January 14, 2023

NorthStar to Flip Axelspace Earth Observation Satellite for Space Situational Awareness (Source: SpaceQ)
Even before NorthStar Earth & Space launches its own satellites, a new novel partnership with Japan’s Axelspace will see them collect space situational awareness (SSA) data from ‘flipped’ Earth Observation satellites. Sometime this month the collaboration with Axelspace will start. But how will it work?

The concept is seemingly quite simple. As part of its AxelGlobe business unit which it started in 2015, Axelspace has a constellation of five Earth Observation satellites in low Earth orbit. As those satellite circle the Earth they will enter the “dark side of their orbits,” meaning when the sun sets and the portion of the Earth below is in night, the satellites will rotate, “flipping” themselves, facing away from the Earth and begin using their Earth Observation sensors to gather SSA data of objects they can see. (1/13)

Stratospheric Balloon Company World View to Go Public in $350M SPAC Deal (Source: Tech Crunch)
World View, a company developing stratospheric balloons for Earth observation and tourism, is heading to the public markets. The company announced Friday that it would merge with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Leo Holdings Corp. II in a deal worth $350 million, as it seeks to build out what it calls “the stratospheric economy.”

The deal, which is expected to close in the second quarter of this year, will provide the combined company with up to $121 million in gross proceeds, plus an option to enter into additional equity financing agreements for up to $75 million. The $121 million figure is assuming no shareholder redemptions, however, and as we’ve seen with some space SPACs in the past — notably Virgin Orbit, which we covered earlier this week — an unexpected number of redemptions can sometimes drastically eat into that figure. (1/13)

EU Inaugurates First Mainland Spaceport in Sweden (Source: AP)
The European Union wants to bolster its capacity to launch small satellites into space with a new launchpad in Arctic Sweden. European officials and Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf inaugurated the EU’s first mainland orbital launch complex on Friday during a visit to Sweden by members of the European Commission, which is the 27-nation bloc’s executive arm.

The new facility at Esrange Space Center near the city of Kiruna should complement the EU’s current launching capabilities in French Guiana. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said small satellites are crucial to tracking natural disasters in real time and, in the light of Russia’s war in Ukraine, to help guarantee global security. (1/13)

ULA’s Innovative Vulcan Rocket One Step Closer to Launch (Source: ULA)
ULA's first Vulcan Centaur rocket has begun its journey to the launch site in preparation for the first test flight. The certification flight one (Cert-1) rocket was completed, loaded onto the R/S RocketShip outside of ULA’s rocket factory in Decatur, Ala. and is on a 2,000-mile voyage to the Cape Canaveral Spaceport in Florida. (1/13)

‘Wings Like Cracked Eggshells’: Virgin Galactic Faces Turbulence Over Safety of Space Flights (Source: Guardian)
Branson initially hoped that he would send 50,000 astronauts into space by 2019, but the project has been beset by mishaps, delays and disaster. A pilot was killed and another suffered injuries when Virgin Galactic’s first SpaceShipTwo shuttle, VSS Enterprise, crashed in the Californian desert in October 2014.

Some investors are now pursing legal action against Virgin Galactic after the string of delays, claiming alleged defects in the craft were not properly disclosed. They allege Eve and Unity were prototypes and were not designed for regular space travel, and say their claims are supported by internal corporate documents.

In one of the cases filed in December 2021 by Mark Kusnier and other investors the complaint states: “Unity and Eve were so rickety that every flight could be their last. Cracks appeared on Eve’s wings after every flight, and some were not fixed – so much so that a Virgin Galactic employee said the wings looked like spiderwebs or cracked eggshells.” (1/14)

SAIA and FAA to Jointly Oversee Virgin Orbit Investigation (Source: Gov.UK)
The UK’s Space Accident Investigation Authority (SAIA) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the USA will jointly oversee the Virgin Orbit investigation into the system anomaly that occurred during the firing of the rocket’s second stage engine. (1/13)

At NASA, Dr. Z Was OK With Some Missions Failing (Source: New York Times)
Dr. Z has left the building. After six years, Thomas Zurbuchen concluded his tenure as the head of NASA’s science missions at the end of 2022. During his time there, he earned his single-letter nickname while presiding over some of the agency’s biggest successes in the exploration of the solar system and the universe: the long-delayed launch of the James Webb Space Telescope; the landing on Mars of the Perseverance rover, which was accompanied by the Ingenuity helicopter; and the slamming of the DART spacecraft into a small asteroid, demonstrating a technique that could be used if a space rock were discovered on a collision course with Earth. (1/13)

Georgia Spaceport Effort's Lawsuits Getting Expensive for County (Source: Brunswick News)
Newly elected Camden County Commissioner Jim Goodman made a motion during his first meeting earlier this month to stop spending money on legal fees related to a spaceport. The vote failed, but Goodman said he plans to make the same motion at every meeting until he gets the three votes necessary for the county to stop all spending related to the spaceport, including paying lawyers, and to turn over records requested related to a risk analysis of rocket launches from the site.

The lawsuits are self-imposed and could be resolved easily, he said. "They volunteered to step into the middle of a lawsuit," he said. The easiest of the four lawsuits to resolve is one by the environmental group One Hundred Miles. It is seeking records related to potential rocket failures from the proposed launch site. The county has argued the information is not public record because it's part of an ongoing real estate transaction. Seventy-two percent of Camden County voters approved a referendum last year prohibiting the county commission from spending any more money on the spaceport project. More than $12 million has been spent, so far. (1/13)

Could Shetland Now Beat Cornwall in the British Space Race? (Source: Daily Mail)
With the failure of Virgin Orbit's historic mission on Monday night, the door has now opened for a different spaceport to lay claim to being the first in Britain to launch satellites into orbit. Step up Shetland. The SaxaVord spaceport, which is one of three including Cornwall due to begin operations this year, has just signed a deal with a German rocket manufacturer to attempt a lift-off in 2023.

But unlike Cornwall's horizontal version involving a modified Virgin 747 jumbo, SaxaVord is a vertical launch facility. The spaceport has just signed a deal with Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA), based near Munich, which includes a launch 'currently planned for the end of 2023'. It will involve blasting a satellite into a 'sun-synchronous orbit' 310 miles above the Earth, meaning it will orbit pole to pole and pass over each point on the planet at a fixed time.

That is not the only mission that could lift off from Shetland this year, either. Lockheed Martin's Pathfinder project could also be launched in 2023 as SaxaVord goes head-to-head with Spaceport Cornwall, which may also try another mission later this year. (1/12)

China: It's Wrong for US, Japan to Launch Space Race Targeted at China (Source: China Daily)
Now that the US feels it is facing new competition from China, which has announced a slew of space programs including building an international space station, which is almost complete, it is keen to return to the moon before any Chinese national lands there. The US wants to show that it is still the leader in outer space research and exploration. This is an interesting race to the moon. The US-Soviet Union space competition lasted decades — till the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991. After that, the US space agency turned its focus on Mars and even deeper outer space.

Now that the US feels it is facing new competition from China, which has announced a slew of space programs including building an international space station, which is almost complete, it is keen to return to the moon before any Chinese national lands there. The US wants to show that it is still the leader in outer space research and exploration. By inviting the European, Canadian and Japanese space agencies to join the Artemis program, the US is trying to expand international collaboration on the exploration of the moon.

In such a tough competition, even if China does not become the second country to send its astronauts to the moon, it will still be among space powers to achieve success based on home-grown technology. Once China succeeds in its manned mission to the moon, one can also expect it to promote international cooperation by training foreign astronauts to join China-led moon missions in the future. Also, China's deep space exploration will intensify, given the country's continuous development, both on the economic and science and technology fronts. (1/13)