January 20, 2022

Private Investment in Space Infrastructure Hit Record $14.5B in 2021 (Source: Space Daily)
Private investment in space infrastructure companies hit a record-breaking $14.5 billion last year, according to a report Tuesday by New York City-based firm Space Capital. The new report from the venture capital company shows space infrastructure investment in 2021 was more than 50% greater than the prior record set in 2020. (1/18)

Rocket Lab Sets Date for First 2022 Launch, Adds Another Mission (Source: Space Daily)
Rocket Lab USA, Inc. has announced the launch window for its first Electron mission in 2022, a dedicated mission for BlackSky through global launch services broker Spaceflight Inc. Electron is scheduled to launch the "Without Mission A Beat" mission from New Zealand during a launch window that opens February 4. This will be Rocket Lab's 24th Electron launch and first mission of 2022. Rocket Lab will not be attempting to recover Electron for this mission. Spaceflight has since commissioned an additional sixth launch for BlackSky on Electron to take place in 2022. That dedicated mission will continue BlackSky's rapid business expansion. (1/19)

Kazakhstan's President Fires Special Envoy To Baikonur Spaceport (Source: Sputnik)
Kazakhstan's President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has fired his special envoy to the Russia-leased Baikonur space port, his press office said. "A decree of the head of state has relieved Serik Zhusipovich Suleimenov of his duties as the Kazakhstani president's special representative at Baikonur complex," the presidency said. Suleimenov was appointed envoy to Baikonur and deputy to the provincial governor in April 2020. No reason was given for his firing. (1/19)

NASA Satellite Servicing Technologies Licensed by Northrop Grumman (Source: Space Daily)
Northrop Grumman recently signed agreements to license three technologies from NASA related to satellite servicing. Two of the technologies were developed by NASA for the On-orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing 1 (OSAM-1) mission. OSAM-1 is a first-of-its-kind mission that will grapple a US government-owned satellite, Landsat 7, to refuel it and to demonstrate the capability to potentially extend the operational life of satellites on orbit. Landsat 7 was not originally designed to be refueled, repaired, or modified, so the developed technologies were designed to enable NASA to provide this capability. (1/19)

New AI Navigation Prevents Crashes (Source: Space Daily)
A new collision-avoidance system developed by students at the University of Cincinnati is getting engineers closer to developing robots that can fix broken satellites or spacecraft in orbit. UC College of Engineering and Applied Science doctoral students Daegyun Choi and Anirudh Chhabra presented their project at the Science and Technology Forum and Exposition in January in San Diego, California. Hosted by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, it's the world's largest aerospace engineering conference. (1/19)

Formation of Extravehicular Activity and Human Surface Mobility Program Signals New Era for NASA (Source: Roundup Reads)
Congress recently gave the green light to NASA to formulate a new program that aligns core human space exploration capabilities in support of Artemis.  The newly created Extravehicular Activity (EVA) and Human Surface Mobility (HSM) program will be managed out of NASA’s Johnson Space Center and led by Lara Kearney, who most recently served as deputy program manager for the Gateway program. The EVA and HSM program will play critical roles in landing the first woman and the first person of color on the surface of the Moon.

The main goal of the nascent EVA and HSM program is to provide safe, reliable, and effective EVA and HSM capabilities that allows astronauts to survive and work outside the confines of a base spacecraft in order to explore on and around the Moon. (1/18)

One Year into the Biden Administration, NASA Looks to Future (Source: NASA)
Over the past year, NASA has made valuable contributions to Biden-Harris Administration’s goals – leading on the global stage, addressing the urgent issue of climate change, creating high paying jobs, and inspiring future generations. Click here for highlights of NASA's efforts. (1/19)

Radian Aerospace Comes Out of Stealth and Raises $27.5M for Orbital Spaceplane Development (Source: GeekWire)
More than five years after its founding, Renton, Wash.-based Radian Aerospace is emerging from stealth mode and reporting a $27.5 million seed funding round to support its plans to build an orbital space plane. The round was led by Boston-based Fine Structure Ventures, with additional funding from EXOR, The Venture Collective, Helios Capital, SpaceFund, Gaingels, The Private Shares Fund, Explorer 1 Fund, Type One Ventures and other investors.

Radian has previously brought in pre-seed investments, but the newly announced funding should accelerate its progress. One of the company’s investors and strategic advisers, former Lockheed Martin executive Doug Greenlaw, said Radian was going after the “Holy Grail” of space access with a fully reusable system that would provide for single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) launches.

It’ll take much more than $27.5 million to grab the grail: In the late 1990s, NASA spent nearly a billion dollars on Lockheed Martin’s X-33 single-stage-to-orbit concept before the project was canceled in 2001. But Radian’s executives argue that technological advances have now brought the SSTO vision within reach. “What we are doing is hard, but it’s no longer impossible thanks to significant advancements in materials science, miniaturization and manufacturing technologies,” said Livingston Holder. (1/19)