July 9, 2022

California Spaceport Project Receives First European Letter of Intent (Source: Paso Robles Daily News)
The City of Paso Robles has received its first international Letter of Intent (LOI) related to the Paso Robles Spaceport project. The international LOI was submitted by UARX Space, a space technology company based in Spain that designs and builds spacecraft to put CubeSats into their desired orbits, from Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to the moon and into deep space.

The CEO and CTO of UARX both earned Masters degrees in Aerospace Engineering while students at Cal Poly. The co-founders of UARX recently toured the proposed Paso Robles Spaceport and Tech Corridor area and recently met with City Councilmember John Hamon to discuss opportunities for international expansion in Paso Robles. (7/7)

Georgia Spaceport Site Still Attracting Interest (Source: Brunswick News)
Despite the restrictions on spending more taxpayer money on Spaceport Camden, the site is still generating interest, according to Camden County Administrator Steve Howard. The county is in active negotiations with "multiple" American headquartered companies that Howard said are willing to commit to use all the annual licensed launches during the agreement. The site is licensed to conduct as many as 12 launches a year. Each launch would require approval by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Camden voters stopped county commissioners from closing on a deal for the launch site in a special referendum in March. Many voted to stop the purchase because they were concerned about the county owning a contaminated industrial site. Others thought the $10.3 million-plus spent on the project was too costly with no idea how much more would be spent to build a launch site. (7/7)

Biden Administration Announces Nearly $1B in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Funding Improving Airport Terminals Across U.S. (Source: FAA)
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will award nearly $1 billion from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding to 85 airports across the country to improve terminals of all sizes. The grants expand capacity at our nation’s airport terminals, increase energy efficiency, promote competition and provide greater accessibility for individuals with disabilities. Two grants will also be awarded to build new air traffic control towers. Editor's Note: Two projects are in Florida, in Orlando and Gainesville. (7/7)

Atomos Space and IDRS Collab Drops LEO Satellites in Precise Orbital Position (Source: AddValue)
Denver-based Atomos aims to deploy a fleet of orbital transfer vehicles that will serve the growing space economy by delivering satellite operator assets precisely to their needed slot in orbit. With its first mission due to launch in 2023, Atomos will begin servicing over $300m in Letters of Intent from commercial satellite operators. By equipping orbital transfer vehicles with IDRS ‘Always On’ command and control connectivity, Atomos will be able to safely perform its mission-critical precision rendezvous and proximity operations. (7/8)

Astronomers Haven’t Been This Giddy in Years (Source: The Atlantic)
About six months have elapsed since the most powerful space telescope in history bid farewell to Earth and took off into the darkness. In that time, the James Webb Space Telescope has deployed its gold-coated mirrors, turned on its instruments, and gotten the hang of operating 1 million miles from Earth. It has taken a good look around, and it’s almost ready to show us what it has found: NASA is scheduled to publicly release Webb’s first batch of full-color images and observations early next week.

Astronomers around the world are—how do I put this very seriously and scientifically?—absolutely psyched about this. Just bouncing off the walls. They’re even more amped now that NASA has released the list of cosmic objects that will be revealed on Tuesday. Scientists know that Webb is about to become the big thing in astronomy. The observatory, a joint project of NASA and the European and Canadian space agencies, is 100 times more powerful than the Hubble Space Telescope.

It can study celestial objects in ways that Hubble cannot, and gaze deeper into the cosmos, too—to some of the oldest stars and galaxies, which ignited into existence not long after the Big Bang. It is not hyperbole to say that Webb’s observations will provide an entirely new sense of the universe and how it all came to be. (7/8)

FCC Gets 90,000+ Comments from Starlink Uers Protesting Dish Mobile Service (Source: Ars Technica)
The Federal Communications Commission has received more than 90,000 comments from Starlink users urging the agency to side with SpaceX in a spectrum battle against Dish Network. The comments were all submitted since last week when SpaceX asked Starlink customers to weigh in on an FCC proceeding that seeks public input on the "feasibility of allowing mobile services in the 12.2-12.7 GHz band while protecting incumbents from harmful interference."

Dish wants to use the 12 GHz band for mobile service and says that sharing the spectrum wouldn't significantly degrade satellite broadband. SpaceX says the plan would cause "harmful interference [to Starlink users] more than 77 percent of the time and total outage of service 74 percent of the time, rendering Starlink unusable for most Americans." The satellite downlink band used by Starlink extends from 10.7 GHz to 12.7 GHz. SpaceX says it uses most of that but not the 10.7-10.95 GHz portion because it's adjacent to radio astronomy systems.

The Starlink email was sent to users on June 28. There were a little more than 200 comments in the 18-month-old proceeding's docket at that time, mostly from satellite or telecom companies and lobbyist or advocacy groups. (7/7)

SpaceX's Starlink Launches $5,000-Per-Month Satellite Internet for Yachts (Source: Business Insider)
Always wanted to work remotely from a yacht but foiled by laggy internet? You're in luck. Starlink is now available for boats, the company announced on Thursday. Starlink Maritime costs $5,000 per month, plus an initial $10,000 fee that covers two high-performance satellite dishes. It promises to deliver download speeds of 350 Mbps. Regular Starlink internet costs $110 per month, along with $599 for the necessary hardware. (7/7)

Space Force Will Yield ‘Eye-Watering’ Intel Capabilities, Whiting Says (Source: Air Force Magazine)
Space Force operators and intelligence specialists will work side by side in the future to deliver the full “TPED” intelligence cycle—“tasking, processing, exploitation, and dissemination”—said Space Force Lt. Gen. Stephen N. Whiting. Whiting said intelligence is one of SpOC’s four “core competencies,” alongside cyber, operations, and combat support. Intelligence is an area where he said the service has made the most progress so far.

SpOC’s Space Delta 7—organizationally similar to an Air Force wing—sends intelligence detachments to other deltas around the service. This helps tailor intelligence assets to the given mission, delivering intel “right into their ops floor,” Whiting said. “So if you are at Space Delta 4”—the missile warning delta at Buckley Space Force Base, Colo.—“all of that intel is about missile warning, missile defense, and the threats to those systems.” The Space Force will add three more intelligence squadrons “over the next couple years,” enabling the command to carry out the full “TPED” cycle, “all focused on space,” Whiting said. (7/7)

Jacobs Awarded $3.9B Engineering and Science Contract at NASA (Source: Jacobs)
Jacobs was awarded the JSC Engineering, Technology, and Science (JETS) II contract at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Jacobs is scheduled to begin contract transition on Aug. 1 to continue providing engineering and scientific products and technical services for NASA at Johnson Space Center (JSC). The contract maximum value is estimated at approximately $3.9 billion over 10 years including a five-year base period, two two-year option periods and one one-year option period. (7/7)

NASA Sounding Rockets Blasting Off to Assess Alpha Centauri Habitability (Source: Space.com)
Two sounding rockets are launching from Australia this month, carrying experiments designed to measure whether the ultraviolet light coming from the stars of the Alpha Centauri system could be harmful to any potential life on planets orbiting them. The research will also teach us about how normal — or not — the sun is.

Alpha Centauri, just 4.3 light-years away, comprises two main stars, Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B (which form a binary pair), as well as a third star, Proxima Centauri. Although no planets have been positively identified orbiting either Alpha Centauri A or B, if any do exist, ultraviolet light from their stars may have a strong bearing on whether they host life. (7/7)

Dark Matter Hunt Heats Up with First Result From World’s Biggest Detector (Source: Science)
Physicists working with the world’s biggest dark-matter detector—a behemoth in the United States known as LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ)—released their first results today. They see no sign of what they’re searching for, so-called weakly interacting massive particles or WIMPs. Still, the result is sparking interest among particle physicists, as the nearly 4-decade-long search for WIMPs approaches a climax. The U.S. detector is turning on at the same time as similar detectors in Italy and China, and together they likely represent the next to last generation of WIMP detectors, if not the last.

The new finding comes from 65 days worth of data taken over 4 months starting in December 2021, says Richard Gaitskell, a physicist and LZ member from Brown University. That’s a tiny fraction of the 1000 days of data LZ researchers aim to take over the next 3 to 5 years, he says, but enough to prove the detector is working well and is now the most sensitive in the world. “We would be in a position to see an excess [of events] if there was one,” Gaitskell says, “but there isn’t one.” (7/7)

Boeing’s CEO on Space (Source: Aviation Week)
"I believe strongly in space. I think a commercial market will come about, and it can be robust. We’re going to need more than Elon Musk to make that the case. But I sure like the way he’s seeded it. Frankly, I like everything he does in space exploration, including some of the risks he takes. Because he reminds us that’s what the industry has to do. That’s how we got to where we are. I’m a pretty big believer in that. Boeing has experience in operating and maintaining space stations. That skill could be applied more broadly commercially."

Do you think there will be enough missions for NASA’s heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS)? "That I don’t have an answer to. My posture is that there is a market that looks like it wants to be big enough, and I’m willing to take risks leaning into that. I want to prove it all out to be ready, but I’m not going to do silly things, like lose money for 10 years." ... "Boeing has put a lot of money into Starliner, too. When do you expect that to start to pay off?  I don’t really know the answer. We like the program, and we know it’s going to get utilized in the early going. Then the question is: “Do we have more [space] station opportunities, and is there enough traffic?” If there is, it will be great. But we’ll be prudent every step of the way. We’re not going to write checks forever." (7/8)

The Present Challenges and Future Possibilities of Space Entrepreneurship (Source: EI Exchange)
Commercial space discussions often characterize it as a single entity. At a minimum, commercial space is one of many market arrangements within the overall space sector, which includes three distinct communities (also referred to as “industries”), each containing multiple populations (also referred to as “industry segments”). The three primary space sector communities include one core subsystem community (In-Space Vehicles) and two complementary communities (Spaceports and Launch Vehicles). Each of these communities encompass multiple populations. Click here. (7/8)

Reaction Engines Begins Testing of Breakthrough High-mach Propulsion Technology Under Contract (Source: Parabolic Arc)
Reaction Engines today revealed the start of a new testing campaign to expand the performance envelope of their high-Mach enabling technology through the Foreign Comparative Testing (FCT) Program at the Department of Defense and supported by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). The FCT Program is focused on the discovery, assessment, and testing of leading foreign technology with the potential to satisfy U.S. Defense technical demands. The program seeks high Technology Readiness Level (TRL) technologies that could rapidly and economically satisfy current and emerging requirements.

The new test campaign aims to build upon the success of the previous HTX test program of the Reaction Precooler by significantly increasing the delivered air mass flow rate and other test parameters which will result in a three-fold increase in the total energy transfer through the engine heat exchanger.  The planned test points for the FCT tests were selected to be characteristic of the integration of Reaction Engines thermal management technology with state-of-the-art jet engines. (7/8)

Northrop Grumman Expanding in West Virginia (Source: Cumberland Times-News)
Northrop Grumman Corp. announced Wednesday that a 113,000-square-foot missile-producing facility will be constructed at the ABL campus in Mineral County. The new facility is designed to increase the company’s capacity within the defense industrial base to ensure delivery of current and future weapons to meet warfighter needs. Once completed in 2024, the missile integration facility will have the capacity to support production of up to 600 strike missiles per year, Unlike traditional missile integration facilities, Northrop Grumman’s facility is not limited to producing one type of missile but is easily modified to manage the integration of current and new missile programs. (7/8)

Satellites Spot Construction of Russian Anti-Satellite Laser Facility (Source: Space.com)
Recent Google Earth images reveal construction at what appears to be a sophisticated laser system at a Russian space facility designed to blind adversary satellites. The construction is taking place at the Russian Ministry of Defense's Krona space facility near Zelenchukskaya in Russia's far southwest, home of the massive RATAN-600 radio telescope. The existence of this new complex was brought to light in an in-depth open source investigation that analyzed public satellite imagery, solicitation documents from Russian industrial contractors and Russian financial documents. (7/8)

Q&A With Phantom Space's Jim Cantrell (Source: Sat Magazine)
Small satellites are the core of our business and our launch vehicles are sized to optimally serve the smallsat market. Our analyses show that smallsats are both the strongest-growing part of the satellite market and that, in the near future, they will be the primary type of satellite launched. Daytona is designed to be our workhorse for serving this market both now and for the foreseeable future. What makes Daytona really special is that it is a mass- manufactured two-stage rocket capable of carrying small satellites — including cubesats and ESPA satellites — and other space cargo into Earth orbit and beyond.

Daytona can carry a payload of 450 kg., or 992 lbs., or Low Earth Orbit (LEO), and 160 kg., or 353 lbs., to Geostationary Orbit (GTO). Daytona is powered by USRA’s Hadley engines, and our supply chains are US-based, making this rocket the most cost-efficient, effective, and reliable rocket on the market. We’re on track for first launch in 2023. Click here. (7/8)

ThrustMe Expands its Propulsion Manufacturing with New Production Line (Source: SpaceWatch Global)
In-orbit mobility solutions provider, ThrustMe, is renovating a 900-square-meter building in an industrial zone in the southern outskirt of Paris to turn it into a smart manufacturing site supporting high volume production of its propulsion systems, the company said. The premises will accommodate a new production line and an increased number of employees. The new facility will be capable of producing 365 of ThrustMe’s iodine-propellant based electric propulsion system annually.

The era of satellite constellations has brought along fundamental changes in satellite manufacturing, launching and operations. ThrustMe will proceed with rapid industrialization of its mainstream products, setting up a production line combining classical space approach with lean manufacturing to meet market demands. (7/6)