September 3, 2022

Space Coast Recognized as "Great American Defense Community" (Source: Space Coast Daily News)
Diane Rath, director of the Association of Defense Communities, recognized Florida's Space Coast as a 2022 Great American Defense Community during a recent meeting of the Economic Development Commission of Florida's Space Coast. She was joined by Col. Athony Graham, Vice Commander of Space Launch Delta 45.

Florida's Space Coast, home to Patrick Space Force Base, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, and a large and growing number of defense industry contractors and military retirees, is one of five communities nationwide named in 2022 for this prestigious recognition. The other communities are in Arizona, California, Tennessee, and Virginia. "We selected Florida's Space Coast because they are a region that consistently goes above and beyond to support service members, vetreans, and military families living in their community," said Ms. Rath. (8/29)

Hydrogen Leak Halts Countdown for Second Artemis Launch Attempt (Source: SPACErePORT)
About two and a half hours before its planned launch on Saturday, NASA scrubbed its second attempt to launch the Artemis 1 SLS rocket on an uncrewed test mission to the Moon and back. A stubborn hydrogen leak associated with the rocket's launch pad supply line interface could not be fixed after multiple attempts during the fueling process. Monday and Tuesday were earlier identified as being among the days available for this launch period. (9/3)

Italian Microsatellite Promises Orbital Photo Bonanza After Artemis 1 Launch (Source: Spaceflight Now)
Italian engineers are expecting a series of spectacular photos from a tiny satellite that will be released to fly in sync with the interim cryogenic propulsion stage that propels the Orion capsule and European service module to the moon from Earth orbit. Dubbed ArgoMoon, the CubeSat is one of 10 supplementary payloads that will be launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida by NASA’s SLS rocket on its first lunar test flight as early as this Monday.

The small spacecraft use high-definition cameras and advanced imaging software to record images of the ICPS and later of the Earth and the Moon for historical documentation, provide mission data on the deployment of other CubeSats, and test optical communication capabilities between the CubeSat and Earth. ArgoMoon, built by Italian company Argotec for the Italian Space Agency — ASI — through an agreement with NASA, will be the only European secondary payload on the first Artemis mission. (9/2)

How 3 NASA Missions Could Send Astronauts Back to the Moon (Source: New York Times)
Instead of crew members, the first Artemis mission will carry into space three mannequins named Helga, Zohar and Commander Moonikin Campos. Helga and Zohar contain plastic models of radiation-sensitive organs, such as the uterus and the lungs, so that scientists can study how radiation in space may affect future astronauts. The three mannequins will travel inside a spacecraft called Orion, specially designed to protect human crew members and experiments in space.

Artemis II, the second mission, will carry four astronauts around the moon and back to Earth. The crew’s trip will take them about 4,600 miles above the far side of the moon. Depending on the position of the moon during the mission, this could be the furthest distance into the solar system that astronauts have ever traveled.

In Artemis III, astronauts will land a SpaceX Starship near the moon’s south pole while Orion waits in lunar orbit. The polar region is home to mysterious, permanently shadowed craters that have not seen sunlight in billions of years. The chemicals frozen inside could help scientists understand more about the history of the moon and the solar system. If the Artemis III mission succeeds, NASA plans to regularly send crews to the moon. Its plans include a lunar base camp and an outpost spacecraft called Gateway stationed in lunar orbit. (9/1)

OneWeb: $600M in Backlog as of Aug. 30, and a $229M Impairment Charge for Collapsed Russian Launch Deals (Source: Space Intel Report)
Startup satellite broadband constellation operator OneWeb Holdings Ltd. booked a $229 million impairment charge following the collapse of its launch agreements with Russia after Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, OneWeb said. The charge accounted for more than half of OneWeb’s $425.9 million operating loss for the 12 months ending March 31, 2022, the company said in a financial disclosure. The impairment includes the cost of six Russian Soyuz launches that likely will never occur, and 36 OneWeb satellites that have remained in Russia. (9/2)

Central Florida Partnership Wins $50.8 Million Build-Back-Better Grant for Semiconductor Industry (Source: EDA)
The Biden-Harris Administration announced the 21 winners of EDA’s $1 billion Build Back Better Regional Challenge (BBBRC) – the marquee initiative of EDA’s American Rescue Plan programs and the most impactful regional economic development competition in decades. Among the winners is the Osceola County Board of County Commissioners, for a project to build Central Florida's semiconductor cluster. Click here. (9/2)

Engineer From Puerto Rico Lives His Dream Working with Lockheed Space Program (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Vladillen “Vlado” González fondly recalls his first interview with Lockheed Martin. He was wearing a “$99 suit,” he said, laughing about a deal that got him everything from the shirt and tie to the suit to the shoes, all for one price. “It wasn’t the prettiest, but I felt like thousands of dollars,” he said with a smile. “It was pressed, clean, my shoes were shining, my belt, and I was even smelling good.”

The opportunity would bring him a little closer to that dream he had since a childhood fascinated by science and the stars. He didn’t make it then. But his mom told him “lift your head, and you’re going to keep trying until you get there.” So he did, another 22 times. He said he often received a generic email saying “thank you for your application but we moved with a different candidate.” Other times he didn’t have specific skills. After working for other engineering companies, he believes he got the experience he needed.

On his 24th attempt, he finally got hired, but not to the space program. He had to apply another dozen times for that. González, 45, just recently was promoted to Quality Engineering Manager in charge of one of the world’s most advanced space manufacturing facilities: the Spacecraft, Test, Assembly and Resource Center (STAR Center) at Lockheed Martin. (8/30)

Chinese Megawatt-Level Space Nuclear Reactor Passes Review (Source: Space News)
A Chinese nuclear reactor for providing power and propulsion in outer space has passed a review. The reactor, designed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is intended to generate one megawatt of electricity for spacecraft power and propulsion. Reports last week said the project passed a comprehensive performance evaluation but provided no technical details about the design of the reactor. China has proposed deep space missions, such as a Neptune orbiter, that could use the reactor. (9/2)

Greenland Ice Sheet Set to Raise Sea Levels by Nearly a Foot (Source: New York Times)
Human-driven climate change has set in motion massive ice losses in Greenland that couldn’t be halted even if the world stopped emitting greenhouse gases today, according to a study published last Monday. The findings in the journal Nature Climate Change project that it is now inevitable that 3.3 percent of the Greenland ice sheet will melt — equal to 110 trillion tons of ice, the researchers said. That will trigger nearly a foot of global sea-level rise. (8/29)

Artemis and Apollo: How NASA's SLS Moon Rocket Stacks Up to Saturn V (Source: CNET)
The Apollo missions relied on massive Saturn V rockets to get there. Artemis is all about the Space Launch System, which NASA has referred to as a mega moon rocket. It's been decades since a human-rated spacecraft has headed for our lunar neighbor, and a few things have changed. Let's look at how Artemis compares with Apollo. Click here. (9/1)

It’s Official: NASA Discovered Another Earth (Source: Core77)
Astronomers have discovered a planet nearly the same size as Earth that orbits in its star’s habitable zone, where liquid water could exist on its surface, a new study said. The presence of liquid water also indicates the planet could support life. This newly found world, Kepler-1649c, is 300 light-years away from Earth and orbits a star that is about one-fourth the size of our sun. What’s exciting is that out of all the 2,000 plus exoplanets that have been discovered using observations from the Kepler Space Telescope, this world is most similar to Earth both in size and estimated temperature, NASA said. (9/1)