March 1, 2022

Georgia Spaceport Referendum Could Set a Precedent (Source: Brunswick News)
A special election March 8 to determine the fate of a planned spaceport in Camden County could set a precedent in Georgia. Dana Braun, a lawyer representing two plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit to stop the purchase of the proposed launch site, said he has researched case law and has been unable to find another case where citizens have mounted a drive to block the decision of a board of county commissioners in Georgia. Braun said a reason the provision in the state constitution has never been used to his knowledge is because most legislative decisions are made too quickly for citizens to contest them.

Editor's Note: The referendum is worded in a slightly confusing way, with a "Yes" vote for halting the land purchase, and a "No" vote allowing it to move forward. A group called "Citizens For Spaceport Camden" is trying to capitalize on this confusion, urging voters to vote "No" to stop the land purchase. (3/1)

North Korea Hails 'Significant' Test in Military Satellite Developments (Source: Space Daily)
North Korea said it had carried out a test of "great significance" for developing a reconnaissance satellite, state media reported Monday, a day after Seoul said it had detected a ballistic missile launch. Despite sweeping international sanctions, Pyongyang carried out a record-breaking blitz of weapons tests in January before pausing launches during the Beijing Winter Olympics.

On Sunday South Korea's military said it had detected the launch of a ballistic missile, with the news agency Yonhap later reporting it could have been fired from a mobile launcher at a steep angle, possibly indicating a medium-range ballistic missile. But North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said government agencies had conducted a test "of great significance in developing the reconnaissance satellite" on Sunday. (2/28)

NASA Awards SpaceX Additional Crew Flights to Space Station (Source: Space Daily)
NASA has awarded three additional missions to SpaceX for crew transportation services to the ISS as part of its Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract. The CCtCap modification, following the agency's notice of intent to procure the flights in December 2021, brings the total missions for SpaceX to nine and allows NASA to maintain an uninterrupted U.S. capability for human access to the space station. This brings SpaceX's the total contract value to $3,490,872,904. (3/1)

NASA Exploring Ways to Keep ISS Afloat Without Russian Help (Source: Space Daily)
NASA is exploring ways to keep the International Space Station in orbit without Russian help, but doesn't see any immediate signs Moscow is withdrawing from the collaboration following the invasion of Ukraine, a senior official said Monday. Kathy Lueders, who heads the agency's human spaceflight program, told reporters on a call that operations on the research platform were proceeding "nominally" and "we're not getting any indications at a working level that our counterparts are not committed." (2/28)

The Ending of an Era in International Space Cooperation (Source: Space Review)
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has had reverberations affecting civil and commercial spaceflight. Jeff Foust reports on those reactions and responses, and how it may only hasten the drifting apart of Russia and the West in space. Click here. (2/28)
 
Russia Looks to China for Collaboration in Space But Faces Isolation Over Ukraine Invasion (Source: Space News)
Roscosmos is looking to China as a supplier of vital space industry components and a partner in missions following the invasion of Ukraine, but sanctions could still heavily impact any new plans. Russian space agency head Dmitry Rogozin told Russian media Feb. 26 that sanctions imposed by Western countries would hit supplies of microelectronics necessary for spacecraft.

Russia is understood to have turned to Chinese state-owned aerospace companies for alternatives following sanctions imposed in 2014 in response to the Russian annexation of Crimea. But the invasion of Ukraine is having far greater repercussions. Reuters reported Feb. 27 that China so far does not seem to be helping Russia avoid sanctions. Chinese banks and other entities could face sanctions themselves and loss of access to the U.S. financial system by doing business with Russia, the report states. (3/1)

What Would FDR Do? (Source: Space Review)
Cooperation between Russia and the West continues on the International Space Station for now. Robert Oler argues it’s time to reconsider even that. Click here. (2/28)
 
The War on Ukraine Is Testing the Myth of Elon Musk (Source: The Atlantic)
On Saturday, Ukraine’s vice prime minister made a plea for help directly to Elon Musk. “While you try to colonize Mars—Russia try to occupy Ukraine! While your rockets successfully land from space—Russian rockets attack Ukrainian civil people!” Mykhailo Fedorov tweeted. “We ask you to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations.” Less than 12 hours after Fedorov’s request, Musk replied. “Starlink service is now active in Ukraine,” he tweeted. “More terminals en route.”

Voilà! Many observers of the exchange quickly lavished Musk with praise, with some referring to him as a hero. The strong response to Musk’s swift maneuvering made it seem as though the SpaceX CEO had flipped a switch and now Ukrainians could simply navigate over to their Wi-Fi settings and select “Starlink.” In that moment, Elon Musk, the man, seemed to be acting almost like a state of his own, a foreign entity that people around the world can call on for humanitarian aid the way they might call on a government. According to Federov, a shipment of Starlink satellite dishes, which SpaceX calls “terminals,” arrived today.

But Starlink isn’t an instant fix, and Musk can’t exactly wave a wand at Ukraine’s internet disruptions. “It’s nice for him to offer, but that doesn’t mean it will actually have a meaningful impact right away,” Brian Weeden, a space-policy expert at the Secure World Foundation, a nonprofit group that promotes peaceful and responsible uses of space, told me. The entire sequence—the plea, the response, the actual effect—reveals some of the limits of Musk’s influence: His outsize reputation doesn’t always match what he can actually control. (2/28)

New SpaceX Satellites Snarled by Red Tape (Source: Axios)
SpaceX's latest adversary in its plans to launch a new fleet of satellites to beam internet from space is the U.S. government. SpaceX has withstood attacks from powerhouse competitors like Amazon in the internet space race, but now must overcome warnings from NASA that its fleet of second-generation satellites could hamper asteroid detection work. SpaceX wants to launch up to 30,000 satellites for its Starlink internet service to improve the speeds and service from the roughly 2,000 satellites currently deployed in its first-generation network. (3/1)

Prophets of the High Frontier (Source: Space Review)
Space advocates have been evangelizing the promise of space-based solar power for decades, but without much progress. Dwayne Day wonders if that means those prophecies are false or just premature. Click here. (2/28)
 
The Starlink-China Space Station Near-Collision: Questions, Solutions, and an Opportunity (Source: Space Review)
The American and Chinese governments continue to disagree about two cases last year where China claimed Starlink satellites passed close to their space station. Chen Lan examines what’s known about the incidents and offers a path forward. Click here. (2/28)

China's New-Generation Manned Launch Vehicle may Have Reusable First Stage (Source: Space Daily)
China's new-generation manned launch vehicle may have a reusable first stage that can make a vertical soft landing, Science and Technology Daily reported Friday. The reusable first stage can perform engine deceleration during the reentry, and control itself and decelerate by pneumatic rudders, said Wang Xiaojun, head of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, which is under China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. (2/28)

UK Stake in OneWeb No Guarantee Production will Shift From US (Source: News 7 Trends)
OneWeb’s largest shareholder has warned that the satellite tv for pc firm can not guarantee it will have the ability to manufacture in the UK, regardless of the British authorities’s ambitions to make use of its stake in the enterprise to spur a home area business. Sunil Bharti Mittal, chair of Bharti Enterprises, which owns about 40% of OneWeb, mentioned making satellites in the nation could be tough. The corporate would “nudge” whoever wins the contract for its second-generation satellites to construct in the UK however that “there’s a lot of things that’ll depend on it”, Mittal said. (3/1)

Puget Sound's Space Sector Booming (Source: Seattle Times)
The space industry contributed $4.6 billion in economic activity to the Puget Sound region last year, driven by Blue Origin. The space sector supports 13,103 jobs in the region. That was the upshot of a new economic impact review conducted by the Puget Sound Regional Council, a public-private economic development organization. New satellite communications work by Amazon-owned Project Kuiper accounted for significant growth, as did its key competitors, Elon Musk’s satellite venture Starlink and LeoStella, a Tukwila-based satellite maker owned in part by two European aerospace giants.

Another Kent firm, startup Starfish Space, developing a space junk collector secured $7 million in funding last year, while other smaller firms are developing what’s described as a “satellite rideshare” business and interplanetary spacecraft. The Puget Sound space economy still lags what the regional council’s analysts described as “traditional space clusters” in Florida, Texas and across the Southeast. Los Angeles and, due to governmental largesse, Washington, D.C., also boast large and growing space economies. The regional council advocates for greater venture capital access for space-related startups, and building the supply chain and talent pipeline servicing the industry. It’s also seeking expanded tax incentives for spacecraft and satellite manufacturers. (2/27)

Rocket Lab Confirms Plans to Build Neutron Rockets at Virginia Factory Near Wallops Island Spaceport (Source: Space News)
Rocket Lab separately announced Monday it selected a site near Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia to build the factory for its Neutron rocket, which will launch from Wallops. The Virginia state government is providing up to $45 million to fund construction of the factory and launch site infrastructure. The first Neutron rocket is scheduled to launch in 2024. Rocket Lab reported a 77% increase in revenues in 2021 to $62.2 million, but a net loss of $117.8 million. (3/1)

NASA: ISS Operations Thus Far Unaffected by Russian Invasion of Ukraine (Source: Space News)
NASA said Monday that International Space Station operations have been unaffected by the invasion and subsequent sanctions. Kathy Lueders, NASA associate administrator for space operations, said "operations are nominal" on the ISS with American and Russian teams cooperating in the same manner as before the invasion. She added NASA still expects to have astronaut Mark Vande Hei return to Earth at the end of March on a Soyuz spacecraft as originally planned. The geopolitical situation is also not affecting the Axiom Space Ax-1 private astronaut mission to the station, which is on track to launch to launch March 30 on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. (3/1)

SpaceX Delivers Starlink Terminals to Ukraine (Source: Space News)
SpaceX delivered a set of Starlink terminals to Ukraine Monday. The company followed through on a pledge over the weekend by founder Elon Musk to provide the terminals. A Ukrainian government official tweeted a photo of a truck carrying dozens of terminals. It's unclear how the terminals will be used, and telecommunications in general in Ukraine have remained functional during the invasion. (3/1)

Polyakov Urges Satellite Imagery Companies to Share with Ukraine to Assist Defense (Source: Space News)
A company backed by a Ukrainian entrepreneur is asking commercial satellite imaging companies to provide data to assist the country. EOS Data Analytics, founded by Ukrainian-born entrepreneur Max Polyakov, said Monday it wants companies to share their optical and radar imagery to assist Ukrainian military and humanitarian efforts. After issuing a plea for companies to share imagery, Polyakov took aim at firms in the United States, Europe and South Korea that he said were taking advantage of the Russian invasion to recruit Ukrainian aerospace engineers. (3/1)

Rocket Lab Launches Japanese Radar Imaging Satellite From New Zealand (Source: Space News)
Rocket Lab launched a Japanese radar imaging satellite on an Electron as it selected a site to build its Neutron rocket. The Electron lifted off from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand at 3:37 p.m. Eastern Monday and deployed its payload, the StriX β satellite for Japanese company Synspective, nearly an hour later. The launch was the first from a second pad at the site, allowing the company to support a higher launch rate. (3/1)

Inmarsat to Launch Next Satellite on Falcon-9 From Florida (Source: Inmarsat)
Inmarsat will launch its second Inmarsat 6 satellite on a Falcon 9. The company said Monday the Inmarsat-6 F2 satellite will launch on a Falcon 9 from Florida in the first quarter of 2023, entering service later in the year over the Atlantic. Inmarsat-6 F1, launched in December on a Japanese H-2 rocket, is currently raising its orbit and is scheduled to enter service in early 2023 over the Indian Ocean. (3/1)

The Booming Space Industry Is Fueling a Spaceport Boondoggle (Source: Daily Beast)
Jim Goodman graduated from high school in Camden County, Georgia, in the thick of the space race, in 1965. Ten years ago, he came home to a place not so different from the one he left—largely rural, few career opportunities, sparse economic development. So, when the board of county commissioners formed a committee to build a commercial spaceport—a facility to launch satellite-bearing rockets into orbit, which they said would create jobs, draw tourists, and create a new world of opportunity for residents—Goodman thought their plan was “the greatest thing in the world.”

“When the spaceport first was announced, I was so much in favor of it—I would love to see an economic engine in Camden County,” Goodman, now a city councilman in the county’s only city, St. Marys, population 18,000, told The Daily Beast. “But what I came to slowly realize is, little by little, they were chipping away at the size of the rocket they said they could launch, misrepresenting things, and spending all this money on consultants. They had carte blanche.”

After more than nine years and 11 million taxpayer dollars invested in the proposal for Spaceport Camden, the county has nothing tangible to show for it: no ground broken, no solid business plan, and no tenant secured. Meanwhile, Goodman said, the county’s 911 responders are underpaid. The health department is run down. And despite being on the Georgia Coast, the county does not manage its own hurricane shelter and lacks an up-to-date emergency response plan. (2/28)

UK's Shetland Spaceport Wins Planning Approval (Source: BBC)
A spaceport in the Shetland Islands won planning approval Monday after a brief delay. The Shetland Islands Council approved the SaxaVord Spaceport on the island of Unst after delaying consideration by a week, allowing work to proceed so long as Scottish ministers don't request a review. The spaceport will host three pads for small launch vehicles. Its first launch, conducted by Lockheed Martin using a rocket from ABL Space Systems, could occur as soon as the end of the year, depending on the progress building the facility and getting licenses. (3/1)

NASA Picks New Orion Program Manager (Source: NASA)
NASA has selected a new Orion program manager. NASA said Monday that Howard Hu has taken over as program manager for the program, succeeding Catherine Koerner. Hu has spent more than 30 years at NASA, most recently as deputy program manager for Orion. Koerner will become deputy associate administrator for exploration systems development at NASA Headquarters. (3/1)

JWST Mirror Alignment Progressing Well (Source: NASA
NASA continues to make progress on aligning the mirrors of the James Webb Space Telescope. The agency said it has now directed light from all 18 mirror segments into a single point on the NIRCam instrument that is supporting the mirror alignment process. That image stacking now allows engineers to fine-tune the mirrors' alignment to an accuracy of less than a single wavelength of light. A JWST manager said the team was "increasingly pleased" with the progress of that alignment process, which will take up to three months to complete. (3/1)

OneWeb Launch Up in the Air (Source: Space News)
The latest batch of 36 OneWeb satellites are at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, the Russian-controlled launch site in Kazakhstan, for a launch that has been thrown into doubt amid mounting international sanctions resulting from the conflict in Ukraine. Arianespace, which has been using Russian Soyuz rockets to deploy the constellation from Kazakhstan, Russia and French Guiana, did not respond to requests for an update from SpaceNews on the planned March 4 launch.

Chris McLaughlin, OneWeb’s chief of government, regulatory affairs and engagement, said “so far it looks like we’re on – but who knows?” There’s “no sanction on this launch,” McLaughlin added. McLaughlin said OneWeb had already planned to launch the second half of its constellation on Soyuz rockets from Baikonur this year. OneWeb’s remaining launches have also already been paid for, according to McLaughlin, meaning there are no payments that could be blocked by sanctions or efforts to limit Russia’s access to international financial services. (2/28)

Russian Scientists Condemn Ukraine Invasion as International Projects and Meetings Thrown Into Doubt (Source: Physics World)
Over 650 Russian scientists and science journalists have signed an open letter calling Russia’s war against Ukraine “unfair and senseless” and stating that there is no “rational justification” for the invasion, which began in the early hours of 24 February. The Kremlin’s decision to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine triggered new sanctions from Europe and the US, and has also cast a doubt over several scientific collaborations with Russia, particularly in space.

Following the invasion, scientists in Russia swiftly circulated the letter, which was then published on TrV-Nauka – an independent Russian science news site. The letter states that having unleashed war, Russia has “doomed itself” to international isolation and to the position of a “pariah country”.

“This means that we, scientists, will no longer be able to do our job normally: after all, conducting scientific research is unthinkable without full co-operation with colleagues from other countries,” the letter states, adding that the isolation would result in further “cultural and technological degradation” of Russia with the war with Ukraine representing a “step to nowhere”. (2/25)

Amid Sanctions, ESA Says it’s “Very Unlikely” ExoMars will Launch This Year (Source: Space News)
The European Space Agency said Feb. 28 that it is “very unlikely” that its ExoMars mission will launch this September because of sanctions on Russia from its invasion of Ukraine. In a brief statement, ESA all but ruled out a launch that had been planned for late September of the ExoMars mission on Proton launch vehicle from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, raising questions about when, or if, the mission will fly. (2/28)

UN Panel's Grim Climate Change Report: 'Parts of the Planet will Become Uninhabitable' (Source: USA Today)
Life in some locations on the planet is rapidly reaching the point where it will be too hot for the species that live there to survive, international climate experts said in a report Monday. “With climate change, some parts of the planet will become uninhabitable,” said German scientist Hans-Otto Pörtner, the co-chair of Working Group II for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which produced the report released in Berlin, Germany.

The report assesses scientific literature documenting the devastating effects of human-caused climate change on society and ecosystems worldwide. The group studied the vulnerability of people and ecosystems to the changing climate and how adaptation could help reduce the risks, said Pörtner and co-chair Deborah Roberts of South Africa. (2/28)

Space Development Agency Makes Awards for 126 Satellites to Build Tranche 1 Transport Layer (Source: DoD)
The Space Development Agency (SDA) today announced the awards of three prototype agreements worth approximately $1.8 billion to establish the foundation for Tranche 1 Transport Layer (T1TL), a mesh network of 126 optically-interconnected space vehicles (SV) that will provide a resilient, low-latency, high-volume data transport communication system, and be ready for launch starting in September 2024.

These agreements are awarded to York Space Systems, Lockheed Martin Space, and Northrop Grumman Space Systems to each build and demonstrate effectiveness for two near-polar low Earth orbital planes of the six-plane T1TL, which forms the initial warfighting capability tranche of the National Defense Space Architecture (NDSA). (2/28)