May 17, 2022

ABL Tests Upper Stage at Mojave, Readies for Summer Launch in Alaska (Source: Space News)
ABL Space Systems has completed testing of the upper stage of its small launch vehicle four months after another stage was destroyed in testing. The company said it recently wrapped up testing of the stage at its Mojave, California, test site, including static-fire tests, and shipped the stage to its Alaska launch site. An earlier upper stage was destroyed on the test stand in January when the engine suffered a hard start. The company is projecting a first launch of its RS1 vehicle in early summer. (5/17)

Shaw or Whiting Could Next Lead Space Force (Source: Breaking Defense)
Two generals appear to be finalists to be the next head of the U.S. Space Force. Lt. Gen. John Shaw, deputy commander of Space Command, and Lt. Gen. Stephen Whiting, head of Space Operations Command, are thought to be frontrunners to succeed Gen. John Raymond as the next chief of space operations. Raymond is expected to retire this fall. (5/17)

Aerojet Chairman Reprimanded by Board (Source: Defense News)
The board of Aerojet Rocketdyne reprimanded the company's executive chairman over an effort to replace its CEO. The board's non-management committee said that Warren Lichtenstein made comments last year about replacing CEO Eileen Drake and seeking a replacement that were not authorized by the board. The committee called on Lichtenstein to follow the company's code of conduct and not make such unauthorized comments in the future. Drake and Lichtenstein have been locked in a bitter dispute about the future of the company exacerbated by Lockheed Martin's decision to drop its planned acquisition of Aerojet. (5/17)

SpaceX Employees Offering Private Placement Stock Sale (Source: Bloomberg)
SpaceX employees are offering to sell shares in the company in a private placement that would value the company at $125 billion. Such placements allow employees to sell their shares in the privately held company. A previous sale in October valued SpaceX at $100 billion. It was unclear if company founder and CEO Elon Musk would sell any of his shares as he raises money to acquire Twitter. (5/17)

$1.3B Award Violate Rights of India's Antrix, Court Told (Sources: Law360, Indian Express)
The commercial arm of the Indian space agency urged the Ninth Circuit to overturn a lower court order enforcing a satellite company's $1.3 billion judgment against it, saying its due process rights were violated when it was dragged to U.S. court. Antrix told the appeals court that decades of US precedent established that foreign states are entitled to due process. In March, a US federal court has stayed a plea by foreign investors in Devas Multimedia that sought to confirm a $111 million compensation awarded in 2020 by a UN trade tribunal over a failed satellite launch deal with Antrix Corp., the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organization.

In 2021, India’s National Company Law Tribunal ordered the liquidation of Devas Multimedia, citing fraudulence in its creation. The Supreme Court upheld the order on January 17 this year. After the cancellation of the deal, Devas’s foreign investors and Devas Multimedia itself approached various international tribunals seeking compensation. (5/16)

Former NASA Leaders Praise Boeing’s Willingness to Risk Commercial Crew (Source: Ars Technica)
The last few years have been pretty rough for Boeing. Its newest generation of 737 aircraft, the Max, was grounded in 2019 after two fatal crashes. And following a series of poor management decisions, the company has continued to lose commercial aircraft market share to Airbus. Boeing's defense segment has fared little better. After winning a large military refueling contract, Boeing started producing the KC-46 tanker for the Air Force. But because of manufacturing and design problems with the tanker, the company has taken about $5 billion in losses during the last decade.

Finally, there is Boeing's space unit, which has struggled to adapt to the new era of commercial space and fixed-price contracts. Most visibly, Boeing has competed directly with SpaceX over the last decade in the commercial crew program to deliver NASA astronauts to the ISS. So far, things have not gone terribly well. Boeing is running about three years behind SpaceX, which has now launched five crewed missions for NASA. It now seems possible, if not probable, that Boeing has lost money on the commercial crew program, for which NASA has paid it $5.1 billion since 2010.

It would be easy to dismiss Boeing as a legacy aerospace company that can't keep up with newer, more nimble competitors such as SpaceX. But in reality, Boeing's efforts to compete have played an important role in the rise of SpaceX. Two senior NASA officials said the program would never have gotten off the ground had Boeing not entered the competition. "Boeing entering the commercial crew program meant that you got a lot more support from Congress because they tend to have a very robust lobbying program," Lori Garver said. "And I think if they look back on it, they wouldn't do it again." (5/16)

China's Rover Makes Surprising Water Discovery at Mars Landing Site (Source: CNN)
China's Zhurong rover has found evidence suggesting that water persisted on Mars for much longer than expected. The rover's primary mission, which lasted for three months, was to search for signs of ancient life. It has investigated the minerals, environment and distribution of water and ice in the plain, which is all part of the largest impact basin in the Martian northern lowlands. The rover continues to explore its landing site and send information back to the Tianwen-1 orbiter circling the planet.

Data returned from the rover's initial survey of the basin suggests that the Utopia Planitia basin contained water during a time when many scientists believed Mars to be dry and cold. "The most significant and novel thing is that we found hydrated minerals at the landing site which stands on the young Amazonian terrain, and these hydrated minerals are (indicators) for the water activities such as (groundwater) activities," said lead study author Yang Liu. (5/11)

Identifying Global Poverty From Space (Source: Space Daily)
Despite successes in reducing poverty globally in the last two decades, almost one billion people are still living without access to reliable and affordable electricity, which in turn negatively affects health and welfare, and impedes sustainable development. Knowing where these people are is crucial if aid and infrastructure are to reach them. A new IIASA-led study proposes a novel method to estimate global economic wellbeing using nighttime satellite images.

Researchers have been using satellite images of Earth at night to study human activity for almost 30 years and it is well established that these images - commonly referred to as nighttime radiance or nighttime lights - can help map issues like economic growth, poverty, and inequality, especially in places where data are lacking. (5/6)

Space Force Eyes Cislunar Monitoring (Source: Space News)
A Space Force general says the service needs to pay more attention to what is happening in cislunar space. Lt. Gen. Stephen Whiting, commander of the U.S. Space Force's Space Operations Command, said at a Mitchell Institute event Monday that as more countries plan lunar missions, "we do need to be concerned and interested in what they are doing there." He cited efforts like an Air Force Research Lab mission called CHPS to perform surveillance in lunar orbit and the creation of a new unit, the 19th Space Defense Squadron, responsible for surveillance in xGEO, or beyond geostationary orbit. Air Force and Space Force officials were briefed last week on Project Rocket, an Air Force-funded experiment that tracked spacecraft around and beyond the moon using optical, passive radio-frequency and radar assets. (5/17)

Rocket Lab Gains Revenues From Non-Launch Business (Source: Space News)
Rocket Lab said most of its first-quarter revenue did not come from rockets. The company reported Monday $40.7 million in revenue, along with a net loss of $26.7 million and adjusted EBITDA loss of $8 million. Rocket Lab said $34.1 million in revenue came from its space systems business, including spacecraft and components, and just $6.6 million from a single Electron launch. After going public last year, Rocket Lab has been aggressively diversifying, acquiring companies ranging from a solar panel manufacturer to a flight software developer. The company also said that, with the catch-and-release of an Electron booster on its most recent launch earlier this month, it is now 90% to its goal of reusing those boosters. It did not disclose when it would make another midair recovery attempt. (5/17)

China's Kongtian Dongli Secures Funding for In-Space Propulsion (Source: Space News)
A Chinese satellite electric propulsion company has secured an initial round of funding. Kongtian Dongli ("Aerospace Propulsion") was founded in March and raised several million yuan from investors. The company's main products are Hall thrusters and microwave electric propulsion systems, with an on-orbit test of the latter planned by the end of this year. Few entities are engaged in propulsion for small satellites in China, but the demand for such systems is apparent from proposed megaconstellations. (5/17)

Israel's Spacecom Focusing on Maritime Market (Source: Space News)
Israeli satellite operator Spacecom is adjusting its business to serve maritime customers. Spacecom said last week it redirected a Ku-band beam on its AMOS-17 satellite to the Indian Ocean for future growth opportunities after securing its first maritime customer. The beam, which provided services over eastern and southern Africa across land and sea, now provides two gigabits per second of capacity in the Indan Ocean regions for maritime services, including connectivity for superyachts. (5/17)

Chinese Rocket Debris Crashes Onto India (Source: Space News)
For the second time in as many months, debris from a Chinese rocket landed in India. The debris, including a spherical tank weighing about five kilograms, fell to Earth in a 15-kilometer radius in rural western India May 12. The debris appears to come from the third stage of a Chinese Long March 3B rocket that reentered that day. In early April, debris fell elsewhere in India that appeared to come from a different Long March 3B launch. China has not commented on either incident. (5/17)

Launcher Announces Customers for Orbiter’s Inaugural Flight (Source: Launcher)
Launcher, the space logistics company focused on providing access to anywhere in space at the lowest cost, today announced the customers on the first flight of its satellite transfer vehicle and hosted payload platform Orbiter. Orbiter’s first mission, SN1, is scheduled to reach orbit in October 2022 on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Transporter-6 rideshare launch. Launcher’s customers, spanning academia, startups and established industry leaders, demonstrate the growing demand for orbit transfer and hosted payload services. Click here. (5/16)