February 12, 2023

Plasmos Unveils Space Truck (Source: Space News)
Plasmos revealed plans to offer in-space transportation and to return payloads to Earth with a Space Truck. The Space Truck, powered by Plasmos’ dual-mode propulsion system, will transport payloads to altitudes as high as 1,400 kilometers “to enable in-space manufacturing, last-mile delivery, point-to-point transportation, on-orbit servicing and active debris removal,” Plamso CEO Ali Baghchehsara said Feb. 9 during Plasmos’ unveiling of the Space Truck. (2/11)

SpaceX Launches Near-Polar Starlink Mission From Florida (Source: Florida Today)
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off a Florida launch pad early Sunday, taking a batch of the company's Starlink internet satellites along a southern trajectory that skirted by the state's east coast. Unlike most Florida missions that head northeast, Sunday's flight saw Falcon 9 take the flat-packed satellites along a polar trajectory that hugged the East Coast. The rocket's first stage, responsible for its 12th mission to date, successfully landed on the Shortfall of Gravitas drone ship as the second stage continued on with the payload. (2/12)

SpaceX Breaks Pad Turnaround Record in Support of Starlink (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
The first of two Starlink launches in close succession, Starlink Group 5-4 lifted off at 12:10 AM EST on Feb. 12. The mission broke the pad turnaround record for both Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport and the overall record across all three Falcon 9 launch pads. The second mission of the week, Starlink Group 2-5, is slated to launch at 8:32 AM PST Feb. 15 from Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. (2/12)

Space Launch Firms Seek to Balance Government, Commercial Client Needs (Source: C4ISRnet)
Space launch company executives said this week that as they serve an increasingly diverse mix of government and commercial customers, striking a balance between the demands of the two sectors can be a challenge. ULA, the long-time sole-source launch provider for U.S. DoD missions, is experiencing this challenge in real-time as it expands into the commercial market, according to Clint Hunt, the company’s director of intelligence and defense programs.

ULA isn’t the only launch company faced with a changing landscape. On the military side, the Space Force wants to create more opportunities for providers to compete for DoD business through its National Security Space Launch program and through new concepts that require rapid, responsive launch capabilities. The commercial sector is also positioned for major growth as companies developing large constellation of satellites begin looking for launch providers. (2/10)

Safety Panel Urges NASA to Address ‘Unplanned Emergency ISS Deorbit’ in Annual Risk Report (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
With more potential debris flying about the International Space Station at 17,400 mph, the risk of a catastrophic incident has prompted the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel to urge NASA and Congress to come up with a better plan in the event of disaster. In its annual report released Tuesday that tackles NASA safety risks including the Artemis program, crewed launches from Kennedy Space Center and other concerns, the panel brought back a concern it had first raised in 2012, but had been off the table since 2020.

While several issues remain open from its previous report, the need for a more robust plan to deal with the threat of an incident on the ISS that could cause it to come crashing back down into Earth’s atmosphere was the only reopened concern for 2022. It noted that while both NASA and the Russian Space Agency have been in continued talks on how to safely deorbit the station when its operational mission comes to an end, which could come after 2030, that plan was not well-defined nor fully funded. (2/8)

White House Reviewing Input on Mission Authorization Concepts (Source: Space News)
The National Space Council is continuing work on a proposed framework for regulating commercial space activities that is being watched closely by both industry and Congress. Chirag Parikh, executive secretary of the council, said work was continuing on a proposal for what’s known as “mission authorization” for commercial space activities not currently regulated by other agencies. Such authorization and continuing supervision is required under Article 6 of the Outer Space Treaty. (2/11)

Northrop & Johnson Reveals More Details on its Spaceflight Balloon Partnership (Source: BOAT International)
International brokerage firm Northrop & Johnson recently unveiled its newest strategic partnership with Space Perspective. "The strategy is to align with industry-leading companies who share our vision to provide clients with truly extraordinary experiences. ... Many of our clients are entrepreneurs or self-made individuals with a passion for the ocean, a deep curiosity about “what could be” and a commitment to live life to the fullest. Space Perspective is pioneering an exciting opportunity for our clients to explore the frontiers of space and quench their thirst for adventure." (2/7)

Blue Origin Wins First NASA Business for New Glenn (Source: Space News)
Blue Origin has won its first NASA award for its New Glenn rocket, with the agency selecting the large rocket to launch a pair of Martian smallsats. NASA announced Feb. 9 it selected New Glenn for the launch of the two Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) spacecraft. The rocket will launch ESCAPADE in late 2024, with the spacecraft entering orbit around Mars 11 months later.

The company also did not disclose the value of the launch award. In another VADR award in November to Rocket Lab, for the launch of four TROPICS cubesats designed to monitor tropical weather systems, NASA declined to disclose the contract value because VADR task orders “are competed in a closed environment and as such are considered proprietary.” Government procurement databases later listed the value of the award at $12.99 million, with about $2.6 million obligated to date. According to the same government procurement database Feb. 10, the Blue Origin award for launching ESCAPADE is valued at $20 million, with $6 million obligated to date. (2/10)

Blue Origin's Alchemist Technology Powers Our Lunar Future (Source: Blue Origin)
Since 2021, Blue Origin has been making solar cells and transmission wire from regolith simulants. To make long-term presence on the Moon viable, we need abundant electrical power. We can make power systems on the Moon directly from materials that exist everywhere on the surface, without special substances brought from Earth. We have pioneered the technology and demonstrated all the steps. Our approach, Blue Alchemist, can scale indefinitely, eliminating power as a constraint anywhere on the Moon. (2/10)

Piece of Sun Breaks Off, Stuns Scientists (Source: New York Post)
Scientists were left baffled after material broke off of the sun’s surface and created a tornado-like swirl around its northern pole. The remarkable phenomenon was caught by NASA on the James Webb Space Telescope and tweeted by Dr. Tamitha Skov, a space weather forecaster. “Talk about Polar Vortex!” she wrote last week. “Material from a northern prominence just broke away from the main filament & is now circulating in a massive polar vortex around the north pole of our Star. Implications for understanding the Sun’s atmospheric dynamics above 55° here cannot be overstated!” (2/9)

Tianwen-1 Marks 2 Years in Martian Orbit (Source: Xinhua)
It has been two years since China's Tianwen-1 probe slipped into orbit around Mars. The orbiter has carried scientific instruments on its journey and relayed a torrent of data to Earth, making contributions to many interplanetary exploration discoveries in that time. But it has done far more than that. The China National Space Administration on Friday said that the Tianwen-1 orbiter was in good condition and would continue to perform multiple tasks related to the red planet. (2/11)

Inmarsat Remains Open to Ordering LEO Constellation (Source: Space News)
Inmarsat says it is still considering deploying a low Earth orbit (LEO) constellation of its own despite comments to the contrary by one of its executives this week. Inmarsat vice president of corporate development, Larry Paul, said the British satellite operator does not “have the balance sheet to build our own LEO network... [B]ut quite frankly there’s no need to,” Paul said, because “there’s going be so much capacity in the market in a few years” from potential partners “and prices will be dropping.”

While Inmarsat “took a hard look at building our own, becoming a major investor in others,” he said “it just doesn’t make sense at this point” for the company to make that kind of investment. He said Inmarsat “is going to partner with a LEO operator — maybe more than one.” (2/10)

Saudi Arabia to Send First Female Astronaut to Space (Source: Arab News)
Saudi Arabia will send the Kingdom’s first female astronaut and a male astronaut to the International Space Station (ISS) during the second quarter of 2023. Astronauts Rayyanah Barnawi and Ali AlQarni will join the crew of the AX-2 space mission, Axiom Space’s second all-private astronaut mission to the ISS. (2/12)

Women and Girls in Science: The Team Helping to Take Us to Mars (Source: ESA)
ESA celebrates the International Day of Women and Girls in Science  this 11 February, and highlights the story of the first all-female Systems Team in ESA’s Concurrent Design Facility, the place where ideas for new space missions, systems and structures take definite shape. Meet the team behind the Mars Transit Habitat study that will be the backbone for sustainable roundtrips to Mars. Click here. (2/10)

Light Pollution Has Cut Humanity’s Ancient Connection with the Stars – But We Can Restore It (Source: The Conversation)
Humans are naturally afraid of the dark. We sometimes imagine monsters under the bed and walk faster down unlit streets at night. To conquer our fears, we may leave a night light on to scare away the monsters and a light over the porch to deter break-ins. Yet, in huddling for safety under our pools of light, we have lost our connection to the night sky. Star counts by public awareness campaign Globe at Night revealed that, between 2011 and 2022, the world’s night sky more than doubled in artificial brightness. Yet local interventions can create meaningful change.

Around the world, dark sky associations are working to educate the public about the hazards of light pollution, to lobby for legislation to protect dark sky reserves and encourage people to reignite their connection with dark, star-studded skies. Fighting light pollution begins at home. If you need to keep outside lights on for security, use shielded lamps that only shine downwards. Use light bulbs that do not emit violet and blue light as this is harmful to wildlife. Smart lighting controls will also help reduce your house’s effect on wildlife and make it easier for you to observe the night sky. (2/9)

MDA Secures First Contract With Argentina’s National Telecommunications Company ARSAT (Source: SpaceQ)
Building on the success of its antenna business, MDA announced yesterday that it had signed its first contract with ARSAT, Argentina’s national telecommunications company. MDA will “design, build and supply all of the Ka-band multibeam antennas for the ARSAT-SG1 satellite.” The Geostationary orbit ARSAT-SG1 satellite “will provide high-speed internet as well as digital video and voice services across the country and to Bolivia, Paraguay and Chile.” (2/10)

Another Russian Spacecraft Docked to ISS Has Sprung a Leak (Source: CNET)
It's happened again. A Russian Progress cargo spacecraft docked to the International Space Station has sprung a coolant leak, NASA said in a statement on Saturday. This is the second incident of this type in recent months after a Russian Soyuz spacecraft attached to the ISS spewed out coolant from a leak in December. NASA said "engineers at the Russian Mission Control Center outside Moscow recorded a depressurization in the unpiloted Roscosmos Progress 82 cargo ship's coolant loop, which is docked to the space-facing Poisk module at the station." The cause of the leak is under investigation. (2/11)