August 6, 2022

Britain is Having Another Go at Building a Space Industry (Source: The Economist)
In the next few months Virgin Orbit, a space-launch firm, intends to loft a mix of commercial and military satellites into orbit from the newly established Spaceport Cornwall. The government, which has become notably keener on the once-unfashionable idea of industrial policy, hopes the launch will help propel Britain’s space industry to great heights. Much of the growth, ministers hope, will come from private-sector activity. Britain’s space industry was already valued at £16.4bn ($20.1bn) in 2021. Around half of it is accounted for by firms such as Sky that broadcast television by satellite. A slew of high-tech firms develop sensors and satellites; a few are even trying to build rockets.

Over the past 20 years the cost of both launches and satellites have come down, reducing barriers to entry and fueling demand. Britain’s armed forces plan to spend £5bn over ten years on a replacement for the Skynet military-communications system, and another £1.4bn on new capabilities, the bulk of which will go on a series of spy satellites. Brexit has frozen UK out of ESA’s Galileo project, which aims to build an alternative to US GPS satellites; ministers have talked of modifying OneWeb’s satellites to provide an alternative. UK participation in Copernicus, a European civilian Earth-observation programme, is also under threat.

The most eye-catching of the government’s ambitions is for Britain to become a leader in the launch of small satellites. Besides Cornwall, Britain has six more potential spaceports in various stages of development. The country’s comparatively high latitude makes it slightly easier to reach the polar or sun-synchronous orbits favored by military-reconnaissance satellites and civilian Earth-observation ones. Launches look glamorous, warns Simon Potter of BryceTech, but generate comparatively little value. BryceTech puts the size of the global launch market at perhaps $7bn a year. The government hopes that a successful launch facility might serve to anchor a bigger cluster, but the competition is fierce. (8/1)

ESA’s CAVES Training Course: From ‘Cavewalking’ To Spacewalking (Source: SpaceRef)
It might not be obvious, but there are many similarities between working deep underground and in outer space. Just as with spacewalks, underground ‘cavewalks’ require safety tethering, 3D orientation, careful planning and teamwork. Cave explorers need to stay alert in an environment where they are deprived of natural light and every move is a step into the unknown. ESA’s CAVES training course has been taking astronauts below Earth’s surface and prepared them to work safely in an environment where the terrain, climate and climbing techniques pose high demands. (8/5)

Quasar to Deliver Space Data as a Service (Source: Space Daily)
Quasar Satellite Technologies is an Australian startup backed by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). Quasar is focused on providing space data as a service powered by phased array technology to commercial and public sector partners. This involves arranging antenna elements in a way that alters the shape and direction of radio signals without physically moving the antenna. The company is building the world's first cryogenically cooled communications solution that enables ground stations - which are typically only capable of tracking one satellite at a time - to communicate with multiple satellites simultaneously without a mechanical steering system. (8/5)

Additional Artemis I Test Objectives to Provide Added Confidence in Capabilities (Source: Space Daily)
During Artemis I, NASA plans to accomplish several primary objectives, including demonstrating the performance of the Orion spacecraft's heat shield from lunar return velocities, demonstrating operations and facilities during all mission phases from launch countdown through recovery, and retrieving the crew module for post-flight analysis. As the first integrated flight of the Space Launch System rocket, Orion spacecraft, and the exploration ground systems at NASA's 21st century spaceport in Florida, engineers hope to accomplish a host of additional test objectives to better understand how the spacecraft performs in space and prepare for future missions with crew.

Accomplishing additional objectives helps reduce risk for missions with crew and provides extra data so engineers can assess trends in spacecraft performance or improve confidence in spacecraft capabilities. Some of the additional objectives planned for are described here. (8/5)

Zenno Astronautics Wants to Move Spacecraft Around Using Electromagnets, Not Fuel (Source: Tech Crunch)
It’s easy to think about satellites as a bunch of mini-moons, orbiting the Earth seamlessly and without any (noticeable) movement. But that’s not quite right: satellites and other spacecraft often require fairly continuous tweaks to their positions in orbit. Historically, the aerospace industry has relied on thrusters, or a combination of reaction wheels and magnetic torque rods, to control a spacecraft’s attitude, control and positioning. But these take up a lot of space and mass, and limit how long a spacecraft can stay in orbit.

New Zealand-based Zenno Astronautics has come up with an alternative to these heavy and time-limited propulsion systems. The core technology is an electromagnet that generates a very strong magnetic field, which can interact with other magnetic fields — like those on other spacecraft, or even Earth’s own — to generate torque. The technology caught the interest of investors, who recently contributed to a NZ$10.5 million ($6.585 million) seed round. The funding marks the beginning of what Zenno hopes will be a landmark 18 months, culminating in their first launch in the fourth quarter of 2023. Around the same time, the company hopes to have a production facility operating with a massive manufacturing capacity of 1,000 electromagnetic systems per year. (8/5)

Moscow Edition: Ukraine Invasion Damages Russia’s Launch Business (Source: Parabolic Arc)
Ambitious launch schedules typically go awry when a rocket suffers a catastrophic failure that takes months to investigate and fix. In the majority of cases, the failures involve a machine launching a machine. All that can be replaced, albeit at substantial cost. Russia’s ambitious launch plans for 2022 fell apart due to a far more momentous and deadly action: the nation’s invasion of Ukraine. The decision ruptured cooperation with the West on virtually every space project. Due to the invasion, Western partners canceled seven launches of foreign payloads in less than a month. The cancellations put Russia even further behind the United States and China in launch totals this year. (8/5)

U.S. Kicking Russian Rocket Engines to the Curb (Source: National Defense)
After relying on Russian-made rocket engines for national security launches since the early 2000s, the United States is preparing to blast off with next-generation engines made within its borders. United Launch Alliance — a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing — and Elon Musk’s SpaceX are gearing up for the first batch of national security launches awarded to the companies in 2020. More than 30 launches will be carried out between ULA’s Vulcan Centaur and SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy from fiscal year 2022 through 2027 as part of phase 2 of the National Security Space Launch program, or NSSL.

The upcoming launches will allow the United States to phase out the Russian-made RD-180 — the first-stage engine used to power ULA’s Atlas V rocket. The RD-180 engine is a dual-combustion chamber, dual-nozzle engine designed and built by the Russian company Energomash. Despite the Atlas V’s near perfect launch rate, Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea sparked calls from U.S. lawmakers to cut off the reliance on the RD-180 by making a new engine for the Atlas V on U.S. soil — a task easier said than done, Stone said.

The decision to develop a new rocket and engine has been reaffirmed since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February, when Moscow formally announced it would cease all sales and support of the RD-180 to the United States in response to sanctions placed on the country. “We were able to say, ‘So what? We don’t need your stinking engines anymore,’” Chris Stone said. Overall, the decision to cease use of the RD-180 and have more varied launch vehicles has created a more robust rocket industrial base. (8/5)

SpaceX Raises Another $250 Million in Equity, Lifts Total to $2 Billion in 2022 (Source: CNBC)
SpaceX raised $250 million in an equity round last month, the company disclosed in a securities filing on Friday. It has now raised $2 billion in 2022. The filing doesn’t specify the sources of the funds, but noted they came from five investors. SpaceX did not disclose a change in its valuation. The company’s value has soared in the last few years, with SpaceX raising billions to fund work on two capital-intensive projects — the next generation rocket Starship and its global satellite internet network Starlink. Its value hit $127 billion during its previous equity round in May, CNBC reported. That raise brought in $1.725 billion. (8/5)

Congress Needs to Direct a Space Junk Clean-up Mission (Source: The Hill)
The Biden administration’s recently released implementation plan for addressing orbital debris — space junk — is another inside-the-beltway toothless wonder. It’s time Congress step in and legislate action on orbital debris, instead of accepting this policy’s approach of “paralysis by analysis.” The new White House “National Orbital Debris Implementation Plan” provides 14 pages of PowerPoint-like bullets, with palatable big picture goals, but no specific direction for an Active Debris Removal (ADR) technology demonstration mission.

Instead of a call to action with direction to design and launch a long-overdue ADR technology demonstration mission within the coming decade — an obvious next-step to address space junk — this latest administration plan instead dives deep into the safe and often obscure bureaucratic waters of “assessments, studies and analysis.” In true Washington policy style, the White House plan suggests more surveys, more research, “best practices, guidelines and websites.”

An ADR technology demonstration mission that publicly captures and deorbits a large chunk of space junk will show the world that the United States recognizes the seriousness of this growing high-frontier threat. An ADR mission also will jump-start new business lines for innovative American aerospace companies, large and small. Instead of waiting another decade for “studies, assessments and analysis,” U.S. businesses will witness mission success, sense opportunity and gladly step up to make space cleaner and safer, while also making a profit right here on Earth. (8/5)

Sell Virgin Galactic as it Delays Space Tourism Flights and Burns Through Cash, Truist Says (Sources: CNBC, Seeking Alpha)
Investors should sell shares of Virgin Galactic as the space tourism company continues to push back commercial flights and burns through cash, Truist said in an analyst note Friday. "We currently model for the company to burn through its $1.1B cash balance by 3Q24 and yesterday's $300M stock distribution agreement points to further dilutive equity offerings." The firm dropped its price target on SPCE to $5 from $8, which is below the 52-week low for the stock of $5.15. (8/5)

Space Factory Startup Varda Secures NASA Partnerships Ahead of Demo Flight Next Year (Source: CNBC)
Early stage Varda Space Industries has signed a pair of agreements with NASA, the company announced Friday. The agreements secure Varda access to key technologies the company will need for the first demonstration of its space factory system. Varda’s goal is to develop a new method for manufacturing materials in space, an opportunity to build products that are useful on Earth more efficiently in space’s microgravity. Its first mission is set to fly on SpaceX's Transporter-8 rideshare mission during second quarter of next year. (8/5)

FCC’s Role in Commercial Space Expands with ISAM Proceeding (Source: Space Policy Online)
The FCC voted unanimously today to open a new proceeding called Space Innovation to assess what it could and should be doing in regulating new areas of commercial space activity. A Notice of Inquiry on the nascent In-Space Servicing, Assembly and Manufacturing (ISAM) industry is its first step, but there is more to come. The FCC’s interest in ISAM comes after the White House released an ISAM National Strategy in April. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel praised the White House action today, exclaiming “we’re all in.” (8/5)

FCC Considers Opening Up More Ku-Band to Non-GEO Satellite Operators (Source: Space News)
The FCC is considering opening up more Ku-band spectrum to Starlink and other non-geostationary satellite (NGSO) operators to improve broadband speeds. The U.S. regulator said Aug. 3 it will invite comments on a proposal to free up 17 GHz frequencies as it approved a similar move for satellites in higher geostationary orbits (GEO). The FCC’s Notice of Proposed Rule Making will seek comments under a 90-day comment period that starts from when it is published in the Federal Register. (8/5)

Aging Telesat Satellite Running Out of Fuel as Projected LEO Costs Soar (Source: Space News)
Canada’s Telesat is bracing for a revenue hit in 2023 after being forced to retire its Anik F2 satellite from full service three years earlier than planned. The aging Boeing-built satellite has been operating under a workaround mode for the past year after two of its four station-keeping thrusters suffered an anomaly. One of the thrusters failed while the second continued to support operations with some constraints, Telesat said Aug. 5, enabling the company to avoid impacting Anik F2 customers that are mainly based in Canada. (8/5)

Chinese Space Firm Raises Funds for Commercial Weather Data Satellite Constellation (Source: Space News)
A Chinese private company wants to build a constellation of 80 satellites to provide weather data, further illustrating the growth and scope of China’s commercial space sector. Tianjin-based Yunyao Yuhang recently secured nearly $14.8 million in “Pre-A+” funding, the company announced Aug. 4, following a previous round worth “tens of millions of yuan” in July 2021. The new round was led by Zhongwei Yihe Investment.

Yunyao Yuhang was founded in 2019 in response to a call for deepened “military-civilian integration” in China. The company’s aim is to provide data for global weather forecasting and even short-term earthquake forecasting, including for countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative. Earlier statements from the company laid out a 2023 target for establishing the 80-strong constellation, a timeline omitted from the latest press release. (8/5)

Space Development Agency to Take Another Stab at Space-to-Aircraft Laser Communications (Source: Space News)
As it prepares to start deploying a mesh network in low Earth orbit, the Space Development Agency is seeking proposals for a demonstration of laser communications between orbiting satellites and aircraft in flight. The agency on Aug. 4 issued a “special notice” asking vendors to submit by Sept. 2 proposals on how they would conduct a live demonstration of laser crosslinks between SDA’s Transport Layer satellites and a moving aircraft. An SDA-funded experiment to test out this technology was launched in June 2021 but was unsuccessful.

General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems launched two cubesats carrying optical communications terminals to test inter-satellite links but the cubesats never reached their intended orbit and the company was unable to establish contact. In the new solicitation, SDA asks vendors to figure out a way to connect one or more of the 20 Tranche 0 Transport Layer satellites — projected to launch in September — with an aircraft that would be chosen by the vendor. SDA is interested in a live flight demonstration but also would consider a phased experiment, starting with space to ground, space to a moving ground vehicle, and space to an airborne platform. (8/5)

Space Debris is Coming Down More Frequently. What are the Chances it Could Hit Someone or Damage Property? (Source: The Conversation)
In the past week alone, we’ve seen two separate incidents of space debris hurtling back to Earth in unexpected places. On Saturday there was the uncontrolled re-entry of a Chinese Long March 5B rocket over Malaysia. Yesterday outlets reported on some spacecraft parts that turned up in regional New South Wales – now confirmed to be from a SpaceX Crew-1 mission.

As the space industry grows, it’s safe to say such incidents will only become more frequent – and they could pose a risk. But how much of a risk, exactly? As far as we know only one person has ever been hit by it. Lottie Williams, a resident of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was struck by a piece in 1997. It was about the size of her hand and thought to have come from a Delta II rocket. She picked it up, took it home and reported it to authorities the next day. However, with more and more objects going into space, and coming back down, the chances of someone or something being struck are increasing. This is especially true of large, uncontrolled objects such as the Long March 5B. (8/3)