August 5, 2022

Astra Cancels Small Rocket, Will Focus on Larger One (Source: Space News)
Astra pulled the plug on its Rocket 3 small launch vehicle after its latest failure. The company said in its quarterly financial report Thursday that it will no longer fly the rocket so it can focus on its much larger Rocket 4. The most recent Rocket 3.3 launch in June, carrying two NASA cubesats, failed to reach orbit, and the company has had only two successful launches on seven attempts. Astra says Rocket 4, now designed to place up to 600 kilograms into orbit, will begin test flights in 2023, but the company could not guarantee that it would enter commercial service by the end of next year. The company, which reported a net loss of $82.3 million in the quarter, says it has sufficient funding for at least the next year.

Customers who had signed contracts for Rocket 3 launches will be re-manifested on future Rocket 4 launches, including NASA. NASA officials on Aug. 2 suggested they had yet to decide how to launch the four remaining TROPICS cubesats. “We had contracted with a new and innovative launch company, and we knew we were taking some risk. In this case, the risk didn’t pay off,” said Karen St. Germain, director of NASA’s Earth science division. NASA and other customers may have to wait some time for new rides from Astra. The company said it does not plan to conduct any more launches this year. (8/5)

US and Russia Remain Committed to Joint ISS Operations Beyond 2024 (Sources: Space News, Reuters)
NASA and Roscosmos officials reiterated Thursday their intent to operate the International Space Station beyond 2024. At a briefing about the upcoming Crew-5 mission, a Roscosmos official said that the agency will end participation on the ISS only after 2024, which "could mean 2025, 2028 or 2030." NASA says it's working with international partners to extend ISS operations to 2030. NASA said it will also work with Roscosmos to update an agreement for "integrated crews" between Soyuz and Crew Dragon spacecraft to include Boeing's CST-100 Starliner after that vehicle completes a crewed test flight early next year.

NASA, though, has been developing contingency plans to operate the station if Russia decides to withdraw. Those plans examined ways to keep the station running should Russia abruptly withdraw, such as providing propulsion to maintain the station's orbit. Northrop Grumman successfully demonstrated the ability to reboost the station using its Cygnus spacecraft on that vehicle's most recent mission earlier this year. Boeing, the ISS prime contractor for NASA, also assigned a team of engineers to examine how to operate the station without Russia. (8/5)

NRO Bets on Mixed Fleet of Small and Large Satellites in Various Orbits (Source: Space News)
The National Reconnaissance Office will increasingly rely on lower-cost commercial smallsats and payloads developed with international partners. Chris Scolese, director of the NRO, said Thursday that the agency was "proliferating our architecture" with smaller spacecraft, like one launched early Thursday on a Rocket Lab Electron. A mix of small and large satellites launched to different orbits “will become the norm,” said Scolese. For lower-cost smallsat missions, the NRO will buy satellite buses from the open market like the ones used by commercial operators. (8/5)

Intelsat and SES Mum on Merger (Source: Space News)
Intelsat and SES are keeping quiet about rumored merger talks. Speaking at the company's quarterly earnings call Thursday, SES CEO Steve Collar said satellite “industry consolidation is a good thing” will help rationalize the market but declined to comment further. Intelsat also declined to comment on those talks but reiterated its interest in partnerships among satellite operators. SES shares fell as much as 10% following the report of the merger talks, despite announcing financial results that beat analyst expectations. [SpaceNews]

Virgin Galactic Delays Re-Start of Tourist Flights (Source: Space News)
Virgin Galactic is once again delaying the start of its suborbital tourist flights. The company said in an earnings call Thursday that delays with refurbishment of its WhiteKnightTwo aircraft, VMS Eve, would push back the start of commercial flights from the first quarter to the second quarter of 2023. Just three months ago, the company delayed the start of those flights from late 2022. Virgin said its second suborbital spaceplane, Imagine, would also be delayed, and may not be ready to enter commercial service before the end of 2023. (8/5)

Antarctica Capital Acquiring Businesses to Support Space-Based Data (Source: Space News)
Private equity firm Antarctica Capital has acquired geospatial analytics provider Descartes Labs to support its growing space-based data portfolio. Antarctica said Thursday it bought a controlling stake in Descartes Labs for an undisclosed sum. Antarctica formed a Canadian optical satellite imagery provider called EarthDaily Analytics (EDA) last year after buying parts of UrtheCast that sought creditor protection to avoid bankruptcy. EDA is working with Loft Orbital to build, launch and operate a fleet of 10 Earth-observation satellites in 2023. (8/5)

Measat-3 Insurance Claim Remains Unsettled (Source: Space News)
An insurance claim for a Malaysian satellite that ran out of fuel prematurely remains unsettled more than a year after the incident. Measat-3 suffered a complete outage of services after losing fuel earlier than its operator expected. Measat filed a $45 million claim for losses, but some underwriters are balking, arguing they received erroneous information before agreeing in late 2020 to extend coverage for a year. One source said the dispute is unlikely to be resolved soon. (8/5)

Record Day in the Books with 3 US Launches, 2 Space Coast Rockets, 1 Space Coast Tourist (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
It was the busiest day for launches ever for commercial companies in the United States, with 3.4 million pounds of combined thrust among three rockets punching their way into space on Thursday with payloads of one military satellite, one lunar probe and six space tourists. A SpaceX Falcon 9 topped off a crammed launch manifest that saw a ULA Atlas V and Blue Origin New Shepard all lighting their candles within 13 hours. Even earlier in the day, a Rocket Lab Electron rocket launched from New Zealand, which also marks a record for worldwide launches.

The Space Coast hosted two of the launches with the ULA and SpaceX missions taking place only 1 1/2 miles apart from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, while Blue Origin’s space tourism flight took off from West Texas. Editor's Note: China also launched a Long March 2F rocket on Thursday. (8/5)

The U.S Will Soon Have Space Force Ambassadors Around the World (Source: Time)
First come the warriors, then come the diplomats. It was on December 20, 2019, that the National Defense Authorization Act was signed, creating the U.S. Space Force, the first new branch of the military to come into being in the 72 years since the Air Force was established. The Space Force’s remit was not just to protect U.S. assets, like spy satellites, from attacks by hostile nations; it was also to prepare the nation for the possibility that space might one day become a war-fighting domain. The Space Force’s motto? “Semper Supra,” or “Always Above.”

And on the ground too, it seems. The new branch of the military is looking to exercise soft power as well, planning to create a Regional Space Adviser (RSA) program that would establish the position of space attaché in select countries around the world. According to Space Force spokesperson Lt. Col. Brooke Davis, the new program will “develop a cadre of space professionals focused on strengthening allies and partner relationships.” The best bet for the first country to welcome one of the new diplomats is the U.K., which already has a space force of its own, and has the third highest number of satellites in space, trailing only the U.S. and China.

Other countries considered likely to be home to a space attaché include Germany, Italy, France, Canada, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Denmark, and India—all of which have extensive space assets that could benefit from partnering with the U.S. But patience is called for. Diplomatic wheels turn slowly, and not only are the countries that will receive attachés not selected, no timeline for when those officers would be dispatched into the field has been set. (8/4)

Spire to Host Earth Imaging Payload for South Korean Company (Source: Space News)
Spire will host a second Earth-imaging payload for South Korean company Hancom InSpace. Hancom will fly an optical payload on a 6U Spire satellite launching in the second half of 2023. Spire will manage the payload integration, launch, and mission operations for the Hancom-2 satellite as part of its space-as-a-service business. In May, SpaceX launched a Spire satellite carrying the Hancom-1 payload on a Falcon 9 Transporter-5 rideshare mission, marking the first commercial satellite deployed for a private South Korean company. (8/5)

NOAA Picks SAIC and Carahsoft for $15 Million Cloud Storage Solution for Satellite Data (Source: Space News)
NOAA's National Satellite, Data and Information Service (NESDIS) awarded a contract for cloud computing services to SAIC and Carahsoft. The $15 million contract, announced Wednesday, covers up to 200 petabytes of cloud storage of satellite data. Moving data processing and storage to the cloud is a priority for NESDIS. (8/5)

Denver Group Wants Space Command HQ Language Added to Climate and Tax Bill (Source: Denver Gazette)
A Denver business group wants senators to add language about Space Command's headquarters to a climate and tax bill. The Metro Chamber of Commerce said it would ask the state's two Democratic senators, Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, to include an amendment to the Inflation Reduction Act that would direct the Pentagon to keep Space Command headquarters in Colorado. The Pentagon selected Redstone Arsenal on Alabama as the permanent headquarters for the command early last year, a decision that has been the subject of controversy and investigations. However, a spokesperson for Sen. Hickenlooper said it would not be possible to add such an amendment to the bill because of the rules regarding bills being considered under the reconciliation process. (8/5)

NASA Authorization Act Aims to Strengthen U.S. Space Exploration (Source: NextGov)
Congress passed the first NASA authorization bill in five years when it passed the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors for America, or CHIPS Act, last week, which extends International Space Station operations and supports NASA’s Artemis missions. The NASA Authorization Act of 2022 will focus on areas such as exploration, science, aeronautics, space technology and STEM engagement, among other things. The act formally creates the Moon to Mars Program in an effort to have people explore Mars, and it allows for the fulfillment of the Artemis Missions to the moon. It also extends International Space Station operations from 2024 through 2030. (8/4)

SpaceX Shares How it’s Making Starlink Satellites Less Bright (Source: Teslarati)
SpaceX shared how it’s making its Starlink satellites less bright. The company published a document titled, Brightness Mitigation Best Practices for Satellite Operators that outlines how it’s working with the astronomy community to reduce light pollution. For the first-gen satellites, SpaceX developed sun visors that block sunlight from hitting the bottom side of the chassis. They were made from materials that engineers developed to be invisible to radio frequencies. However, the sun visors blocked the laser links that SpaceX uses to expand coverage to remote regions of the world. Additionally, the visors generated significant drag on the satellites. So, SpaceX determined that the sun visors weren’t a long-term solution.

SpaceX developed RF-transparent mirror films as an alternative to the sun visors. The film scatters most of the sunlight away from the Earth. SpaceX said that it has been improving its mirror films to scatter less light back to the earth. It plans to deploy a new and improved version of the film on its next-generation satellites. Another change that SpaceX made to its first-gen satellites involved the inter-cell backing material. The material was initially white but SpaceX changed it to a dark red that reduces the arrays’ brightness. The downside is that the darkening of the material increases the temperature of the solar array which reduces performance. However, SpaceX will adopt many designs such as this one to reduce the brightness of the satellites. (7/30)

Back-to-Back SpaceX and ULA Launches Marked Quickest Turnaround Since 1966 (Source: Florida Today)
Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Thursday hosted back-to-back rocket launches in an occurrence that hasn't happened since 1966. The feat marks the quickest turnaround between orbital launches from the Space Coast since James Lovell and Buzz Aldrin's Gemini 12 mission lifted off on November 11, 1966, just 90 minutes after the launch of the Agena Target Vehicle they would later meet up with in orbit to practice rendezvous and docking. (8/4)

Strange Radio Signals From Deep Space Contain Signs of New Physics, Scientists Say (Source: Vice)
Scientists have spotted mysterious radio structures in the midst of an immense cluster of galaxies located 800 million light years away, reports a new study. These radio objects, some of which have never been seen before, pose new challenges to our understanding of the universe and offer an unprecedented glimpse into tumultuous regions of the cosmic web, a network of filaments and nodes that connects the universe. As the researchers who observed the sources put it in a companion essay, “They defy existing theories about both the origins of such objects and their characteristics.”

Stretching across 300 million light years of southern hemisphere sky, the galaxy cluster Abell 3266 is one of the biggest structures of its kind in the local universe. As the site of multiple clusters merging together, it opens a window into the fallout of huge cosmic collisions, which is why astronomers have studied it intensely for years, especially in X-ray and visible light. The newly observed structures in Abell 3266 include a huge radio halo that is “conclusively detected here for the first time” and contains “an extended central diffuse ‘ridge’ that we are as yet unable to classify,” according to the study.

The researchers also examined a so-called “wrong-way relic,” an arc-shaped structure with an odd concave shape and other features that have never been seen in similar objects, as well as a “fossil plasma source” that was created by the powerful blasts of a bygone supermassive black hole that has since faded into darkness. Even as seasoned radio astronomers, the team reacted to the otherworldly objects with “excitement, surprise and not a little confusion,” Riseley said. “There was definitely a lot of ‘what the heck?’ and ‘why does it look like that?’ kind of reaction,” he recalled. Click here. (8/4)

Satellites Will Act as Thermometers in the Sky (Source: BBC)
It's one of the "hottest" tickets in the UK's space start-up scene today. Satellite Vu is attracting a lot of interest with its plans to fly a network of spacecraft to map heat signatures across the planet. Such observations have long been made, but not at the resolution (3-4m) and frequency (several times a day) that the London firm is promising.

This will allow Satellite Vu to map the temperature profiles of individual buildings, offices and factories. If you want to know where the most inefficient housing stock is in a city, where energy is being wasted, where you could best target insulation expenditure - the new thermal data-sets will tell you. The information could make a significant contribution in helping the country meet its net-zero commitments. (7/20)

China Launches Secretive Reusable Test Spacecraft (Source: Space News)
China sent a highly-classified reusable experimental spacecraft into orbit Thursday, two years after a similarly clandestine mission. A Long March 2F rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert Aug. 4, sending a “reusable test space” into low Earth orbit, Chinese language state media Xinhua reported. The terse report stated that the test spacecraft will “operate in orbit for a period of time” before returning to its intended landing site in China. Technical verification of reusable and in-orbit services will be carried out as planned to provide technical support for the peaceful use of space, according to a machine translation of the report. (8/4)

SpaceX Launches South Korean Lunar Pathfinder (Source: Florida Today)
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, to send the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter, KPLO, to the Moon. This was the second launch from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport in just over 12 hours, the first being performed by an Atlas V rocket to orbit a missile warning satellite. This was the fastest time between two launches at Cape Canaveral since the 1960s. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 ultimately placed KLPO into a ballistic lunar transfer orbit. The spacecraft, South Korea’s first lunar orbiter, will enter orbit around the Moon by Dec. 16.

The 678-kilogram KPLO cost $200 million and carries an array of scientific instruments powered by two solar panels. Of the six instruments, five were developed by Korean universities and research organizations and one experiment funded by NASA, the ShadowCam. The rocket''s first stage landed successfully on a drone ship downrange. (8/4)