December 22, 2022

Vega C Launch Failure Destroys Two Airbus Imaging Satellites (Source: Space News)
A Vega C rocket carrying two imaging satellites failed during a launch Tuesday night. The Vega C lifted off from French Guiana at 8:47 p.m. Eastern, but less than four minutes later, the rocket deviated from its planned trajectory, falling back to Earth. Arianespace said that the rocket's Zefiro-40 solid-fuel second stage suffered from "underpressure" that caused a loss of thrust. The launch was the second flight of the Vega C, an upgraded version of the Vega small launch vehicle, after a successful inaugural flight in July. It's the third failure in less than three and a half years for the Vega family of vehicles after Vega failures in July 2019 and November 2020. The rocket carried the Pléiades Neo 5 and 6 high-resolution imaging satellites for Airbus Defence and Space. (12/21)

NASA Delays Spacewalk for Orbital Debris (Source: NASA)
NASA called off a spacewalk outside the International Space Station this morning because of a close approach by a piece of orbital debris. Josh Cassada and Frank Rubio were preparing for the spacewalk, scheduled to begin at 7:45 a.m. Eastern, when NASA informed the station's crew that a fragment from a Russian Fregat upper stage was predicted to pass less than half a kilometer from the station. A Progress cargo spacecraft attached to the station will fire its thrusters this morning to move the station away from the debris, but NASA managers decided to call off the spacewalk to focus on the debris avoidance maneuver. The spacewalk, the second of two to install solar arrays on the station, has not been rescheduled. (12/21)

Roscosmos Proposes Bond Financing to Expand Russian Satellite Manufacturing (Source: Reuters)
Roscosmos is proposing to issue bonds to build up Russian satellite manufacturing capabilities. The agency said it would issue up to $710 million in bonds next year to fund mass production of satellites, including new factories, so that Russia can keep pace with the United States and China. Borisov said he wants Russia to be able to produce 200-250 satellites a year by 2025. (12/21)

Rocket Lab's Electron Launch Delay Impacts Quarterly Revenues (Source: Rocket Lab)
An Electron launch delay will affect Rocket Lab's finances. The company said the delay in the first Electron launch from Virginia to next month would reduce its revenues for the quarter. The company, which previously projected revenues of $51-54 million for the fourth quarter, now expects revenues to be $46-47 million. (12/21)

Astronauts Conduct ISS Spacewalk to Install Solar Array (Source: NASA)
Two NASA astronauts have started a spacewalk after a one-day delay. Astronauts Josh Cassada and Frank Rubio started the spacewalk at 8:19 a.m. Eastern this morning to install another new solar array on the station. The two installed a similar array on a spacewalk earlier this month. The spacewalk was scheduled for Wednesday, but NASA called it off after being notified of a piece of orbital debris projected to pass close to the station. A Progress cargo spacecraft docked to the station fired its thrusters Wednesday morning to adjust the station's orbit and avoid the debris. (12/22)

NASA's InSight Mars Mission Ends (Source: Space News)
NASA's InSight Mars mission is officially over, the agency announced Wednesday. The lander missed its second consecutive communications session as its power levels dropped, the threshold NASA previously set for declaring the mission over. InSight's power had been diminishing as dust accumulated on its solar panels, despite the best efforts of engineers to try and remove that dust. The lander exceeded its prime mission of one Martian year, or nearly two Earth years, recording more than 1,300 marsquakes with its seismometer. A heat flow probe, though, was never able to burrow into the surface as planned because soil properties at the landing site differed from what scientists had expected. (12/22)

Saturn Satellite Networks Raising $500 Million for GEO Satellites (Source: Space News)
Saturn Satellite Networks says it is finalizing the $500 million in financing needed for a network of small geostationary communications satellites. The company said equity investors have promised to fund nearly half of the Space BroadbandNetworks-1 (SBN-1) program of six GEO satellites to launch in 2025. The company expects to secure the rest through the Ex-Im Bank in the first quarter of next year. The project aims to put Saturn back on track following setbacks for a company established five years ago by former executives of satellite operator ABS. (12/22)

Terran Orbital Delivers SDA Satellite Buses to Lockheed Martin (Source: Space News)
Terran Orbital has completed delivery of 10 satellite buses ordered by Lockheed Martin for the Space Development Agency. The smallsat manufacturer said Thursday it wrapped up work on the buses, which Lockheed will use for its contribution to the SDA's Transport Layer Tranche 0. Those satellites are projected to launch in June. Terran Orbital CEO Marc Bell said the delivery of Tranche 0 satellites coincides with the company's "shift from lower quantity, mission-unique satellites to robust production." (12/22)

Europe's Acess to Space in Jeopardy After Vega-C rocket Failure (Source: Space Daily)
Flights of the new European Vega-C rocket have been suspended pending an investigation into an overnight launch failure, French firm Arianespace said Wednesday, leaving Europe with few avenues into space. Just minutes after the Vega-C rocket lifted off from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana at 10:47 pm local time on Tuesday, its trajectory deviated from its programmed route and communications were lost, Arianespace said. The order to destroy the launcher, which was carrying two satellites built by Airbus, was then given by French space agency CNES. (12/21)

ESA and Arianespace Open Vega C Launch Failure Investigation (Source: Space News)
An independent commission will investigate Tuesday night's Vega C launch failure. Arianespace and ESA announced Wednesday they would jointly chair the panel that will look into the root cause of the failure and recommend corrective actions. In an online presentation Wednesday, Arianespace said that the rocket's Zefiro-40 second stage suffered a progressive loss of chamber pressure starting seven seconds after ignition. The pressure dropped precipitously nearly three and a half minutes after liftoff, followed by failures of electronics units on the stage. Neither Arianespace nor ESA estimated how long the investigation and return-to-flight activities might take. (12/22)

UK Regulator Issues Virgin Orbit Licenses Ahead of UK Launch (Source: Space Daily)
issued the final remaining licences to Virgin Orbit ahead of a planned UK launch after requirements were met within 15 months. The licences were issued following consent from Transport Secretary Mark Harper for Virgin Orbit's launch and range licence, meaning he is in agreement with the licensing decisions made by the UK Civil Aviation Authority.

Virgin Orbit met the licensing requirements having demonstrated to the UK Civil Aviation Authority it has taken all reasonable steps to ensure safety risks arising from launch activities are as low as reasonably practicable. Virgin Orbit also met other appropriate security and environmental aspects required for launch. Virgin Orbit also received its range control licence from the space regulator, which enables the company to issue warning notices to keep people out of hazardous areas and monitor the progress of the rocket.

The UK Civil Aviation Authority granted the licences within 15 months, well within the expected timescales for these types of licences, putting the UK's regulatory framework on a competitive footing with other international space regulators. (12/22)

Terran 1 and Terran R Testing in Full Swing Before Relativity’s Launch Debut in Florida (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
The first fully integrated static fire test of Relativity Space’s Terran 1 rocket is expected any day now as the company prepares for its first-ever launch from Florida. Following a series of tests of the rocket’s first stage, the second stage and nosecone were assembled, and the entire vehicle has now rolled back to the pad on the transporter/erector.

While Relativity’s near-term focus remains on Terran 1’s maiden flight, the company is also planning for and even testing hardware for its next rocket, the larger and fully reusable Terran R. Terran 1’s pre-launch testing has been taking place at Space Launch Complex 16 (SLC-16) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, the same pad that the rocket will lift off from on its first flight. During the first series of tests, only involving the first stage of the rocket, a purpose-built test stand was placed on the launch pad rather than the launch mount that will be used for flight.

While the team’s current focus is on flying Terran 1 in order to begin delivering payloads to orbit, work also continues developing the company’s bigger Terran R rocket. While experience gained via Terran 1 will inform development and designs for Terran R, Ellis said that the company does not plan to cancel the smaller vehicle in favor of the larger one. One way the company plans to leverage the Terran 1 vehicle as a testbed is to replace the nine Aeon 1 engines on the rocket’s first stage with a single Aeon R, the engine that will power Terran R. This will act as both an upgrade to Terran 1 and a way to gain flight experience ahead of Terran R. (12/21)

Where's Starship? Terran 1 Gets Closer to Launch (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
With this video update from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport we got a look at Relativity's Terran 1 rocket on the pad from both the air and the ground, spotted evidence that a New Glenn first stage might be in testing, plus we try to figure out what on Earth SpaceX is doing at its Cidco Road facility. Click here. (12/19)

Ground Station Operators Skeptical of Optical Comms (Source: Space News)
Ground station operators remain skeptical of optical communications. Companies like KSAT and Swedish Space Corporation are developing ground stations to support laser communications with satellites, which offer higher bandwidth and greater security. However, they said that while laser links may be useful for inter-satellite communications, there are major technical challenges to using them for downlinks, including clouds and atmospheric turbulence. Optical terminals are also expensive, operators note. (12/22)

German/French Collaboration to Address Atmospheric Disturbance for Optical Communications (Source: Space News)
German startup NeuralAgent is joining forces with French startup Miratlas to address a vexing problem for optical communications: transmitting data through Earth's atmosphere. Under a memorandum of understanding, NeuralAgent and Miratlas are developing an AI-based technique to predict atmospheric conditions and determine the optimal paths for optical data. (12/21)

Ligado Working to Avoid Bankruptcy (Source: Wall Street Journal)
Ligado Networks is raising money to avoid a bankruptcy filing. The company is reportedly working on a $70 million round to make payments and stave off a potential Chapter 11 filing. Inmarsat recently filed suit against Ligado, claiming Ligado had missed payments to Inmarsat as part of a cooperation agreement involving L-band spectrum. Ligado had been working to set up a terrestrial 5G network using that spectrum but faced opposition from the Defense Department and others, who argued that the network would interfere with GPS signals in nearby bands. (12/22)

Curiosity Mars Rover Places 10 Sample Tubes at Depot Site (Source: NASA)
The Curiosity Mars rover deposited its first sample tube for later return to Earth. NASA said Wednesday that the rover placed the first of 10 tubes in a depot in the "Three Forks" region of Jezero Crater. The other nine will be placed there over the next one to two months in an intricate pattern. The depot is intended to serve as a backup if Perseverance cannot meet up with a future Sample Retrieval Lander and hand over sample tubes it is storing. That lander will carry two helicopters based on Ingenuity that will collect those samples and return them to the lander, which will load them into a rocket to launch into Mars orbit to be picked up and returned to Earth. (12/22)

Rotors for Mission to Titan Tested at Langley's Transonic Dynamics Tunnel (Source: Space Daily)
NASA explores the unknown in space, bringing the secrets of our solar system home so we can apply that information for the benefit of humanity. In that spirit, NASA will explore Titan, Saturn's largest moon, to help advance humanity's search for the building blocks of life in the universe. A key component of the 8-rotor Dragonfly vehicle that will make that journey to Titan recently underwent testing at the Transonic Dynamics Tunnel (TDT) at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. (12/22)

Russian Lunar Lander Mission Could Launch in July/August 2023 (Source: TASS)
The next opportunity to launch a long-delayed Russian lunar lander will be next summer. The head of Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, said the next launch window for the Luna-25 mission is July and August. The spacecraft, launched on a Soyuz-2.1b rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome, will attempt a landing in the south polar regions of the moon. The mission has suffered years of delays, most recently by problems with a Doppler ranging device needed for the landing. (12/22)

India Reschedules First Crew Mission in Late 2024 (Source: DNA India)
India's first crewed mission is now planned for late 2024. In a message to the Indian parliament, the government minister responsible for space, Jitendra Singh, said the first crewed Gaganyaan mission is now scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2024. Two uncrewed test flights will precede it in the fourth quarter of 2023 and the second quarter of 2024. The crewed mission, which will carry three astronauts for a mission lasting five to seven days, was originally scheduled to take place by August 2022 to mark the 75th anniversary of India's independence. (12/22)

Defense Sector Turning Attention to Startups (Source: Jane's)
Raytheon Technologies is among leading defense firms that is expanding venture investment in response to the Pentagon's call for new technology. "There's a clear increase in interest to get involved in defense tech investing, and I think that's associated with geopolitical events and an increased awareness and interest in deploying advanced technologies that startups are developing to the defense marketplace," said Daniel Ateya, managing director of RTX Ventures. (12/21)

AI In Space And Its Future Use In Warfare (Source: Forbes)
Much like the aviation and nuclear technologies adopted in decades past, AI techniques are relatively neutral; however, properly harnessed AI technology will afford an asymmetric advantage that advances and adapts far more quickly than previous technologies. Since AI is largely software running on commercial processors it doesn’t require the decade long development cycles of nuclear missiles or bombers to deploy or even upgrade. As such, whichever nation best adapts this technology to its military – especially in space – will open new frontiers in innovation and determine the winners and losers.

It should come as no surprise that China anticipated this advantage sooner than the US and is at the forefront of adoption. Chinese dominance in AI is imminent. The Chinese government has made enormous investments in this area (much more than Western countries) and is the current leader in AI publications and research patents globally. Meanwhile, China’s ambitions in space are no longer a secret – the country is now on a trajectory to surpass the US in the next decade. Massive Chinese investments in AI, combined with parallel funding directed to eclipse US dominance in the space domain, is highly alarming. And if we adjust for the major labor price differential between the US and China, we are staring at a tsunami.

The speed, range, and flexibility afforded by AI and machine learning gives those on orbit who wield it an unprecedented competitive edge. The advantage of AI in space warfare, for both on-orbit and in-ground systems, is that AI algorithms continuously learn and adapt as they operate, and the algorithms themselves can be upgraded as often as needed, to address or escalate a conflict. (12/21)

State Department Seeks Private Sector Collab on Space Infrastructure and Markets (Source: NextGov)
The U.S. State Department is seeking private sector cooperation in establishing first best practices for the shared commercial and civil usage of outer space, as more nations launch efforts into exploring beyond Earth’s atmosphere. Published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, the notice states that State Department officials are looking for academia, commercial space firms and other sectors to participate in a series of forthcoming events that will discuss the regulations outlined in both the 2020 National Space Policy and the 2021 United States Space Priorities Framework.

Some of the key issues the federal government is looking for input on are the safety of crewed and unmanned outer space operations, sustainability in space travel, and identifying emerging markets within the commercial space sector. The commercial space sector has been increasingly regarded as the next set of critical infrastructure to secure. (12/20)

Starlink Can Help Save Ukraine's Economy, Too (Source: Quartz)
Ukraine’s fight against Russian invaders has been enabled by Starlink, the world’s largest satellite network. Thousands of satellites are providing internet service to military forces and civilians alike in Ukraine, helping the country withstand attacks on its electrical and communications infrastructure. SpaceX will now send Ukraine about 10,000 more terminals for accessing Starlink internet, a Ukrainian government minister told Bloomberg. It has already received 22,000 since the war began in February, including replacements for units destroyed in combat.

But keeping cash flowing in is just as important now. Fedorov says that IT sales have actually grown during the war, at least through October, when Russia stepped up its missile and drone strikes against Ukraine’s electrical infrastructure. Now, Fedorov says internet companies are obtaining generators and using Starlink connections to meet the demand for their work. (12/20)

We Can Make It To Mars Without NASA (Source: Reason)
Could private companies take us back to the moon and Mars faster and cheaper? Most likely, yes. Artemis I's first three attempts at liftoff were canceled because of leaking issues connected to the rocket's ground system. The fourth attempt, which was successful, brought the price tag to $4.1 billion, and the next three launches are each expected to cost about the same. NASA's auditor estimates that the Artemis program will spend $93 billion by 2025. Because of delays, it's unlikely that a human will make it back to the moon by the end of 2024, as originally planned.

Ever since Neil Armstrong's one small step, there have been giant leaps in space transportation made in large part by the private sector. In 2009, the private sector saw one of its biggest champions ascend to become the number two person at NASA. Lori Garver pushed to scrap the Constellation program as a way to entice the private sector to fill in the gaps. She also spearheaded the Commercial Crew Program, which continues to employ commercial contractors to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station. Today, companies like SpaceX are launching rockets at a faster pace and for a fraction of what NASA spends. In 2022, the company successfully launched 61 rockets, each with a price tag between $100 million and 150 million.

Private companies already design and lease NASA much of its hardware. Poole says there's no reason NASA can't take it a step further and just use the SpaceX starship to cover the entire journey from Earth to the moon and eventually to Mars. "If the current NASA plan goes ahead to have the SpaceX Starship actually deliver the astronauts from the lunar outpost orbit to the surface of the moon and bring them back, that would be an even more dramatic refutation of the idea that only NASA should be doing space transportation," he says. (12/20)

Korea to Invest $1.2 Billion Into Space Exploration by 2027 (Source: Korea JoongAng Daily)
Korea will pour 1.5 trillion won ($1.2 billion) into space exploration by 2027, double the 0.7-trillion-won budget of the past five years. The funding is part of a five-year policy plan approved by the National Space Committee Wednesday, which involves building infrastructure for private launches and gaining space transportation capability. The announcement came after President Yoon Suk-yeol declared to achieve a moon landing by 2032 and Mars landing by 2045 on Nov. 28.
 
Chaired by Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, the National Space Committee held its first meeting under the Yoon Suk-yeol administration on Wednesday at the government complex in central Seoul. The National Space Committee, which operates directly under the presidential office, is the highest administrative authority of the country’s space programs. (12/21)

Spaceflight Companies Promised to Do Science—So How’s It Going? (Source: WIRED)
In 2021, billionaires Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos skimmed the edge of space in their new Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic spacecrafts, officially launching an era of commercial spaceflight. Then SpaceX’s Inspiration4 mission took private spaceflight to the next level by propelling a different billionaire, Jared Isaacman, and three lucky passengers into orbit. Axiom Space’s Ax-1 flight to the ISS followed this April, lofting four passengers, including two multimillionaires and a billionaire, to the orbiting platform.

What these flights had in common—other than many ultra-wealthy passengers—was that they each promised to carry out some kind of scientific experiment. Virgin Galactic’s crew took along an imager for plants, and Blue Origin’s crew ran an experiment studying liquid and vapor interfaces in microgravity. The Inspiration4 passengers measured their heart activity, blood oxygen saturation, and immune system function and scanned their organs with an ultrasound device while they experienced zero-G life for a few days. The Axiom flight supported 25 research projects, including experiments investigating how space travel affects aging cells and heart health, and tested an anti-space-radiation vest.

So far, the research aboard all those flights has resulted in only one published paper—and it wasn’t about scientific findings. It was on Expand, a new biomedical database designed to collect physiological data from all commercial space passengers and store it in a single place. Christopher Mason, a geneticist who has worked with Inspiration4 and Axiom, says more papers are in the works. He says his team has made some preliminary findings based on the Inspiration4 crew’s collection of their own biomedical data. Based on an initial analysis, he says, it looks like people spending just a couple of days in space experience some of the same health effects that agency astronauts do on longer orbital missions, like increased inflammation of the immune system, motion sickness, and higher doses of space radiation. (12/20)

Zero-G Flight for Disability Ambassadors Shows Space is Accessible for All (Source: Space.com)
A giant leap for disability inclusion took place on a parabolic flight this month. AstroAccess flew its first formal space research flight on Dec. 15, with 14 disability ambassadors taking flight on a Zero-G plane, the project announced. Participants flew science projects grouped by several crew focuses, called Blind, Mobility, Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing.

"AstroAccess is proving that space can one day be accessible for everyone," stated(opens in new tab) space entrepreneur and Space For Humanity founder Dylan Taylor, who made it to orbit himself in 2021 on board a Blue Origin New Shepard system. Taylor co-sponsored the flight along with AstroAccess co-founder George Whitesides (former CEO of Virgin Galactic) and Amy Dornbusch, a winemaker and angel investor.  (12/20)

NASA to Carry More Cubesats on Future Artemis Flights (Source: Space News)
NASA will invite cubesats to ride along on future Artemis flights as it did for the recently completed Artemis 1 mission. Cubesats will have opportunities to piggyback on Artemis 2 and 3, Jim Free, NASA associate administrator for exploration systems development, said Dec. 21 during a New York Space Business Roundtable panel discussion. NASA may even host payloads on its lunar lander. (12/21)

Superdense Neutron Star Likely Has Solid Crust, NASA Telescope Finds (Source: Space.com)
The first-ever X-ray observations of a magnetar, a type of neutron star with the most powerful magnetic fields in the universe, have confirmed that these fields are polarized and indicate a solid surface with no atmosphere. Scientists used NASA's Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) space telescope to examine the magnetar 4U 0142+61, located about 13,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Cassiopeia. The observations represent the first time scientists have been able to confirm the theory that magnetic fields of magnetars are polarized. That conclusion also revealed the solid and bare nature of the neutron star's surface. (12/20)

Embry-Riddle Student Team Developing Low-Cost Recoverable Rocket (Source: ERAU)
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University students are designing a rocket that can soar through the Earth’s atmosphere and reach outer space, only to be recovered through a parachute system for reuse. The project’s aim is to make spaceflight more affordable to researchers — especially student researchers and those working in higher education.

As Nene explained in a recent interview, “the reusability is the driving consideration” as the students work to keep the cost of a single launch at about $8,000, such that others wanting to send experimental payloads onboard could do so for a portion of that already modest sum.

As another cost-saving strategy in addition to reusability, the team employs off-the-shelf motors and other parts as much as possible. Besides lowering the cost and enhancing the reliability of the vehicle, this approach offers a degree of modularity. It could therefore be used by other students, sometimes in conjunction with other rocket stages in a mix-and-match scenario. Nene explained that another student group might want to use their upper stage with a different booster, for example. (12/7)

South Korean Pharma Invests $50 Million in Axiom Space (Source: Space News)
Boryung, a South Korean pharmaceutical company, has decided to invest $50 million in U.S. commercial space station developer Axiom Space’s Series C funding round. The Seoul-based company announced the decision in a Dec. 21 regulatory filing to the Financial Supervisory Service, calling the deal a “forward-looking investment” aimed at establishing a business footing in space.

Boryung will take a 2.28% stake in Axiom by Dec. 30 in exchange for the investment, according to the filing. This follows Boryung’s $10 million investment in Axiom, disclosed in a May 16 regulatory filing, which gave the Korean company a 0.4% stake in the space station developer. (12/22)

SpaceX to Launch NASA/NOAA Sentinel Mission in 2025 (Source: NASA)
SpaceX won a NASA contract worth about $94 million to launch the Sentinel-6B mission to monitor global sea levels. The mission, a partnership with NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the European Space Agency and the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites, is scheduled to launch in 2025 on a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. (12/21)

Planet Reports $50M Revenue for Third Quarter (Source: CNBC)
Planet reported third-quarter revenue of $49.7 million, a 57 percent jump compared with the same period one year ago, and forecasted 2023 annual revenue of $188 million to $192 million. For the quarter, Planet reported a $12.4 million loss in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, compared with $12.3 million the previous year. (12/21)

GalaxEye Raises $3.5 Million for Hybrid Satellite Sensors (Source: GalaxEye)
GalaxEye Space raised $3.5 million to develop hybrid satellite sensors. With funding from the seed investment round, led by Speciale Invest, the Indian startup is developing sensors to gather multispectral and synthetic aperture radar data. "Today's satellite data providers are either providing optical or SAR data, which makes data fusion very challenging," Pranit Mehta, GalaxEye co-founder and vice president, told SpaceNews. (12/21)

Russian Space Chief Praises U.S. After ISS Coolant Leak (Source: Moscow Times)
The head of Russian space agency Roscosmos on Tuesday praised Russia-U.S. cooperation at the International Space Station following a major coolant leak from a Soyuz crew capsule. "Say hello to the entire American team. They proved themselves to be very worthy in this situation and lent us a helping hand," Borisov said, speaking to the Russian crew on board the ISS. "But I hope we will manage on our own" in the future.

"You set an example for the whole world on how to work together in the most challenging and difficult situation. Let many politicians learn from you," he added, according to a transcript released by Roscosmos. (12/20)

Omnibus Includes Budget Increases for Office of Space Commerce and FAA Commercial Space Office (Source: Space News)
The FY2023 omnibus spending bill provides two agencies with much, but not all, of the budget increases they requested to take on new or expanding commercial space work. It included $70 million for the Office of Space Commerce, located within NOAA in the Commerce Department. The administration requested $87 million for the office in its budget request in March.

That amount, though, is still far above the $16 million the office received in fiscal year 2022. The office sought a large increase to ramp up development of a civil space traffic management system. That funding would go towards hiring staff and establishing an open architecture data repository, or OADR, that would aggregate space situational awareness data from multiple sources that would be used to provide warnings of potential conjunctions.

Another part of the omnibus, funding the FAA, included $37.854 million for its Office of Commercial Space Transportation. The office, which received $32.47 million in fiscal year 2022, requested $42.5 million for 2023. The FAA sought the increase for the office in order to hire more staff to keep up with a growing pace of commercial launch and reentry activities that it licenses. That growth in commercial activity, including companies applying for new launch licenses, was straining the office. (12/21)

Studies Flag Environmental Impact of Reentry (Source: Space News)
Space hardware tumbling out of orbit may lead to unforeseen environmental and climate impacts. Due to the growing scale and pace of launch activities, what is needed is better monitoring of the situation, as well as regulation to create an environmentally sustainable space industry. Making that case is Jamie Shutler, associate professor of Earth observation at the University of Exeter. Shutler and colleagues authored the research paper “Atmospheric impacts of the space industry require oversight.”

As for research priorities that need to be further explored, Shutler underscored there are key steps forward. One is for the space industry to collect rocket emissions data during launches and make it publicly available. Shutler said that industry could also make available the total satellite content, a simple total for each type of mineral or substance within their existing spacecraft and satellites yet to be lofted.

Another study published in June assessed the impact of rocket launches and space debris on stratospheric ozone and global climate. Eloise Marais, a study co-author and associate professor of physical geography at UCL, said there’s a need for more sustainable solutions for dealing with space debris. Even if a reentering rocket were to completely “burn up,” it would produce the air pollutant nitric oxide (NOx) from the high temperatures, she said, contributing to the depletion of ozone in the stratosphere where ozone protects us from harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun. (12/22)