May 20, 2024

Decoding SpaceX’s Ever-Changing Plans for Starship in Florida (Source: Ars Technica)
SpaceX finally appears to be cementing its plans to launch Starship from Florida. These plans have changed quite a bit in the last five years. The environmental reviews will culminate in a decision on whether to approve SpaceX's proposals for Starship launches at LC-39A and SLC-37. The FAA will then go through a separate licensing process, similar to the framework used to license the first three Starship test launches from South Texas.

NASA has contracts with SpaceX worth more than $4 billion to develop a human-rated version of Starship to land astronauts on the Moon on the first two Artemis lunar landing flights later this decade. To do that, SpaceX must stage a fuel depot in low-Earth orbit to refuel the Starship lunar lander before it heads for the Moon. It will take a series of Starship tanker flights—perhaps 10 to 15—to fill the depot with cryogenic propellants. Launching that many Starships over the course of a month or two will require SpaceX to alternate between at least two launch pads.

NASA and SpaceX officials say the best way to do this is by launching Starships from one pad in Texas and another in Florida. Officially, SpaceX plans to perform a dress rehearsal for the Starship lunar landing in late 2025. This will be a full demonstration, with refueling missions, an uncrewed landing of Starship on the lunar surface, then a takeoff from the Moon, before NASA commits to putting people on Starship on the Artemis III mission, currently slated for September 2026. So you can see that schedules are already tight for the Starship lunar landing demonstration if SpaceX activates launch pads in Florida late next year. (5/20)

Amazon’s Project Kuiper Satellite Network Sets Up Logistics Site and Training Program (Source: GeekWire)
Amazon says it’s establishing a logistics facility in Everett, Wash., and partnering with a technical college in Kirkland, Wash., to boost the supply chain and workforce pipeline for its Project Kuiper satellite broadband network.

Project Kuiper is Amazon’s $10 billion effort to build and launch more than 3,000 satellites that will offer high-speed internet access to tens of millions of people around the world. The project already employs more than 2,000 people at Puget Sound locations, including a 172,000-square-foot satellite factory in Kirkland and a 219,000-square-foot research and development facility in Redmond, Wash. (5/14)

Space Force Prepares for Space Reserve (Source: Space News)
The Space Force is preparing to roll out a program to more tightly integrate commercial capabilities into military units. Col. Richard Kniseley, senior materiel leader of the Space Systems Command's Commercial Space Office, said Friday that the first contracts for the Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve (CASR) could be awarded later this year.  Under CASR, private sector equipment will be embedded into military units, used in both training exercises and actual operations. Participating companies would receive funding as well as access to threat intelligence, a valuable asset in a rapidly evolving space landscape. (5/20)

China Launches Four Imaging Satellites (Source: Space News)
China launched four high-resolution Earth observation satellites late Sunday. A Long March 2D rocket lifted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center at 11:06 p.m. Eastern and placed the four satellites into their planned sun-synchronous orbits. The four Beijing-3C satellites, built by the China Academy of Space Technology, are part of a Chinese commercial Earth observation constellation operated by Twenty First Century Aerospace Technology Co. Ltd. (5/20)

SpaceX Starlink Available in Indonesia (Source: AP)
Elon Musk traveled to Indonesia to formally inaugurate Starlink service in the country. Musk met with Indonesian ministers in Bali Sunday to mark the beginning of Starlink internet services in the country, a few weeks after Indonesian government officials said they would soon grant a license for Starlink. Musk also signed an agreement to use Starlink to enhance connectivity for health and education in Indonesia, but neither the company nor the government disclosed details about that agreement. (5/20)

NASA's Glaze Detailed to Lead Exploration Directorate (Source: NASA)
The head of NASA's planetary science division is moving temporarily to the agency's exploration directorate. NASA said Friday that Lori Glaze will take a six-month detail as acting deputy associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate. Glaze has been head of the planetary sciences division for six years. She will be replaced temporarily by Gina DiBraccio, deputy director of the heliophysics science division at the Goddard Space Flight Center. (5/20)

Alabama Team Wins American Rocketry Challenge (Source: WFXG)
Alabama's Tharptown High School is this year's winner of the American Rocketry Challenge, taking home the $20,000 top prize and gaining entry to the International Rocketry Challenge at the Farnborough Air Show. "What an incredible day for all 100 teams who competed today; it's clear we are witnessing the ascent of the next generation of aerospace innovators," said Aerospace Industries Association President and CEO Eric Fanning. (5/19)

Hera Tests CubeSat Communication for Asteroid Mission (Source: Space Daily)
The Juventas CubeSat, equipped with radar, is partially deployed from its Hera mission mothership inside ESA's Maxwell chamber for electromagnetic compatibility testing. The foam pyramids around Hera absorb radio signals, while the Maxwell chamber's 9-m high metal walls block external radio interference. This space mimics the void of space, allowing the Hera team to validate the spacecraft's interaction with its CubeSats through its Low Gain Antenna, while maintaining contact with Earth through its High Gain Antenna. (5/20)

Orbex Partners with MSP for Automated Component Production (Source: Space Daily)
Orbex has announced a partnership with MSP to enhance the automation of component production for its orbital launch services from the UK. MSP will supply technology to automate the production of components for Orbex's orbital launch services, aiding in the company's preparations for its first launch. Based in North East England, MSP aims to optimize CNC machine productivity by automating key areas of the machining process. (5/20)

Ariane 6 Will Launch 3D Printing Technology Into Space (Source: Space Daily)
Europe's newest rocket, Ariane 6, is set to launch, carrying multiple space missions. One notable mission is Replicator, a project by Orbital Matter, which will demonstrate new 3D printing technology in space. The Replicator mission, a collaboration between Warsaw, Poland, and Berlin, Germany-based startup Orbital Matter, aims to show how 3D printing can be used in orbit, potentially enabling the creation of new space structures with fewer resources. (5/20)

Want to Buy SpaceX Stock? You Have to Know Someone (Source: Wall Street Journal)
SpaceX has become one of the investing world’s most exclusive clubs. Invites circulate via group chats, word of mouth and emails marked confidential. Investment vehicles providing access to Elon Musk’s closely held rocket and satellite company have generated hefty demand, and fees for those arranging them. For years, the company’s value has only gone in one direction—up. (5/19)

Ed Dwight "Ecstatic" at Finally Reaching Space (Source: Space Policy Online)
Ed Dwight, who went through training in the early days of the space program that he thought would make him NASA’s first black astronaut, fulfilled his dream of seeing Earth from space today. At 90, he was one of the six passengers on Blue Origin’s New Shepard-25 mission, the first flight with people on board since a failure in 2022. Today’s flight was successful and landed safely even though one of the three parachutes did not fully inflate. (5/19)

China Focus: China Builds Radar Network to Support Global Space Weather Forecast (Source: Xinhua)
China has built a mid-latitude high-frequency radar network in the country's northern regions to provide high-quality detection data for global space weather forecast and warning. The first batch of scientific detection results of the network was released at an international workshop of the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN), which opened in Beijing on Monday.

The network, constructed by the National Space Science Center (NSSC) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was completed in October 2023. It's also a part of the second phase of China's Meridian Project, a space weather monitoring network comprising ground-based stations. (5/20)

Zebrafish on China's Space Station in Good Condition (Source: Xinhua)
The four zebrafish kept on China's Tiangong space station, which is orbiting about 400 km above Earth, are currently in good condition, experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) said Sunday. The experts revealed details of the latest developments concerning the country's first in-orbit aquatic ecological research project at a public science day event in Beijing.

On April 25, along with the three astronauts aboard the Shenzhou-18 manned spacecraft, four zebrafish and four grams of goldfish algae went into space, and these have been used to establish a self-cycling aquatic ecosystem in orbit, making a breakthrough in the field of raising of vertebrates in space. (5/19)