December 12, 2022

Gravitics Raises $20M to Make the Essential Units for Living and Working in Space (Source: Tech Crunch)
If space stations are the next phase of business in orbit, they’re going to need standard parts — and Gravitics aims to be the one making them. The startup is headed by space industry veteran Colin Doughan, who surveyed these currents and saw a gap in the market. Doughan’s career spans a nearly 20-year tenure at Lockheed Martin, where he worked as a senior finance manager dealing with large satellite constellations for government customers. He also co-founded Altius Space Machines, which was eventually purchased by Voyager Space in 2019.

Private station operators “are going to need an easy LEGO brick to build in space,” he told TechCrunch in a recent interview: versatile, modular hardware to let humanity build in space at scale.

Gravitics, which emerged from stealth today following the announcement of a $20 million seed round, is calling the building block “StarMax.” (Doughan also refers to it as an SUV — a “Space Utility Vehicle.”) Notably, StarMax modules are huge: the model listed on the company’s website has a diameter of nearly 8 meters and an internal usable volume of 400 cubic meters, nearly half that of the International Space Station. Gravitics wants to position these modules as the essential base unit for living and working in space. (11/17)

Success All Around for Artemis 1, Concern About Musk (Source: Space News)
The success of the mission generated widespread praise from politicians and industry, although NASA officials sidestepped concerns that another key part of the overall Artemis effort, SpaceX, might be affected by CEO Elon Musk's current focus on Twitter. U.S. Space Command highlighted its role in the mission, coordinating the recovery forces used to retrieve Orion after splashdown as well as providing rescue services during future crewed launches. The European Space Agency, which provided the Orion service module, praised the performance of that component of the spacecraft, which some see as a sign that Europe is capable of developing its own crewed spacecraft. (12/12)

France's Anywaves Raises $3 Million for US Business Pursuits (Source: Space News)
French satellite antenna maker Anywaves has raised around $3 million to help capture more business from U.S. customers. The company, which spun out of the French space agency CNES five years ago, is developing generic antennas in S- and X-band that are compatible with a wide range of satellite missions. The new funding, from French investor Ylliade Groupe, will allow Anywaves to expand sales and marketing efforts in the United States. About 80% of current Anywaves customers are based in Europe. (12/12)

Bill Would Reform FCC Satellite Licensing (Source: Space News)
The leadership of the House Energy and Commerce Committee introduced bills to reform FCC satellite licensing rules. The pair of bills, introduced last week by committee chairman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) and ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), seek to update regulations covering foreign ownership, space sustainability, license processing timelines and satellite spectrum sharing. They are updated versions of draft bills circulated earlier this year, with changes such as stricter requirements for a minor license change to qualify for automatic approval. With only a few weeks left in the current Congress, the bills are unlikely to pass this year but could be reintroduced next year. (12/12)

China Launches Two Experimental Satellites (Source: Xinhua)
China launched a pair of experimental satellites early Monday. A Long March 4C rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 3:22 a.m. Eastern and placed the Shiyan-20A and -20B satellites into orbit. Chinese media described them as experimental satellites for technologies such as space environmental monitoring but did not disclose additional details about their missions. (12/12)

Rocket Lab Virginia Debut Delayed for Range/Airspace Conflict (Source: NASA)
Rocket Lab's inaugural launch from Virginia has slipped again. The company and NASA said Sunday that the launch, previously scheduled for Tuesday, would be delayed to at least Thursday because of an unspecified "range/airspace" availability conflict. The company delayed the launch last week because of forecasted poor weather at the Wallops Flight Facility, and the forecast for Thursday is not favorable. NASA did state that an autonomous flight termination unit needed for the launch, and whose development had suffered extensive delays, had been cleared by the FAA for use on the upcoming launch. (12/12)

Boeing to Continue Work on Future SLS Rockets (Source: NASA)
NASA has finalized a contract with Boeing for several future SLS rockets. The $3.2 billion contract, announced Friday, covers core stages for the Artemis 3 and 4 missions and procurement of long-lead items for Artemis 5 and 6. It also includes the Exploration Upper Stage (EUS) for the Artemis 5 and 6 missions. Under a 2019 contract, Boeing had started work on the Artemis 3 core stage and was already under contract to produce the EUS for Artemis 4, the first SLS to use that more powerful upper stage. (12/12)

CYGNSS Satellite Malfunctions (Source: NASA)
One satellite in a NASA Earth science smallsat constellation has malfunctioned. NASA said Friday that satellite FM06 of the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) has been out of contract with controllers since Nov. 26. The other seven CYGNSS satellites are working normally. NASA launched CYGNSS in 2016 to monitor ocean surface winds around tropical systems, and CYGNSS has been in an extended mission since 2019. (12/12)

Kilonova Blasts Earth with Gamma Rays (Source: The Independent)
Earth has been hit by an intense, unusual blast of light that could change our understanding of the universe, scientists have said. Late last year, scientists spotted a 50-second-long blast of energy coming towards Earth, known as a gamma-ray burst or GRB, which are the most powerful explosions in the universe. Immediately, researchers started looking for the afterglow that such blasts leave behind, with that visible light being useful to find where the blast has come from.

But those researchers instead found something else entirely: that the blast appeared to have come from a kilonova. Those rare events only happen when a neutron star merges with another very compact object – either another neutron star or a black hole. The study challenges our understanding of where such long-lasting GRBs come from. But it could also provide an exciting way to answer other questions about the universe, such as where its heaviest elements come from, which still remains a mystery.

And the galaxy from which the GRB came from is also strange. It is young and still forming stars – the opposite of the only other known nearby galaxy that has played host to such an event. “This event looks unlike anything else we have seen before from a long gamma-ray burst,” said Jillian Rastinejad, from Northwestern University, who led the study. “Its gamma rays resemble those of bursts produced by the collapse of massive stars. (12/9)

Historic Radio Telescope Threatened by Local Redevelopment (Source: Sky & Telescope)
The radio telescope that detected evidence of the Big Bang more than 50 years ago is in peril. The Holmdel Horn was built by Bell Labs in New Jersey for use with early communications satellites, but gained fame when Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson detected a persistent background noise later found to be the cosmic microwave background, a relic of the Big Bang. Penzias and Wilson won the Nobel Prize in physics for their discovery. The land where Holmdel Horn sits is now being considered for redevelopment by local officials, which could result in the antenna being moved of destroyed, despite being designated a National Historic Landmark. (12/12)

Kittinger Passes at 94 (Source: New York Times)
Joseph Kittinger, who parachuted from the edge of space more than 60 years ago, died Friday at the age of 94. Kittinger, an Air Force pilot, participated in Project Excelsior, an effort to see if astronauts could survive if they had to bail out of descending space capsule. Kittinger performed several high-altitude jumps, including one from an altitude of more than 31,300 meters in 1960 that set the record for the highest parachute jump. That record lasted until 2012, when Felix Baumgartner jumped from 39,000 meters with Kittinger serving as an adviser. (12/12)