September 19, 2022

ULA: Vulcan Centaur Will Launch in 2022 (Source: Space News)
United Launch Alliance's Vulcan Centaur rocket is on track to complete its inaugural launch by year's end, with supplier Blue Origin testing the rocket's BE-4 engines. Blue Origin, meanwhile, is working toward the first orbital flight of its New Glenn rocket. (9/15)

Bezos, Musk Rockets Tested in Ohio (Source: Sandusky Register)
Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk — two billionaires you’ve probably heard of — have something in common besides the fact they are trying to help humanity migrate into space: Both have carried out testing for their spacecraft at the Neil Armstrong Test Facility in just off of Lake Erie in Sandusky. While the test facility has carried out testing for many space missions launched by NASA, including a key role in the successful Mars lander missions, it also has carried out tests for Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket company and for Musk’s SpaceX venture. The most recent testing was carried out for Blue Origin. (9/19)

Space Exploration is Needed to Fight Climate Change, Says French Prime Minister (Source: The National)
Space exploration is needed in the fight against climate change, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said at the world’s largest space conference. She said that space activities help to track climate change and extreme weather patterns. As governments increase funding in space, the sector is often criticised as a “waste of money”, with some who say that investment should go into public welfare instead. But, Ms Borne said that space helps in our daily lives, including communication, navigation and planetary studies. (9/18)

NASA Chief Confident Russia Will Cooperate in Retiring Space Station (Source: The National)
NASA is confident that Russia will co-operate in de-orbiting the International Space Station at the end of this decade. Bill Nelson, NASA’s administrator, was speaking at a press conference held on the first day of the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Paris, taking place until September 22. NASA and Russia are both partners on the floating laboratory, with Russian space agency Roscosmos, which performs maneuvers on the ship using its Progress spacecraft that is docked there. (9/18)

China's First Mars Exploration Mission Achieves Rich Scientific Results (Source: Xinhua)
China's first Mars exploration mission has achieved rich scientific results, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) said Sunday. As of Thursday, the Tianwen-1 orbiter has been operating normally for over 780 days, and the rover Zhurong has traveled 1,921 meters on the surface of Mars, the CNSA said. The orbiter and rover of China's Tianwen-1 probe have completed the targeted scientific exploration missions and have acquired 1,480 gigabytes of raw scientific data. The Tianwen-1 probe consists of an orbiter, a lander, and a rover. On May 15, 2021, it touched down at its pre-selected landing area in Utopia Planitia, a vast Martian plain, marking the first time China has landed a probe on the planet. (9/18)

Voyager Space Announces George Washington Carver Science Park Terrestrial Lab to be Located at The Ohio State University (Source: Voyager Space)
Voyager Space announced it has selected a proposal from The Ohio State University, the State of Ohio, JobsOhio, and One Columbus ("Team Ohio") to locate the terrestrial analog of the George Washington Carver Science Park (GWCSP) at Ohio State in Columbus, Ohio.

The GWCSP, established by Voyager and its operating company Nanoracks, is expected to be a core element of Starlab, the companies' proposed commercial space station. In December 2021, Voyager and Nanoracks won a $160 million award from NASA to design Starlab as part of NASA's Commercial Destination Free Flyers (CDFF) effort. The GWCSP is the world's first-ever science park in space, operating today on the ISS. The GWCSP leverages a successful terrestrial business model where scientists and industry experts share findings, collaborate, and use new technologies to advance both scientific and commercial endeavors.

Together, Team Ohio and Voyager agreed to a two-phase program to realize the development of the GWCSP terrestrial lab. The project is still pending review and approval of incentives from JobsOhio and the Ohio Department of Development. The effort will begin this year with a facility at Ohio State's College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences. Next year, the organizations plan to break ground on a stand-alone facility on the Ohio State Aerospace and Air Transportation Campus, home to The Ohio State University Airport (KOSU), Ohio State's Aerospace Research Center, Knowlton Executive Flight Terminal and Education Center, and a range of corporate, government, and private aviation and aerospace activities. (9/19)

Astrobotic Proposes LunaGrid Power Generation System (Source: Astrobotic)
Astrobotic announced LunaGrid, a commercial power service for the poles of the Moon. LunaGrid is a power generation and distribution service that will deliver power by the watt to landers, rovers, habitats, science suites, and other lunar surface systems. The service will enable space agencies’, companies’, and nonprofits’ systems to survive the lunar night and operate indefinitely on the Moon starting at the lunar south pole.

LunaGrid is a culmination of systems under development now at Astrobotic. It makes use of the company’s landers, rovers, and wireless chargers as well its Vertical Solar Array Technology (VSAT), which is in development at Astrobotic in concert with NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate. Astrobotic was awarded a follow-on $6.2 million contract by NASA in August to further advance its VSAT systems. (9/19)

China and Russia are On Track to Set Up a Moon Base by 2036 - Here's the Plan (Source: Inverse)
In the next decade, an international coalition plans to build a lunar research station to transform humanity's exploration and observation of the Moon. The planning phase is already underway, and it is going well. Construction is slated for 2026 through 2035, and crews could start operating from the base by 2036. The station will feature a lunar orbiter, a large, multi-level, habitat to enable surface-based activities, and play host to several lunar rovers.

If this sounds a lot like the NASA Lunar Gateway program, think again. The station, called the International Lunar Research Station, is a rival to the U.S. space agency’s plans to put humans permanently on the surface of the Moon within a similar time frame. Instead, the ILRS is the brainchild of China and Russia — two of the U.S.’ greatest rivals on Earth. In 2021, Russia and China laid out their roadmap for the station, detailing a timeline that features three main stages:

2021-2026: Reconnaissance, featuring three manned missions to the Moon by Russia and China; 2026-2035: Build, which will involve creating the autonomously operating station; and 2036 onwards: Occupance, meaning crews can live and work at the station and use it as a stop on the way to other space-based mission destinations. Click here. (9/19)

70% of Canada Without Starlink Should Have it Later This Year (Source: Teslarati)
Seventy percent of Canada without Starlink should have it later this year, according to a tweet from Elon Musk. It’s also not available for a large portion of Norway and other polar regions, but this is expected to change later this year, according to Elon Musk. He said that Starlink would be available later this year when laser links are activated on the polar constellation. (9/17)

Astronauts Could Use Mars Soil for 3D-Pprinting on the Red Planet (Source: Space.com)
Martian soil could serve as a 3D-printing material, researchers have shown, meaning it could be used to manufacture items on the Red Planet. In a series of tests, Amit Bandyopadhyay, a professor at the Washington State University School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, and his team used simulated crushed Martian regolith to demonstrate its capabilities as a 3D-printing material. The results may be crucial for future crewed missions to Mars. (9/18)

A New Way to Discover Planets? Astronomers Detect an Exoplanet by Seeing its Trojan Belts (Source: Universe Today)
Although we have found thousands of exoplanets in recent years, we really only have three methods of finding them. The first is to observe a star dimming slightly as a planet passes in front of it (transit method). The second is to measure the wobble of a star as an orbiting planet gives it a gravitational tug (Doppler method). The third is to observe the exoplanet directly. Now a new study in the Astrophysical Journal Letters has a fourth method.

Each of the methods we currently use has its drawbacks. The transit method only works when an exoplanet’s orbit is lined up with our view of the star, the Doppler method tends to favor larger planets orbiting close to a small star, and the direct observation is best for large planets orbiting far from their star. But all of these methods only work for planets orbiting middle-aged stars. That is stars that have long since cleared the dust and debris around them. So while we have learned a great deal about the types of planetary systems that are out there, we’ve learned less about how young star systems form. (9/17)

JWST’s First Glimpses of Early Galaxies Could Break Cosmology (Source: Scientific American)
Rohan Naidu was sitting at home with his girlfriend when he found the galaxy that nearly broke cosmology. As his algorithm dug through early images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) late one night in July, Naidu shot to attention. It had sifted out an object that, on closer inspection, was inexplicably massive and dated back to just 300 million years after the big bang, older than any galaxy ever seen before. "This might be the most distant starlight we’ve ever seen,” he told his girlfriend. With his colleagues, he published a paper on the candidate galaxy, which they named GLASS-z13.

One might say JWST’s observations of early galaxies have been billions of years in the making, but more modestly they trace back to the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore in 1985. At the time the Hubble Space Telescope was still five years away from launching on a space shuttle. But Garth Illingworth, then the deputy director of the STScI, was surprised one day when his boss, STScI’s then director Riccardo Giacconi, asked him to already start thinking what would come after Hubble much further down the road.

“I protested, saying we’ve got more than enough to do on Hubble,” Illingworth recalls. But Giacconi was insistent: “Trust me, it’ll take a long time,” he said. So, Illingworth and a handful of others got to work, drawing up concept ideas for what was then known as the Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST), later renamed to JWST after a former NASA administrator. (9/14)

Satellite Radar Startups Spar Over Commercial Market Importance (Source: Space News)
Satellite radar startups disagree over how much of their resources should be moved to meet anticipated demand from commercial customers and away from governments, which today provide the bulk of revenues. Executives of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) companies Capella Space, Umbra, and Synspective discussed diverging growth strategies Sep. 16 during World Satellite Business Week. Payam Banazadeh, CEO and founder of Capella, said SAR providers must concentrate capacity on serving “the top 10 customers today,” which are primarily in the defense and intelligence market. (9/16)

NASA Requests Proposal for Second Artemis Crewed Lunar Lander (Source: Space News)
NASA has released a request for proposals for a second human lunar lander for the Artemis program to join the Starship lander under development by SpaceX. NASA released the call for proposals Sept. 16, nearly six months after announcing plans for the Sustaining Lunar Development (SLD) project and releasing a draft call for proposals for industry feedback. The agency set a deadline of Nov. 15 for receiving proposals with an award expected in May 2023.

The selected company would develop a lander that would support missions after Artemis 3, the first crewed landing of the Artemis campaign that will be done by SpaceX no earlier than 2025. The winning company would carry out an uncrewed landing followed by a crewed landing no earlier than the Artemis 5 mission in the late 2020s, then be eligible, along with SpaceX, to complete for lunar landing service contracts for later missions.

The winning company will have to demonstrate its lander can meet the requirements for a notional lunar lander mission called a Polar Sortie Mission. That mission would carry two astronauts to the lunar surface for a stay of up to 6.25 days and support four planned and one contingency moonwalk. A later Polar Excursion Mission would require the lander to transport four astronauts to the lunar surface and stay there for 33 days. That mission would assume there are other assets at the landing site, like a habitat where astronauts would stay during the mission, and thus require only one roundtrip moonwalk from the lander to the habitat and back. (9/18)

Nanoracks Cut a Piece of Metal in Space for the First Time (Source: Tech Crunch)
Nanoracks just made space construction and manufacturing history with the first demonstration of cutting metal in orbit. The technique could be critical for the next generation of large-scale space stations and even lunar habitats. The experiment was performed back in May by Nanoracks and its parent company Voyager Space, after getting to orbit aboard the SpaceX Transporter 5 launch. The company only recently released additional details on Friday.

The goal of Outpost Mars Demo-1 mission was to cut a piece of corrosion-resistant metal, similar to the outer shell of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur and common in space debris, using a technique called friction milling. Welding and metal-cutting is a messy operation on Earth, but all of that dust and debris simply falls to the ground. However, “when you’re in space, in the vacuum, it doesn’t really do that. (9/16)

Voyager Space and Nanoracks Sign MOUs with Five Latin American Space Agencies (Source: Voyager Space)
Voyager Space, a global leader in space exploration, and its operating company Nanoracks, today announced while at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) that the company has signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with the Colombian Space Agency, El Salvador Aerospace Institute, the Mexican Space Agency, the Guatemalan Association of Space Sciences and Engineering, and the Costa Rican startup Orbital Space Technologies. Nanoracks and Voyager signed an individual MoU with each agency, with the intent of opening up access to space and furthering commercial space opportunities within the respective countries.

"This is a momentous occasion, not only for our teams at Voyager and Nanoracks but also for the growing space economies of each and every one of these countries," said Jeffrey Manber, President of International and Space Stations at Voyager. "We look forward to working closely with the space agencies in Colombia, El Salvador, Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and potentially more countries in the region to support their current space initiatives and work together to make future commercial space platforms accessible. (9/18)

UK Regulator Clears Inmarsat Sale to US Communications Company Viasat (Source: Defense News)
Viasat has moved a significant step forward in its bid to acquire Inmarsat following the British government’s announcement that it has approved the acquisition of the mobile satellite communications company. Jacob Rees-Mogg, the business and industrial strategy secretary recently appointed to the post by new Prime Minister Liz Truss, cleared the proposed $7.3 billion merger saying the deal did not pose a threat to British national security. (9/17)

Shanghai Rocket Maker Considering Developing Huge Methane-Fueled Rockets (Source: Space News)
A major arm of China’s state-owned space contractor is looking at developing a series of partially and fully-reusable launch vehicles apparently in response to SpaceX’s Starship. A paper published in the journal Aerospace Technology outlines plans under consideration by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST) for a number of launch vehicles with varying diameters and clusters of methalox engines.

A first generation of three launch vehicles with reusable first stages would have diameters of 3.35, 4.0 and 7.0 meters, powered by clusters of five, seven-to-nine and 9-22 “Longyun” 70-ton-thrust engines. Second stages would use vacuum-optimized versions of the engine. The 3.35m version is to be capable of lifting 2,500 kilograms to a 700-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), while the 4.0m variant—a size chosen to meet the maximum which can be transported to China’s inland launch sites—could launch up to 6,500 kg of payload to a similar orbit.

The 7.0 meter version is planned to be able to launch more than 20,000 kg to 700 km SSO, while requiring new launch facilities and an offshore platform for recovering the first stage. The paper states that the technologies needed for a first generation of reusable launch vehicles, including grid fins, navigation guidance and control, and reusable, restartable engines, has advanced to the point of being ready for flight demonstrations. (9/18)

Hilton to Design Astronaut Suites, Facilities for Voyager’s Private Space Station Starlab (Source: CNBC)
Hotel giant Hilton has signed on to design astronaut facilities for the private space station Starlab, currently under development by Voyager Space Holdings and Lockheed Martin. In addition to designing hospitality suites and sleeping arrangements, Hilton will also work with Voyager to examine opportunities for marketing of the space station and astronaut experiences onboard. The partnership marks the first of its kind among the private stations in development, although both the space and hospitality sectors have long envisioned the possibilities of a hotel in orbit. (9/19)

Agencies Collaborate on Missile Defense Satellite Procurements (Source: Space News)
Three government agencies have formed a new program office to coordinate disparate procurements of satellites to detect ballistic and hypersonic missiles. The Space Systems Command, the Space Development Agency and the Missile Defense Agency will collaborate on the new office, intended to enhance cooperation on various missile defense satellite efforts. Representatives from the three agencies will coordinate what is envisioned as a multilayer architecture of missile defense satellites in geostationary, highly elliptical, medium and low Earth orbits. (9/19)

France to Increase Space Spending (Source: Space News)
The French government intends to increase spending on space by 25% over the next three years. French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne announced the funding boost in a speech Sunday at the International Astronautical Congress in Paris, bringing the budget to more than 9 billion euros ($9 billion) over three years. Some of that funding will go to the French space agency CNES while an amount to be determined will be France's contribution to ESA.

Borne and other French officials emphasized the importance of maintaining an independent European launch capability through the Ariane 6 and smaller vehicles. The proposed increase is in line with ESA's proposal for a 25% increase over three years at the upcoming ministerial meeting, which it says is needed to keep up with the United States and China. (9/19)

SpaceX Overcomes Weather Scrubs to Launch More Starink Satellites From Florida (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
After five days, SpaceX finally launched a set of Starlink satellites Sunday night. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 8:18 p.m. Eastern, releasing 54 Starlink satellites into orbit about 15 minutes later. Sunday's launch came after weather scrubbed launch attempts on the five preceding days. The launch was the 42nd this year for SpaceX, which has a goal of more than 60 orbital launches this year. (9/19)

Companies Look to Government for Space Analytics Market Growth (Source: Space News)
Companies developing analytics products based on space data are looking to government customers for growth. The main customer for these services is the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA), which last year announced a $29 million procurement of data analytics services over five years. NGA is using commercial services to monitor global economic trends, taking advantage of rapid revisits that help track changes and identify trends. An NGA official said the agency has a growing appetite for new types of analytics services offered by the private sector. (9/19)

Companies Look to Space Force for Space Threat Intelligence (Source: Space News)
There is strong interest by industry to support the Space Force on space threat intelligence. Nearly 300 space executives from 195 companies attended a Space Force event in late July to discuss the service's needs for space domain awareness, which includes not just the locations of objects in orbit but also knowledge of their intent. The Space Force wants to augment the government's own capabilities with data and analytics tools developed by the private sector. One challenge for the Space Force is to avoid becoming dependent on one specific service or technology or finding that switching vendors is cost prohibitive. (9/19)

X-Prize Winner Brian Binnie Passes (Source: CollectSpace)
Brian Binnie, the pilot who flew SpaceShipTwo on its prize-winning suborbital flight nearly 18 years ago, has died. Binnie died Thursday at the age of 69, his family confirmed, but did not disclose the cause of his death. Binnie served in the U.S. Navy as a naval aviator, joining Scaled Composites as a test pilot in 2000. Binnie flew SpaceShipOne on its first powered test flight in December 2003 and again in October 2004, on a suborbital flight that broke the X-15 altitude record and secured the $10 million Ansari X Prize. (9/19)