August 26, 2022

Having It All Come Together, But Not In House: Phantom Space’s Approach to Launch (Source: Parabolic Arc)
As companies like Astra Space and Virgin Orbit seek a steady stream of orbital payload customers that will bring in profits, there is another company that plans to launch its Daytona rocket for the first time in 2023. Phantom Space, run by CEO Jim Cantrell, already has customers lined up for future orbital launches like its peers. Daytona will be 18.7 meters in height with a diameter of 1.25 meters. The booster is designed to launch 450 kg into low Earth orbit, 160 kg to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO), or 50 kg to the moon. A dedicated launch will cost $4 million.

Cantrell founded the company in 2019 with Mike D’Angelo 2019. The creation of the new company came after Cantrell’s previous venture, Vector Space, went bankrupt. Phantom Space has raised $26 million, but Cantrell said he chooses not to give too much publicity for these capital raising announcements. Phantom Space is sourcing Daytona’s rocket engines from Ursa Major. Ursa Major will also supply engines for Phantom Space’s larger two-stage booster, Laguna. Three Ripley engines will power the first stage with a vacuum-optimized Hadley engine in the second. (8/25)

Rocket Lab Releases ESG Impact Report (Source: Business Wire)
Rocket Lab USA released its Impact report, highlighting Rocket Lab’s commitment to make it faster, easier, and more affordable to access space, and the company’s efforts and successes in its environmental, social, and governance (ESG) priorities. Rocket Lab founder and CEO, Peter Beck, says: “Through our Impact report we detail the successes we’ve had in our ESG initiatives and programs, the progress we’ve made, and the shape of our ambition in those areas for the future. I am proud of the way our incredible team and customers have used access to space to improve life on Earth, and our efforts in sustainability, community and education outreach, and corporate responsibility which serve that same mission.” Click here. (8/24)

Satellites Show the Alarming Extent of Russian Detention Camps (Source: WIRED)
A day after the six-month anniversary of the start of the war in Ukraine, a new report reveals never before seen information about Russia’s filtration camp system in eastern Ukraine, in which civilians and prisoners of war are detained, interrogated, and, at times, forcibly deported to Russia. The researchers have also identified what they believe are graves near camps where prisoners of war (POWs) were being held. (8/25)

Some Artemis Cubesats Lack Battery Recharge Before Launch (Source: Space News)
Ten cubesats will be flying on the Artemis 1 mission amid concerns about the health of some of those spacecraft. The 10 cubesats will be deployed after Orion separates from the upper stage. The cubesats will conduct various missions ranging from lunar science to a flyby of an asteroid. The cubesats were integrated on the rocket a year ago, and five of them have been unable to recharge their batteries since then, raising concerns they will be depleted by the time they launch. The developers of those cubesats remain hopeful that, even if the batteries are depleted, the cubesats' solar panels will allow them to recharge. Still, NASA acknowledges that some of the cubesats are likely to fail "just due to the nature of the cubesats themselves." (8/26)

VP Harris Expected at Artemis Launch (Source: Space.com)
Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to attend Monday's scheduled Artemis 1 launch. Harris, who chairs the National Space Council, will also give a speech at the Kennedy Space Center about "leadership in space exploration," according to a White House official. It's unclear if she would return to KSC if the launch is delayed by weather or technical problems to Sept. 2 or 5. (8/26)

HawkEye 360 Signs Two-Year Agreement with Army (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Army has signed an agreement to evaluate the use of data from HawkEye 360's radio-frequency monitoring satellites. The company announced Thursday it signed a two-year cooperative research and development agreement, known as a CRADA, with the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command. Under the agreement, the company will demonstrate applications of RF data and analytics for surveillance operations to support troops in the field, such as detecting GPS jamming or locating enemy weapons. If the demonstration is successful, the Army could later decide to buy RF data and analytics services directly from HawkEye 360 or from intelligence community agencies that already use the data. (8/26)

Cost Overruns Threaten Lockheed Martin's Lunar Oribiter Project for NASA (Source: Space News)
NASA's Lunar Trailblazer is facing a review after suffering cost overruns. NASA officials said this week that the smallsat lunar orbiter will undergo a continuation/termination review this fall after Lockheed Martin, the spacecraft contractor, reported cost overruns on the mission scheduled to launch next year. Both the company and the Lunar Trailblazer team say they are working on ways to reduce costs on the mission, which has a $55 million cost cap. (8/26)

Turion Gets Regulatory Approval for Situational Awareness Sat (Source: Space News)
Turion Space says it's won regulatory approval to provide space situational awareness data using satellites. The startup said it received approval from an unspecified agency to sell SSA data from its Droid.001 smallsat, scheduled to launch next May. The satellite is the first in a series that will collect SSA data and, later, attempt satellite servicing and debris removal. (8/26)

SpaceX and T-Mobile Collaborate on Direct Phone Connectivity to Mobile Phones (Source: Space News)
SpaceX and T-Mobile announced Thursday they will work together to provide satellite connectivity directly to mobile phones. SpaceX's second-generation Starlink satellites will include a separate antenna system operating on frequencies assigned to T-Mobile's terrestrial service. That will allow the satellites to communicate directly with mobile phones, providing services initially limited to messaging but which could later expand to voice. The system would provide service in "dead zones" in remote areas without terrestrial coverage. The Starlink/T-Mobile offering would compete with satellite systems being developed by AST SpaceMobile and Lynk that also plan to offer direct-to-handset services, as well as potentially with Apple, which has long been rumored to be pursuing satellite connectivity for iPhones, possibly working with Globalstar. (8/26)

Tesla Cars Will Connect to Starlink’s New Cellular-Broadcasting Satellites (Source: The Verge)
Musk didn’t go into detail about how it will all work or how much data owners could expect to access from the connections when they’re somewhere out of reach by terrestrial cellphone towers. Musk said during the event that the satellite-to-cellular coverage from Starlink will be capable of providing a 2–4Mbps link, which is shared by everyone in the satellite’s coverage area. That likely won’t be enough for some Premium Connectivity features, like livestreaming video from your car’s cameras. Still, a connection that works at all, “anywhere you have a view of the sky,” is better than no connection, potentially.

Over the years, Tesla has scaled back the connectivity packages that come standard with its electric vehicles. As explained here, cars purchased before the end of June 2018 include Premium Connectivity at no extra charge, while cars purchased before July 20th, 2022, all include at least the Standard Connectivity package with in-car maps and navigation. (8/25)

NRO Readies Decision on Hybrid Architecture Providers (Source: Space News)
The NRO expects to select next month multiple providers of radio-frequency data collected by commercial satellites as part of efforts to develop a "hybrid" architecture. Pete Muend, director of the NRO's Commercial Systems Program Office, said Thursday his agency received several proposals in response to a solicitation in July. The plan is to sign agreements that give the NRO access to data collected by those companies' satellites so government analysts can better understand the quality of the data. The NRO is trying to build a hybrid, or mixed, architecture of government and commercial remote sensing satellites, with contracts in place with three companies for electro-optical imagery. It is also evaluating commercial radar imagery through contracts announced earlier this year. (8/26)

China Tests Suborbital Spaceplane (Source: Space News)
China has performed its first repeated use of a suborbital spaceplane as part of efforts to develop a fully reusable space transportation system. The suborbital vehicle launched vertically from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert Thursday, landing at Alxa Right Banner airport in Inner Mongolia. The announcement by CASC, China's main space contractor, did not disclose technical details about the flight, including the duration or apogee of the suborbital flight. The vehicle made its first flight in July 2021. An orbital spaceplane launched earlier this month remains in space, although it could land as soon as Saturday based on the parameters of its orbit. (8/26)

Redwire’s Critical Imaging and Navigation Technology Launching on Artemis I (Source: Business Wire)
Jacksonville-based Redwire Corp. announced that its critical sun sensor components and advanced optical imaging technologies will be launching on NASA’s Orion spacecraft, as a part of NASA’s Artemis I mission. Redwire is providing an array of internal and external inspection and navigation cameras comprising the Orion Camera System, under a contract with Lockheed Martin.

The 11 internal and in-vacuum cameras that make up the Orion Camera System will allow in-flight inspection of the entire spacecraft from the docking hatch to the main engine, provide data to the Camera Controller for machine vision processing to determine Orion’s position and velocity relative to Earth and record and stream high-quality video of key mission events such as separation, jettison, deployment and release events. In addition to the Orion Camera System, Redwire is also providing a mission-unique kit that includes a virtual reality camera and forward-facing console camera that will be flying on the Artemis I mission. (8/25)

UK Spaceport in Shetland Aims to be Included as Part of 'Green Freeport' Bid (Source: The National)
SaxaVord Spaceport in Unst is in talks to become a subzone of the North East Scotland Green Freeport (NESGF) should its bid for freeport status become successful. Two freeports, which will enjoy special tax incentives and lower tariffs, will be created north of the Border in a scheme agreed by the Scottish and UK Governments. A bidding process is currently under way, with five sites in the running around Scotland. (8/25)

NASA's Satellite Data Helps Nebraska Farmers Adjust Growing Practices (Source: Daily Nonpareil)
NASA has about 25 satellite missions capturing and relaying data about Earth’s climate. And that satellite data is showing an increasing imbalance between energy coming into Earth’s system and the energy leaving it, Karen St. Germain, director of NASA’s Earth Science Division, said in a talk at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Two Nebraskans involved in the agriculture industry say the data captured by NASA and other organizations has given farmers more tools to adjust their growing practices in light of changing weather and seasonal patterns. (8/26)

Lunar Mining and Moon Land Claims Fall Into a Gray Area of International Law (Source: Space Daily)
At least six countries and a flurry of private companies have publicly announced more than 250 missions to the Moon to occur within the next decade. Many of these missions include plans for permanent lunar bases and are motivated in large part by ambitions to assess and begin utilizing the Moon's natural resources. In the short term, resources would be used to support lunar missions, but in the long term, the Moon and its resources will be a critical gateway for missions to the broader riches of the solar system.

But these lofty ambitions collide with a looming legal question. On Earth, possession and ownership of natural resources are based on territorial sovereignty. Conversely, Article II of the Outer Space Treaty - the 60-year-old agreement that guides human activity in space - forbids nations from claiming territory in space. This limitation includes the Moon, planets and asteroids. So how will space resources be managed?

I am a lawyer who focuses on the peaceful and sustainable use of space to benefit all humanity. I believe the 2020s will be recognized as the decade humans transitioned into a truly space-faring species that utilizes space resources to survive and thrive both in space and on Earth. To support this future, the international community is working through several channels to develop a framework for space resource management, starting with Earth's closest neighbor, the Moon. Click here. (8/26)

Strategic Reserves in Space (Source: Planetocracy)
In 2009, during the Constellation Program, ULA proposed an alternative Earth Orbit Rendezvous (EOR) method using an advanced version of their Centaur upper stage, named ACES. Current upper stages have consumables besides their propellant - helium to pressurize the tanks, hypergolic propellants for attitude control, batteries etc. - but ACES would use its hydrogen/oxygen propellant for all these functions, and thus if it were resupplied with just these elements, could continue performing missions.

ULA later publicized a vision called CisLunar-1000 - i.e. 1000 people living and working in space - which would exploit ACES and lunar propellant production to power a $2.7 trillion per year space economy. It would exploit ACES and a number of variants of it - one a lunar lander, another a storage depot - to create a stream of propellant from the lunar surface to wherever it is needed in cislunar space. This concept has been somewhat put on the back burner for now - likely because ULA’s parent company Boeing saw them as a competitor to the Space Launch System as a way of returning humans to the Moon.

The idea of in space refueling has now returned to relevance in policy making circles though. In 2020, the National Space Council User Advisory Group (UAG) produced a white paper to assess the utility of a strategic propellant reserve in space, to stimulate commercial space activity and to stabilize a future space commodities market. The Alliance for Space Development (ASD) has now developed produced a proposal for how this might work. Their program seeks to bootstrap the space resources market and solve the “chicken and egg” problem of operation beyond Earth orbit. Click here. (8/24)

Survival of the Fittest: Saturation in the Space Launch Industry (Source: SpaceWorks)
Compared to 2012, heavy-lift vehicles have gradually taken over a larger fraction of payload delivered to LEO that can be addressed by U.S.-based launchers, and we expect them to maintain that dominant share of payload delivery for the rest of this decade (see Figure 3.3). Considering these market share projections, we used a 20-40% Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) for payload to LEO and produced a number for the maximum feasible vehicles per launch class, based on the economic viability of business operations and an equal market share within each class.

This growth rate accounts for the existence of government contracts that are provided to private U.S. based launch providers at a growing rate. A sensitivity analysis was conducted and shown in the Appendix to account for a space launch market with limited government involvement. Within each class, a weighted average mass calculation was used to determine payload to LEO. For heavy launchers, considering vehicles such as SpaceX’s Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and Starship as well as Blue Origin’s New Glenn and ULA’s Vulcan Centaur, we determined a 60,000 kg payload to LEO per launch as a representative estimate of this vehicle class by 2030.

Medium launchers, whose capacity ranges from 1,000 kg to 15,000 kg, represent mostly in-development vehicles such as Rocket Lab’s Neutron and Firefly’s Beta and thus yield a weighted average 8,500 kg to LEO per launch by 2030. Finally, small launchers average to 500 kg per launch and include vehicles such as Astra Space’s Rocket 3, Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne, and Rocket Lab’s Electron. Click here. (8/18)

Space-Based Shortcuts Advance in the Last-Mile Connectivity Race Against Fiber (Source: Via Satellite)
Dan Dooley, CCO Lynk, tries to explain that the cell phone he’s holding in his hand will be able to connect directly to a satellite. The audience seems to collectively tilt their heads at this claim. They want to know where his network’s cell tower is located. “The cell tower is in space,” Dooley tells the Connect (X) crowd, pointing his cell toward the ceiling. “It’s on our satellite. When my phone can’t find a cell tower on Earth, it looks for the satellite in space and connects the same way.”

Someone asks Dooley if his cell phone is a special-made device. “Nope. Just a regular, consumer smartphone that you see everywhere,” he replies. The satellite industry has made tremendous progress during the past few years in delivering “cell tower in space” capabilities to the consumer. Lynk successfully sent a text message from a satellite in space to an unmodified mobile phone on Earth in Feb. 2020. Two years later, the company conducted connectivity tests using its own satellites to 6,000 devices around the world, including smartphones, tablets, IoT devices, cars, trucks, and even tractors, enabling direct two-way connectivity.

Omnispace is building a Non-Geostationary (NGSO) satellite constellation that will integrate with terrestrial mobile networks to bring interoperable “one network” connectivity to global end users and IoT devices. The company just launched two critical test satellites. Another company, AST SpaceMobile, is working to build a space-based cellular broadband network accessible directly by standard mobile phone. AST SpaceMobile will soon test its technology after the BlueWalker 3 satellite launches. Launch is currently set for September. Even though its technology is unproven, AST SpaceMobile says it has deals in hand with mobile network operators (MNOs) that serve more than 1.8 billion subscribers combined. (8/25)

How AST SpaceMobile's BlueWalker 3 Test Satellite Mission Will Work (Source: AST SpaceMobile)
AST SpaceMobile, the company building the world's first and only space-based cellular broadband network, has big plans for the BlueWalker 3 test satellite mission. The 64-square-meter spacecraft is designed to connect directly to ordinary mobile phones and other cellular devices from low Earth orbit. This video explains how BW3 will launch into space, deploy, and — if all goes well — demonstrate satellite-to-cell phone broadband connectivity for the first time in history. The satellite is currently scheduled to launch in early- to mid-September 2022. Editor's Note: Expect some legal battles over the patents for these types of services and their enabling technologies. (8/18)

Space-BACN Will Connect Satellite Networks (Source: Journal of Space Commerce)
DARPA has selected 11 teams for Phase 1 of the Space-Based Adaptive Communications Node program, known as Space-BACN. Space-BACN aims to create a low-cost, reconfigurable optical communications terminal that adapts to most optical intersatellite link standards, translating between diverse satellite constellations. Space-BACN would create an “internet” of low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, enabling seamless communication between military/government and commercial/civil satellite constellations that currently are unable to talk with each other. (8/25)

FCC Commissioner Criticizes Starlink’s $900 Million Subsidy Rejection (Source: Space News)
The FCC denied Starlink nearly $900 million in rural broadband subsidies “without legal justification,” one of the regulator’s four commissioners said Aug. 24. While the FCC was obligated to review subsidies provisionally awarded for SpaceX’s broadband service in December 2020, Commissioner Brendan Carr said the agency exceeded “the scope of that authority” when it rejected them nearly two years later.

SpaceX was in line for $885 million after successfully bidding in an auction for the FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF). However, the FCC said Aug. 10 SpaceX had failed to show it could meet requirements for releasing the subsidies, which covered broadband services spanning nearly 643,000 homes and businesses in 35 states. Carr also took aim at how Starlink’s price point contributed to the FCC’s decision, which highlighted how its users must purchase a $600 dish on top of a monthly subscription. The FCC is currently subsidizing slower internet services that cost consumers more, according to Carr. (8/25)

NASA, Boeing Target Early 2023 for Starliner's Long-Awaited Crew Flight Test (Source: Florida Today)
Boeing is targeting 2023 for the final test flight of the company's Starliner crew transportation capsule. Senior officials with NASA and Boeing told reporters Thursday that the Crew Flight Test (CFT), originally slated for the end of this year, would be pushed back to at least February. The flight test will be the first time that Boeing sends NASA astronauts to space aboard its Starliner capsule after a multi-year-long delay and repeated uncrewed test flights.

Originally hoped to occur by year's end, the Crew Flight Test was pushed back by five weeks to accommodate a busy schedule of traffic at the International Space Station. The timeline shift also allows for more processing time to correct some issues with spacecraft thrusters that arose during the uncrewed Orbital Flight Test 2 (OFT-2) in May. Mark Nappi, Boeing Starliner program manager, explained that an analysis conducted after OFT-2 found that debris caused the thruster issues. But as Nappi explained, "we don't get that hardware back so we will never know exactly what was the issue." (8/25)