June 21, 2024

Thales, Spire Global, and ESSP Collaborate on Space-Based Air Traffic Surveillance Service (Source: Space Daily)
Thales, Spire Global, and European Satellite Services Provider (ESSP) have signed a Memorandum of Cooperation to introduce global satellite-based surveillance services for the air traffic management industry and broader aviation market. These services will use a constellation of over 100 satellites to collect Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) messages from aircraft and transmit the data back to Earth in real-time. (6/17)

Vyoma Awards Aerospacelab Contract for Second Space Surveillance Satellite (Source: Space Daily)
Vyoma has awarded Aerospacelab a contract to build a microsatellite that will carry Vyoma's second Space Situational Awareness (SSA) optical payload, set for launch by the end of 2025. This mission is part of Vyoma's Flamingo constellation, which aims to deliver low-latency, high-fidelity space-based SSA data through a network of 12 satellites. (6/17)

Frontier Technology Chosen for $1B Military Satellite Software Contract (Source: Space Daily)
Frontier Technology has been selected by the Space Rapid Capabilities Office (Space RCO) as one of twenty companies to compete for the Rapid Resilient Command and Control (R2C2) indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract. This contract aims to develop a next-generation ground software system for military satellites. (6/17)

Preparing ESA's Arctic Weather Satellite for Liftoff (Source: Space Daily)
ESA's Arctic Weather Satellite is set to launch in a few weeks. Currently, the satellite is at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California for final preparations. This mission aims to improve short-term weather forecasts in the Arctic and beyond once the satellite is in orbit. Final preparations, including battery charging, are underway for its launch on the Space-X Falcon 9 Transporter-11 Mission. (6/21)

Iridium Expands Satellite Time and Location Service to Europe and Asia Pacific (Source: Space Daily)
Iridium Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: IRDM), a provider of global voice and data satellite communications, announced the expanded commercial availability of its Satellite Time and Location (STL) service. Iridium partners are now authorized to sell the service in parts of Europe and Asia Pacific. The STL service is designed to protect GNSS systems, like GPS and Galileo, with a signal resistant to spoofing and jamming, ensuring the fidelity of timing systems. Iridium STL is capable of service worldwide, with plans for further geographic expansion. (6/21)

Marsquakes May Help Reveal Whether Liquid Water Exists Underground on Red Planet (Source: Space Daily)
If liquid water exists today on Mars, it may be too deep underground to detect with traditional methods used on Earth. But listening to earthquakes that occur on Mars - or marsquakes - could offer a new tool in the search, according to a team led by Penn State scientists.

When quakes rumble and move through aquifers deep underground, they produce electromagnetic signals. The researchers reported in the journal JGR Planets how those signals, if also produced on Mars, could identify water miles under the surface. The study may lay the groundwork for future analyses of data from Mars missions, according to Nolan Roth. (6/21)

Laying the Foundation for Lunar Base Construction; Elucidating Lunar Soil-Microwave Interactions (Source: Space Daily)
NASA's Artemis program aims to build a lunar base, but transporting construction materials from Earth to the Moon is expensive. To overcome this, researchers are exploring the use of local materials like lunar soil. One method being studied is microwave sintering, which solidifies lunar regolith without melting it. This technique is being developed by NASA, ESA, and the Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology (KICT).

KICT's Future and Smart Construction Research Division, led by Dr. Hyu-Soung Shin, is researching microwave-sintered lunar regolith simulant bricks. These bricks, made from lunar soil simulant, have a strength comparable to concrete. However, understanding the dielectric properties of lunar regolith is crucial for efficient microwave heating. (6/21)

SpaceX Launches SES Satellite at Florida Spaceport (Source: Space News)
SpaceX launched a new broadcast satellite for SES Thursday. A Falcon 9 lifted off at 5:35 p.m. Eastern, after two days of weather delays, and placed the Astra 1P satellite into a geostationary transfer orbit 35 minutes later. Built by Thales Alenia Space, Astra 1P will use electric propulsion to reach its orbital slot at 19.2 degrees East, where it is slated to complete health checks in time for services to start in January. SES currently provides TV services to around 119 million households from four satellites at this orbital slot, mostly in Germany, Spain and France, and Astra 1P has enough Ku-band capacity to replace all four. (6/21)

Rocket Lab Launches First Kinéis Satellites on 50th Electron at New Zealand Spaceport (Source: Space News)
The Electron lifted off from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand at 2:13 p.m. Eastern and placed five smallsats for Kinéis into low Earth orbit. The satellites are the first of a constellation of 25 spacecraft that will provide Internet of Things services. Kinéis signed a contract with Rocket Lab in 2021 for five Electron launches to deploy the constellation. The launch was the 50th for the Electron, which made its debut in May 2017. Rocket Lab says Electron made it to 50 launches faster than any other commercially developed rocket. (6/21)

Astronomers Just Witnessed a Whole Galaxy 'Turn on the Lights' in Real-Time (Source: Mashable)
Scientists for years thought the galaxy SDSS1335+0728 was about as remarkable as its serial code name. Then it did something scientists had never seen a galaxy do: Suddenly, this frankly forgettable space neighborhood 300 million light-years away threw the lights on. That happened nearly five years ago, and it's only gotten brighter since.

Astronomers believe they just bore witness to a supermassive black hole, the sleeping giant at its galactic center, awakening. Previously, no one had seen a black hole rousing as it was happening. (6/18)

10,000 Active Satellites in Orbit (Source: Look Up Space)
Look Up Space announces a major milestone in space history with the passing of the milestone of 10,000 active satellites in orbit this month.  On June 19, 2024, Look Up Space counted 10,019 active satellites, two-thirds of which (6,646) belong to Starlink, the constellation of SpaceX, the company founded by Elon Musk. The majority (9,254) of these satellites are in low-Earth orbits, mainly between 400 and 1,200 kilometers from the Earth.

 Look Up Space also counts nearly 3,200 rocket stages and 13,326 pieces of debris orbiting the Earth. This is just a small fraction of the currently unaccounted-for debris, which is estimated to a number close to a million pieces measuring a centimeter or more in size. (6/20)

Intel Committee Chair Wants More Info on Russia's Space Nuclear Weapon (Source: Space News)
The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee criticized the White House for not providing more information about a Russian space nuclear weapon. Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) revealed the existence of the proposed system in February, which the White House later confirmed while stating that the weapon was not operational. Speaking Thursday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Turner insisted that disclosing more information would not jeopardize sources and methods, arguing it could help deter Russia and inform how the U.S. works with allies on the issue. He also accused the Biden administration of "sleepwalking into an irreversible 'day zero'" where Russia used a nuclear weapon in space and brought an end to the Space Age. (6/21)

Ursa Space Partners with NEC for Japanese SAR Data (Source: Space News)
Ursa Space is partnering with NEC Corporation to provide data services in Japan using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data. Under the agreement, NEC will combine an existing monitoring service with Ursa's "virtual constellation" of satellite data partners. Ursa Space operates a platform that ingests data from a vast network of SAR and non-SAR satellite data providers for geospatial analytics. (6/21)

Space Force Assigns Ursa Space to Deliver Analytics to USINDOPACOM Post-Japanese Disaster (Source: Space Daily)
Ursa Space Systems has completed a U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command (SSC) task order supporting the US Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM) in response to Japan's recent earthquake natural disaster. Ursa Space has provided analysis of commercial space remote sensing data to assess the damage through Operational Planning Products (OPPs). The products supplied include analysis and visual outputs from EO, SAR, RF, and other space-based commercial imagery and data to aid allies and partners. (6/17)

Starlab Picks Palantir for Space Station Digital Twin (Source: Space News)
Starlab Space will work with Palantir Technologies on software capabilities for its commercial space station. Starlab Space announced a strategic partnership with Palantir, using Palantir's AI capabilities for creating a "digital twin" of the Starlab space station. That digital twin will be used to optimize operations of the station, detect potential issues and identify preventative maintenance. (6/21)

JAXA Hit by Cyberattacks (Source: Asahi Shimbun)
The Japanese space agency JAXA has been hit by multiple cyberattacks that extracted thousands of files. The attacks started last June and continued into this year, JAXA said, with hackers able to access more than 10,000 files. JAXA said no sensitive information about national security or launch vehicle technology was accessed, but data from both JAXA and partners like NASA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries may have been obtained. An investigation concluded that a Chinese hacker group was likely involved in the cyberattacks. (6/21)

SpaceX Releases Portable Starlink Terminal (Source: CNBC)
SpaceX has released a portable Starlink terminal. The Starlink Mini terminal is designed to fit in a backpack and uses less power than a standard terminal but can provide downlink speeds of more than 100 megabits per second. SpaceX is selling Starlink Mini for $599 to existing Starlink customers, who would also need to buy a separate $30/month "Mini Roam" service plan. (6/21)

Virgin Galactic to Fly More IIAS Researchers (Source: Virgin Galactic)
Virgin Galactic has signed a contract for a future suborbital research flight. The company said Thursday that it will fly three researchers from the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences (IIAS) on its future Delta suborbital spaceplane. The mission will take place in the first year of operations of the Delta vehicles, scheduled to enter service in 2026. IIAS sponsored the flight of one researcher, Kellie Gerardi, on the Galactic 05 flight of VSS Unity last November. She will be one of the three on the future flight, along with Shawna Pandya and  Norah Patten. (6/21)

NOAA’s Hurricane Hunting GOES-U Satellite Nears SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launch at Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Hurricanes Michael, Dorian, Ian, Nicole and Idalia have all been stared down by one of the NOAA’s most powerful satellites since it took its place in geostationary orbit in late 2017. Its replacement is gearing up for launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy later this month.

The GOES-U satellite is the 19th Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite in the NOAA and NASA partnership since the first one launched in 1975. It’s the fourth and final of the latest version of the satellites. The first three are already parked at more than 22,000 miles altitude and have their wide-view sites set to track tropical weather, fires, lightning and other dangerous weather on Earth.

The final satellite sits in a stark, white clean room at Astrotech Space Operations’ payload processing facility just across the river from Kennedy Space Center. It’s already fueled and awaits encapsulation in a SpaceX fairing before heading to KSC for launch. Liftoff is slated for June 25 at 5:16 p.m. during a two-hour window atop what will be the first Falcon Heavy launch of the year. (6/7)

NASA Awards Vertex $265M Buoyancy Lab Support Contract (Source: GovConWire)
Vertex Aerospace has been awarded a potential 10-year, $265.2 million contract to support the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory at NASA's Johnson Space Center. The contract, which starts on October 1 and includes a two-year base period with five optional extensions, will support astronaut systems essential for astronaut training in the lab's 6.2 million-gallon pool. (6/18)

Earth's Rotating Inner Core is Starting to Slow Down — and it Could Alter the Length of Our Days (Source: LiveScience)
The heart of our planet has been spinning unusually slowly for the past 14 years, new research confirms. And if this mysterious trend continues, it could potentially lengthen Earth's days — though the effects would likely be imperceptible to us. Earth's inner core is a roughly moon-size chunk of solid iron and nickel that lies more than 3,000 miles below our feet. It is surrounded by the outer core — a superhot layer of molten metals similar to those in the inner core — which is surrounded by a more solid sea of molten rock, known as the mantle, and the crust. Although the entire planet rotates, the inner core can spin at a slightly different speed as the mantle and crust due to the viscosity of the outer core. (6/19)

Scientists Discover How Old Jupiter's Great Red Spot Really Is (Source: Mashable)
Centuries ago, a huge red spot on Jupiter vanished. But years later, a new one was born. In newly published research, astronomers sleuthed through historical drawings and early telescope observations of Jupiter to conclude that today's spot is indeed a separate storm from its predecessor, unfittingly known as the "Permanent Spot." It likely disappeared between the mid-18th and 19th centuries. (6/19)

Is an Old NASA Probe About to Redraw the Frontier of the Solar System? (Source: New Scientist)
New Horizons is mainly known for giving us our first proper look at the dwarf planet Pluto in 2015. New Horizons may be poised for a surprise final act. In early 2024, one of its detectors recorded an unexpected uptick in the amount of dust it was encountering. Since that material could have been created in collisions between rock fragments, astronomers now wonder if there are many objects beyond the rubble-strewn Kuiper belt often considered the edge of the solar system. If so, our system’s boundaries will need to be redrawn and our models of how it formed thrown into doubt. (6/19)

How Long Would it Take to Reach Planet 9, if We Ever Find It? (Source: Live Science)
But some astronomers believe Planet Nine could be discovered within the next few years once the state-of-the-art Vera C. Rubin Observatory starts to survey the night sky in late 2025. If Planet Nine is ever detected, space agencies like NASA will want to send a probe to visit the distant world. But first, they will have to plan and get approval for such a mission.

"This will take at least a decade or more," Andreas Hein said. This is mostly because missions have to go through a lengthy and rigorous government selection process, he added. But this process could be sped up depending on how odd the world appears in initial readings, Manasvi Lingam, a theoretical astrobiologist at the Florida Institute of Technology, told Live Science in an email. "If Planet 9 is anomalous in some respect, there could be more interest in expediting such a mission." (6/14)

Confirmed: Strange Debris Found in North Carolina Part of SpaceX Spacecraft (Source: WLOS)
It's official: Debris found littered across several places in Western North Carolina were part of a SpaceX spacecraft that broke apart during re-entry. A statement from NASA Public Affairs on Thursday, June 20, confirmed what many had wondered for weeks. "SpaceX has confirmed the re-entry of Dragon spacecraft trunk hardware to NASA following its service missions to the International Space Station," the news release said. (6/20)

The California Observatory That Changed How We Think About the Universe (Source: SFGate)
On Jan. 1, 1925, astronomer Edwin Hubble completely changed the way we view the universe and our place in it. The discovery came from peering through what was then the world’s largest telescope, located on a remote mountaintop in Angeles National Forest. But Hubble’s major discovery is arguably (at least partially) due to the efforts of a slightly lesser-known astronomer: George Ellery Hale, a man determined to build the largest telescope in the world on a mountain summit high above, of all places, the then-burgeoning city of Los Angeles. (6/19)

GE Aerospace Further Advances Development of Hybrid Electric Engines with NASA (Source: GE Aerospace)
GE Aerospace is developing a hybrid electric demonstrator engine with NASA that will embed electric motor/generators in a high-bypass commercial turbofan to supplement power during different phases of operation.  This includes modifying a Passport engine with hybrid electric components for testing through NASA’s Hybrid Thermally Efficient Core (HyTEC) project. (6/19)