February 12, 2022

Spire Global Completes Acquisition of exactEarth (Source: Space Daily)
Spire has successfully completed its acquisition of exactEarth Ltd., a provider of global maritime vessel data for ship tracking and maritime situational awareness solutions. exactEarth is now a fully-owned subsidiary of Spire and will continue to operate from Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. (2/10)

Lockheed Gets Its May 23 Hearing In FTC Aerojet Merger Challenge (Source: Law360)
A D.C. federal judge Thursday sided with Lockheed Martin Corp. in its scheduling spat with the Federal Trade Commission, tapping May 23 as the day to kick off a multiday preliminary injunction hearing regarding Lockheed's proposed $4.4 billion purchase of Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings Inc. (2/11)

Astra Investor Says Inflated Promises Led To Stock Dip (Source: Law360)
A proposed class of Astra Space Inc. investors sued the California-based satellite launch company in New York federal court Wednesday, accusing it of making misleading statements that exaggerated its ability to launch rockets from anywhere in the world and allegedly inflated its stock price. Investor Lorraine Artery alleges the company's stock price plunged after a market researcher released a report on Dec. 29 detailing a host of problems blocking the company from reaching its ambitious goals. Those issues include lack of funds and resources. (2/10)

Astra Stock Drops 26% After NASA Mission Fails Mid-Launch (Source: CNBC)
Shares of rocket builder Astra fell sharply Thursday, after the company’s latest mission failed to reach orbit. Astra’s stock fell 26% to close at $3.91 a share. The Nasdaq halted the trading of Astra stock for volatility at 3:05 p.m. ET, as the upper stage of the rocket appeared to be tumbling out of control on the company’s webcast. (2/10)

Astra Fairing Dooms First Florida Launch (Source: Teslarati)
Astra Space’s Rocket 3.3 launch vehicle took off from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport, using Space Florida's Launch Complex 46. Unfortunately, while liftoff and booster ascent appeared to be more or less perfect, Rocket 3’s payload fairing failed to separate, triggering a series of events that caused its upper stage to enter an uncontrolled and unrecoverable spin after burning for just a few seconds. Astra was unable to salvage the spinning rocket, resulting in a mission failure well short of orbit. (2/10)

JWST Is in Position. Now It’s Booting Up (Source: WIRED)
Since the spacecraft is now so far away, Mather, Schneider, and their team have to send and receive radio signals through NASA’s Deep Space Network, an international array of giant antennas managed by JPL. When a programmer inputs a command and waits for an acknowledgment from the spacecraft, that signal could be relayed through an antenna in California’s Mojave Desert or one in Eastern Australia, for example. But there’s a slight delay, because of the distance.

Now that everything’s in place, the JWST team has begun the “commissioning” process for the instruments, setting up the complex cameras and detectors and making sure they work as they’re supposed to, Schneider says. Last week, they conducted their first tests with the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), allowing the first photons to hit the camera. (2/10)

New Space Modeling and Sim Environment to Boost Cooperation Between Scientists and Force Designers (Source: C4ISRnet)
Space Force design architects and science and technology professionals will soon sit side-by-side in a new collaborative modeling and simulation environment. The new workspace is meant to strengthen the partnership between the Air Force Research Laboratory and the Space Warfighting Analysis Center (SWAC), a new force design organization that is conducting analysis of the service’s major mission area architectures. (2/10)

The Greatest Physics Demo of All Time Happened on the Moon (Source: WIRED)
For as long as things have been falling, people have had questions about what is going on (and about the cat's motivation). Does a falling object move at a constant speed, or does it speed up? If you drop a heavy object and a light one at the same time, which will fall faster? The great thing about these two questions is that you can ask pretty much anyone and they will have an answer—even if they are actually wrong. The even greater thing is that it's fairly simple to determine the answers experimentally. All you have to do is drop some stuff.

But there is a problem. There's not an experiment to check if this is correct. Aristotle was a philosopher, not a scientist, and like most of the other Greek philosophers of his time, he was into thought experiments, not science experiments. hat about dropping a rock and feather—doesn't the rock hit first? Usually, the answer is yes. But let's replace the rock with a hammer and then just take a change of scenery and move the experiment to the moon. This is exactly what happened during the Apollo 15 lunar mission in 1971. Commander David Scott took a hammer and an eagle feather and dropped them onto the lunar regolith. Here's what happened. (2/11) 

What’s Standing in Elon Musk’s Way? (Source: The Atlantic)
The thought of a three-letter government agency preventing Elon Musk, currently the richest person in the world, from doing anything he wants might seem like a bureaucrat’s fantasy. This is the guy who got approval to launch a Tesla into space, who got a street renamed Rocket Road, who disregarded coronavirus restrictions when he felt they got in the way of business. But Musk’s ambitious timeline for launching Starship, his dream rocket, out of a remote part of Texas depends right now on a pending decision from the Federal Aviation Administration that could add months or even years of delay.

Musk can’t bulldoze past regulations of this particular nature. He does have one power that many executives do not: Whenever he talks, people pay attention. Musk now finds himself at a bit of an inflection point. This could be the year that he smooths out yet another piece of friction in his deep-space enterprise, or it could be the year that momentum stalls. Last night’s presentation seemed like a not-so-subtle attempt to show that the success of Starship hinges on what the FAA decides—a heavy message disguised as a fanciful TED Talk.

The way Musk talks, a future filled with Starships seems imminent. But SpaceX faces some significant obstacles, not all technical. Before the company attempts to send Starship into orbit for the first time, the FAA must give SpaceX a launch license. The federal agency is currently evaluating the potential environmental impacts of SpaceX’s Starship ambitions in South Texas, and is expected to decide later this month whether to approve the effort or request an even more detailed and time-consuming review. Click here. (2/11)

Enterprise Florida Picks Matrix Design Group for Military Community Assessment (Source: SPACErePORT)
Enterprise Florida, the state's primary economic development organization, has selected Martix Design Group of Niceville FL to perform a statewide military community assessment. The project will involve the development of strategy and identification of objectives for the State of Florida,
along with their Florida Military installation partners, to improve installation and community resiliency. (2/11)

Air Force Extends Eastern Range Support Contract (Source: SPACErePORT)
Range Generation Next LLC, Sterling, Virginia, has been awarded a $7,886,332 contract modification for the modernization of the Eastern Range Network - Eastern Range Internet Protocol Network Phase 2 project. This modification supports the integration of the communications infrastructure necessary for Range of the Future connectivity. Work will be performed in the Eastern Range at Patrick Space Force Base, Florida; and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, and is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2023. (2/11)