May 17, 2024

Huge Survey vs. Tiny Space Junk (Source: Space Daily)
As construction continues on the Vera Rubin Observatory, the skies above its mountaintop home grow more and more crowded following every rocket launch. Astronomers, conscious of the plans for mega-constellations of new satellites in the next few years, are rightfully worried: will these satellites and the tiny bits of debris that come with every deployment and collision affect the new telescope's long-awaited, gigantic survey? Click here. (5/16) https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Huge_Survey_vs__Tiny_Space_Junk_999.html

Hawaii UH Manoa Researchers Uncover Origins of Life's Building Blocks in Space (Source: Space Daily)
Researchers at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa have made a key discovery about the formation of essential molecules in space, which could provide insights into how life began on Earth. A team from the Department of Chemistry has identified how nitrogen-carrying aromatic molecules can form in space. These molecules are crucial in many chemical and biological processes and are found in compounds like pharmaceuticals, dyes, plastics, and natural products. They are also present in important biomolecules such as amino acids, nucleic acids (DNA and RNA), and vitamins. (5/15)

Magic Lane Secures 3 Million Euro to Enhance Location Intelligence Cpabilities (Source: Space Daily)
Magic Lane, a leader in mapping and location services, has secured a euro 3 million investment to enhance its navigation technologies for micro-mobility and IoT applications. "With this investment, we can truly accelerate our efforts to transform the location industry," explained Raymond Alves of Magic Lane. "With our solutions, we address the evolving needs of the IoT and micro-mobility markets." (5/13)

Australian State Government Makes Biggest Venture Capital Investment Yet — in Space Tourism (Source: ABC.net)
The Victorian government has invested $37 million from its Breakthrough Victoria venture capital fund in a US satellite imagery and space tourism company. The company, Arizona-based World View, is selling tickets for near-space tourist flights from the Great Barrier Reef but has yet to receive approval for that venture. The investment represents the fund's biggest bet and came via an announcement made just days before Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas released the state budget.

According to Breakthrough Victoria, its $37 million investment in World View will see the company establish its Indo-Pacific headquarters in Melbourne and set up an advanced manufacturing facility in Victoria, creating up to 200 jobs in engineering, mission control and flight operations, and data and material sciences. (5/15)

Robotic “SuperLimbs” Could Help Moonwalkers Recover From Falls (Source: MIT News)
“We want to provide a safe way for astronauts to get back on their feet if they fall.” Harry Asada and his colleagues are designing a pair of wearable robotic limbs that can physically support an astronaut and lift them back on their feet after a fall. The system, which the researchers have dubbed Supernumerary Robotic Limbs or “SuperLimbs” is designed to extend from a backpack, which would also carry the astronaut’s life support system, along with the controller and motors to power the limbs. (5/15)

Russia Launched Research Spacecraft for Antisatellite Nuclear Weapon Two Years Ago, U.S. Officials Say (Source: Wall Street Journal)
Russia launched a satellite into space in February 2022 that is designed to test components for a potential antisatellite weapon that would carry a nuclear device, U.S. officials said. The satellite that was launched doesn’t carry a nuclear weapon. But U.S. officials say it is linked to a continuing Russian nuclear antisatellite program that has been a growing worry for the Biden administration, Congress and experts outside the government in recent months. The weapon, if deployed, would give Moscow the ability to destroy hundreds of satellites in low Earth orbit with a nuclear blast. (5/16)

The Billionaire Space Race Is About to Heat Up Again (Source: Robb Report)
Blue Origin’s resumption of commercial flights—rumored to cost anywhere between $200,000 and the $28 million one civilian astronaut supposedly paid for the initial flight—means the space race between Jeff Bezos’s company and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic is finally getting serious. Blue Origin announced that it will be launching a rocket this Sunday, ending a nearly two-year drought.

Virgin Galactic says it will be launching its seventh commercial flight aboard its supersonic aircraft VSS Unity on June 7. Unity will be tethered to a larger mothership, Eve. The two aircraft take off together and separate at 45,000 feet, at which point Unity heads skywards. This would be Virgin Atlantic’s seventh space-tourism flight after it officially launched its commercial flight program last year.  (5/15)

AST Shares Soar After AT&T Deal (Source: Space News)
Shares in AST SpaceMobile soared after the company announced a deal with AT&T for direct-to-device services. The company's shared closed up 68% Thursday, a day after the company reported a definitive agreement with AT&T to provide services until 2030 using the company's upcoming satellite constellation. AST SpaceMobile did not provide details about the agreement but said it did not come with additional prepayment revenue on top of the $20 million AT&T agreed to make in January. The company projects its first five commercial satellites will launch in July or August, which it says will provide "nationwide, noncontinuous" service in the United States. (5/17)

Omnispace Says Starlink Direct-to-Device Service Interferes with Its Satellites (Source: Space News)
Omnispace says it now has evidence that Starlink direct-to-device payloads interfere with its satellites. At a conference panel Thursday, an Omnispace executive said those Starlink payloads, using terrestrial spectrum from T-Mobile, generate noise that interferes with transmissions with its satellites using a mobile satellite services spectrum assignment. SpaceX has started to ramp up deployment of Starlink satellites with direct-to-device payloads, launching 26 since last week. Omnispace had previously warned the FCC that the SpaceX/T-Mobile plans would cause interference. FCC regulations adopted in March treat direct-to-device services using terrestrial spectrum as secondary to primary satellite spectrum allocations. (5/17)

NASA and ESA Finalize ExoMars Cooperation Agreement (Source: Space News)
NASA and ESA have finalized an agreement about NASA's contributions to ESA's ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover mission. The agencies signed an agreement Thursday where NASA will provide thrusters, radioisotope heating units and launch services for the mission, scheduled for launch in late 2028. The NASA contributions replace components previously provided by Roscosmos before ESA halted cooperation when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. NASA's fiscal year 2025 budget proposal projected spending $339 million on the Rosalind Franklin mission through fiscal year 2029. (5/17)

Inversion Space Proposes In-Space Depot for DoD (Source: Space News)
Startup Inversion Space is offering the Defense Department "warehouses in space" for rapid delivery of cargo. The company says it has plans to store cargo in space that could be landed any place on Earth within an hour using return capsules it is developing. The company is launching its first demonstration mission as soon as this fall to test its reentry technologies. The company declined to disclose specific customers but the U.S. Air Force is a clear potential adopter. (5/17)

Russia Launches Classified Satellite (Source: Russian Space Web)
Russia launched a classified payload Thursday. A Soyuz-2.1b rocket lifted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome at 5:21 p.m. Eastern carrying multiple satellites. Russian officials did not disclose additional details about the payloads. The trajectory of the launch originally suggested that it carried a Bars-M military cartography satellite, but later information now indicates the launch carried a different, unspecified payload. (5/17)

Commerce Dept. Extends Pathfinder for Space Traffic Coordination (Source: Office of Space Commerce)
The Office of Space Commerce is extending a commercial pathfinder program for its space traffic coordination project. The office said Thursday it is extending agreements with five companies providing space situational awareness data and services by a month, through the end of June. The extension brings the combined value of the awards made earlier this year to $15.5 million. The contracts are a part of an effort by the office to test the ability to incorporate commercial data into its planned Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS) project. (5/17)

NASA and South Korea Explore Increased Space Cooperation (Source: Yonhap)
NASA officials see prospects for greater space cooperation with South Korea. At an event Thursday at South Korea's embassy in Washington, agency officials said they expect more opportunities for South Korea to collaborate on NASA science missions. The Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute is supporting SPHEREx, a NASA astrophysics mission in development for launch next year. (5/17)

NASA Again the Best Federal Employer (Source: NASA)
NASA's streak continues as the best place to work among government agencies. NASA ranked first among large agencies in the annual survey by the Partnership for Public Service released Thursday. NASA has held the top spot for 12 consecutive years. (5/17)

"One Small Step" Grant Program Seeks to Support Historic Preservation (Source: Space 3.0)
“One Small Step” grants are designed to fill gaps in the area of space history. Applications from individuals and organizations are accepted throughout the year, whenever the need presents. We seek proposals where up to $2,500 could make a real difference—ideas such as digitizing historical documents, collecting an oral history, creating podcasts, or filling gaps at the Space Business & Commerce Archives. Click here. (5/17)

Astronomers Found New Earth-Sized Planet Where Days and Nights are Never-Ending (Source: WION)
Astronomers have detected a new Earth-sized planet, which is just 55 light-years away. It is orbiting an ultra-cool red dwarf star. The discovery is published in Nature Astronomy. The international team of astronomers revealed that the planet is only the second of its kind to be discovered around this type of star.

The star, known as SPECULOOS-3 b, takes approximately 17 hours to complete an orbit, meaning a year on the planet is shorter than a single Earth day. It is more than twice as cold as our sun. The astronomers said that it is ten times less massive and one hundred times less luminous. As per the discovery, days and nights on SPECULOOS-3 b are endless. (5/15)

TaxWatch Group Identifies Questionable Space Spending in Florida Budget (Source: Florida Today)
A Florida watchdog group sniffed out three projects in Brevard County totaling more than $6.2 million, among 450 state appropriations this year worth $854.6 million, that were bypassed normal legislative procedures. The group deems these items "Budget Turkeys." Two of the "turkeys" are for Space Coast aerospace projects: $5 million to the Florida Institute of Technology for "a university aerospace assured engineering and educational laboratory", and $650,000 for restorations associated with the historic lighthouse on the Cape Canaveral Spaceport.

This year's state budget once again has a record number of local member projects — more than 1,600 projects worth about $2.8 billion, Florida TaxWatch's report notes. "This marks the third year in a row that the budget contained at least $2.8 billion in member projects." TaxWatch annually urges the state's governor to veto items identified as turkeys. (5/16)

Swedish Space Corporation and Perigee Aerospace Join Forces for Satellite Launches from Esrange (Source: Techarenan)
In a recent collaboration, the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) and Perigee Aerospace Inc. announced plans to launch satellites from Esrange Space Center in Sweden starting in 2025. Using Perigee’s two-stage rocket, two hundred kilograms is the utmost weight that can be launched into a Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO) at an altitude of 500 km.

By teaming up, SSC and Perigee aim to offer shared payload space onboard the rocket for both companies’ customer bases. This service could be further bolstered by SSC’s global satellite ground station network and additional space-to-ground services. (5/15)

Profile on Space Florida President Robert Long (Source: Florida Trend)
Robert Long, a retired Space Force colonel, was hired last September as president and CEO of Space Florida, the state’s aerospace economic development arm. Long spent most of his military career in the U.S. Air Force. At Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, he commanded Space Launch Delta 30, which oversees the Western Launch and Test Range and is responsible for all space launch operations from the West Coast. He spoke with Florida Trend about continuing Space Florida’s emphasis on infrastructure and financial tools to attract aerospace companies, and about planning for a future in space that was once limited to the pages of science fiction. Click here. (5/9)

Proliferation Provides Space Force Resilience, New Challenges (Source: National Defense)
The Space Force is shifting to orbital architectures made up of many small satellites instead of a few larger, more exquisite systems. These proliferated constellations provide several benefits but also pose new questions the service is trying to answer. Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman said the primary benefit of proliferation is increased resilience.

“If it only takes me five satellites to perform a mission, that’s not very many targets for an adversary to think about,” Saltzman said at the Space Foundation’s Space Symposium. “But if we proliferate that out to hundreds of satellites performing that [mission], it changes the attack calculus substantially.” However, this approach creates challenges as well, such as figuring out how to get different companies’ satellites to share data with each other, said Col. Rob Davis, Space Systems Command’s program executive officer for space sensing. (5/16)

Space Force Plan to Build 7 New Telescopes Atop Haleakala Draws Strong Opposition (Source: Hawaii News Now)
The military’s proposal to build up to seven new telescopes on the summit of Haleakala is drawing stiff opposition, especially from Native Hawaiians. The Department of the Air Force concluded a series of three scoping meetings as it prepares a draft Environmental Impact Statement on the project, known as AMOS STAR — short for the Air Force Maui Optical and Supercomputing Site Small Telescope Advanced Research Facility.

It would require the construction of up to seven new telescopes and an optics lab on about an acre of land near the current Maui Space Surveillance Complex. A meeting Wednesday night in Kihei drew hundreds, with virtually everyone who spoke opposed to the idea.

“Tonight I want to reject your so-called alternatives that really leave no real alternative, and instead outright disrespect the principle of consent. That is, when we say no, it means no,” one woman told the gathering. “That mauna is my grandmother. That mauna is my family,” a man said. “This project is not merely about stars and satellites,” another woman said. “It is a continuation of settled colonial projects.” (5/16)

UCF Researcher Is Developing Algorithms to Further Space, Sea Exploration (Source: UCF Today)
“Cislunar space is vast,” says Tarek Elgohary, an associate professor of aerospace engineering. “The current SDA infrastructure, which is mostly Earth-based, is not equipped to provide the needed coverage in cislunar space. There is a need for fast and accurate solutions to quantify uncertainties to improve predictions and provide SDA information in the absence of continuous coverage.”

Elgohary and his team will develop those solutions with the support of a $350,000 grant from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research Dynamic Data and Information Processing Program. They will create a computational framework to rapidly and accurately track space objects in real time, onboard spacecraft or satellites like the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Oracle, which is designed to increase SDA capabilities in cislunar space. The algorithms will allow Oracle and other spacecraft to operate autonomously without intervention from Earth. (5/15)