December 10, 2021

Another Day, Another Asteroid That Won't Hit Us: Nerius Will Miss Earth (Source: SyFy)
Over the weekend, an asteroid bigger than the Eiffel Tower will not be impacting the Earth. I'm sorry to disappoint you. Mind you, this is not the news you'd see if you've checked social media this week or read any number of fish-wrappery sites that have breathlessly exclaimed that an asteroid "larger than the Eiffel tower" will "break Earth's orbit", whatever that last bit means.

I even saw one TikTokker start off a video saying, "An asteroid might be hitting Earth on December 11." He has six million followers. I've known about the asteroid for a while, and I really thought that this time, maybe this time, there wouldn't be dozens of media outlets overhyping this misleadingly. (12/10)

Spire Global Selects Virgin Orbit for Late-Load Addition to Next Flight (Source: Space Daily)
Virgin Orbit has announced with Spire Global that they have received waiver approval from the FAA to include Spire on Virgin Orbit's upcoming launch. The satellite, which was integrated at Virgin Orbit's Long Beach facility within 36 hours, will fly as the third customer in the previously announced Above the Clouds mission, scheduled Dec. 22.

Going from idea to orbit in less than one year, ADLER-1 is developed by Spire in partnership with the Austrian Space Forum (OeWF) and Findus Venture GmbH and has demonstrated the speed at which satellites can be developed. ADLER-1 is also part of a growing movement to address the issue of dangerous space debris and to improve sustainability in Low Earth Orbit. The 30x10x10 cm satellite will study the micro space debris environment in Low Earth Orbit to complement the space debris models by obtaining in-situ data. (12/10)

Redwire Announces Supplier Agreement with Terran Orbital to Support Satellite Manufacturing (Source: Space Daily)
Redwire Corp. has announced a three-year supplier agreement with Terran Orbital. Redwire will deliver a range of advanced components and solutions that will be used in Terran Orbital's industry-leading line of satellite manufacturing and service offerings. Terran Orbital recently announced that it intends to go public through a SPAC merger with special purpose acquisition company Tailwind Two Acquisition Corp.

Redwire's range of advanced components and spacecraft solutions include lightweight high compaction rollable solar array systems developed at the company's Goleta, California, facility; machine vision camera and advanced avionics systems, power solutions, and sun sensors and star trackers. Additionally, Redwire's world-class digital engineering capabilities offer customers state-of-the-art modeling and simulation, which enable configuration of multiple satellite constellations and other assets within a single simulation, thereby reducing development and operations costs. (12/10)

New Rocket Test Facility Under Construction in Scotland (Source: Space Daily)
The UK Space Agency welcomes the news that British company Orbex is constructing a state-of-the-art rocket test facility in Kinloss, Scotland. The construction of this new facility marks another major milestone in our ambitions to become a modern, agile spacefaring nation. Orbex is an innovative spaceflight company developing its own launch vehicle which will be tested at this new facility, before launching from Space Hub Sutherland. (12/19)

Los Alamos National Laboratory Awards Satellite Mission Contract to NanoAvionics (Source: Space Daily)
Smallsat mission integrator NanoAvionics US has received a mission contract by Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), one of the largest science and technology institutions in the world. The 12U spacecraft, about the size of a microwave oven, will host the Mini Astrophysical MeV Background Observatory (MAMBO) mission. The goal of MAMBO is to make the best-ever measurement of the cosmic diffuse gamma-ray (CDG) background using its on-board, innovative gamma-ray detector. This will be the first satellite mission hosting a high-energy astrophysics payload developed by LANL in 20 years. (12/10)

Maine Town Pumps Brakes on Proposed Spaceport (Source: Brunswick Times Record)
The town of Jonesport voted Wednesday against an aerospace facility proposed by a Brunswick rocket company. Plans for a launch site, mission control area and associated infrastructure were brought to the town by bluShift Aerospace, a company headquartered at Brunswick Landing that made headlines in January for becoming the first in Maine to launch a commercial rocket and the first in the world to launch a commercial rocket using bio-derived fuel.

The town voted in a special meeting to put a six-month moratorium on the proposal, 60-4 against. According to Harry Fish, a Jonesport selectman, the moratorium will give the town time to develop zoning regarding aerospace. “I would say by the feeling of the town that the wording of the ordinance is going to be extremely prohibiting,” said Fish, adding that it will likely render the project impossible.

Primarily local fishermen are pushing back against the project, Fish said, due to concerns that it would interfere with fishing schedules and that gear could be damaged and tangled with parachutes coming down alongside rockets. The company first approached the town about a month ago. The proposed location for the launch site is on an island, although the mission control facility would be closer to town. The cost of the project would be in the range of $1 million. (12/2)

NASA's Future is in Private Space Companies' Hands (Source: Axios)
The private space players who will drive NASA's plans for the coming decade are declaring themselves and defining the stakes. Why it matters: NASA plans to focus on getting people to Mars and the Moon, and its deep space exploration ambitions hinge on the agency being able to successfully hand over major operations in low-Earth orbit to private companies.

The space agency hopes companies will build private space stations that its astronauts can use and to continue to buy space on private rockets for launching its satellites and other payloads to orbit and beyond. NASA's "big experiment" right now is to test where these commercial partnerships work, the Planetary Society's Casey Dreier told Axios. (12/7)

Virgin Orbit Set to Launch on Dec. 22 (Source: Parabolic Arc)
Virgin Orbit is planning to launch five satellites using its LauncherOne rocket on Dec. 22, according to a U.S. Coast Guard Notice to Mariners. LauncherOne will be dropped by the Boeing 747 Cosmic Girl over the Pacific Ocean near the Channel Islands off the coast of Southern California. The launch window will last from 2-5 p.m. PST, the notice said. Backup launch dates are Dec. 23 and January 8-10 from 2:15-5 p.m. (12/10)

NetGen Acquisition Corp. II Sets Vote on Virgin Orbit Merger (Source: Parabolic Arc)
A special meeting of stockholders of NextGen Acquisition Corp. II is scheduled for Dec. 28 to vote on a SPAC merger with Virgin Orbit. Upon closing, Virgin Orbit will be listed on NASDAQ under the new ticker symbol “VORB”. The boards of directors of Virgin Orbit and NextGen Acquisition Corp. II have already unanimously approved the Business Combination. (12/8)

Themis Tanking Test Marks Milestone in ESA’s Path to Reusability (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
The ESA (European Space Agency) has taken a major step towards developing reusable rockets with the completion of a series of tanking tests for its Themis vehicle, which will serve as a testbed for the agency to experiment with launch and landing operations.

After initially announcing plans for a reusable rocket – Ariane Next – to succeed the Ariane 6 rocket currently in development, as well as the potential to incorporate reusability into Ariane 6 itself, the ESA has been working quietly on the project. While the initial announcements outlined hop tests of a pathfinder vehicle, Themis, the agency has recently given an update to its plans, whose ultimate goal is the development of a launch vehicle with a reusable first stage in the 2030s.

In a recent test series of six tests, two of the steel propellant tanks for Themis were successfully filled with cryogenic propellants and then detanked multiple times. This series of tests, comparable to those recently carried out on SpaceX’s Starship and United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan pathfinder vehicle, serve to reduce the risk of an electrical or tank malfunction with the completed vehicle. (12/8)

China Launches 400th Long March Rocket (Source: Space News)
China placed a set of classified satellites into orbit Thursday on the 400th launch of a Long March rocket. The Long March 4B lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 7:11 p.m. Eastern and put the Shijian-06 (05) group of satellites into orbit. Chinese officials said the satellites will be used for space environment exploration and technology verification tests, but Western analysts think they could be designed for signals intelligence or electronic intelligence purposes. The launch was the 49th orbital mission this year by China, a record, and the 400th launch of a Long March rocket dating back to 1970. (12/10)

Russia Selects Cosmonaut to Fly on Crew Dragon (Source: Space News)
Roscosmos says it's selected a cosmonaut to fly on a commercial crew mission next fall, although the agency has yet to finalize an agreement with NASA for that flight. Dmitry Rogozin, head of Roscosmos, said this week that Anna Kikina would fly on a SpaceX Crew Dragon commercial crew mission in the fall of 2022, with a NASA astronaut flying on a Soyuz around the same time. A NASA spokesman said the agency is still working on completing an agreement with Roscosmos to swap seats between Soyuz and commercial crew flights. Such exchanges would ensure that there will be NASA and Roscosmos crew on the station in the event either Soyuz or commercial crew vehicles are sidelined for an extended period. (12/10)

Amendment to Defense Bill Directs DoD to Plan for Commercial Broadband Satellite Services (Source: Space News)
The defense authorization bill would direct the Pentagon to outline its plans for buying commercial broadband satellite services. The provision, included as an amendment to the bill, requires a report on plans to acquire such services, particularly from low- and medium-Earth-orbit satellite constellations. The provision is in response to growing demand in the U.S. military for high-speed internet aboard Navy ships and other locations where there is no terrestrial telecom and satellite signals are the only option available. SES, which operates the O3b MEO satellite network, was a prominent advocate for this amendment, the company said. (12/10)

SSTL-Led UK Consortium to Study Orbital Debris Clearing (Source: Space News)
A consortium led by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) has won a British government contract to study removing defunct satellites from orbit. The SSTL-led team includes Airbus Defence and Space, satellite navigation specialist GMV NSL and several other companies and organizations. It joins two groups that previously won similar study contracts from the U.K. Space Agency to study technologies for deorbiting satellites. The three groups are sharing about $1.3 million in funding for the effort. (12/10)

Mexico Joins Artemis Accords (Source: Space News)
Mexico is the latest country to join the Artemis Accords. The country's foreign relations secretary announced Thursday that Mexico was signing the accords and looked forward to participating in the Artemis program. However, he did not disclose what role he envisions Mexico playing in the effort. Fourteen countries have now signed the accords, which outline best practices for safe and sustainable space exploration, many based on the Outer Space Treaty and related agreements. (12/10)

Microsoft Adds Partners to Azure Space (Source: Space News)
Microsoft is adding new partners and services to its Azure Space initiative. Microsoft said Thursday it is adding partnerships with Airbus, Kongsberg Satellite Services, STE iDirect, Orbital Insight, ESRI and Blackshark.ai. Microsoft plans to bring high-resolution satellite imagery and elevation data from Airbus into Azure Maps, Microsoft's geospatial services platform. Microsoft also rolled out new products to provide cloud-free daily imagery and artificial intelligence tools to sharpen that imagery. (12/10)

Virgin Orbit will add a Spire cubesat to its next launch. The companies said Thursday that the ADLER-1 cubesat would join payloads from the Defense Department's Space Test Program and Polish satellite manufacturer SatRevolution on the "Above the Clouds" mission. ADLER-1, developed with the Austrian Space Forum and Findus Venture GmbH, will study the environment of "micro" space debris in low Earth orbit. The launch is scheduled for as soon as Dec. 22, according to Coast Guard notices to mariners. (12/10)

High Tech Sleeping Bag Could Mitigate Astronaut Vision Problems (Source: BBC)
A high-tech "sleeping bag" could be the solution to vision problems astronauts have suffered in orbit. Scientists are studying a bag that draws fluids from the upper body to the lower body. In microgravity, fluids can pool in the upper body and distort the shape of astronauts' eyeballs, causing their vision to worsen. Tests on patients confined to bed show promise, scientists said in a newly published paper. (12/10)

Comet Leaonard Could Fizzle (Source: Space.com)
A comet that astronomers hoped would put on a show in the night sky might be fizzling out instead. Comet Leonard, discovered early this year, will make its closest approach to the Earth on Sunday as it nears an early January perihelion. Astronomers expected the comet to bright dramatically as it warmed, releasing gas and dust, but the brightness increases seen so far are only because it is getting closer to the Earth. One astronomer warned that the lack of brightening is a sign that "something unhealthy is happening to the comet," including the risk of it breaking up. (12/10)

Biden: US Government to be Carbon Neutral by 2050 (Source: The Verge)
The US government has set a 2050 carbon neutrality deadline under an executive ordered signed by President Joe Biden. Biden set intermittent goals that would be achieved by converting federal fleets to electric, retrofitting government buildings and embracing alternative energy sources. (12/8)