September 12, 2022

GAO Says Clear Roles In Satellite Imagery Acquisition Needed (Source: Law360)
The U.S. Department of Defense and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence should establish more explicit roles and responsibilities for the acquisition of commercial satellite imagery and data critical to national security issues, the U.S. Government Accountability Office said in a report published Wednesday. (9/12)

New Shepard Research Flight Suffers In-flight Abort; Capsule Lands Safely, Booster Likely Destroyed (Source: Parabolic Arc)
Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital spacecraft carrying scientific research suffered an in-flight abort during a launch from West Texas on Monday morning. The capsule landed safely under parachutes after its abort motor carried it away from the failing booster. The rocket’s BE-3 engine flashed at least once before visible exhaust flames began to appear. The capsule then fired its abort engine. There was no further view of the reusable booster, which likely crashed into the desert instead of making a landing back on a concrete pad.

No spaceflight participants were aboard, but if they had been they would have experienced a rough ride. Video showed the swinging back and forth and even turning on its side as the escape motor fired. The passengers would have been strapped securely into their seats, but it would still have been a disturbing experience. It was the first unplanned abort of New Shepard. The abort motor had been tested from the ground and in one planned in-flight abort test. The capsule, whose landing appeared to be nominal after three parachutes deployed, was carrying a load of scientific research and technology demonstrations for NASA and other parties. (9/12)

FAA to Oversee Investigation into New Shepard Abort (Source: Parabolic Arc)
The FAA will oversee the investigation of Blue Origin’s NS-23 mishap that occurred at its Launch Site One location in West Texas. The anomaly that occurred triggered the capsule escape system. The capsule landed safely and the booster impacted within the designated hazard area. No injuries or public property damage have been reported. This was a payload only mission; there were no humans aboard.

Before the New Shepard vehicle can return to flight, the FAA will determine whether any system, process, or procedure related to the mishap affected public safety. This is standard practice for all mishap investigations. The FAA is responsible for protecting the public during commercial space transportation launch and reentry operations. (9/12)

Could Space Force Be Coming to Niagara Falls? Only if Congress Agrees to Space Guard (Source: Buffalo News)
Someday we may be calling the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station the Niagara Falls Air and Space Reserve Station. That's because advocates for the base want to bring a Space Force National Guard unit to the Falls – that is, if Congress agrees that the Space Force should have its own National Guard.

There's a behind-the-scenes debate about that, with advocates saying the Space Force will be hampered without its own part-time Guard component and with bean counters saying the creation of a new National Guard would cost too much. But to John Cooper, chairman of the Niagara Military Affairs Council, creating a Space Guard is important to preserving and growing Western New York's largest military facility. (9/11)

Thai Aerospace Entrepreneur Bets Big With Spacetech Firm (Source: Forbes)
The largest private satellite research and assembly center in Southeast Asia can be found on a busy frontage road parallel to Bangkok’s six-lane Don Muang tollway, tucked between a tractor dealer and an empty lot. It's early December 2021, and inside Factory 1, an ultramod 2,202-square-meter hanger, jeans-clad James Yenbamroong, founder and CEO of Thai aerospace manufacturing firm mu Space, takes to the stage to talk robotics, remote space machinery and power systems to the press and potential investors.

Projected on a screen behind him is the undeniable star of the show, artist's renderings of the mu-B200 -- Thailand’s first in-house-designed commercial satellite that the five-year-old company hopes to build and put into orbit by early 2023. It's an ambitious, if not a little improbable, bet for the soft-spoken 38-year-old, who has raised millions of dollars from investors banking that his firm will do just that.

Its success could open a pipeline of orders for the customizable 200kg satellite for low-Earth orbit payloads (like Earth observation, disaster prevention and weather monitoring) that has a build time of 12 months and a $4 million price tag—about half that of its competitors, the firm says. At a minimum, mu Space’s ability to make parts on-site has the potential to bridge the gap with Western suppliers and create a spacetech supply chain in Southeast Asia. (9/12)

Inflatable Moon Base Concept for Lunar Poles Revealed by ESA (Source: Journal of Space Commerce)
An inflatable Moon base concept has been revealed by ESA based on a study conducted by Inflatable structures specialist Pneumocell in Austria. The vision is for a future lunar habitat assembled from semi-buried inflatable habitats. Sited beside the lunar poles in regions of near-perpetual solar illumination, mirrors positioned above each habitat would reflect sunlight into greenhouses within the doughnut-shaped habitats.

Once inflated, these habitats would be buried under 4-5 meters (≈13-16 feet) of lunar regolith for radiation and micrometeorite protection. Above each habitat a truss holding a mirror membrane would be erected, designed to rotate to follow the Sun through the sky. Sunlight from the mirror would be directed down through an artificial crater, from which another cone-shaped mirror reflects it into the surrounding greenhouse. (9/7)

Spaceflight Inc. Taps Global Launch Vehicle Portfolio to Take Fast-Growing Astrocast IoT Constellation to Orbit (Source: Parabolic Arc)
Spaceflight, the leading global launch services provider, today announced it will launch four Astrocast 3U spacecraft aboard India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) mission under a commercial arrangement with NewSpace India Limited (NSIL). This mission, scheduled for October 2022, will launch from Sriharikota, India’s Satish Dhawan Space Center, carrying the Astrocast spacecraft as a co-passenger to sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) along with the Indian national primary satellite. (9/12)

Thales Alenia to Develop KT SAT (Source: Space News)
Thales Alenia Space won an order from South Korean operator KT SAT for a GEO communications satellite. The companies announced Monday the order for the Koreasat 6A spacecraft, to be delivered in the fourth quarter of 2024. The spacecraft will replace Koreasat 6, launched in 2010 and operating at 116 degrees east in GEO. It will have 20 transponders for fixed satellite services and 6 for TV broadcast. Koreasat 6A will be based on the manufacturer's Spacebus 4000B2 platform and is expected to weigh about 3.5 metric tons at launch. (9/12)

US to Introduce UN Resolution on ASAT Testing (Source: Space News)
The US will introduce a resolution at the UN General Assembly calling on countries to join its moratorium on testing direct-ascent ASATs. Vice President Kamala Harris announced the proposed resolution, to be introduced later this month, at a meeting of the National Space Council on Friday. The resolution is seen as a way to get more countries to commit to the testing ban that the U.S. announced in April. The proposal will likely be discussed at a meeting this week in Geneva of a U.N. working group on reducing space threats. The State Department also announced at the council meeting that the first meeting of signatories of the Artemis Accords is scheduled to take place next week at the International Astronautical Congress in Paris. (9/12)

NTSB to Lead Space Transportation Accident Investigations (Source: Space News)
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board have signed an agreement outlining their roles in investigating commercial space accidents. Under the agreement, announced Friday, the NTSB will take the lead on investigations involving accidents that kill or seriously injure people or cause damage outside the launch site that "could reasonably be expected" to injure or kill people. The FAA will lead all other commercial spaceflight mishap investigations. The FAA also announced Friday that Kelvin Coleman, the acting associate administrator for commercial space transportation since the spring, will take the job on a permanent basis. (9/12)

SciTec to Develop Data Analysis Software for Missile Warning Satellite System (Source: Space News)
SciTec won a $272 million contract to develop software to analyze data collected by the U.S. military's early-warning infrared satellites. The company, a small business based in New Jersey, beat out Maxar and Altamira in a project by Space Systems Command to develop data processing applications that take in raw sensor data and turn it into information for military users, civilian first responders and researchers. The project supports a new ground system for existing and future missile-warning satellites. (9/12)

Hydrogen Problem Scrubs Sunday Firefly Launch Attempt (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
Firefly scrubbed its first attempt to launch its second Alpha rocket Sunday. The company halted a countdown one minute before the scheduled 6 p.m. Eastern liftoff of the rocket because of a problem supply hydrogen to pressurize tanks in the rocket's upper stage. While Firefly had a four-hour launch window, it scrubbed the launch after concluding it could not be fixed in time. The launch is rescheduled for the same time Monday. The launch will be the first for Alpha since its inaugural launch failed a little more than a year ago. (9/12)

CAPSTONE Enters Safe Mode After Trajectory Maneuver (Source: Space News)
The CAPSTONE lunar cubesat is in a safe mode after encountering a problem during a trajectory correction maneuver. NASA and Advanced Space, which owns CAPSTONE, said the spacecraft went into safe mode during the maneuver Thursday but did not elaborate on the issue that caused the safe mode. Controllers are in contact with the satellite, which remains on track to arrive at the moon in November, but did not give a schedule for resolving the current problem. (9/12)

Sierra Space Among Companies to Explore Point-to-Point Transport for DoD (Source: Space News)
Sierra Space is the latest company to win a contract to study point-to-point rocket travel. The company said it signed a cooperative research and development agreement with the U.S. Transportation Command to study how its Dream Chaser spaceplane and Shooting Star cargo vehicle could be used for cargo delivery. The company joins a list of commercial space players that includes SpaceX, Blue Origin and Rocket Lab, exploring options for using rockets and space vehicles to transport military crews and cargo around the world. (9/12)

LeoLabs Awarded Contract From US Dept of Commerce to Support Space Traffic Management Prototype (Source: Space Daily)
LeoLabs has announced an award to provide data and services to the US Department of Commerce to support the development of a US civil- led Space Traffic Management (STM) system. Under this contract, LeoLabs will provide its operationally proven tracking and conjunction alert data products for a subset of Resident Space Objects (RSOs), including both real-time and archived data sets. The Department of Commerce will utilize these orbital data products to support testing and evaluation of a prototype STM system. (9/12)

New Lunar Mineral Found by Chinese Scientists (Source: Space Daily)
Chinese scientists have achieved a remarkable new feat in their research of the moon as they have discovered and identified the sixth new lunar mineral. The China National Space Administration and the China Atomic Energy Authority jointly announced in Beijing on Friday that the new mineral-Changesite-(Y)-was found by scientists at the Beijing Research Institute of Uranium Geology from surface samples returned by the country's Chang'e 5 robotic mission and has been certified by the International Mineralogical Association and its Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature and Classification. (9/12)