March 28, 2022

Biden's Budget Requests $773B for Pentagon (Source: UPI)
The Biden administration is expected to release the 2023 budget request today, which will include $813.3 billion for national defense, $773 billion of this going to the Pentagon. The proposal marks a 4% increase from the current year, though is lower than the 5% increase advocated by Republicans in Congress. (3/28)

Boeing Exec Joins Sierra Space in CFO Role (Source: Reuters)
Troy Lahr, former chief financial officer of Boeing's defense, space and security unit, has been tapped as the next CFO for Sierra Nevada Corp's space segment. "Sierra Space is assembling a world class management team, including Troy, that sees many lucrative opportunities in the marketplace for investors, while at the same time driving innovation and fueling our mission to explore space and benefit life on Earth," according to a spokesperson. (3/25)

Space Report 2022 Rocket Launch Guide (Source: Space Foundation)
With 16 new launch vehicles expected to make maiden flights this year, 2022 is set to be the busiest year for new rockets since the dawn of the Space Age! It is also the most ambitious year ever for commercial efforts untethered to government-backed space programs. Get a look at the "Class of 2022" including their expected capabilities. Click here. (3/28)

2nd NASA SLS Moon Rocket Takes Shape in New Orleans (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
While the first SLS rocket is being readied for its maiden flight, the core stage for a second SLS reached a new assembly milestone. On March 18, NASA and Boeing engineers at the Michoud Assembly Facility completed the mating of four of five parts for the second SLS core stage. This will be used for the Artemis 2 mission, expected to send four astronauts around the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years.

The elements mated were the 66-foot (20-meter) forward join — consisting of the forward skirt, liquid oxygen tank and intertank — and the massive 130-foot (40-meter) liquid hydrogen tank. According to NASA, a total of 360 bolts were required to connect these two pieces. All that remains for the Artemis 2 SLS core stage is the engine section that will hold the vehicle’s four RS-25 engines. Artemis 2 is currently slated to launch in May of 2024 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (3/28)

First Exoplanet Targets Recommended for Webb Observation (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
Now that the James Webb Space Telescope’s primary mirror has been aligned successfully, scientists are identifying the first exoplanets for the telescope to observe. On March 21, NASA announced the milestone of 5,005 confirmed exoplanets. One of JWST‘s major tasks will be studying the atmospheres of exoplanets to look for signs of life.

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield recommended Kepler-442b, a likely rocky world in its star’s habitable zone as an ideal first planetary target for the new infrared telescope. Located around 1,200 light years from Earth in the constellation Lyra, Kepler-442b was discovered by NASA’s Kepler and K2 missions.

The planet orbits a K-type star 40 times less massive than our Sun and has an orbital period of 112 days. With a radius 1.34 times that of Earth, it is a super-Earth and one of the most promising worlds in terms of possibly hosting life. Hadfield selected this planet based on a 2015 study in The Astrophysical Journal, in which a team of scientists ranked planets discovered by Kepler and K2 for being most likely to have liquid water on their surfaces. Kepler-442b was one of the planets the study identified. (3/27)

NASA Selects University Teams to Tackle Moon, Mars Exploration Challenges (Source: NASA)
NASA has selected fifteen undergraduate and graduate finalist teams to advance to the next phase of the agency’s Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts – Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) competition and present their concepts to NASA and aerospace industry leaders at a forum in June.

Selected teams will receive a $6,000 stipend to develop their proposals to effectively meet the mission: establish innovative concepts that allow the expansion of human space exploration to include short-term stays and scientific operations at planetary bodies. Projects are incorporated into the teams’ coursework and fall into one of four themes: portable utility pallet, universal sample containment system, Mars water-based in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) architecture, or suitport logistics carrier (SPLC).

Among the winners are Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (for SALVARE - Self-Acquisition of Liquid propellant Versatile Arsenal of Resources Endeavour) and the University of Central Florida (for Project Vitality: Martian ISRU Architecture). Click here to see all the winners and their projects. (3/28) https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-selects-university-teams-to-tackle-moon-mars-exploration-challenges

UCF Lab Cooks Up Lunar Dirt on Earth so Humans Can Roam the Moon (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
There’s an Oviedo warehouse just north of the University of Central Florida that looks normal enough on the outside, but inside its staff and students are creating something otherworldly. Alien dirt — or regolith simulant — is the main product of UCF’s Exolith Lab and is gaining huge demand as the next era of space exploration and projects like NASA’s moonshot Artemis missions prepare to blast off.

In 2018 the lab produced a little more than 1,000 pounds of regolith to the scientific community. Last year the UCF lab hit pay dirt as demand avalanched into 40 tons — 80,000 pounds — of regolith. Most orders demand lunar soil, but the lab also produces simulated soil of Mars, asteroids, Mercury and other celestial rocks.

NASA is one of the lab’s biggest buyers and purchases lunar and Martian regolith for all kinds of experiments since the lab’s beginnings. Exolith Lab first started developing its library of dirt in 2015 as a small business innovation research project funded by NASA and functioned as a partnership between UCF and a small startup company, Deep Space Industries. The lab has changed locations several times to accommodate a rise in demand. (3/27)

“Missile Row” Pads at Cape Canaveral Spaceport Returning to Action (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
With so many projects, the landscape was littered with launch complexes, and along the eastern coastline, the iconic “missile row” of Atlas and Titan launch complexes dominated the skyline. Many of the Cape’s launch facilities have long since fallen silent, but with newcomers Firefly and Relativity preparing for their first launches from Cape Canaveral, the sight of rockets lifting off along the “row” is about to return.

The eight launch pads that made up the core of what is unofficially known as missile row, or “ICBM row,” were built in the 1950s to support testing of the Atlas and Titan missiles, each of which required four launch complexes. At the southern end, Launch Complex 11 (LC-11) was built about a kilometer north of Cape Canaveral’s original launch pads, which were then in their final years of service with the Snark, Bomarc, and X-17 missiles. Click here. (3/28)

SpaceX Drops Starship SN20 From the First Orbital Flight Test for a New Prototype (Source: Tesla Oracle)
SpaceX has been preparing for the first Starship orbital flight test since the last year. But this experiment is getting delayed due to one reason or another as time elapsed. Initially, SpaceX wanted to perform the first Starship orbital flight experiment with the more stable and tested SN20 prototype (aka Ship 20).

Talking to SpaceX fans on Twitter earlier this week, Elon Musk confirmed that the first orbital flight will not be conducted on the SN20 prototype anymore. A prototype will be used from the existing SN21 or SN22 or a new one will be built for the purpose. (3/26)

NASA SPHEREx Mission: Finalized Plans for a Cutting-Edge Cosmic Mapmaker (Source: SciTech Daily)
NASA’s upcoming SPHEREx mission will be able to scan the entire sky every six months and create a map of the cosmos unlike any before. Scheduled to launch no later than April 2025, it will probe what happened within the first second after the big bang, how galaxies form and evolve, and the prevalence of molecules critical to the formation of life, like water, locked away as ice in our galaxy.

Achieving these goals will require cutting-edge technology, and NASA has this month approved final plans for all the observatory’s components. SPHEREx (which stands for Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) belongs to another class of space telescopes that quickly observe large portions of the sky, surveying many objects in a short period of time. SPHEREx will scan over 99% of the sky every six months. (3/26)

SpaceX Ending Production of Flagship Crew Capsule (Source: Reuters)
SpaceX has ended production of new Crew Dragon astronaut capsules, a company executive told Reuters, as Elon Musk's space transportation company heaps resources on its next-generation spaceship program. Capping the fleet at four Crew Dragons adds more urgency to the development of the astronaut capsule's eventual successor, Starship, SpaceX's moon and Mars rocket. Starship's debut launch has been delayed for months by engine development hurdles and regulatory reviews.

It also poses new challenges as the company learns how to maintain a fleet and quickly fix unexpected problems without holding up a busy schedule of astronaut missions. "We are finishing our final (capsule), but we still are manufacturing components, because we'll be refurbishing," said SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell, confirming the plan to end Crew Dragon manufacturing. She added that SpaceX would retain the capability to build more capsules if a need arises in the future, but contended that "fleet management is key."

Crew Dragon has flown five crews of government and private astronauts to space since 2020. NASA has given SpaceX some $3.5 billion to help develop and subsequently use Crew Dragon for six ISS flights. NASA added three more missions to fill in for delays with Boeing's Starliner capsule. Editor's Note: Time to produce and sell Dragons for other operators? (3/28)

SLS Countdown Test Could Delay Axiom Launch (Source: Space News)
A countdown test of the first Space Launch System rocket could delay a commercial mission to the International Space Station. NASA said Friday it completed a flight readiness review for Axiom Space's Ax-1 mission, scheduled for launch April 3 from the Kennedy Space Center. However, a wet dress rehearsal of the SLS from a neighboring pad is scheduled for the same day. NASA officials said preparations would continue for both the launch and the SLS test if either slips, but the SLS test would have priority. In that event, the Ax-1 launch would be delayed at least a day. There are several days of schedule margin for Ax-1 before its launch-and-return would delay the Crew-4 mission to the ISS, planned for launch April 19. (3/28)

Terran Goes Public with SPAC (Source: Space News)
Terran Orbital began trading on the New York Stock Exchange Monday after completing its SPAC merger. Shareholders of the SPAC Tailwind Two Acquisition Corp. approved the merger last week, the final step before completing the deal announced last fall. Terran Orbital said it raised $255 million from the merger and says it will use the proceeds to scale up its smallsat manufacturing activities. The company will trade under the ticker symbol LLAP, for "Live Long And Prosper" from Star Trek. (3/28)

Intelsat to Link GEO Satellites to SpaceX Starlink Constellation (Source: Space News)
Intelsat is offering a managed network service that combines its GEO satellites with SpaceX's Starlink constellation. Intelsat is buying Starlink terminals and services and reselling them as part of a multi-layer, multi-orbit managed network that includes geostationary satcom and LTE connectivity. Intelsat sees the Defense Department as a major customer for the service since ground units could set up the system in the field with hardware that fits in two large suitcases. Intelsat demonstrated a multi-orbit network with OneWeb in November, but that constellation is not yet able to provide global coverage. (3/28)

SES Orders Satellite From Thales Alenia (Source: SES)
SES announced Monday it ordered a new GEO satellite from Thales Alenia Space. The SES-26 will replace the NSS-12 satellite at 57 degrees east in GEO, serving Europe, Africa and the Middle East using a software-defined payload. The order comes after SES purchased two other satellites from Thales Alenia in November for its key GEO slot of 19.2 degrees east. (3/28)

NASA Revises and Delays Mars Sample Return Plan (Source: Space News)
NASA is revising and delaying the next phase of its Mars Sample Return campaign. At a National Academies meeting last week, an agency official said that the Sample Retrieval Lander would be split into two spacecraft. One lander will carry a European rover to pick up samples cached by the Perseverance mission, and the other will carry the rocket that will launch those samples into orbit. Splitting the lander into two smaller ones allows NASA to use landing technologies demonstrated on previous missions, reducing risk. NASA will now launch those landers in 2028, two years later than previously planned, returning samples in 2033. (3/28)

Space Force Using Spire Constelation to Detect Russian GPS Jamming (Source: Spae News)
The U.S. Space Force is using data from Spire's fleet of cubesats to detect GPS jamming. Spire is providing GPS telemetry data to help detect jamming as part of a project run by the Space Systems Command to see how to automate manual data analysis techniques and produce more timely intelligence for military operations. Spire's cubesats contain sensors for collecting GPS signals used to gather radio-occultation data for weather forecasting. The issue of GPS jamming is gaining broader attention after Russia jammed GPS signals in parts of Ukraine during its invasion. (3/28)

Gilmour Space Wins Major Grant to Develop Australia's Space Manufacturing Capability (Source: Space Daily)
A $157 million bid led by Queensland-based Gilmour Space Technologies to grow sovereign space manufacturing in Australia has been awarded the largest Modern Manufacturing Initiative Collaboration (MMIC) grant for Space by the Federal Government.

Minister for Industry, Energy and Emissions Reduction Angus Taylor MP said in a statement that the Government's $52 million co-investment in the Australian Space Manufacturing Network (ASMN) project will help unlock further collaboration between small and medium businesses and researchers to see launch vehicles and satellites take off to space. (3/25)

Pixxel Announces $25M Investment to Advance Imaging Satellites for Earth Health Monitoring (Source: Parabolic Arc)
Pixxel, a leader in earth-imaging technology, announced a $25 million investment round by Radical Ventures, known for investing in entrepreneurs that use artificial intelligence to transform massive industries. The new funding enables Pixxel to expedite production of the world’s highest resolution hyperspectral satellite constellation and to offer industry AI-powered insights that discover, solve, and predict climate issues at a fraction of traditional satellite costs. (3/28)

France's Gama Raises $2.2 Million for Solar Sail Project (Source: Space News)
A French startup has raised an initial round of funding to develop solar sails. Gama raised $2.2 million from French organizations and investors to fund a prototype satellite scheduled to launch this fall. The Alpha satellite will test deployment technologies for a solar sail in low Earth orbit. The company believes there will be strong government and commercial interest in solar sails, which can provide continuous thrust without propellant. (3/28)

Rebuilding ‘Mriya’ – Antonov Plans To Resurrect World’s Biggest Aircraft – AN-225 (Source: Eurasian Times)
Antonov CEO Sergii Bychkov has launched a campaign to resurrect the world’s largest plane, the AN-225 Mriya (Dream), which was destroyed by Russian troops in the early days of the Ukraine invasion. On March 24, Bychkov posted an appeal on Antonov’s Facebook page for donations, saying he wished to restore the Soviet-era plane as “a symbol of the world’s highest scientific and technical achievements in modern transport aircraft construction.”

Antonov claims the company would do it themselves, but it is short on cash due to the ongoing war. Building a new An-225 can cost more than $3 billion. The gigantic freighter was the heaviest plane ever built and has set 240 world records, including two Guinness World Records for the aircraft with the heaviest take-off weight, as well as the largest wingspan of any aircraft. (3/26)

Astronomers Discover Two Supermassive Black Holes Orbiting Each Other, Doomed to Collide in the Future (Source: Universe Today)
Until recently, one of the closest orbiting each other pairs of supermassive blackholes was found in NGC 7727. That pair is about 89 million light-years away from Earth. Those black holes are only 1,600 light-years apart from each other. Another pair in OJ 287, about 3.5 billion light-years from Earth, are only separated by about 0.3 light years. Now scientists have discovered a pair orbiting each other at a distance of 200 AU to 2,000 AU apart, about 0.003 to 0.03 light years.

The pair is designated PKS 2131-021 and is a blazar, a quasar whose relativistic jet points in the direction of Earth. It is located 8.8 billion light-years away. The pair orbit each other about every two years. The black holes orbit each other so closely that they should merge in around 10,000 years. When this happens, the fabric of space will ripple in the form of gravitational waves and oscillations in matter will occur. (3/24)

Comet is 16 Miles Wide and it Could be Heading Toward Earth (Source: New York Post)
A comet twice the size of the one that killed the dinosaurs comes dangerously close to Earth every once in a while. The Perseids, which appear to us as beautiful shooting stars lighting up the night sky, is really an enormous stream of space debris that our Earth is periodically passing through.

This stream extends for more than 15 million kilometers through space and is the product of Comet Swift-Tuttle. Swift-Tuttle (officially designated 109P/Swift–Tuttle) is a periodic comet that orbits our sun every 133 years. This comet is estimated to have a nucleus of about 16 miles across — twice the size of the Chicxulub impactor, which was the asteroid that killed off the dinosaurs. Swift-Tuttle also follows a very steep orbit around the sun, which contributes to its quick-moving speed of about 36 miles per second.

Every 133 years, the comet comes several million miles within Earth’s orbit. It last entered our inner solar system in December 1992 and is not expected to come back until 2126, when it will be within 14.2 million miles of Earth with an apparent magnitude of about 0.7, according to one study. While these figures don’t worry scientists, the issue is that it’s hard to 100 percent rule out impact. (3/16)

“Chance of Impact 100%” – Fifth Asteroid Ever Discovered Before Impact (Source: SciTech Daily)
On occasion – five in human history, to be precise – we discover an asteroid before it strikes. At 19:24 UTC on March 11, 2022, astronomer Krisztián Sárneczky discovered a bright and fast-moving new object in the sky. He collected four observations in quick succession, and just 14 minutes later reported his findings to the Minor Planet Center (MPC), initially designating the object ‘Sar2593’.

Almost exactly an hour after it was detected at 20:25 UTC, ESA’s “Meerkat” monitoring system triggered an alert to the Agency’s Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre (NEOCC) based on the accumulated observations. The chance of impact was now 100%, and would happen in less than an hour, sometime between 21:21 and 21:25 UTC. The new object’s impact location was already predictable to the nearest thousand kilometers, expected just a few hundred kilometers north of Iceland. (3/24)

More Money Won't Speed Commercial Space Stations (Source: Space News)
Companies working on commercial space stations said that additional funding would not significantly speed up their development. At a panel discussion Friday, executives of four companies working on commercial stations said they would welcome additional funding, but new money would likely go toward reducing risks on already agressive schedules. The companies said they're on track to have facilities ready late this decade, allowing for a transition from the ISS by 2030. That schedule is complicated by Russia, which declined to commit to extending the ISS beyond 2024 even before its invasion of Ukraine. (3/28)

New Space Race Defines Where to Live and Work in Orbit, No Longer About How to Get There (Source: Florida Today)
For the past 20 years, commercial space companies have focused on ways of getting people and cargo to space. Now, they are turning their attention to creating destinations in space. With the ISS set to be decommissioned by 2030, NASA will transition from premier gatekeeper of U.S. access to the space station to become just one of many customers of private space stations in what many hope will be a robust low-Earth orbit economy.

In an effort to duplicate the success it had in fostering commercial cargo and crew transportation to the ISS, NASA is funding initial efforts with Axiom Space, Blue Origin, Nanoracks, and Northrop Grumman to develop commercial space destinations through 2025. Axiom Space has been tapped to develop at least one transitional module that will attach to the ISS and one day separate to become its own space station.

Blue Origin, Nanoracks, and Northrop Grumman Systems were selected by NASA to develop free-flying, independent commercial low-Earth orbit destinations (CLDs). Sierra Space has its own version of an inflatable habitat in the works called the Large Integrated Flexible Environment which is a planned component of Blue Origin's bet on a commercial space station called the "Orbital Reef." (3/27)

New Hotel Hopes to Become Go-To Location for Launch Viewing (Source: Florida Today)
Delaware North Corp., the company that operates the KSC Visitor Complex, is preparing for its April 8 opening of the Courtyard Titusville-Kennedy Space Center hotel and The Space Bar rooftop bar and restaurant. The Space Bar on the rooftop of Courtyard Titusville-Kennedy Space Center hotel offers a clear view of the Vehicle Assembly Building and bleachers for watching launches at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. Cheerful red Adirondack chairs will be placed along the riverfront for launch viewing too. (3/25)