February 22, 2022

Russian ASAT Debris Creating "Squalls" (Source: Space News)
Debris from the Russian ASAT demonstration in November is creating "squalls" of close approaches with other satellites. Analysis by space situational awareness company COMSPOC found that the debris from Cosmos 1408, the satellite destroyed by the Russian ASAT, lines up with satellites in some sun-synchronous orbits, moving in opposite directions. The result is what COMSPOC calls "conjunction squalls," or surges of close approaches of satellites with debris. Such squalls have been seen twice with groups of Dove cubesats operated by Planet. An even larger surge of conjunctions is expected in early April, with potentially tens of thousands of conjunctions a day during that time. (2/21)

EU Wants Space Tracking Capability (Source: Space News)
The European Union wants to improve its space traffic management capabilities. The E.U. announced last week plans to improve its ability to track objects in Earth orbit to make Europe less reliant on data from the United States. The plan also calls for development of European regulations for STM as well as promotion of multinational agreements through the United Nations. The joint communication about the plan released last week did not specify new funding but stated that 75% of STM spending would go to E.U. companies. (2/21)

IoT Startup OQ Technology Patents Power-Saving "Wake Up" (Source: Space News)
An internet-of-things satellite company has secured a patent for its terminals. Luxembourg startup OQ Technology says its patent covers "wake-up" technology for its terminals, allowing them to save power by communicating with satellites only when needed. The company claims the patent will give the company an advantage over competitors in the increasingly crowded space-based IoT market. However, one analyst said those rivals are also planning similar technologies to extend the battery life of terminals. OQ Technology, which launched its first satellite last year, expects to launch up to six more this year as part of a constellation designed to reach 60 satellites eventually. (2/21)

China Disputes Claim That Lunar Impact Item is Chinese (Source: Space News)
China says the object that will hit the far side of the moon next month is not from a Chinese launch. China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Monday that the upper stage of the Long March 3C rocket that launched the Chang'e-5 T1 mission in 2014 burned up in the Earth's atmosphere. That stage has been identified as the object that will hit the lunar farside March 4 after it was originally thought to be the upper stage of a Falcon 9. Spectra of the object taken by a ground-based telescope had appeared to confirm it was Chinese, with a color similar to other Long March upper stages but distinct from Falcon 9 upper stages. (2/21)

UK's Shetland Spaceport Faces Delay (Source: Aberdeen Press and Journal)
A proposed spaceport in the Shetland Islands is facing a delay. The proposed SaxaVord spaceport had been expected to get planning permission from a local council Monday, but the spaceport did not appear on the agenda for the council's meeting. A spaceport official declined to discuss what caused the delay but was hopeful the council would take it up soon. The spaceport recently resolved objections that the launch site would affect World War II-era historical sites there. (2/21)

JWST Ready to Get Focused (Source: NASA)
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is one step closer to focusing its primary mirror. The agency said Friday that engineers identified the star images from all 18 primary mirror segments, moving the mirrors to place the images into a hexagonal formation. Controllers will now work to adjust the focus of the images and align them into a single image. (2/21)

Planetary Society Awards Amateur Astronomer Grants to Track Asteroids (Source: Planetary Society)
The Planetary Society awarded its largest grants yet to support amateur astronomers tracking asteroids. The organization's Shoemaker Near-Earth Object Grant program made eight awards last week valued at nearly $75,000 to amateur astronomers to support their efforts to discover, track and characterize asteroids. The grants will fund new telescopes and cameras to support those efforts. (2/21)

Museums Won't Get ISS Parts After Transition (Source: CollectSpace)
NASA doesn't plan to return parts of the ISS to Earth for museums. NASA's ISS transition plan, released last month, calls for deorbiting the station in 2031 after shifting research to commercial space stations. Agency officials said that plan doesn't call for returning any artifacts from the station before deorbiting since the downmass available on cargo missions is reserved for returning experiments or other equipment devoted to station utilization. Any effort to preserve major components of the station "would face significant logistical and financial challenges," NASA said. (2/21)

Next Up at the Cape: ULA to Launch NOAA Satellite (Source: Florida Today)
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, meanwhile, will host the Cape's next launch currently slated for Tuesday, March 1. Set to a powerful configuration with four additional solid rocket boosters, the 196-foot rocket will fly from Launch Complex 41 during a two-hour window that opens at 4:38 p.m. EST. Its mission: deliver the NOAA's newest weather satellite, GOES-T, to geostationary orbit some 22,300 miles above Earth. (2/21)

SpaceX Launches Starlink Satellites (to Higher Orbit) at Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Space News)
SpaceX launched a new batch of Starlink satellites, placing them into a higher orbit after most of the previous set were lost in a solar storm. A Falcon 9 lifted off at 9:44 a.m. Eastern and deployed 46 Starlink satellites into orbit about an hour later. The upper stage performed a second burn to place the satellites into a near-circular orbit at about 330 kilometers, higher than previous launches that released satellites into an orbit with a perigee of 210 kilometers.

Thirty-eight of the 49 satellites on the previous Starlink launch early this month reentered when a solar storm increased atmospheric density at that low altitude. The satellites' thrusters could not overcome the additional drag. The booster for this launch completed its 11th mission, the second Falcon 9 booster to reach that reuse milestone. (2/22)

SpaceX to Launch Northrop Grumman Satellite Servicing Mission (Source: Space News)
Northrop Grumman has selected SpaceX to launch its next satellite servicing mission. SpaceLogistics, a satellite-servicing firm owned by Northrop Grumman, said Monday it will launch its Mission Robotic Vehicle in 2024 with SpaceX. The vehicle, equipped with a robotic arm, will install propulsion units on satellites to extend their lives. The first customer for the vehicle is Australian satellite operator Optus.  (2/22)

Satellite Vu to Launch First Themal Imaging Satellite on SpaceX Rideshare Mission (Source: Satellite Vu)
Satellite Vu will launch its first satellite on a SpaceX rideshare mission. The British company said Monday it will launch its satellite on a Transporter mission in early 2023. The satellite is the first of seven that Surrey Satellite Technology Limited is building for Satellite Vu to perform thermal imaging, measuring the heat signature of buildings to support efforts to reduce energy costs. (2/22)

Wales Develops Space Strategy, Aims for $2.7 Billion Enterprise (Source: BBC)
The government of Wales announced a new space strategy Monday. The plan supports the development of a space industry in Wales, with its goal to produce £2 billion ($2.7 billion) in annual revenue by 2030. That could include hosting launch sites as well as satellite manufacturing and space services companies. The strategy, though, did not include any specific funding commitments to implement it. (2/22)

Scottish Space Sector Charts Path to a Sustainable Future (Source: AstroAgency)
A specialist working group of the industry-led group Space Scotland is contributing to the development of a sustainable space sector by collaborating on a roadmap that will focus on environmental issues in one of Scotland’s fastest-growing industries. On behalf of the Space Scotland’s Environmental Task Force, AstroAgency and Optimat will work with Scottish companies, international collaborators and the public sector to develop this latest step in the country’s journey towards a future formalised sustainable space strategy and has the full backing of the Scottish Government. (2/21)

Lunar Cubesat to Launch with Rocket Lab Soon (Source: Space News)
A lunar cubesat mission is on track to launch this spring. The CAPSTONE spacecraft is a NASA-funded mission led by Advanced Space that will place a 12-unit cubesat into a near-rectilinear halo orbit around the moon, the same orbit that will be used by the lunar Gateway and other Artemis missions. The spacecraft is in the final stages of preparation for a launch this spring on a Rocket Lab Electron from New Zealand. (2/22)

NASA Fixes Swift Gamma Ray Observatory After Glitch (Source: Space.com)
NASA's Swift astronomy spacecraft is back in operation after suffering a technical glitch last month. The gamma-ray observatory went into safe mode in mid-January when one of its six reaction wheels failed. The spacecraft returned to service late last week after making changes to operate with the five other reaction wheels. Swift, launched in 2004 on a mission intended to last two years, studies gamma-ray bursts. (2/22)

ISS Hosts Lunar Art (Source: CollectSpace)
A prototype of a lunar art gallery is on the International Space Station. The Moon Gallery features 64 works of art, each in a volume of one cubic centimeter, hosted in a research module provided by Nanoracks. That gallery arrived at the station Monday as part of the payload of a Cygnus cargo spacecraft. The Moon Gallery Foundation, which developed the gallery, is using it as a prototype of a lunar art gallery it hopes to send to the moon on a lunar lander mission as soon as 2025. (2/22)

Agile Space Industries Sues Masten Over Lunar Lander Contract Flameout (Source: Law360)
An aerospace tech manufacturer has sued a NASA contractor to secure just over $2.5 million in damages it said it is owed for work done on specialty thrusters for lunar landings, accusing the contractor of "ghosting" after agreeing to buy materials, but never even making the first payment. Agile Space Industries Inc. filed suit against Masten Space Systems, alleging Masten owes Agile $1.74 million for failing to honor a NASA contract for eight specialty spacecraft thrusters used in lunar landings. The suit also seeks $770,000 in cancellation fees. (2/18)

A New Type of Aurora Found on Saturn Resolves a Planetary Mystery (Source: WIRED)
Scientists have discovered an aurora on that ringed world that is unlike any other. Like Earth’s, Saturn’s northern lights are fueled by a shower of energized particles from the heavens. But some of its auroras only make an appearance when screaming winds shoot across the north pole—a bit like a gust of air stirring up a cosmic bonfire. “To my knowledge, [this is the] first time an aurora driven by atmospheric winds has been detected,” says Rosie Johnson, a space physics researcher at Aberystwyth University in Wales who is not involved with the study. “It’s a really great result!” (2/22)

NG-17 Cygnus Reaches the International Space Station After Virginia Launch (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
After two days traveling to the International Space Station, Northrop Grumman’s NG-17 Cygnus spacecraft arrived at the orbiting outpost. The uncrewed cargo resupply spacecraft arrived at the outpost in the early-morning hours of Feb. 21, 2022, and was captured by the space station’s robotic Canadarm2 at 4:44 a.m. EST. A member of the ground team at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston remotely guided the Cygnus spacecraft to its berthing location at the Earth-facing port of the Unity module. (2/21)

Arms Control in Outer Space Won’t Work (Source: Space Review)
Russia’s ASAT test in November renewed calls for a ban on such weapons. Brian Britt argues that a comprehensive ban on ASATs is doomed to fail because of problems of definitions, verification, and attribution. Click here. (2/21)
 
Front Line on the TELINT Cold War: The Tell Two Missions Collecting Rocket and Satellite Telemetry During the 1960s (Source: Space Review)
During part of the Cold War, the US Air Force used a modified version of a B-47 aircraft to collect telemetry from Russian launches and spacecraft. Dwayne Day examines what is known about the “Tell Two” program. Click here. (2/21)
 
Smallsat Launch and the Real World (Source: Space Review)
Sometimes conference panels can stir real debate and disagreement, particularly on hot topics like launch. Jeff Foust reports on a couple panels from a recent conference that features sharp exchanges on smallsat launch capabilities. Click here. (2/21)
 
Building Musk’s Path to Mars (Source: Space Review)
Elon Musk outlines his development plans for Starship, which he says will enable the transport of people and cargo to Mars. John Strickland discusses what else is needed to establish a long-term human presence on Mars beyond a transportation system. Click here. (2/21)

New Whitepaper Highlights Ground Segment’s Pivotal Role as the Enabler of a New Era in Satellite Connectivity (Source: Euroconsult)
The satellite industry is set for unprecedented transformation, with the impact of cloud-based systems, the introduction of next-generation NGSO broadband constellations, and convergence towards a unified 5G network architecture. However, ground segments will also have to play a pivotal role to allow the industry to fully embrace and benefit from these changes.

While satellites have embarked on a journey that will allow them to blend in seamlessly with every other type of access technology, creating full interoperability within end-to-end converged networks like 5G, this new era of connectivity can only be realised through innovation on the ground. This spirit of revolution will see the satellite industry embracing key technology enablers that are already well-known in the telco world and adopting them to reduce operational complexity and to unite the next generation of cellular networks with next generation satellite networks.

“The ground segment’s role is key to creating a pathway to a fully digitised and virtualised network, one that dynamically matches satellite resources with real-time customer demand and is in perfect sync with 5G architectures. We launched the “New Ground” innovation campaign as an industry manifesto that highlights the critical nature of ground infrastructure in the future of this new connectivity landscape,” said Frederik Simoens, CTO, ST Engineering iDirect. ”Without New Ground, we cannot benefit from New Space.” (2/22)

The Science Experiments to Expect From SpaceX's Polaris Dawn (Source: Axios)
Polaris Dawn is scheduled to launch later this year, carry billionaire Jared Isaacman, who is helping to finance three flights to space. In the planned five-day flight — which would go to the radiation intense region called the Van Allen belt and potentially to an orbit farther from Earth than any since the last lunar missions — the crew will collect data about the health effects of radiation, which increases the risk of cancer and other diseases.

They also plan to test the laser-based communication system for SpaceX's Starlink satellites, which aim to provide internet access to countries without connectivity, for use in space communication systems for lunar and Martian missions. SpaceX's spacesuit designed to offer protection from radiation and other space elements will also be tested during a spacewalk. And the team is fielding an ever-growing list of proposed science experiments from other researchers.

They'll be "prioritizing any experiments that have a direct benefit for human health on Earth and in space," Isaacman says. Another experiment they are seeking approval for would study the effects of microgravity on pressure in the brain during long space flights. An increase in intracranial pressure can cause vision impairment, headaches and other effects seen in many astronauts. (2/20)