December 4, 2021

Thales Alenia Space Invests in Advanced Technology for Human Spaceflight (Source: Space Daily)
Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture between Thales 67% and Leonardo 33%, has inaugurated a new Friction Stir Welding facility at one of its production sites in Turin, which will double production capacity of pressurized modules, for the production of the future orbiting and surface infrastructures. The only company in Europe to use this type of processing for pressurized habitation modules, Thales Alenia Space introduced friction welding technology in 2015, with a first operating facility used for the production of Cygnus, the pressurized cargo modules for the refueling of the International Space Station, an extremely complex type of structure, which enables exploration and human space flight. (11/26)

Atlas Launch Moved to Dec. 6 After Propellant Ground Storage Leak (Source: NASA)
The Dec. 5 launch of a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V 551 rocket carrying the Department of Defense’s (DOD) Space Test Program 3 (STP-3) mission has been scrubbed. During initial operations, a leak was discovered in the Rocket-Propellant-1 (RP-1) ground storage system. Launch of the mission – which hosts NASA’s Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) and the NASA-U.S. Naval Research Laboratory Ultraviolet Spectro-Coronagraph (UVSC) Pathfinder – is now scheduled for Monday, Dec. 6, at 4:04 a.m. EST. (12/4)

Amid Boeing Delays NASA to Award SpaceX Three More Commercial Crew Flights (Source: Space News)
NASA announced Dec. 3 its intent to purchase three more commercial crew missions from SpaceX as a hedge against further delays in the certification of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner.

NASA issued a contract notification announcing its plans to issue a sole-source award to SpaceX for three missions. Those missions would be in addition to the six “post-certification missions,” or PCMs, that SpaceX won as part of its $2.6 billion Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract in 2014. The announcement did not state the price of those three new missions. (12/3)

NASA Gets Diversity of Solutions with Private Space Station Plan (Source: Ars Technica)
With these grants, NASA has selected a mix of large and small US companies and old and new players in low Earth orbit.

"We have a very diverse group of companies in terms of age, size, and business strategy," Phil McAlister, NASA's director of commercial spaceflight, said during a call with the media after the awards were announced. "I think this diversity will make NASA's strategy for commercial destinations very robust, and it will ensure a healthy competition in the days ahead."

Combined, these awards give NASA four different potential private approaches to pursue. McAlister said the goal is for NASA to provide less than 40 percent of the costs to design, develop, and launch these facilities, with private industry paying the remaining 60 percent or more. In turn, the private stations will be able to host other governmental customers, businesses, and space tourism. (12/3)

NASA and Industry Embrace Laser Communications (Source: Space Daily)
Our televisions and computer screens display news, movies, and shows in high-definition, allowing viewers a clear and vibrant experience. Fiber optic connections send laser light densely packed with data through cables to bring these experiences to users. NASA and commercial aerospace companies are applying similar technologies to space communications, bringing optical speeds to the final frontier. Free-space optical communications leverages recent advancements in telecommunications to allow spacecraft to send high-resolution images and videos over laser links. (11/30)

Space Project Crowdfunding Takes Off (Source: Space News)
Crowdfunding has come a long way since Spire, then called NanoSatisfi, raised $106,000 in 2012 to send two cubesats to the International Space Station. At the time, crowdfunding campaign backers could claim T-shirts, images and tweets from orbit. Now that small companies can award shares through crowdfunding websites like Netcapital, Wefunder, Kickstarter and Spaced Ventures, dozens of space companies are going that. The results are mixed.

Solstar Space Co. has raised $1.35 million from 1,154 investors to establish "Commercial WiFi in Space." Orbital Assembly Corp. has collected $617,794 to build space stations with simulated gravity in Earth orbit, cislunar space and throughout the solar system. Launchspace Technologies investors have contributed $231,200 for work to observe and capture orbital debris. Aphelion Aerospace has raised $128,917 for a "low-cost, eco-friendly" small launch vehicle. Exo-Space has amassed $142,446 for FeatherEdge, an on-orbit data processing device.

With transaction fees of about 5 percent, crowdfunding offers "efficient access to capital," said Solstar CEO Brian Barnett. Solstar has raised enough money through three crowdfunding campaigns to hire engineers, product developers and government contract proposal writers. (12/1)

The Future of Networks in Space (Source: FNN)
A new space race of vital importance to the United States has emerged. The race to get to space has become a superhighway used by several nations and a burgeoning commercial space industry. The new race has two concerns. One, improving communications services in space among satellites, and between satellites and earth. Two, protecting vital and growing commercial and government space assets on which so many federal missions depend. In this exclusive executive briefing, the following experts will discuss the wide-area broadband about to go out of this world. Click here. (11/18)

Rubio Introduces Bill to Address Chinese Space Threat (Source: Sen. Rubio)
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) introduced the Space Protection of American Command and Enterprise (SPACE) Act to address the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) ongoing effort to replace the US as the global leader of space industry under its Made in China 2025 industrial plan. Tim Chrisman of the Association for the Future said, “China’s space program is advancing rapidly enabled in part by leveraging the theft of intellectual property from U.S. companies. The SPACE Act is an important tool in stemming the tide of that theft.”
 
The bill seeks to prevent the U.S. Dept. of Commerce and NASA from acquiring telecommunications or aerospace hardware/software and/or services from Chinese organizations. It increases SEC reporting requirements for foreign investment in critical US space companies. It requires the National Space Council to submit a report to Congress on space investment competition from China and Russia that would usurp US economic leadership in commercial space, including an interagency strategy to protect U.S. supply chains in space industrialization.

It would require an interagency annual report to Congress with a classified annex by the secretaries of the departments of Defense, Commerce, and Treasury on foreign investment in U.S. space exploration, manufacturing, telecommunications, and national security, including the countries of origin, sources of funds, and any other information according to the secretaries of Defense, Commerce, and Treasury departments. (12/3)

After Financial Incentives Committed, Could SpaceX's Money Troubles Affect McLennan County TX? (Source: KRHD)
Elon Musk has talked about potential bankruptcy for his SpaceX. In a letter to his staff, CEO and founder Musk brought up the potential for bankruptcy. He blamed production delays and said the company could be in trouble if, "they cannot achieve a starship flight rate of at least once every two weeks next year." The letter went out shortly after a SpaceX and McLennan County agreement for a 50,000 square foot expansion.

"It's going to bring a lot of high paying jobs to McLennan county," Judge Scott Felton, president of the Waco McLennan County Economic Development Corporation, told 25 News. "That's the goal." That goal may not be met if the company goes under. The 500 jobs promised and the $6 million the county agreed to pay towards the $150 million projects could never happen.

"We pledged $6 million, but it's not all upfront," Judge Felton said. "It's actually over time as they complete different phases and hire a certain amount of people to be able to access that money." The first payout comes after the company makes a commitment to putting in utilities and other upfront costs. More comes as people are hired and the company invests in equipment. (12/2)

To Find the Origin of the Oceans, Look in Outer Space (Source: The Economist)
Earth—the quintessential blue planet—has not always been covered by water. Around 4.6bn years ago, in the solar system’s early years, the energetic young sun’s radiation meant the zone immediately surrounding it was hot and dry. Earth, then coalescing from dust and gas in this region, thus began as a desiccated rock. How it subsequently acquired its oceans has long puzzled planetary scientists.

One possible source of Earth’s water is carbonaceous (c-type) asteroids, the most common variety. But it cannot be the sole source, because water in chunks of these that have landed as meteorites does not match the isotopic fingerprint of terrestrial water. This fingerprint is the ratio of normal water (H2O, made from hydrogen and oxygen) to heavy water (D2O and HDO, which both include deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen that has a neutron in its nucleus alongside the proton characteristic of every hydrogen atom). Water from c-type asteroids has more deuterium in it than does terrestrial water. (12/1)

Manpower Audit at ISRO Worries Staff; Not Aimed at Reducing Workforce (Source: Times of India)
The Department of Space (DoS) has constituted an expert committee to audit human resources at ISRO, arrive at an assessment of future requirements, and make recommendations for optimal deployment of manpower for R&D. The Center is implementing reforms in the sector that will also transform the space agency's role in coming years.

Whispers have been circulating about an audit looking into their skill set, projects they are associated with, their age, and other details, making scientists and engineers worried. Top brass says the committee is only carrying out a periodic exercise as mandated by the DoS secretariat and that there is no need for fear while its report is awaited. (12/3)

Space Force Rideshare Launch Will Help Create ‘Freight Train to Space’ (Source: Air Force Magazine)
The Space Test Program (STP)-3 launch scheduled for Dec. 5 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station will prototype new warfighter capabilities, add nuclear launch detection sensors to orbit, and enhance Space Force efforts to improve resiliency in a new “threat-driven paradigm.” In all, 16 payloads from the Space Force, NASA, the National Nuclear Security Administration, and others will ride on the ULA Atlas V 551 vehicle’s longest mission to date, estimated to clock seven hours, 10 minutes at a cost of $1.14 billion. The mission will include combined operational, nuclear detection, and prototype satellites in the areas of optical communication, space domain awareness, and weather. (12/2)