August 17, 2022

Ball Working with Seagate on Data Storage for Spaceflight Applications (Source: Space News)
Ball Aerospace is working with Seagate to develop and test high-capacity commercial data processing and storage devices for spaceflight applications. The companies will test how storage devices from Seagate, a company best known for hard drives, could be integrated into Ball spacecraft avionics and software. That will include the test of a Seagate device on a Ball smallsat in 2023. The growth of the space sector, along with surging demand for data processing and storage, is attracting the attention of firms focused primarily on terrestrial markets. (8/17)
 
Satellite Operators Seek Regulatory Deadline Extensions (Source: Space News)
Satellite operators are seeking extensions from regulators for deadlines to deploy new constellations, citing supply chain and other challenges. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) adopted rules in November 2019 that force constellation operators to hit deployment milestones or lose their spectrum rights. That rule came into place just before the pandemic upended supply chains that have been further impacted by the war in Ukraine. The ITU said in July that it rejected a petition for a one-year extension for all constellations subject to that rule filed by Rivada Space Networks, which has a year to launch at least 10% of a 600-satellite constellation to comply with the ITU rules. The ITU said it will consider extensions on a case-by-case basis and only where events are outside the control of the satellite operator. (8/17)

SLS Rolled Out to FloridA Pad for Aug. 29 Launch (Source: CBS)
The Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft rolled out to the launch pad overnight for the Artemis 1 launch. The SLS left the Vehicle Assembly Building around 10 p.m. Eastern last night, arriving this morning at Launch Complex 39B. The rollout begins the final phase of preparations for the uncrewed Artemis 1 launch, scheduled for as soon as Aug. 29. (8/17)

AST SpaceMobile Delays Launch of First Operational Satellites (Source: Space News)
AST SpaceMobile is delaying the launch of its first operational satellite by six months to late 2023 because of supply chain problems. The company, developing a constellation of satellites to provide direct-to-cellphone services, also said those BlueBird satellites will be half the size originally planned, making them similar to its 1,500-kilogram BlueWalker 3 prototype slated to launch next month on a Falcon 9. While the company said the BlueBird satellites will incorporate design improvements, it is unclear how their reduced size will affect planned performance and coverage. AST SpaceMobile says it has sufficient funding to cover operations for the next year but will need to raise additional capital to deploy the 20 satellites it needs for the first phase of planned commercial services around the equatorial region. (8/17)

Orion Space Solutions Picked by Space Force to Develop Satellites for Demonstrating On-Orbit Services (Source: Space News)
Orion Space Solutions has won a Space Force contract to develop three smallsats to demonstrate on-orbit services in geostationary orbit. The $44.5 million contract is for Tetra-5, a project intended to help the Space Force figure out how to take advantage of commercial technologies to inspect objects in space and service satellites in GEO. Orion Space will work with several subcontractors, including Hera Systems, Booz Allen Hamilton and Scout Space. The satellites will be delivered in about five years. (8/17)

Satellites are Tracking Rivers of Garbage Flowing Across the Oceans (Source: Universe Today)
There’s an ocean of human-made garbage floating through Earth’s seas. From plastic straws to beverage bottles and food wrappers, the ocean waters are this planet’s fastest-growing junkyard. Some of the plastic gets ground into little beads called microplastics, and ends up in the food chain, with humans at the top. For that reason, and many others, the European Space Agency is tracking ocean-bound plastics through the auspices of the MARLISAT project. It’s one of 25 efforts created to identify and trace marine litter as it moves through the world’s waterways. The ultimate goal is to help countries reduce ocean litter, particularly plastics.

The existence of plastics in the ocean isn’t some far-fetched scare story. It’s verifiable fact, based on data that shows what’s floating in our oceans. People who work or vacation at sea and who live along coastlines easily spot the most obvious trash collections. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is probably the best-known collection of trash, but there are others. In addition, satellites are tracking the stuff from space. (8/16)

NASA’s Big Gamble: Is New Rocket Too Costly to Launch Us Back to the Moon? (Source: Florida Today)
At a cost of up to $4.1 billion per launch, can NASA achieve its mission and afford to fly the Space Launch System rocket? SLS was at least partly born from an effort to keep America’s juggernaut aerospace companies working before companies like SpaceX had proven themselves. It comprises one giant fuel tank built by Boeing with four recycled Aerojet Rocketdyne space shuttle engines, sandwiched on either side by two Northrop Grumman solid rocket boosters. Total cost: $2.2 billion to produce.

Building SLS and efforts to modernize Apollo-era structures have skyrocketed the cost well beyond what was originally expected. The OIG, citing all potential costs of the entire Artemis program through 2025, estimates the total price tag at $93 billion, dwarfing the original estimate. The OIG warned in a November 2021 report that while “NASA has worked diligently to find production efficiencies and other cost-saving measures, the system will remain extremely costly” far into the future.

The report also included a recommendation to examine commercial market alternatives and “begin discussions of whether it makes financial and strategic sense to consider these options as part of the Agency’s overall plan to support its ambitious space exploration goals.” A portion of the cost is retrofitting and upkeeping the dated infrastructure at KSC, like the VAB or the Crawler Transporter. In January 2020 the cost of a new Mobile Launcher to support the bigger and heavier SLS came in at $693 million and more than three years late. A more robust version, the Mobile Launcher 2, for the more powerful exploration version SLS Block 1B, is already more than two years late and projected to exceed $1 billion, twice the original price outlined by the OIG in June 2022. (8/16)

American Airlines Agrees to Buy 20 Supersonic Planes From Boom (Source: CNBC)
American Airlines has agreed to purchase 20 supersonic Overture planes from Boom Supersonic, the companies announced Tuesday. The deal is the second firm order in the last two years for Boom, still years from building its first commercial airplane. United Airlines made a commitment last year to buy 15 Overture jets. (8/16)

'World's Fastest Passenger Plane' Can Cut Travel Time By Half Using 100% Sustainable Fuel (Source: International Business Times)
Boom Technology promises that its in-development Overture airliner will be able to fly up to 80 passengers between destinations with a cruising speed of Mach 1.7 (1,304 miles per hour). The Denver-based aerospace company described the aircraft as "the world's fastest airliner," but two of Overture's predecessors — the Aérospatiale/British Aircraft Corporation Concorde and the Tupolev Tu-144 — were able to achieve a cruising speed of Mach 2 (1,355 miles per hour) or above.

The company claimed that the Overture will cut travel time from New York City to London from seven hours to three hours and 30 minutes, and the 4,782-mile flight from Tokyo to Seattle would be halved from nine hours to four hours and 30 minutes. It will be able to achieve this and maintain a 4,888 range while using 100% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), according to Boom Technology, which has also pledged to go net zero carbon by 2025.

The Overture will use more engines to reduce the aircraft's overall noise, an issue both the Concorde and Tu-144 were often criticized for. "With no afterburners and buzz-free engines, Overture's takeoffs will blend in with existing long-haul fleets, resulting in a quieter experience for both passengers and airport communities," Boom Technology said. (8/15)

Redwire to Develop First Commercial Space Greenhouse to Improve Crop Science on Earth and Support Future Space Exploration Missions (Source: Redwire)
Jacksonville-based Redwire Corp. will be developing the only commercially owned and operated spaceflight-qualified plant growth platform capable of growing plants from seed to maturity in space. Redwire Greenhouse, scheduled to launch to space no earlier than spring 2023, will be the first-ever commercially owned greenhouse installed on the ISS. Commercial agricultural technology company Dewey Scientific is expected to be Redwire’s customer for the inaugural flight.

Redwire Greenhouse will deliver valuable insights for crop scientists on Earth and significantly expand humanity’s ability to grow full crops in space. During the inaugural flight, Dewey Scientific will grow industrial hemp in the Greenhouse for a gene expression study. The company collaborated with Redwire, contributing technical details about the 60-day experiment and describing its potential to demonstrate the capabilities of the facility, while advancing biomedical and biofuels research.

The Redwire Greenhouse will leverage already flight-qualified Redwire plant growth technology, including Passive Orbital Nutrient Delivery System (PONDS) devices developed in partnership with Tupperware Brands and currently operated by Redwire on the ISS. Larger, scalable versions of the Greenhouse can be flown for customers with varying crop-growing requirements or alternate plant support systems. Besides PONDS, Redwire has managed plant investigations in the NASA-owned Advanced Plant Habitat since 2018. The Redwire Greenhouse is being developed through an award from the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, manager of the ISS U.S. National Laboratory. (8/16)

How The New Hypersonic Weapons Tracking Constellation Will Work (Source: The Drive)
DoD is investing more than $1.3 billion in two prototype agreements to send 28 small satellites into low Earth orbit. Scheduled for launch in three years, the satellites are designed to provide the initial missile warning/missile tracking capabilities of the future National Defense Space Architecture, or NDSA. The NDSA consists of mulitple components, including two layers of space-based platforms, which the SDA describes as the Transport Layer and the Tracking Layer.

The Transport Layer — which is basically a communication layer/constellation — will provide "assured, resilient, low-latency military data and connectivity worldwide to the full range of warfighter platforms." It is planned as a constellation varying in size from 300 to more than 500 satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) ranging from 750 kilometers to 1,200 kilometers in altitude. With a full constellation, 95% of the locations on the Earth will have at least two satellites in view at any given time while 99% of the locations on the Earth will have at least one satellite in view.

The Tracking Layer will provide global indications, warning, tracking, and targeting of advanced missile threats, including hypersonic missile systems. This capability encompasses space-based sensing, as well as algorithms, novel processing schemes, data fusion across sensors and orbital regimes, and tactical data products able to be delivered to the appropriate user. (7/19)

U.S. Signs Framework Agreement with New Zealand to Boost Space Sector (Source: SpaceWatch Global)
The United States and the New Zealand governments signed a Framework Agreement to provide new opportunities for the New Zealand space sector and closer collaborations with NASA, said Economic and Regional Development Minister, Stuart Nash. (8/16)

SmallSat Alliance Steps Up Push for a Military Comms ‘Outernet’ (Source: Space News)
A legislative proposal in the 2023 defense spending bill calling on DoD to leverage commercial space networks marks a victory of sorts for the SmallSat Alliance. As its name indicates, the alliance is an industry group that advocates for greater use of small satellites, particularly by the U.S. government. Its focus over the past few years has been on the idea of a “hybrid space architecture” — or the integration of commercial smallsat and large satellite constellations with government and defense communications systems.

The group first floated the concept at the 2019 Small Satellite Conference in Logan, Utah. Three years later, the notion of hybrid space systems is gaining traction across U.S. defense, intelligence and civil space agencies, said Steve Nixon, president of the SmallSat Alliance. (8/16)

Three UCF Students Selected for 2022 Astronaut Scholarship Awards (Source: UCF)
The Astronaut Scholarship is a highly competitive honor and three UCF students have been awarded this year — raising the university’s student awards from the organization to 54 since 1989. The three recipients are Angela Shar, Sanjeev Gurshaney, and Catherine Millwater.

Each year, over 60 students across the country are awarded up to $15,000 each through the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation (ASF). ASF awarded its first seven scholarships, which were sponsored by the founding Mercury 7 astronauts, in 1986. Students must be nominated by a faculty member at their institution and must demonstrate considerable dedication to their field of study. In addition to the monetary award, scholars receive a paid trip to ASF’s Innovators Weekend as well as the chance to connect with Astronaut Scholar alumni, the Foundation, and the astronauts themselves. (8/16)

Colorado Congressman Seeks Responsive Space Architecture (Source: Space News)
Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-CO, the ranking member of the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee, writes the US must not be deterred in its effort to gain responsive launch capabilities. Lamborn adds that a lack of clear requirements and consolidation in launch decision-making are key hurdles. "I am determined to overcome the problems inhibiting our ability to create a responsive space architecture," he writes. "Creating responsive space necessitates integrating existing commercial and defense systems while consolidating authorities the Space Force needs to take ownership of the development and design of space defense."  (8/15)