May 6, 2022

EchoStar Says Jupiter-3 Won’t be Ready for 2022 Launch (Source: Space News)
EchoStar says satellite builder Maxar Technologies won’t deliver its long-awaited Jupiter-3 satellite in time for its end-of-year launch on a Falcon 9 rocket. The head of EchoStar’s Hughes Network Systems said in a May 5 earnings call that the satellite, which it badly needs to relieve broadband capacity constraints in the Americas, won’t launch before the first quarter of 2023. (5/5)

Tomorrow.io On Track for 2024 Weather Constellation (Source: Space News)
Adding microwave sounders to its constellation will not push back the timeline for startup Tomorrow.io to begin gathering weather data via satellite. By the end of 2024, the Boston-based startup plans to have a constellation in orbit acquiring radar and microwave observations. Tomorrow.io announced plans in March to add microwave sensors to its radar satellite constellation because “it will make everything better,” said Rei Goffer, Tomorrow.io co-founder and chief strategy officer. “A combo constellation is better because those instruments are very complementary to one another.” (5/5)

The Future Of Space: Laura Forczyk Of Astralytical (Source: Medium)
The commercial space industry has never been more active. With the privatization of the space industry, led by companies like SpaceX and Rocket Lab, billions of dollars are now being poured into pushing the boundaries of space travel. But while this is very exciting and interesting, how exactly will space exploration improve the lives of the vast, vast majority of us who will be remaining on earth? How can space exploration improve our society? In this interview series, we are talking to leaders from the space industry who can talk about the new developments in space travel and space technology, and how these developments can improve all of our lives. As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Laura Forczyk. Click here. (5/5)

Indian Launch Industry Pioneer, Falsely Accused of Espionage, Visiting Florida This Month (Source: SPACErePORT)
S. Nambi Narayanan, an Indian engineer responsible for developing the nation's Vikas liquid-fueled rocket engine which powers its PSLV and GSLV launchers, was famously falsely accused of selling rocket engine technology to foreign interests in 1994. His life story is the subject of a new movie titled Rocketry. Narayanan and the movie's director, Ranganathan Madhavan, will visit Florida's Space Coast on May 23-28. (5/6)

NASA’s Artemis I Launch Likely Slipping to August with Retry of Pad Test in June (Source: ORlando Sentinel)
NASA likely is targeting early- to mid-June before it rolls back out to the launch pad for a wet dress rehearsal at Kennedy Space Center. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson suggested last week that August would be the earliest for a launch attempt, and NASA’s Jim Free, the associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate confirmed that. (5/5)

Here’s What a $125,000 Luxury Balloon Ride to Space Gets You (Source: Daily Beast)
The space tourism industry is blasting off—and while most of the focus has been on rocket-propelled efforts like SpaceX’s Inspiration4 mission or Blue Origin’s attempts to rid the world of Pete Davidson there are those taking a less traditional approach. That’s the case with Space Perspective, a company that plans to use balloons to send people to space… sort of. For the low, low price of $125,000, you can snag a seat on a luxury capsule dubbed Spaceship Neptune where you’ll be able to drink cocktails, eat hor d'oeuvres, and laugh at all the plebeians on terra firma from the stratosphere.

The capsule itself will provide a full panoramic view of Earth and the surrounding cosmos, complete with a comfortable lounge area, bar, and even a toilet (you’ll be drinking after all). The entire experience lasts six hours—so a little more than $20,800 per hour for those keeping track. After reaching the stratosphere and watching the sun rise over the horizon, the balloon would then descend towards the Earth, making a safe splashdown in the ocean where a boat will be waiting to pick up all the newly minted space tourists. The maiden flight is set to take off from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport in 2024. (5/6)

Sidus Space Signs MOU with Dhruva Space Expanding their Collaborative Partnership to Serve Global Customers (Source: Sidus Space)
Sidus Space signed a memorandum of understanding with Dhruva Space Private Limited to further commercialization of new and innovative space technologies and services. With this partnership, Sidus Space and Dhruva Space will explore collaborations to support the missions of the space programs in India and the US. (5/6)

Lunar Soil Has the Potential to Generate Oxygen and Fuel (Source: Space Daily)
Soil on the moon contains active compounds that can convert carbon dioxide into oxygen and fuels, scientists in China report. They are now exploring whether lunar resources can be used to facilitate human exploration on the moon or beyond. Nanjing University material scientists hope to design a system that takes advantage of lunar soil and solar radiation, the two most abundant resources on the moon. After analyzing the lunar soil brought back by China's Chang'e 5 spacecraft, their team found the sample contains compounds-including iron-rich and titanium-rich substances-that could work as a catalyst to make desired products such as oxygen using sunlight and carbon dioxide. (5/6)

Astronaut Crew Returns to Earth After Six Months on ISS (Source: Space Daily)
NASA's Crew-3 mission returned home to Earth on Friday after six months aboard the ISS. The SpaceX Dragon Endurance spacecraft with NASA astronauts Kayla Barron, Raja Chari and Tom Marshburn, as well as European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer, undocked from the orbital laboratory a day earlier. Their 23.5 hour journey back saw them splash down off the coast of Florida at 12:43 am. (5/6)

New Study Reveals the Effect of Extended Spaceflight on Astronauts' Brains (Source: Space Daily)
Long-duration space flight alters fluid-filled spaces along veins and arteries in the brain, according to new research from Oregon Health and Science University and scientists across the country. The research involved imaging the brains of 15 astronauts before and after extended tours of duty on the International Space Station.

Researchers used magnetic resonance imaging to measure perivascular space - or the space around blood vessels - in the brains of astronauts prior to their launch and again immediately after their return. They also took MRI measurements again at one, three and six months after they had returned. Astronauts' images were compared with those taken of the same perivascular space in the brains of 16 Earth-bound control subjects. Comparing before and after images, they found an increase in the perivascular spaces within the brains of first-time astronauts, but no difference among astronauts who previously served aboard the space station orbiting earth. (5/6)

Space Trek Academy for Florida cCollege and University Students (Source: FSGC)
Atlantis Educational Services will host two, four-day academies called the Space Trek Academy at the Center for Space Education (CSE), at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex (KSCVC). The first Academy will be held from August 7-10, with the second from August 15-18. The Academy is sponsored wholly by the NASA Florida Space Grant Consortium. This Academy is open to all undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in a university or college in Florida. In this program, 14 college students will participate as one large team, with smaller technical units to successfully launch and retrieve a weather balloon, with a payload that travels up to 100,000 feet. Click here. (5/6)

Space Business: Prix Fixe (Source: Quartz)
Bill Nelson told lawmakers that cost-plus contracts—which guarantee a profit for companies hired by the government—are “the old way of doing business” and a “plague” on NASA because they leave it on the hook for bad management and forecasts made by contractors. He’s asked deputy administrator Pam Melroy to make them less central to NASA’s procurement process. As an example, he cited the contract the agency signed with Bechtel, the engineering firm, to build a mobile launch platform for a future deep space rocket. Bechtel, he said, appears to have underbid to win a $383 million contract. Now, the company needs more money, and NASA has no choice but to cover the overages itself.

The alternative is a fixed-price contract, which forces contractors to be realistic about what they can accomplish and, if they fail to deliver, to eat the cost themselves. But what happens when a fixed-price contract goes awry? There’s no better example than the Starliner, the human-carrying space capsule Boeing is building for NASA. Starliner ran into problems during its first flight test in late 2019. It’s not clear how much Starliner's delay has cost the company, but it’s at least $585 million, according to its earnings reports—money that NASA would have had to put up in a cost-plus contract.

A good deal for NASA can be a bad deal for its contractor—if the contractor screws up. The initial terms of the commercial crew contracts were $2.6 billion for SpaceX and $4.2 billion for Boeing. SpaceX also delivered its product two years late, which likely drove down its profit. Asked this week what Starliner means for Boeing’s bottom line, the company’s chief space engineer Michelle Parker declined to answer directly, saying her team was focused on completing the test program. But it matters for this model of procurement—fixed-price agreements work best for NASA and its contractors when the technology has applications beyond the US space agency. (5/5)

SpaceX's Entire Starbase TX Environmental Assessment is Based on Old Data That Understates True Impact (Source: ESG Hound)
When SpaceX submitted the draft Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA) for the company's Starship program in Texas, it did so under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). NEPA is grandaddy of all environmental laws and incorporates rules and regulations from a wide variety of agencies. The PEA is the minor permitting and approval process through NEPA. In choosing to go the PEA route, instead of the more cumbersome and time consuming Environmental Impact State (EIS) process, SpaceX had to describe an operation that would not create a "Significant" impact to the environment.

The delineation between "significant" and "not significant" is at times a matter of debate, often with blurred lines dependent on experts' opinions and political expediency. NEPA explicitly requires disclosure of all impacts. This isn't just describing the impacts themselves; rocket heat plumes and explosions will kill wildlife and annoy the locals. The extent of impacts is critical. Applicants must use commonly accepted techniques, based on science and law, to try to estimate how many endangered species will be killed, how much habitat will be lost, how many buildings may be damaged due to sonic booms and anomalies, how many tons of air and water emissions are likely to be generated and so on.

The Noise Assessment in Appendix B of the PEA says the the Super Heavy Booster would use thirty-seven Raptor engines that each provide sea-level thrust of about 375 Klbf, or 61.8 Mega-Newtons (MN). But SpaceX most recently claimed its upgraded Raptor engines will produce 74 MN of thrust, 20% more than the MN described in their PEA noise assessment. Likewise, the Plume Exhaust Model in the PEA tells a similar story, using pre-upgrade Raptor data. The upgraded Raptor performance means the PEA's impacts for this are likely mis-stated. Click here. (5/5) https://esghound.substack.com/p/spacexs-entire-environmental-assessment?s=r

Boeing Plans to Move Headquarters to DC-Area, From Chicago (Source: Wall Street Journal)
Boeing is expected to move its headquarters to Arlington, Va., from Chicago, people familiar with the matter said, a shift that would bring the aerospace company’s leadership closer to top federal officials after a challenging period for the plane maker. An announcement of the move, details of which haven’t been finalized, is expected as soon as next week, according to some of these people. (5/5)

NOAA Seeks Input on New Satellite Sensors and Digital Twin (Source: Space News)
NOAA is holding a series of meetings next week with potential government, academic and industry partners to discuss the agency’s plan to evaluate emerging satellite and ground architecture technologies. Three Broad Agency Announcements were released. Two of the BAAs focus on satellite sensors: one to measure atmospheric winds in three dimensions and a second for hyperspectral microwave remote sensing observations. In addition, NOAA is seeking information on a digital twin system for Earth observations using artificial intelligence.

“The ultimate goal is to improve the forecast skills of NOAA,“ Sid Boukabara, principal scientist at NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service Office of System Architecture and Advanced Planning, told SpaceNews. “These technologies have the potential to take us a leap forward in our ability to provide good data to our customers.” Gathering data in the microwave portion of the electromagnetic spectrum is a key ingredient of accurate weather forecasts. NOAA currently relies on the Northrop Grumman Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder, which gathers data in 22 channels, flying on polar-orbiting weather satellites. (5/5)

SpaceX Adds $25 Monthly Fee for Users to Temporarily Change Starlink Locations (Source: CNBC)
Elon Musk’s SpaceX rolled out a $25 monthly fee this week for customers who seek to relocate their Starlink internet service satellite dishes. Users who activate the feature will see the base price for Starlink service increase to $135 a month, from $110 a month. Portability does not mean mobility, however, as SpaceX does not authorize customers to use the service on a moving vehicle. (5/5)

Sierra Club Joins Lawsuit Against Texas and Cameron County for Closing Beach for SpaceX (Source: Sierra Club)
The Sierra Club and Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas joined local environmental group SaveRGV in suing the Texas General Land Office, Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, and Cameron County for closing Boca Chica Beach for SpaceX operations. Restricting access to a public beach, as the defendants have done, violates the Texas Constitution.

In 2013, the Legislature amended the Texas Open Beaches Act to let Texas beaches close for space flight operations, and just five years later, SpaceX built its massive rocket-launching facility 1,500 feet from water’s edge on Boca Chica Beach. The 2013 statute change conflicts with the state constitution, which Texas voters amended in 2009 – by a 77% majority – to guarantee the right to free and open access to public beaches.

The defendants have closed Boca Chica beach so frequently that RGV residents have seen their access essentially disappear. The Carrizo/Comecrudo Nation of Texas, which holds the land of Boca Chica sacred, has been ignored while they lose access to their ancestral heritage. In just the first three months of 2022, the beach has been effectively closed for 196 hours. In 2021, it was effectively closed for over 600 hours. This is far beyond the numbers reported by SpaceX or even allowed under the framework the defendants are using as an unconstitutional loophole. (5/5)

Nyx Gets Green Light (Source: Payload Space)
Franco-German startup The Exploration Company has successfully completed a system requirement review of its Nyx spacecraft. The Exploration Company was founded in 2021 with the aim of supplying long-duration in-orbit hosting services to customers, at a fraction of the cost of the ISS. The company is developing a modular spacecraft capable of extended stays in orbit and, eventually, the ability to visit multiple locations on the surface of the Moon.

The startup announced May 3 that its Nyx spacecraft had passed its first major design review. The review was conducted to ensure the vehicle addresses the correct system solutions and that the overall design is ready to move into the preliminary design phase. The company will launch its first mission aboard the maiden Ariane 6 flight. Dubbed the Bikini Demo, the mission will include a small capsule weighing just 20 kg and will be used to test thermal models. This initial mission is fully funded with the $7.2M (€6.8M) the company has raised so far. (5/5)