May 6, 2024

Starlink Service Coming to Indonesia (Source: Antara)
SpaceX's Starlink will soon be available in Indonesia. A government minister said on Friday that SpaceX had completed the paperwork needed for a license to provide Starlink services in the country, with a formal rollout planned "as soon as possible" and likely in the next two weeks. Indonesia is one of the most populous countries where Starlink is not yet available, and the service will be used to provide connectivity in remote areas not served by other providers. (5/6)

Air Force Testing Multi-Network Terminal (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Air Force is preparing to test the ability of a single terminal to seamlessly communicate with both government and commercial satellites. The test will showcase newly developed communications terminals capable of tapping into multiple commercial and military satellite constellations at the same time while meeting security requirements, a capability the Pentagon currently lacks. It is a key milestone in the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Defense Experimentation Using Commercial Space Internet, or DEUCSI, a program launched in 2018 to explore augmenting military communications by leveraging the growing commercial satellite internet industry. (5/6)

China's Chang'e-6 Mission Includes a Lunar Rover (Source: Space News)
A Chinese lunar sample return mission has a surprise payload: a rover. Images of the Chang'e-6 spacecraft that launched Friday showed a small rover attached to its side. Little is known about the rover, but it is mentioned in a post from the Shanghai Institute of Ceramics (SIC) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), suggesting it carries an infrared imaging spectrometer. It is not clear how the rover will descend to the surface or how it will communicate with the lander. (5/6)

Florida Tech Grad Suni Williams Returning to ISS on Starliner (Source: Florida Today)
What were the odds? NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Joan Higginbotham floated side-by-side operating the International Space Station's robotic arm in December 2006 — after both had earned master's degrees from the Florida Institute of Technology. Now Higginbotham is rooting for her friend and fellow alumnae as Williams prepares to make history by returning to the orbiting outpost aboard the first crewed flight of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft. (5/4)

Organizations Aim for a More Diverse Space Workforce (Source: Fast Company)
Nonprofit Aerospace Corp.'s Space Workforce 2030 is teaming with the Space Foundation to attract more diverse talent into the industry, and their first collaboration is a 45-minute livestream to more than 7,000 classes of fourth- and fifth-graders to mark National Space Day. The Space Workforce 2030 program spans from early education through university and employment, including a National Space Intern program and partnerships with 29 space companies. (5/2)

Russia Operating in VLEO (Source: Final Frontier Flash)
Russia has been operating one of its suspected imagery satellites, Cosmos-2568, below an altitude of 300km since 27 July 2023. For the past 2+ months Cosmos-2568 has maintained a Semi Major Axis (SMA) between 284.3 and 282.8kms. Space operators often refer to any orbit between 150-300km as Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO). Operating at these altitudes subjects the spacecraft to increased interaction with the Earth’s atmosphere and requires increased propulsion to prevent rapid orbital decay. Operating at these lower altitudes does have its benefits...primarily reducing the distance to the Earth’s surface for maximum imagery resolution from Cosmos-2568's suspected sensor. (4/29)

Adventures in VLEO (Source: Final Frontier Flash)
Operating at lower altitudes, especially those lower than 300km, gives operators a big focus item—atmospheric drag. Check out my “It’s a Drag” article in last issue for a good review. Attentiveness to orbit state and just how fast the atmosphere is reeling in a satellite is the norm of operators who must activate propulsive capability to raise perigee via delta V’s at apogee. There are benefits to being a lot closer to the Earth, distance reduced and thus maximum imagery resolution.

There have been several space missions in the past 10-15 years that operated in VLEO. ESA’s Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer was operational from March 2009 to November 2013. It needed to be close to the Earth to achieve its gravity mapping endeavor and orbited the Earth at 255km. In 2017, the Japan Space Agency flew its Super Low Altitude Test satellite for 2 years starting at 271km and then working their way down to 167km. They used an ion thruster and some traditional propulsion to manage their darn low orbit! They even got a Guiness Book of Records accolade for the 167km orbit, lowest ever. (5/4)

Radioisotope Thermoradiative Cells: Advancing Power Generation for Outer Planet Missions (Source: Space Daily)
Operating like a solar cell in reverse, the thermoradiative cell (TRC) converts heat from a radioisotope source into infrared light which is sent off into the cold universe. In this process, electricity is generated. In our Phase I study, we showed 8 W of electrical power is possible from the 62.5 W Pu-238 pellet from a general purpose heat source using a 0.28 eV bandgap TRC operating at 600 K. The necessary array includes 1,125 cm of TRC emitters, or just over 50% of the surface area of a 6U cubesat. (5/2)

SES Headquarters to Remain in Luxembourg (Source: RTL Today)
In the wake of the announcement regarding the acquisition of its competitor IntelSat by Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES, it has been confirmed that the company's headquarters will continue to be situated in Luxembourg. SES's announcement on Tuesday that it was taking over its rival IntelSat did not arouse any particular enthusiasm on the stock markets. (5/3)

Wenchang Space Launch Site in Hainan Province Attracts Space Enthusiasts (Source: CGTN)
With frequent rocket launches taking place in Wenchang, a city in China's Hainan Province, an increasing number of tourists and space enthusiasts are attracted to the tropical island. Many gathered for the launch of the Chang'e-6 lunar probe from the Wenchang Space Launch Site in southern China's Hainan Province on Friday. Carried by a Long March 5 carrier rocket, it successfully entered the Earth-Moon transfer orbit. Shaopeng reports.

On the eve of the launch the Wenchang Aerospace Science Popularization Center organized a science carnival, inviting space experts and visitors for face-to-face exchanges. The center was bustling with people during the rocket launch, as enthusiasm for space tourism soars. On the day of the rocket launch alone, Wenchang drew nearly 80,000 tourists. Over the past two years, Longlou, a town with a population of less than 30,000, has received over 1.5 million visitors, a key driver of consumption. (5/5)

How a NASA Probe Solved a Scorching Solar Mystery (Source: Quanta)
Observing the sun from afar wasn’t good enough for us to grasp what heats the corona. To solve this and other mysteries, we needed a sun-grazing space probe. That spacecraft — NASA’s Parker Solar Probe — launched in 2018. As it loops around the sun, dipping in and out of the solar corona, it has collected data that shows us how small-scale magnetic activity within the solar atmosphere makes the solar corona almost inconceivably hot. Click here. (4/29)

Seven Ways ESA Has Cut its Environmental Footprint (Source: ESA)
ESA is committed to almost halve its greenhouse gas emissions linked to energy consumption by 2025 compared to 2019 levels. But how can ESA keep accelerating the use of space for the sustainable development of society while reducing its emissions? With eight establishments across Europe, a spaceport in French Guiana and tracking stations all over the world, ESA has plenty of opportunities. Here are some of its big achievements in greenhouse gas reduction. (5/3)

Exolaunch’s EXOpod Nova to Deploy Cubesats From Ariane 6 (Source: ESA)
Europe’s newest rocket soon launches, taking with it many space missions each with a unique objective, destination and team at home, cheering them on. The EXOpod Nova deployer will carry four CubeSats into space. EXOpod Nova, the size of compact carry-on luggage, will be placed on the Ariane 6 upper stage payload adapter. Crafted from durable yet lightweight aluminium, this deployer can securely house up to 16 units worth of CubeSats, while the deployer itself weighs less than 14 kg without them. (5/3)