August 13, 2022

Spaceport Cornwall Heralds Giant Leap for National Security (Source: The Times)
The ability to launch satellites from British soil for the first time should bolster intelligence services, the head of the country’s first spaceport has said. The first launch from Britain is expected later this year when eight small satellites are taken into space from Newquay airport in Cornwall by Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit. This kind of “horizontal launch” can operate in weather conditions that would keep traditional “vertical launch” rockets grounded, and be ready at much shorter notice, according to Melissa Thorpe, the chief executive of Spaceport Cornwall. The military and intelligence agencies are among the target users of this capability. (8/13)

Paso Robles Library to Host Special Program on California City’s Plan for Spaceport (Source: Paso Robles Daily News)
On Sep. 1 in the library conference room, the Paso Robles City Library will host a joint presentation by Henry Danielson, CISSO Technology Advisor at Cal Poly’s Cybersecurity Institute (CCI), and Paul Sloan, Economic Development Manager for the City of Paso Robles, on CubeSats and the plan for a spaceport in Paso Robles. Danielson will focus on CubeSats and the role of the PolySat lab in their production and use. Sloan will focus on the city’s progress in applying to become a spaceport and what it means for the future of the airport and the City of Paso Robles. (8/13)

Virgin Orbit 2Q Loss Narrows (Source: Market Watch)
Virgin Orbit Holdings Inc.'s net loss narrowed in the second quarter on lower revenue. The responsive space flight and services company said its second-quarter loss narrowed to $33.3 million during the period that ended June 30. That compares with a loss of $44.6 million a year ago. Revenue was $5,000, compared with $1.7 million a year ago.

Selling, general and administrative expenses were 36% higher at $27.8 million, while research and development expenses dropped 21% to $9.1 million. Virgin Orbit, founded by Richard Branson in 2017, completed its fourth consecutive successful launch in 18 months on July 1, just after the quarter ended, and delivered seven satellites for the Department of Defense Space Test Program. Over $12 million in revenue was recognized following the launch, which will be reflected in third-quarter results. (8/12)

VP Kamala Harris in the California to Discuss Future of Space Exploration (Source: KNTV)
Vice President Kamala Harris made her way back to her hometown of Oakland Friday for a discussion about the future of our nation’s space program. The plan is to build on recent public private space partnerships, like the James Webb Telescope, with the main camera built in Silicon Valley, and the NASA-Ames powered ingenuity helicopter on Mars.

Harris told the crowd gathered at Oakland’s Chabot Space Center that a closer partnership between the government and private companies, like SpaceX and Northrop Grumman is in the works. She said her office plans to revamp regulations to make it easier to work together and create jobs, at least one space tech giant at the event said they’re on board. (8/12)

Space Council to Focus on Updating Commercial Space Regs (Source: Space Policy Online)
Vice President Kamala Harris said today the National Space Council is going to focus on updating rules for the commercial space industry to ensure it remains a world leader. The next Council meeting will take place in September to begin developing a new rules framework to ensure the clarity and consistency needed to attract investors.

"[Current regulations] were written for a space industry of the last century.  And when I was going through here just today, speaking with some of our innovators and looking at where the technology has grown in just the last decade, we know that we really are quite behind in terms of maximizing our collective understanding about how we will engage on the technology of today and what we can quickly and easily predict will be the technology over the next decades.” (8/12)

France Refuses to Work with Russia on Device for India's Venus Mission (Source: TASS)
France has abandoned plans to create, together with Russia, a device for the orbiter that India plans to launch to Venus, Oleg Korablev, deputy director of the Space Research Institute told TASS. The device is intended to study the atmosphere of Venus by spectroscopy. Some of the components were supposed to be French. "We have solved this issue [with components], we are conducting all the preparatory stages, looking for suppliers, everything is in order," Korablev said, "Unfortunately, the French Space Agency announced that they are no longer interested in participating in this project, but we can buy everything ourselves." (8/13)

SpaceX Launches Starlink Satellites From Both Coasts (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
SpaceX flew two missions with Starlink satellites this week — one on each coast of the United States — increasing the size of the company’s internet constellation. The latest launch of 46 Starlink internet satellites took place atop a Falcon 9 rocket at 5:40 p.m. EDT Aug. 12, 2022, from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. This was following a launch of 52 satellites atop a Falcon 9 at 10:14 p.m. Aug. 9, from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The Aug. 12 mission, launching satellites for Starlink Group 3-3 into a polar orbit, utilized Falcon 9 first stage core B1061, which was flying on its 10th mission. It successfully landed on SpaceX’s drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You,” located downrange in the Pacific Ocean. On Aug. 9, the Starlink Group 4-26 mission utilized Falcon 9 first stage core B1073, which made its third flight after a 41-day turnaround. B1073 successfully landed on drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas,” staged some 650 kilometers downrange in the Atlantic Ocean. (8/12)

Are Space Scientists Ready to Take Advantage of Starship? (Source: Science)
When SpaceX CEO Elon Musk talks up Starship, it’s mostly about human exploration: Set up bases on Mars and make humans a multiplanetary species! Save civilization from extinction! But planetary scientist Jennifer Heldmann and many others believe the heavy lifter could also radically change the way space scientists work. They could fly bigger and heavier instruments more often—and much more cheaply, if SpaceX’s projections of cargo launch costs as low as $10 per kilogram are to be believed.

On Mars, they could deploy rovers not as one-offs, but in herds. Space telescopes could grow, and fleets of satellites in low-Earth orbit could become commonplace. Astronomy, planetary science, and Earth observation could all boldly go, better than they ever have before. “We on the science side need to be ready to take advantage of those capabilities when they come online.”

So do NASA centers such as the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which designs and builds many space science missions, says Casey Handmer, a former JPL software engineer. In a series of provocative blog posts with titles like “Starship is still not understood,” he has argued that Starship will upset the traditional way of doing space science. (8/11)

How Should Christians Feel About the New Images of Outer Space? (Source: Deseret News)
I’m embarrassed to admit it, but the James Webb images actually sent me into a sort of existential crisis, one that I didn’t fully leave behind until I spoke with Deborah Haarsma, a Christian astrophysicist, about their spiritual significance. Haarsma, who serves as president of BioLogos, an organization that works to reduce tension between the worlds of science and faith, told me I’m not alone in being shaken by the vastness of outer space. Then she shared some wisdom that’s helped guide her work for years.

“You don’t have to look at the vastness of the universe and feel insignificant. You can look at it and see how great God’s power and love are,” she said. To Haarsma, the new images of outer space aren’t a reason to be scared. They’re a reason to revisit and celebrate religious teachings on the natural world and a reason to give thanks that we humans get to be part of it all. (8/10)

NASA's New James Webb Space Telescope Photographs UFOs (Source: TweakTown)
A new study published on the pre-print server arXiv details objects called HST-dark galaxies, or Ultra-red Flattened Objects (UFO). These galaxies feature the same spherical or oval shape that the classic depiction of UFOs confirmed by the US government and seen regularly by Air Force personnel conducting a reconnaissance missions. Webb is observing these galaxies in infrared light, and the light that Webb is looking at is anywhere between 10.3 to 12.7 billion years old, meaning we are observing the galaxies as they were in the universe nearly 13 billion years ago (total universe age is 13.7 billion years old).

n important distinction outlined by the researchers is that NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is unable to see these galaxies due to the dust, but Webb's infrared instruments are able to cut through it, making the galaxies suddenly pop into existence. (8/12)

SpaceX Invites Security Researchers to Hack Starlink (Source: PC Magazine)
To secure Starlink, SpaceX is inviting security researchers to try and hack the satellite internet system and then report any vulnerabilities to the company. Interested security researchers can submit their findings to SpaceX’s bug bounty program(Opens in a new window), which can pay up to $25,000 per discovered vulnerability. The company is looking for bugs covering the entire Starlink ecosystem, including its mobile apps and the main website Starlink.com.

SpaceX made the announcement this week after a security researcher at the Black Hat conference publicly disclosed several vulnerabilities in the Starlink dish that can be used to run custom computer code over the hardware at all privilege levels. (8/11)