May 24, 2022

Israel's Starburst Announces ASTRA Accelerator for Next-Generation of Space Startups (Source: CTech)
Starburst Aerospace, an Israeli aerospace accelerator, which connects startups with investors and government support, announced the launch of its first cohort, termed ASTRA, which will be focused exclusively on startups who develop innovative technologies for space applications. The three startups that were selected to participate are Tehiru Technologies, CrystalEn Semiconductor, and CSpace.

The startups will begin a 7-month program, which includes technical support in building their technologies, fundraising assistance, expert mentoring, and a 13-week bootcamp to prepare for their Seed round, as well as business introductions for pilot opportunities, access to a global network of space and aerospace industry leaders, academic labs, and investors. (5/23)

Shotwell Defends Musk, Stresses Zero Tolerance for Sexual Harassment (Source: New York Times)
SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell defended company CEO Elon Musk over sexual harassment charges. In a company memo, Shotwell said SpaceX has a "ZERO tolerance" policy towards sexual harassment and that every report is thoroughly investigated. She added, though, that she did not believe a published report last week that Musk harassed a flight attendant on a SpaceX corporate jet. "I have worked closely with him for 20 years and never seen nor heard anything resembling these allegations," she wrote. (5/24)

NASA Armstrong Center Chief Retiring (Source: NASA)
The director of NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center is retiring. NASA said Monday that David McBride will retire June 30 after 35 years at the agency, the last 12 as director of the center located at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Brad Flick, deputy center director, will serve as acting director after McBride's departure. NASA also announced Monday that Jimmy Kenyon, director of the Advanced Air Vehicles Program at NASA Headquarters, will serve as acting director of the Glenn Research Center after the previously announced retirement of its director, Marla PĂ©rez-Davis, in June. (5/24)

Solar Activity Tracks with Predictions for Cycle (Source: Sky & Telescope)
The sun is following predictions for increased activity. After a minimum of activity in its 11-year cycle in 2018 through 2020, there has been a recent increase in sunspots and solar flares. Scientists said the increase in activity is tracking predictions that the sun reaching a peak in the middle of the decade. That peak will be higher than the previous cycle, which peaked in 2012 through 2014, but is still below average historically. (5/24)

UK Company Reveals Micro-Launcher Rocket (Source: Space Daily)
Orbex's Prime rocket reaching technical readiness represents a significant achievement that brings together key elements of the ground infrastructure and prototype launch vehicle for the first time and is a major step forward for the company and for the UK launch industry. The UK Space Agency supported the development of Orbex's Prime rocket with 5.5 million pounds of funding, as part of the government's plans to enable small satellite launch from UK spaceports.

With the first integration of a full scale Orbex prototype launch vehicle on a launch pad now complete, the company will enter a period of integrated testing, allowing dress rehearsals of rocket launches and the development and optimisation of launch procedures. Orbex recently revealed their first test launch platform at a new test facility in Kinloss, a few miles from the company's headquarters at Forres in Moray, Scotland. (5/24)

Space Force Completes ISR-Focused Industry Day (Source: Space News)
The US Space Force completed its inaugural industry day event last week, meeting with 35 companies in an event that focused on space-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. "It was really an opportunity to have a conversation about what is available and what's out there," said John Galer of the Aerospace Industries Association. "It was also an opportunity for Space Systems Command to talk about how they're trying to do business in a different way." (5/23)

Boeing's Starliner Wraps Up Test at ISS (Source: Space News)
Boeing's CST-100 Starliner will wrap up its brief uncrewed test flight to the International Space Station this week. NASA confirmed Monday plans for the spacecraft to undock from the station Wednesday at 2:36 p.m. Eastern, landing in White Sands, New Mexico, a little more than four hours later. Astronauts will close Starliner's hatches later today ahead of the undocking. Before the launch of the spacecraft on the OFT-2 test flight, agency officials said they would set a schedule for the next test flight, which will be the first to carry astronauts, sometime this summer. NASA will also wait until then to formally assign astronauts to the mission. While two astronauts were previously assigned to that crewed flight, NASA said it will make crew assignments depending on the timing of the test flight and other missions to the station. (5/24)

President Biden Agrees to US/Japan/South Korea Space Cooperation During Summits (Source: Space News)
President Joe Biden promised to expand space cooperation with Japan and South Korea during back-to-back summits with the leaders of those nations. During a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo Monday, Biden agreed to put the first Japanese astronaut on the moon as part of the NASA-led Artemis program. In a later joint statement, the two committed to fly a Japanese astronaut to the lunar Gateway as well. Earlier, Biden met with South Korean President Yoon in Seoul, where they agreed to strengthen cooperation in all space-related sectors. That included U.S. support for South Korea's development of a satellite navigation system. (5/24)

Russia's War in Ukraine is Threatening an Outpost of Cooperation in Space (Source: NPR)
Russian President Vladimir Putin falsely claims the U.S. is working with Nazis in Ukraine, while President Biden calls Putin a "war criminal." Aboard the jointly controlled International Space Station (ISS), however, the tone is very different: American astronauts live side-by-side with Russian cosmonauts; they regularly check in with mission control centers in both countries; and supplies arrive aboard Russian and U.S. spacecraft alike.

The symbiotic relationship has endured even as things on the Earth have deteriorated: Wars, assassination attempts and allegations of political meddling have not been enough to send the space station off course. But a mix of geopolitical and technical factors are now bringing rapid change to the collaboration. In 2020, SpaceX officially began transporting NASA astronauts to the station, ending America's reliance on Russian rockets.

The end of that vital tie was big at the time, but it pales in comparison to Russia's decision to invade Ukraine. The war has strained almost every aspect of U.S. and Russian relations, and it has already ruptured another long-standing Russian collaboration with the European Space Agency, or ESA. "It would be politically very costly for Russia not to have human spaceflight," Zak says. The space program "has a huge role in Russian propaganda and Russian politics." NASA astronaut Scott Kelly says the U.S. should start thinking about how to keep the station operating without the Russians. (5/23)

Psyche Launch on Falcon Heavy Delayed from August to September (Source: Space News)
The launch of NASA's Psyche mission has slipped more than a month and a half because of a software problem. NASA confirmed Monday that Psyche, previously scheduled to launch Aug. 1 on a Falcon Heavy, has been delayed to no earlier than Sept. 20. The agency said an unspecified issue is preventing engineers from confirming the spacecraft's software is functioning as expected but provided no additional details. Psyche will travel to the metallic main-belt asteroid of the same name, thought to be the remnant of a core of a protoplanet. (5/24)

Lockheed Martin and Filecoin Foundation Plan Blockchain Interplanetary File System (Source: Space News)
Lockheed Martin is working with the Filecoin Foundation to demonstrate a blockchain network in space. The organizations announced the Interplanetary File System (IFPS) project Monday to provide better access to data in space. IFPS uses a decentralized network, such that a spacecraft would not necessarily have to contact Earth for data but instead another node in the network that is closer. Over the next several months, Lockheed Martin and Filecoin will work to identify a spacecraft platform to host an IPFS payload that will relay data to and from Earth, and other spacecraft. (5/24)

UK's Space Forge Picks Benchmark Space Systems for Propulsion (Source: Space News)
Benchmark Space Systems announced plans Tuesday to produce engines in the United Kingdom and work with U.K. space manufacturing startup Space Forge. Benchmark will provide propulsion for ForgeStar-1, Space Forge's first in-space manufacturing and return demonstration. Space Forge will serve as the anchor customer for Benchmark's first U.K. manufacturing and testing facility at the Satellite Applications Catapult at Westcott Venture Park in Aylesbury, England. Vermont-based Benchmark has seen strong demand for its thrusters, which use high-test peroxide, after demonstrating the technology last year on an undisclosed government satellite mission. (5/24)

Key Air Force, Space Force Leaders Set to Retire (Source: Air Force Magazine)
The Department of the Air Force announced the retirements of several key leaders within the Air Force and Space Force on May 23 while also unveiling more than a dozen new assignments for current or future one-star generals. Lt. Gen. Joseph T. Guastella Jr., deputy chief of staff for operations, is exiting the service after nearly 35 years and roughly 22 months in his current position. During his term, the Air Force developed a new deployment model in which Airmen will cycle through ​​four “bins,” each lasting six months for a 24-month cycle.

Patricia Mulcahy, the Space Force’s chief human capital officer, is also leaving after more than 40 years of service in the Army and as a civilian. As the Space Force’s first deputy chief of space operations for personnel, she was responsible for helping to craft the service’s first human capital plan, “The Guardian Ideal.” (5/23)

Making Space for Australian Satellites (Source: Cosmos)
Australia’s space industry is getting off the ground with a slew of rockets and satellites poised to be sent into orbit. Fleet Space Technologies has been progressively launching its networking NanoSatellites since November 2018. It currently has six of its planned constellation of 140 in low Earth orbit. The next NanoSatellite is scheduled to be launched aboard the SpaceX Transporter-5 at Cape Canaveral on May 26. Named Centauri-5, the NanoSatellite provides low-power internet-of-things connectivity between remote ground stations for regional industry and mining operations. (5/24)

Self-Cleaning Spacecraft Surfaces to Combat Microbes (Source: ESA)
Astronauts live and work in orbit along with teeming populations of microorganisms, which could present a serious threat to health – and even the structural integrity of spacecraft. To help combat such invisible stowaways, an ESA-led project is developing microbe-killing coatings suitable for use within spacecraft cabins.

The IIT team has begun work on titanium oxide, also known as ‘titania’, used for example in self-cleaning glass down here on Earth, as well as in hygienic surfaces. When titanium oxide is exposed to ultraviolet light, it breaks down water vapour in the air into ‘free oxygen radicals’, which eat away whatever is on the surface, including bacterial membranes. (5/23)

Scientist Look to Fake Space to Understand Immune System (Source: Arizona Republic)
Three humans. A tank full of brine shrimp. A teddy bear named Svetlana. These are some of the things that greeted Lauren Cornell on Oct. 1, when she set out on a 45-day journey as a fake astronaut. Cornell, a research scientist with the Air Force, joined a NASA Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) simulation in fall 2021 along with three crewmates.

While HERA is a mission to improve space travel, one of Cornell’s motivations for joining the experiment wasn’t outer space at all. It was something tiny, from Earth – and actually inside of her. HERA provides the chance to study not only space travel but the reactions of its test astronauts. It’s a place for researchers, including a team from Arizona, to examine biology, physiology and immunology in a controlled environment. And in Cornell’s mission, scientists were building on research that investigated how viruses that live dormant inside our bodies may be triggered to reemerge, based on the stresses of space travel. (5/23)

Lawsuit Blames FAA For Georgia County's Misguided Spending (Source: Spaceport Facts)
“Plaintiff(s) also questioned Spaceport Camden’s commercial viability given the potential risk to the public, cost, and operating restrictions that would be required. In the presence of his colleagues, former [FAA] Associate Administrator (General Wayne) Monteith responded that Spaceport Camden was not a commercially viable launch site and that ‘some spaceports just want to sell hats and t-shirts.’” The bottom line is Camden taxpayers have “invested” $11,000,000 for a spaceport license the FAA states cannot launch rockets in the “foreseeable future.” The Spaceport Camden license serves no purpose for the space industry. (5/23)

For Starliner, Better Late Than Never (Source: Space Review)
Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner launched last week on its second uncrewed test flight to the ISS, nearly two and a half years after a truncated first mission. Jeff Foust reports on that launch and docking, and the road ahead for the commercial crew vehicle. Click here. (5/23)
 
Barnstorming the Moon: the LEM Reconnaissance Module (Source: Space Review)
During the early years of the Apollo program, NASA considered a variety of approaches to scout potential landing sites. Philip Horzempa examines one proposal that would have turned the Lunar Module into a reconnaissance satellite. Click here. (5/23)
 
How the India and France Space Strategic Dialogue Can Address Multi-Dimensional Concerns in 2020s (Source: Space Review)
Earlier this month the governments of France and India agreed to start a formal dialogue on space policy issues. Harini Madhusudan examines how this fits into the longer history of space relations between the two countries and what topics they may discuss. Click here. (5/23)

Large Asteroid to Pass Near Earth (Source: Daily Mail)
Measuring just over a half a mile (2,722ft) tall, the Burj Khalifa has been the tallest building in the world since it was built in 2004. But Dubai's enormous building pales in comparison to an asteroid that's set to pass Earth this week. The asteroid, named 7335 (1989 JA) measures a whopping 1.1 miles in diameter, and will pass by our planet on Friday. While NASA has classed the asteroid as 'potentially hazardous', it's extremely unlikely to pose a threat to our planet, passing by at a distance of about 2.5 million miles. (5/23)

Gogo Business Aviation, OneWeb Announce Satellite Broadband Offering (Source: Aviation Week)
Gogo Business Aviation plans to launch a global broadband service for business aviation connecting to the new low-Earth-orbit satellite constellation under construction by OneWeb. The new inflight broadband service will access OneWeb’s constellation using a new electronically steered antenna that Gogo has designed in conjunction with Hughes Network Systems, which is itself an investor in OneWeb. The antenna assembly will be small enough to install on business aircraft ranging from light jets and large turboprops to ultra-long-range large cabin jets. (5/22)

European Innovation Council Supports Space Debris Mitigation Project (Source: Sener)
The E.T.PACK-Fly consortium, coordinated by the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) and made up of the University of Padova, the Technical University of Dresden (TU Dresden), the Spanish company SENER Aeroespacial and the German start-up Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA), has received €2.5 million from the European Innovation Council (EIC) to develop a device based on a space tether to deorbit space debris.

Due to the high cost involved, most satellites are not removed after their mission is completed. This fact, together with spontaneous explosions in orbits as a result of the harsh space environment, has caused the accumulation of a high number of space debris in Low Earth Orbit. They represent a threat since, when a collision occurs between two objects in orbit, a cloud of dangerous shrapnels for operational satellites is generated. (5/17)

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