March 31, 2022

NASA Ready for High-Stakes, Low-Profile SLS Test (Source: Space News)
NASA says it’s ready to go ahead with a practice countdown of the Space Launch System that will serve as a final key test before the rocket’s first launch, but one that will also take place largely out of public view. Preparations remain on track for the SLS wet dress rehearsal (WDR), where the rocket is filled with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellant and the countdown taken to just under T-10 seconds, shortly before the core stage’s four RS-25 engines would ignite. The WDR will test fueling and countdown procedures ahead of the Artemis 1 launch this summer.

The test will begin with a “call to stations” for personnel at about 5 p.m. Eastern April 1, said Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, NASA Artemis launch director. Tanking will start at around 7 a.m. Eastern April 3, entering the terminal part of the countdown seven and a half hours later. Controllers will take the vehicle first down to T-33 seconds then recycle to do another countdown to T-10 seconds. The test would end with detanking of the vehicle late that afternoon.

While technical preparations continue for the test, NASA will be keeping an eye on the weather. “There is some chance that we’ll have a little bit of inclement weather in this area over the weekend,” she said. The primary concern is lightning, with a requirement of no more than a 20% chance of lightning within 9.3 kilometers of the pad in the first hour of tanking. (3/29)

Relativity Space's First 3D Printed Rocket Launch to Orbit is Coming Soon (Source: Marcus House)
We are all very much looking forward to witnessing a very great milestone. The FIRST 3D printed rocket (or at least the vast majority is 3D printed). This is Terran 1, with nine Aeon 1 engines on the first stage. This is an expendable vehicle, but it just the first prototype rocket to test the 3D printing technology. The next rocket already in development!? Yep, that is the Terran R. A fully reusable rocket including its engines, first stage, second stage, and payload fairing. Click here. (3/29)

Bezos and Blue Origin Have a Second Chance Against Musk's SpaceX (Source: The Street)
Blue Origin is getting another crack at a moon landing. Earlier this week, NASA said it planned a second commercial project to develop a moon landing system to carry astronauts to and from the lunar surface. "By doing so, NASA will establish the critical redundancy and robustness needed for establishing permanent U.S. lunar presence," a spokesperson said. "Blue Origin is ready to compete and remains deeply committed to the success of Artemis."

Blue Origin and Dynetics filed a protest last year with GAO after NASA awarded a $2.9 billion lunar landing system contract to SpaceX. The companies asserted that NASA was required to make multiple awards consistent with its broad agency announcement that stated a preference for multiple awards. NASA had planned to hire two companies for the project but decided to award just one after receiving insufficient financing from Congress. Blue Origin filed a lawsuit against NASA challenging an alleged unlawful and improper evaluation of its proposal for a human landing system program.

"Blue Origin is likely to be regarded as the front-runner for this new opportunity because of the advance work they've done on their 'Blue Moon' lander concept," ASU's Jim Bell said. "But Dynetics and perhaps other companies or consortia of companies that we don't know about yet could certainly put in strong bids as well." (3/25)

Northrop Grumman Weighing Options for NASA Lunar Lander Bid (Source: Space News)
Northrop Grumman says it's still considering whether to join again with Blue Origin or strike out on its own for a NASA lunar lander competition. Northrop was part of the Blue Origin-led "National Team" that lost to SpaceX in the original Human Landing System competition. At a briefing Wednesday, company executives said they were still considering whether to partner with Blue Origin again for the upcoming Sustaining Lunar Development effort to develop a second Artemis lander or to lead its own bid.

The company has been working on concepts supported in part by a NASA award last September. Northrop expects to decide on its approach in the next few weeks. The company also said it is still evaluating options for continuing Cygnus missions to the space station, given uncertainty about the future availability of the Antares rocket that launches those cargo spacecraft. (3/31)

Radian Hires Deloitte's Matthews to Direct Strategy (Source: Space News)
Spaceplane startup Radian Aerospace has hired a Deloitte Consulting executive as its new director of strategy. The company said Wednesday that Jeff Matthews, a founding member of Deloitte's space sector practice, has joined the company, responsible for assessing the market and competition for its proposed Radian One spaceplane. Matthews started working with Radian in 2016 when, with Deloitte, he produced an initial market study. (3/31)

Next-Generation Polar is Indispensable in Highly Contested Space (Source: Space Daily)
On the battlefield, snipers rarely work alone. Snipers act as part of a system with a spotter who surveys a wide area to identify potential targets. That's one way to think about the Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared (OPIR) system, according to Mike Ciffone, director of programs, OPIR, Northrop Grumman.

The Next-Generation Polar (NGP) satellites act as the spotter, surveying an enormous swath of the Northern Hemisphere from an orbit more than 20,000 miles from Earth. Once spotted by NGP, the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor satellites (HBTSS), which will operate in low-earth orbit, can act as the sniper's high-resolution scope, precisely tracking hypersonic missiles in flight and relaying timely data to shooters on the ground or at sea. (3/30)

SES Partners with NorthStar for SSA (Source: Space News)
SES is partnering with NorthStar Earth & Space on space situational awareness (SSA) data products. The two companies said Thursday that they would work together to turn data from NorthStar's future constellation of spacecraft that track objects in orbit into products tailored for the management of the SES fleet. SES operates dozens of GEO satellites as well as the O3b constellation in medium Earth orbit. NorthStar announced a deal with Spire earlier this month to launch its first three SSA satellites next year. (3/31)

South Korea Tests Solid-Fuel Rocket (Source: Yonhap)
The South Korean government has successfully tested a rocket using a solid-fuel motor. The country's Agency for Defense Development test-fired the rocket Wednesday as part of a future launch vehicle designed to place small satellites into orbit. This test was intended to test the performance of the upper stage and fairing separation. It comes less than a year after the United States and South Korea agreed to lift restrictions on the development of solid-fueled motors for missiles or space launch vehicles. (3/31)

Redwire to Post Financial Results After Accounting Investigation Delay (Source: Redwire)
Redwire will report its financial results today after completing an investigation into accounting issues. The company said Wednesday it will report its fourth-quarter results and hold an earnings call after the close of markets today. The company postponed the release of its third-quarter results in November citing an investigation into "potential accounting issues at a business subunit." That investigation is now resolved and did not identify any material misstatements, the company said. The space technology company, which went public last fall through a SPAC merger, said it would file its financial results for the third and fourth quarters with the SEC by mid-April. (3/31)

Philippines Granting Approval for Starlink Services (Source: Reuters)
The Philippines is in the process of granting approval to SpaceX to provide Starlink services there. Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said Thursday the government is reviewing SpaceX's application to provide broadband satellite services in the country as SpaceX looks for locations there to establish gateways. Neither he nor SpaceX said when the company expects to start offering services in the country. (3/31)

Latimer to Direct Virgin Galactic Flight Tests (Source: Virgin Galactic)
Virgin Galactic has named Kelly Latimer its new director of flight tests. Latimer joined the company in 2015 as a test pilot and serves as pilot for the WhiteKnightTwo aircraft that carries the company's SpaceShipTwo suborbital vehicle. In her new position, she will oversee the flight test program as Virgin Galactic resumes flights later this year of the VSS Unity SpaceShipTwo and begins tests of the new VSS Imagine vehicle. The company said that she would continue to serve as a pilot, including future test and commercial missions of its suborbital vehicles. (3/31)

UN Bans Use of Mercury as Spacecraft Fuel (Source: PEER)
The United Nations has banned the use of mercury as a spacecraft propellant. A new provision of the Minamata Convention on Mercury adopted at a meeting last week will phase out mercury in electric propulsion systems by 2025. The prohibition was prompted by reports several years ago that one company, Apollo Fusion, was investigating the use of mercury in electric thrusters. However, that company's thrusters currently use more conventional propellants, such as krypton and xenon, and it appears no one else is pursuing development of mercury-fueled thrusters. (3/31)

Hubble Spies Most Distant Star (Source: Washington Post)
The Hubble Space Telescope has detected the most distant star yet seen. Astronomers announced Wednesday the discovery of the star, nicknamed "Earendel," in Hubble data. Astronomers estimate the star, 50 to 100 times the sun's mass, is 12.9 billion light-years away and dates back to less than a billion years after the Big Bang. The discovery was aided by gravitational lensing, where the gravity of a cluster of galaxies warps light from objects behind it, magnifying it by a factor of thousands. (3/31)

Sierra Space to Revolutionize Space Exploration with Siemens' Xcelerator (Source: Space Daily)
Siemens Digital Industries Software has announced that Sierra Space, a leading commercial space company at the forefront of creating and building the future of space transportation and infrastructure for Low Earth orbit (LEO) commercialization, has implemented Siemens' Xcelerator portfolio of software and services as the foundation of its next-generation digital engineering program.

The company is implementing Xcelerator to establish a fully digital environment from engineering to manufacturing through sustainment, which will help realize goals to develop the future of space transportation, commercial space destination and infrastructure, and create enabling technologies that will build a vibrant, growing and accessible commercial space economy. (3/31)

Perseverance Rover Racing to an Ancient Martian River Delta (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover has been racing toward an ancient Martian river delta in recent weeks as it covers ground faster than any pervious rover. The journey, which began March 14, 2022, is a 3-mile journey around the Séítah region where it has been exploring since its landing in February 2021 to reach the river delta within Jezero crater. Moving at speeds never before seen by any planetary rover, the six-wheeled vehicle is relying on its artificially-driven AutoNav system that guides it along its path past dunes, rocks and craters as it makes its way to its next destination. (3/31)

The Future of the International Space Station Looks Dire (Source: Bloomberg)
As joke videos go, it wasn’t very funny. Set to a bouncy Russian pop tune, the 57-second clip posted to Telegram on March 5 showed International Space Station cosmonauts hugging an American astronaut goodbye, climbing into the Russian segment of the ISS, undocking, and flying away, as Russian ground controllers gave a standing ovation.

What lent the ostensibly lighthearted clip a darker feel was the identity of the organization that made it—Roscosmos, Russia’s equivalent of NASA—and what the video implied would happen next. With the Russian portion of the station detached, the ISS would have no thrusters to maintain its orbit. The whole thing would be doomed to plunge to Earth. With a wink and a smile, Russia was suggesting it might kill the orbital outpost. (3/29)

$25M Charitable Donation to Match $25M Legislative Earmark for Embry-Riddle Aerospace Technology Center... Making it Veto-Proof? (Sources: ERAU, SPACErePORT)
Philanthropists Cici and Hyatt Brown have pledged $25 million to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University – matching $25 million in support approved by Florida legislators and pending approval by Governor Ron DeSantis – to help the university create a revolutionary new business makerspace focused on high-paying jobs for Floridians.

The remarkably generous $25 million pledge from Cici and Hyatt Brown represents the single largest gift in the history of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, which was established in 1926. The new Cici and Hyatt Brown Center for Aerospace Technology will build upon the game-changing wins of Embry-Riddle’s five-year-old Research Park, by promoting even more innovation, creating high-quality jobs, and bolstering Florida’s advanced technology workforce.

The $25 million legislative appropriation is an unbudgeted 'earmark' that would be among those funding items considered for veto by Governor Ron DeSantis. The Browns' charitable donation serves as a sweetener to give the governor pause before considering a strike-through of this line-item in the state's budget for next year. (3/30)

Space Florida Pursues Project with Mystery Firm ‘Project Oz’ That Will Create 500 Jobs (Source: Orlando Business Journal)
Space Florida aims to lure an unnamed company to the Sunshine State, bringing a $250 million facility and 500 high-wage jobs with it. Space Florida's board is considering a term sheet for “Project Oz" that sets the stage for the securing of the project, which would mean construction and job creation in the area. The documents give no indication of what Project Oz does, and it’s common for Space Florida to keep companies it negotiates with anonymous until an official agreement is made between the two parties.

Space Florida will evaluate Project Oz’s eligibility for matching grant funds under the Spaceport Improvement Program. The Florida Department of Transportation program provides funds to projects that improve Florida’s aerospace transportation facilities or capabilities. This indicates Project Oz is involved in the aerospace industry, and it’s likely the firm is interested in setting up shop in one of the state’s six Federal Aviation Administration-recognized spaceports, five of which are in Brevard County.

In addition to the Spaceport Improvement Program funds, Space Florida will pursue financing of lease and sublease agreements for construction and equipment purchases. In addition to the $250 million facility Project Oz would bring to Florida, Space Florida projects it will create high-wage 500 jobs by 2025. Those jobs are important because they pay an average wage of $100,000, compared with the Palm Bay metro’s average annual wage of $51,740, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (3/28)

After Space Tests, DoD to Decide on Hypersonic Tracking Sats in Late ’23 (Source: Breaking Defense)
The Defense Department will decide whether to go forward with a program to develop and field new space-based sensors capable of tracking hypersonic weapons sometime late next year, with the Missile Defense Agency asking for $89 million in fiscal 2023 funds to launch two prototypes, said MDA head Vice Adm. Jon Hill. He said the decision on whether to “proliferate” the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS) would be made jointly by MDA, the Space Force and the Space Development Agency (SDA).

HBTSS, with a medium field-of-view, is to be paired with another set of sensor satellites with a wide field-of-view being developed by SDA under its Tracking Layer effort.  Together, the two types of satellites would create a network in Low Earth Orbit that can detect and keep constant track of maneuvering hypersonic missiles that are difficult targets for current Pentagon missile warning satellites and radar. “We should have data coming down in the summer ’23 or so, and we’ll be able to help the Space Force make decisions,” he said. (3/29)

Impulse Space Propulsion Raises $20 Million for In-Space Thrusters (Source: Space News)
Impulse Space Propulsion, a startup led by former SpaceX propulsion lead Tom Mueller, raised $20 million in a seed funding round led by Founders Fund. Impulse was established in September to offer last-mile transportation for "satellites to optimal orbits, in-orbit servicing, space debris deorbit and space station orbit keeping," according to the El Segundo company's March 29 announcement. (3/30)

Privateer Space Adds Advisory Board Members (Source: Privateer)
Privateer Space, the space situational awareness startup led by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, announced that Kevin O'Connell, former Office of Space Commerce director, and Bill Diamond, SETI Institute president and CEO, would join the firm's advisory board. The board also includes tech investor Claude Amadeo, Phase Four propulsion engineer Chris Cretel, Duke University professor Sanyin Siang and Robb Kulin, former SpaceX Launch chief engineer. (3/30)

L3Harris Shifts Focus to Responsive Space, Satellite Manufacture (Source: Space News)
L3Harris Space and Airborne Systems vice president Tim Lynch said the company “struck gold” when it pivoted from producing hosted payloads to manufacturing small satellites about five years ago. Based on the success of that business, L3Harris is focusing on “responsive space” for military and intelligence agencies. (3/30)

How Small is Small (Source: Space News)
How big is a small satellite? Millennium satellites tend to range from 100 to 1,000 kilograms. Terran Orbital’s sweet spot is 350 to 450 kilograms. York’s standard S-Class and LX-Class satellites accommodate payloads of 180 and 350 kilograms, respectively. Airbus OneWeb satellites are about 150 kilograms, while Leostella produces 50- to 300-kilogram satellites. L3Harris satellites are any size that solves a customer’s problem, Lynch said. (3/30)

No More Excuses: NASA In Line to Get Funding Needed for Artemis Plan (Source: Ars Technica)
There is reason to think NASA will get most of the money requested by President Biden. Last year, to a large extent, the Democratic-led Congress supported the president's budget priorities for NASA. The agency's administrator, former US Sen. Bill Nelson, has demonstrated his skill in working with both Democrats and Republicans in Congress. So if NASA can get all of the funding it has asked for, shouldn't the public ask for results in return?

Beyond the Artemis Program, the budget request would fund NASA's science programs to higher levels than ever before, due in large part to cost overruns for the Europa Clipper mission. The cost of the mission, which will make dozens of flybys of the intriguing Jovian moon from whence its name derives, has increased by $703 million to about $5 billion. To accommodate the cost overruns, several other missions would be delayed, including NEO Surveyor, a mission to detect near-Earth asteroids.

The budget request also seeks to more than double funding for a program to develop "commercial" space stations for when the International Space Station is retired. NASA is working with four different contractors on various proposals to have these private space stations either ready to go or in orbit by the late 2020s. To fund this effort, called "Commercial LEO development," the budget request seeks an increase from $103 million in 2022 to $224 million. (3/28)

SpaceX Gears Up for Busiest April Yet (Source: Teslarati)
SpaceX managed to complete a record five orbital Falcon 9 launches in ~18.5 days in December 2021. Including one additional mission in late November, SpaceX actually launched six times in 27 days. The company then nearly repeated that record the very next month, launching six times in 28 days in January and February 2022. SpaceX has yet to literally launch six times in the same month but it’s already more than demonstrated the ability to do so if the timing is right.

April might be that month. Following Transporter-4, SpaceX has two Crew Dragon missions – Axiom-1 with four private astronauts and Crew-4 with four government astronauts – scheduled to launch from Kennedy Space Center Pad 39A on April 6th and April 19th. In the middle, SpaceX intends to launch Starlink 4-14 – the month’s only planned Starlink mission – on April 14th. On April 15th, SpaceX is scheduled to launch the National Reconnaissance Office’s (NRO) NROL-85 spy satellite out of California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base. Finally, SpaceX could launch Egypt’s Nilesat 301 geostationary communications satellite on April 30th.

While it won’t break its internal cadence record, April should continue to demonstrate that five or six launches in one month are increasingly becoming the norm for SpaceX – not just some one-off feat requiring an extraordinary effort. That’s made even more clear by the fact that three of April’s launches will either be carrying humans or military spy satellites – both requiring the utmost care and explicit approval from two of SpaceX’s strictest customers. (3/29)

New Owners Take Helm of Firefly Aerospace (Source: KVUE)
A private equity firm, AE Industrial Partners, has a new majority stake of Firefly Aerospace based in Cedar Park. The acquisition comes as the aerospace company makes arrangements for its second rocket launch after the first ended in an intentional blast over the Pacific Ocean. Firefly Aerospace managed to fundraise roughly $75 million in a move led by AE Industrial Partners and, according to a report from KVUE's news partners at the Austin American-Statesman, Firefly says their value sits at around $1 billion. (3/29)

NASA Scientist Has an Absolutely Bonkers Plan to Build ‘Cloud Cities’ on Venus (Source: Daily Beast)
With its runaway climate-change and roiling, toxic atmosphere, Venus would be a pretty unpleasant place for humans to inhabit in its current state. Its atmosphere is dense with poisonous carbon dioxide and nitrogen, and howling with 200 mph winds. Its surface is a furnace with an average temperature of 864 degrees Fahrenheit.

But the second planet from the sun—nicknamed the “Evening Star” due to its bright appearance in Earth’s own sky—is roughly the same size as Earth and may have once had a climate like our own planet’s. It’s a world that’s worth exploring and maybe even living on, if only we could breathe there. Never fear, NASA has a plan. Well, a loose sketch of a plan. The idea, proposed by Alex Howe, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, is to construct vast, porous structures—rafts, in essence—that, because they’re less dense than the air underneath, would float above the most toxic layers of Venus’s atmosphere. (3/29)

ESA Supports Indian Lunar and Solar Missions (Source: ESA)
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is launching two pioneering scientific spacecraft this year, one to study the Sun, and one to land on the Moon – the nation’s first soft landing on another celestial body. ESA’s global deep-space communication antennas will provide essential support to both missions every step of the way, tracking the spacecraft, pinpointing their locations at crucial stages, transmitting commands and receiving ‘telemetry’ and valuable science data. (3/29)

Second Israeli in Space Funds His Trip With Offshore Dollars (Source: Haaretz)
The public relations blitz accompanying the space mission has somewhat blurred Rakia’s blending of private space tourism and a national mission. But Rakia, as revealed here, also mixes between Stibbe’s businesses and philanthropy, and is linking an Israeli NGO and a Caribbean tax haven. An investigation has found the money trail behind Israeli billionaire Eytan Stibbe’s space flight next week.

The State of Israel, we also found, has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses related to this mission, and payment for the flight comes from a company that is registered in the British Virgin Islands. Funds for other parts of the mission were registered in the books of a nonprofit organization, the Ramon Foundation (which is named after Ilan and Assaf Ramon), something which may save Stibbe substantial tax payments. (3/29)

A New Era of Space Science Takes Flight Thanks to Private Civilian Missions (Source: WMFE)
Researchers are taking advantage of the increased access to space — and human subjects — thanks to the growing number of private space missions. The Axiom crew have worked with various researchers and organizations before their flight and plan to conduct science while on board.

Understanding how the human body is affected by space travel is difficult to understand — so few people have actually gone to space, and those in orbit have packed schedules. That’s why organizations like the Translational Research Institute for Space Health, or TRISH, based out of Baylor College of Medicine, are jumping on the chance to conduct human research on private space participants. (3/29)