December 9, 2022

Coming In Hot! (Source: Quartz)
On Dec. 11, we will see the most extreme version of reentry ever attempted when NASA’s Artemis 1 mission returns from its uncrewed shakedown cruise to the Moon. The primary goal of this mission is to ensure that the Orion spacecraft is capable of bringing astronauts back safely from the Moon, and that everything prior to its encounter with the atmosphere is merely prelude. The current speed record for entering the atmosphere was set when Apollo 10 returned from the Moon, but Artemis will be going faster thanks to its larger mass and the use of complex orbits that allow the vehicle to fly to the Moon and back more efficiently.

On the way back, it will skip like a stone off the atmosphere before plunging homeward in earnest—a tricky maneuver that will allow it to land with more precision than the Apollo capsules. When Orion first approaches the planet, it will be moving at 24,900 mph. As it enters the atmosphere, the gasses in front of it will compress and ignite into a plasma as hot as 5,000° F. The vehicle is covered in a thermal protection system that should protect it from these conditions. Since we can’t recreate them on Earth, NASA is turning to a literal trial by fire.

As the space economy grows in the years ahead, entrepreneurs and market analysts expect to see more spacecraft returning to Earth. They could be carrying passengers returning from tourist trips into space, astronauts flying to government space stations or the Moon, goods manufactured in orbit, or scientific samples. (12/8)

Inversion and Canopy Eye Re-Entry Market (Source: Quartz)
Inversion Space, a startup that raised $10 million last year, plans to build low-cost spacecraft that will carry payloads back to Earth. Inverse is starting with a small prototype next year. It hopes to be flying its larger Arc vehicle by 2026. That business would piggy-back off growing plans for commercial space stations that will need regular cargo service, and trash runs. There are more fanciful ambitions, too, like stationing critical military supplies in space that could be immediately delivered anywhere in the world.

A more specialized attempt to capitalize on these trends comes from Canopy Aerospace, a start-up founded in 2021. CEO Matt Shieh, a former US Air Force officer, worked with the incubator FedTech and came up with a plan to commercialize ceramic thermal protection technology developed by NASA and other government agencies. Canopy will focus on lowering production costs using modern manufacturing techniques like 3D printing. Canopy raised $10 million to get the company off the ground. (12/8)

What's Up with New Shepard? (Source: Quartz)
What’s up with New Shepard? It’s also been almost three month since Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket suffered an in-flight failure. The Federal Aviation Administration, which is investigating the mishap, said it had no updates; Blue Origin did not respond to questions. (12/8)

Freedom Monument in Santa Maria CA Salutes U.S. Space Force (Source: Noozhawk)
Marking 21 years since its dedication, the Freedom Monument Veterans Memorial in Santa Maria now honors the nation’s newest branch of the military. A ceremony Wednesday morning celebrated the additions, including a seal recognizing the U.S. Space Force three years after its launch as another branch of the armed forces. (12/7)

ULA Rocket Plant Launches $140 Million Construction Project (Source: AL.com)
A $140 million construction project has been launched at the United Launch Alliance rocket facility in Decatur. The city of Decatur issued two permits last week, one for a nearly $80 million building and another for a nearly $60 million building for the plant along the Tennessee River at 1001 Red Hat Road. Turner Construction is listed as the builder. The ULA expansion is among four projects exceeding $1 million issued permits during the week, according to Southern Exposure Information. And it is by far the most expensive. (12/7)

Richard Branson's UK Launch Delayed Again – 24 Hours After it Got the Go-Ahead (Source: The Telegraph)
Sir Richard Branson’s hopes of launching Britain’s first space mission this year are fading after Virgin Orbit was forced to delay next week’s take-off – just 24 hours after confirming it was going ahead. Dan Hart, Virgin Orbit chief executive, said the Civil Aviation Authority’s refusal to give the company an operating licence meant the launch would be delayed again.

Britain’s first ever space mission was scheduled to take place on the night of December 14, Virgin Orbit announced yesterday. But Virgin Orbit was forced to row back on its plans within hours. Mr Hart said: “With licences still outstanding for the launch itself and for the satellites within the payload, additional technical work needed to establish system health and readiness, and a very limited available launch window of only two days, we have determined that it is prudent to retarget launch for the coming weeks to allow ourselves and our stakeholders time to pave the way for full mission success.”

Sir Richard’s dream of masterminding Britain’s inaugural space launch has been racked by delays. It was initially scheduled for the summer to coincide with the late Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations. It was then pushed back to September and delayed further until November. Sir Richard let slip some of his frustration about the delays during an interview with the Telegraph in November. “I can’t talk how I’d like to talk,” he said, adding that “bureaucracy… can take time.” (12/8)

SpaceX Files FCC Request to Put Payloads on Satellites for Direct-to-Cell System with T-Mobile (Source: Teslarati)
SpaceX filed a request with the Federal Communications Commission to put payloads on 2,016 of its satellites for its direct-to-cell system with T-Mobile. In August, SpaceX and T-Mobile announced a partnership to end mobile dead zones by connecting T-Mobile phones with Starlink in late 2023. In the documents shared by CNBC’s Micheal Sheetz, SpaceX said that its direct-to-cellular system would consist of a German-licensed hosted payload flown on a subset of 2,016 of its Gen 2 non-geostationary orbit (NGSO). (12/7)

Outer Space Talks are a Welcome Addition to the US-Africa Leaders Summit (Source: The Conversation)
President Joe Biden is hosting the Second US-Africa Leaders Summit in mid-December 2022. The focus will be on eight areas: economic engagement; peace, security and good governance; democracy and human rights; regional and global health security (including recovery from COVID-19 and pandemic preparedness); food security; climate change; diaspora ties; and education and youth leadership. It has no clear-cut theme, but a side-event on outer space is a welcome development.

For Africa, space is one of the flagship programmes of Agenda 2063, while for the US, space is a critical domain as a degradation or denial of access to its satellite infrastructure would impact heavily on its national security, economy and public livelihood. It is therefore important to align the priorities and interests of the US and Africa in order for the planned meeting to be fruitful. The Space Forum has three main themes for discussion: climate crisis; promoting responsible behaviour; and strengthening cooperation on science and commercial space activities. (12/7)

First Mexican-Born Woman in Space Visits Santa Ana Students to Promote Higher Education (Source: KABC)
The first Mexican-born woman in space made visited a high school in Orange County, where she spoke to students about the importance of seeking a higher education. Katya Echazarreta shared her out-of-this-world experience during a McDonald's HACER Education tour stop in Santa Ana at Magnolia Science Academy. She told students: "The reality finally sets in and you realize that you're about to get on top of a controlled explosion because that's really what it is." (12/7)

Arctic Sweden in Race for Europe's Satellite Launches (Source: Phys.org)
As the mercury drops to minus 20 Celsius, a research rocket lifts off from one of the world's northernmost space centres, its burner aglow in the twilight of Sweden's snowy Arctic forests. Hopes are high that rockets like this could carry satellites as early as next year, in what could be the first satellite launch from a spaceport in continental Europe. At the launch pad, about an hour from the mining town of Kiruna, there's not a person in sight, only the occasional reindeer herd.

The vast deserted forests are the reason the Swedish space center is located here, at the foot of "Radar Hill", some 200 kilometers above the Arctic Circle. "In this area we have 5,200 square kilometers where no one lives, so we can easily launch a rocket that flies into this area and falls down without anyone getting harmed," Mattias Abrahamsson, head of business development at the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC), tells AFP.

Founded by the European Space Agency (ESA) in 1966 to study the atmosphere and Northern Lights phenomenon, the Esrange space center has invested heavily in its facilities in recent years to be able to send satellites into space. A huge new hangar is big enough to house two 30-meter rockets currently under assembly elsewhere. More than 600 suborbital rockets have already been launched from this remote corner of Sweden's far north, including the Suborbital Express 3 whose late November launch AFP witnessed as the temperature stood at -20 degrees Celsius, or minus four degrees Fahrenheit. (12/8)

Colgate-Palmolive Teams with NASA to Explore Health and Hygiene Products in Space (Source: New York Business Journal)
Colgate-Palmolive is sending more of its products to space. The consumer products company is partnering with NASA to explore new products and methods in oral health, personal care and skin health for both astronauts in space and people on Earth. Through a Space Act Agreement, Colgate-Palmolive and the space agency will collaborate to test Colgate technologies that could help maintain or improve the health and well-being of future space travelers in low orbit, either before, during or after long-duration missions.

Potential topics could include oral care and connected health, preventative and therapeutic skin care, low-water products, and more sustainable packaging suited to space flight and life in low-Earth orbit. The agreement also enables Colgate to use the International Space Station (ISS) as an experimental testing ground, allowing the company to discover new insights and accelerate innovations in health and wellbeing. Former NASA astronaut Cady Coleman will serve as strategic advisor to Colgate’s R&D teams. (12/7)

Astroscale Japan, JAXA Explore On-Orbit Refueling Service (Source: Aviation Week)
Astroscale Japan and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have launched a joint feasibility study of satellite refueling services. Over the course of a year, the teams will explore in-orbit fuel delivery services for satellites that are “prepared and unprepared to be refueled.” (12/7)

NASA’s NEO Surveyor Successfully Passes Key Milestone (Source: NASA)
NASA officials have completed a rigorous technical and programmatic review, known as Key Decision Point C (KDP-C), and confirmed NASA’s Near-Earth Object Surveyor space telescope (NEO Surveyor) – the next flight mission out of the agency’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) –  establishing NASA’s commitment to the mission’s technical, cost, and schedule baseline. The decision commits NASA to a development cost baseline of $1.2 billion and a commitment to be ready for a launch no later than June 2028.  (12/6)

A Choose-Your-Own Space Adventure (Source: Robb Report)
The maiden voyage of Starship, a reusable spacecraft likely to launch in two to four years’ time, will take Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa and eight members of the public around the dark side of the moon. After that, another billionaire, Dennis Tito, has reserved Starship. Then the options become virtually limitless.

Stellar Frontiers, a firm that organizes space travel, can arrange for one Robb Report reader and seven friends a spaceflight experience aboard Starship that exceeds all others. Your group can choose its own “universe first” adventure that will make the other two flights look like training missions: Conduct several Earth orbits over a period of weeks or exceed the other two billionaires’ single lunar orbits by circumnavigating the moon multiple times, traveling farther and spending more time away from Earth.

Starship is much larger and more comfortable than existing spacecraft (although you will have to eat freeze-dried astronaut food), so your zero-gravity journey will be less onerous than the average NASA on-board experience. Still, you and your travel companions will require a minimum of four months of training prior to take-off. (12/7)

Space Club Invites Debus Award Nominations (Source: NSCFL)
The National Space Club Florida Committee is accepting nominations for its premier award, the 2023 Dr. Kurt H. Debus Award, for significant contributions to the advancement, awareness, and improvement of aerospace in Florida. The nominee must have made significant contributions to the space industry in Florida through either technical achievement, education, or the management of aerospace related activities. The nominee must have been either actively engaged in their working career or have retired from it since the most recently conferred Debus Award. The nominee must be recognized for having been actively engaged in community service as an advocate and supporter of space. Click here. (12/9)

OneWeb Satellites Launch Atop SpaceX Rocket on Near-Polar Trajectory From Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
For the first time atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, a batch of OneWeb internet satellites were launched into space to help build out the company’s broadband constellation. Liftoff took place on Dec. 8, from Launch Complex 39A at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. The rocket took the polar orbit corridor, flying down the coast of the Sunshine State and eventually over Cuba.

The 40 satellites were deployed in a polar orbit in three batches over the course of about 30 minutes, concluding some 90 minutes after liftoff. These are to help fill out OneWeb’s constellation of hundreds of low Earth orbit satellites to enhance and upgrade low-latency broadband communication. For the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket, which was on its fourth flight, successfully touched down at Landing Zone 1 on the spaceport. (12/8)

Yusaku Maezawa Announces Crew for Commercial dearMoon Lunar Mission (Source: dearMoon)
It’s been a year and a half since Yusaku Maezawa first opened the dearMoon admission to the public in search of artists to join him on this lunar orbital mission. After numerous interviews, medical checks and face-to face gatherings, we are finally ready to announce the crew members who will be joining him on this extraordinary trip to the moon on SpaceX’s Starship. Click here. (12/8)