August 11, 2022

The FCC Revoked Subsidy Award for SpaceX Starlink (Source: Space News)
The FCC Wednesday revoked nearly $900 million in broadband subsidies it previously awarded to SpaceX's Starlink system. The FCC said SpaceX had failed to show it could meet requirements for unlocking the funds, which aim to incentivize expanding broadband services to unserved areas across the United States. SpaceX was provisionally awarded the subsidies in December 2020 after competing in an auction under phase one of the FCC's Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF), and the company received one of the largest awards. SpaceX's award required it to provide broadband services with 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload speeds, although recent tests by a third party showed the system was not, on average, meeting those requirements. (8/11)

Army Gets Exclusive Access to BlackSky Satellite (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Army will have exclusive access to one upcoming BlackSky satellite for testing. The Gen-3 satellite will produce images with 50-centimeter resolution, compared to current Gen-2 satellites that deliver one-meter imagery. Army users will be able to task one satellite and downlink imagery to existing remote ground terminals and to a new ground station. BlackSky hopes the experiments will lead to larger Army contracts for data as a service. The company expects to start launching Gen-3 satellites in mid-2023. (8/11)

DARPA Picks 11 Organizations to Deveop Laser Terminal Tech (Source: Space News)
DARPA has selected 11 organizations, including five commercial satellite operators, to help develop laser terminals and technical standards to connect satellites in space. SpaceX, Telesat, SpaceLink, Viasat and Amazon are part of the space-based adaptive communications node, or Space-BACN, project by DARPA to create a new laser terminal design that would be compatible with any constellation and make it easier for government and commercial satellites to talk to each other.  Phase 1 of Space-BACN will last about 14 months and will conclude with a preliminary design review and a connectivity demonstration in a simulated environment. (8/11)

Nanoavionics Developing Larger Satellite Buses (Source: Space News)
Smallsat manufacturer Nanoavionics is developing larger satellite buses. The new MP42D bus will allow the company to host payloads weighing up to 145 kilograms. The bus is based on NanoAvionics' flagship MP42 platform that first flew in April, marking the company's expansion out of the 10-kilogram-and-under nanosatellite class. The company says lower launch costs in the industry are encouraging operators to order heavier and more powerful satellites to improve capabilities and forge new markets. (8/11)

NASA Cubesat, Other Rideshare Payload, Removed From Atlas 5 Mission (Source: Space News)
A NASA cubesat lost its ride on a recent launch because of orbital debris mitigation issues. GTOSat and another, unidentified, satellite had been scheduled to fly as secondary payloads on the Atlas 5 launch of the SBIRS GEO-6 satellite last week. However, the satellites were removed from the launch after analyses showed they would not be able to comply with the 25-year deorbit rule intended to minimize the creation of orbital debris. The satellite, designed to study the Earth's outer radiation belt, will go into storage while NASA looks for a new launch opportunity. The move comes as the government considers lowering that 25-year limit. (8/11)

First Cubesat of Six-Satellite Telescope Project Assembled (Source: Space News)
The first of six cubesats for a NASA space science mission has been assembled. The Space Dynamics Laboratory is building the cubesats for SunRISE, a mission that will pinpoint radio bursts from the sun and link them to events like coronal mass ejections. The six satellites, orbiting just above GEO, will act as a single radio telescope, with the data from the individual satellites combined into single observations on the ground. All six satellites will be completed by next April for launch in 2024. (8/11)

SpaceX Conducts Engine Tests for Starship and Super Heavy Booster (Source: Ars Technica)
SpaceX tested both its Starship vehicle and Super Heavy booster on Tuesday. In separate tests, the Super Heavy booster fired a single engine, the first static-fire test of that vehicle, followed by two engines on the Starship upper stage. More static tests are expected, including one that could fire all 33 engines on the Super Heavy booster, before attempting an orbital flight. SpaceX received Wednesday an FCC communications license for that orbital test flight, scheduled between Sept. 1 and next March. (8/11)

Canada's MDA Expands UK Presence (Source: Space News)
Canadian space company MDA is expanding its presence the United Kingdom. MDA is planning to double its U.K. workforce to 80 people in the next year and recently moved into a larger facility in England with clean rooms and labs. MDA's U.K. unit recently partnered with debris removal startup Astroscale to study the feasibility of a U.K. Space Agency-funded mission to remove two satellites from low Earth orbit by 2025, part of what MDA sees as a strong partnership between the U.K. and Canada in space. (8/11)

Orbital Insight Partners with Israel's Asterra for Remote Sensing Analytics (Source: Space News)
Geospatial intelligence company Orbital Insight is working with an Israeli startup to jointly provide remote sensing analytics. The partnership with Asterra will allow Orbital Insight to provide customers with Earth-observation products and services based on SAR satellite data developed by Asterra. This includes support for water utilities, infrastructure organizations and other industries. Initially, the collaboration will focus on facility monitoring by identifying underground water, sewage, chemical leaks and erosion. (8/11)

UCF and BYU to Fly Payloads on RocketStar Suborbital Mission (Source: Space News)
Two experimental payloads built by university students have been integrated with a RocketStar suborbital test flight set for next month. The payloads from Brigham Young University and the University of Central Florida have been installed on RocketStar's 10-meter-tall, aerospike-powered Cowbell rocket. In its quest to develop a single-stage-to-orbit launch vehicle, RocketStar has conducted nine suborbital launches, flying Cowbell as high as 15 kilometers. TriSept Corp. handled the payload integration as a test of a new satellite security operating system. (8/11)

India Tests Abort Motor for Gaganyaan Crew Capsule (Source: PTI)
India's space agency ISRO successfully tested an abort motor for its human spaceflight program. The static-fire test of the Low Altitude Escape Motor took place Wednesday at ISRO's spaceport in Sriharikota. The motor would pull the Gaganyaan capsule away from its launch vehicle in the event of an emergency in the initial phases of flight. (8/11)

Rocket Power Rankings (Source: Quartz)
SpaceX's Falcon 9 debuted in 2010, we haven’t seen one of the major Western aerospace firms come up with a competitor. They’re trying: United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan, Blue Origin’s New Glenn, and Arianespace’s Ariane 6 are all expected to take flight in 2023. Meanwhile dozens of small launcher start-ups formed in the years after SpaceX’s successes, promising to build cheap, small rockets. Satellite operators said they would love the help. But thus far, just one of these firms, Rocket Lab, has begun regular service. Others have gone bankrupt, engaged in major pivots, or are just on the cusp of delivering. Here's a ranking of launch systems currently in development. (8/11)

Unlike Other Former SPACs, Rocket Lab Is Already Science, Not Fiction (Source: Wall Street Journal)
Investors in 2022 have decided they hate moonshots. They should make an exception for a firm that has actually gone to the moon. On Thursday, a spy satellite run by the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office shot into space from New Zealand. The rocket carrying it, the Electron, was built by Rocket Lab, a U.S.-Kiwi startup founded in 2006 by self-taught rocket engineer Peter Beck.

New opportunities have opened up by governments’ desire for “responsive launch.” While Elon Musk’s SpaceX has spent years revolutionizing the space economy with its large reusable Falcon rockets, a raft of startups have recently stepped in to provide light rockets that are more expensive in terms of price per kilogram, but can send small satellites to specific orbits with extremely fast turnaround times. After a year of unrestrained euphoria, when all sorts of “pre-revenue” startups merged with special-purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, rising interest rates have prompted traders to shun speculative ventures, including small-satellite launchers.

This has shrouded Rocket Lab, Virgin Orbit and Astra Space, which all went public through SPACs last year, in a cloud of negative sentiment. It also casts doubt over the fate of privately owned ventures like Firefly Aerospace, Relativity Space and ABL Space Systems. Shares in Rocket Lab are down more than 50% this year, which is in line with the fall for the AXS De-SPAC Exchange Traded Fund. But this is galactically unfair: Unlike many of the companies in that fund, Rocket Lab has actually achieved the impressive feats it promised to investors. (8/9)

A Piece of Apollo History Faces Demolition (Source: Aerospace America)
NASA plans to dismantle historic lunar gantry crane at Langley Research Center in Virginia. Neil Armstrong trained to land the Eagle there. NASA practiced splashing down its Orion capsules there just last year, ahead of the planned Artemis missions. Now, NASA plans to demolish its nearly 60-year-old gantry crane at a date to be decided, citing “annual maintenance costs and pending corrosion repair.” The gantry crane opened for business at Langley in 1963 as the centerpiece of the Lunar Landing Research Facility. It is an imposing structure as high as a 22-story building and as long as a soccer field from which hardware can be slung on cables for testing. (8/10)

Capella Plans Improved Image Resolution with New Generation of Radar Satellites (Source: Space News)
Capella Space intends to offer improved image resolution and quality with a new generation of synthetic aperture radar satellites scheduled to launch in early 2023. With the new satellites, called Acadia, Capella plans to increase radar bandwidth from 500 to 700 megahertz and power by more than 40 percent. For Acadia, Capella also is upgrading the payload downlink antenna and equipping satellites with optical communications terminals. (8/10)

SpaceX Starship Tower Rising High at LC-39A on the Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Spaceflight Now)
Construction of SpaceX's Florida Starship launch pad continues at launch complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center with addition of a sixth section of the gantry tower. The hour-long operation is compressed in this time-lapse video. With the addition of this latest module the tower now stands about 112 meters (367 feet) tall. The completed structure should be about 143 meters (469 feet) in height. Click here. (8/10)

FCC Denies SpaceX Bid for Nearly $1 Billion in Rural Broadband Subsidies for Starlink (Source: CNBC)
The Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday denied SpaceX’s bid for nearly $1 billion in subsidies to support rural broadband customers through the company’s Starlink satellite internet network. In a press release, the FCC said two companies, Starlink and LTD Broadband, “failed to demonstrate that the providers could deliver the promised service” needed to receive the subsidies. The company sought funding to provide satellite internet service to nearly 650,000 locations in 35 states, the FCC noted.

The FCC subsidies are designed to be an incentive for broadband providers to bring service to the “unserved” and hard-to-reach areas of the United States. SpaceX will likely bid in later auction rounds for the program's remaining funds. Elon Musk’s company was the 4th highest awardee in terms of dollar value in an earlier auction among 180 bidding companies. The FCC’s denial of Starlink from the RDOF program comes soon after a separate but crucial authorization for SpaceX to provide mobile Starlink internet service to boats, planes and trucks. (8/10)

The Hacking of Starlink Terminals Has Begun (Source: WIRED)
Since 2018, Starlink has launched more than 3,000 small satellites into orbit. Thousands more satellites are planned for launch as the industry booms. Now, like any emerging technology, those satellite components are being hacked. Lennert Wouters, a security researcher will reveal one of Starlink's security vulnerabilities at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas. It allows attackers to access the Starlink system and run custom code on the devices.

To access the satellite dish’s software, Wouters physically stripped down a dish he purchased and created a custom hacking tool that can be attached to the Starlink dish. The hacking tool, a custom circuit board known as a modchip, uses off-the-shelf parts that cost around $25. Once attached to the Starlink dish, the homemade printed circuit board (PCB) is able to launch a fault injection attack—temporarily shorting the system—to help bypass Starlink’s security protections. This “glitch” allows Wouters to get into previously locked parts of the Starlink system. (8/10)

Is U.S. Space Command Still Coming to Huntsville? (Source: WAAY)
The commander of U.S. Space Command visited Huntsville for the annual Space and Missile Defense Symposium Tuesday where he told the crowd the final decision on a plan to move his headquarters to the Rocket City is one final decision away. Click here. (8/9) https://www.waaytv.com/video/is-u-s-space-command-still-coming-to-huntsville/video_adf6de53-def7-53c9-9401-6c696bbc04b5.html

Wouters is now making his hacking tool open source on GitHub, including some of the details needed to launch the attack. “As an attacker, let’s say you wanted to attack the satellite itself,” Wouters explains, “You could try to build your own system that allows you to talk to the satellite, but that’s quite difficult. So if you want to attack the satellites, you would like to go through the user terminal as that likely makes your life easier.”

Increased Solar Activity Creates New Challenges for Smallsats (Source: Space News)
A new solar activity cycle that may be stronger than forecast poses challenges for smallsat operators keeping their spacecraft in orbit and functioning. During a panel discussion organized by the Secure World Foundation, a space weather expert warned that the relatively benign conditions of the last several years are ending. “Whatever you’ve experienced in the past two years doesn’t matter,” said Tzu-Wei Fang at NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center. “Whatever you learned the past two years is not going to apply in the next five years.”

One effect of increased space weather activity is more drag on satellites as storms heat and expand the upper atmosphere, increasing its density. That was illustrated in February when a solar storm caused 38 of 49 newly launched SpaceX Starlink satellites to reenter when those satellites’ thrusters could not overcome the enhanced atmospheric drag created by the storm. (8/10)