January 8, 2023

SpaceX Pushes 200th Launch to Monday (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
SpaceX is set for its second Space Coast launch of the year mission to send up more internet satellites for competitor OneWeb. Liftoff of a Falcon 9 was pushed to 11:50 p.m. Monday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40. A Sunday attempt was tabled so SpaceX could “complete prelaunch processing,” the company posted on its Twitter account, but that both “vehicle and spacecraft are healthy.”

It was set to be the company’s 200th launch since 2010, but may end up being the 201st with the delay as a Starlink launch is also on tap for Monday night, but from California. Nearly half of SpaceX’s launches have come in just the last two years with 31 launches in 2021 and 61 in 2022. Elon Musk has said the company could come close to 100 launches in 2023. The first Falcon 9 launch came on June 4, 2010 and has since flown 194 more times while Falcon Heavy has flown four times. (1/8)

Rocket Launch Scheduled for Jan. 9 From Vandenberg Space Force Base (Source: KEYT)
SpaceX has chosen 8:15 p.m. on Jan. 9 as their current launch window for a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 51 Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base. A backup window has been selected on Jan. 10 at 8:02 p.m. The Falcon 9 will deliver its satellite cargo into a low earth orbit trajectory then return to land on the Of Course I Still Love You, an autonomous spaceport droneship in the Pacific Ocean. (1/7)

Raytheon, Millennium Get More Funding for Missile Tracking Satellites (Source: C4ISRnet)
The Space Force released an additional $605 million in November to Raytheon Technologies and Millennium Space Systems to build prototypes of satellites that can detect and track hypersonic and ballistic missiles from medium Earth orbit. The service chose the companies in May 2021 to develop models of missile warning sensors for its Missile Track Custody program. The Space Force did not disclose the contract values at the time, but confirmed to C4ISRNET this week Raytheon’s deal is worth up to $727 million and Millennium’s up to $412 million.

The contracts include options for baseline design work, operations, data processing and the purchase of up to three aircraft. Following a successful review of their sensor payload designs in November, the service exercised additional options within those original contracts, awarding Raytheon $396 million and Millennium $209 million. (1/6)

Dethroned ‘SPAC King’ Thinks Musk Will Take Starlink Public This Year (Source: Bloomberg)
Chamath Palihapitiya, a former Facebook Inc. executive and prominent investor known for his “blank-check” companies, is predicting that SpaceX’s internet-from-space initiative Starlink will go public in 2023, years earlier than planned. Palihapitiya said on his podcast All-In that a Starlink IPO could give chief executive Elon Musk more financial flexibility and would be “an obvious outcome in 2023.” (1/6)

Old NASA Satellite Falling From Sky Yhis Weekend, Low Threat (Source: AP)
A 38-year-old retired NASA satellite is about to fall from the sky. NASA said Friday the chance of wreckage falling on anybody is “very low.” Most of the 5,400-pound satellite will burn up upon reentry, according to NASA. But some pieces are expected to survive. The space agency put the odds of injury from falling debris at about 1-in-9,400.

The science satellite is expected to come down Sunday night, give or take 17 hours, according to the Defense Department. The California-based Aerospace Corp., however is targeting Monday morning, give or take 13 hours, along a track passing over Africa, Asia the Middle East and the westernmost areas of North and South America. (1/7)

Work Begins to Harvest Orion Spacecraft Hardware for Artemis 2 Lunar Flight (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
Fresh off the 1.4-million-mile Artemis 1 test flight around around the moon, NASA’s Orion spacecraft arrived Dec. 30 back at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where technicians will offload propellants and payloads, and begin removing internal hardware destined to fly back to the moon with astronauts on the next Orion crew capsule in 2024.

The 9-ton, 16.5-foot-wide spacecraft journeyed from U.S. Naval Base San Diego to Kennedy Space Center by road inside a climate-controlled transport container. NASA said the Orion crew module arrived at Kennedy on Dec. 30. Ground teams moved the spacecraft inside the Multi-Payload Processing Facility for post-flight servicing. (1/5)

Senators Seek Funding Boost for NASA and NSF Astrophysics Programs (Source: Space News)
Five senators are asking the White House to add at least $300 million in the next budget proposal for NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support priorities from the astrophysics decadal survey. The Dec. 21 letter, released Jan. 5 by one of the signatories, Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), asked the directors of OMB and the Office of Science and Technology Policy to include “specific, increased funding” for NASA and NSF astrophysics programs in the fiscal year 2024 budget request under development. That budget is will be released as soon as early February. (1/6)

Aiming for Instantaneous Earth-Observation Data (Source: Space News)
After focusing on optical communications for more than 20 years, Hedron CEO Baris Erkmen, has a clear view of the challenges and opportunities offered by the technology. "We will support automatic networking in space. We need to support multiple access [points] for multiple satellites being able to talk to the ground dish. Scheduling should be happening in the background. Satellite operators pass their packets to a network and the network takes care of it. The data shows up on the other end." (1/6)