August 25, 2022

Report Urges National Strategy for Space (Source: Space News)
The U.S. government should develop a "national strategy for space" that makes greater use of commercial capabilities, according to a new report. The State of the Space Industrial Base report, released Wednesday, echoes themes of previous versions of the annual report, arguing that the United States should lay out a strategy to remain a space superpower that embraces the private sector as a key partner to the government. Without such a strategy, it warns, China could surpass the United States in space. The report was written by military and civilian officials from the U.S. Space Force, the Defense Innovation Unit, the Department of the Air Force and the Air Force Research Laboratory. (8/25)

China Could Overtake US in Space Without ‘Urgent Action,’ Warns New Pentagon Report (Source: Defense One)
The United States could be eclipsed by China in orbit unless it unites around a common goal for space, as it did during the race to the Moon a half-century ago, according to a report released Wednesday. China is working to become the world’s dominant space power “economically, diplomatically, and militarily” by 2045, according to the State of the Space Industrial Base report for 2022, which was written by officials from the Space Force, Defense Innovation Unit, Air Force, and Air Force Research Laboratory.

They argue that the United States must quickly act to maintain its advantage over Beijing, including using more commercial technology and setting long-term, bipartisan policy goals.

“While the United States space industrial base remains on an upward trajectory, participants expressed concerns that the upward trajectory of the People's Republic of China…is even steeper, with a significant rate of overtake, requiring urgent action,” the report says. “The U.S. lacks a clear and cohesive long term vision, a grand strategy for space that sustains economic, technological, environmental, social and military (defense) leadership for the next half century and beyond.” (8/24)

Government Effort to Tap Private Weather Data Moves Along Slowly (Source: Wall Street Journal)
The U.S. government’s six-year-old effort to improve its weather forecasting ability by purchasing data from private-sector satellite companies has started to show results, although the process is moving more slowly than anticipated. After a period of testing, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a scientific, service and regulatory arm of the Commerce Department, began purchasing data from two satellite companies, Spire Global Inc. of Vienna, Va., and GeoOptics Inc. of Pasadena, Calif.

The weather data from these two companies fills gaps in coverage left by NOAA’s own satellites, the agency said. NOAA also began testing data from a third company this year. Beyond these companies, new entrants to the field offering weather data based on a broader range of technologies have been slow to emerge, the agency said. “We’re getting a subset of what we hoped,” said Dan St. Jean, deputy director of the Office of System Architecture and Advanced Planning at NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service.

NOAA’s weather forecasts help the government formulate hurricane evacuation plans and make other important decisions. The agency began seeking out private sources of satellite weather data in 2016. The idea was to find a more cost-effective alternative to funding NOAA’s own satellite constellations, the agency said. It also hoped to seed competition and innovation in the private satellite sector. (8/24)

E-Space Hires New Executives, Prepares for Production (Source: Space News)
Megaconstellation startup E-Space has hired new executives as it plans to move into serial production of its satellites. The company announced Wednesday that Gunjan Murarka, chief financial officer of small satellite maker LeoStella, has taken the same role at E-Space, while Dalibor Djuran, a former director of satellite manufacturing at Planet, joined E-Space as chief satellite systems engineer. The constellation startup has spectrum filings backed by Rwanda for 300,000 satellites, and launched three prototype satellites on an Electron in May. E-Space plans to deploy an unspecified number of pre-production satellites on an undisclosed rocket for its next mission in the first half of 2023. (8/25)

ESA's $2.1 Billion Effort to Provide Orion Service Modules Could Lead to European Moonwalkers (Source: Space News)
ESA officials are as excited as their NASA counterparts about the upcoming Artemis 1 launch. The main ESA contribution to the mission is the European-built Orion service module, a role that ESA leaders said this week demonstrates its partnership with NASA has moved to a "new level." ESA is spending $2.1 billion to provide service modules for six Orion missions and, in exchange, will get seats on three Artemis flights. Two of those seats will likely be on missions that deliver European components for the lunar Gateway, but ESA hopes the third will allow a European astronaut to walk on the moon. (8/25)

Terran Orbital Integrates LunIR Into NASA SLS Rocket (Source: Parabolic Arc)
Terran Orbital has integrated the Lunar Infrared imaging spacecraft, also known as LunIR, into NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS). LunIR will fly by the Moon and collect surface thermography as a secondary payload on Artemis 1 – a test mission for SLS. After the flyby, the 6U satellite will conduct technology demonstrations related to deep-space operations for future Mars missions. (8/24)

Cubesat Aboard Artemis 1 Mission to Test New Thruster Tech (Source: Space News)
A cubesat hitching a ride on Artemis 1 will test a new thruster technology. The Team Miles cubesat includes water-fueled plasma thrusters developed by the team's founder, Wesley Faler. The cubesat will also test deep space communications technologies as part of NASA's CubeQuest Challenge competition. Miles Space, the company founded to commercialize that technology, has lined up other in-space demonstrations of its technology, Faler said. (8/25)

Europe to Support Artemis CubeSats in Return to Moon (Source: ESA)
Joining NASA’s Orion spacecraft on the powerful Space Launch System rocket are ten CubeSats that will help prepare for the return of astronauts to our lunar companion. ESA’s deep space antennas, along with the Goonhilly Earth Station in the UK, will be tracking six of the small satellites, ensuring they arrive where they need to be, and their data gets back home. (8/24)

Astronaut/Cosmonaut Training Going Well for Next ISS Mission, Despite Ukraine Tension (Source: Space News)
A NASA astronaut flying to the International Space Station on a Soyuz next month says his training hasn't been affected by geopolitics. In a call with reporters this week, Frank Rubio said he is working well with the two Russian cosmonauts who will be his crewmates on the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft, and that a "good and strong relationship" continued between NASA and Roscosmos despite the other effects of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on relations with the West. He added he was not nervous about the delays in the seat barter agreement that allowed him to fly on the Soyuz, finalized last month, because he was confident there would be other opportunities to fly even if the Soyuz mission fell through. (8/25)

Should India be Working on Small Satellite Launchers? (Source: Frontier India)
Putting two satellites into the wrong orbit, resulting in their total loss, the Indian Space Research Organization’s ( ISRO ) new Small Satellite Launch Vehicle ( SSLV ) rocket launch raised several questions, and one among them is if the organization needs to be really dealing in smaller satellite launchers. The SSLV rocket, costing about Rs 56 crore and capable of carrying satellites weighing 500 kg or less, is intended for the country’s commercial and strategic needs. The inability of the logic to recognize sensor failure and take rescue action, according to Isro, produced a divergence. The committee will investigate and make recommendations. ISRO will return with SSLV-D2 soon after adopting the advice.

Somanath said that an expert panel would look into the failure and determine why it entered an unacceptable orbit. After making minor fixes and re-checking the fixes, Isro will soon start the next run of SSLV. India has authorized two Indian commercial enterprises, ushering in the country’s private space sector launches. One Indian private sector company Skyroot is developing a launcher to do the same job which SSLV is doing, although it is still in development. ISRO could give its technology to the highest Indian private sector bidder and get on with its focus on projects like developing heavier launch vehicles and interplanetary missions. NASA is already doing this, and ISRO should also follow. (8/24)

Webb Detects Carbon Dioxide In Exoplanet WASP-39 b’s Atmosphere (Source: SpaceRef)
James Webb Space Telescope has found definitive evidence for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a gas giant planet orbiting a Sun-like star 700 light-years away. The result provides important insights into the composition and formation of the planet, and is indicative of Webb’s ability to also detect and measure carbon dioxide in the thinner atmospheres of smaller rocky planets. WASP-39 b is a hot gas giant with a mass roughly one quarter that of Jupiter. (8/25)

Scout Space and Florida Tech Win Space Force STTR Contracts for On-Orbit Servicing (Source: Space News)
In-space services startup Scout Space has won two Space Force contracts. The contracts, each worth $250,000, are part of the Orbital Prime debris cleanup program by the service's technology development arm, SpaceWERX. The awards, known as Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) contracts, require small businesses to team with academic or nonprofit institutions. Scout Space is working with Stanford University's Space Rendezvous Laboratory (SLAB) and the Florida Institute of Technology's Orion Lab. (8/25)

Next Blue Origin New Shepard Launch Planned on August 31 at Texas Site (Source: Blue Origin)
Blue Origin will conduct a payload-only flight of its New Shepard suborbital vehicle next week. The NS-23 mission, scheduled to launch Aug. 31 from West Texas, will fly 36 research payloads from companies and institutions, half of which are supported by NASA. The payloads also include tens of thousands of postcards from people through Club for the Future, a nonprofit affiliated with Blue Origin. The launch will be the fourth New Shepard flight of the year and the first in a year to carry payloads and not people. (8/24)

Todd Lindner Resigns as CEO of Mojave Air and Space Port (Source: Parabolic Arc)
The head of Mojave Air and Space Port has resigned. Todd Lindner stepped down as CEO of the California airport and spaceport earlier this month for "family reasons," a spokesperson said. He was named head of the spaceport, whose tenants include Stratolaunch, Virgin Galactic and Virgin Orbit, last April after serving as director of Cecil Spaceport in Florida. Tim Reid, director of operations, is serving as acting CEO of Mojave Air and Space Port while the spaceport's board conducts a search for a permanent successor. (8/24)

Futuristic Space-Themed "Villages" Planned (Source: Space Daily)
Space Hero, Lava and One Digital Entertainment has announced plans for the creation of Space Village, a series of 10 iconic futuristic space-inspired landmarks in different locations around the world. Space Village is designed by Alexander Rieck from German architectural firm LAVA. Each Space Village will feature a large space center and a glimpse of forward-looking technology that will stimulate the visitor's imagination.

A media studio to produce Space Hero, the global competition series, and an iconic hotel, where fans of the series can watch events unfold in real-time, will add to the first-of-its kind features that Space Village will offer. As part of the Space Hero series, 24 Space Hero finalists complete numerous challenges in a setting that resembles the various conditions in space to prepare for an extraordinary mission, including thriving underwater in a buoyancy tank. The challenges will resemble the endurance tests astronauts must complete when training for a mission.

Inside Space Village, the finalists' living quarters will model spacecraft conditions and finalists will be challenged to create their own energy and grow food. A jury, which will include a group of experienced astronauts, scientists, and professional athletes, will observe the finalists' behavior and character. Global audiences will be able to vote for their favorite finalist during weekly episodes. (8/18)

China’s Official View of NASA’s Artemis Program Appears to be Dismissive (Souce: Ars Technica)
NASA's imminent launch of the Artemis I mission to the Moon—the US space agency's first in a series of missions to return humans to deep space—will garner widespread attention in the United States and abroad. Two countries that will not be a part of the Artemis program are Russia and China. NASA officials reached out to Russia a few years ago about joining the return to the Moon, and while some managers in the Roscosmos corporation were receptive, participation was rebuffed by senior Russian leaders.

With regard to China, NASA is barred by the US Congress from cooperating with Chinese space activities. Moreover, China had already decided years ago to go a separate way on spaceflight. It is working on its own closely held lunar plans. Like the United States sought to do in the 1960s with Apollo, China views its increasingly robust space program as a means to increase its prestige on the world stage and advance geopolitical interests. China and Russia also recently signed an agreement to cooperate on lunar efforts.

According to an article in China's Global Times: "Drawing a comparison between the lunar manned landing plans of China and the US, Chinese space experts pointed out that the US' practice of setting specific year deadlines is very rare in the industry, given the complex nature of deep space exploration, while China focuses more on technology readiness in a rather broad time frame, going forward steadily and surely." (8/23)

Astrobotic Plans Rover That Can Survive Lunar Night (Source: Space News)
Astrobotic will develop a small rover to survive the lunar night. The lunar technology company won NASA Small Business Innovation Research funding to develop and test the ability of its CubeRover to survive the two-week lunar night. CubeRover also is designed to communicate directly with lunar relay satellites rather than sending data through a nearby lander. (8/24)

Guardian Explains How Space Force Contributes to Our Every Day Lives (Source:KSAT)
Our military is known to take on battles by land, sea and air, but there’s a force of men and women who have been called to protect a frontier that exists far beyond Earth. The Space Force Guardians’ mission is in space, but what they do up there is paramount to our lives on Earth. The Space Force is organized under the department of the United States Air Force, and though they are in a joint training environment, Guardians have a clearer and more direct course of action. Click here. (8/23)

Starlink Lowers Monthly Internet Prices by 50 Percent for Some (Source: The Verge)
Starlink is notifying customers with some good news: their monthly subscriptions have been reduced in response to “local market conditions.” I received one of these notifications for my Starlink RV service that normally costs me €124 each month in the Netherlands. It says, “Effective 8/24/2022, Starlink is reducing your monthly service fee to €105.” Well, ok. “The price reduction factors in your local market conditions and is meant to reflect parity in purchasing power across our customers,” reads the announcement.

Others are reporting similar discounts in locations around the world. For example, on Reddit a person in the UK reports a reduction in their monthly fee to £75 (down from £89), Mexico to $1,100 MXN (down from $2,299 MXN), and Germany €80 (down from €100). Users in Chile and Brazil are reporting price cuts of around 50 percent. A spot check on Starlink’s respective service pages in each country supports the above claims. The situation in the US, where the dollar has been surging against foreign currencies, is less clear. A person in Nevada reports getting a reduction to $85 (was $110) but Starlink’s own pages still show a monthly subscription price of $110 after a one-time $599 purchase of the hardware kit. (8/25)

NASA Really Wants to Probe Uranus and Could Start Planning Next Year (Source: Space.com)
There's no doubt that we've learned a lot about our solar system over the past six and a half decades of spaceflight, but there are still mysteries lurking around every corner. One of the biggest ones is the planet Uranus. Other than a brief flyby by NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1986, we haven't visited the planet at all. But that's soon going to change. According to this year's decadal survey by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, a flagship orbiter and probe mission to Uranus should be NASA's main planetary science project of the next decade. (A decadal survey is report that polls the scientific community on top research priorities — it's prepared every 10 years.) (8/24)

JWST Could Be Beat By Artemis-Enabled Lunar Telescope (Source: Space.com)
A new radio telescope on the far side of the moon could capitalize on NASA's new Artemis era of lunar exploration, say scientists who hope to one day use such a telescope to potentially probe deeper into the universe than even the newly-operational James Webb Space Telescope can. "The argument for putting a radio telescope on the far side of the moon is to look at lower radio frequencies that are otherwise heavily polluted by human radio transmissions on Earth," Steven Kahn, a physicist at Stanford University in California, told Space.com. (8/24)

Mars Is ‘Irrelevant to Us’ If Earth Is Doomed, Author of Legendary Mars Trilogy Says (Source: Vice)
In the 1990s, science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson wrote the Mars trilogy—a chronicle of humanity's attempts to turn Mars into a colony, and then a terraformed world, and eventually the beating heart of system-wide utopia. Humanity first walks on Mars in 2020, sets sails for the red planet in 2026 with a crew of one hundred, and over the course of the next two centuries witnesses waves of industrialization, sabotage, and revolution as Mars becomes its own society and struggles over what to do with its independence.

It may come as a surprise to some, then, that Robinson recently seemed to rebuke all this and declare Mars irrelevant in the year 2022. “Mars is irrelevant to us now. We should of course concentrate on maintaining the habitability of the Earth. My Mars trilogy is a good novel but not a plan for this moment. If we were to create a sustainable civilization here on Earth, with all Earth’s creatures prospering, then and only then would Mars become even the slightest bit interesting to us,” Robinson says. (8/12)

ULA to Launch Cremated Remains of Nichols, Other Star Trek Icons, on Vulcan Rocket (Sources: Celestis, ULA)
Nichelle Nichols has inspired us all. Her portrayal of Nyota Uhura in Star Trek was groundbreaking and even inspired Martin Luther King Jr.’s family! The late Nichelle Nichols will be joining the "crew" aboard the Celestis Enterprise Flight, headed to deep space alongside fellow StarTrek icons. Nichelle, the Roddenberrys, and James “Scotty” Doohan have chosen Celestis to launch a symbolic portion of their cremated remains aboard the upcoming Enterprise Flight. ULA will launch their remains on an upcoming Vulcan dep space mission. (8/25)