April 27, 2022

Launcher’s 3D-Printed E-2 Rocket Engine Achieves Full Thrust at NASA Stennis Space Center (Source: Launcher)
On Thursday April 21, 2022, Launcher’s E-2 liquid rocket engine successfully demonstrated nominal thrust, pressure and oxidizer/fuel mixture ratio for the first time in a test fire at NASA Stennis Space Center. E-2 is a closed cycle 3D-printed, high-performance liquid rocket engine in development for the Launcher Light launch vehicle (inaugural launch scheduled for 2024). A single E-2 engine will boost Launcher Light to low Earth orbit with 150 kg of payload. (4/25)

SpaceX Launches Dragon With ISS Crew, Recovers Booster (Source: Space News)
A Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying four NASA and ESA astronauts is on its way to the International Space Station after a launch early today. The SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off on schedule at 3:52 a.m. Eastern and released the Crew Dragon spacecraft Freedom into low Earth orbit 12 minutes later. Freedom is scheduled to dock with the ISS at 8:15 p.m. Eastern tonight on the Crew-4 mission. The current Crew-3 astronauts on the ISS will leave early next week after a five-day handover with the new crew. (4/27)

Next Crew Dragon Launch May Include Cosmonaut (Source: Space News)
NASA will know by June if the next Crew Dragon mission to the station will include a Russian cosmonaut. At briefings Tuesday, NASA officials said they expect the Russian government to complete its review of a seat barter agreement in early to mid-May. They said that if everything is completed by June, they will go ahead with plans to fly a Russian cosmonaut on the Crew-5 mission in September, with a NASA astronaut going on a Soyuz mission later that month.

Such crew swaps are intended to ensure there would be both American and Russian crews on the station in the event either Soyuz or a commercial crew vehicle was sidelined for an extended period. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson reiterated his belief that Russia would remain involved on the ISS for the long term despite its invasion of Ukraine that has cut ties with the West in other space projects. (4/27)

Space Companies Seek Halt to Ligado's Spectrum Plans (Source: Space News)
Several space companies are among those calling on the government to halt Ligado's planned use of L-band spectrum they believe will interfere with GPS signals. Satellite operators Iridium, PlanetiQ and GeoOptics joined a group of 90 companies, organizations and associations hoping to overturn the regulatory approval Ligado secured two years ago for the network.

In letters this week to the White House and Congress, the group said more time is needed to assess how Ligado's L-band spectrum could cause "harmful interference" with GPS technology. Ligado said it had reached out to federal agencies to obtain information on their GPS devices as required by its regulatory approval, but had not been informed that any devices needed to be replaced. (4/27)

Nonprofit Group Raises $10 Million to Buy Ukrainian Satellites (Source: Space News)
Halifax International Security Forum is raising $10 million to buy imaging satellites for Ukraine. The money being raised by the nonprofit group would go to Satellogic for a dedicated satellite constellation run by Ukraine. While the U.S. government and companies are providing imagery to the Ukrainian government, Halifax International believes that Ukraine would be better postured to support its security needs if it had its own constellation. (4/27)

Adranos Raises $20 Million for Solid Rocket Motors (Source: Space News)
Adranos, a startup that manufactures solid rocket motors, announced Tuesday it had closed a $20 million Series A funding round. The company, founded in 2015, manufactures solid rocket motor propulsion systems for hypersonic boosters, tactical missiles and space launch vehicles. The funding round came after successful tests of its proprietary aluminum-lithium alloy fuel called ALITEC. Solid rocket motors are one sector of the defense industrial base where the Pentagon worries that there are not enough domestic sources. (4/27)

PredaSar to Launch First SAR Satellite in October on Transporter-6 Mission (Source: Space News)
PredaSAR plans to launch its first synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging satellite in October. The satellite will launch on SpaceX's Transporter-6 rideshare mission and be the first of a proposed constellation of 96 spacecraft. Unlike other SAR operators that use very small satellites, PredaSAR's owner, Terran Orbital, is building larger spacecraft of about 350 to 400 kilograms. The company is one of several developing constellations to provide SAR imagery, demand for which has sharply increased. (4/27)

Interoperability is Key for Geospatial Intelligence Gathering (Source: Space News)
The deputy director of national intelligence says government and industry need to work to make their datasets of geospatial data interoperable. Stacey Dixon said Russia's invasion of Ukraine has underscored the need to fuse intelligence datasets, like geospatial intelligence, signals intelligence, and human intelligence, earlier in the process. While the intelligence community is taking steps to increase transparency and share data, she said the private sector needs to consider the correct balance between proprietary and open systems as well. (4/27)

US and South Korea Agree on Space Situational Awareness Cooperation (Source: Space News)
The United States and South Korea have agreed to cooperate on space situational awareness (SSA) for military purposes. Under an agreement announced this week after a meeting in Washington, the two countries will share SSA information while improving interoperability for combined space operations. South Korea's defense ministry said the agreement contains "concrete missions" that will help bolster the two countries' space security capabilities, but declined to give details. (4/27)

Orbital Insight and L3Harris Using Synthetic Imagery for Training Algorithms (Source: Space News)
Synthetic imagery can help train algorithms looking for rarely seen objects in real satellite imagery. Computer vision models only work after they have ingested extensive data of various objects, which is not always available. Orbital Insight has a National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency contract to explore the use of synthetically generated data to train computer vision models to detect novel objects in electro-optical satellite imagery, while L3Harris Technologies is showcasing its ability to create synthetic training data both for electro-optical and synthetic aperture radar data. (4/27)

ACT Wins Contract for Planet Carbon Mapper Structures (Source: Space News)
Advanced Cooling Technologies (ACT) has won a contract from Planet to build structures for the first two Carbon Mapper methane-monitoring satellites. In addition to designing the thermal architecture for Carbon Mapper satellites, ACT will fabricate the satellite bus, including the structural frame, radiator panels and heat pipes for the first two satellites scheduled to launch in 2023. ACT said Planet took that approach because thermal management is a major bottleneck in the performance of small satellites like the Carbon Mapper spacecraft. (4/27)

Solar Energy Can Be a More Effective Than Nuclear to Power a Base (Source: Universal-Sci)
Researchers analyzed several methods to produce energy on Mars. They based their calculations on the electricity needs of a crew of six people, including the weight of the equipment that would need to be transported from Earth to Mars.

Although the power production of a small nuclear fission reactor is 'location-agnostic,' meaning that it will produce the same amount of energy wherever it is placed, the power output of solar alternatives is highly dependent on a slew of variables such as sunlight and surface temperature.

Underlying calculations were pretty complex as the team had to factor in particles and gasses that interfere with the scattering and absorption of light, for example. In the end, after weighing in the relevant factors, a photovoltaic array that utilizes compressed hydrogen for energy storage came out as the winner. (4/27)

India Unveils Lunar Lander (Source: Times of India)
India's space agency has offered a first look at its Chandryaan-3 lunar lander. A few images of the lander under construction were included in a documentary the agency posted online. It offered few other details about the status of the mission, currently scheduled to launch as soon as August. (4/27)

Meteorites Hold More of Life's Building Blocks (Source: Science News)
A new study shows that more of the building blocks for life can be found in meteorites. The study found traces of five chemicals, called nucleobases, in meteorites that fell to Earth in the last century. Those chemicals form DNA and RNA, which host the genetic code of life. The discovery supports arguments that the early Earth was seeded with these chemicals to allow life to form. (4/27)

Bernie Sanders Would Have Voted Against the Moon Landing (Source: Daily Beast)
Bernie is whining about the Space Race again. Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders lauded the 1969 moon landing as a triumph of the state, a shining example of political will and democratic socialist ideals. Now, he says, the capitalists have moved in after a “huge effort” to privatize space exploration, with the risks being “socialized” and shouldered by taxpayers. He tweeted: "It was you, the taxpayers of this country, who made it possible for private entities to explore space. We cannot allow a system which socializes all of the risks of space exploration while simultaneously privatizing all of the profits." (4/27)

NASA to Repurpose OSIRIS-REx for Second Asteroid Encounter (Source: Space News)
A NASA mission to return samples from one near Earth asteroid will get an extended mission to visit a second asteroid under a plan approved by the agency April 25. NASA announced that the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx, spacecraft, on its way back to Earth after collecting samples from the asteroid Bennu, will travel to the asteroid Apophis after returning samples in September 2023. (4/26)

International Military Expenditure Reaches New Height of $2.1 Trillion (Source: Shepard)
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute has reported that world defence spending has continued to grow in 2021, reaching a new peak of $2.1 trillion. Dr Diego Lopes da Silva, Senior researcher with SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme stated: ‘There was a slowdown in the rate of real-term growth due to inflation. In nominal terms, however, military spending grew by 6.1%’.

The five largest spenders in 2021 were the US, China, India, the UK and Russia, which together account for 62% of expenditure. US military spending dropped by 1.4% from 2020 levels, totalling $801 billion in 2021, while research and development rose by 24% between 2012 and 2021. Russia increased its military expenditure by 2.9% in 2021, to $65.9 billion. (4/26)

Space Force Plans $1B Investment in Missile Tracking (Source: Air Force Magazine)
Budget documents indicate plans by the US Space Force to invest $1 billion next year in new line items for missile tracking and resilient warning systems. The 2023 budget request of $24.5 billion for the Space Force represents a significant increase over the 2022 budget. (4/26)

Lockheed Need Not Produce 1M Docs in Florida Contamination Suit (Source: Law360)
A Florida magistrate judge has shot down a bid by property owners to force Lockheed Martin Corp. to produce more than 1 million documents in a suit alleging it contaminated the Orlando area with chemicals, saying the company's agreement to use particular search terms does not obligate it to turn over every single document the search turns up. (4/26)