July 21, 2022

Las Vegas' Bigelow Gives Big Money to Ron DeSantis - $10 Million (Source: Florida Today)
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ reelection campaign received a $10 million contribution this month from a Las Vegas tycoon who believes aliens can be found on earth and has funded research into the afterlife and paranormal activity. Robert Bigelow is now DeSantis' largest individual donor. He made a fortune from the Budget Suites of America extended-stay rental chain, which he founded in 1987. He put $350 million in profits from that business into Bigelow Aerospace.

According to the New York Times, Bigelow Aerospace "bought the license from NASA to build expandable space habitats, launching the unmanned Genesis I and II inflatable modules into orbit in 2006 and 2007."

Bigelow has funded a variety of other eclectic pursuits. He established nearly $1 million in prizes for research offering the best evidence of consciousness after death. He also founded an institute to study the paranormal and purchased the 480-acre Skinwalker Ranch to investigate reports of paranormal activity on the property. He later sold the ranch. (7/19)

AST's BlueWalker 3 Test Satellite Fully Assembled and Shipped to Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Space Daily)
AST SpaceMobile reports that its BlueWalker 3 test satellite has been fully assembled and left its Midland, TX headquarters and manufacturing facility. Over the next few weeks, BlueWalker 3 will be undergoing final environmental testing at an off-site facility in California, which will provide flight data to be used during the launch at Cape Canaveral. Following this activity, BlueWalker 3 will continue its journey to Cape Canaveral, with a launch window for early to mid-September. (7/21)

Lynk Wins the Mercedes-Benz Car2Space Challenge (Source: SatNews)
Lynk Global has won the first-prize award for the Mercedes-Benz car2space Challenge at INNOspace Masters. Lynk won over applicants from around the globe for their innovative technology connecting cars to the company’s growing constellation of satellite cell towers in space. Lynk received this award in Berlin, Germany, at the INNOspace Masters Conference and Awards Ceremony 2022.

Lynk proved its patented technology through a series of demonstration missions, receiving regulatory approval for testing in 15 countries. Lynk Tower 1, Lynk’s first commercial-ready satellite, launched in April of 2022. Additional satellites will launch later this year, enabling Lynk to provide a constellation of commercial “cell-towers-in-space” service. To date, Lynk has 12 contracts with Mobile Network Operators worldwide. Lynk plans to orbit over 5000 satellites at 500km altitude.

Editor's Note: I asked Link a couple questions during a webinar this week. They declined to discuss whether their existing patents might impact AST and other proposed space-based cellular projects. They also said their capability will be support 5G phones and will "backwards compatible" to other cellular technologies. (7/21)

Australian Rocketry Team Regains Sky Wings with Triple Win at Spaceport America Cup (Source: Space Daily)
The USYD Rocketry Team has been announced as the overall winner of the Spaceport America Cup intercollegiate rocketry competition, held annually in New Mexico. Competing against 97 student teams from around the globe, including ETH Zurich and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, the University of Sydney team placed first in three categories - winning the overall competition with the highest points scored, and taking out first place for the launch of their 30,000 feet commercial-off-the-shelf rocket Bluewren and first place for the design of space debris capture payload Callistemon.

The results were announced after a nail-biting, three-week wait due to a data recovery error. Bluewren soared to a height of 29,933 feet - roughly nine kilometers - over the New Mexico desert before successfully deploying both its parachutes, landing safely and intact three kilometres from the launch site. (7/21)

US Environmental Study Launched for Thirty Meter Telescope (Source: FNN)
The National Science Foundation said Tuesday it plans to conduct a study to evaluate the environmental effects of building one of the world’s largest optical telescopes on sites selected in Hawaii and Spain’s Canary Islands. The agency published a notice in the Federal Register of its intentions to prepare an environmental impact statement for the $2.65 billion Thirty Meter Telescope. The telescope’s supporters have pursued plans to build it on their preferred site on the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii’s tallest mountain and one of the world’s best locations for viewing the night sky, for over a decade. But there is strong opposition from Native Hawaiians who consider the mountain’s summit sacred. (7/19)

Futuristic Space Habitat Lands at Institut Auf Dem Rosenberg (Source: Space Daily)
Pioneering Swiss boarding school Institut auf dem Rosenberg unveiled today - the anniversary of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's famous moon landing - the Rosenberg Space Habitat (RSH), which will serve as an experimental lab for students to explore and actively shape the future of humanity on our planet and beyond. Co-created by Rosenberg students and SAGA Space Architects with sustainable materials to intentionally fit inside SpaceX's Starship rocket, the structure is the world's tallest 3D-printed polymer structure measuring 23-feet high.

The RSH will be a site of research for students to learn about the fundamental conditions and architectural designs humans need to thrive, whether on Earth or in space. The project is based on the vision of planet-centered and need-lead innovation, teaching students not to fear new technology, but to embrace it and design it to its next generation. (7/20)

Goodyear Joins Lockheed Martin to Commercialize Lunar Mobility (Source: Space Daily)
The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company supplied essential products for NASA's Apollo program, including the Apollo 11 mission which landed on the Moon 53 years ago today. The company will continue that tradition-focusing on lunar vehicle tires-by joining Lockheed Martin in its development of a lunar mobility vehicle. Since Apollo, Goodyear continued innovating alongside NASA to advance designs for a lunar vehicle tire. The team of companies intends to be the first to establish extended-use commercial vehicle operations on the Moon.

Goodyear brings its vast expertise in a mission-critical component to traverse the lunar surface, tires. Goodyear is drawing from its advanced airless tire technology used on Earth with micro-mobility, autonomous shuttles and passenger vehicles, to advance lunar mobility and withstand the challenging conditions on the Moon. The companies are already applying existing expertise to the project including testing concepts in lunar soil test beds. (7/21)

Companies Jostle for Lunar Presence (Source: Space News)
On this 53rd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, startups and established companies are preparing for lunar missions of their own. Astrobotic Technology plans to send its Peregrine lander to the moon on the inaugural flight of the United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur rocket before the end of the year. The Intuitive Machines IM-1 launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will likely occur in January. OrbitBeyond, a company that won a CLPS task order in 2019 and later canceled the contract, has a new lander to compete for future CLPS contracts. (7/20)

Terran R Rocket to Carry Impulse Mars Lander Into Space From Florida (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
Relativity Space's 3D-printed Terran R launch vehicle will deliver Implus Space's Mars Cruise Vehicle and Mars Lander on a trans-Mars injection orbit. The mission will deliver what is said to be the first commercial payload to Mars. The earliest anticipated launch window occurs between 2024 and 2025 and would make use of Relativity’s fully reusable Terran R rocket launching from Space Launch Complex 16 (SLC-16) at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. (7/19)

Japanese-NASA X-ray Observatory Stands Tall as Testing Begins (Source: Space Daily)
The X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission will greatly expand our knowledge of the high-energy universe and recently passed two key milestones on its path to observing the cosmos. Nicknamed XRISM (pronounced "crism"), the mission is a collaboration between the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and NASA, with participation by ESA (the European Space Agency), to investigate the X-ray universe using high-resolution imaging and spectroscopy.

Having all of the systems installed initiates a new round of spacecraft testing to ensure everything works well together. Engineers integrate and test the equipment at different stages - first individual components, then assembled systems and instruments, and finally the full observatory. These tests subject the spacecraft and instruments to the conditions expected during launch and space operations.

In another milestone, testing and calibration of two identical, Goddard-built X-ray Mirror Assemblies (XMAs) was completed, and the mirrors were shipped to Japan in late May and early June. The XMAs underwent separate environmental testing and will receive their final optical alignment before being installed on each instrument in the fall. (7/20)

Court Urged To Revive L3Harris Contract Billing Suit (Source: Law360)
A former L3Harris Technologies Inc. software developer has asked the Third Circuit to resurrect his False Claims Act lawsuit, arguing he sufficiently alleged the defense contractor illegally billed the U.S. government instead of the Australian navy for work under an existing contract. (7/20)

Quitting Russia will Cost Thales’s Space Business, But Growth Forecast Maintained (Source: Space Intel Report)
Thales Group reaffirmed the growth profile of its space business despite the cessation of business in Russia and the effects of inflation on electronics components. The company’s 67% owned Thales Alenia Space hardware builder and 33% owned Telespazio space services provider will maintain the forecasted 5% annual growth rate at least through 2024, Thales Group Chief Executive Patrice Caen said in a July 21 investor call on the company’s financial results. (7/21)

There’s a New Commercial Space Race Happening, and Colorado Wants to Win It (Source: 5280)
When Vicky Lea started as director of aerospace and aviation for the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation (EDC) more than a decade ago, she was tasked with growing the city’s—and, by extension, the state’s—aerospace economy. It seemed like an easy enough gig. After all, the state was already home to major space defense installations, massive corporations competing for NASA contracts, and universities with storied histories of extraterrestrial research.

The Space Foundation in Colorado Springs had even been hosting the annual Space Symposium, one of the largest gatherings of industry professionals in the world, since 1984. But when she headed to that event to promote the state as a significant aerospace center, the most common reaction she got from attendees from outside of Colorado was puzzlement. “The recognition just wasn’t there,” she says. Fast-forward to the most recent symposium, and things have changed dramatically. Lea says the new message from conferencegoers is this: We are considering relocating our business, and we’ve been told that Colorado is where we should be looking. Click here. (7/1)

Meet the Woman Who Makes the James Webb Space Telescope Work (Source: Scientific American)
“Give me a telescope, and I can come up with something good to do with it,” says Jane Rigby, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center who serves as the agency’s operations project scientist for the $10-billion James Webb Space Telescope, the largest and most powerful off-world observatory yet built by humankind. Over the course of her career, Rigby has used many of the world’s premier ground- and space-based astronomical facilities—and she is helming one of Webb’s many “early release science” campaigns front-loaded for its first year of observations, utilizing the telescope to study star formation in galaxies across eons of cosmic time.

But her main work with Webb is to work with her team to ensure everyone fortunate enough to use it can do “something good,” by looking after the full breadth of scientific investigations the telescope will perform for researchers around the globe during its planned five-year primary mission. This is no small task: For those hoping to squeeze as much science as possible out of this one-of-a-kind observatory, each and every moment of Webb’s time is precious—and Rigby oversees the schedule. (7/11)

High-Flying Experiment: Do Stem Cells Grow Better in Space? (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Researcher Dhruv Sareen’s own stem cells are now orbiting the Earth. The mission? To test whether they’ll grow better in zero gravity. Scientists at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles are trying to find new ways to produce huge batches of a type of stem cell that can generate nearly any other type of cell in the body — and potentially be used to make treatments for many diseases. The cells arrived over the weekend at the International Space Station on a supply ship.

“I don’t think I would be able to pay whatever it costs now” to take a private ride to space, Sareen said. “At least a part of me in cells can go up!” The experiment is the latest research project that involves shooting stem cells into space. Some, like this one, aim to overcome the terrestrial difficulty of mass producing the cells. Others explore how space travel impacts the cells in the body. And some help better understand diseases such as cancer. (7/20)

J6 Committee Subpoena Seeks Evidence of Italian Satellites Used to Switch Trump Votes (Source: J6 Committee)
The congressional committee investigating the circumstances around the January 6 insurrection in Washington DC has issued a subpoena to James Waldron, who appears to have been involved with efforts to promote claims about fraud in the 2020 election. Among the claims Waldron propagated was that Italian satellites were used to somehow switch votes from incumbent Donald Trump to then-candidate Joe Biden.

Waldron reportedly claimed to have visited the White House on multiple occasions after the election, spoken to Mark Meadows “maybe 8 to 10 times,” and briefed several members of Congress on election fraud theories. The J6 Committee subpoena compels Waldron to provide "All documents supporting the claim that Italian satellites were used to hack voting systems used in the November 2020 election. (7/21)

Spire Plans to Add Weather Instruments on Its Satellites (Source: Space News)
Spire plans to add microwave sounders to its satellites to improve weather forecasts. Spire provides weather data today using GPS radio occultation observations, but future satellites will carry Hyperspectral Microwave Sounder (HYMS) instruments from RAL Space, the British government's national lab. Data from that instrument will improve weather forecasts by providing information on atmospheric moisture. Spire plans to fly HYMS for the first time on a 16U cubesat slated for launch in late 2023 or early 2024. (7/21)

OneWeb and Hanwha Partner to Support Australian Defense Market (Source: Space News)
OneWeb and two subsidiaries of South Korean conglomerate Hanwha Group have partnered to provide connectivity services for the Australian defense market. OneWeb signed an MOU this week at the Farnborough International Airshow with Hanwha Systems and Hanwha Defense Australia. Under the deal, the three companies will discuss how they would combine capabilities to better compete for contracts under the Australian Military Satellite Tactical Internet Program. OneWeb would provide the satellite connectivity services and the Hanwha companies terminals and local marketing support. (7/21)

NASA Authorization Included in CHIPS Act (Source: Space News)
A new NASA authorization act is included in a semiconductor bill being considered by the Senate. The authorization act is part of the CHIPS Act, the text of which was released by the Senate Commerce Committee Wednesday a day after a procedural vote to advance the measure. The NASA portions of the bill authorize a "Moon to Mars Program" at NASA that incorporates Artemis, extends ISS operations to 2030 and calls on NASA to not delay development of the NEO Surveyor mission to track near Earth asteroids, among other measures. The bill also includes National Science Foundation provisions for studies of the effect of satellite constellations on astronomy and facilitating microgravity research. (7/21)

Isar Aerospace to Launch From French Guiana (Source: Space News)
European small launch vehicle developer Isar Aerospace has signed a deal to launch its Spectrum rocket from French Guiana. The company said Thursday it signed a binding term sheet with the French space agency CNES to develop a launch site at the former Diamant launch complex there. CNES will be responsible for basic infrastructure, while Isar will be responsible for building a launch pad and hangar for Spectrum. Isar envisions launching up to 10 missions a year from French Guiana in addition to a similar number of launches from a pad at Andøya, Norway, with the first launch from French Guiana planned for the first half of 2024. (7/21)

European Rover May Be Dropped From NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return Mission (Source: BBC)
A European "fetch rover" may be dropped from the NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return effort. Earlier plans called for the rover to be delivered to Mars to pick up samples cached by the Perseverance rover and return them to the lander to be loaded into a rocket and launched into orbit. But the performance of Perseverance indicates that it will be able to transport the samples itself to the lander. The agencies are also considering the use of helicopters based on Ingenuity that could pick up samples. (7/21)

Supply Chain Problems Blamed for Cygnus Cargo Mission Delay (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
Supply chain problems have delayed the next Cygnus cargo spacecraft mission to the space station. The NG-18 Cygnus mission was previously scheduled to launch in August but has been delayed to mid-October. Northrop Grumman said the delay was primarily because of supply chain issues but didn't elaborate. The company has also not provided an update on how it will launch Cygnus missions after the NG-19 mission early next year because Russia's invasion of Ukraine disrupted access to Russian RD-181 engines and the Ukrainian-built first stage of the Antares rocket. (7/21)

Mattel to Produce SpaceX Themed Toys (Source: CollectSpace)
Mattel has signed an agreement with SpaceX to produce SpaceX-themed toys. The agreement, announced by the companies Wednesday, will involve Matchbox toys based on SpaceX vehicles. The companies did not disclose details on what toys will be produced and at what price, but said that the first will be released next year. (7/21)

Sidus Space Fabricates Hardware in support of NASA’s Artemis Program and their Space Launch System (Source: Sidus Space)
Sidus has completed the fabrication of the first set of hardware in support of NASA’s Artemis Program and their Space Launch System (SLS) Manned Vehicle. As a subcontractor, Sidus is responsible for the build, qualification, and testing of Umbilical Quick Disconnects for the Environmental Control System (ECS) on the Universal Stage Adapter (USA) for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS). The fabrication of the first set of hardware was completed to support umbilical testing at Jacob’s Launch Equipment Test Facility at KSC and was delivered last week. NASA reviewed and approved the hardware earlier this month. (7/21)

Uncovering Uganda’s Hidden Space Program (Source: Discover)
Today I am sharing a video about Uncovering Africa's Hidden Space Program - One of the Worst 100 Ideas of the Century. Click here. (7/16)