October 18, 2022

SES to Appeal Intelsat Court Judgement (Source: Space News)
SES will appeal a judgment against the satellite operator in its suit against Intelsat over C-band proceeds. SES said it would ask the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to review the decision, which the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia made Sept. 30 after more than two years of legal action. SES filed a $1.8 billion claim against Intelsat, arguing it broke an agreement to evenly split proceeds from an auction to clear satellite C-band frequencies for terrestrial 5G use. The bankruptcy court sided with Intelsat, which said the agreement was nullified once the FCC elected to run a public auction to clear C-band spectrum. (10/18)

Satellite Broadband Players Poised to Compete for U.S. Military Customers (Source: Space News)
Satellite broadband providers are looking to win government business in competition with SpaceX's Starlink. OneWeb Technologies, the U.S. proxy subsidiary of British satellite operator OneWeb, said it projects nearly 70% of its business will be from U.S. government contracts in the coming years, with a growing demand for mobile connectivity. Inmarsat, already a major player in defense markets with its geostationary satellites, is looking to gain more military customers with a new low Earth orbit network, Orchestra, planned for 2026. (10/18)

Falcon 9 Could Launch ESA Science Mission Originally Planned for Soyuz (Source: Space News)
SpaceX's Falcon 9 is the leading option to launch an ESA science mission originally planned to fly on Soyuz. At an advisory committee meeting Monday, NASA officials said ESA was studying launching the Euclid space telescope mission, on which NASA is a partner, on a Falcon 9 in mid to late 2023. A feasibility study for doing so is in progress and scheduled to be completed this month. ESA previously acknowledged it was looking at non-European options for launching some missions that had been set to fly on Soyuz before Russia halted launch operations for the vehicle in French Guiana earlier this year. The use of a Falcon 9 is seen as a stopgap until the Ariane 6 enters service sometime next year. (10/18)

Orbex Raises $45.8 Million for Small Launch Vehicles (Source: Space News)
Small launch vehicle developer Orbex has raised a Series C funding round. The U.K.-based company announced Tuesday it raised 40.4 million pounds ($45.8 million) from existing and new investors led by the Scottish National Investment Bank. The company is developing its Prime small launch vehicle for a first launch now projected for 2023. Orbex plans to use the funding to scale up as it approaches its first orbital launch and support future, unspecified projects. (10/18)

DoD Command Hopes for Demonstration of Point-to-Point Launches (Source: Space News)
U.S. Transportation Command is keeping an eye on space launch companies as they develop technology and mature concepts for point-to-point cargo delivery. Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost, head of the command, told reporters Friday that the command is enthusiastic about the "rocket cargo" program led by the Air Force Research Laboratory but wants to see "some sort of a demonstration launch" from the companies involved. The command has signed cooperative research and development agreements, or CRADAs, with SpaceX, Blue Origin, Sierra Space, Virgin Orbit and Rocket Lab to investigate cargo transportation capabilities. So far, it's unclear when the industry will be ready to demonstrate those capabilities. (10/18)

Dassault Falcon Jet Announces Plan to Create 400 New Jobs at Melbourne Airport Facility (Source: Florida Today)
Dassault Falcon Jet has announced plans to create 400 new jobs and build a $115 million aviation maintenance facility off Apollo Boulevard at Melbourne Orlando International Airport. The plan was previously labeled the secretive "Project Vista," a code name assigned by the Economic Development Commission of Florida’s Space Coast and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office.

Dassault Falcon is expected to build on 46 previously undeveloped acres just north of Sheltair Aviation’s fixed-base operation, stretching northward near Embraer's delivery center. The 400 jobs will boast average salaries of $86,120, said Keely Leggett, airport spokesperson. (10/17)

Relativity to Expand Presence at Stennis (Source: Relativity Space)
Relativity Space, the first company to 3D print rockets and build the largest metal 3D printers in the world, today detailed its plans to operate one of the largest rocket engine test facilities in the United States. Through an agreement with NASA, Relativity is significantly expanding its facilities and infrastructure at NASA’s historic Stennis Space Center in Hancock County, Mississippi. The new facilities will support testing of Relativity’s entirely 3D printed Aeon R engines for its fully reusable 3D printed rocket, Terran R.

Relativity will utilize over 150 additional acres within the Stennis Test Complex, with testing infrastructure for its Aeon R engines being built from the ground up on previously unutilized land north of the A and E Test Complexes. Relativity has begun ground clearing work for several new engine test stands, a full scale second stage stand, office buildings, and a vehicle hangar. The company is already underway testing Aeon R components across Relativity’s E2 test complex, with plans to build the first Aeon R engine and turbopump assembly and begin thrust chamber assembly tests for its Aeon R engines in the coming months at a leased E1 test cell. Full Aeon R engine tests are tracking to occur in late 2023 at Relativity’s newly announced facility expansions. (10/18)

China Readies Final Tiangong Module (Source: Space News)
China is preparing to launch the final mission to complete its three-module Tiangong space station. A Long March 5B is being assembled and tested at Wenchang Satellite Launch Center to launch the Mengtian experiment module for the station. The launch is expected around the end of this month. Mengtian with dock with the forward port of the station's Tianhe module and be moved to the port docking ring, completing the T-shaped Tiangong space station. It will be followed by a cargo spacecraft launch in early November and a crewed mission as soon as late November. (10/18)

China Considering Ambitious Exploration Missions (Source: Space News)
The Chinese Academy of Sciences is studying several ambitious astrophysics and planetary science missions. More than 20 candidates are vying for funding for further study under the academy's Strategic Priority Program on Space Science (SPP), also known as the New Horizon Program. Those missions include a mission to orbit Ceres, the largest object in the main asteroid belt previously visited by NASA's Dawn mission and a gamma-ray space telescope called VLAST. The emergence of the New Horizon Program shows China is also looking to develop medium-class missions alongside the flagship Chang'e lunar and Tianwen deep space missions. (10/18)

EU Considers Paying for Starlink Service in Ukraine (Source: Politico)
The European Union is considering helping pay for Starlink services in Ukraine. E.U. foreign ministers discussed funding Starlink services during a meeting Monday, according to Lithuania's foreign minister. European officials are concerned about relying on SpaceX to fund those services on its own after the company warned it could not do so indefinitely. Elon Musk later stated that SpaceX would continue to pay for the services it is providing in Ukraine. (10/18)

Luxembourg Considers Virgin Orbit for Launch Services (Source: Govt. of Luxembourg)
The government of Luxembourg will study responsive launch services with Virgin Orbit. The country's defense minister signed a letter of intent with Virgin Orbit Monday to examine the feasibility of basing mobile launch infrastructure in the country that could be used for NATO or other partners. The announcement comes as Virgin Orbit gears up for its first LauncherOne mission from England's Spaceport Cornwall in the coming weeks. (10/18)

Gamma Ray Burst Detected (Source: New Scientist)
Astronomers have detected a gamma-ray burst nicknamed "the BOAT." The burst, formally designated GRB221009A, was detected on Oct. 9 and was unusually bright because it took place 2.4 billion light-years away, making it one of the closest yet detected. The burst generated 1,000 to 10,000 times more energy in that instant than the sun releases throughout its entire life. It's attracted the attention of many astronomers, some of whom call it the BOAT, or "brightest of all time." (10/18)

Gemini/Apollo Astronaut McDivitt Passes at 93 (Source: Collect Space)
Former NASA astronaut Jim McDivitt has died at 93. McDivitt, who joined NASA in its second group of astronauts in 1962, commanded the Gemini 4 mission in 1965 that featured the first spacewalk by a NASA astronaut, Ed White. He then commanded Apollo 9 in 1969, testing out the lunar module in Earth orbit. He later moved into management before retiring from NASA in 1972 to work in industry. Separately, Lodewijk van den Berg, the first Dutch-born person to go to space, died at the age of 90. Van den Berg flew as a payload specialist on the STS-51B shuttle mission in 1985, working on a crystal growth experiment form his employer, EG&G Energy Measurements. (10/18)

Who Wants to Fly Around the Moon? (Source: Space Review)
Last week SpaceX announced it signed up Dennis Tito, the first space tourist to visit the ISS, along with his wife, for a flight around the Moon on Starship. Jeff Foust reports on what we know, and don’t know, about the trip and its implications for commercial human spaceflight. Click here. (10/18)
 
FOBS, MOBS, and the Reality of the Article IV Nuclear Weapons Prohibition (Source: Space Review)
Some US officials have expressed concerns China and Russia may be developing fractional orbital bombardment systems, or FOBS, something last seriously considered decades ago. Michael Listner examines a debate in the 1960s about whether a Soviet FOBS system violated the brand-new Outer Space Treaty for guidance for how such systems should be viewed today. Click here. (10/18)
 
#MeToo in Space: We Must Address the Potential for Sexual Harassment and Assault Away From Earth (Source: Space Review)
As humanity expands into space, it will take with it both its hopes and its problems. Four experts argue that space agencies and companies need to take greater efforts to prevent sexual harassment or assault in space. Click here. (10/18)

DoD Looking at Starlink Alternatives for Ukraine (Source: Space News)
 it is looking into alternatives to Starlink to provide communications for Ukraine's military. A Pentagon spokesperson said at a briefing that the Defense Department "has been in communication with SpaceX regarding Starlink" after reports that SpaceX warned that it could not continue to provide services in Ukraine indefinitely without financial support. The DOD is also looking at other satellite communications services but declined to go into specifics. However, on Saturday, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted that SpaceX would continue to cover the cost of Starlink services in Ukraine "even though Starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $." (10/17)

UK Starts In-Depth Review of Viasat's Inmarsat Acquisition (Source: Space News)
The British government has started an in-depth review of Viasat's planned acquisition of Inmarsat. The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced Friday it was starting a "Phase 2" investigation of the deal after giving the satellite operators a chance to alter the $7.3 billion deal, which it says could lead to more expensive and poorer quality Wi-Fi for airline passengers. The CMA expects to conclude this review and issue their report by March 30 but could extend that deadline if circumstances warrant. That will delay the deal's closing, which the companies had hoped to wrap up this year. Viasat and Inmarsat said in a joint statement are confident they can show the CMA how combining forces would not negatively impact competition. (10/17)

Kuiper Satellites to Feature Laser Terminals for DoD Networking (Source: Space News)
Amazon's Project Kuiper satellites will carry laser terminals to link them to a Defense Department network. Derek Tournear, director of the U.S. Space Force's Space Development Agency (SDA), said last week the plan is for some Kuiper satellites to serve as "translators" to support high-speed data transfer from commercial imaging satellites to military users on the ground. The Kuiper satellites would relay data from imaging satellites to the Transport Layer constellation the SDA is developing. (10/17)

Interoperability Not Easy for Earth Observing Systems (Source: Space News)
It remains difficult to combine data from different Earth observation systems. Government and industry officials said at a conference last week that it is "messy and time-consuming and annoying" for users to make data from different systems interoperable. The challenge is not just technical, they said, but involves issues of trust among different providers as well as access to classified information and requirements. (10/17)

Procurement Document Sheds Light on Sole-Source Boeing/Northrop Joint Venture for SLS Launches (Source: Space News)
A NASA procurement document provides more details on the formation of a joint venture to take over Space Launch System operations. NASA announced in July that it planned to award a sole-source contract for long-term SLS production to Deep Space Transport, a joint venture of Boeing and Northrop Grumman that neither the agency nor the companies had previously revealed.

A NASA document released last week justifying that sole-source contract stated that the joint venture had its roots in Project Eta, a team of several companies involved in SLS that responded to a NASA request for information about the proposed SLS contract last year. The team was the only one to fully respond to the RFI and express an interest in taking on the contract. Deep Space Transport was incorporated in June after Project Eta was notified of the need for a formal corporate structure to proceed with the contract. (10/17)

Chinese Long March 2D Launches Three Imaging Satellites (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
China launched three imaging satellites Friday. A Long March 2D rocket lifted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 3:12 p.m. Eastern and placed the Yaogan-36 satellites into orbit. The satellites are believed to support military reconnaissance. (10/17)

Russian Angara Rocket Launches Military Satellite (Source: Space.com)
An Angara rocket launched a Russian military satellite Saturday. The Angara-1.2 lifted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome at 3:55 p.m. Eastern and placed the Cosmos 2560 satellite into orbit. The satellite is believed to be an optical reconnaissance satellite. (10/17)

TESS Back Online for Exoplanet Search (Source: NASA)
A NASA spacecraft intended to look for exoplanets is back in operation. NASA said Friday that the Transiting Exoplanet Survey (TESS) had resumed operations after going into a safe mode last Monday triggered by a computer reset. TESS has been in orbit since 2018, looking for exoplanets as they pass in front of, or transit, their host stars. (10/17)

Bubble Spotted Zipping Around Black Hole With 'Mind Blowing Velocity' (Source: CNET)
In May, the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration shocked the world when it released an image of what appears to be a splotchy French cruller on fire. In reality, this wasn't a doughnut. It was a mind-bending portrait of Sagittarius A*, the mighty black hole anchoring our galaxy, its gravitational pull silently brushing every star, planet and asteroid within.

The team spotted what it calls a "hot spot" flitting around the abyss. This spot, they say, seems to be dimming and brightening while traveling clockwise around Sgr A*. "We think we're looking at a hot bubble of gas zipping around Sagittarius A* on an orbit similar in size to that of the planet Mercury, but making a full loop in just around 70 minutes," Maciek Wielgus. (10/13)

New Discovery Indicates an Alternative Gravity Theory (Source: SciTech Daily)
Dwarf galaxies are small, faint galaxies that are often found in or close to bigger galaxies or galaxy clusters. As a result, they could be impacted by their larger companions’ gravitational effects. “We introduce an innovative way of testing the standard model based on how much dwarf galaxies are disturbed by gravitational tides’ from nearby larger galaxies,” said Elena Asencio, a Ph.D. student at the University of Bonn and the lead author of the story.

Tides occur when gravity from one body pulls on various areas of another body differently. These are comparable to tides on Earth, which form when the moon exerts a stronger pull on the side of the Earth that faces the moon. (10/16)

UK2000 Releases Spaceport America for MSFS Flight Simulator (Source: FSE Lite)
UK2000 has been developing scenery for various Flight Simulators for a number of years, typically focusing on enhancing airports around the United Kingdom. However, more recent releases have been airports within the United States of America. The latest, Spaceport America, is available now. Located in New Mexico, 45 miles north of Las Cruces and 20 miles southeast of Truth or Consequences, Spaceport America is the first purpose-built commercial spaceport in the world with capabilities to launch spacecraft vertically and horizontally with its single 12,000ft runway. The site is home to a number of high-profile space industry companies with the most notable being Virgin Galactic with its distinctive SpaceShipTwo spacecraft. (10/14)

Space Perspective: The Company Making Space Travel Eco-Friendly (Source: AFAR)
A few months before their second round of fundraising, which pulled in $17 million last May after an initial round had raised more than $40 million, Space Perspective announced that Miami restaurateur David Grutman would consult on its hospitality experience. Poynter describes each flight as bespoke to the preferences of the eight passengers on board, with menus, music, and lighting customized to specific tastes. At $125,000 per ticket for a six-hour flight, the price is clearly geared toward a certain clientele, but the cost is significantly less than flying with Blue Origin or SpaceX.

As of August 2022, almost 900 tickets for flights have been purchased. Poynter and MacCallum soon noticed that half the tickets sold were to groups that booked the entire capsule, which is when they realized that whatever kind of experience nosing toward outer space may be, it’s one that people want to share.

If space tourism flourishes, the shape that it takes will determine the contours of life to come. Space Perspective and other ballooning operations—as well as companies such as Blue Origin using alternative fuel, and VR startups trying to re-create the Overview Effect without any travel at all—seem to thread the needle between accounting for the consequences of space travel and making the sublime attainable. Click here. (10/11)

An Accident at SpaceX (Source: Semafor)
Francisco Cabada was conducting a routine pressure valve test on SpaceX’s raptor engine in the afternoon of January 18 when something went wrong. Cabada, a ten-year veteran at the company, shouldn’t have been near the valve when it hit maximum pressure, according to people with knowledge of the accident, but it ramped up faster than expected, blowing a shield off the valve and knocking him unconscious. The injuries were extensive, affecting his head, upper and lower extremities and his respiratory system, according to California’s Department of Industrial Relations.

Cabada, a father of three from South Central Los Angeles, was taken to a hospital to be treated for a skull fracture and head trauma, according to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. He remained in a coma for months. SpaceX was fined $18,475 by OSHA for two safety violations, one of which was rated the highest penalty level of “serious” and a maximum gravity of 10. The OSHA case is still open.

SpaceX has made no announcement to the public or to its workers about his status, according to former employees who were shaken by the accident. A half dozen former employees said they were concerned Cabada’s family would not be properly compensated if he can no longer work, or worse. Hundreds of his co-workers donated to Cabada’s Go Fund Me page, which raised more than $51,000. (10/18)

NASA Study Suggests Shallow Lakes in Europa's Icy Crust Could Erupt (Source: NASA)
In the search for life beyond Earth, subsurface bodies of water in our outer solar system are some of the most important targets. That’s why NASA is sending the Europa Clipper spacecraft to Jupiter’s moon Europa: There is strong evidence that under a thick crust of ice, the moon harbors a global ocean that could potentially be habitable. But scientists believe the ocean isn’t the only water on Europa. Based on observations from NASA’s Galileo orbiter, they believe salty liquid reservoirs may reside inside the moon’s icy shell – some of them close to the surface of the ice and some many miles below. (10/11)

Massive Energy Beam Pointed at Earth Appears to Break the Laws of Physics (Source: Vice)
An intense jet of energy in space appears to be traveling seven times faster than the speed of light—a feat that is considered physically impossible in our universe. Though this rapid pace is only an optical illusion, according to a new study, it still represents a blast of energy shooting towards us at very nearly the speed of light. The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has captured incredible views of the jet—which was ignited by an unprecedented collision between two hyperdense objects, called neutron stars—that led to one of the most important breakthroughs in astronomical history at the time it was discovered in 2017.

While the jet did not actually break the cosmic speed limit, it raced right up to the edge of this impassable threshold, reaching at least 99.97 percent of the speed of light, which translates to about 670 million miles per hour. Scientists led by Kunal Mooley, an astrophysicist at the California Institute of Technology, used Hubble and other telescopes to clock the jet’s “superluminal motion,” meaning the trippy illusion of faster-than-light speed, in a study published on Wednesday in Nature. (10/14)

Astronomers Discovered Something Strange About 'Potentially Hazardous' Asteroid Phaethon (Source: Space.com)
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency intends to launch its DESTINY+ mission to the near-Earth asteroid Phaethon in 2024, with the aim of flying by the space rock in 2028, so this "potentially hazardous" asteroid has been studied intensely in the lead-up to the mission. Researchers recently made one particularly notable discovery about Phaethon: Its spin is speeding up. The asteroid's rotational period is decreasing by 4 milliseconds per year.

Even a small change like this could impact the DESTINY+ observations. Knowing the specific spin rate allows the team to more accurately predict the asteroid's orientation during the spacecraft's flyby — in turn, that allows the team to be more specific with their observations. It's rare for an asteroid's spin to change; Phaethon is just the 11th known asteroid to show a change in its rotational period, and it's the largest of those space rocks, with an average diameter of 3.4 miles. (10/16)

How a Knock on Neil Armstrong's Door in 1969 is Still Reverberating (Source: Washington Post)
She was a baby when her parents and grandmother, who had migrated from India to the United States, went on a road trip and found themselves passing a sign that announced the small town of Wapakoneta, Ohio, as the home of Neil Armstrong. She listened as Abraham described the stares and whispers her mother, Nirmala Abraham, and grandmother, Elizabeth George, drew as they walked through the town in their flowing saris and how her father grew nervous when her grandmother suggested they knock on the door of Armstrong’s parents’ home to pay their respect.

The family didn’t know if anyone would be home, and if they were, how they might react to immigrants standing on their doorstep. Elsewhere in the country, White people had set dogs on Black and Brown people who showed up uninvited on their property. Abraham’s grandmother decided to knock anyway. What happened next is the subject of a short film Chim wrote and directed called “One Small Visit.” The actress hadn’t written a screenplay before hearing that story, but it stayed with her, and in 2020, she started working on a draft.

“This story was just too wonderful to keep within one family,” Chim told me on a recent morning. “I thought we should share it.” The film recently won Best Foreign Picture at the LA Shorts Film Festival and has been viewed at screenings across the world, including at NASA’s D.C. headquarters. It will also be shown at the Kennedy Center to high school students, at the DC South Asian Film Festival and at the newly reopened National Air and Space Museum. (10/16)

New Zealand MP Says Rocket Lab Launches Could Betray Country’s Anti-Nuclear Stance (Source: The Guardian)
A New Zealand commercial space company, Rocket Lab, has faced new opposition to its activities on behalf of foreign militaries, with one New Zealand Green MP saying its actions could fly in the face of the country’s anti-nuclear stance. The company’s contracts with the US have been flagged as concerning by the Māhia community, the Green party, and Rocket Lab Monitor – a watchdog group.

In 2019, the New Zealand government banned launch activities that were not in the country’s national interest, or were a breach of both domestic and international laws. The minister for economic and regional development, Stuart Nash, who is also the MP for the area that covers the Māhia Peninsula, has the ability to veto space launches that are not considered to be in the national interest, including payloads that contribute to nuclear weapons programmes or support or enable specific defence, security or intelligence operations contrary to government policy.

But the Green party’s security and intelligence spokesperson, Teanau Tuiono warned last week that it is “unclear when the national interest test should be invoked” and that there is no guarantee the satellites will not be used to assist nuclear programs. (10/17)

What Drives Galaxies? The Milky Way’s Black Hole May Be the Key (Source: WIRED)
The Milky Way’s supermassive black hole exists, it is spinning, and it obeys Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity. And yet, on closer inspection, things don’t quite stack up. Original story reprinted with permission from Quanta Magazine, an editorially independent publication of the Simons Foundation whose mission is to enhance public understanding of science by covering research develop­ments and trends in mathe­matics and the physical and life sciences.

From the brightness of the bagel of light, researchers have estimated how quickly matter is falling onto Sagittarius A*—the name given to the Milky Way’s central black hole. The answer is: not quickly at all. “It’s clogged up to a little trickle,” said Priya Natarajan, a cosmologist at Yale University, comparing the galaxy to a broken showerhead. Somehow only a thousandth of the matter that’s flowing into the Milky Way from the surrounding intergalactic medium makes it all the way down and into the hole. “That’s revealing a huge problem,” Natarajan said. “Where is this gas going? What is happening to the flow? It’s very clear that our understanding of black hole growth is suspect.” Click here. (10/16)

NASA Selects Rocket Lab for Providing Solar Panels for CADRE Mobile Robot (Source: Seeking Alpha)
Rocket Lab USA has been selected by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to supply solar panels that will power NASA’s shoe-box-sized mobile robots as part of the Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Explorers (or CADRE) program. The solar panels will use company’s inverted metamorphic multi-junction (or IMM) solar cells that are more efficient and lighter weight than standard multi-junction space solar cells and provide the exact capabilities needed for the program. The IMM cells were developed by SolAero Technologies Inc, a leading space solar power company acquired by Rocket Lab in January 2022. (10/14)

DLR's New Optical Ground Station Inaugurated (Source: Space Daily)
Satellites are increasingly becoming network nodes of the internet. Terrestrial nodes are integrated via fibre optic networks, and satellites can only keep up with current developments on the ground if they are also optically networked. European Commission programmes such as the 'Secure Connectivity Initiative' depend on this technology, as do many commercial networks such as Starlink or Oneweb, which aim to deploy similar developments on their next generation of satellites.

At the core of this technology are optical satellite links, which have been designed, developed and tested at the Institute of Communications and Navigation of the German Aerospace Center for more than 20 years. In addition to communications networks, optical links are also being considered for the deployment of quantum secure communications. This would improve the security of the internet and of next generation of satellite navigation systems in the future. DLR has operated experimental ground stations to advance these technologies for many years. On 12 October 2022, a new, more powerful ground station was inaugurated at DLR's Oberpfaffenhofen site. (10/17)

Phase Four Unveils Game Changing Engine for LEO Constellations (Source: Space Daily)
Phase Four, the creator of the radio-frequency thruster for satellite propulsion, reports that it will expand its Maxwell turn-key plasma propulsion line and offer satellite manufacturers an industry-first high performance engine using an inexpensive, domestically sourced iodine-based propellant. Max-V leverages the Maxwell Block 2 engine's innovative architecture and builds on the radio-frequency thruster's propellant agnostic capabilities.

Phase Four board member, former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine observed, "This year we've seen xenon prices spike to over $30,000 per kilogram. This is cost prohibitive for both commercial and government satellite constellations in low Earth orbit." Bridenstine continued, "The US is the world's third largest iodine producer, and my home state of Oklahoma leads the way in domestic production. With Max-V, we can ensure a fully domestic supply chain and readily accessible low cost propellant." (10/17)

New Iridium Certus Service Providers to Support U.S. Government Customers (Source: Space Daily)
Iridium Communications has announced that Iridium partners MetOcean Telematics, NAL Research, and Trace Systems are now Iridium Certus service providers for U.S. government customers, joining Satcom Direct, in this capacity. These unique, long-term deals will allow these companies to provide Iridium's secure global satellite broadband and midband connectivity for mobile voice and data services to the U.S. government through a dedicated gateway. (10/13)

Musk Seeks Starlink Donations (Source: Space News)
Elon Musk plans to add some kind of “donate option” to help fund Starlink in places of need after pleading for U.S. government support to continue serving wartorn Ukraine. SpaceX’s billionaire CEO said he would facilitate donations in response to a tweet seeking to financially support the satellite broadband service in hospitals and schools in Uganda.

It comes after Musk warned on Friday that it could not continue funding data-intensive terminals for Ukraine “indefinitely” before seemingly reversing course the next day. “The hell with it,” Musk tweeted Saturday, “even though Starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $, we’ll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free.” (10/17)

L3Harris Develops Military Handheld Radio with Iridium Connectivity (Source: L3Harris)
L3Harris unveiled a handheld radio module that gives warfighters access to multiple communications networks, including Iridium’s constellation without the need for a separate Iridium satellite radio. (10/17)