March 23, 2024

The Future of the Space Force Isn’t on Earth — it’s in the Solar System (Source: Space News)
it is clear that the United States Space Force, while dominated by old thinking, still doesn’t know what it wants to be when it grows up, and is split among multiple different areas of focus. The challenge is that it has to grow up fast. It seems the Force’s leadership are of three minds: those who look down, focusing on ground operations, those who look around at orbital space and those who look up and out. Click here. (3/20)

Amid Rising Anger at Boeing, Board Members Will Hold Customer Meetings Without CEO (Source: Fortune)
Boeing directors plan to meet with top executives from some of their largest customers, who are growing increasingly frustrated about the planemaker’s crisis tearing into their business. Dave Calhoun, Boeing’s chief executive officer, will not participate in the gatherings set to begin next week, said people familiar with the matter. Larry Kellner, the chairman of Boeing’s board, is spearheading the unusual listening tour and will be joined by two to three other directors for each session. (3/21)

Boeing Asks Court to Block Virgin Galactic From Using Its Data (Source: Bloomberg)
Boeing is seeking a court order to block further use of its trade secrets by Virgin Galactic after the companies stopped working together on a space tourism project. The proprietary data was shared with Virgin Galactic when it engaged Boeing’s Aurora Flight Sciences unit to help develop a so-called Mothership jet carrier. But after the companies ended their collaboration last year, Virgin Galactic refused to honor its contractual promise to destroy two sets of trade secrets, according to a complaint the US planemaker filed in federal court in eastern Virginia. (3/21)

Why It’s So Challenging to Land Upright on the Moon (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Why is there a sudden epidemic of spacecraft rolling on the moon like Olympic gymnasts performing floor routines? Is it really that difficult to land upright there? On the internet and elsewhere, people pointed to the height of the Odysseus lander — 14 feet from the bottom of the landing feet to the solar arrays at the top — as a contributing factor for its off-kilter touchdown. Had Intuitive Machines, the maker of Odysseus, made an obvious error in building the spacecraft that way?

The company’s officials provide an engineering rationale for the tall, skinny design, but those internet commenters do have a point. Something tall falls over more easily than an object that is short and squat. And on the moon, where the pull of gravity is just one-sixth as strong as on Earth, the propensity to tip over is even greater. Philip Metzger at the University of Central Florida explained that Odysseus was supposed to land vertically with zero horizontal velocity, but because of problems with the navigation system, it was still moving sideways when it hit the ground.

“Intuition that’s based on Earth is now a liability,” Metzger said. He gave the example of trying to push over the refrigerator in your kitchen. “It’s so heavy that a slight push is not going to push it over,” Metzger said. But if you replace it with a piece of Styrofoam in the shape of a refrigerator, mimicking the weight of a real refrigerator in lunar gravity, “then a very light push will push it over,” Metzger said. His calculations suggested that for a spacecraft like Odysseus, the landing legs need to be splayed about 2 1/2 times as wide on the moon as on the Earth to counteract the same amount of sideways motion. (3/10)

FAA Looks at Batch Licensing for Starship (Source: Payload)
Going forward, the FAA will look to ease Starship’s launch approval process. “We’re trying to work with them to get them on a different program, if you will, in terms of how we approve their launches going forward,” FAA's Kelvin Coleman said. “We want to get away from the launch-by-launch approvals and get more into what Part 450 was really designed for, which is an approval of a portfolio of launches.” (3/18) 

NASA, Health and Human Services Highlight Cancer Moonshot Progress (Source: NASA)
During an event at NASA Headquarters in Washington Thursday, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra united to note progress their respective agencies are making in space and on Earth toward President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden’s Cancer Moonshot initiative.

Nelson noted several related experiments space station astronauts have conducted aboard the orbital laboratory for the benefit of all including protein crystal growth, nanoparticle drug delivery, tissue engineering, and stem cell research. In addition to $2.9 billion across HHS in the President’s fiscal year 2025 budget proposal, Becerra discussed his agency’s capabilities to accelerate progress toward the President’s moonshot goals. NASA is working with HHS and researchers across the federal government to help cut the nation’s cancer death rate by at least 50% in the next 25 years, a goal of the Cancer Moonshot Initiative. (3/21)

"Woke?" Australian Space Diversity Alliance Launched to Promote Diversity in Space (Source: Defense Connect)
The Australian Space Diversity Alliance (ASDA) said it aims to support senior leaders and minimise the barriers that marginalised groups face. It comes after a series of reports have shown the sector is lagging behind others in regard to gender disparity, and alongside a talent shortage critics say can only be overcome with a more diverse intake. ASDA was founded by eight industry figures, including Defence Council of Victoria’s Anntonette Dailey, ANU’s Dr Cassandra Steer, and Raytheon’s Linda Spurr. (3/21)

ISRO Successfully Carries Out 'Pushpak' Reusable Launch Vehicle Experiment (Source: Swarajya)
India successfully carried out the landing mission of its Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) named 'Pushpak' from the Aeronautical Test Range (ATR). "ISRO nails it again! Pushpak (RLV-TD), the winged vehicle, landed autonomously with precision on the runway after being released from an off-nominal position," ISRO wrote. The experiment RLV-LEX-02, second of the series, was conducted Friday. (3/22)

AT&T Underlines Support for Realizing Direct-to-Smartphone Satellite Service (Source: Space News)
AT&T is prepared to provide more funds to help get AST SpaceMobile’s direct-to-smartphone constellation plans off the ground. AST SpaceMobile raised $155 million from AT&T and other investors in January, but the satellite operator needs more capital to provide 5G connectivity globally from low Earth orbit to phones and other devices outside cell tower coverage. (3/22)