August 3, 2022

ISS in the Balance (Source: Space Review)
NASA is working to extend operations of the International Space Station to 2030. Jeff Foust reports on how those plans face challenges from Russian comments that it may withdraw from the partnership early as well as uncertainty that commercial stations will be ready by the end of the decade. Click here. (8/2)
 
A Review of Chinese Counterspace Activities (Source: Space Review)
China has been active in a wide range of technologies that could interfere with, damage, or even destroy satellites. Matthew Mowthorpe and Markos Trichas offer an overview of those activities as best understood today. Click here. (8/2)
 
U.S. Space Force Wants New Space Domain Awareness Software (Source: Aviation Week)
The U.S. Space Force wants new space domain awareness software for multiple space domain awareness (SDA) operational locations, including the National Space Defense Center. The Space Force wants to know what SDAs oftware tracking capabilities industry can provide as it looks to phase out multiple old systems at many operating locations that serve the SDA mission. The service issued a Request for Information (RFI) on Aug. 1. (8/2)

Space Force Drops Garrison Name in Favor of ‘Space Base Delta‘ (Source: Air Force Magazine)
The Space Force has switched up how it refers to the organizations responsible for mission support functions, saying the new designations better reflect their function and place within the service’s structure. The Peterson-Schriever and Buckley Garrisons became Space Base Delta 1 and Space Base Delta 2, respectively, in May. Los Angeles Garrison followed suit July 14, becoming Space Base Delta 3. “The naming convention of Space Base Delta more accurately characterizes the function and structure of the organization in relation to the mission deltas/units that they support,” a Space Force spokesperson said. (8/2)

Critics Dispute Georgia Spaceport Fire Study (Source: Brunswick News)
A study released by a consultant hired by Camden County concludes there is "no credible risk to Cumberland Island" by a rocket launched from the site of a planned spaceport. But the report determines there is potential for rocket debris to land on Cumberland and Little Cumberland islands and recommends first responders cannot be on the island until all the debris from a failed or aborted launch has landed. The FAA has no precautions or requirements for homeowners and visitors to the islands during rocket launches, meaning they can stay on the islands when it is considered unsafe for emergency responders.

Calculations estimate launch managers will have to tell first responders within the first 53 seconds when all the debris will have landed. Emergency responders who deploy too early are at risk from falling debris, and emergency fire aircraft cannot respond until all debris has fallen. The report instructs first responders to be stationed so they are not exposed to falling debris.

Steve Weinkle, a longtime critic of Camden County's efforts to establish a spaceport, said the data used to determine the risk of fire was provided by county officials speculating about how a launch mishap would be handled under ideal circumstances. He described the disclaimer in the study about the source of data "about as strong of a disclaimer about any of the calculated outcomes as any consultant can write." ... "Every assumption in the report is based on things working as they should once a failure has occurred," Weinkle said. "But recognizing that failures occur is a dead giveaway: rocket launches don't always work as planned." (8/2)

What is Space Development? (Source: Space Review)
People often talk about space development, but what does that term actually mean? John Strickland offers his description of the activities required to expand human presence in space. Click here. (8/2)
 
Why the Molten Salt Reactor Should be Our Next Big Step for Terrestrial and Off-Planet Needs (Source: Space Review)
Both terrestrial and space applications need new power sources. Ajay Kothari discusses how one new nuclear power system can both address cimate change on Earth and support missions to the Moon and beyond. Click here. (8/2)

Chinese Rocket Debris Found Near Mindoro Strait (Source: Inquirer)
Suspected fallen rocket fairings from China’s launch of its most powerful rocket have been found by Filipino fishermen near Mindoro Strait. The wreckage, which appeared to be part of the payload fairing that was jettisoned shortly after launch, bore markings similar to the Long March 5B. They were found afloat by local fishermen some 27 nautical miles northeast of Dimipac Island in Busuanga, Palawan, on July 26, according to a Philippine Coast Guard report. (8/3)

Report Calls for US to Lead Space Traffic Management (Source: Space News)
A new report calls on the U.S. government to lead efforts for an international space traffic management system. The report by the Atlantic Council's Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, released Tuesday, argues there is an urgent need for an "international coordinating authority to lead on space traffic management." The current decentralized system, where organizations issue warnings of potential collisions but leave it to satellite operators on whether to act on them, may not be adequate to prevent collisions in the future, the report concludes. Coordination could be done through an existing organization, such as the United Nations' International Civil Aviation Organization, or the creation of a new organization with proper authorities. (8/3)

CHIPS Bill Could Alleviate Space Industry Supply Issues (Source: Space News)
A bill to boost domestic production of semiconductors could alleviate supply chain issues for the space industry over time. Congress approved the CHIPS and Science Act last week, providing $52 billion in subsidies for increased production of semiconductors. That increased production, which will take years to build up, will assist the space industry, where a lack of chips has delayed satellite projects. A domestic supply will also alleviate national security issues of relying on foreign sources of those components. (8/3)

Aerojet Earnings Suffer From RS-25 Production Delays (Source: Space News)
Delays in restarting production of RS-25 engines affected Aerojet Rocketdyne's earnings. The company said this week that net sales and net income were down in the second quarter from the same quarter a year ago, which it blamed in part on delays with the RS-25 program. The company said the problem is with delays in qualification testing of the new expendable version of the engine, which the company is producing for NASA's Space Launch System. Company executives added they expected to soon overcome those problems and catch up on the program in the second half of the year. (8/3)

Astra Announces $100 Million Committed Equity Facility (Source: Astra)
Astra Space has entered into a common stock purchase agreement with B. Riley Principal Capital II, LLC. The agreement governs a Committed Equity Facility that provides Astra the right, in its discretion and without obligation, to sell and issue up to $100 million of its Class A common stock over the course of 24 months to B. Riley Principal Capital II, subject to certain limitations and conditions, including that in no event will the number of shares of Class A common stock sold exceed 19.99% of its outstanding Class A and Class B common stock. (8/2)

Momentus Deploys Four More Spacecraft From Transfer Vehicle (Source: Space News)
Momentus has deployed four more spacecraft from its first orbital transfer vehicle that suffered problems after its launch in May. The company said Tuesday the four "PocketQube" satellites from FOSSA Systems were deployed in July from Vigoride-3, along with two others from the company released shortly after launch. Three satellites remain on the tug. That vehicle suffered power and communications issues after launch, and Momentus said in its statement that it had identified the root cause of the problems and was implementing changes to its Vigoride-5 tug scheduled for launch late this year. (8/3)

Hyundai Enters Lunar Surface Vehicle Market (Source: Space News)
Hyundai is planning to develop a vehicle for lunar surface exploration. The Korean carmaker and its sister company Kia Motors formed a consortium last week with six state-funded research institutes to explore the concept of lunar exploration mobility and core technologies required. They will also lay out strategies for sending the vehicle to the moon and operating it once there. The organizations didn't disclose when such a vehicle might go to the moon. (8/3)

Artemis 1 Will Carry 10,000 Mementos (Source: CollectSpace)
The Artemis 1 mission will carry nearly 10,000 mementos, including items from the Apollo 11 mission. The Official Flight Kit, a package of mementos that will be on the Orion spacecraft launching as soon as Aug. 29, includes a "lunar sample button" containing moon dust collected from Apollo 11, as well as a small piece of an F-1 engine from the Saturn 5 rocket that launched that mission. Most of the items in the Official Flight Kit are patches, pins and flags, but the kit also includes LEGO minifigures from NASA and a "Shaun the Sheep" doll from ESA. (8/3)

Astronaut's Grandson Partners on Project to Restore Rare 'AstroVette' (Source: CollectSpace)
A rare customized Corvette is set to receive a full restoration, 51 years after its one-time owner launched with the first car to be driven on the moon. Project AstroVette Endeavour aims to return a classic white coupe to its fresh-off-the-factory-lot 1971 condition, when it was it was one of three matching Corvettes leased to NASA's Apollo 15 crew. The restoration is a joint effort between Will Penczak, grandson of command module pilot Al Worden, and Luna Replicas, the space collectibles company licensed to reproduce the late astronaut's flight jacket.

"It's a unique preservation of what we deem as a very important part of American history," said Penczak in an interview with collectSPACE. "It is a symbol for a very important chapter in aerospace history, as well as my own family's history." Apollo 15 was NASA's fourth mission to land astronauts on the moon. The mission featured the first lunar roving vehicle and the first deep-space EVA (or spacewalk), the latter performed by Worden on the way home from the moon. (8/1)

Smithsonian to Debut Reimagined Air and Space Galleries on Oct. 14 (Source: CollectSpace)
The countdown is now on for the launch of the first reimagined galleries in the National Air and Space Museum. The Smithsonian on Tuesday (Aug. 2) announced that after six months being closed to the public, it will re-open half of the Washington, D.C. museum's flagship building on the National Mall on Friday, Oct. 14. Eight new and renovated exhibitions, including two focused on the history of space exploration, will debut on the building's west end. (8/2)

Modeling Reveals How Dwarf Planet Ceres Powers Unexpected Geologic Activity (Source: Space Daily)
For a long time, our view of Ceres was fuzzy, said Scott King. A dwarf planet and the largest body found in the asteroid belt - the region between Jupiter and Mars speckled with hundreds of thousands of asteroids - Ceres had no distinguishable surface features in existing telescopic observations from Earth. Then, in 2015, the hazy orb that was Ceres came into view. That view was stunning to scientists such as King. Data and images collected by NASA's Dawn mission gave a clearer picture of the surface, including its composition and structures, which revealed unexpected geologic activity.

Through modeling, he and a team of scientists from multiple universities found that the decay of radioactive elements within Ceres's interior could keep it active. To learn how it could still generate enough heat to power geologic activity, he used theories and computational tools previously applied to bigger planets to study Ceres's interior, and he looked for evidence that could support his models in data returned by the Dawn mission. The team's model of the dwarf planet's interior showed a unique sequence: Ceres started out cold and heated up because of the decay of radioactive elements such as uranium and thorium - which was alone enough to power its activity - until the interior became unstable. (8/2)

JWST Hs Spotted a Weird, Distant Galaxy with Almost No Heavy Elements (Source: New Scientist)
There is a strange, metal-poor galaxy lurking in the distant universe. The very first image released by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) team revealed a galaxy with far fewer heavy elements than we would expect, which might mean that it’s sucking up pristine hydrogen gas from intergalactic space. (8/1)

JWST Images Most Distant Star (Source: New Scientist)
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has taken a new image of the most distant individual star ever seen at nearly 28 billion light years away. At such enormous distances, we can usually only make out entire galaxies, but a lucky coincidence has allowed researchers to spot this star, called Earendel, with the Hubble Space Telescope and then observe it again with JWST on 30 July.

Earendel – which means “morning star” or “rising light” – resides in a galaxy called the Sunrise Arc. It is so named because its light has been stretched into a long curve by the gravity of a galaxy cluster closer to Earth in a process called gravitational lensing. This process also magnified the galaxy by a factor of more than 1000, allowing astronomers to confirm with JWST that Earendel is an individual star and not a cluster of hundreds. (8/2)

JWST Has Released a Striking New Image of the Strange Cartwheel Galaxy (Source: New Scientist)
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has taken a picture of one of the strangest galaxies in the universe. The details of the Cartwheel galaxy are obscured by dust, which has made studying it difficult, but the new images from JWST peer through to reveal this weird galaxy in more detail than ever before. The Cartwheel galaxy is about 500 million light years away and measures about 150,000 light years across. Researchers believe that it was most likely a spiral galaxy similar to the Milky Way before one of its companion galaxies blasted through it like a bullet through a target, sending waves of stars and gas rippling out from the galaxy’s center and creating the nested ring shapes that we see today. (8/2)

Xona Secures $15 Million for Proposed Navsat Constellation (Source: Space News)
Startup Xona Space Systems has raised around $15 million for its proposed navigation constellation. Lockheed Martin Ventures was among the new investors that joined the funding round led by First Spark Ventures. Xona CEO Brian Manning declined to disclose the amount of funds secured in the round but said the startup has raised more than $25 million to date. (In June, Xona put its total raise at $10 million.) Xona plans to double its staff to 60 employees ahead of deploying Muninn, its second prototype satellite, early next year. (8/3)

Remote Surgery Robot to be Tested Aboard ISS (Source: Space Daily)
A miniaturized robot may soon blast into space to test its skills. NASA recently awarded the University of Nebraska-Lincoln $100,000 through the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) at the University of Nebraska Omaha to ready the surgical robot for a 2024 test mission aboard the ISS. During the next year, Shane Farritor and engineering graduate student Rachael Wagner will write software, configure the "miniaturized in vivo robotic assistant," or MIRA, to fit inside a space station experiment locker and exhaustively test the device to make sure it's robust enough to survive launch and its systems will perform as anticipated in space. Then they will wait a year or so for the robot to get its turn aboard the station. (8/3)

Have Canadians Lost Touch with Space Industry? Asks Research Report (Source: Space Daily)
Despite being engaged in the space industry since the 1950s, launching its first research rocket in 1959 and retaining a vibrant space industry, a new report reveals that Canadians today are more likely to associate space with aliens (23%) and Star Wars (12%) than they are with communications and connectivity (7%) or weather (6%). The association between space and movies is even more pronounced among 18-24-year-old Canadians, with the research finding 37% associate it with aliens - nine times higher than the 4% of this age group who associate it with communications and connectivity.

However, according to a new global report - 'What on Earth is the value of space?', based on a survey by Inmarsat of 20,000 people in 11 countries - despite little awareness of how space is involved in their everyday lives, Canadians still remain optimistic about what it can offer. 40% say they are hopeful about the possibilities of space, while 32% report feeling excited by it. This compares to just 9% who said they don't care about space. When asked about real applications of the space industry today, just one third of Canadians (34%) thought space could help in monitoring and solving climate change, and only 27% thought it had a role to play in ensuring everyone on Earth has access to the Internet. (8/3)

Australians See Space More as a Danger Than a Benefit (Source: Space Daily)
Australia was at the forefront of the first space race and played a vital role in Apollo 11's iconic Moon landing in 1969. Half a century later, Australians are more likely to see space as a threat than a frontier full of positive possibilities, and just one in ten say they would like to work in the space industry. According to a new global report from Inmarsat - 'What on Earth is the value of space?', based on a survey of 20,000 people in 11 countries - 49% of Australians are concerned about space junk and collisions and 44% are worried about polluting space, while just over one third (36%) say they feel hopeful about the possibilities of space, one fifth (21%) say they don't understand much about space and 10% say they don't care about space at all.

With the space sector attracting record levels of investment and expanding faster than ever before, it is essential than Australians learn more about an industry that will increasingly impact their lives, according to Inmarsat. According to the report, Australians are twice as likely to associate space with aliens (21%) than with communications and connectivity (10%). Most concerning for the future is that younger generations appear to have a view of space built on movie depictions rather than reality. 31% of Australians aged 18-24 associate space with aliens, compared with just 11% of people aged 65+.

In comparison, only 8% of this younger age group associate space with communications - the sector that is leading global growth in the industry - half that of the over-65s (16%). Meanwhile, 70% of Australians said they had never heard of or had no idea about space-based Internet, and 36% said the same for weather and climate monitoring - despite the first weather satellite having been launched in 1960 - and 31% had never heard or knew nothing about GPS and Satnav. (8/3)

SpaceX Will Use Starlink to Communicate with Starship During Upcoming Flight Test (Source: Tesmanian)
SpaceX’s first-ever Starship launch to space could happen in just a few weeks. The long-awaited orbital flight test will originate from the Starbase launch site at Boca Chica Beach, Texas, and end with an ocean landing along the coast of Kauai, Hawaii. Starship could reach a maximum altitude of 250km. It will be the first time SpaceX launches the Super Heavy rocket powered by 33 Raptor V2 engines. Soon after the rocket propels Starship to orbit, it will perform a landing either in the Gulf of Mexico or return to the launch pad to be ‘caught’ by the launch tower's robotic arms.

In July, SpaceX submitted a new filing to the FCC to request a Special Temporary Authority (STA) license to use Starlink communications during Starship's debut orbital flight. In the FCC filing, SpaceX said it intends to demonstrate how Starlink is capable of beaming its internet signal while Starship crosses Earth’s rough atmosphere. Spacecraft usually lose communications when crossing at high velocity through the atmosphere because it heats up to extreme temperatures as high as 3,500°F, which inhibits radio transmissions.

The Starlink terminals will be mounted on the stainless-steel Starship SN24 and Super Heavy Booster 7 test vehicles that are currently undergoing preflight testing at the South Texas launch site. “Multiple Starlink terminals will be fitted to each vehicle to ensure a clear view of the SpaceX satellite constellation through the Starship flight profile. The terminals will use the same antenna and communications electronics as SpaceX’s previously authorized consumer terminals but with a revised enclosure and mounting that is suitable for the mission profile,” said SpaceX in the filing. (8/2)

Sidus Space Selects AWS for LizzieSatTM Constellation (Source: Sidus Space)
Sidus Space has selected Amazon Web Services (AWS) to provide cloud storage of mission critical Satellite-as-a-Service operation and customer data for the upcoming LizzieSat™ Constellation. By leveraging AWS-managed services like Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS), and Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), Sidus Space aims to provide reliable, global mission control operations to its customers. (8/2)

Cobham Seals £2.6B Purchase Of Defense Co. After Court OK (Source: Law360)
Aerospace and technology company Cobham has completed its £2.57 billion ($3.15 billion) acquisition of defense manufacturer Ultra Electronics, the companies said on Monday, after a London court cleared the deal. (8/2)

NRO, Air Force May Co-Fund Future Space-Based ISR Tech (Source: Breaking Defense)
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall and National Reconnaissance Office Director Chris Scolese have an “informal agreement” to work together to rapidly supply timely intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) information to battlefield commanders — one that Kendall recently revealed for the first time could lead to co-funded projects.

The issue of how to divide Space Force and Intelligence Community (IC) responsibilities for ISR has been a debate ever since the new military service stood up in December 2019. In particular, Congress has been skittish about overlaps and gaps between the space service and NRO, as well as potential IC turf infringement by the Space Force. Kendall noted the “arrangement” with NRO “to get the operational support” the Defense Department needs from space, while at the same time fulfilling the spy satellite agency’s other priorities for providing intelligence to the president and senior government leaders. (8/1)

Senators Seek $2 Billion Space Force Budget Boost for Missile Defense, Responsive Launch (Source: Air Force Times)
Senate lawmakers want to boost the Space Force’s budget by more than $2 billion to support missile warning satellite development, responsive launch capabilities and improved testing and training infrastructure. The proposed increase comes as part of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s $792 billion spending package for fiscal 2023, released July 28.

The bill calls for a 9% increase to the Department of Defense’s budget over fiscal 2022 spending levels and is $31 billion higher than what House lawmakers approved in June. In a report released with its bill last week, the committee labeled space as one of its top priorities, noting that part of the $2.2 billion increase is focused on hypersonic missile tracking capabilities and would support the Space Force’s shift to a more resilient, distributed architecture. (8/1)