June 28, 2023

NASA's Roman and ESA's Euclid Will Team Up to Investigate Dark Energy (Source: Space Daily)
A new space telescope named Euclid, an ESA (European Space Agency) mission with important contributions from NASA, is set to launch in July to explore why the universe's expansion is speeding up. Scientists call the unknown cause of this cosmic acceleration "dark energy." By May 2027, NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will join Euclid to explore this puzzle in ways that have never been possible before. (6/28)

Gravity and Dark Matter, a Bond Beyond Distances (Source: Space Daily)
With the birth and development of quantum mechanics, physicists discovered that non-local phenomena not only exist but are fundamental to understanding the nature of reality. Now, a new study suggests that dark matter, one of the most mysterious components of the Universe, interacts with gravity in a non-local way. According to the authors,this discovery could provide a fresh perspective on the still unclear nature of dark matter. (6/28)

Maritime Launch Services Boosts Capital with Stock Offering (Source: Space Daily)
Canadian-owned commercial space company, Maritime Launch Services issued an aggregate of 2,875,000 common shares on May 5, 2023, at an issue price of $0.16 per share to several of its arm's-length service providers in exchange for previously rendered services. A significant chunk of the service payment went to Lindsay Construction Ltd, the construction management contractor for Spaceport Nova Scotia. Maritime Launch issued 2,031,250 common shares to Lindsay, which were subject to a 4-month plus 1-day hold period. (6/28)

AST SpaceMobile Boosts Capital with Stock Offering (Source: Space Daily)
AST SpaceMobile disclosed the pricing and upsizing of its previously announced public offering of Class A common stock, par value $0.0001 per share. The company plans to sell 12,500,000 shares of Class A common stock, generating gross proceeds of about $59.4 million. The raised funds will be employed for various corporate purposes, including anticipated cash payments related to launch services and related additional equipment and services in Q3 2023.

ASTS has stated that the underwriter will offer the shares of Class A common stock from time to time for sale in one or more transactions on Nasdaq, in the over-the-counter market, through negotiated transactions or otherwise at market prices prevailing at the time of sale, at prices related to prevailing market prices or at negotiated prices. The offering is anticipated to close on June 30, 2023, depending on customary closing conditions. (6/28)

House Appropriators Trim Space Force Budget (Source: Space News)
House appropriators trimmed the Space Force's budget request, expressing concerns about poor performance on some programs. The defense spending bill recently approved by the House Appropriations Committee cut nearly $1 billion from the service's $30 billion request, making the cuts across a number of programs in the Space Force's research, development and acquisition accounts. Appropriators said they were "very concerned" about some poorly performing programs like the OCX ground system for GPS and Space Command and Control (Space C2), among others. Appropriators also criticized the Space Force for not budgeting funds for some programs over its five-year spending plan. (6/28)

SES to Provide X-Band Comms for DoD (Source: Space News)
SES has won a $134 million contract to provide X-band communications services for the Defense Department. The five-year contract announced Wednesday is a "global X-band blanket purchase agreement" that is the first awarded to SES Space & Defense, the U.S. government services subsidiary of SES, since it acquired DRS Global Enterprise Solutions last year. The X-band services will come from GovSat-1, a joint venture between SES and the government of Luxembourg for secure military communications. (6/28)

China's Space Pioneer Plans Falcon-9 Class Rocket Debut Next Year (Source: Space News)
A Chinese company says it plans to launch a rocket comparable in performance to SpaceX's Falcon 9 as soon as next year. Space Pioneer is developing the Tianlong-3 rocket capable of placing up to 17 tons into low Earth orbit. Falcon 9 can place up to 22.8 tons into LEO. The first stage is intended to be reused for up to 10 flights. The rocket would offer China considerable new launch capacity, being second only to China's Long March 5B in terms of launching payload to LEO while also being more versatile. Space Pioneer has raised $438 million since its founding in 2018 and became the first Chinese startup to reach orbit with a liquid-propellant rocket, the Tianlong-2, in April. (6/28)

Spain's PLD Space Moves Suborbital Test to September (Source: Space News)
Spanish launch company PLD Space has postponed its first suborbital test flight to September. The company said Tuesday it was delaying the launch of the Miura 1 rocket from a base in southwestern Spain to comply with laws and regulations that restrict activities that can cause wildfires. The company scrubbed one launch attempt in late May because of weather and aborted a launch in mid-June when umbilical lines failed to detach from the rocket when its engine ignited. Miura 1 is a suborbital rocket that is primarily a technology demonstrator for its Miura 5 small launch vehicle. (6/28)

Sierra Space Plans Dream Chaser Launch in December (Source: Space News)
Sierra Space says it is still planning to launch its first Dream Chaser vehicle as soon as December. Company CEO Tom Vice said at an investor conference Tuesday that final testing of the vehicle was underway and that he expected it to be ready for launch in December. He acknowledged, though, uncertainty about the status of the Vulcan rocket that will launch it; that first Dream Chaser will fly on the second Vulcan mission. Dream Chaser is a key element in the company's plans to provide end-to-end space services that also include an inflatable module called LIFE it is developing for the Orbital Reef commercial space station. Vice said Sierra Space is considering launching a "pathfinder" LIFE module as soon as 2026 that could test the technology and also host biotech research. (6/28)

UK's Odin Space Launches Debris Sensor (Source: Space News)
A British company plans to measure small orbital debris using a sensor on a recently launched orbital transfer vehicle. Odin Space said Tuesday it activated the sensor on the D-Orbit ION tug launched as part of the SpaceX Transporter-8 rideshare mission earlier this month. The sensor is designed to detect debris as small as one-tenth of a millimeter. It will record and analyze the size, speed, and trajectory of tiny debris from the vibrations they generate as they hit the sensor. Odin Space plans to start launching next-generation sensors in 2024 and deploy more than 10 of them per year across LEO and geostationary orbit as hosted payloads. (6/28)

Japan's Next H3 Launch Won't Carry Primary Payload (Source: Yomiuri Shimbun)
The next H3 launch will carry only microsatellites and inert payloads. Officials with the Japanese space agency JAXA said Tuesday that the second launch of the H3 would carry an inert mass as the main payload along with two microsatellites, one from Canon Electronics and the other by Japan Space Systems. The first H3 launch in March carried the ALOS-3 Earth science spacecraft, a major mission that cost more than $200 million but was lost when the rocket malfunctioned. JAXA has not set a date for the second H3 launch. (6/28)

Four Teams Win Prizes to Advance Energy Technology for Moon Missions (Source: Space Daily)
NASA has selected four teams to advance to the final level of the agency's Watts on the Moon Challenge, which seeks solutions to transmit and store energy on the lunar surface. NASA is working to establish a permanent human presence on the Moon and beyond. The next major step in this effort will be Artemis II, the first crewed test flight to the Moon since the Apollo program. Long-term exploratory missions on the Moon will require many technologies, such as lunar habitats, life support systems, and rovers - all of which need efficient sources of power. Click here. (6/28)

New and Revised Statistics for the U.S. Space Economy, 2012–2021 (Source: BEA)
This article summarizes new, updated, and expanded U.S. space economy statistics for 2012–2021 released on June 27, 2023. These statistics build on previous estimates that were released in January 2022 by incorporating new source data and improved methods. These space economy statistics provide estimates of the space economy's contribution to U.S. current-dollar and chained-dollar (“real”) gross output and gross domestic product (GDP) by industry, as well as estimates of private employment and compensation.

The updated and revised statistics show that, in 2021, the U.S. space economy accounted for $211.6 billion of gross output, $129.9 billion (0.6 percent) of GDP, $51.1 billion of private industry compensation, and 360,000 private industry jobs. See the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) space economy website for detailed data tables. Click here. (6/27)

NASA prepares for return of asteroid sample with September landing in Utah (Source: Fox Weather)
NASA’s first spacecraft to collect a sample from an asteroid will complete its 7-year mission later this year when OSIRIS-REx drops off some of asteroid Bennu in Utah. OSIRIS-REx – a fancy acronym for Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer – collected an estimated 2 pounds of asteroid rocks and dirt known as regolith in 2020.

Before the spacecraft used its pogo-stick-like arm to vacuum up regolith, it first took two years of spaceflight to catch up with the asteroid and then orbited the small world, mapping its surface. In September, OSIRIS-REx will deploy a small capsule with Bennu dirt inside, setting it on a trajectory for Earth. The capsule will hopefully land on Sept. 24 with the help of a parachute in Utah. (6/26)

High-Speed Air Travel Market Survey Results (Source: SpaceWorks)
In tandem with a broader commercial high-speed flight market research study that SpaceWorks is currently conducting, we thought it would be interesting to conduct an informal survey via LinkedIn earlier this year to learn what industry professionals thought about the future of long-distance air travel. We posed several questions aimed at determining the ticket price premium associated with flying faster. Other questions focused on how factors like cabin comfort, environmental impact, and the need to urgently travel internationally might affect the design of the airplane or the size of the market. Click here. (6/22)

Alén Space Consolidates its Position by Joining the Multinational GMV (Source: Alén)
Alén Space, the pioneering New Space startup based in Spain, has just entered into an acquisition agreement with the multinational tech firm GMV, which will make it part of GMV’s global business group. The transaction is taking place through GMV’s acquisition of a majority stake in the company, in combination with a share capital increase. The goal is for Alén Space to increase its turnover tenfold in the next 5 years, to become a European and global leader in the small satellite market. (6/21)

There’s a Push in Congress to Make Military Launch Facilities Run More Like Commercial Airports (Source: WIRED)
One lawmaker is looking to make military-launch facilities run more like commercial airports with a pair of amendments introduced when the House Armed Services Committee debated its version of the National Defense Authorization Act. Democratic Rep. Salud Carbajal of California introduced on two amendments on the Spaceport of the Future: one to allow the military to recoup more launch costs from companies and a second to simplify the process of leasing federal land to launch providers.

The first amendment will authorize the Space Force to charge companies for the indirect costs of launching from military ranges, including utilities, such as power and water usage, as well as wear and tear on base infrastructure, a spokesman from Carbajal’s office says. Today, the Space Force charges companies for direct costs of launching from military facilities, like weather analysis or other things that directly use military resources. Under the amendment, the indirect costs charged to a company can’t exceed 30% of their direct-cost bill for a particular launch, the spokesman for Carbajal’s office said. The indirect-cost reimbursement will also be capped at $5M per company each year.

Carbajal’s second amendment would give the Space Force the authority to lease military property to commercial space companies, the spokesman said. It’s a process that can happen today, but it requires congressional action. The proposal would give the Space Force the ability to welcome new companies on base on its own. Ninety percent of the funding generated by those leases will go back to the Space Force to support launch infrastructure, the spokesman said. (6/22)