October 19, 2022

All of the World’s Spaceports on One Map (Source: Visual Capitalist)
From Sputnik 1 to today’s massive satellite constellations, every object in space was launched from just a handful of locations. The map above, from BryceTech, is a comprehensive look at the world’s spaceports (both orbital and sub-orbital) as well as ballistic missile test sites. Click here. (10/18)

New Aerospace Manufacturing Facility Coming to Kansas, Creating 155 Jobs (Source: KSNW)
A new aerospace manufacturing facility is coming to south-central Kansas. Pinnacle Aerospace, LLC, based in Kansas, will be investing $14.7 million to build a new facility in Wellington, creating 155 new jobs. The new facility will build and assemble complex hard metal aerospace components for commercial, general, military, and space industries.

Within the first five years of operation, Pinnacle plans to hire all 155 new employees. This will include working alongside the Cowley College Summer Campus to further expand a high-quality, local workforce. The Kansas Department of Commerce, Sumner County Economic Development, and the City of Wellington all collaborated in creating a pro-business environment to meet Pinnacle’s needs. (10/18)

Tokyo Start-Up Shows Lunar Lander Training Operations (Source: NHK)
A space industry start-up based in Tokyo has shown the training operations for its lunar lander to the media as it gears up for a launch scheduled for next month. The ispace start-up says it aims to become the first private-sector company to land a spacecraft on the moon. The training session was held on Monday at a control center set up in Tokyo. Five experts took part. They included engineers who used to work for the US space agency NASA. (10/3)

They went over steps to deal with potential problems, on the assumption that a glitch had occurred in the electrical system just before the landing. The unmanned lander is to carry a small rover robot developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, among others. It is scheduled to be launched from the United States in November on a rocket of the US private firm SpaceX. Officials say the spacecraft will attempt a landing on the moon around March next year if things go as planned. (10/3)

The Way Forward for Clean, Limitless Energy: Space Solar Power (Source: NSS)
What if we could find a new source of power that would not only leave Earth’s environment unscathed, but allow our planet’s atmosphere to recover? One that was limitless, had zero carbon emissions, and was highly competitive with coal, natural gas, and nuclear power? One that will work in harmony with solar and wind power, free us from dependence on foreign oil and that can beam power directly to the most remote, impoverished regions on Earth?

Well, we have. It’s called space solar power, and it is at our fingertips. Studied in the US since the 1970s, and in Asia since the 1980s, there are no technological showstoppers to space solar power. We simply need the will to make it happen. Some will be concerned that the rockets used to build the orbiting platforms that will generate this energy will pollute our atmosphere, but don’t worry. Entrepreneurs are working to build “green” launchers that minimize pollutants, and the number of launches needed to loft thestations are a literal drop in the carbon bucket when compared to the continual burning of fossil fuels. Click here. (10/18)

Russian Space Station Commander Runs Over Colleague With Earth Vehicle (Source: Daily Beast)
While driving along a dark road near Moscow late Monday, cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev struck an elderly pedestrian, sending the victim to the hospital with several fractures. Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, announced the collision early Tuesday. The injured man, hit as he crossed the street, was identified as a 63-year-old project manager at the Star City cosmonaut training center where Artemyev is also employed, according to Roscosmos.

Artemyev, 51, was sober when the accident occurred, with the agency stating that he immediately stopped to render first aid and summoned an ambulance soon after. The Russian cosmonaut has been back on Earth for less than three weeks, having touched down on Sept. 29 after making his third journey to the International Space Station. A two-time spaceflight commander, Artemyev assumed command of the ISS from NASA astronaut Thomas Marshburn in May 2022, spending 195 days in space and bringing his total number of days in orbit to 561. (10/18)

What Earth Would Look Like If All the Ice Melted (Source: Unilad)
If you needed a top up dose of grim reality to really open your eyes as to the extent of the climate crisis and the potential dire future of our planet, then this video has you sorted. Four months ago researchers from the University of Maine and the British Antarctic Survey revealed Antarctica's Doomsday Glacier - which is around the size of Great Britain - is melting at the quickest rate it has ever done over the last 5,500 years. Click here. (10/18)

NSS Opens Florida Space Coast Office (Source: NSS)
Rocket launches are very exciting. They also represent a transition, from the preparation and hard work that makes the launch possible, to the beginning of a journey of exploration and discovery. The National Space Society is about to experience its own launch . . . The opening of our new office at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex (KSCVC)!

Once fully operational, we’ll be providing day-to-day support for membership transactions (renewals, donations, new memberships, fulfillment, etc.) as well as dealing with membership issues, questions, and other inquiries. This will improve our engagement with the membership and provide a more consistent and responsive level of support. Being at the KSCVC also provides us with the opportunity to explore collaborative activities with other space related organizations and companies. This will enable us to offer potential new programs and benefits that would add to your membership value. (10/19)

NASA to Resume ISS Spacewalks (Source: Space News)
NASA will allow spacewalks to resume at the International Space Station after completing an investigation into water found in a spacesuit earlier this year. ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer reported at the end of a March spacewalk that a thin layer of water had pooled on the visor of his suit, prompting NASA to put future spacewalks on hold while investigating the issue. NASA said Tuesday that there was not a hardware problem with the suit but instead blamed the "integrated system performance" of the suit, such as cooling settings. NASA has changed procedures and included new "mitigation hardware" in the suit to keep water from accumulating and absorb any that does appear. NASA now plans to proceed with a series of three spacewalks, starting as soon as mid-November, to install a new set of solar arrays outside the station. (10/19)

Companies Win Opticall Terminal Work for SDA (Source: Space News)
Mynaric, SA Photonics, Skyloom and Tesat are providing optical communications terminals for Space Development Agency satellites. The companies were listed on a slide that SDA Director Derek Tournear showed at a conference last week as providers of terminals for the Tranche 0 satellites of the Transport and Tracking Layers. Not all the firms had previously announced their roles in the SDA program, although Mynaric announced Tuesday that it was providing optical terminals for Northrop Grumman's Tranche 1 Tracking Layer satellites. Tournear, in his keynote at the conference, underscored the importance of optical communications for SDA's proliferated low-Earth orbit constellation architecture. (10/19)

Panasonic to Resell OneWeb Services (Source: Space News)
Panasonic Avionics, one of the largest providers of satellite-enabled broadband to aircraft, will resell OneWeb connectivity services. The companies announced Tuesday that, starting in the second half of 2023, Panasonic will resell standalone services from the British startup or pair it with the capacity it leases from GEO satellites. Panasonic currently provides connectivity services for more than 70 airlines using GEO satellites. Adding OneWeb would allow pole-to-pole coverage with downlink speeds of up to 200 megabits per second. (10/19)

Eutelsat to Launch Jam-Proof Satellites to Serve Middle East Markets (Source: Space News)
Eutelsat is preparing to deploy the first of two new jamming-resistant broadcast satellites over the Middle East following signal interference in Iran. The Hotbird 13F satellite, launched over the weekend on a Falcon 9, will provide services to the region once in position at 13 degrees east in GEO. That satellite, along with Hotbird 13G to be launched later this year, has "uplink signal protection and resilience" to protect it from jamming, Eutelsat said but declined to go into details. Eutelsat said earlier this month that its Hotbird 13C and Eutelsat 7B satellites had experienced jamming of its signals from a source within Iran. (10/19)
 
Broadband Satellite Companies Will Require Partnerships to Effectively Serve Asian Markets (Source: Space News)
Broadband constellations like Starlink will need partnerships to operate effectively in Asia, existing satellite operators argue. Senior executives of Asian satellite operators at the APSCC 2022 Satellite Conference and Exhibition said LEO systems will need to partner with them for several reasons, from dealing with regulatory issues to maintaining ground infrastructure. A key issue for those partnerships is how profitable they would be to satellite operators, given the high costs of installing ground systems in remote regions. (10/19)

Canada to Fund Satellite for NASA-Led Earth Science Mission (Source: Space News)
The Canadian government will fund a satellite and instruments for a NASA-led Earth science mission. A government minister announced Tuesday that Canada will invest more than $200 million Canadian ($145 million) on High-altitude Aerosols, Water vapor and Clouds (HAWC), one element of NASA's proposed Atmosphere Observing System (AOS) mission. HAWC will feature one Canadian satellite with two instruments, as well as a third instrument on a NASA satellite, both launching in 2031. AOS is part of NASA's planned Earth System Observatory, a series of missions recommended by the Earth science decadal survey in 2018. (10/19)

Viasat Wins Australian Approval for Inmarsat Acquisition (Source: Space News)
Viasat won approval from Australian regulators to acquire Inmarsat. Viasat said Tuesday that the Australian government's Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) confirmed it has no objections to the combination. That approval is important since the two companies have significant business and customer relations in Australia. The deal, though, still faces a lengthy review by U.K. regulators. (10/19)

UK to Fund R&D for SatCom Concepts (Source: City A.M.)
The U.K. government is offering funding for developing new satellite communications concepts. Science Minister Nusrat Ghani announced the 15 million pounds ($17 million) this week that will be available to companies or organizations that want to study concepts ranging from new satellite systems to new applications for satellite communications. The British government will accept proposals through next spring for the funding, which is linked to U.K. investment in ESA's Advanced Research in Telecommunications Services (ARTES) program. (10/19)

Astra Sells Hundreds of Satellite Thruster Units (Source: Astra)
Astra says it has now sold more than 200 satellite electric propulsion systems. The company announced the milestone Tuesday for its Astra Spacecraft Engines, electric thrusters it obtained when it acquired Apollo Fusion last year. The company has not disclosed specific details on how many thrusters have been sold to individual customers, which include recent announcements of deals with Astroscale and Maxar or the value of those orders. Astra said it is opening a new 60,000-square-foot facility in Sunnyvale, California, devoted to thruster production. (10/19)

Embry-Riddle Designed Space Drones Target In-orbit Construction (Source: Space Daily)
What if vehicles could be assembled in space without human supervision? What if autonomous spacecraft could conduct routine maintenance and inspections on satellites, while flying in orbit around the Earth? Dr. Hever Moncayo, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University associate professor of Aerospace Engineering, believes all of this is possible, and he's helping push the technology that will accomplish these goals forward by developing high-precision navigation algorithms that would allow space systems to get to work building a better future. (10/17)

Heat-Proof Chaotic Carbides Could Revolutionize Aerospace Technology (Source: Space Daily)
A group of scientists led by Duke University have engineered a new class of materials capable of producing tunable plasmonic properties while withstanding incredibly high temperatures. Plasmonics is a technology that essentially traps the energy of light within groups of electrons oscillating together on a metallic surface. This creates a powerful electromagnetic field that interacts with incoming light, allowing devices to absorb, emit or otherwise control specific frequencies across much of the electromagnetic spectrum.

The new materials are hard enough to stir molten steel and can withstand temperatures above 7,000 degrees Fahrenheit - about the same temperatures found just a few hundred miles above the surface of the sun. Coupled with their newly discovered plasmonic abilities, the carbides could achieve improved communications and thermal regulation in technologies including satellites and hypersonic aircraft. (10/13)

Aussie Space Company Ready for Launch (Source: AU Manufacturing)
Aerospace company Southern Launch is aiming to make another attempt to launch its rocket in regional South Australia after a failed take-off last year. The experimental Kestrel 1 models, built by SA-based company ATSpace, will be launched in November at a site in Whalers Way, about 30km from Port Lincoln. While researchers are eager to test the viability of rockets in the hopes of one day being able to launch satellites from the site, they are also gathering data on the noise and environmental impacts of conducting launches at the site. (10/18)

Cape York Spaceport has Backing Across the Globe (Source: Australian Rural & Regional News)
War in Ukraine is accelerating the UK’s interest in plans to build a spaceport in Cape York, Space Center Australia’s chief executive says. SCA’s chief executive James Palmer said countries and corporations are already looking to take their business away from Russia's spaceports. “Our connection with the UK has been part of our strategic road map since day one,” the CEO said.

“We’ve been working with them for over a year now. These early talks are about ensuring the UK has future access to meet these demands to launch larger satellites and payloads. “The meeting was successful and we’re all on the same page about the direction we need to be moving.” If approved, the proposed spaceport would only have small launch capabilities in its first few years before scaling up.

SCA plans to achieve lift-off near Weipa by 2024. Local consultancy group Ecotone will help SCA prepare its development applications and Environmental Impact Statements to the state and federal government over the coming months. Further consultation with Traditional Owner groups regarding the spaceport’s location – around 43km east of Weipa – was held last week. (10/18)

Cornwall is Unlikely to Become a New Cape Canaveral (Source: The Conversation)
There have long been rumors that the UK might get a remote Scottish spaceport. This would be advantageous as space launch locations are required to have a number of fundamental properties. It is ideal to launch eastwards as the rotation of the Earth is about 0.45 km per second near the equator, which helps with reaching orbit. And you need a vast expanse of ocean or empty land to ensure that if your rocket fails, you are not causing a loss of life.

Cornwall has neither of these properties. At 50 degrees latitude, far north of the equator, the Cosmic Girl launch will be south westerly. This means it will have to partially fight the rotation of the Earth to reach a standard orbit. Any launches from this facility in the future have to be via plane, as an eastward launch directly from the ground risks crashing into the south coast of England, France, or even Belgium. For a polar orbit (circling roughly from pole to pole rather than around the equator), however, the site might be more viable, although would still require launching from a higher elevation. (10/17)

Lodewijk Van Den Berg, Who Became First Dutch-Born Astronaut, Dies (Source: Collect Space)
Lodewijk van den Berg, who studied crystal growth aboard the space shuttle Challenger as the first Dutch-born astronaut, has died at the age of 90. Van den Berg's death on Sunday (Oct. 16) was reported online by the Association of Space Explorers, the professional organization for astronauts and cosmonauts. Van den Berg did not set out to be an astronaut. Then a 53-year-old chemical engineer, his path into space came as a result of NASA inviting commercial and research organizations to fly experiments aboard the space shuttle. (10/17)

Firefly Looking Ahead After “To The Black” Payloads Reenter Early (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
Firefly has begun expansions to its test site in Briggs, Texas, ahead of the Alpha rocket’s third flight and further development of the company’s MLV rocket. On Twitter, Firefly noted that only “minor tweaks” will need to be made to the vehicle ahead of its next flight, which is expected to be the Educational Launch of Nanosatellites 43 (ELaNa 43) mission for NASA. This mission is not expected to launch until NET November 2022, although the timeline is expected to slip to allow for further data reviews and possible hardware changes to Alpha.

Firefly has begun preparations for not only future Alpha flights but also for their next-generation launch vehicle MLV, which was previously known as Beta. With a max payload to low Earth orbit of 13,000 kg and 2,750 kg to GTO, MLV will be similar to Rocket Lab’s announced Neutron vehicle in terms of capability. Also similar to Neutron and Alpha, MLV will be made of carbon composites, which will create ultra-light linerless tanks. The first stage of MLV will be equipped with seven Miranda engines, which will run on liquid oxygen (LOX) and RP-1, pumped to the engine with a turbopump. In total, these engines are expected to produce just under 7,200 kN of thrust in a vacuum, while having 305 seconds of specific impulse.

In addition to Firefly’s MLV, the first stage of MLV will be used for the first stage of the Antares 300 series. This partnership is a result of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, which jeopardized Northrop Grumman’s ability to get the RD-181 engine, which is currently on the first stage of Antares. This will be a significant thrust increase for Antares’ first stage, which currently produces 3,800 kN of thrust. Northrup Grumman noted that this will drastically increase the payload capacity of Antares, but has not announced any more details. (10/17)

NASA and ULA to Test Inflatable Heat Shield for Atmospheric Reentry, Potentially for Future Engine Reuse (Sources: Aviation Week, NASA)
NASA and ULA are kicking off what they hope will be a series of orbital flight tests to scale up the size of heat-resistant aeroshells that inflate to provide safe, low-cost and efficient transportation through planetary atmospheres—including Earth’s—at hypersonic speeds. NASA’s Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID) is currently at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, where teams are preparing the novel technology for launch as a secondary payload with NOAA's Joint Polar Satellite System-2 (JPSS-2) satellite.

LOFTID is an implementation of the Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD) design that ULA has designed for recovery and reuse of the Vulcan first stage booster module. According to 2018 charts descrbing the LOFTID project, ULA will be responsible for the heat shield's integration with launch vehicle, the recovery parachute, and the recovery ship. (10/17)