April 18, 2024

Astronomers Spot a Massive ‘Sleeping Giant’ Black Hole Less Than 2,000 Light-Years From Earth (Source: CNN)
Astronomers have spotted the most massive known stellar black hole in the Milky Way galaxy after detecting an unusual wobble in space. The so-called “sleeping giant,” named Gaia BH3, has a mass that is nearly 33 times that of our sun, and it’s located 1,926 light-years away in the Aquila constellation, making it the second-closest known black hole to Earth. The closest black hole is Gaia BH1, which is located about 1,500 light-years away and has a mass that is nearly 10 times that of our sun. (4/17)

Debt Ceiling to Blame for Shortfalls in NASA's FY35 Budget (Source: Space News)
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson defended proposed cuts to programs in NASA's fiscal year 2025 budget request, putting much of the blame on Congress. At a House appropriations hearing Wednesday, Nelson said the debt-ceiling deal last year that placed spending caps on non-defense discretionary programs, like NASA, forced "very tough choices" on the agency, including the cancellation of the OSAM-1 satellite servicing mission and cuts in the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. He added that he was "quite sanguine" about the future of the Mars Sample Return program given plans announced this week to seek alternative architectures amid concerns that proposed budgets could lead to further layoffs at JPL. (4/18)

CSIS Study Finds Evidence of Counterspace Activities (Source: Space News)
A new report found growing evidence of counterspace activities against satellites. The report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) released Wednesday highlights the expanding anti-satellite capabilities of foreign adversaries, notably China and Russia, alongside the world's growing reliance on space-based systems for critical services. While the report noted there have been no destructive ASAT weapons tests since one by Russia in 2021, there is growing non-destructive counterspace activities like jamming and GPS spoofing as well as "unfriendly behaviors" of Chinese and Russian spacecraft. (4/18)

Taking the Next Steps for Satellite-to-Smartphone Services (Source: Space News)
Regulators are offering mixed messages about the use of satellites for direct-to-device connectivity. The FCC approved last month a new regulatory framework called Supplemental Coverage from Space to permit satellites to use radio waves from terrestrial partners to keep their mobile subscribers connected outside cell tower coverage. While that framework was hailed by the industry as a major step forward, the FCC later last month rejected a request from SpaceX to use some mobile satellite service bands to expand the capacity it is getting from U.S. terrestrial partner T-Mobile. The FCC concluded that the potential for interference warranted a new rule-making process that is subject to a lengthy public comment period. (4/18)

Astrobotic Focuses on Defense Business (Source: Space News)
Astrobotic is seeking defense business for a reusable suborbital rocket. Astrobotic is developing Xogdor, obtained when Astrobotic acquired the former Masten Space Systems, with a first flight planned in 2025. Astrobotic plans to offer Xogdor to the U.S. Air Force, the Missile Defense Agency and other defense organizations for use as a testing and research platform, and potentially for "rocket cargo" initiatives. Xogdor will be capable of flying at supersonic speeds and suborbital altitudes, with a range of several hundred kilometers. (4/18)

Space ISAC LEO Group Focuses on Information Sharing (Source: Space News)
A group of low Earth orbit satellite operators are working together to discuss potential threats to their satellites. Space ISAC announced last week the creation of the LEO Owner Operators Affinity Group, allowing companies to share information on topics ranging from space weather to threats from adversaries. Frank Backes, CEO of Capella Space and co-chair of the group, said the creation of the group was prompted by the desire to bring together companies that are facing similar challenges to operations specific to LEO. (4/18)

HASC Chairman Supports Transfer of Space-Focused Guard Units to Active Duty (Source: Breaking Defense)
The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee says he supports a proposal to transfer space-related National Guard units into the active-duty Space Force. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) said after a hearing on the Department of the Air Force's budget request that he is "fully supportive" of the legislative proposal from the Defense Department that would allow it to move nearly 600 Guardsman in several states to the Space Force. He rejected criticism from the National Guard Association that the move, while involving only a small number of guardsmen, was an "existential threat" to the National Guard. (4/18)

Canada Creates National Space Council (Source: CBC)
Canada is creating its own National Space Council. The Canadian government announced plans this week to establish a National Space Council as part of the rollout of its 2024-2025 budget. The council will provide "a new whole-of-government approach to space exploration, technology development, and research," the government stated. Space Canada, an industry group, welcomed the announcement. (4/18)

TESS Returns to Operations (Source: NASA)
NASA's TESS spacecraft has returned to operations. NASA said Wednesday that the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite has restarted normal scientific operations after going into a safe mode last week. The agency said engineers are still studying what triggered the safe mode on the six-year-old spacecraft, which maps the sky looking for exoplanets. (4/18)

NASA Bids Farewell to Mars Helicopter (Source: Space.com)
NASA has given its sendoff to the Ingenuity Mars helicopter. Controllers this week transmitted a final command to the helicopter, turning it into a stationary testbed. Ingenuity will continue to collect telemetry about its systems and take images even after its loses its radio link to the Perseverance rover. Ingenuity's memory could hold up to 20 years of data that might be retrieved by some future mission. Ingenuity ended its flight operations in January after a hard landing damaged its rotor blades. (4/18)

L3Harris Plans to 'Streamline' Operations with Staffing Cuts After Recent Acquisitions (Source: Florida Today)
Melbourne-based L3Harris Technologies is laying off workers in a cost-cutting move designed "to streamline our operations," the defense and aerospace company said in a statement. The layoffs follow two major acquisitions by L3Harris last year that were valued at a total of $6.66 billion, plus more recent announcements by the company of moves to get rid of non-core businesses. L3Harris in January reported that its 2023 profits were $1.20 billion, up 12.9% from the previous year.

L3Harris is a defense and technology company formed by the 2019 merger of L3 Technologies and Harris Corp. It is headquartered in Melbourne. L3Harris is among the largest U.S. defense contractors, currently in the No. 6 position, behind Lockheed Martin, RTX (formerly Raytheon), Northrop Grumman, Boeing and General Dynamics. L3Harris employs about 50,000 people worldwide. It is one of the largest employers in Brevard County, with more the 7,200 employees on the Space Coast.

L3Harris in July completed its $4.7 billion acquisition of rocket-engine maker Aerojet Rocketdyne, which serves both the space and missile markets. L3Harris in January 2023 completed a $1.96 billion acquisition of Viasat Inc.’s Tactical Data Links product line. (4/12)

How to Keep Earth From Being Cooked by the Ever-Hotter Sun (Source: Ars Technica)
The warming Sun will increase the Earth’s surface temperature. With higher temperatures, the oceans will evaporate. Since water vapor is an excellent greenhouse gas, more of it in the atmosphere will lead to even greater surface temperatures. Higher temperatures will force the oceans to evaporate even more, setting off a runaway cycle that will quickly see all of the Earth’s abundant surface water floating in our atmosphere.

In raw human-scale numbers, the amount of mass the Sun loses through the solar wind is incredible, roughly 1–2 million metric tons per second. All that fury adds up to one single Earth-mass every 150 million years. We’re gonna need to bump that up a bit.

One way to do this is to simply heat up the Sun's surface, through lasers, particle beams, strong magnetic fields, or whatever mechanism our descendants choose. Heating up the surface would increase the amount of solar wind production, which would increase the rate of solar mass loss. But high-energy particles whizzing out of the Sun is generally counterproductive when it comes to keeping the Earth habitable, so the next challenge is to funnel those particles somewhere safe. Click here. (4/16)

Russian Space Chief Says New Rocket Will Put Falcon 9 Reuse to Shame (Source: Ars Technica)
Russia's once-vaunted launch industry has been much in decline due to a combination of factors, including an aging fleet of rockets, a reduction in government investment, and the country's war in Ukraine driving away Western customers. However, it is has been difficult for the country's leaders to explain these difficult facts to the Russian people. Russians are justifiably proud of their country's heritage of space firsts and dominant position in spaceflight. So typically, officials bluster.

This is what Roscosmos chief Yuri Borisov did recently during a lecture at the Tsiolkovsky State Museum of the History of Cosmonautics. Located south of Moscow, this is the world's first museum devoted solely to spaceflight. Borisov heads the country's main space corporation, and thus is the leader of the country's space activities. (4/16)

SpaceX Starlink Mission Sails Wednesday at Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Florida Today)
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket delivered another 23 Starlink broadband satellites into low-Earth orbit, adding to the company's ever-expanding global constellation. Wednesday's Starlink 6-51 mission bolted into orbit from pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The mission marked the 12th flight for the Falcon 9 first-stage booster, SpaceX reported. The booster landed atop the drone ship Just Read the Instructions out on the Atlantic Ocean. (4/17)

Space Startups are Licking Their Lips After NASA Converts $11B Mars Mission Into a Free-For-All (Source: Tech Crunch)
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has pronounced the agency’s $11 billion, 15-year mission to collect and return samples from Mars insufficient. But the strategy shift could be a huge boon to space startups, to which much of that planned funding will almost certainly be redirected. “The bottom line is, an $11 billion budget is too expensive, and a 2040 return date is too far away,” Nelson said at a press conference. “We need to look outside the box to find a way ahead that is both affordable and returns samples in a reasonable timeframe.”

In other words, clear the decks and start over — with commercial providers on board from the get-go. The Mars Sample Return mission was still in the planning stages, but an independent review of the project last year found that, given budget, technology and other constraints, the mission was unlikely to complete before 2040, and at a cost of $8 billion to $11 billion. Even if NASA wants to assign only half or even a quarter of the original budget to an endeavor led by a commercial space company, private industry has already shown that it can do more with less when compared to legacy outfits.

It’s also catnip for launch companies, since the time horizon is far enough out that heavy launch vehicles like Blue Origin’s New Glenn, Rocket Lab’s Neutron and, of course, SpaceX’s Starship may be cleared to fly when the mission is ready to progress. That was undoubtedly also the plan with the 2040 timeline, but the notional new one is a lot closer to the present. (4/16)

India Makes Big Breakthrough in Boosting Rocket’s Capacity (Source: India Today)
The Indian Space Research Organization has developed a lightweight Carbon-Carbon (C-C) nozzle for rocket engines, which it described as a breakthrough in rocket engine technology. "This innovation accomplished by Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) promises to enhance the vital parameters of rocket engines, including thrust levels, specific impulse, and thrust-to-weight ratios, thereby boosting the payload capacity of launch vehicles," it said in a statement. The VSSC has used advanced materials like Carbon-Carbon (C-C) Composites to create a nozzle divergent that offers exceptional properties, ISRO said. (4/17)

Spaceport Status OK’d for South Florida's Homestead Air Reserve Base (Source: Miami Today)
After both houses of the state legislature unanimously passed a bill in March expanding Florida’s spaceport territory to include Homestead Air Reserve Base, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the bill into law this month. It takes effect July 1. The law also covers a new spaceport at Tyndale Air Force Base in Bay County on the Gulf of Mexico in the Florida Panhandle, 12 miles east of Panama City.

Both fledgling spaceports will be under the jurisdiction of Space Florida, the state’s aerospace finance and development authority. A spaceport coming to Miami-Dade County breaks the state’s northeast monopoly on such facilities. Currently there are three spaceports in the state: Cape Canaveral and the adjacent Space Florida Launch Complex, and the Kennedy Space Center near Orlando. (4/16)

California Coastal Commission Hesitant to Support Increase on SpaceX Launches (Source: Santa Barbara Independent)
On April 10, the California Coastal Commission postponed a decision on SpaceX’s proposal to increase launches at Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB) from six to 36, and landings to 12 annually. Concerns were raised about distinguishing federal and private activities, as well as impacts on residents and the environment.

After a series of public complaints about impacts to wildlife, noise disturbances, marine debris, and public notifications, the commission requested more time to understand the complexities of the situation. The most pressing question in the room was whether all commercial space launches at VSFB can be considered federal activity. (4/16)

What’s the Cheapest Way to the Edge of Space? Ride a Balloon (Source: CNN)
Last week in London, HALO Space CEO Carlos Mira unveiled the interior design for its Aurora space capsule, which his team hopes will transport 10,000 passengers to near-space by 2030. The pressurized capsule – designed by the legendary Frank Stephenson, the automobile designer for Ferrari, Alpha Romeo and more – measures 5 meters wide and 3.5 meters tall and will be suspended from a huge helium balloon.

Eight passengers will be seated inside for journeys lasting up to six hours. The drier and less windy the better, as strong winds and cloudy skies are a big no-no when it comes to offering passengers their once-in-a-lifetime experience. Flights will launch pre-dawn, so that guests can experience a “white” sunrise at the edge of the stratosphere with the deep black of space beyond. Is it worth the multithousand-dollar price tag? That’s up for debate. But it’ll definitely be a morning like no other. (4/16)

NASA Mars Helicopter Sends Last Message to Earth (Source: Space Daily)
NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter has transmitted its final message to Earth and will now serve as an immobile data-gathering unit on the red planet's surface, the space agency said on Tuesday. The tissue box-sized aircraft made history by achieving the first powered flight on another planet after hitching a ride under the belly of the Perseverance rover, which first lifted off the surface on April 19, 2021. (4/17)

ARKA Invests $85 million in Connecticut Facility Expansion (Source: Space Daily)
ARKA Group, L.P. has completed an important expansion of its 550,000 square-foot facility located in Danbury, Connecticut, which also serves as its headquarters. This expansion is focused on enhancing the production capacity for small satellite systems, payloads, and optical coating capabilities. The expansion, encompassing 14,000 additional square feet, includes state-of-the-art cleanrooms designed for the rapid alignment, integration, and testing of sub-meter aperture EO/IR telescopes and payloads.

The new layout maximizes the use of advanced digital engineering and manufacturing tools, boosting ARKA's ability to handle multi-shift payload production efficiently. The facility now includes a specially designed section for applying space-qualified, thin film coatings on optical components, essential for all mission types. (4/17)

AI-Driven Hyperspectral Imaging Breakthrough by Intuition-1 Satellite (Source: Space Daily)
KP Labs has achieved a critical milestone with the successful acquisition and AI processing of hyperspectral images on its Intuition-1 satellite. This new capability offers unprecedented detail in Earth observation, particularly across the equatorial regions, significantly enhancing the potential for scientific and commercial data analysis.

The Intuition-1 satellite, launched via a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in November 2023, embodies a significant leap in space technology with its integration of advanced hyperspectral imaging and onboard AI. This fusion facilitates immediate data processing in orbit, setting a new benchmark for efficiency and functionality in satellite operations. (4/17)

Astronaut Fitness Regimes Critical in Tiangong Space Station (Source: Space Daily)
With China's ambitious plans to expand its space missions, the health of astronauts during prolonged spaceflights has become a vital concern. The state-of-the-art equipment aboard the Tiangong Space Station plays a crucial role in ensuring astronaut safety and health in the absence of gravity.
The China Manned Space Agency recently shared new footage showcasing crew members participating in intense exercise routines aimed at reducing the adverse effects of long-term microgravity exposure.

Astronauts are required to spend one to two hours daily on physical activities to mitigate issues such as muscle atrophy, irregular heart rhythms, and immune system complications. The station's three modules include areas equipped with rowing machines, treadmills, and resistance devices to support these exercises. Innovative wearable uniforms fitted with elastic resistance bands help maintain muscle tension and offset the negative impact of microgravity on the body. (4/17)

Aegis Aerospace Completes Acquisition of ProXopS Assets (Source: Space Daily)
Aegis Aerospace has reported its acquisition of significant assets from ProXopS LLC, a Houston-based engineering services company. Included in the acquisition are subcontracts with Jacobs associated with NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida under the Consolidated Operations, Management, Engineering and Test (COMET) contract, and at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas under the JSC Engineering, Technology, and Science (JETS) II contract. (4/16)