April 17, 2024

Pentagon Looks to Standardize its Relationship with Space Companies (Source: FNN)
A new strategy from the Defense Department outlines how the agency plans to sync up its interests with the commercial space companies, with which it works. The first of its kind 2024 Commercial Space Integration Strategy, looks to integrate commercial solutions into DoD’s national security space architecture. To learn more about it, Federal News Network’s Eric White spoke with one of the authors of the strategy, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy John Plumb. Click here. (4/12)

Sidus Space Partners with Orbital Transports to Expand Market Reach (Source: Sidus Space)
Sidus Space has joined the Orbital Transports Partner Program, a community of companies, suppliers, and subcontractors working together to solve space mission challenges for Customer and Partner companies. The Orbital Transports SmallSat Catalog is an Internet web portal that provides partner companies with a new distribution channel and access to new markets by aggregating space products and services into a comprehensive marketplace. Sidus Space is offering payload hosting services on its 100kg LizzieSat satellite bus platform on its confirmed launches. (4/17)

Iceye Raises $93 Million for SAR (Source: Space News)
Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite company Iceye has raised $93 million. Iceye announced the round Wednesday, led by Finnish sovereign wealth fund Solidium Oy and with participation from Move Capital Fund I, Blackwells Capital, Christo Georgiev and existing investors. The Finnish company has raised $438 million to date and has launched 34 SAR satellites, with plans to launch up to 15 more this year. Iceye said it will use the funds to expand its business and develop new products and services. (4/17)

Air Force Sponsors "Quick Start" Space Projects (Source: Space News)
The Department of the Air Force has selected its first "quick start" programs intended to accelerate work on key capabilities. Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall announced the selection of the first two programs for the initiative during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday. One is a program to develop space and airborne sensors to track moving targets, while the other is for "GPS light" navigation satellites using smaller, less expensive commercial spacecraft. The Air Force did not specify how much funding will be allocated to get these projects kick-started, but said that funding will need to be taken out of other projects for those early-stage activities. (4/17)

ABS Hires Rigolle as CEO (Source: Space News)
Satellite operator ABS has hired industry veteran Mark Rigolle as its new CEO. Rigolle, most recently chief operating officer for the proposed Rivada Space Networks constellation, will join ABS as CEO April 29. He succeeds Amit Somani, who left abruptly in January after less than two years at the company. ABS, originally known as Asia Broadcast Satellite but which changed its name to Agility Beyond Space last year after moving its headquarters from Hong Kong to Dubai, currently operates five GEO communications satellites. (4/17)

Maxar Seeks to Expand Analytics Offerings (Source: Space News)
Maxar Intelligence is looking for ways to strengthen its position in the competitive geospatial intelligence market. The company's CEO, Dan Smoot, said in a recent interview that the company will look to diversify its offerings beyond its traditional high-resolution imagery to provide more sophisticated analytics and novel data products like 3D mapping. Maxar also is forging partnerships with other remote sensing operators to create a "virtual constellation" for geospatial intelligence. The company's near-term priority is the deployment of its WorldView Legion constellation, with the first two satellites scheduled to launch as soon as this month. (4/17)

NASA May Restructure Mars Sample Return to Reduce Sample Mass (Source: Space News)
NASA is willing to consider options for restructuring its Mars Sample Return program that would sharply reduce the number of samples returned. NASA released a call for proposals Tuesday for MSR architecture studies as part of efforts to lower the cost and shorten the schedule of the program. NASA said it would consider proposals for architectures that would return as few as 10 samples collected by the Perseverance rover, a third of the number current plans call for bringing back. That has raised concerns among scientists that this approach would harm the scientific value of the mission. NASA expects to make multiple awards this summer for architecture studies that would be due to the agency by October. (4/17)

CST-100 Starliner Stacked at Florida Launch Pad (Source: Space News)
Boeing's CST-100 Starliner commercial crew vehicle has arrived at the launch pad for its crewed test flight. The spacecraft rolled out early Tuesday from a processing facility at the Kennedy Space Center to Space Launch Complex 41, where it was attached to the Atlas 5 rocket that will launch it next month. The Crew Flight Test mission will carry two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station on a test flight lasting a little more than a week. NASA has scheduled a flight test readiness review for the mission for next Thursday. (4/17)

DoD Picks 5N Plus to Develop Solar Cell Tech (Source: Space News)
The Defense Department has awarded a contract or the production of space-qualified materials for solar cells. The award announced Tuesday to semiconductor manufacturer 5N Plus is part of a Defense Production Act investment program to sustain and expand the capability to produce germanium substrates used in solar cells for defense, civil and commercial satellites. By supporting companies that produce essential materials, the DoD aims to reduce reliance on foreign sources and bolster the domestic industrial base. (4/17)

Sweden Joins Artemis Accords (Source: Space News)
Another day means another signatory for the Artemis Accords. Sweden formally joined the Artemis Accords Tuesday, signing the accords at an event in Stockholm. The signing comes a day after Switzerland joined the accords in a ceremony at NASA Headquarters. Sweden is the 38th country to sign the Artemis Accords, which outline best practices for space exploration. (4/17)

SpaceX Moving to Address Starlink Black Market (Source: Wall Street Journal)
Starlink is taking steps to close a growing black market for its broadband satellite services. SpaceX notified customers using Starlink in South Africa, Sudan and Zimbabwe that access to the service will be cut off by the end of the month. Starlink is not authorized to operate in those countries but users, going through unauthorized resellers, have found ways to use Starlink in those and other places. SpaceX has come under scrutiny for allowing use of Starlink by the Russian military in occupied regions of Ukraine as well as by militia groups in Sudan. (4/17)

Former SpaceXers Open Venture Capital Fund (Source: Tech Crunch)
A former SpaceX executive is reportedly starting a venture capital fund. Incorporation and trademark filings revealed the existence of Interlagos Capital, a new company with plans to pursue venture capital services. Among its founders is Tom Ochinero, a SpaceX senior vice president who left the company earlier this year, along with another former SpaceX employee, Achal Upadhyaya, who most recently had been at investment firm Cantos. (4/17)

Unforgiving Failures: the Challenges of Upper Stages (Source: Space News)
About 12 hours after its December 2023 failed launch, Firefly confirmed that the second stage malfunctioned. “Alpha’s scheduled stage 2 engine relight did not deliver the payload to its precise target orbit,” the company said. It did not elaborate on the malfunction but said it would work with Lockheed and the government to investigate the problem.

That failure capped a rough year for upper stages. Among Western launch vehicles alone there were five partial or complete failures on orbital launches in 2023 (six when counting the second, suborbital test flight of SpaceX’s Starship in November.) While there is no common technical cause for the failures, they illustrate the often-overlooked complexity and challenges of upper stages that can, in some respects, be greater than those of lower stages. Click here. (4/16)

Rolls-Royce Develops Nuclear Tech for Space Applications (Source: Aviation Week)
Rolls-Royce has received a $1.49 million award from the UK Space Agency to collaborate with the US on developing nuclear technologies for space power applications, as part of Phase 2 of the International Bilateral Fund. This funding aims to advance a fission nuclear system tailored for space exploration. (4/8)

Vertical Future Selected by the UK Space Agency to Install its Systems to Grow Crops in Low Earth Orbit (Source: Vertical Future)
Vertical Future, a UK-based vertical farming technology and manufacturing specialist, has been awarded a new grant of £1.5 million to deliver the second phase of the “Autonomous Agriculture for Space Exploration” project. The initiative will adapt  VF controlled-environment-agriculture (CEA) systems to prototype Low Earth Orbit growing systems for use in the first commercial space station being constructed by Axiom Space, due in orbit in 2026. (4/8)

Could Kennedy Space Center Host 300 Launches a Year? (Source: Florida Politics)
Tom Engler, KSC’s director of Center Planning and Development spoke last week in Winter Park at the Florida TaxWatch spring meeting. He discussed how the federal government and a host of private companies with interstellar ambitions are shooting beyond the horizon. “We have created an environment together, between us and the Space Force, that has enabled commercial space business to come to Florida,” Engler said.

KSC is focused on expansion in the future. The Center developed a Spaceport Growth Boundaries effort looking at ways to expand the physical space, on earth, to accommodate the port. There’s only around 7,500 acres of space available for future development available at the center right now. But Engler said KSC is working on options with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission. Visitors to the center know much of the land around KSC remains a natural preserve.

KSC has worked with Space Florida to facilitate growth and welcomes more partnerships with the state. Officials at the center worked with Florida Department of Transportation for a redesign of the aging Union Bridge with the transport of rocket payloads in mind and are nearly at budget for a rebuild. Engler hopes to see 120 launches this year, and perhaps as many as 300 annually within a few years. Partnerships, including with the state, are a big reason the potential for growth exists, Engler said. “The State of Florida played a huge part in making this a reality,” he said. Click here. (4/14)

Aerospacelab Satellites Operational After Transporter Launch (Source: Aerospacelab)
Aerospacelab successfully commissioned its recently launched satellites and is processing data from its’ deployed Very High Resolution (VHR) satellite. The Aerospacelab VHR satellite is designed to capture imagery of the Earth's surface at the submeter-to-pixel scale and combines data from the visible spectrum. (4/8)

US Astronomers Slam Cuts to the Chandra X-Ray Observatory (Source: Physics World)
X-ray astronomers in the US have begun a campaign to save the Chandra X-ray Observatory from budget cuts that would effectively end the mission. They assert that the craft, which was launched in 1999, has plenty of life left in it. Canceling support could, they say, damage scientific efforts to understand the universe and the careers of an emerging generation of X-ray astronomers.

Mark Clampin, NASA’s director of astrophysics, says that it is currently a “challenging budget environment”, which means making “difficult decisions”. But he insists the budget request is “not a cancellation of Chandra” and that NASA will hold a “mini-senior review” to seek community guidance options. (4/13)

Asteroid (Very) Close Encounter Due in 2029 (Source: Cosmos)
In 2029 the asteroid once considered the most probable to strike the Earth will fly uncomfortably close to the planet’s surface. Spanning 335-375m, asteroid 99942 – dubbed ‘Apophis’ after the Egyptian god of chaos – was discovered in 2004 by astronomers from the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Tucson, Arizona. Initially, it was assessed as being a 2.7% chance of impacting Earth in 2029, 2036 or 2068.

In the years since, though, observations of Apophis’ orbit around the Sun have led astronomers to reassess those changes: no impact is expected to occur within the next 100 years. Still, Near Earth Asteroids like Apophis pass, by definition, close to our planet. None (at least on record) have passed as close as Apophis will in April 2029. How close? With the tug of Earth’s gravity working on it, Apophis will duck inside the orbits of certain geostationary satellites at about 32,000km. (4/15)

Elon Musk, SpaceX and Benevolent Megalomania (Source: The Hill)
SpaceX, the instrument Musk has built to save humanity, has become a profitable company, a space line built around the Falcon rockets and a telecommunications enterprise consisting of the Starlink satellites. The test campaign for the Starship is the next phase of Musk’s vision. As for Mars, Musk envisions thousands of Starships taking a million people and millions of tons of stuff needed to survive on the Red Planet.

The colonial fleet will not return, but will be dismantled for materials on Mars. The first Martian colonists will be pledged to live or die to create Musk’s envisioned new home for humankind. Musk thinks he can send the first uncrewed Starship to Mars in five years. At Ars Technica, Eric Berger said that “many people will dismiss Musk’s Mars comments as those of a megalomaniac,” but added that “at least in regard to spaceflight, however, that would be wrong.”

“Musk’s multiplanetary ambitions today are more credible because SpaceX has taken steps toward doing what he said the company would do,” Berger continued. History has given megalomania a bad name. Too many who were seemingly afflicted with it — Alexander The Great, Caesar, Napoleon, not to mention the tyrants of the 20th century — have filled mass graves with millions in pursuit of world conquest. If Elon Musk is a megalomaniac, it has driven him to pursue a far more beautiful dream than the subjugation of nations. (4/14)

How to Destroy a Black Hole (Source: New Scientist)
Black holes are expected to evaporate on their own thanks to Hawking radiation, a process by which they emit a slow leak of particles, but this would take much longer than the age of the universe to happen naturally. Just waiting isn’t really an option, so our hosts are joined by black hole astronomer Allison Kirkpatrick at the University of Kansas in an attempt to find a faster way.

Throwing anything at the black hole won’t really help either, whether it is a planet made of TNT or clumps of antimatter – the black hole will just swallow it up and get even more massive. That doesn’t mean it is impossible to dream up something that would destroy a black hole by falling in. The escape velocity of a black hole – the speed at which one would have to fly away from its centre to escape its gravitational influence – is faster than the speed of light, so a ship that could travel beyond that physical limitation might be able to escape, or a bomb that could explode faster than the speed of light might be able to make a dent.

That is only the beginning of the outlandish ways to potentially wreck a black hole. Theoretical objects called white holes might work, but that could mean sending the black holes back in time, which wouldn’t be great for the past or the future. A black hole could perhaps be stretched out, but whether that works depends on the question of how quantum mechanics and general relativity mesh together, which may be the biggest unsolved question in physics. Our hosts find that giant magnets could help, with potentially horrifying results. (4/16)

China Moving at 'Breathtaking Speed' in Final Frontier, Space Force Says (Source: Space.com)
China is ratcheting up its space capabilities at an impressive clip, with an eye toward challenging the United States' long-held supremacy in the final frontier, U.S. officials say. That supremacy was established in dramatic fashion in 1969, when NASA's Apollo 11 touched down on the moon and ended the Cold War space race with the Soviet Union.

This lunar achievement has had real and lasting consequences: The United States' unparalleled space assets have given the nation's military a powerful edge over the decades, providing information-gathering and communications capabilities that other countries couldn't match. The rest of the world isn't necessarily content with this situation, however. In particular, China seems intent on rising up the space-power ladder.

"Frankly, China is moving at a breathtaking speed. Since 2018, China has more than tripled their on-orbit intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance satellites," said Gen. Stephen Whiting, commander of U.S. Space Command. "And with these systems, they've built a kill web over the Pacific Ocean to find, fix, track and, yes, target United States and allied military capabilities," he added. (4/10)

SpaceX Could Finally Face Competition. It May Be Too Late (Source: Washington Post)
Several space ventures, including Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, Rocket Lab and the United Launch Alliance — the joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing — are poised to debut new heavy-lift rockets this year to compete with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 workhorse. The Pentagon is looking for another provider for the lucrative business of launching national security payloads. Boeing is set to finally launch a crew of astronauts for NASA to the ISS, giving NASA, which has relied on SpaceX for the past four years, another way for its astronauts to orbit.

And while SpaceX has dominated the internet satellite industry by launching some 6,000 Starlink satellites, Amazon, backed by a $10 billion investment, is gearing up to fly its own constellation as well. Those developments, however, may be too late to pose a serious challenge, analysts say, as SpaceX continues to press ahead with reserves of money, momentum and a wartime-like urgency that Musk has infused into the company.

Its deep ties to NASA and the Pentagon, which have awarded it billions of dollars in contracts and elevated it to prime contractor status, have also given it a lead that will be difficult to erode. And SpaceX continues to operate at a blistering pace, expanding the frontiers of what is possible. Morgan Stanley estimated that SpaceX’s revenue for fiscal year 2024 should reach $13 billion, a 54 percent increase over last year. By 2035, as SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellite constellation grows, revenue could reach $100 billion, the firm reported. (4/15)

SpaceX Adds 500,000 New Starlink Users in 4 Months (Source: PC Magazine)
User growth for SpaceX's satellite internet system, Starlink, is climbing quickly, with the service attracting 500,000 new users over the past four months. In a new video posted on Saturday, Elon Musk reported that Starlink's global user base has reached 2.7 million users—up from 2.2 million in December. (4/8)

Through Astronaut Eyes, Virtual Reality Propels Gateway Forward (Source: Phys.org)
NASA astronauts are using virtual reality to explore Gateway. When they slip on their headsets, they're not just seeing the station—they're in it, meticulously surveying every detail and offering crucial insights on design and functionality. Astronauts living aboard the Gateway lunar space station will be the first humans to make their home in deep space. To fine-tune the design of the next-generation science lab, solar-powered spaceship, and home-away-from home for international teams of astronauts, NASA calls on the likes of Raja Chari and Nicole Mann, experienced astronauts who know a thing or two about living and working on a space station. Click here. (4/10)

1st Female ISS Program Manager Looks Ahead to New Spaceships, Space Stations (Source: Space.com)
Dana Weigel, the first woman to helm the International Space Station program manager, says she's excited to oversee so much commercial space activity on the orbiting complex. Weigel officially took helm of the International Space Station (ISS) program manager position on Sunday, succeeding Joel Montalbano. She was previously deputy ISS program manager and has 20 years of experience in numerous high-profile NASA roles. Click here. (4/14)

Japan to Build NASA a Pressurized Moon Campervan for 30-Day Trips (Source: New Atlas)
When NASA returns to the Moon, its astronauts will enjoy tooling around in a pressurized camper van courtesy of JAXA and Toyota. The two-person vehicle is part of a US/Japan agreement that includes putting the first Japanese astronauts on the Moon.

The new camper van, for want of a better term, measures 6.0 x 5.2 x 3.8 m and will be powered by a hydrogen fuel cell, supplemented by solar panels that may recycle waste water by converting it back into hydrogen and oxygen for power. It's estimated to have a range of 10,000 km and will be used to explore the south polar region. (4/15)

The Space Force Is About to Play Space Wars in Earth Orbit (Source: Gizmodo)
As part of its Victus Haze mission, the Space Force awarded a $32 million contract to Rocket Lab and another worth $30 million to True Anomaly to “exercise a realistic threat response scenario in an on-orbit space domain awareness,” according to a statement issued Thursday. Rocket Lab will build and launch its own spacecraft using the company’s Electron rocket, while True Anomaly will build a rendezvous and proximity operation-capable spacecraft, as well as provide a command and control center.

The mission is scheduled for launch in 2025, and each company will be given its own launch and mission profiles at the time. Once in orbit, the Space Force will use the two spacecraft to run through scenarios that could be perceived as threatening in space, whether that be a satellite aiming to destroy a U.S. spacecraft or spying on a U.S. military satellite in an attempt to gather intel. “VICTUS HAZE will demonstrate, under operationally realistic conditions, our ability to respond to irresponsible behavior in orbit.” (4/12)