December 1, 2021

How the U.S. Space Force is Trying to Bring Order to Increasingly Messy Outer Space (Source: Washington Post)
Despite nearly seven decades of human exploration and activity in space, rules governing conduct remain a work in progress. Space is a burgeoning economic engine and an essential part of global civil, commercial and military operations, but the current space environment looks something like the early eras of driving or flying, with rapid growth in the number of cars, planes and operators, yet only the most basic traffic laws. Space has its own considerations that increase complexity — including growing congestion and debris, laws of physics that define motion very differently than on Earth, and a lack of international borders.

To address this complicated domain, there exists a legal framework in the 1967 Outer Space Treaty and in four other core space treaties adopted over the following 12 years, along with a number of voluntary international measures supported by the United States, such as the United Nations’ Debris Mitigation Guidelines and Guidelines for the Long-Term Sustainability of Outer Space Activities. Additionally, in July, the Defense Department publicly shared long-standing operational practices in space, intended to assist in the ongoing development of voluntary guidelines and reduce the risk of misunderstanding and miscalculation.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin outlined five “tenets of responsible behavior in space”: operating in, from, to and through space in a professional manner; limiting the generation of long-lived debris; avoiding the creation of harmful interference; maintaining safe separation and trajectory; and communicating and making notifications to enhance the safety and stability of the domain. The U.S. Space Command is leading the department’s work on these tenets, as we are using the concepts as a basis of our conversations with spacefaring nations around the world. (11/29)

Space Club Invites Florida Award Nominations (Source: NSCFL)
The National Space Club Florida Committee is accepting nominations for its premier award, the 2022 Dr. Kurt H. Debus Award, for significant contributions to the advancement, awareness, and improvement of aerospace in Florida. The nominee must have made significant contributions to the space industry in Florida through either technical achievement, education, or the management of aerospace related activities. The nominee must have been either actively engaged in their working career or have retired from it since the most recently conferred Debus Award. The nominee must be recognized for having been actively engaged in community service as an advocate and supporter of space. Click here. (11/30)

Musk Warns of SpaceX Bankruptcy if Raptor Production Problems Persist (Source: Space News)
Problems ramping up production of Raptor engines at SpaceX prompted Elon Musk to warn employees of potential bankruptcy. The Raptor engines are used by the company's Starship launch system, with six in the Starship vehicle itself and at least 29 in its Super Heavy booster needed for orbital flights. Issues increasing production of the engine, though, led to the departure of one senior executive recently. Musk, in an email last Friday to employees, said the "production crisis" was worse than previously thought, calling on workers to come in during the holiday weekend and warning the company faced a "genuine risk of bankruptcy" if it could not launch Starships every two weeks next year.

The first orbital Starship launch is scheduled for no earlier than January. Musk, in tweets Tuesday, backed off somewhat, saying instead that "bankruptcy, while still unlikely, is not impossible" if a global recession halted access to capital needed to develop both Starship and its Starlink constellation. (12/1)

Anuvu Raises $50 Million for Small GEO Constellation (Source: Space News)
Anuvu has raised $50 million to fund a series of small GEO satellites. The growth capital will support the first two satellites Anuvu ordered in July from Astranis as part of a planned eight-satellite constellation to provide broadband on aircraft, boats and remote locations worldwide. The funding came from a group of investors that include Apollo Capital Management, Sound Point Capital and Arbour Lane Capital Management. Those investors rescued Anuvu, formerly known as Global Eagle, from bankruptcy in March. (12/1)

Griffin: China's Hypersonic Vehicle is Disruptive Tech (Source: Space News)
Former Pentagon official Mike Griffin called Chinese tests of a hypersonic glide vehicle a "disruptive technology" designed to overmatch the U.S. military. Hypersonic missiles in development by China and Russia are designed to remove the advantage U.S. conventional forces have and "can take us down to their level," he said at an event Tuesday. Griffin said the United States now has to play catchup and needs to increase funding for the Space Development Agency and the Missile Defense Agency which are developing sensor satellites to detect and track hypersonic missiles. (12/1)

NASA IG Warns of ISS Structural Unknowns, Potential Gap (Source: Space News)
NASA's inspector general warned of a gap in low Earth orbit between the ISS and commercial successors. In a report Tuesday, the inspector general said that persistent, if small, air leaks in one Russian module, whose cause has yet to be understood, "raises potential implications for the Station's long-term structural health." NASA hopes to operate the ISS through the end of the decade, transitioning to commercial space stations starting in the late 2020s. However, the report said NASA's projected development schedules for those stations are optimistic, and that any commercial station "is not likely to be ready until well after 2030." (12/1)

Lightfoot Ascends at Lockheed Martin Space Unit (Source: Space News)
Lockheed Martin has named Robert Lightfoot its new executive vice president for space. Lightfoot spent 29 years at NASA, including more than a year as acting administrator in 2017 and 2018. He joined Lockheed in 2019 and is currently vice president of operations in its space unit. He takes on the new role Jan. 1 replacing Rick Ambrose, who announced plans in October to retire. (12/1)

Australia's Q-Ctrl Raises $25 Million for Quantum Sensors for Space (Source: Space News)
Australian startup Q-Ctrl has raised $25 million to develop software for space-qualified quantum sensors. Airbus Ventures led the Series B round, which Q-Ctrl says will accelerate the development of quantum technology to realize new data-as-a-service markets from LEO, the moon and beyond. Q-Ctrl aims to leverage the experience Airbus Ventures, the VC arm of Airbus Group, has in Earth observation missions as it develops infrastructure software to improve quantum sensing solutions. (12/1)

Petition Drive Takes Aim at Stopping Georgia Spaceport Effort (Source: Brunswick News)
Opponents of a proposed Georgia spaceport are turning to the ballot box in an effort to block the launch site. An environmental group has collected more than 5,000 signatures on petitions it plans to deliver to a county judge next week. If at least 4,100 signatures are validated, it would require Camden County to hold a special election on repealing an agreement the county has to purchase land for the spaceport, effectively killing the project. A county spokesman said the petitions are on "shaky legal ground and significant legal questions will need to be resolved," but backers of the petitions say the state constitution is on their side. (12/1)

The Biggest ‘Oh No’ Moment in the Solar System (Source: The Atlantic)
You know that feeling when you’re playing Jenga, and the blocks are stacked remarkably high, and then someone bumps the table? And as the tower wobbles, everyone just watches in wide-eyed panic, willing it to stabilize with a desperate, silent prayer: Please don’t fall, please don’t fall.

I can only assume that’s how it felt last month, when technicians were working on NASA’s new space telescope and a very important clamp suddenly unclamped, sending vibrations coursing through the entire instrument. Officials didn’t provide details about the mood in the room at that moment, but it must have been something along the lines of Oh no, oh no, oh no. This particular Jenga tower is a $10 billion telescope, and NASA has been playing the game for 25 years, carefully arranging piece after piece to produce one of the most sophisticated scientific instruments in human history.

Despite the rogue clamp, the telescope was still very much intact. But engineers had to run extra tests to make sure that the unexpected jolt had not damaged any of its components. A committee established specifically to investigate the incident eventually concluded that the observatory looked fine. The space Jenga was safe. (12/1)

SpaceX Plans to Build ‘Several Million’ Starlink User Terminals Per Year, V2 Satellite Launches Reliant on Starship (Source: Space Explored)
In an internal email, Elon Musk announced that SpaceX intends to build “several million [Starlink user terminal] units per year.” In order to have the internet bandwidth to support this goal, SpaceX will need to deploy its V2 Starlink satellites in orbit. It turns out, however, that this goal is entirely reliant on its next-gen Starship rocket that is currently in development in South Texas.

Unfortunately, the Raptor production crisis is much worse than it seemed a few weeks ago. It’s possible that Raptor engine production issues could limit SpaceX’s ability to fly Starship operationally in 2022. The company is depending on Starship in order to fly the second major version of Starlink internet satellites, according to Musk. Current Falcon rockets cannot support V2 satellite launches, Musk reveals: "The consequences for SpaceX if we can’t get enough reliable Raptors made is that we then can’t fly Starship, which means we then can’t fly Starlink Satellite V2 (Falcon has neither the volume nor the mass to orbit needed for satellite V2)." (11/29)

STEM Education Should be a National Security Priority (Source: Space Force Journal)
Spacepower is an inherently technological instrument of politics and a state’s ability to exert influence in the space domain is linked to its technical-informational base. Many proposals to adapt the DoD to a more technological future focus on either 1) improving the efficiency by which the DoD accesses capabilities in the defense industrial base; or 2) increasing the proportion of the overall industrial base accessible to the DoD. These proposals fail to fully address the nature of great power competition in the 21st century.

A comprehensive understanding of national security policy ought to prioritize scientific and technological education. Education fortifies defense needs by increasing the capacity of the scientific base, developing the technical understanding of non-technologists, improving resilience to disinformation, and inspiring interest in space and other abstract domains. Editor's Note: During this week's I/ITSEC conference in Orlando, DoD leadership pointed to the massive priority placed on STEM by our 'peer adversary' China, with students doing relatively complex math in elementary schools, while that is far from the case in the US. (1/31)

U.S. Satellites Are Being Attacked Every Day According To Space Force General (Source: The Drive)
U.S. Space Force's General David Thompson, the service's second in command, said last week that Russia and China are launching "reversible attacks," such as electronic warfare jamming, temporarily blinding optics with lasers, and cyber attacks, on U.S. satellites "every single day." He also disclosed that a small Russian satellite used to conduct an on-orbit anti-satellite weapon test back in 2019 had first gotten so close to an American one that there were concerns an actual attack was imminent.

“The threats are really growing and expanding every single day. And it’s really an evolution of activity that’s been happening for a long time,” Thompson, told Rogin. “We’re really at a point now where there’s a whole host of ways that our space systems can be threatened...Right now, Space Force is dealing with what Thompson calls 'reversible attacks' on U.S. government satellites (meaning attacks that don’t permanently damage the satellites) 'every single day,'" according to Rogin. "Both China and Russia are regularly attacking U.S. satellites with non-kinetic means, including lasers, radio frequency jammers, and cyber attacks, he said." (11/30)