July 11, 2022

Dawn Aerospace Awarded €1.4M by EU Commission for Hydrazine-Replacement Project (Source: Dawn Aerospace)
Dawn Aerospace has been awarded €1.4 million from the European Commission to help develop its transformative ‘green’, in-space propulsion technology. The grant will contribute to Dawn’s continued investment in hydrazine-replacement technology. The propulsion technology will have the size and performance of a hydrazine-based system, but without the toxicity, supply chain or regulatory risk. There is currently no other option on the market that is gaining commercial traction to replace hydrazine, which in 2011, was classified by the European Commission as a substance of very high concern. (7/12)

Venues Across Florida to Showcase James Webb Space Telescope Images (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
The Orlando Science Center will join other venues throughout Florida in celebrating the release of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope deep space photos. OSC will host a Webb Telescope Celebration Day to commemorate the release of the first images and offer educational opportunities for attendees to learn about the science behind the space telescope. There will be hands-on astronomy activities for all ages.

Tampa’s Great Explorations is also partnering with NASA on Aug. 5 for Space Exploration Day, with science-based space activities and a pop-up planetarium dome. Other celebrations are planned at the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach; the University of South Florida; the Museum of Science & Industry in Tampa; Premiere Theaters Oaks 10 in Melbourne; Great Explorations Children’s Museum in St. Petersburg; and West Community Library at St. Petersburg College. (7/10)

Space Industry Warned to Prepare for Impact From Lurking Recession (Source: Space News)
Some companies in the space industry may not survive the coming headwinds in the U.S. and global economies, United Launch Alliance CEO Tory Bruno said July 11. “I think we’re really looking at a sea state change,” Bruno said at the Space Innovation Summit, an online event

Economists and financial analysts are predicting an economic slowdown. Quilty Analytics, a market research firm focused on the space industry, noted that there were no public equity financings completed during the month of June. “We expect the slowdown in public capital markets activity to continue, at least in the near-term, until market volatility remains subdued for a sufficient period of time,” the company said in a report.

The current environment is driving investors to pull back from riskier ventures, including those in the space sector, said Bruno. “What we’ll see now with interest rates up in a recession is a lot more focus on what we invest in,” he said. “So we won’t see companies with dubious business models necessarily being invested in.” Now investors are “being very, very careful about the companies that can really make a difference and understand their market and have technologies that change our country’s capabilities in the marketplace,” Bruno added. (7/11)

SpaceX Launches More Starlink Satellites From California (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
SpaceX launched a set of Starlink satellites Sunday night that are the first for a new layer of the constellation. The Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 9:39 p.m. Eastern and placed 46 Starlink satellites into orbit. The satellites are the first for what the company calls Group 3, a set of 348 satellites in polar orbits to improve coverage at high latitudes. (7/11)

Lynk Global Searching for Alternative Ride to Space (Source: Space News)
Lynk Global says it's still looking for a ride for a satellite kicked off a SpaceX rideshare mission earlier this year. The Lynk-07 satellite was one of the payloads on a Sherpa tug by Spaceflight that was to fly on the Transporter-4 mission in April but was removed by SpaceX because of concerns about environmental factors affecting the satellites installed on the tug. Lynk says that Spaceflight has still not arranged an alternative ride for that satellite. Lynk is working directly with SpaceX for the launch of two satellites in November. (7/11)

Northrop Grumman to Develop Small Satellite Bus for Space Force (Source: Space News)
Northrop Grumman received a Space Force contract to develop a satellite bus capable of carrying several small payloads. Northrop received a $22 million sole-source award Friday for the Rapid On-orbit Space Technology Evaluation Ring (ROOSTER), based on the company's ESPAStar bus. ROOSTER will carry payloads to test on-orbit refueling technologies in geostationary orbit, with delivery scheduled for 2026. (7/11)

India Revises Space Policy to Allow Private Imaging Satellites (Source: PTI)
India will now allow private ownership of imaging satellites. In comments Saturday, S Somanath, chairman of the Indian space agency ISRO, said the revised policy will allow Indian companies to own and operate Earth-imaging satellites, something previously reserved for the government. He also said the new Small Satellite Launch Vehicle's first launch is expected by early August. (7/11)

DHS Unveils Space Policy Focused on Cybersecurity and Resilience (Source: Space News)
The Department of Homeland Security's new space policy focuses on cybersecurity and resilience. The brief policy, signed in April but not publicly released for more than two months, says the department will work on cybersecurity for satellites and ground systems, improving resilience to disruptions to any space systems and creating contingency plans for operating in a "degraded" space environment. The policy does not go into details about implementation, such as timetables or assignments of responsibility. (7/11)

CAPSTONE Delays Second Trajectory Adjustment En Route to Moon (Source: Advanced Space)
Advanced Space postponed a second trajectory correction maneuver (TCM) for the NASA-funded CAPSTONE lunar cubesat over the weekend but says the spacecraft is fine. The company, which operates the spacecraft, said it postponed a second TCM that had been scheduled for Saturday "to review additional data and perform additional analysis" of the spacecraft during maneuvers. CAPSTONE completed its first TCM on Thursday that completed 90% of the overall objectives of the maneuver, and Advanced Space says it is still studying whether a second TCM is necessary. (7/11)

ESA Close to Announcing Next Astronaut Class (Source: ESA)
ESA says it is now in the final stages of selecting its next astronaut class. The agency said last week it recently completed the third phase of that selection process, with more than 400 applicants going to an ESA center for psychological testing. A fourth phase, involving medical testing, is now in progress, and the agency says it expects to select that new astronaut class by the end of the year. (7/11)

UK-Based Reaction Engines Launches Hypersonic Testing for US ‘Foreign Technology' Program (Source: Janes)
UK company Reaction Engines has launched ground-based testing of its hypersonic powerplant technology under a US Department of Defense (DoD) foreign technology program. Announced on 7 July, the commencement of the testing campaign seeks to prove Reaction Engines' high-Mach enabling technology through the Foreign Comparative Testing (FCT) program conducted by the DoD with support from the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). (7/8)

European Space Agency Displays its Ambitions for the 2030s (Source: Le Monde)
Space is like chess in that it's generally better to be one or more moves ahead. With deadlines counted in years, or even eons, planning ahead is essential in sectors dealing with exploring the solar system and human spaceflight. So, with the 2020s barely begun, it's not surprising that on Tuesday, July 5, the European Space Agency (ESA) released its roadmap for the next 10 years: a strategic plan called "Terrae Novae 2030 + ."

The "new lands" in question are less something new and more a continued exploration of low Earth orbits, the moon and Mars. The real novelty lies more in the ESA's new approach. After having long favored international cooperation, particularly with the United States and Russia, the EU is now opting for greater autonomy. As expressed in the roadmap's preamble, the reason for this shift is to be found in the geopolitical context, which "can unexpectedly become unstable.

Consequently, historical international cooperation, even for the highly emblematic and peaceful activity of robotic and human space exploration, can suddenly be called into question." Not knowing if cooperation with Russia will ever resume and recognizing that "isolationism and economic protectionism are unfortunately a trend," the ESA is aiming for more independence. However, there's no question of reconsidering its collaboration with the US in the Artemis program for the return of humans to the moon or in the Mars Sample Return project. (7/10)