November 7, 2022

Some Key Space Advocates Are Leaving Congress in 2023 (Source: Payload)
The looming departure of national security space champions from Capitol Hill is expected to leave a vacuum as the Space Force approaches its third birthday, but experts say more junior members are waiting in the wings for their shot to drive military space policy. One of the community’s biggest losses is Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN), who announced that he would not run for reelection after redistricting in Nashville.

Cooper, who is the chair of the House Armed Services Committee [HASC] strategic forces panel, has been a longtime champion for national security priorities in orbit, including calling for the establishment of a space-focused branch of the military years before former President Donald Trump broached the idea of a Space Force. “I’m very proud of the role [HASC Ranking Member Rep.] Mike Rogers and I played in starting the Space Force years before Trump knew about it or showed any interest,” Cooper said in an exit interview with Payload. “That’s really the only reason it ended up passing Congress. If it had been a Trump win, it never would have had the momentum.”

Cooper said he is often called “Space Force’s best friend and toughest critic.” After fighting for the establishment of a space service, Cooper publicly pushed the service to stay lean, be agile, and foster innovation. Most recently, he urged the service to put more emphasis on technology and speed than on uniforms and songs. (11/4)

Space Force Sets Timeline for Rapid Response Launch (Source: Space News)
The Space Force has set up a timeline for a rapid response launch experiment next year. Millennium Space is scheduled to deliver the Victus Nox space situational awareness satellite to the Space Force in late April, starting a "standby phase" that could last six months or longer. That would be followed by a 60-hour activation phase where the satellite is delivered to the launch site and integrated with a Firefly Aerospace Alpha rocket. There would then be a 24-hour call-up for launch. The Space Force acknowledges the timeline for this second demonstration of tactically responsive space capabilities is ambitious but needed to respond to growing threats in space. (11/7)

Independent Review of Psyche Reveals Broader Issues at JPL (Source: Space News)
An independent review of the problems that delayed the launch of NASA's Psyche asteroid mission found more fundamental issues at the center developing it. The report by the independent review board, released Friday, said the software development problems that delayed Psyche's launch were indicative of "broader institutional issues" at JPL, including a workforce stretched too thin and communications problems between engineers and managers. NASA and JPL accepted the report's conclusions and said they would work to address those problems with additional staffing and new efforts to hire and retain key personnel, while also revisiting hybrid work policies that the report said contributed to the problems. NASA said that, as part of that response, it will delay a Venus orbiter mission called VERITAS being developed by JPL by three years, to 2031. (11/7)

Confidence in Artemis 1 Launch, But Storm Approaching (Source: Space News)
NASA officials say they're confident about launching the Artemis 1 mission next week while keeping an eye on the weather. Agency officials said last week as they rolled the Space Launch System back to Launch Complex 39B that previous launch attempts and tests "help build our confidence" in being able to launch as soon as Nov. 14. Weather, though, could be a concern as a new storm system, which became Subtropical Storm Nicole Monday, approaches the Florida coast later this week. NASA officials said last week that they did not expect the storm to produce winds high enough to require the vehicle to roll back, but winds and rain could delay launch preparations. (11/7)

Lack of Funding Puts Starlink Service Offline in Ukraine (Source: CNN)
An estimated 1,300 Starlink terminals in Ukraine went out of service recently because of a lack of funding. The terminals went offline Oct. 24, U.S. officials said, because the Ukrainian military lacked the funds to pay the monthly fee of $2,500 per terminal. Those officials described the outage as a "huge problem" for the Ukrainian military. That outage comes as SpaceX CEO Elon Musk negotiates with the Defense Department to cover the cost of other Starlink terminals that SpaceX is currently paying for itself. (11/7)

Maxar Acquires Wovenware to Support Satellite Imagery (Source: Space News)
Maxar Technologies has acquired a company that furthers its goal of turning its satellite imagery archive into 3D products for gaming, media and other industries. Maxar announced last week it was buying  Wovenware, an artificial intelligence and software firm based in Puerto Rico known for its expertise in 3D geospatial technology and machine learning. Maxar executives said this acquisition is the latest in a series to help generate new business in the video gaming, media, entertainment and metaverse sectors. Maxar argues it is well positioned to serve these markets with its high-resolution satellite imagery archive, daily image collections and 3D production capabilities. (11/7)

Germany's Team NimbRo Wins Avatar X Prize (Source: Space News)
A German team won a $5 million space-themed robotics competition Saturday. Team NimbRo won the ANA Avatar X Prize finals after completing a test course that showed how remotely controlled robots could contribute to space exploration. The robot, developed by a lab at the University of Bonn, has an upper body that looks like a human torso and two arms with five fingers apiece. Attached to the head are a wide-angle stereo camera, a stereo microphone and a display showing an animated version of the operator's face. French startup Pollen Robotics captured the $2 million second-place prize. Team Northeastern from Boston won $1 million for coming in third. (11/7)

China Launches Communications Satellite (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
China launched a communications satellite Saturday. A Long March 3B rocket lifted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 7:50 a.m. Eastern and placed the Zhongxing-19 satellite into a geostationary transfer orbit. The satellite will replace Zhongxing-18, which failed shortly after its launch in 2019, providing communications services from GEO. (11/7)

Scientists Lobby to Keep GEDI Operational on ISS (Source: Science)
Earth scientists are lobbying NASA to keep an instrument running on the ISS. The Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) instrument has been on the station since 2019, mapping forests with a laser. It is scheduled to be removed from the station next year to make way for another payload. Scientists, though, have asked NASA to extend GEDI's mission, arguing that changes in the station's orbit kept it from meeting its goal of mapping all the forests in tropical and temperate regions of the Earth. NASA said it would review an extended mission for GEDI and two other Earth observation payloads on the station next month. (11/7)

Astronomers Discover Black Hole Nearest to Earth (Source: Science News)
Astronomers have discovered the closest black hole to the Earth. Astronomers detected the black hole, called Gaia BH1, in data from ESA's Gaia mapping spacecraft. The black hole is about 10 times the mass of the sun and orbits a star 1,500 light years away, making it the closest known black hole to our solar system. Astronomers suspect there are black holes even closer to the Earth, but they may be impossible to detect. (11/7)

Penultimate Antares 230+ Rocket lofts Cygnus Spacecraft to ISS (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
on Nov. 7, Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket disrupted a normally peaceful morning as it lifted off over the Atlantic from the Mid Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Virginia, with the Cygnus NG-18 cargo mission to the International Space Station. The Antares rocket lofted the Cygnus spacecraft, named SS Sally Ride, filled with supplies and new science for the space station. The two first stage Russian RD-181 engines hoisted the rocket quickly off of launch pad 0A and Antares quickly disappeared into the clouds.

This was the penultimate Antares launch in its current 230+ configuration. In August, Northrop Grumman partnered with Firefly Aerospace to provide a fully American-built first stage for the new Antares 330. The Mid Atlantic Regional Spaceport is located in the northern portion of Virginia’s Eastern Shore on Wallops Island. The complex consists of three launchpads. (11/7)

Rocket Lab Deploys 152nd Satellite (Source: Space Daily)
Rocket Lab USA successfully launched its 32nd Electron mission to deploy its 152nd satellite to orbit, a science payload for the Swedish National Space Agency. The MATS satellite was deployed to its 585km circular orbit by Electron. The "Catch Me If You Can" mission also resulted in a successful ocean splashdown of the Electron rocket's first stage. Rocket Lab had planned to attempt amid-air capture of Electron's first stage with a helicopter if conditions allowed, however not all requirements were met to ensure a successful capture. (11/7)

Iran Says it Successfully Tested Satellite Launcher (Source: Space Daily)
Iran announced Saturday the successful test flight of a rocket capable of propelling satellites into space, three months after launching a satellite with the help of Russia. The US has repeatedly voiced concern that such launches could boost Iran's ballistic missile technology, extending to the potential delivery of nuclear warheads. But Iran insists it is not seeking nuclear weapons and that its satellite and rocket launches are for civil or defensive purposes only. State television reported the "successful suborbital launch of the satellite launcher named Ghaem-100". (11/5)

Next-Gen Space-Based Positioning Tech Planned (Source: Space Daily)
China plans to establish a next-generation space-based navigation and positioning system by 2035, said a government official overseeing the sector. Ran Chengqi, director of the China Satellite Navigation Office, said at a news conference held by the State Council Information Office on Friday in Beijing that the next-generation system, which has yet to be named, will be accessible to users anywhere, anytime on Earth.

"The new system will be 'omnipresent, smarter and more integrated'. We plan to complete the system by 2035 and upon its completion, there will be Beidou service not only on land and sea, but also in the sky, outer space and deep within the oceans," Ran said. The official said that the current Beidou network consists of satellites in medium and high-altitude orbits while system designers are considering the inclusion of low-orbit satellites in the new system to take advantage of low-orbit communication networks. (11/7)

China's Mightiest Liquid-Propellant Rocket Engine Passes Key Test (Source: Space Daily)
Engineers in China's space industry conducted a key test of the country's most powerful liquid-propellant rocket engine on Saturday, marking a large stride in the development of a super-heavy carrier rocket. Developed by the Academy of Aerospace Propulsion Technology in Xi'an of Shaanxi province, the 500-metric ton-thrust engine's first ignition test took place at the academy's testing facility in a Xi'an suburb. It was a "complete success", the academy said in a news release.

The test's success was an important breakthrough in the research and development of the engine, which is four times mightier than the current strongest rocket engine in China that has a thrust of 120 tons. The engine consumes liquid oxygen and kerosene and has the world's largest thruster chamber of a staged combustion rocket engine, according to designers. It is expected to be the main propulsion on the Long March 9 rocket, a model under research and development that will be used to send Chinese astronauts to the moon. (11/7)

Why America Must Develop Space, and How We’ll Do It (Source: Andreessen Horowitz)
For some of us, the echo of the Space Race remains a catalyst for our daily pursuits. But a changing world demands more, and we stand today at the dawn of a new age. Sixty years later, we are in the early innings of the Space Age, and control over this new arena will be the driver of economic growth and measuring stick of power for the coming centuries, perhaps millennia.

To grasp the weight of this, we must understand the source of America’s strength today, and the potential that a new frontier holds. Through looking at the past, we can also materialize a framework for space exploration and development — one that is not just a science-fiction future, but an increasingly tangible reality. Click here. (11/2)

Space Traffic Management (STM) Terms Definition - New Space Economy (Source: New Space Economy)
Aerospace Corporation published a document (October 2022) with recommended definition of STM-related terms based upon the consensus of the IAF STM Technical Committee members. IAF STM TC members recommend harmonization for the following STM-related terms. Click here. (11/2)