August 4, 2022

Space Coast Resident (the Third From Central Florida) Flies with Blue Origin (Source: WESH)
A Central Florida man was on the New Shepard rocket when it blasted off. Melbourne business owner Steve Young bought a ticket to fly in December. Young said he is not allowed to reveal how much he paid for the trip. Young is the third Central Floridian to fly to space with Blue Origin. Five other people from around the world joined Steve for the launch. This mission is the sixth human flight for the New Shepard program, the third flight this year, and the 22nd in its history. (8/4)

MoonDAO Funds New Shepard Passenger's Ride (Source: Quartz)
One of New Shepard's latest passengers is Coby Cotton, a YouTube influencer whose ticket was purchased by MoonDAO, a community built on the ethereum blockchain.
DAOs, or decentralized autonomous organizations, are one of the more intriguing Web3 applications. These organizations are governed by digital contracts and governed by the owners of the tokens they create. Some DAOs are clearly end-runs around securities regulation, and others are scams, but the people behind MoonDAO are true believers in the potential of decentralized communities and want to create a future Moon colony.

They sold off “governance tokens” called Moonies to raise a pot of more than $8 million. It started off as a bit of a joke, inspired by another DAO that tried to buy a copy of the US Constitution, with the idea of acquiring some kind of space object. Then, the owners of the tokens (no individual owns more than 10%) decided on a plan to send people to space on a tourist mission as a statement of intent. A community member with connections at Blue Origin pitched the New Shepard, which founder Jeff Bezos rode on a 11 minute flight to space last summer.

What resulted was a deal to purchase two tickets, and thanks to the transparency of the blockchain, we know it cost MoonDAO $2,575,000. Some of that is transaction fees, but the figure suggests that a seat on New Shepard costs $1.25 million. That’s an important data point as we try to figure out whether the company can even come close to recouping its investment in the vehicle. It’s also well over twice what competitor Virgin Galactic, which hasn’t flown in over a year, charges passengers. (8/4)

Florida Starship Tower Reaches New Heights, New Glenn Hardware Heads to Pad (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
SpaceX's Starship Launch Tower at Pad 39A is halfway complete, a New Glenn 2nd Stage tank was spotted at Blue Origin's LC-36, and the Starship Factory at Roberts Road begins to rise. Click here for the video. (7/26)

Atlas 5 Rocket Lifts Off From Cape Canaveral Spaceport at Dawn (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
United Launch Alliance’s fifth mission of the year lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 6:29 a.m. EDT (1029 GMT) Thursday. An Atlas 5 rocket launched on a $1.2 billion mission with a U.S. Space Force missile warning satellite. The mission was the fifth Atlas 5 flight of the year, and the 95th launch of an Atlas 5 rocket overall. After Thursday’s launch, there are 21 Atlas 5s remaining in ULA’s inventory before the rocket is retired. ULA, a 50-50 joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, is developing the next-generation Vulcan Centaur rocket to replace the Atlas and Delta rocket families. (8/4)

Major New Investment Accelerates Construction of the Giant Magellan Telescope (Source: Space Daily)
The Giant Magellan Telescope, the most powerful telescope ever engineered using the world's largest mirrors, today announced it has secured a $205 million investment from its international consortium to accelerate construction. This investment marks one of the largest funding rounds for the telescope since its founding and includes leading commitments from the Carnegie Institution for Science, Harvard University, the Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), The University of Texas at Austin, University of Arizona, and the University of Chicago.

The investment will be used to manufacture the giant 12-story telescope structure at Ingersoll Machine Tools in Illinois, continue progress on the telescope's seven primary mirrors at the University of Arizona's Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab, and build one of the most advanced scientific spectrograph instruments in Texas. (8/3)

Study Focuses on Approach to Mitigating Reflective Satellites' Impact on Earthbound Astronomers (Source: Space Daily)
As satellites crawl across the sky, they reflect light from the sun back down to Earth, especially during the first few hours after sunset and the first few hours before sunrise. As more companies launch networks of satellites into low-Earth orbit, a clear view of the night sky is becoming rarer. Astronomers, in particular, are trying to find ways to adapt. With that in mind, a team of University of Arizona students and faculty completed a study to track and characterize the brightness of satellites, using a ground-based sensor they developed to measure satellites' brightness, speed and paths through the sky. Their work could be helpful for astronomers, who, if notified of incoming bright satellites, could close the shutters of their telescope-mounted cameras to prevent light trails from tainting their long-exposure astronomical images. (8/4)

Slingshot Aerospace Acquires Numerica's Sace Division and UK-Based Seradata (Source: Space Daily)
Slingshot Aerospace, a company building space simulation and analytics products to accelerate space sustainability, has announced that the company has acquired Numerica's Space Domain Awareness (SDA) division and UK-based Seradata. Numerica's SDA division includes the world's first and only commercial low Earth orbit (LEO) to geosynchronous orbit (GEO) daytime and nighttime optical sensor network for satellite tracking. Seradata brings the company's industry-leading SpaceTrak satellite and launch database into Slingshot's portfolio and establishes the company's footprint in the UK/European market. (8/4)

International Space Agency Teamwork Puts the Whole World in Our Hands (Source: Space Daily)
NASA data scientist Dr. Manil Maskey has a calm demeanor and a ready smile. He's also a trailblazer. With peers from around the world, he has created an unprecedented tool to bring our planet down to Earth. The Earth Observing Dashboard is a user-friendly interactive computer interface for exploring the planet and tracking its changes over time. This knowledge can help us understand our own role in its evolution and guide use of its resources. COVID-19 triggered the tool's creation.

"As people across the globe isolated and sheltered from the global pandemic, Earth began to change," said Maskey at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. "The sky seemed a little bluer, the air a little fresher, the water clearer. Some important officials from space agencies took notice." Their discernments prompted a decision by NASA, ESA, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to pool resources for a closer look. (8/4)

Musk Wants to Build His Own Private Texas Airport (Source: My San Antonio)
Reports are circulating that Elon Musk has plans to build a new private airport in Central Texas. Austonia reported on Thursday, July 28, that Musk is developing the plan for the private airport to be possibly located near Bastrop. The report says that only conceptual plans are circulating now and there is no estimated timetable for construction on the airport, which would likely service Musk's many companies including Tesla, The Boring Company, and SpaceX. Musk reportedly owns thousands of acres of land in Central Texas near the Colorado River Corridor. (7/31)

Intelsat and SES Discussing Merger (Source: Financial Times)
Intelsat and SES, two of the largest GEO satellite operators, are reportedly discussing a merger. Sources familiar with the discussions say talks are still at an "early stage" between the companies, who operate dozens of GEO communications satellites as well as SES's O3b constellation. The talks are driven by a sense that a wave of consolidation is sweeping across the industry with Viasat's acquisition of Inmarsat and Eutelsat's plans to merge with OneWeb. The companies declined to comment on the discussions beyond Intelsat stating that "partnerships among satellite communications companies and bringing together complementary capabilities can drive competition." (8/4)

Lockheed Steps Up Search for Defense Startups (Source: Defense One)
Lockheed Martin Ventures is now a $400 million fund, double its previous size, as it seeks more investment opportunities among defense startups. "We're trying to spend more time with universities, we're trying to spend more time with incubators, and where early stage companies are formed and try to get involved early with these companies," said Chris Moran, executive director. (8/2)

Blue Canyon Technologies Opens New Factory Dedicated to Manufacturing CubeSats (Source: SpaceRef)
Small satellite manufacturer and mission services provider Blue Canyon Technologies LLC (“BCT” or “Blue Canyon”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies, celebrated the grand opening of its new CubeSat Factory in Boulder, Colorado, with members of the Boulder Chamber of Commerce at a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The expanded 31,000-square-foot facility consolidates manufacturing efforts with dedicated CubeSat employees to build large spacecraft constellations and increase production from 50 to 85 CubeSats, optimized for payload size, weight, and power, a year. Currently, the company has 38 CubeSats in various stages of design, assembly and test. (8/4)

Rocket Lab Launches Second NRO Payload From New Zealand (Source: Space News)
An Electron launched a classified NRO payload early Thursday. The Electron lifted off from Rocket Lab's Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand at 1 a.m. Eastern on the NROL-199 mission for the NRO. The NRO and Rocket Lab confirmed the mission was successful about an hour later. The launch was delayed from late July because of software upgrades for the payload and then by two days because of winds at the launch site. NROL-199 was the second of two missions the NRO developed in partnership with the Australian Department of Defence; the first, NROL-162, launched July 13. (8/4)

China Launches Earth Science Satellite (Source: Xinhua)
China launched an Earth science satellite Wednesday night. A Long March 4B rocket lifted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center at 11:08 p.m. Eastern and placed what Chinese officials called a terrestrial ecosystem carbon monitoring satellite into orbit. The spacecraft will be used for environmental and other Earth science applications for studying sources and sinks of carbon. The launch carried two smallsats as secondary payloads. (8/4)

Sentinel 1B SAR Payload Cannot Be Fixed (Source: Space News)
ESA has given up on efforts to restore the Sentinel-1B radar imaging satellite. The agency said Wednesday that it and the European Commission, partners on the Copernicus series of Earth observations satellites, concluded that the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) payload on the satellite could not be recovered after malfunctioning in December. An investigation found that two power regulators on the payload failed, possibly because of capacitors that were damaged when they were replaced during manufacturing and testing of the payload. The SAR payload on the twin Sentinel-1A satellite has the same capacitor problem, but so far is working normally. ESA and the European Commission are making up for the lost Sentinel-1B observations with data from other SAR satellites. A replacement, Sentinel-1C, is scheduled to launch in the second quarter of next year. (8/4)

NASA On Track for August 29 SLS Launch at Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Space News)
NASA said Wednesday the first SLS launch remains on schedule for Aug. 29. Agency officials said at a briefing that preparations are "on plan" to roll the vehicle out to the launch pad Aug. 18 for an Aug. 29 launch, with backup launch opportunities Sept. 2 and 5. NASA is still working with the Eastern Range on issues with the rocket's flight termination system that could potentially restrict future launch opportunities if the launch does not take place on the 29th. SLS will launch an uncrewed Orion spacecraft on the Artemis 1 mission, a six-week test flight that will test the spacecraft in cislunar space. (8/4)

Russia to Launch Iranian Imaging Satellite (Source: TASS)
Russia will launch an Iranian imaging satellite next week. Roscosmos said Wednesday the Khayyam remote sensing satellite will be the primary payload on a Soyuz-2.1b rocket scheduled to launch from Baikonur on Aug. 9. The launch will carry 16 Russian smallsats, including some designed by universities, as secondary payloads. (8/4)

NASA Satisfied with Partially Deployed Lucy Solar Array (Source: NASA)
NASA is satisfied with the status of a solar array on its Lucy spacecraft despite it not being fully deployed. Months of efforts by engineers got a circular solar array on the spacecraft, launched last October, almost completely deployed. The array is between 353 and 357 degrees open out of 360 degrees. While not completely open and latched into place, the tension on the array is high enough to allow the spacecraft to operate normally. A second solar array is fully open and latched. (8/4)

NASA Space Robotics Dive into Deep-Sea Work (Source: NASA)
Unlike a robot in space, deep-sea robots can be connected to operators with a cable to allow high-speed data transfer and close control. But Nic Radford said this comes at the price of staffing and operating a huge support vessel on the surface, to the tune of about $100,000 and 70 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per day. Nauticus is eliminating that cord by enabling its robots to work with minimal supervision from a control center on a distant shore.

“What NASA taught us is to put together robust software autonomy with a capable hardware morphology and deploy it in a remote setting,” said Radford, founder, chairman, president, and CEO of Nauticus Robotics. Bright orange, fully electric, and about the size of a sports car, Aquanaut, the company’s signature robot, resembles a propeller-driven torpedo as it motors to its destination. At that point, its shell pops open and the nose flips upward to reveal a suite of cameras and other sensors, now facing front. Two arms swing out, ending in claw hands that can be fitted with different tools. (8/2)

NASA Backs Study Looking at Ammonia as Jet Fuel (Source: Simple Flying)
NASA has given the University of Central Florida a five-year grant to study whether ammonia can power aircraft. The project will use simulation software to analyze the chemical reactions that occur as ammonia is burned for fuel. (8/3)

Russia Appears to "Stalk" US Satellite (Source: Space.com)
Russian's Kosmos 2558 satellite is reportedly stalking the US satellite USA 326 in orbit. Russia brought two of its satellites close to US assets in 2020 in what Space Force Gen. John "Jay Raymond, characterized as "unusual and disturbing" maneuvers. The Russian satellite was rumored to be an "inspector" craft even before it lifted off on Monday (Aug. 1), Netherlands-based satellite tracker Marco Langbroek noted in a blog post on Tuesday. To be fair, USA 326 does seem to be pretty interesting. The classified US satellite ejected something recently — either a subsatellite or a piece of debris — according to astrophysicist and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell. (8/3)

NASA OIG Report Critical of Ames Process for Leasing Property to Non-NASA Users (Source: NASA OIG)
"Ames’ lease process is inadequate to ensure agreements are in the best interest of NASA and has resulted in millions of dollars in foregone revenue. Moreover, controls over Ames’ lease process are inadequate to ensure accountability and compliance with federal laws and NASA policies. The NASA Research Park (NRP) Office, which manages Ames’ lease process, bypassed two key controls that require the involvement of the Center’s Real Property Accountable Officer (RPAO)—responsible for ensuring the lease process complies with NASA policy—and Headquarters’ Facilities and Real Estate Division (FRED)—responsible for reviewing and approving all Enhanced Use Leases."

"We found the Ames RPAO participated in the lease process inconsistently and Ames officials at times involved FRED late in the decision-making process after Center personnel already negotiated the terms of leases. As a result, leases did not include a life-cycle cost analysis that accurately determined the lease’s economic value to NASA and all costs for the lease’s duration, lacked required competition during the award phase, did not consistently include certifications to indicate the property was needed for future NASA missions or would not negatively impact NASA’s missions, and lacked required termination clauses to protect NASA’s interest. Further, some lease records were not centrally stored and did not include documentation including justifications for lease terms and tenant selections." Click here.

Editor's Note: NASA's new authorization, recently passed within the CHIPS Act, includes a reauthorization of the agency's Enhanced Use Lease capability. Such leases have been highly effective in allowing NASA property at Kennedy Space Center to be used by Space Florida, Blue Origin, SpaceX, and other non-federal tenants. (8/4)

A Month on 'Mars': Preparing to Visit the Red Planet ... on Earth (Source: Space.com)
On Monday (Aug. 1), a group of eight researchers and their associates headed north to the high Arctic to spend a month at the Haughton-Mars Project (HMP) base on Devon Island, about 15 degrees south of the North Pole. The group includes the founder of the base and expedition leader, Dr. Pascal Lee, a group of researchers from MIT's Haystack Observatory, other researchers and support staff, and me, the sole media representative.

This will be the return of the HMP team to the base since 2019 due to COVID-19 restrictions, and its condition is uncertain — weather and polar bears(opens in new tab) can wreak havoc with the structures and support equipment. Generators and ATVs on-site have gone through multiple freeze/thaw cycles, and increasingly hungry polar bears may have slashed their way into some of the lightly constructed habitats — they've tried before. While satellite images don't show any extensive damage, success is far from certain. (8/4)

Falling Rockets Pose Increasing Danger to Human Life, Study Reveals (Source: Physics World)
The risk to people on the ground of being killed by the uncontrolled descent of a rocket stage is increasing, with legislation urgently needed to prevent potential tragedies, says a team of political scientists and astronomers in Canada. Most space launches still result in the uncontrolled return to Earth of at least parts of rockets. Although many pieces of space debris meet a fiery end in Earth’s atmosphere, parts of rockets can be large enough to reach the ground and cause damage.

The group behind this fresh assessment of the risks found that the greatest danger is to people living in the southern hemisphere, often in poorer nations that have no direct connection with space launches. In May 2020, for example, wreckage from the 18 tonne core stage of a Chinese Long March 5B rocket hit two villages in the Ivory Coast, damaging buildings. In July 2022, suspected wreckage from a SpaceX Crew-1 capsule impacted farmland in Australia, while another Long March 5B was allowed to fall uncontrolled near the Philippines at the end of that same month. In 1979, NASA’s Skylab fell back to Earth after its orbit rapidly and severely degraded, scattering debris across Western Australia.

In all of these cases it was a matter of luck that nobody was injured. The risks from individual re-entry events are low, partly because of regulations. In the US, the Orbital Debris Mitigation Standard Practices stipulates that all launches should have a risk of casualty from an uncontrolled re-entry of no less than 1 in 10,000. However, the US Air Force, and even NASA, have flouted this rule on numerous occasions according to the new study. Other nations may have different regulations, or none. Should spacefaring nations not adopt measures to reduce the risks of falling debris, the study suggests that the only course of action remaining to southern hemisphere nations in the firing line is to make their case to the United Nations and to create a treaty. (8/2)

Why Space Debris Keeps Falling Out of the Sky—and Will Continue To Do So (Source: Ars Technica)
As space becomes more congested, the threat is growing, especially with the proliferation of new satellites in low Earth orbit. And while no humans have ever been killed by space debris falling back through Earth's atmosphere, the chance is non-zero. Regulatory agencies are starting to take notice and consider reforms. Fortunately, the space industry is changing its ways, too. Many Western rocket firms are now much more careful about ensuring the safe disposal of their upper stages, typically by reserving enough fuel to deorbit the stage into the Pacific Ocean.

Moreover, for its next-generation transport system, SpaceX is looking to make its Starship vehicle fully reusable, including both the booster and the upper stage. Other companies, such as Relativity Space and Blue Origin, are also looking to make fully reusable launch systems. Where the industry could do better is through more transparency, particularly about the debris created and its expected return to Earth. SpaceX still has not publicly commented on the Crew-1 trunk returning to Earth. And in addition to its silence on this week's debris, China plans to continue launching Long March 5B rockets despite their uncontrolled, dangerous return. Another low Earth orbit launch is planned for October of this year, with the Long March 5B boosting the Mengtian laboratory module. (8/2)

Lockheed to Launch Space-Based Testbed for Joint All-Domain Operations (Source: C4ISRnet)
Lockheed Martin plans to launch a three-satellite testbed next year to demonstrate space-enabled joint all-domain operations. The company’s 2023 launch schedule means the Space-Augmented JADO Environment should be on orbit in time for U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s Northern Edge exercise next year and other planned Air Force, Navy and Army joint capability demonstrations, the company said in an online posting. Stacy Kubicek, vice president and general manager of the company’s Mission Solutions business, told C4ISRNET that the Lockheed-funded effort will showcase the importance of space-based networks and be available for the company’s own internal demonstrations and for military use. (8/2)

A Minimalist Approach to the Hunt for Dark Matter (Source: WIRED)
The values of the fundamental constants, quantities such as the speed of light or the mass of the electron, do not change over time throughout the universe. Or do they? Physicist Dionysios Antypas and his team have set up a green laser to beam through a small glass container of iodine gas. By carefully studying the interaction of the light with the iodine, Antypas looks for hints that certain fundamental constants are changing, ever so slightly, over time. “We call them ‘constants’—in quotation marks,” says Antypas.

To be sure, Antypas’ team has not detected fundamental constants changing. But they find that if the mass of the electron did change, it fluctuated by less than 1 part in 100 trillion, and the mass of the iodine atom’s nucleus by less than 1 in 10 trillion. In addition, any fluctuations in fine structure constant are below 1 part in 100 trillion, says Antypas. The team searches for fluctuations in fundamental constants to look for dark matter, a mysterious substance that physicists estimate makes up 85 percent of the matter in the universe. Galaxies may be held together by dark matter.

Since then, researchers have made many more observations supporting the existence of dark matter. “We actually know the dark matter density [near Earth] within a factor of three, from its gravitational effect,” says Julia Gehrlein of Brookhaven National Laboratory, who was not involved with the experiment. “We just don't know what dark matter is made of.” In particular, Antypas’ team uses their experiment to search for a class of dark matter known as ultralight dark matter. At its heaviest, an ultralight dark matter particle is still about a trillion times lighter than an electron. (8/2)

Russia’s War in Ukraine Reveals More Problems in Space (Source: WIRED)
The future of Russia’s space sector looks bleak due to a drainage of resources, Samson says. Roscosmos has struggled with decreased funding in recent years, and it’s navigating tensions with other space powers thanks to the war in Ukraine and disputes with NATO. Russia is now constrained by sanctions that affect technology imports. The country has lost launch contracts at its Baikonur Cosmodrome spaceport in Kazakhstan. It has lost business with the US, as NASA and its partners’ astronauts can now travel to the ISS on SpaceX and Boeing spacecraft instead of having to book a ride on a Soyuz rocket. The European Space Agency has also cut ties with Roscosmos, most notably on the ExoMars mission, which has been delayed until later this decade.

There’s not much going for Roscosmos at this point other than the ISS—or a replacement to be called the Russian Orbital Service Station, which Borosiv claimed could be developed and launched as early as 2028. That’s an overoptimistic timeline, Samson and Dreier argue, considering it took more than 12 years for Russia to develop its Nauka ISS module, which launched to the ISS last year. “I don’t see that, considering their funding issues. And Russia’s civil space program has quality control issues and corruption issues as well. I don’t know that they could afford to build their own space station and continue to contribute to the ISS,” Samson says.

China is building its own space station, having launched the country’s second module, Wentian, last week. A third module, Mengtian, is planned for launch in October. Neither Chinese nor Russian officials have given any indication that they will collaborate on that station, which orbits at an inclination that would be difficult to reach from a Russian launch site. China and Russia have agreed, however, to jointly build a research station on the moon in the 2030s. One of Russia’s biggest investments in space continues to be on the military side. The country has developed, deployed, and even used weapons against spacecraft, with consequences for international space security. Russia has tested anti-satellite missiles, most recently in November 2021, and lasers as well, and it has made use of electronic and cyberweapons against satellites and ground systems. (The US and Chinese militaries are working on similar technologies.) (8/2)