October 31, 2022

Māori Need to Shine Light on Space Strategy (Source: Waatea News)
There’s concern public consultation on New Zealand’s Aerospace Strategy and Space Policy Review consultation has been too rushed for Māori to have meaningful input. Consultation closes today.

William Grant, Pūkenga lecturer at the University of Canterbury law faculty, says with an attractive launch site Aotearoa New Zealand has become one of the top four most active countries in the space arena, and has the opportunity to influence the future development and use of outer space. But he says the breakneck speed of commercialization of outer space brings into focus concerns not just about its peaceful but how we engage with the night sky from earth.

Satellites and especially now mega-constellations of satellites are contributing to the light barrier between earth and celestial bodies. Māori are rebuilding their relationship with the night sky through developments such as the reawakened interest in Matariki, but what does it mean if people can no longer see Puaka, Matariki or her children because of increased nightglow. (10/31)

All Systems Go for Launch of Australian Rocket (Source: Cosmos)
South Australia is closer to its return to the rocket business, for the first time in half a century, with the firms behind the event confirming they expect to launch within weeks. Four SA companies are putting the final touches on the VS03 mission that is hoped will launch a rocket and small payload into space from Whalers Way.

NASA successfully launched a rocket from the Northern Territory at the end of June – the first commercial space launch in Australia’s history – and also launched from Australia in 1995, when its rockets lifted off from the Woomera rocket Range. ATSpace ‘Kestrel I’ rocket to be launched from the Southern Launch Whalers Way Complex is weather dependent.

The ‘Kestrel I’ launch vehicle is a 10 meter, two stage, sub-orbital rocket. The rocket will reach an altitude of more than 200 kilometers above Earth. The trajectory of the launch will be over the Southern Ocean with the total time of flight approximately 10 minutes. (10/31)

ULA, Partners Start Expansions Ahead of Project Kuiper Launches (Source: Denver Business Journal)
Companies start on multiple factory expansions and the Colorado rocket company returns to growth. Payload fairings enclose the sColorado aerospace company United Launch Alliance and a major partner have started factory expansions aimed at doubling rocket production and launching thousands of internet satellites for Amazon’s Project Kuiper. ULA broke ground on a $300 million warehouse and facilities expansion project Thursday at the company’s Vulcan rocket factory in Decatur, Alabama.

ULA is adding two buildings totaling 600,000 square feet on the campus, one of which will be a company warehouse for expanded Vulcan production. The other is a second onsite factory for one of its major suppliers, Swiss aerospace manufacturer Beyond Gravity. That company is adding a 250,000-square-foot facility to increase the number of composite rocket payload fairings it makes per year for ULA from 10 to as many as 25.

For ULA, the expansions signal a return to growth. The 2,500-employee company had slimmed its workforce in recent years in preparation for narrowing its rocket production to one launch vehicle, Vulcan. That will include launching at a twice-monthly cadence by mid-decade, making ULA busier than ever and necessitating hiring hundreds of new employees. In addition to its Decatur expansion, the company will build a second set of launch infrastructure at its Vulcan launch site in Cape Canaveral, Florida, to accommodate a doubled launch rate. (10/28)

How State Conflict Is Going Extra-Terrestrial (Source: Eurasia Review)
Countries around the world are making unprecedented commitments to civilian space exploration as well as its militarization. According to the Secure World Foundation’s 2022 Global Counterspace Capabilities report, “an increasing number of countries are looking to use space to enhance their military capabilities and national security” by developing a broad range of defensive and offensive dual-use technologies.

The governing international treaties on outer space which came into force in the 1960s and 70s are unequivocally vague on the prospects of military outer space activities, much less on prospects of an armed confrontation in space. Existing treaties are simply not fit for purpose. Technological developments have outpaced the legal community’s capacity to evolve existing international law guidelines as pertaining to the civilian-military nexus and the possibility of conflict situations in outer space.

Any attack on vital mixed-use satellite infrastructure will require the active involvement of the international legal community and a rethinking of the remit of international criminal law and international laws of armed conflict or international humanitarian law regarding outer space objects and objectives. (10/28)

Australia Joins ASAT Moratorium (Source: Space Policy Online)
Australia has become the seventh country to join the United States in agreeing not to conduct destructive direct-ascent antisatellite tests. The U.S. initiative came in the wake of Russia’s ASAT test in November 2021 that littered low Earth orbit with debris. Russia made no apologies and just this week threatened that commercial satellites used to support Ukraine could be legitimate targets for attack. The White House countered that any attack “on U.S. infrastructure” would be met with a response. (10/29)

ISRO Eyes Reusable Rocket to Carry Heavier Payloads Into Orbit (Source: Mint)
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has asked the manufacturing industry to collaborate with the organisation in order to create a reusable rocket capable of carrying heavier payloads into orbit. This comes as India plans to establish their own Space Station by the year 2035.

On Sunday, ISRO successfully conducted an acceptance hot test of the CE-20 engine that will be used to launch the next batch of 36 OneWeb satellites into Low Earth Orbit. The CE-20 engine will power the Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (LVM-3), which earlier launched the first batch. The reusable rocket, also being called Next-Generation Launch Vehicle (NGLV) is being worked upon. ISRO scientists are creating the design of the rocket and would like the industry to collaborate with it in the development, said ISRO Chairman S Somanath. (10/30)

Satellites Are Too Costly in Tough Times, Say Protesters (Source: The Times)
Protesters have targeted Britain’s first satellite launch to complain about the cost of living crisis. Next month a Virgin Boeing 747, known as Cosmic Girl, is due to take off and dispatch a rocket that will put nine satellites high above Earth. The plane arrived in Cornwall this month. The project has been partly financed with £10 million of taxpayers’ money.

Kate Hudson, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament’s general secretary, said space was the “new frontier for military escalation” with “no real public scrutiny or accountability”. She added: “Billions are being spent on this new arms race which could instead be invested in helping to solve the current cost of living crisis.” (10/31)

China Launches Third Space Station Module (Source: Reuters)
China launched the third module for its space station Monday. A Long March 5B rocket lifted off at 3:37 a.m. Eastern from the Wenchang Space Launch Center, placing the Mengtian module into orbit. The module is scheduled to dock with the Tianhe core module of the space station later today. The module will provide additional laboratory space for the station. Like previous launches, the core stage of the Long March 5B is expected to make an uncontrolled reentry in the coming days. (10/31)

Another Uncontrolled Rocket Reentry by China (Source: Ars Technica)
The assembly of China's space station has had one unfortunate side effect. To launch the main modules of Tiangong, China has used a modified version of its powerful Long March 5B rocket. And as part of the overall mission profile, the vehicle's massive core stage reenters Earth's atmosphere in an uncontrollable manner.

Not all space hardware needs to be disposed of in such a manner. Vehicles such as the Russian Progress spacecraft are small enough to burn up in the atmosphere. But that's not the case with the core stage of the Long March 5B rocket, which has a mass of more than 20 metric tons. Large pieces of metal will make it to the surface of the Earth.

On the three previous launches of this rocket—in 2020, 2021, and 2022—chunks of debris damaged villages in the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, fell into the Indian Ocean, and landed near villages in Borneo, respectively. Fortunately, no one has yet been injured by this falling debris. China has largely refused to acknowledge the problem created by this rocket. The commentator on Monday's launch broadcast said the core stage would completely burn up in Earth's atmosphere on reentry. Almost certainly, that will not be the case. (10/31)

Centaur Battery Replacement Delays JPSS Weather Satellite Launch (Source: Space News)
A launch vehicle issue has delayed the launch of a weather satellite scheduled for Tuesday. NASA announced Saturday that the Atlas 5 launch of the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) 2 satellite, scheduled for early Tuesday from Vandenberg Space Force Base, will be delayed to replace a battery in the rocket's Centaur upper stage. The launch will now take place no earlier than Nov. 9.

NASA and United Launch Alliance officials reported no issues with the vehicle during a briefing Friday after the mission's launch readiness review. JPSS-2 is a polar-orbiting satellite that will join JPSS-1 and Suomi NPP in providing weather data. The launch will also carry LOFTID, a NASA technology demonstration of an inflatable heat shield that could be used on future Mars missions. (10/31)

Raymond Retires From Space Force (Source: Space News)
Gen. John "Jay" Raymond, the first head of the U.S. Space Force, will retire this week. A change-of-command ceremony is scheduled for Wednesday at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, where Raymond will relinquish the Chief of Space Operations role to Gen. B. Chance Saltzman and retire after 38 years of service. Raymond because the first official member of the service when it was established in December 2019 and had to build the service from the ground up. Raymond said in a recent interview he is proud of what's been accomplished in less than three years and is confident that the Space Force is on solid footing. (10/31)

SatixFy Goes Public with SPAC Merger (Source: Space News)
Satellite antenna company SatixFy went public Friday after completing a SPAC merger. Israel-based SatixFy listed on the New York Stock Exchange following its merger with Endurance Acquisition Corp. and closed up more than 40% on its first day of trading. SatixFy has said it expects to raise up to $230 million in gross proceeds by merging with Endurance, which is backed by New York-based private equity firm Antarctica Capital, and will use the proceeds to fund an aggressive sales strategy for the antennas, terminals, and modems it produces based on semiconductors developed in-house. (10/31)

Psyche Mission Rescheduled for October 2023 Launch (Source: Space News)
NASA has rescheduled the launch of the Psyche asteroid mission for next October. NASA said Friday that the mission, which missed its launch window earlier this year because of delays testing the spacecraft's software, had passed a "continuation/termination" review to allow the mission to proceed for a launch next fall. NASA did not disclose the cost of the delay. Psyche will travel to the metallic main-belt asteroid of the same name, arriving in 2029. (10/31)

Mars Helicopter to Retrieve Perseverance Regolith Samples (Source: Space News)
NASA and ESA have approved plans to establish a cache of samples collected by the Perseverance Mars rover. NASA said Friday that Perseverance would place some of the 14 samples it has collected to date into a cache on the surface at a site called "Three Forks" in Jezero Crater. Those samples will be picked up by helicopters, based on Ingenuity, as part of a future lander mission to collect samples and launch them into orbit for return to Earth. The cache will serve as a backup should Perseverance be unable to return samples it collects to the lander. (10/31)

NASA Adds Lunar Landing to Artemis Gateway Mission (Source: Space News)
NASA has added a landing to a future Artemis mission previously devoted to lunar Gateway assembly. Early this year NASA said the Artemis 4 mission would not have a lunar landing but instead be used to install the I-Hab module to the Gateway. However, in a conference presentation Friday, NASA said Artemis 4 would now have a crewed lunar landing, using the "Option B" version of SpaceX's Starship. That will be an upgraded version of the Starship used on Artemis 3 to support longer lunar stays by larger crews. The Artemis 5 mission will likely be used to demonstrate the lander from a second company that NASA will select as part of the ongoing Sustaining Lunar Development procurement. (10/31)

China Tests Moon Rocket Engine (Source: Space News)
China has conducted a series of engine tests for a launch vehicle capable of sending astronauts to the moon. A 300-second mission duty cycle test of a kerosene-liquid oxygen engine called YF-100M took place earlier this month, while another engine using liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen for the rocket's third stage passed the milestone of 10,000 seconds of cumulative runtime.

The new rocket is sometimes referred to as the Long March 5 Dengyue ("moon landing") or Long March 5G. It will be capable of sending 27 metric tons into translunar injection trajectory; two such launches would send a crewed spacecraft and lander to lunar orbit. Senior Chinese space officials say the country will be capable of executing this idea for a short-term lunar stay mission before 2030. (10/31)

China Launches Classified Satellite (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
China launched a classified satellite late Friday. A Long March 2D rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 9:01 p.m. Eastern and place the Shiyan-20C satellite into orbit. The satellite is believed to be a technology demonstration satellite, although few details are available about its mission or the technologies it will demonstrate. (10/31)

Stratolaunch Flies With Hypersonic Prototype (Source: GeekWire)
Stratolaunch flew its giant aircraft Friday with a hypersonic vehicle prototype attached. The plane made a five-hour flight from the Mojave Air and Space Port that, for the first time, had the company's Talon-A separation test vehicle, or TA-0, attached to the pylon on the center portion of its wing between its twin fuselages. Additional captive-carry flights are planned before a drop test of TA-0 in December over the Pacific. (10/31)

Beyond Gravity Wins ULA Contract for Amazon's Project Kuiper Constellation Launches (Source: Space Daily)
In mid-March this year, Beyond Gravity (formerly RUAG Space) was awarded a contract to develop and deliver the dispenser system for Amazon's planned satellite constellation. Project Kuiper aims to provide affordable, high-speed broadband connections around the world.

Now, United Launch Alliance (ULA) has also awarded Beyond Gravity the contract to supply 38 payload fairings for its Vulcan rockets. These will protect the Amazon satellites from launch to deployment. To handle the volume, Beyond Gravity is doubling its production capacity in the U.S. and is working with ULA to build a new manufacturing facility at its site in Decatur, Alabama, by early 2024, creating 200 additional jobs. (10/28)

Time for the United States to Extend SpaceX’s Starlink to Russia (Source: The Hill)
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has won some fame for providing Starlink internet services to Ukraine. Plans are underway to give the same access to the orbiting communications constellation to dissidents currently protesting the theocratic regime in Iran. Despite Musk starting a dustup over who should ultimately pay for those services, the point is that a space-based telecommunication service, like Starlink, is a crucial weapon in the war against tyranny.

It’s time for the United States to use the power of Starlink to deliver space-based information to anywhere on Earth to extend its reach to Russia. No technology has greater power to not only end Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine but to end his tyrannical and ruinous rule.

During the depth of the Cold War, the West brought news and information to the Soviet bloc via short-wave radio transmitted by Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. Starlink represents a quantum leap that could bring the truth of what Putin is doing to the Russian people. Almost as important, a Starlink-based information campaign could inform Russians who silently oppose Putin that they are not alone. (10/30)

How We Cultivate Resilience in Space Exploration (Source: Newsweek)
Visionaries are constructing a new agile space industry that's bold and appears boundless. They already have created reusable rockets, are exploring lunar nuclear reactors and see possibilities where others see preposterousness and folly. According to industry sources, private investors have invested over $200 billion over the past ten years.

To build an agile and resilient space exploration industry, leaders must invest in people and technology that actualize the fantastic. An industry that builds systems to last a decade or longer must think at least a decade beyond that. NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts Program has nurtured and funded seemingly outrageous ideas for more than two decades. Each year, NASA awards grants to researchers in public and private sectors who propose high-risk, high-reward concepts and then test their viability. Click here. (10/28)

Japan's Space Agency Investigating Failed Epsilon Rocket Launch (Source: NHK)
Japan's space agency says the probable cause of the launch failure of the Epsilon-6 rocket earlier this month was technical issues in a system that uses thrusters to control the rocket. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, gave a detailed explanation of the launch failure at a panel of government experts on Friday.

The JAXA representative said a valve for a tube may not have worked properly, which could have led to the failure. JAXA had already discovered an abnormality in one of the attitude control devices mounted on the second-stage engine of the rocket. (10/29)