February 14, 2022

Billionaire Jared Isaacman Will Drop Huge Cash for Private Spacewalk (Source: Daily Beast)
The payments entrepreneur who flew into orbit last year aboard a SpaceX rocket is apparently hankering for more space fun. According to The Washington Post, billionaire Jared Isaacman has struck a deal for another three missions with the rocket company, which was founded by Elon Musk. One of those missions includes tentative plans for a spacewalk, a dangerous undertaking that would represent a landmark achievement for private space travel—and that may raise eyebrows over a new level of risk taken on by what are effectively space tourists.

According to the Post, the billionaire declined to comment on what the upcoming missions will cost, though it noted that “the figure could easily be several hundred million dollars.” Isaacman told the outlet that NASA has laid the foundation for space exploration, but that there is now “a ton of private money that’s trying to deliver on the dream that SpaceX has.” (2/14)

FAA Delays Release of Environmental Assessment for Starbase (Source: SpaceX)
The FAA is updating the anticipated release date for the Final Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA) for SpaceX's proposed Starship/Super-Heavy operations at it Boca Chica TX site. The FAA intended to release the Final PEA on Febr. 28. The FAA now plans to release the Final PEA on Mar. 28 to account for further comment review and ongoing interagency consultations. (2/14)

SpaceCom / 48th Spaceport Summit in Orlando Attracted Over 1,500 Attendees (Source: SpaceCom)
The event, staged in-person for the first time since 2019, brought together more than 1,500 government, industry, and aerospace professionals from around the world to discuss, collaborate and influence the business of space. Spaceport Summit (formerly Space Congress), having just celebrated its 48th year, has a profound legacy and reputation as the long-standing, indispensable resource for space professionals. The strategic partnership with SpaceCom in 2022 enabled both events to exponentially enhance each’s value and expand their reach to new, relevant audiences. (2/14)

Lockheed Martin Terminates Agreement To Acquire Aerojet Rocketdyne (Source: Lockheed Martin)
Lockheed Martin has terminated its agreement to acquire Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings. The decision to terminate the agreement follows the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) lawsuit filed late last month seeking a preliminary injunction to block the acquisition.

"Our planned acquisition of Aerojet Rocketdyne would have benefitted the entire industry through greater efficiency, speed, and significant cost reductions for the U.S. government," said Lockheed Martin Chairman, President and CEO James Taiclet. "However, we determined that in light of the FTC's actions, terminating the transaction is in the best interest of our stakeholders. We stand by our long heritage as a merchant supplier and trusted partner and will continue to support Aerojet Rocketdyne and other essential suppliers in the Defense Industrial Base." (2/13)

Aerojet Chairman Sues CEO Over Control of Rocket-Engine Maker’s Board (Source: Bloomberg)
Aerojet Rocketdyne Inc.’s chairman and three directors asked a judge to block the CEO and her allies on the board from using company resources in a fight for control of the rocket-engine maker. A lawsuit unsealed Friday revealed long-simmering tensions between Chairman Warren Lichtenstein and Chief Executive Officer Eileen Drake who are at the heart of a proxy battle launched as U.S. antitrust regulators move to block Aerojet’s $4.4 billion takeover by Lockheed Martin. The dispute has left the board split between warring factions. (2/12)

India Launches Earth Observation Satellite on PSLV (Source: Space News)
India launched an Earth observation spacecraft and two smallsats Sunday. A Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center and deployed the EOS-04, INSAT-2TD and INSPIRESat-1 satellites. EOS-04, the primary payload, is a radar imaging satellite weighing 1,710 kilograms. INSAT-2TD is a smallsat to test a thermal imaging camera, while INSPIRESat-1 is an educational satellite. The launch is India's first mission of the year and the first since a failed GSLV launch six months ago. (2/13)

Intelligence Agencies Seek Solutions for Space Debris (Source: Space News)
The U.S. intelligence community is looking for solutions to the space debris problem. In a request for information posted last week, the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) asked for "innovative approaches to detect and track currently undetectable orbital space debris." IARPA, an agency under the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, says a key concern for the intelligence community is the danger that tiny pieces of debris, too small to be tracked today, pose to space assets. Responses to the RFI are due March 11. (2/13)

Canada's Wyvern Raises $7.65 Million for Satellite Telescopes (Source: Space News)
A Canadian startup has raised funding to develop technology for hyperspectral imagery. Wyvern has raised $7.65 million in private and Canadian government funding to develop a folding telescope that will allow it to pack more performance into smaller, cheaper-to-launch hyperspectral imaging satellites. Wyvern plans to use the technology on a constellation of 36 cubesat-class satellites it expects to start launching in 2023. (2/14)

SES Teams with India's Jio Platforms to Provide Satellite Broadband (Source: SES)
SES announced Monday a joint venture with Indian company Jio Platforms to provide broadband services in India. Jio Space Technology Limited, 51% owned by Jio and 49% by SES, will provide services in India using SES satellites in GEO and MEO, such as the O3b mPOWER constellation. The joint venture includes a multi-year contract to buy capacity on those satellites valued at about $100 million. (2/14)

Canada's Maritime Launch Services Plans SPAC Merger (Source: Bloomberg)
Maritime Launch Services (MLS) is in talks to merge with a SPAC. The Canadian company, which plans to conduct launches of Ukrainian-built Cyclone-4M rockets from a spaceport to be built in Nova Scotia, is in discussions with Ceres Acquisition Corp., a SPAC. The merger would reportedly value MLS at $530 million. Ceres raised $120 million in 2020 but is running out of time to complete a deal or be forced to refund shareholders. (2/14)

ESA Space Rider Update (Source: ESA)
At its most basic, ESA’s Space Rider spacecraft is an uncrewed robotic laboratory in orbit that is the size of around two minivans. It has the capacity to remain in orbit for approximately two months before returning to Earth touching down on a runway under a parafoil to be unloaded, refurbished, and launched on another mission. As we move towards a post-International-Space-Station era, this independent multipurpose laboratory in low Earth orbit could become an attractive option for affordable in-orbit experimentation for both a European and global customer base.

The maiden flight of ESA’s reusable Space Rider spacecraft is slated for the fourth quarter of 2023 aboard a Vega-C rocket from the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana. This flight will be managed and operated by ESA. Following that maiden flight, however, the reigns for the program will be handed to a currently unselected commercial operator. Speaking to European Spaceflight, acting ESA Space Rider Programme Manager Dante Galli shed light on where the Space Rider initiative is today and what its future looks like. (2/14)

Space Force Gets Almost Daily Launch Requests (Source: Florida Today)
The Space Force is seeing near-daily requests from launch providers so far in 2022, a dramatic increase over recent years as the military branch works with other federal organizations to find more efficiencies in how to support launches. Requests to launch – just requests, not the actual launches themselves – filed with the Space Force and others are expected to top 300 this year, or nearly one a day.

Space Force is one of several organizations responsible for overseeing launch operations on the Eastern Range, which includes Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and Kennedy Space Center. Col. Mark Shoemaker, Space Launch Delta 45's vice commander of operations, discussed the cadence during a National Space Club Florida Committee luncheon in Cape Canaveral last week. If divided evenly, the Space Coast has launched one mission every week so far in 2022 and is positioned to top last year's total of 31. (2/14)

Jared Isaacman Has Commissioned 3 more Flights from SpaceX (Source: Washington Post)
Jared Isaacman, the billionaire entrepreneur who led the first all-private-citizen crew to orbit in September, has commissioned three additional spaceflight missions in what amounts to a privately funded space program with Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The flights — dubbed Polaris, for the North Star — will seek to systematically chart new territory in bold, groundbreaking missions. In doing so, they would dramatically accelerate the progress of commercial spaceflight.

The first flight, which could come by the end of the year, will aim to send a crew of four farther than any other human spaceflight in 50 years and feature the first private-citizen spacewalk, Isaacman said. The second flight also would be aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, the vehicle that NASA now relies on to fly astronauts to the International Space Station. The third flight in the series, however, would be the first crewed mission of the next-generation Starship spacecraft, now under development by SpaceX and which NASA intends to use to land astronauts on the moon.

Last year, Isaacman, the founder and CEO of Shift4, a payment processing company, funded what was called the Inspiration4 mission. That flight sent Isaacman and three other private citizens — strangers until they were chosen for the mission — into orbit for three days in a flight that raised more than $240 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. After the Inspiration4 flight, Isaacman hinted there might be more to come, saying, “That was a heck of a ride for us, and we’re just getting started.” (2/14)

SpaceX Transporter Mission Helped Space Force and FAA Improve Spaceport Efficiency (Source: Florida Today)
Col. Mark Shoemaker, Space Launch Delta 45's vice commander, said SpaceX's Transporter-3 mission, launched from the Cape on Jan. 13, was an opportunity to find more efficiencies as the Space Force and its resources grapple with the growing cadence. The rocket's first stage returned to the Cape's Landing Zone 1 and meant certain regions of the base needed to be evacuated. "We were able to work with the FAA to shrink regions on the Cape where we had to evacuate people," he said. "As a result of this agreement, we were able to keep 613 of our 2,800 people at work by changing the way we think about the problem." In terms of work hours, Shoemaker said that saved the Space Force about $170,000. (2/14)

NASA Adds Lockheed, QinetiQ, Space Flight Lab to $6B Space Tech Contract Vehicle (Source: GovConWire)
NASA has awarded Lockheed Martin, QinetiQ‘s space business and Space Flight Laboratory positions on the agency’s $6 billion procurement vehicle for spacecraft systems and related services through an on-ramp contracting procedure. The three awardees can vie for firm-fixed-price delivery orders from NASA centers and other federal organizations under the Rapid Spacecraft Acquisition IV program. NASA created the multiple-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to serve as a means for government agencies to acquire spacecraft and related components, equipment and services.

The Rapid IV On-Ramp II contract’s period of performance is scheduled to begin on Tuesday and will continue through Aug. 2025. Ball Aerospace, Maxar Technologies, Northrop Grumman, Southwest Research Institute, Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems are the original participants in the program. France- and Italy-based businesses of Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture between Thales and Leonardo, were selected for the first on-ramp in March 2021. (2/11)

Yahsat Signs $247.6m Satellite cCommunications Deal with UAE Government (Source: The National)
Al Yah Satellite Communications, better known as Yahsat, received a contract worth Dh909.5 million ($247.6m) to provide managed services to the UAE government for its satellite communications capabilities. The company's government arm, Yahsat Government Solutions, signed the agreement, which augments previously provided operations and maintenance services along with technology management support from January 2021 until the end of 2026, Yahsat said in a statement to the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, where its shares are traded.

The contract is in line with Yahsat’s strategy to expand its managed solutions business capabilities across its value chain and provide more strategic services to key clients within the UAE and internationally. The mandate also adds to Yahsat group’s contracted future revenue, which now stands at about Dh8.4 billion. (2/14)