January 19, 2023

Anuvu to Resell Starlink Services (Source: Space News)
Mobile satellite connectivity specialist Anuvu has signed a deal to resell Starlink services. Anuvu said it will resell Starlink broadband capacity to maritime customers, complementing the services it already provides in this and other markets using GEO satellites. Anuvu had previously planned to use capacity on Telesat's Lightspeed constellation, but delays and uncertainty about the future of that system led Anuvu to work with SpaceX. (1/19)

China's Mars Rover Still Quiet After Hibernation (Source: Space.com)
China is still waiting to hear back from its first Mars rover. The Zhurong rover was expected to end a hibernation period in December, but has yet to make contact with controllers on the ground. One possibility for the delay is that temperatures on the Martian surface remain at or below the minimum levels needed for the rover to operate. Dust storms may have also deposited dust on its solar arrays, reducing the amount of power they can produce. (1/19)

Zeitouni Joins HawkEye 360 (Source: HawkEye 360)
A former Blue Origin executive has joined radio-frequency intelligence company HawkEye 360. Patrick Zeitouni, former head of space mobility at Blue Origin, is HawkEye 360's new chief strategy officer, the company announced Wednesday. He will be responsible for growth and product strategies for the company, which operates a constellation of smallsats that can geolocate radio sources. The company's next set of satellites is scheduled to launch next week on the first Rocket Lab Electron launch from Virginia. (1/19)

Australian Spaceport Aims for 2023 Launch (Source: Australian Broadcasting Corp.)
An Australian spaceport is hoping to host an orbital launch this year. Officials with Equatorial Launch Australia said they are preparing for an orbital launch in the second half of the year from its spaceport at the Arnhem Space Centre in Australia's Northern Territory. The company did not disclose which vehicle would perform the launch. The facility hosted launches of three NASA sounding rockets last year. (1/19)

Switzerland's ClearSspace Raises $29 Million for Debris Mission (Source: Space News)
Swiss startup ClearSpace has raised $29 million to fund work on its first orbital debris removal mission. Europe-focused early-stage investor OTB Ventures led the Series A financing round announced Thursday along with Swisscom Ventures, the investment arm of Switzerland-based telco Swisscom. The company has raised about $140 million from commercial and government sources to develop its capabilities, mostly from an ESA contract for its ClearSpace-1 mission to remove a Vega payload adapter from orbit. The company also has an agreement with Intelsat to extend the life of a communications satellite and is a finalist in a U.K. Space Agency competition to remove two satellites from low Earth orbit. (1/19)

DoD Space Acquisition Reforms Gaining Traction (Source: Space News)
The head of military space acquisitions says his efforts to reform procurement are gaining traction. At a conference Wednesday, Frank Cavelli said his "space acquisition tenets" that emphasize buying small satellites and commercially available technologies under fixed-price contracts have been well received across the Space Force's procurement organizations. He said a top concern is the successful launches of the first sets of Space Development Agency satellites in March and June. He is also closely monitoring the development of a new procurement strategy for the next national security launch services contracts expected to be awarded in 2024. (1/19)

ABL Launch Failure Investigation Points to Burnt Avionics in Engine Bay (Source: Space News)
ABL Space Systems said a loss of power, perhaps caused by a fire, led to the failure of its first RS1 rocket last week at Alaska's spaceport. In an update Wednesday, the company said the RS1 was performing well until a "complete loss of power" at T+10.78 seconds. That caused a shutdown of the rocket's nine first-stage engines, and the vehicle fell back to earth and exploded just meters from its launch pad. ABL said the ongoing investigation shows evidence of a fire in the rocket's engine bay that may have spread to the avionics system, causing the loss of power. The company has not set a timeline for completing the investigating or returning to flight, but said its second RS1 rocket is complete and ready for stage-level testing. (1/19)

Difficult Choices Ahead for NASA Earth Science (Source: Space News)
The co-chair of the most recent Earth science decadal survey warned that NASA faces "difficult choices" between starting new missions and continuing existing ones. At a NASA Advisory Council meeting this week, Waleed Abdalati said the agency's Earth science program is facing a budget crunch caused by a funding cut in the fiscal year 2023 omnibus spending bill and cost growth linked to supply chain and workforce issues. He said it was clear NASA lacked the resources to fully implement the missions recommended by the decadal, and that NASA had already exhausted "decision rules" included in that report on delaying or reducing the number of missions. (1/19)

NASA Scales Back Commercial ISS Access Scheme (Source: Space News)
A NASA project designed to ultimately send scientists on private astronaut missions to the ISS is being scaled back. NASA had hoped to start the Commercially Enabled Rapid Space Science, or CERISS, project this year, awarding grants and contracts as a step towards flying scientists to the station who could conduct research more efficiently than if done by astronauts. However, at a NASA Science Mission Directorate town hall meeting Wednesday, an agency official said that a budget cut for the agency's biological and physical sciences division in fiscal year 2023 meant that there would not be money available for that work, and CERISS instead would focus on "analysis and planning." (1/19)

Rocket Lab: DOD Requirements Keep Out Smaller Providers (Source: Space News)
Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck says current Defense Department requirements are an obstacle to consideration of the company's new Neutron rocket for national security launches. "I'd love to see a Phase 3 environment where Neutron is on board," he said, adding, "I think that would offer the nation the most amount of flexibility, the most robust launch access and quite frankly, the lowest price." (1/18)

Structural Details of Long March 9 Revealed (Source: Space Daily)
Chinese rocket researchers are now definite on the overall structural design for the nation's super-heavy carrier rocket, known as the Long March 9, a project insider said. Gu Mingkun, a senior rocket designer at the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, the country's leading rocket maker, said at a news conference that the baseline model of the Long March 9 will be a large, three-stage rocket about 110 meters tall. It will have a liftoff weight of about 4,000 metric tons and thrust power of nearly 6,000 tons. The diameter of its core stage will be about 10 meters, he said.

According to the designer, the rocket will be powerful enough to transport spaceships weighing up to 50 tons to an Earth-moon transfer trajectory for lunar missions, such as the construction of a large-scale science outpost or mining. It will also be able to send spacecraft on deep-space missions, including an ambitious venture to place Chinese astronauts on Mars, Gu said.

In addition to the baseline model, the structure of another model for spaceflights to low-Earth orbit has also been determined by researchers, he said. The second model will have two stages, which means it will be shorter than the baseline one. It will be capable of deploying spacecraft with a combined weight of 150 tons to a low-Earth orbit hundreds of kilometers above the ground, the designer added. (1/19)

SpaceX Launches U.S. Military Satellite From Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Space Daily)
SpaceX launched one of its Falcon 9 rockets Wednesday morning with a GPS satellite on board, part of a U.S. Space Force program to have a constellation of 32 navigation satellites orbiting the Earth. The rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 7:24 a.m. EST carrying the fifth Lockheed Martin-made Space Vehicle 6 of the so-called GPS 3 constellation, which delivers positioning, navigation and timing signals to military and civilian customers. (1/19)

Light-Based Tech Could Inspire Moon Navigation and Next-Gen Farming (Source: Space Daily)
Super-thin chips made from lithium niobate are set to overtake silicon chips in light-based technologies, according to world-leading scientists in the field, with potential applications ranging from remote ripening-fruit detection on Earth to navigation on the Moon. They say the artificial crystal offers the platform of choice for these technologies due to its superior performance and recent advances in manufacturing capabilities. The researchers reviewed lithium niobate's capabilities and potential applications.

The international team, including scientists from Peking University in China and Harvard University in the United States, is working with industry to make navigation systems that are planned to help rovers drive on the Moon later this decade. As it is impossible to use global positioning system (GPS) technology on the Moon, navigation systems in lunar rovers will need to use an alternative system, which is where the team's innovation comes in. By detecting tiny changes in laser light, the lithium-niobate chip can be used to measure movement without needing external signals, according to Mitchell. (1/19)

Momentus to Deliver FOSSA Systems Satellites to Orbit (Source: Space Daily)
Momentus signed a contract with FOSSA Systems ("FOSSA"), a Spanish company that offers global low-power Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity and in-space services through its satellite constellation, to place its latest generation of satellites, FOSSASat FEROX, into low-Earth orbit on two Vigoride Orbital Service Vehicle missions starting in 2023.

The first group of FOSSA's next-generation satellites is slated to launch on a Vigoride Orbital Service Vehicle on the SpaceX Transporter-8 mission no earlier than June 2023. This mission will demonstrate the satellites' new design features and act as a demonstration for a second batch of satellites expected to launch onboard a follow-on Vigoride vehicle on a later SpaceX Transporter mission, kicking off the deployment of a new constellation of FOSSA satellites. (1/13)

The Scenic Route to Space (Source: Boeing)
Patrice Hall considers herself lucky. She became a first-generation college graduate after earning an aerospace engineering degree from Tuskegee University, a storied historically Black university, during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Hall started at Boeing as an intern then moved into a role as a manufacturing engineer on the build team for the SLS program. She is now a computing architect across the enterprise. Click here. (1/19)

Pathway to Planetary Exploration: 3D Printing’s Role in Getting Humans to Mars (Source: SpaceRef)
By leveraging the latest, most advanced manufacturing technologies, space startups have made it much more affordable to deliver payloads to space with new, improved, and optimized launch vehicles. What many may not realize, however, is that 3D printing is playing a massive part in manufacturing next-generation rocket engines. These are not consumer-focused plastic 3D printers that many are familiar with. Instead, some of today’s most cutting-edge rockets feature complex geometries that provide real performance optimization and are made from impressive 3D printed metal alloys developed primarily for space applications.

It’s safe to say 3D printing is playing a critical role in humanity’s desire to explore space, colonize Mars, and become a multi-planetary species. What metal 3D printing enables for aerospace engineers is the ability to produce parts without compromising their design for the sake of manufacturability. Often, engineers are required to alter their most performance-optimized designs because they are simply too complex or costly to reliably produce with conventional manufacturing techniques. With metal 3D printing, engineers are free from those constraints.

Launcher, a Hawthorne, California-based space startup, is a prime example of a company utilizing 3D printing for both rocket engines and spacecraft. Earlier this month, the company successfully launched its Orbiter satellite transfer vehicle onboard SpaceX’s Transporter-6 mission. In the coming decade, metal 3D printing will be one of the biggest drivers for innovation in space. Launcher is a prime example of how the technology is helping businesses make big impacts on society—and that doesn’t stop with Orbiter. When humanity eventually reaches Mars, it will have been made possible because of 3D printed parts. (1/16)

It Looks Like NASA Will Finally Have an Astronaut Live in Space for a Full Year (Source: Ars Technica)
Amid much fanfare, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly returned from space nearly seven years ago, landing on a barren, frozen steppe of Kazakhstan inside a hardy little Soyuz spacecraft. NASA made much of this flight, billing it as the agency's first year-long mission. PBS was among the broadcast television stations that did extended features on Kelly's mission, its multi-episode series was titled "A year in space." But the dirty little secret is that, due to the inevitable shuffling of schedules in spaceflight, Kelly and a Russia colleague, Mikhail Kornienko, spent 340 days in space rather than a full year of 365.25 days.

After Kelly's mission, NASA health officials said they hoped to fly more one-year missions as they sought to better understand the biological effects of long-duration spaceflight on humans and how the agency might better mitigate bone loss and other deleterious effects. These missions, at least by planning, have not happened. However, largely by the vagaries of scheduling, NASA astronauts have spent long periods of time on the International Space Station since Kelly's pioneering flight.

On Tuesday, a senior official in NASA's International Space Station Program, Dina Contella, said during a news briefing that the crew of the damaged Soyuz spacecraft would now "probably" come back to Earth in late September. Cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin and NASA's Frank Rubio launched on the Soyuz MS-22 vehicle on September 21, 2022. The mission was due to return this spring, but after a micrometeorite strike in December, the vehicle's external cooling loop was damaged. This means Rubio is presently on course to spend more than a full year in space—becoming the first NASA astronaut to do so. (1/18)

Suborbital Flights Tested New Launch Vehicles in 2022 (Source: Parabolic Arc)
Once a sleepy backwater largely focused on scientific research, the suborbital launch sector has boomed in recent years. Private companies and governments across the globe conducted 29 flights to test orbital and suborbital launch vehicles and a range of technologies last year.

A Chinese company launched a reusable suborbital vehicle that took off vertically and landed horizontally at an airport. A second Chinese company conducted a series of launches to support the development of a suborbital space tourism vehicle. South Korea tested two orbital rockets on three suborbital flights. Iran continued to develop satellite launch vehicles. An Indian company broke a government monopoly by launching the first private rocket from the subcontinent. And a Dutch company conducted the maiden flight of a new suborbital launcher. Click here. (1/18)

Northrop Grumman Partners with NASA to Shape Integration of Uncrewed Aircraft Into National Airspace (Source: Space Daily)
Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) is collaborating with NASA to develop and test solutions for integrating large, uncrewed aircraft systems into the National Airspace System (NAS). The effort will focus on air cargo operations and is part of NASA's Air Traffic Management-eXploration (ATM-X) Pathfinding for Airspace with Autonomous Vehicles (PAAV) subproject. (1/19)

NASA Awards Boeing With Sustainable Flight Demonstrator Contract (Source: Simple Flying)
NASA and Boeing will partner in the development and flight test of a full-scale Transonic Truss-Braced Wing demonstrator aircraft, which could revolutionize the commercial aviation industry through a much more fuel-efficient design of narrowbody airliners.

Both entities will work together through this public-private initiative to build, test, and fly a full-scale demonstrator aircraft this decade, investing over US$1 billion. Currently known as the Sustainable Flight Demonstrator (SFD), the aircraft will test the Transonic Truss-Braced Wing (TTBW) concept, which involves a plane with extra-long, thin wings stabilized by diagonal struts. This design results in an aircraft that will be much more fuel efficient than a traditional airliner due to a shape that would create less drag – resulting in burning less fuel. (1/18)

NASA Considers Building an Oxygen Pipeline in the Lunar South Pole (Source: Interesting Engineering)
NASA is considering whether to use an oxygen pipeline to efficiently transport oxygen to various locations around the lunar south pole for its upcoming Artemis missions. It is doing so after Peter Curreri, Chief Science Officer at Lunar Resources Inc., detailed problems with NASA's existing plans for transporting oxygen using rovers.

The proposed lunar pipeline, officially named the Lunar South Pole Oxygen Pipeline (LSPOP), would connect to NASA's lunar ice extraction hub in the lunar south pole. NASA, China, and Russia are all targeting the lunar south pole due to the fact it features vast quantities of ice and other resources just bellow the moon's surface. That ice will form a crucial part of NASA's plans to establish a permanent human presence on the moon, as it can be extracted and converted into drinking water and oxygen that can be used for breathing as well as for rocket fuel. (1/17)

Chief Commercial Officer Appointed By Arianespace (Source: Journal of Space Commerce)
Arianespace has appointed Steven Rutgers to serve as its next Chief Commercial Officer. Rutgers began his career in the space industry over two decades ago, working his way progressively through the ranks – initially as the international market and account manager with Inmarsat distributor Xantic in the Netherlands. He subsequently worked in Hong Kong, Dubai and Singapore with Stratos and Inmarsat, negotiating complex bids and supporting commercial development. (1/18)

Scientists Think Jupiter’s Moon Io May Be Home to Alien Life (Source: BGR)
The volcanic moon, which orbits the gas giant Jupiter, has long been written off as a possible home for alien life, as its extreme temperature and lava-covered surface make it wholly inhabitable. But, now scientists say that the volcanic moon could house life deep underground, perhaps even in the lava tubes that help deliver molten rock to the planet’s surface. The idea here is that microbial growth could be living in the lava tubes that cover Io, allowing the lava from the planet’s core to seep to the surface.

Here on Earth, similar growth lives in the lava tubes that pockmark our planet. The idea, then, is that Io could be similar and that alien life of some kind could live in those tubes. Recent simulations of Io show that the tidal heating on the moon is keeping magma liquid below the surface of the planet. However, some of the eruptions on the Jovian moon are so violent that they send magma hundreds of kilometers into space. The tubes that these eruptions send lava through at times could be where alien life on Io is hiding. (1/17)

There’s No Planet B (Source: Aeon)
The scientific evidence is clear: the only celestial body that can support us is the one we evolved with. Here’s why. Given all our technological advances, it’s tempting to believe we are approaching an age of interplanetary colonisation. But can we really leave Earth and all our worries behind? No. All these stories are missing what makes a planet habitable to us. What Earth-like means in astronomy textbooks and what it means to someone considering their survival prospects on a distant world are two vastly different things.

We don’t just need a planet roughly the same size and temperature as Earth; we need a planet that spent billions of years evolving with us. We depend completely on the billions of other living organisms that make up Earth’s biosphere. Without them, we cannot survive. Astronomical observations and Earth’s geological record are clear: the only planet that can support us is the one we evolved with. There is no plan B. There is no planet B. Our future is here, and it doesn’t have to mean we’re doomed.

Deep down, we know this from instinct: we are happiest when immersed in our natural environment. There are countless examples of the healing power of spending time in nature. Numerous articles speak of the benefits of ‘forest bathing’; spending time in the woods has been scientifically shown to reduce stress, anxiety and depression, and to improve sleep quality, thus nurturing both our physical and mental health. Our bodies instinctively know what we need: the thriving and unique biosphere that we have co-evolved with, that exists only here, on our home planet. Click here. (1/18)

APSTAR 6E Orbit Raising is Slowed After Faults Stymy Use of Main Kick Motor Engine (Source: Seradata)
The APT Satellite Holdings-owned APSTAR 6E HTP communications satellite which was placed into an initial orbit by a Chinese Long March 2C/3 (CZ-2C/3) rocket on 12 January from the Xichang launch site, has reportedly run into problems.  The launch was unusual in using such a small rocket to make the launch of the 1,800 kg satellite. To make this work, the the CAST-built DFH-3E bus satellite was equipped with a detachable propulsion module called the SPS which was supposed to manoeuvre the spacecraft into an initial partial transfer orbit. 

From here the satellite’s electric propulsion system was supposed to take over to raise and circularise its orbit into a geostationary Earth orbit over 134 degrees East where it will operate. This raising into position was expected to take 10 months. However, this orbital raising may now take several weeks longer as the SPS main engine is reported to be not working after a series of valve faults involving the pressurisation system. While these have been worked around, it seems that another fault has prevented the ignition of the SPS main engine. (1/18)

SpaceX Visits Wichita Suppliers As It Prepares Production Ramp-Up (Sources: Aviation Week, KAKE)
SpaceX officials traveled here Jan. 17 to meet with current suppliers and develop new supplier connections. The visit was hosted by the Greater Wichita Partnership and Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS). Senator Moran introduced SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell, to several local businesses and government leaders at a reception inside the hanger. As well as leading her on a tour of three different local aerospace manufacturers in Sedgwick county.

Shotwell says "The reason why I'm here is to meet the leadership from these companies and get an understanding of how they like to do business, what they love to do." As SpaceX expands the Starlink satellites and its spacecraft programs, Shotwell says there is much room for growth with who they work for. "With the ramping of the starship and super heavy we're looking for all sorts of new companies to bring it to the family." (1/17)

As Boeing Struggles To Fix Its Airliner Business, Elon Musk Is Eating Its Lunch In Space (Source: Forbes)
For embattled Boeing, one thing that went right last year was NASA’s Artemis I mission. Sure, the Space Launch System was four years behind schedule and came in at a 30% higher cost than the $9 billion initially budgeted to develop it. But Jim Chilton claims it as a win for Boeing’s space division, which he’s headed since 2016.

But like the Space Launch System, Chilton’s successes come with asterisks: they were both also years behind schedule, and Boeing has booked almost $1 billion in anticipated losses on the NASA ferry program, known as Commercial Crew, since 2019, when a software flaw resulted in the first test flight failing to make it to the space station, an embarrassing L for Boeing.

Meanwhile, the other company in the Commercial Crew program, Elon Musk’s SpaceX, has completed five flights to the space station since 2020 and last year was awarded contracts for eight more. SpaceX also knocked Boeing off its longtime perch as NASA’s second-largest contractor based on annual spending, raking in $2 billion from the agency in fiscal 2022. (No. 1 is Caltech, which runs NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab.) (1/17)

Africa Will Get a New $1 Billion Spaceport in Djibouti (Source: Quartz)
Africa could soon get a new spaceport after Djibouti signed a partnership deal with Hong Kong Aerospace Technology to build a facility to launch satellites and rockets in the northern Obock region. According to the preliminary deal, the Djibouti government will “provide the necessary land (minimum 10 sq km and with a term of not less than 35 years) and all the necessary assistance to build and operate the Djiboutian Spaceport.”

The $1 billion spaceport project will also involve the construction of a port facility, a power grid and a highway to ensure the reliable transportation of aerospace materials. The deal’s signing was presided over by the president of Djibouti, Ismail Omar Guelleh, and the project is set to be completed in the next five years. The spaceport is a massive milestone for Africa, making it the first orbital spaceport on African soil. (1/18)

Astronaut Scott Kelly Mocks George Santos as 'Former NASA Astronaut and Moon Walker' (Source: Business Insider)
Astronaut Scott Kelly took to Twitter on Tuesday to mock Rep. George Santos over his new committee assignments. "Awesome to have former NASA astronaut and moon walker, Representative George Santos @Santos4Congress on the House Science Space and Technology Committee," Kelly tweeted. "To infinity and beyond!"

Kelly is a retired astronaut and twin brother of Arizona US Senator Mark Kelly. The tweet was a jab at Santos, who on Tuesday was tapped by House Republican leaders for seats on two House committees: one overseeing science, space, and technology, and another overseeing small businesses. (1/17)

New Nuclear Rocket Design to Send Missions to Mars in Just 45 Days (Source: Universe Today)
We live in an era of renewed space exploration, where multiple agencies are planning to send astronauts to the Moon in the coming years. This will be followed in the next decade with crewed missions to Mars by NASA and China, who may be joined by other nations before long. These and other missions that will take astronauts beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and the Earth-Moon system require new technologies, ranging from life support and radiation shielding to power and propulsion. And when it comes to the latter, Nuclear Thermal and Nuclear Electric Propulsion (NTP/NEP) is a top contender!

NASA and the Soviet space program spent decades researching nuclear propulsion during the Space Race. A few years ago, NASA reignited its nuclear program for the purpose of developing bimodal nuclear propulsion – a two-part system consisting of an NTP and NEP element – that could enable transits to Mars in 100 days. As part of the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program for 2023, NASA selected a nuclear concept for Phase I development. This new class of bimodal nuclear propulsion system uses a “wave rotor topping cycle” and could reduce transit times to Mars to just 45 days. (1/17)