, if confirmed by the Senate, will fill the post of undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, which has been vacant since Ellen Lord stepped down Jan. 20. Biden in April tapped the director of the Defense Innovation Unit Michael Brown to run DoD acquisitions but Brown withdrew his nomination in July. (11/30)

France and Italy Agree on Launcher Cooperation for Ariane 6 and Vega C (Source: Reuters)
The governments of France and Italy signed an agreement to continue cooperation on launch vehicle development. The deal, announced Friday, ensures continued collaboration between the countries on the Ariane 6 and Vega C. Both vehicles are scheduled to make their inaugural launches next year. (11/29)

ESA's Solar Orbiter Makes Earth Flyby for Gravity Boost (Source: ESA)
The European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter swung by Earth early Saturday. The spacecraft passed just 460 kilometers above the Earth during the gravity assist flyby, intended to line up the spacecraft for a series of Venus flybys to put the spacecraft in its final science orbit to study the sun. The spacecraft was in good condition after the flyby. (11/29)

Galileo Pathfinder Satellite Ends Service (Source: SSTL)
The pathfinder satellite for Europe's Galileo satellite navigation system has been decommissioned. Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) said last week that it shut down the GIOVE-A satellite, which it built, nearly 16 years after its launch. GIOVE-A launched in late 2005 to put into service the spectrum that the Galileo system would later use for navigation services. ESA used GIOVE-A for several years then handed it back to SSTL, which used the satellite for tests such as measurements of the radiation environment in medium Earth orbit. (11/29)

ISS Spacewalk Delayed by Debris Risk (Source: Space News)
NASA postponed an International Space Station spacewalk scheduled for this morning because of a "debris notification." NASA announced overnight that the spacewalk by astronauts Thomas Marshburn and Kayla Barron was postponed after the agency was notified of an unspecified piece of space debris and concluded it did not have enough time to assess the risk. NASA has not set a new date for the spacewalk.

At a briefing Monday, station managers said they concluded the additional debris created by Russia's ASAT test two weeks ago created only a small additional risk for the spacewalk that was "in family" with risks in past spacewalks. Separately, the leadership of the Senate Commerce Committee, citing the recent ASAT test, sent a letter Monday to Vice President Kamala Harris, asking her to make space sustainability an issue at this week's National Space Council meeting. The senators also wrote Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, asking for an update on space traffic management work at the department. (11/30)

Russian and Chinese Military Space Efforts Inevitable Given US Focus (Source: Space News)
Counterspace activities by China and Russia are a "natural consequence" of U.S. reliance on space assets, a Space Force general says. Lt. Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, deputy chief of operations for the Space Force, said at an event Monday that Russia's ASAT test and China's recent demonstration of an orbital hypersonic weapon are evidence of work by both countries to deny the U.S. access to space assets the military relies upon in a conflict. He said the U.S. is looking for ways to counter those weapons while also pushing for a framework for "responsible behavior" in space. "The Space Force sees as one its primary responsibilities to deter a war that starts or extends into space," he said. (11/30)

China's ADA Space Raises $55.6 Million for 192-Satellite Constellation (Source: Space News)
Chinese satellite imaging company ADA Space raised $55.6 million. The Series B round was led by Hengjian Holding, an investment vehicle of the Guangdong Provincial People's government. The company is planning a constellation of 192 satellites to provide imagery at resolutions of 1 to 4 meters and is developing artificial intelligence tools for analyzing those images. (11/30)
 
DARPA Tackles Space Manufacturing (Source: Space News)
DARPA is starting the Defense Department's first project related to space manufacturing. DARPA's biological technologies office has kicked off a project called called B-SURE, short for biomanufacturing, survival, utility and reliability beyond Earth, that will study adapting microbes to space conditions in a way that could allow "in-space production of molecules relevant to space flight," according to the agency. DARPA called B-SURE "an important first step in addressing fundamental biomanufacturing questions to develop this capability." (11/30)

Virgin Orbit Plans Board of Directors (Source: Virgin Orbit)
Virgin Orbit has announced its proposed board of directors once the company completes its merger with a SPAC. The company said Monday the board would include Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart and the two co-founders of NextGen Acquisition Corp. II, the SPAC that announced in August its intent to merge with Virgin Orbit. The board would also include representatives from the Virgin Group and Mubadala, an earlier investor in Virgin Orbit, as well as former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Acquisition Katrina McFarland and former Air Force general and NASA astronaut Susan Helms. (11/30)

JAXA Plans Industry Consortium to Develop Reusable Launcher (Source: Nikkei)
The Japanese space agency JAXA plans to work with a group of companies on a reusable launch vehicle project. As many as 30 companies, including Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and ANA Holdings, will be part of the effort to develop a reusable vehicle that could perform its first launch in 2030. The project is intended to keep Japan's launch industry competitive amid efforts by SpaceX in particular to develop reusable rockets that can sharply reduce launch costs. (11/30)

India Plans Uncrewed Tests of Crew Spacecraft (Source: Hindustan Times)
India plans to perform two uncrewed tests for its Gaganyaan human spaceflight program next year. The first of the two test flights of the spacecraft could take place as early as January, said Jitendra Singh, minister of state for space in the Indian government. That schedule would allow for a first crewed flight in 2023. The Gaganyaan program originally had a goal of launching humans by August 2022, but suffered delays because of the pandemic. (11/30)

NASA Restores Another Hubble Instrument (Source: NASA)
NASA has restored operations of another instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope. NASA said Monday that engineers recovered the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on Sunday, the third instrument restored since a problem with synchronization messages put the instruments into safe mode last month. The project is working on software changes to prevent a similar safe mode from happening in the future. (11/30)

Astronomers Discover Ancient Brown Dwarf with Lithium Deposits Intact (Source: Space News)
A team of researchers at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) and the Instituto Nacional de Astrofisica, Optica y Electronica (INAOE), Mexico, has discovered lithium in the oldest and coldest brown dwarf where the presence of this valuable element has been confirmed so far. This substellar object, called Reid 1B, preserves intact the earliest known lithium deposit in our cosmic neighbourhood, dating back to a time before the formation of the binary system to which it belongs. (11/26)

SpaceNews Picks "Private Astronauts" as 2021 Awardee (Source: Space News)
More than 20 private astronauts — individuals on suborbital and orbital flights not conducted on behalf of government — have gone up and back in 2021. Kudos to the billionaires who made this possible but especially the non-billionaires like Wally Funk, William Shatner, Sian Proctor, Chris Sembroski and Hayley Arcenaux who showed that everyone from tubby 90-year-olds to 29-year-olds with prosthetic body parts can make the trip.

Since 2017, the SpaceNews editorial staff has selected 40 individuals and organizations embodying the hard work and innovation propelling the space industry to unparalleled levels of activity. 2021 has seen a record number of private astronauts making their way to space. Our first SpaceNews Awards selection for 2021 recognizes the Private Astronaut for epitomizing the year’s ups and downs. (11/30)

OAC Raises $600K for Orbital Station Project (Source: OAC)
Orbital Assembly Corporation (OAC) is excited to announce our raise on Netcapital passed $600,000! OAC is a leader in the race to make space available to everyone by building the Voyager-class of Space Stations – a gravity simulating on-orbit habitation environments for leisure, commercial and industrial activities. The company designs and plans to construct large, gravity-equipped platforms, with on-orbit services projected to begin in 2023. OAC is focused on low Earth orbit design, construction, and operation of large-scale, habitable structures. We believe that for the first time, space tourists and other inhabitants will be able to experience long periods in space without the debilitating long-term effects of zero gravity. (11/30)