June 14, 2023

Top-level Study on Intel Community, Space Force Satellite Control Coming Soon (Source: Breaking Defense)
A study commissioned by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines on how to separate responsibilities for gathering intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) from space — including sorting out who can task imagery satellites when — is “coming to closure,” according to a top Space Force official.

“The DoD and the DNI, at secretary level, are working through the difference between, let’s call it national reconnaissance/strategic reconnaissance and what warfighters need to prosecute military operations,” Space Force vice chief Gen. D.T. Thompson said today at a Mitchell Institute event. Further, he said that Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman and National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) Director Chris Scolese are “also working through” how the NRO, responsible for US spy satellites, and the Space Force “work together” to “ensure we’re delivering what combatant commanders need.” (6/12)

To Open the Space Frontier, CLD Must Not Fail (Source: Space News)
NASA’s focus on human exploration to the Moon and beyond is nothing less than thrilling. The agency is boldly directing its energy toward true human space exploration. Industry and the public should be very excited about these and similar developments. But as laudable as NASA’s deep space aspirations are, we cannot let these initiatives overshadow and undermine the creation of a robust LEO commercial space station-based economy. To do so, we risk building castles in the sand.

Aspiring for moments of glory in reaching other planetary surfaces must not come at the expense of building the foundation on which human migration into space will become possible. That foundation is exhibited in the “Commercial LEO Destinations” Program,CLD for short. CLD is the singular most important initiative the United States is pursuing for a future of permanent human presence in outer space. With it, we’re building proverbial “ports” to the “cosmic sea.” Living, let alone thriving, in far-off places is not sustainable without the market built around it.

NASA has wisely launched the CLD program to avoid the same “capability gap” we saw with the Space Shuttle, where the U.S. depended on Russia from 2011 to 2020 to transport U.S. astronauts to and from the ISS. If successful, the CLD program will pave the way for LEO commercialization, utilization, diversification, and democratization — a true opening of LEO for everyone. Budget realities played a major role in the CLD strategic decision. It’s an understandable argument — if the private sector bears much or most of the long-term financial risk of new LEO space stations, NASA’s budget would free up to do what it does best — explore. (6/13)

BepiColombo Readies for Mercury Flyby (Source: ESA)
A European-Japanese spacecraft is gearing up for another flyby of Mercury. BepiColombo, a joint ESA/JAXA mission, will pass 236 kilometers above the surface of the innermost planet on June 19. The flyby is the third of six for the spacecraft before it enters orbit around Mercury in late 2025. ESA says it expects to release the first images from the flyby a day later. (6/14)

Rocket Lab Prepares for Virginia Launch (Source: NASA Wallops)
Rocket Lab is quietly preparing for an Electron launch from Wallops Island, Virginia. The NASA Wallops Flight Facility said Tuesday that Rocket Lab was planning a launch from its pad there between June 15 and 20. NASA disclosed no other details beyond that the launch will take place in the evening and will not be webcast. Rocket Lab has not announced any launch plans but previously said it was gearing up for the first launch of a version of Electron called HASTE for use in suborbital hypersonics tests that would take place from Wallops. (6/14)

Hadfield Assisting King Charles on Space Sustainability 'Astra Carta' (Source: Canadian Press)
Canadian former astronaut Chris Hadfield says he is helping King Charles on an "Astra Carta" for space sustainability. Hadfield said at a conference in Toronto that King Charles contacted him last year for help on the document that will offer new approaches regarding how to use and live in space. Charles, at the time Price of Wales, announced the proposed Astra Carta a year ago at the Summit for Space Sustainability in London. Hadfield said he expected the document to be released at the end of the month. (6/14)

UN Pursues Space Governance Improvements (Source: Space News)
The United Nations is pursuing efforts to improve space governance to deal with orbital debris and other problems. In a speech at the Summit for Space Sustainability Tuesday, Guy Ryder, U.N. undersecretary-general for policy, said the organization was making efforts to address space diplomacy ahead of a September 2024 U.N. conference called Summit of the Future. The U.N. released a policy paper last month that identified several challenges for space governance caused by the growing number of satellites and debris objects, as well as growing interest in space resource utilization. Several meetings are planned over the next 15 months to lay the groundwork for the Summit of the Future and develop new space governance proposals. (6/14)

WEF Offers Orbital Debris Mitigation Guidance (Source: Space News)
The World Economic Forum (WEF) is offering new guidance for mitigating orbital debris. The WEF released Tuesday a set of guidelines, endorsed by 27 companies, that call for improving the success rates for disposing of satellites at the end of the missions and reducing the timeframe for doing so from 25 years to 5. The WEF says the document is intended to inform not just satellite operators but also policymakers and other stakeholders. Notably absent among the companies that have signed on to the document are several operating or developing large satellite constellations, such as Amazon and SpaceX. (6/14)

Satellite Operators Need Improved Data to Support Sustainability (Source: Space News)
Satellite operators say they need improved data and collaboration to support space sustainability. During a panel at the Summit for Space Sustainability, executives said they are concerned that limited resources, like desirable low Earth orbits, are being used at "an alarming rate." Improved data about space operations could inform regulations intended to address those concerns. Companies are also conducting lifecycle assessments of satellite systems to examine their overall environmental impact in space and on Earth during their development and use. (6/14)

Space Force Closely Following Commercial Satellite Servicing Tech (Source: Space News)
The Space Force is closely following the development of commercial satellite servicing technologies. Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. David Thompson said the Space Force considers satellite servicing and in-orbit logistics as "core capabilities" and is laying out a strategy to buy commercial services to refuel and service satellites in geostationary orbit by the early 2030s. That's a change from just a few years ago when the military didn't see a strong demand for such capabilities. A desire to be able to refuel satellites, enabling them to continue to maneuver to avoid threats, is one factor in that interest in servicing technologies. (6/14)

DARPA Scales Back Blackjack (Source: Space News)
DARPA has scaled back a program to demonstrate satellite constellation technologies after it was overtaken by events. Four satellites for DARPA's Blackjack program launched Monday on SpaceX's Transporter-8 rideshare mission. Blackjack started in 2017 with plans to deploy 20 satellites to demonstrate the utility of commercial space technologies for military applications, but DARPA says the four launched Monday are the only satellites that will go to space. Blackjack suffered supply chain problems that delayed its first launch from 2021. The Space Development Agency is now developing satellite constellations through its Tracking Layer and Transport Layer programs. (6/14)

Why the 'Mother of Dragons' at SpaceX Left to Work on Nuclear Fusion (Source: CNBC)
Darby Dunn worked for a decade at SpaceX where she held a handful of engineering and production roles related to building rockets. In one of those positions, she was unofficially known as the “Mother of Dragons” for her work on the spacecraft SpaceX called the Dragon. For the last four and a half years, Dunn has been at Commonwealth Fusion Systems, where she is part of the team working in the commercial fusion industry. A key difference between the two jobs is the maturity of the respective industries.

Fusion machines have been studied in academic settings and research labs since the early 1950s, but the entire industry is just at the very first stages of trying to prove that the science can have commercial applications. It’s being a part of that excitement that was a big draw for Dunn. Of course, there are plenty of skeptics who say the industry is the equivalent of Don Quixote tilting at his windmills. But Dunn says her time at SpaceX prepared her to face the skeptics. (6/12)

SpaceX Marks 200th Booster Landing (Source: NSF)
SpaceX launched the Transporter-8 rideshare mission on Monday. The booster landed at LZ-4 on Vandenberg Space Force Base, marking the 200th recovery of a Falcon booster, the 126th consecutive successful landing since SpaceX last lost a booster. (6/12)

Forget Space Tourism. This Company Wants to Make Drug Manufacturing the Next Big Extraterrestrial Business (Source: CNN)
For years, the private sector has envisioned an illustrious future in space — an extraterrestrial playground with tourists flying to and from orbiting hotels and the occasional trip to Mars being as easy as a transatlantic flight. But if the space economy is to become a $1 trillion sector by 2040, as one Citigroup report suggested, not all of its enterprises will be so grandiose.

One California-based startup, Varda Space Industries, is betting that big business will lie in relatively unassuming satellites that will spend days or months in Earth’s orbit quietly carrying out pharmaceutical development. Its research, company officials hope, could lead to better, more effective drugs — and hefty profits. (6/12)

TCarta to Deliver Satellite Derived Bathymetry for 13 Regions to National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (Source: TCarta)
TCarta Marine, a global provider of hydrospatial products and services, has been awarded a contract to deliver satellite derived bathymetry (SDB) and seafloor classification data for the coastal zones of 13 regions around the world to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) under contract to Maxar Technologies.

TCarta will deliver seabed depth and feature maps from high-resolution multispectral Maxar WorldView-2 and WorldView-3 satellite imagery for the 13 regions. SDB measurements are accurate to depths of 20-30 meters depending on water conditions, with two-meter spatial resolution. Feature classification includes coral reefs, large rocks, sandbars, and other navigation hazards. (6/13)

Spire Launches Technology to Enable Optical Inter-Satellite Links and Significantly Reduce Data Latency (Source: Spire)
Spire Global successfully launched and made contact with two satellites on the SpaceX Transporter-8 mission carrying optical inter-satellite link (OISL) payloads that will significantly reduce data latency and strengthen security of communication. The 6U satellites are equipped with optical communications terminals (OCT) to send information between them securely and almost instantaneously, reducing the latency of data acquired by Spire’s nanosatellites by more than an order of magnitude.

The OCT developed by Spire, which is the smallest on the market, allows for the creation of optical links between satellites that enhance link speeds, security and resiliency to interference such as signal jamming and spoofing. With the OCT, Spire’s satellites will be able to communicate via optical link while up to 5,000 kilometers apart. (6/13)

Air Force Orders a Viasat-3 Terminal to Demonstrate Space Relay Service (Source: Space News)
The Air Force Research Laboratory has ordered a Viasat-3 space terminal that will be used to demonstrate communications services for low-Earth orbit spacecraft. Viasat will deliver a space-qualified Ka-band terminal that will be launched to orbit on a LEO satellite and serve as a data communications relay to the ViaSat-3 network. AFRL will use the terminal for high data rate LEO-to-GEO communications, said Lt. Col. David Johnson, head of the lab’s Integrated Experiments and Evaluations Division. (6/13)

At Last, Astronomers May Have Seen the Universe’s First Stars (Source: Scientific American)
JWST is hunting for signs of the first stars to switch on in the universe, so-called Population III stars, gigantic balls purely made of hydrogen and helium that shined brilliant and brightly to first bring light to the cosmos. In a pair of papers, two teams of astronomers report promising signs of Population III stars. In the first study, researchers think they may have found a pocket of Population III stars nestling in the outskirts of a remote galaxy. The second study hints at a tiny galaxy that may be composed of, if not Population III stars per se, extremely primordial stars born early in the cosmos. (6/

Vaya Space Recognized with 2023 Fire Award "Blazer" Win (Source: Orlando Business Journal)
Cocoa-based Vaya Space Inc. is an Orlando Inno 2023 Fire Awards honoree. The firm ranked No. 1 in the On the Come-Up category, companies that are 5-6 years old. Vaya Space is a privately owned launch company, and its patented vortex-hybrid engine technology cost-effectively places satellites into precision orbits. In addition, Vaya’s ability to start, stop and throttle its vortex-hybrid engines positions it well to break into the defense contracting market. (6/9)

Layoffs Hit Colorado Space Companies as Funding Remains Tight (Source: CNBC)
A pair of Colorado space companies laid off employees this past week, seeking to adapt to the new normal of a tight funding environment. The layoffs came at Ursa Major, which makes rocket engines, and Orbit Fab, a startup aiming to provide refueling services to spacecraft. Multiple former Ursa Major employees wrote Wednesday was a “rough day” at the company, with “top-notch people” let go as part of the “major layoff.”

Orbit Fab’s Chief Commercial Officer Adam Harris said in a statement to CNBC 10 people were let go this week, and the company will have about 50 employees after the restructuring. It recently hired a new chief operating officer and plans to bring on a chief engineer and others in the coming months. (6/9)