January 20, 2023

SpaceX Reaches ‘Ludicrous’ Cadence (Source: Ars Technica)
In the movie Space Balls, "ludicrous speed" is the velocity attained by a spaceship traveling much faster than the speed of light. That is the velocity of cadence SpaceX is now approaching with its Falcon family of rockets. On Thursday morning, the company launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 51 Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. This was the company's fifth launch of 2023.

If you're keeping track at home ... As of January 19, SpaceX has launched a rocket every 3.8 days during this calendar year. Extrapolated out to a full year, SpaceX is on pace for 96 Falcon launches in 2023. While that probably won't happen, it indicates that SpaceX founder Elon Musk's prediction of 100 orbital launches this year was not all that, ahem, ludicrous. (1/20)

Maia Space Sees Challenges with Small Reusable Rockets (Source: Ars Technica)
The chief executive of Maia Space (an ArianeGroup subsidiary) described the challenges of reusing small rockets. Yohann Leroy explained that while the company was looking at a two-thirds drop in performance when the launcher was recovered, the model would not reduce the cost of the launcher by a similar amount, European Spaceflight reports. "Paradoxically, implementing reuse on a small launcher has rather the consequence of increasing the costs per kilogram launched," Leroy said. The company has about 30 employees now and seeks to develop a small reusable rocket before moving on to larger reusable launch vehicles. (1/20)

Blue Origin Plans Fairing Drop Test Off Florida Coast (Source: @Alexphysics13)
Blue Origin is set to perform fairing drop tests off the coast of Florida sometime between Jan 21 and Jan 23. A Marine Safety Information Bulletin (MSIB) was published on Jan 17 describing the operations. A TFR for the operations accompanies it as well. (1/20)

Space Florida Shrugs Off Loss of Terran Orbital Factory (Source: Space News)
Terran Orbital’s decision not to build a large satellite factory in Florida is only a minor setback for the state’s efforts to grow the space industry’s presence in the state and to expand beyond launch, according to one official. In a recent call with reporters, Frank DiBello, president and chief executive of Space Florida, the state space development agency, said he was seeing a growing backlog of potential aerospace investment opportunities for his organization.

In September 2021, Terran Orbital announced it would build a large satellite factory adjacent to Space Florida’s Launch and Landing Facility, the former Shuttle Landing Facility runway at the Kennedy Space Center. Space Florida helped arrange financing for the project, which Terran Orbital said would create 2,100 jobs by the end of 2025. Little more than a year later, Terran Orbital announced it was no longer pursuing the Florida factory.

DiBello said the property that had been planned for the Terran Orbital factory was “coveted” by others. “We will have no trouble finding uses for it, and in fact we have several companies that we’re actively working with now to locate out at the Launch and Landing Facility.” He said that, as the number of opportunities grows, Space Florida is making its due-diligence efforts more rigorous, citing the “irrational exuberance” associated with the wave of companies going public through mergers with special purpose acquisition corporations (SPACs) since early 2021. (1/19)

Space Industry Investments Drop Sharply (Source: Space News)
Space industry investment dropped significantly in 2022, according to a new report. Space Capital found that investment dropped by 58% from $47.4 billion in 2021 to $20.1 billion in 2022. Space Capital said that drop is part of a shift to focus on fundamentals after a surge of investment in companies that have since failed to execute their plans. Space Capital expects 2023 to be a difficult year for startups as investors remain selective, with government spending becoming increasingly important to the space economy. (1/20)

Space Force Seeks Stronger International Partnerships (Source: Space News)
The head of the Space Force said the service should pursue stronger partnerships with allies. In a memo released this week, Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, chief of space operations, said the Space Force will "eliminate barriers to collaboration" with allies as one of his major priorities. That effort will involve policy changes, such as classification, but also various forms of direct collaboration that benefits both the Space Force and allies. Other priorities he mentioned in the memo are to deploy "combat-ready forces" and to "amplify the guardian spirit." (1/20)

Space Force Chief Sets ‘Lines of Effort’ for Service Success (Source: Breaking Defense)
Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman has issued a set of “commanders notes” to Guardians outlining three “lines of effort (LOEs)” he believes are necessary for the Space Force to be successful — with the top priority as the need to field “combat ready forces” comprising not just weapon systems, but also personnel to operate them and the logistics tail needed to sustain them. Each LOE is elaborated in a one-page memo, all issued Wednesday on the service’s website. Click here. (1/19)

HawkEye 360 to Provide RF Mapping to Space Force (Source: Space News)
HawkEye 360 will provide data collected by its radio-frequency mapping satellites for a Space Force threat-detection system. The company announced a partnership with Slingshot Aerospace whereby HawkEye 360 will provide data that can identify potential jamming attacks or other threats that would interfere with GPS signals. That will go into a system Slingshot is developing for the Space Force that analyzes data from satellites in low Earth orbit to detect and locate radio-frequency interference that could endanger the safe operation of U.S. satellites. (1/20)

SpaceX Seeks More National Security Business (Source: Space News)
SpaceX's Starshield initiative shows the company wants to take on bigger roles in national security. SpaceX quietly unveiled Starshield last month offering defense and intelligence agencies custom-built spacecraft, sensors and secure communications services leveraging SpaceX's investment in its Starlink network of broadband satellites. SpaceX has not shared many details about its Starshield product line, but defense analysts see the effort as the "logical next step" for SpaceX to use its expertise in mass manufacturing of satellites to offer new services for the military. It comes as other space companies have shifted resources to tap into the defense market. (1/20)

SpaceX Launches Starlink Satellites From California (Source: Space.com)
SpaceX conducted its first Starlink launch of the year Thursday. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 10:43 a.m. Eastern and deployed 51 Starlink satellites into orbit about a half-hour later. The rocket's first stage, on its first launch, landed on a droneship in the Pacific. SpaceX has now launched more than 3,700 Starlink satellites, of which more than 3,400 are in orbit. (1/20)

China's Space Epoch Performs Reusable Rocket Test (Source: Space News)
A Chinese launch startup has performed hot-fire tests as part of development of a planned reusable stainless steel rocket apparently inspired by SpaceX's Starship. Space Epoch recently performed a series of tests of a 4.2-meter-diameter stainless steel propellant tank combined with a Longyun-70 methane-liquid oxygen engine. Space Epoch previously revealed plans to develop a 64-meter-tall stainless steel launcher capable of lifting 6.5 tons to a 1,100-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit. The launcher will be able to be reused up to 20 times. (1/20)

Eutelsat Retires GEO Satellite (Source: Space News)
Eutelsat has retired a GEO communications satellite launched more than 20 years ago. Eutelsat said Thursday it moved the Eutelsat 5 West A satellite to a graveyard orbit some 400 kilometers above the geostationary arc and deactivated the spacecraft. The satellite was originally built by Alcatel Alenia Space — now Thales Alenia Space – and launched in July 2002 to support a transition from analog to digital television broadcasting in Europe. (1/20)

ESA Pushes "Zero Debris" Policy at Davos (Source: Space News)
ESA hopes a "zero debris" policy it is implementing can be adopted globally. Speaking at the World Economic Forum Thursday, ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher said he is working with member states to adopt a policy in the next few years that would require satellites to be deorbited immediately after the end of their missions. He said he hopes that the policy can be adopted "universally" to address growing space safety concerns from the proliferation of orbital debris. He also highlighted ESA's work on a new space-based solar power study, called Solaris, that secured $65 million at the agency's ministerial meeting in November to see if the technology is technically and economically feasible. (1/20)

Hyperspectral Instrument to Improve NOAA Satellite Weather Forecasting (Source: Space News)
Adding a hyperspectral sounder to future NOAA weather satellites should significantly improve weather forecasting. At last week's meeting of the American Meteorological Society, scientists said the hyperspectral infrared sounder planned for the GeoXO line of geostationary orbit weather satellites will provide enhanced temperature and humidity data that can improve near-term localized forecasts. Meteorologists today use sounders on low Earth orbit satellites and balloons, but they provide data much less frequently. The GeoXO satellites are slated to start flying in the early 2030s. (1/20)

Peake Departs ESA Astronaut Corps (Source: ESA)
British astronaut Tim Peake is leaving ESA's astronaut corps. ESA announced Friday that Peake would step down from the corps to serve as an "ambassador" for ESA's activities, working with the U.K. Space Agency. Peake was selected as an astronaut in 2009 and flew to the ISS in late 2015 for a six-month mission. He had been on an unpaid sabbatical from the astronaut corps since late 2019. (1/20)

Space Insurers Toast Another Profitable Year (Source: Space News)
The space insurance market managed to make a profit for 2022 despite a devastating Vega C rocket failure at the end of the year that ruined two Airbus imaging satellites. The Vega rocket that malfunctioned shortly after lifting off Dec. 20 was insured for around $210 million, according to industry sources.

That accounted for more than two-thirds of the $294 million loss underwriters at AXA XL recorded for the space insurance market for the whole of 2022. However, AXA XL data shows net premium for the year came in at $579 million, excluding $75 million tied to Russian risks that western insurers are banned from covering following the invasion of Ukraine. It means the space insurance market reaped around $285 million in profit for 2022 — the third year in a row that total premiums outweighed losses. (1/20)

Buzz Aldrin Turns 93, Oldest of Remaining Moonwalkers (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Buzz spent 93 minutes walking on the surface of the moon, and has now traveled 93 times around the sun. The second man on the moon celebrates his birthday today, the oldest of the four living moonwalkers. Aldrin, who landed with Neil Armstrong to become one of only 12 people ever to walk on the lunar surface, was born on a Monday, on Jan. 20, 1930. Aldrin is the only surviving Apollo 11 crew member. Armstrong died in 2012 and Collins in 2021. (1/20)

Decades Later, Gemini 5's Titan Booster Returns to Cape Canaveral (Source: Florida Today)
Nearly 60 years after it launched two astronauts on a historic mission to Earth orbit, the Gemini 5 mission's Titan II booster has returned to its Cape Canaveral launch site. The Space Force on Thursday oversaw the arrival a 27-foot fragment of the booster that launched Gordon Cooper and Pete Conrad on an eight-day mission in August 1965, proving that astronauts could stay in space long enough to fly to the moon and back. It's the only launched-and-recovered Titan booster in existence.

The booster was returned to the Cape from the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, where it was stabilized, put in a new display cradle, and transported to Florida. It joins dozens of other displays at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Hangar C, which acts as a museum and houses restored ballistic missiles and other hardware from the Space Race and beyond. (1/20)

Chinese Firms to Build African Spaceport (Source: Ars Technica)
Groups based in Hong Kong and Shanghai have reached a memorandum of understanding with the government of Djibouti to build a $1 billion commercial spaceport on the Horn of Africa, Parabolic Arc reports. The Djiboutian Spaceport, which will be constructed in the northern Obock region near the entrance to the Red Sea, would be the first orbital spaceport in Africa. It is thought to comprise an area of 10 square kilometers.

Not without geopolitical implications ... According to the report, construction of the spaceport is expected to begin after the parties sign a formal agreement in March. The project is expected to take five years. This will be a development worth following, as it is easy to understand the interest of Chinese companies in launching from a latitude about 10 degrees north of the equator. China's rivals, however, also have interests in Djibouti. The US Navy operates Camp Lemonnier nearby, which is the only permanent US military base in Africa. France has a large military base in the country as well. (1/20)

Research on Chang'e 5 Lunar Samples Gains Fruitful Results (Source: Space Daily)
More than 50 research results on the lunar samples brought back by the Chang'e-5 mission have been published in notable academic journals at home and abroad, pushing China's lunar science research to the international forefront. Over 150 scientists and researchers participated in the first Chang'e-5 Lunar Sample Research Results Seminar held by the CNSA on Monday. They discussed topics ranging from the characteristics of Chang'e-5 lunar soil samples, the history of lunar volcanic activities, meteorite impacts on the lunar surface, and space weathering to the new techniques for analyzing extraterrestrial samples, etc. (1/20)

Satellites Can Be Used to Detect Waste Sites on Earth (Source: Space Daily)
A new computational system uses satellite data to identify sites on land where people dispose of waste, providing a new tool to monitor waste and revealing sites that may leak plastic into waterways. Every year, millions of metric tons of plastic waste end up in oceans, harming hundreds of species and their ecosystems. Most of this waste comes from land-based sources that leak into watersheds. Efforts to address this issue require better understanding of where people dispose of waste on land, but resources to detect and monitor such sites-both official sites and informal or illegal ones-are lacking.

In recent years, the use of computational tools known as neural networks to analyze satellite data has shown great value in the field of remote sensing. Building on that work, Kruse and colleagues developed a new system of neural networks to analyze data from the European Space Agency's Sentinel-2 satellites and demonstrated its potential for use in monitoring waste sites on land. To evaluate the performance of the new system, the researchers first applied it to Indonesia, where it detected 374 waste sites-more than twice the number of sites reported in public records.

Broadening to all countries across Southeast Asia, the system identified a total of 966 waste sites-nearly three times the number of publicly recorded sites-that were subsequently confirmed to exist via other methods. The researchers demonstrated that their new system can be used to monitor waste sites over time. In addition, they showed that nearly 20 percent of the waste sites they detected are found within 200 meters of a waterway, with some visibly spilling into rivers that eventually reach the ocean. (1/20)

China to Launch 200-Plus Spacecraft in 2023 (Source: Space Daily)
The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) plans to launch more than 200 spacecraft with over 60 space missions in 2023, according to a company report. The CASC report unveiled plans for the country's space science and technology activities in 2023. It said that the Tianzhou 6 cargo craft, the Shenzhou XVI and the Shenzhou XVII flight missions would take place within the year to improve China's capability of entering, using and exploring space. (1/20)

Humans Healed the Ozone Layer (Source: The Economist)
In 1985 scientists discovered an area over Antarctica where the layer of stratospheric ozone, which protects Earth from ultraviolet radiation, had become dangerously thin. That chlorine from chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), chemicals used in refrigeration and products such as hairspray, could break down ozone molecules had been known for some time. What the “hole” showed was that in the peculiar conditions of the Antarctic this breakdown happened at an unexpected rate.

Two years later world leaders signed the Montreal Protocol, a deal to do away with CFCs. In 2003 Kofi Annan, then secretary-general of the United Nations, called it “perhaps the single most successful international treaty to date”. A report released by the UN on January 9th supports that view. It finds that 99% of banned ozone-damaging substances have been phased out. It predicts that the ozone layer will return to approximately its state in 1980 between 2040 (across much of the world) and 2066 (over Antarctica). (1/14)

Space at Davos (Source: Quartz)
Jesse Klempner, a partner at McKinsey & Co. focused on the aerospace industry, is on the ground in Davos and says the nattering nabobs of networking are starting to recognize space as more than a niche obsession or the province of government agencies with multi-billion dollar budgets. But his biggest concern for the future of the space economy is still whether policymakers around the world manage to split the difference between competition and collaboration.

In a white paper Klempner and his colleagues prepared in collaboration with the WEF, the future of space is divided into four potential outcomes: An ideal world where a diverse space economy blossoms; one where only major companies and government agencies can bear the risk of extraterrestrial activity; another where space becomes limited to military actors alone; and a dismal outcome where the potential of space is unrealized.

The key to unlocking a future of space productivity, per the report, is in global governance: Rules for space traffic management, protocols for space debris mitigation and removal, and norms for economic activity in space, from resource extraction to property rights. Just about anyone you talk to in space world thinks these things are necessary, but the progress toward them has been slow and ad hoc. Click here. (1/19)

Europe Pushing for International Zero-Debris Space Policy (Source: Wall Street Journal)
The European Space Agency is pushing a zero-debris policy that would mandate companies and governments to remove any space junk launched from Earth. ESA estimates that there are currently over 130 million pieces of debris in space, including 36,500 that are larger than 4 inches and about 1 million sized between 0.4 and 4 inches.

"We want to establish a zero-debris policy, which means that if you bring a spacecraft into orbit you have to remove it," Josef Aschbacher, ESA's director general said in a presentation at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "We need to protect our orbits for our own safety and the safety of spacecraft and astronauts."

The vast majority of debris is smaller than 0.4 inches and range from small flecks of paint to tiny fragments of spacecraft left over from collisions. Even the smallest, which can travel around the Earth faster than the speed of a bullet, can cause significant damage to other craft in orbit, Mr. Aschbacher said. (1/19)

South Korea’s Science Minister Visits Space Center in Dubai (Source: Gulf News)
South Korean Minister of Science and Information and Communications Technology Lee Jong-ho led a delegation who visited the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) in Dubai on Wednesday. They were welcomed by MBRSC director general Salem Humaid AlMarri, who tweeted: “I welcomed a South Korean delegation... Our partnership with South Korea dates back to the establishment of @MBRSpaceCentre with a knowledge transfer programme yielding our first two satellites.” (1/19)

History Points to Contracts Following SpaceX Visit to Wichita (Source: Wichita Business Journal)
The president of SpaceX was in Wichita on Tuesday in a visit that, should it follow to form similar trips by her industry peers, will likely mean new work for local suppliers. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-KS, hosted SpaceX president and COO Gwynee Shotwell in Wichita this week, helping guide the space executive on tours of local manufacturers, including Spirit AeroSystems Inc., and a luncheon event with local leaders at the B-29 Doc hangar at Eisenhower National Airport.

And if past visits hosted by Moran are an indication, Shotwell likely found some new supplier family members on the trip. Blue Origin in October 2021 announced it had signed four local companies — Harlow Aerostructures Inc., Accurus Aerospace Wichita, C.E. Machine Company Inc. and Orizon Aerostructures LLC — to supply contracts following a Moran-hosted visit earlier that summer. Similarly, ULA in December 2021 announced a new contract with Wichita’s Maynard Inc. for the supply of parts for its Atlas V rocket after its CEO made another Moran-hosted trip the previous month. ULA followed that with a contract announcement last February involving supply work by Wichita’s Milling Precision. (1/18)

SpaceX to Launch Rockets From Boca Chica, Texas. Wildlife Folks Aren’t Happy (Source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
SpaceX will launch a Full Stack Test Flight next month at a launch pad near Brownsville, Texas, in the Boca Chica area. The launch pad’s proximity to sensitive wildlife has some folks at the Texas Parks and Wildlife perturbed. The Boca Chica loop is home to a diverse ecosystem with birding trails and the Sabal Palm Audubon Sanctuary nearby.

Rare, threatened and endangered species live in or near the Boca Chica area, including the aplomado falcon, piping plover, red knot, snowy plover and black rail, along with migrating birds in the fall and spring, according to Friends of the Wildlife Corridor. Texas Parks and Wildlife also reports Boca Chica’s lomas — clay mounds covered with brush — are a favored habitat for ocelots. South Texas is the only region in the United States where ocelots can be found. In a response to a tweet asking if he would adopt an ocelot, Elon Musk, SpaceX founder and CEO, said motion-activated cameras around the base have not captured footage of ocelots. (1/18)

Virginia Rocket Launch ‘Turning Point’ For Space Operations (Source: National Defense)
From a distance, the upcoming launch in Virginia will look like any other craft blasting into space, but the technology on board the vehicle and the location will be firsts for the United States. The mission, titled “Virginia is for Launch Lovers,” will consist of the first U.S. launch of New Zealand-based Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket from its new Launch Complex 2 at NASA’s Wallops Island, Virginia, facility.

“This flight just doesn’t symbolize another launchpad for Rocket Lab,” said CEO Peter Beck during a conference call with reporters prior to the launch. “It’s a standing up of a new capability for the nation. … And it’s a new rocket to Virginia and to the Wallops Flight Facility.” Rocket Lab has conducted 32 launches of the 59-foot, reusable Electron at its Complex 1 in New Zealand, and the U.S. facility will allow for increased launch tempo and different trajectories, Beck said. (1/19)

Rocket Lab Assembling First Reusable Neutron Rocket Hardware (Source: Teslarati)
Rocket Lab appears to have made significant progress since revealing the state of hardware development for its next-generation Neutron rocket in a September 2022 investor update. At the time, the company shared photos of early work on prototypes of smaller Neutron structural elements, as well as progress building the giant molds that will be used to ‘lay up’ the rocket’s carbon fiber composite tanks and airframe. Rocket Lab also showed off acquisitions of some of the supersized manufacturing equipment that will be used to build the giant rocket, as well as the beginnings of a dedicated Neutron factory in Virginia.

Four months later, photos shared by CEO Peter Beck show that Rocket Lab has progressed to full-scale carbon fiber hardware manufacturing. In December 2022, Beck shared a photo of a full-size Neutron tank dome in the middle of production. A month later, Beck shared a photo of work on both halves of a Neutron booster tank dome. Measuring around seven meters (23 ft) wide, the latter component is already on track to become one of the largest carbon fiber structures ever prepared for a rocket once the halves are joined. And once two more halves are built and assembled, Rocket Lab could soon be ready to start testing full-scale Neutron tank hardware – a crucial milestone for any new rocket. (1/18)

How This Lafayette Jewelry Business Became the First to Participate in New NASA Commercial Program (Source: Acadiana Advocate)
The International Space Station has hosted precious cargo from all over the world — 263 people, a menagerie of animals including tardigrades and baby squids, and even an espresso machine have made the orbit around Earth.  Now this group of space travelers includes a kilogram of diamonds and gemstones from Lafayette business.

Lafayette’s Dianna Rae Jewelry is the first company in the world to send diamonds and gems to space and make them available for sale to the public. The gems launched Nov. 26 aboard the SpaceX-26 ISS resupply mission, spent 46 days among the stars, and splashed back down near the coast of Florida on Jan. 11. Dianna Rae High and her husband, Jeff High, spent two years negotiating the logistics surrounding their participation in the NASA/SpaceX Commercial Space Program. And it all started with a chance tour of SpaceX near Los Angeles.

They were initially offered the opportunity to send stones on a nine-minute low Earth journey, similar to the Blue Origin flight that sent Jeff Bezos to space in July 2021. “We thought, that’s not enough," she said. "We want to do something bigger. So we reached out to NASA.” After several rounds of negotiation with both SpaceX and NASA, the company signed a Space Act Agreement that allowed them to send one kilogram of weight to the International Space Station. That’s how Dianna Rae Jewelry became the first small business and the first female-owned business to participate in the Commercial Space Program. (1/18)

ASU Launches Into the Metaverse with Space Force Satellite Launch Viewing (Source: ASU)
On Jan. 18, the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University virtually launched the United States Space Force’s Global Positioning System III SV06 satellite, named Earhart, into the metaverse, timing it with the actual launch of the GPS III SV06 Earhart satellite into space.

Through a licensing agreement with the U.S. Space Force, Earhart will be the sixth space vehicle of Space Systems Command’s GPS III fleet of satellites that will advance the GPS constellation's global positioning and navigation services for military and civilian users. The satellite was named after one of the most iconic aviation trailblazers Amerlia Earhart, continuing the GPS III program team's tradition of satellite naming in honor of prominent historical explorers and channeling their fierce spirits of adventure and teamwork to achieve great things.

For the launch of the Earhart satellite in the metaverse, Thunderbird partnered with Pixel Canvas, a browser-based, 3D, interactive platform, to create the Thunderverse, which represents a virtual environment that mimics the features of a futuristic space station. On Jan. 18, attendees entered the Thunderverse with a virtual avatar and interacted and chatted with one another as they watched the Earhart satellite launch into space. (1/18)