August 22, 2022

Sierra Space and Blue Origin Successfully Complete Orbital Reef System Definition Review (Source: Sierra Space)
The Orbital Reef team, led by partners Sierra Space and Blue Origin, has successfully completed its System Definition Review (SDR) with NASA. The SDR is an important program milestone to establish the functional baseline for Orbital Reef, a commercially developed, owned and operated space station to be built in low-Earth orbit (LEO). It demonstrates to NASA that the space station design is feasible and achievable while validating that the Orbital Reef system is on-track to proceed into the design phase.

The Orbital Reef team, including Amazon Supply Chain, Amazon Web Services, Arizona State University, Boeing, Genesis Engineering Solutions and Redwire Space, is maturing the design of its space station in partnership with NASA under the agency’s Commercial Low-Earth Orbit Development (CLDP) program. NASA awarded the agreement in December 2021 to shift NASA’s research and exploration activities in LEO to commercial space stations and help stimulate a growing space economy. (8/22)

Track NASA's Artemis I Mission in Real Time (Source: Space Daily)
Join NASA's Orion spacecraft on its first mission around the Moon using the Artemis Real-time Orbit Website (AROW) to track the spacecraft's flight as it happens. During Artemis I, Orion will travel to 40,000 miles beyond the Moon in the first integrated flight test with the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. Using AROW, almost anyone with internet access can pinpoint where Orion is and track its distance from the Earth, distance from the Moon, mission duration, and more. AROW will be available beginning Aug. 28 on NASA's website and on the @NASA_Orion Twitter account. (8/22)

China's Long March Rockets Set Record for Consecutive Successful Launches (Source: Xinhua)
A Long March-2D rocket sent a satellite group into space on Saturday morning, marking 103 consecutive successful launches by the Chinese carrier rocket series. The previous record for consecutive Long March rocket launches was 102, set from 1996 to 2011. Since May 5, 2020, the Chinese carrier rocket series has achieved 103 consecutive victories in just 27 months, transporting more than 200 spacecraft into orbit, including space station modules, a lunar probe, a Mars probe and manned spaceships. China is developing next-generation manned launch vehicles and heavy-lift rockets, which will take on future crewed missions to the moon and further expeditions to Mars, Jupiter and asteroids. (8/20)

NASA's InSight Mission is Dying. Next Could Come the ‘Mars Life Explorer’ (Source: Planetary Society)
Could life be hiding in ice under the surface of Mars? NASA’s InSight mission is winding down, but a much more ambitious life-hunting lander bound for the red planet is already taking shape. It’s the Mars Life Explorer, also known as MLE. This exciting new concept got a boost in April 2022 when it was prioritized by the U.S. National Academies Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey.

Regarded by NASA as a "to-do" direct from the planetary science community, the report recommended that MLE should be the next medium-class mission in NASA’s Mars Exploration Program (MEP). MLE is slated to cost $1.1 billion and could go to the red planet as early as 2033. It could help answer whether Mars’ mid-latitudes have or recently had life in its near-surface ice by drilling deep into it. (8/18)

India Keen on Space Cooperation with Latin American and Caribbean Nations (Source: Financial Express)
In an effort to deepen space cooperation with countries across the globe, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has MOUs and mutual cooperation agreements with 61 countries so far and it is increasing. ISRO is keen to establish ground stations in the South American region for downloading remote sensing data for their utilisation and also for the use of India.

In an exclusive interaction with Financial Express Online, Somanath S, Secretary DOS / Chairman ISRO, said, “Connecting with countries of Latin America and Caribbean region is of importance to ISRO, considering the increased interest in space activities there, especially the formation of Latin American and Caribbean Space Agency (ALCE).” (8/20)

Air Force Picks Five Companies to Support Air and Space Intelligence Center (Source: Space News)
The Air Force has awarded $4.8 billion in contracts to five companies to support the National Air and Space Intelligence Center. Altamira Technologies, Epsilon Systems Solutions, Modern Technology Solutions, Radiance Technologies and Xandar won the contracts, called National Air and Space Intelligence Center Scientific and Technical Intelligence Capability Support Services or NOVASTAR, to support the center over 10 years. The center is the Department of Defense’s primary source for intelligence on threats that affect air and space operations. (8/22)

Space Force Coordinates with Other Branches in War Game (Source: Space News)
A Space Force wargame is intended to show how space systems can support combat operations. The "Space Flag" exercise this month involved more than 130 members of the Space Force, Air Force, Army and Marine Corps. In the exercise, a “blue cell” of Space Force guardians had to provide satellite-based services like GPS navigation and communications for a simulated joint-service military operation, while a "red cell" sought to disrupt those services with counterspace tactics. A key part of the exercise, those involved said, was to demonstrate how Space Force systems integrate with the other armed services during an actual operation. (8/22)

Vector Space Biosciences Offers Tools Countering Stressors During Spaceflight (Source: Space Daily)
To establish a lunar base or go to Mars, understanding how to protect and repair the human body during spaceflight is imperative. Countermeasures against diseases associated to stressors during spaceflight, such as microgravity and radiation, need to be developed quickly.

Vector Space Biosciences has developed a platform of computational solutions designed to accelerate the development of countermeasures like these including new applications connected to drug repurposing, therapeutic target identification, molecular design and nutrigenomic cocktail development which translate to marketable therapeutic applications including precision medicine for all humankind. (8/19)

Orion Space Solutions Team Selected to Lead US Space Force Tetra-5 Mission (Source: Space Daily)
US Space Force (USSF) has awarded Orion Space Solutions a contract to develop three spacecraft in support of USSF's mission to advance and launch new technologies in space. Working with partners Hera Systems, Inc. Booz Allen Hamilton, and SCOUT Space, Orion Space Solutions (OSS) brings together a diversified, highly capable team to build and deploy new satellites to geostationary orbit (GEO). Satellites in GEO orbits fly at a height where the satellite's orbital period equals the Earth's rotational speed. This allows a satellite to "sit" in space, viewing a single location on the Earth over time. (8/19)

Thailand's First Comsat by Mu Space Corp Passes GISTDA Tests (Source: Space Daily)
mu Space and Advance Technology Company Limited is an aerospace manufacturer in Southeast Asia that also produces aerospace components and provides satellite communication services. The company develops satellites for communication purposes and is almost entirely made by professional in-house engineers.

From the 9th-11th of March 2022, mu Space tested their satellite parts with Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA), which is currently open for testing materials that are prepared to be delivered. With international standard certification, this is a certified test of the first communication satellite components developed and manufactured by mu Space Corp, additionally also the first to be tested by a Thai Space Agency and Space Research organization. (8/18)