October 22, 2022

Launch Pad Conversion for Falcon Heavy (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
In this flyover, the conversion of Pad 39A for use with Falcon Heavy is in full swing and we take you through all the changes being made to support the upcoming USSF-44 launch. Plus, we also get an aerial update on all the other goings on at the cape. Click here. (10/22)

New Florida Tech Lab Studies Novel Space Debris Research (Source: Florida Tech)
Automation is used in several ways. Could cleaning up space be the next? Florida Tech recently won a $250,000 U.S. Space Force contract to support the debris-cleanup project known as Orbital Prime, ran by SpaceWERX, the technology arm of the U.S. Space Force. Madhur Tiwari, aerospace, physics and space sciences assistant professor and director of The Autonomy Lab, will be working on the project with a startup company. The research will explore spacecraft automation by using high-fidelity simulators. While the project will focus on space debris cleanup, Tiwari noted the technology could have other uses, such as automated repairs, docking or when multiple spacecrafts are functioning together. (10/20)

NASA Announces Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Study Team Members (Source: NASA)
NASA has selected 16 individuals to participate in its independent study team on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP). Observations of events in the sky that cannot be identified as aircraft or as known natural phenomena are categorized as UAPs. 

The independent study will begin on Monday, Oct. 24. Over the course of nine months, the independent study team will lay the groundwork for future study on the nature of UAPs for NASA and other organizations. To do this, the team will identify how data gathered by civilian government entities, commercial data, and data from other sources can potentially be analyzed to shed light on UAPs. It will then recommend a roadmap for potential UAP data analysis by the agency going forward. Click here. (10/21)

The Future of National Security and Space is On Display in Florida (Source: The Hill)
The national security space enterprise today faces significant challenges but also presents a significant opportunity. China’s ambitions in space seek to counter America’s strengths but also secure its own capabilities in near-earth orbit and beyond. Meanwhile, the commercial space revolution is yielding not just tangible benefits for average citizens but is demonstrating its utility on a real-world battlefield in Ukraine. 

To see what the future of national security space looks like — in responding to this threat and leveraging the power of the commercial space industry’s innovation — one only needs to visit Cape Canaveral and Space Launch Delta 45 (SLD45), which along with other parts of the Space Force, form the newly established Assured Access to Space (AATS) organization led by Major General Stephen Purdy. 

For the past several years, the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress’s National Security Space Program convened experts from the private sector, government, academia and nonprofit spaces to explore the challenges facing our national security space enterprise. We discussed acquisition reform, changes to risk tolerance and mission assurance, the evolution of the next phase of the launch enterprise, the need to look at space as an ecosystem, regulatory reform and more. We’ve offered several sets of recommendations, hoping to help shift the needle on going faster in space. What is happening in Florida is extremely heartening as many of the recommendations we’ve outlined are being put into practice on the ground and not as an exception to the rule, but crafting a way of doing business for the future. (10/19)

New Lockheed Office Seeks Partnerships With Mid-Size Firms (Source: Defense One)
Lockheed Martin has stood up an internal cell to create partnerships with mid-size defense, commercial, and space firms, the company’s CEO said Tuesday. It’s the latest move by the company to better position its business to deliver militarized commercial technology to the Pentagon. Called LM Evolve, the group is meant to complement Lockheed’s venture capital arm, which primarily invests in startups. Earlier this year, LM Ventures doubled its fund from $200 million to $400 million. CFO Jay Malave will oversee LM Evolve, which “is just literally getting off the ground,” CEO Jim Taiclet said. (10/18)

SpaceX Deploys 3,500th Starlink Satellite (Source: Space Daily)
SpaceX successfully launched its latest round of Starlink satellites Thursday, bringing the total number in orbit to more than 3,500, the company confirmed in a celebratory post. The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 10:50 a.m. EDT from Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. The rocket was carrying a batch of 54 satellites into low-Earth orbit, the fourth shell of the company's Starlink constellation. The satellites were deployed into orbit around 15 minutes after the rocket lifted off from the launchpad. (10/20)

After Ukraine, Biden Administration Turns to Musk’s Satellite Internet for Iran (Source: CNN)
The White House has engaged in talks with Elon Musk about the possibility of setting up SpaceX’s satellite internet service Starlink inside Iran, multiple officials familiar with the discussions told CNN. The conversations, which have not been previously reported, come as the Biden administration searches for ways to support the Iranian protest movement that exploded just over a month ago after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died under suspicious circumstances after being detained by the country’s morality police.

The White House sees Starlink’s compact, easy-to-use technology as a potential solution to the Iranian regime’s aggressive efforts to restrict activists’ internet access and communications. If a plan is enacted, it would be the second major theater this year — along with Ukraine — where the US government has turned to Starlink to help provide crucial telecommunication services, even as questions swirl around Musk’s reliability in his dealings with the US government. (10/21)

Ariane Boss Insists Europe’s New Rocket Can Compete with Musk’s SpaceX (Source: Politico)
The new Ariane 6 rocket system will be competitive with Elon Musk’s SpaceX despite it lagging behind on reusable technology, said André-Hubert Roussel, CEO of Ariane Group, which runs the aerospace project. The long-delayed Ariane 6 system should finally launch in the fourth quarter of 2023, and Roussel said that while it won't include such cost-slashing technology as SpaceX it could eventually be possible to carry out a launch every two weeks, though only up to 12 in a full calendar year.

“Ariane 6 is the guarantee of autonomous access to space for Europe,” Roussel told POLITICO, while confirming tentative plans to carry out a maiden launch of the next-generation rocket by the close of next year, though the first full-scale commercial launch will only happen in 2024. There's a lot riding on the new Ariane rocket because Russia’s war on Ukraine means the backup Russian-made Soyuz system can no longer be launched from Europe's spaceport at Kourou in French Guiana. (10/20)

Space Coast Gears Up for 1st Falcon Heavy Launch in More Than 3 Years (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
While SpaceX has been knocking Falcon 9s out of the park all year, 2022 was also supposed to have had several launches of the massive Falcon Heavy rocket, which has not flown since 2019. The first of those looks to fly before the end of the month, set to lift off from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A, sending multiple satellites into orbit for the Space Systems Command’s Innovation and Prototyping Delta.

Unlike previous flights, SpaceX will not try to recover all three of the boosters, just the two side boosters since the center booster will need to provide more fuel to get the Space Force payloads to their desired orbit. It could be the first of three Falcon Heavy launches including another for the Space Force before the end of the year. One planned launch, though, for the NASA’s Pscyhe probe, was put on hold after issues with the satellite delayed plans to send it to an asteroid between Mars and Jupiter. (10/17)