December 24, 2022

Defending Native Sacred Sites From Elon Musk and SpaceX (Source: Yes Magazine)
From an observation deck near the top of his South Texas rocket launch tower, Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and self-proclaimed proponent of free speech, looks northward to South Padre Island, home to many ancient village sites of the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas. In a video published last May to the YouTube channel Everyday Astronaut, Musk is seen looking over the tower’s railing and down at a “farm” of huge rocket fuel storage tanks filled with liquid oxygen and methane gas. These will service weekly launches of SpaceX’s massive Super Heavy and Starship orbital launch vehicles in 2023.

Musk surveys the land from the gleaming metal launch tower, looking down on an ecosystem filled with endangered species, such as ocelots and Kemp’s ridley sea turtles. To the east, he sees the waves of the Gulf of Mexico crashing on Boca Chica Beach, the site of the Carrizo Comecrudo creation story. To the northwest just a few miles away is Garcia Pasture, an archaeological site containing the remains of a pre-Columbian village nearly a thousand years old.

He cannot see the Indigenous people below who have come to offer tobacco to their ancestors. Musk doesn’t see them because, according to the Carrizo Comecrudo, he is blind to the concerns of the Indigenous people who fought and died for the land he now occupies. “I don’t think they understand what a sacred site is, because they have no connection to anything that’s sacred to their lives,” says Juan Mancias, chair of the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas. (12/21)

Space Exploration Flourishes for Both China and Europe in 2022 (Source: CGTN)
It's been a busy year for space exploration. China completed the main structure of its orbiting space station... the ISS got its first female European commander... and NASA launched the first flights in its long mission to put humans back on the moon. Launched in June, China's Shenzhou-14 mission may well go down as one of the busiest in the history of China's manned space program.

European astronauts also broke boundaries in 2022, with Italian Samantha Cristoforetti becoming the first European woman to command the International space station – and the first ESA astronaut to carry out a spacewalk using the latest version of the Russian Orlan space suit. The Italian speaks half a dozen languages and has previously taken part in joint training between ESA and the China Manned Space Agency. (12/24)

JAXA Selects Ten Finalists in Astronaut Recruitment (Source: NHK)
Japan's space agency has announced the ten applicants that will advance to its final round of screening to take part in an international lunar exploration project. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, is conducting its first recruitment in 13 years. The announcement attracted a record 4,127 applicants. By September, JAXA had narrowed the list to 50.

Applicants were then given English language interviews and physical fitness tests to reach a final ten. JAXA said on Friday that 8 men and 2 women are advancing to the final screening. They include one person below the age of 30, seven in their 30s and two in their 40s. The ten finalists will take interviews and exams in Japan and overseas from January to check their ability and suitability for spacecraft operation. (12/23)

Io May Have an Underworld Magma Ocean or a Hot Metal Heart (Source: Science News)
An entire ocean of liquid magma, or maybe a hot heart of solid metal, may lurk in Io’s underworld. The surface of Jupiter’s innermost moon is covered in scorching lava lakes and gored by hundreds of active volcanoes, some spitting molten rock dozens of kilometers high. Over the years, the moon’s restless, mesmerizing hellscape has attracted the attention of many planetary scientists. Now, researchers are digging into the nature of Io’s infernal interior to explain what is driving the spectacular volcanism on the moon’s fiery surface.

Researchers generally agree that Io gets most of its energy from a gravitational tug-of-war between its parent planet Jupiter and its sibling moon Europa. Those grand forces pull on Io’s rocky body, generating tremendous frictional heat in its interior. But how that heat is stored and moved around remains a mystery. One explanation is that Io’s netherworld may house an enormous ocean of liquid magma, planetary scientist David Stevenson of Caltech said. Though the exact size of the proposed molten sea remains uncertain, it would need to be relatively large, he said. (12/22)

The 12 Biggest Rocket Failures of 2022 Show Why Spaceflight is Still Hard (Source: Space.com)
Rockets need thousands of things to go right to reach space, but just one issue can bring things back down to Earth with a bang. This year has seen a record number of launch attempts, and so it is unsurprising that sometimes, things went wrong. Despite the number of historic launches that did go well this year, there were of course those that either never made it to space or failed to deploy their payloads once they got there. Here is a list of some of the biggest space mission failures suffered in 2022. (12/24) 

Ex-Roscosmos Chief Expects to Recover From Ukraine War Wound (Source: TASS)
Former chief of Russia’s Roscosmos State Space Corporation Dmitry Rogozin, who now heads the Tsar’s Wolves group of military advisors, expects to recover from his injury in the second half of January. Rogozin was wounded in a shelling attack in Donetsk on December 21. "I expect that I will return to form in the second half of January," he told TASS on Friday.

The ex-Roscosmos chief added that the shell fragment that had hit him was impossible to remove. Earlier, Rogozin told TASS that he planned to return to Donbass after recovering from the wound. Doctors in Donetsk and Rostov did not dare to perform surgery on him due to the complexity of the wound, Rogozin’s aide told reporters. He is currently hospitalized in Rostov, awaiting transportation to Moscow. (12/23)

Russia to Send Belarusian Female Cosmonauts to Orbit (Source: TASS)
Each of the six Belarusian female cosmonaut candidates who will be recognized as medically fit will go into space, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko announced on Saturday. "If they are cleared by health parameters, they will have their chance. Those who will not fly in the first expedition, will do it next time. Do not worry, there will be work for all of you," Lukashenko said during his visit to the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center outside Moscow. (12/24)

The Countries Launching Missions to the Moon and Beyond in 2023 (Source: BBC)
In 2023, Russia, India and the European Space Agency will be launching missions to the Moon, and further into deep space. This follows NASA's Artemis I mission, which recently made a lunar orbit, using a spacecraft designed to put people back on the Moon's surface. Click here. (12/23)

Move Over Cornwall, Here Comes Spaceport Esrange (Source: Parabolic Arc)
While much attention has been focused on Virgin Orbit’s plan to launch from Spaceport Cornwall in England and the creation of launch facilities in Scotland, the development of new orbital spaceports in Scandinavia has largely flown under the radar. But, now one of those Nordic bases is ready for its closeup.

Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and other dignitaries will hold a ribbon cutting ceremony at Spaceport Esrange on Friday, Jan. 13. The ceremony will be the culmination of years of work in developing an orbital launch complex at the Esrange Space Center, which has supported only suborbital sounding rocket flights to date. (12/22)

Some Highlights to Expect in 2023 (Source: Quartz)
What might sneak up on us in 2023? You’ve told me that you’re salivating for (deep breath) a Starship test flight, NASA’s Psyche mission to the asteroid belt, Polaris Dawn’s potential EVA, the return of samples from the asteroid Bennu, and debut rocket flights for ULA’s Vulcan, Blue Origin’s New Glenn, and Arianespace’s Ariane 6. But here are a few under-the-radar nominees:

China’s new space station will be complete, and western researchers have already started signing up to collaborate there. Will we see a non-Chinese astronaut visit? Boeing’s Starliner is poised to make its first crewed flight in April 2023. Expectations couldn’t be lower for the troubled vehicle, which is why, if it succeeds, we may be surprised by how a second American crewed spacecraft changes a market currently dominated by SpaceX’s Dragon.

Robots are headed for the moon en masse: Attempted landings from companies including Japan’s iSpace, Intuitive Machines (two different missions!), Astrobotic, plus robots built by space agencies in Japan, India, and Russia. That’s at least seven moon landings on the agenda, and they’ll get tons of attention—and maybe send home some exciting new facts about the Moon. (12/23)

It Was a Big Year for the Space Industry. 2023 Will Be Even Bigger (Source: Tech Crunch)
Another blockbuster year for the space industry draws to a close. In fact, 2022 may have been the most blockbuster year for space in recent memory — since 1969, at least. The historic cadence of SpaceX, the launch of Space Launch System and the return of the Orion capsule, big technical demonstrations, ispace’s fully private moon mission … it’s been a momentous year.

There’s a lot to look forward to — so much, that next year could even outdo this one as the biggest for the space industry yet. But many questions still remain, especially about the shorter-term economic outlook, ongoing geopolitical instability and (ahem) some announced timelines that may or may not come to fruition. Here are our predictions for the space industry in 2023. Click here. (12/21) 

Chile's ALMA Observatory Resumes Work After Cyberattack (Source: Space Daily)
The ALMA telescope in the Chilean Andes has resumed operations nearly two months after shuttering due to a cyberattack, the observatory said Wednesday. ALMA, the world's most powerful telescope for observing molecular gas and dust, studies the building blocks of stars, planetary systems, galaxies and life itself, according to the European Southern Observatory (ESO), its co-operator.

The October 29 attack on ALMA's computer systems affected various critical operational servers and computers, the observatory said in a statement on its provisional website. The cyberattack forced the suspension of astronomical observations, left the observatory with limited email services, and its website offline. (12/21)

What it Would Take to Discover Life on Saturn's Icy Moon Enceladus (Source: Space Daily)
The mystery of whether microbial alien life might inhabit Enceladus, one of Saturn's 83 moons, could be solved by an orbiting space probe, according to a new study led by University of Arizona researchers. In a paper published in The Planetary Science Journal, the researchers map out how a hypothetical space mission could provide definite answers.

When Enceladus was initially surveyed in 1980 by NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft, it looked like a small, not overly exciting "snowball" in the sky. Later, between 2005 to 2017, NASA's Cassini probe zipped around the Saturnian System and studied Saturn's complex rings and moons in unprecedented detail. Scientists were stunned when Cassini discovered that Enceladus' thick layer of ice hides a vast, warm saltwater ocean outgassing methane, a gas that typically originates from microbial life on Earth. (12/22)

Iridium Introduces its Latest IoT Data Service (Source: Space Daily)
Iridium Communications has announced the service introduction of Iridium Messaging TransportSM (IMTSM), a two-way cloud-native networked data service optimized for use over Iridium Certus and designed to make it easier to add satellite connections to existing or new IoT solutions.

IMT provides an IP data transport service unique to the Iridium network, designed for small-to-moderate-sized messages supporting satellite IoT applications. Integrated with Iridium CloudConnect and Amazon Web Services (AWS), the new service can reduce development costs and speed time to market for new Iridium Connected IoT devices. IMT has been highly anticipated by Iridium's partner ecosystem and is currently available for the Iridium Certus 100 service with introduction on Iridium Certus 200, 350 and 700 planned for the first quarter of 2023. (12/22)

Mini Satellite Helps Macao Students Learn About Space (Source: Space Daily)
China recently deployed a mini satellite to a low-Earth orbit to help students in the Macao Special Administrative Region learn about spaceflight activities. The 12-kilogram satellite, named Macao Student Science Satellite 1, was released into orbit by the Tianzhou 5 cargo spacecraft on Sunday, Ho Iat-seng, chief executive of the Macao SAR, announced on Tuesday as the region marked its 23rd birthday. (12/22)

New Satellite to Map Global Waterways (Source: AP)
Most of the world's oceans, lakes and rivers are to be mapped by a US-French satellite launched for that purpose last week. Among other things, the Surface Water and Ocean Topography satellite will gauge water heights across more than 90% of the planet to track flows and highlight areas potentially at risk. (12/16)

Alien Planet Found Spiraling to its Doom Around an Aging Star (Source: Phys.org)
For the first time, astronomers have spotted an exoplanet whose orbit is decaying around an evolved, or older, host star. The stricken world appears destined to spiral closer and closer to its maturing star until collision and ultimate obliteration. The discovery offers new insights into the long-winded process of planetary orbital decay by providing the first look at a system at this late stage of evolution. Death-by-star is a fate thought to await many worlds and could be the Earth's ultimate adios billions of years from now as our Sun grows older. (12/19)