July 1, 2024

PLD Space invests 10 million euros in MIURA 5 Launch Complex in French Guiana (Source: PLD Space)
The launcher company PLD Space has announced today an investment of 10 million euros in MIURA 5 Launch Complex at Guiana Space Center (CSG), Europe’s spaceport in Kourou (French Guiana), owned by the French Space Agency (CNES) and the European Space Agency (ESA). With the first launch of its rocket at the end of 2025, PLD Space will become the first non-institutional launch operator that will go to orbit from this historical base. (6/24)

Leidos Supports NASA Cargo Missions (Source: GovConWire)
NASA has awarded Leidos a potential five-year, $476.5 million contract to provide analytical and physical processing services for the International Space Station, Artemis, and other programs. The contract includes engineering, operations support, maintenance, hardware development and equipment modification. (6/28)

Northrop Grumman Tech Speeds Satellite Production (Source: Space Daily)
Northrop Grumman's integrated manufacturing infrastructure and digital ecosystem accelerate the production and deployment of space systems, meeting the urgent demand for high-volume satellites on shortened timelines to address evolving threats. "Priority shifts in the space domain have required high-volume satellites on shortened timelines," said Murali Krishnan, vice president and general manager, payload and ground systems. "With significant investments in how we manufacture, and a close partnership with our customer, we've been able to do both." (7/1)

LiveEO Raises €25 Million to Leverage AI and Satellite Data for Infrastructure and Climate Risk Management (Source: LiveEO)
LiveEO uses high-resolution satellite data and proprietary AI-powered algorithms to generate accurate, timely, and actionable insights that help critical infrastructure operators manage climate risks and resilience. The platform already helps customers from Europe, US, Japan and Australia detect and respond to critical events in real-time as well as predictive monitoring and management of environmental risks. The recent funding round follows LiveEO’s tripling growth in 2023 and will accelerate the development of its cutting-edge solutions. (6/25)

Leaf Space Enables Sateliot To Scale Without Significant Capex In The Ground Segment (Source: Sateliot)
Sateliot, the first company to operate a low-Earth orbit (LEO) nanosatellite constellation with 5G IoT standards and that extends coverage of Mobile Telecom Operators to any place in the planet, has successfully integrated its satellite communication stack with Leaf Space’s Ground Segment as a Service (GSaaS) Network. This milestone is crucial for the upcoming Transporter-11 mission by SpaceX, during which Sateliot will launch four new 6U satellites to further global 5G IoT connectivity. (6/26)

Polish Rocket will be Tested in Norway in July (Source: Lukasiewicz)
The ILR-33 AMBER 2K suborbital rocket can reach the speed of nearly 1.4 km/s and is intended to test technologies for the space industry and allow scientific research. The solutions used in it are pioneering. The ILR-33 AMBER 2K rocket is equipped with an innovative hybrid rocket motor and solid propulsion, as well as a number of modern technologies that can be used in other rocket systems. These include the OBC-K1 modular on-board computer, EGG1U pyrotechnic cartridges, pyrotechnic valves and the WR-2 mobile autonomous launcher. (6/28)

Value of Aerospace, Defense, Security and Space Sectors to UK Economy Increased 50% in Last 10 Years (Source: ADS Group)
2024 Facts and Figures report from ADS Group highlights that aerospace, defence security and space added £38.2bn to the UK economy last year
Employment in the sector is up almost a third in the last 10 years, with two thirds of jobs based outside of London. Exports increased 32% between 2013 and 2023 to total £38.7bn. Productivity is 42% higher than the UK average, and has increased 16% since 2013 Concurrent launch of Aerospace and Defence sector outlooks showcases significant socioeconomic prosperity of the sectors. (6/26)

TelOne Panics, Turns to Eutelsat OneWeb to Counter Starlink (Source: The Standard)
TELOne Zimbabwe has partnered British-based global low-earth orbit satellite communications network firm, Eutelsat OneWeb, for internet service, as it buttresses its base ahead of the debut of Starlink on the local scene. Eutelsat OneWeb is a subsidiary of the French-based satellite operator, the Eutelsat Group. The partnership comes as Starlink announced last month that it would begin operating locally in the third quarter of 2024. (6/30)

Scientists Find Desert Moss ‘That Can Survive on Mars’ (Source: Guardian)
Scientists in China say they have found Syntrichia caninervis – a moss found in regions including Antarctica and the Mojave desert – is able to withstand Mars-like conditions, including drought, high levels of radiation and extreme cold. The team say their work is the first to look the survival of whole plants in such an environment, while it also focuses on the potential for growing plants on the planet’s surface, rather than in greenhouses. (6/30)

Starliner Tests to Continue on ISS, No Return Date Set (Source: Space News)
NASA and Boeing are keeping the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft at the International Space Station for the foreseeable future to conduct more tests. In a briefing Friday, officials said they have not set a new departure date for Starliner, which has been at the station since June 6, because they want to perform ground tests of thrusters to better understand why some were shut down during the spacecraft's approach to the station. Those tests will take at least two weeks, and could be followed by more tests of the thrusters on Starliner itself.

Those officials emphasized that NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who flew to the station on Starliner, are not "stranded" there and that the spacecraft could return them safely in the event of an emergency. They said they are extending the mission to collect more data, particularly from the service module that is not recovered after the mission. NASA also announced at that briefing that an ISS spacewalk that was scheduled for this week has been postponed to late July while they study a water leak during a scrubbed spacewalk last week. (7/1)

Yahsat Picks SaceX to Launch Two Satellites (Source: Space News)
Yahsat has selected SpaceX to launch a pair of communications satellites. Yahsat announced Monday that it awarded a contract to SpaceX for the Falcon 9 launches of Al Yah 4 and 5 in 2027 and 2028, respectively. The geostationary broadband satellites are being built by Airbus under a contract finalized last month. The UAE government awarded Yahsat a $5.1 billion contract last year to provide communications services until at least 2043 using those two satellites, which will cost $1.1 billion to build and launch. (7/1)

Dragon Trunk Reentry Alternatives Studied to Reduce Debris Risks (Source: Space News)
NASA and SpaceX are studying ways to change reentry procedures to mitigate debris from reentering Dragon trunk sections. Those sections, which are currently jettisoned from the Dragon capsule before the capsule does its deorbit burn, reenter months later in an uncontrolled fashion, and large pieces of debris from them have been found in several locations. One change being studied would be to release the trunk after the deorbit burn in order to provide a more controlled reentry of the trunk and ensure that any debris falls in the ocean. (7/1)

H3 Succeeds with Launch of Earth Observation Satellite (Source: Space News)
An H3 rocket launched a Japanese Earth science satellite Sunday night. The H3 lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center at 11:06 p.m. Eastern and deployed the Advanced Land Observing Satellite-4 (ALOS-4) into a sun-synchronous orbit. ALOS-4, built by prime contractor Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, carries a phased array type L-band synthetic aperture radar that is an improvement over the one on ALOS-2. The launch was the second successful flight of the H3 after a launch in February that carried a test payload and two smallsats. The inaugural launch of the rocket last year, carrying ALOS-3, failed. (7/1)

Asteroid Project Wins Schweickart Prize (Source: Space News)
A proposal to observe asteroids close to the sun has won a prize. The B612 Foundation announced Friday it awarded the inaugural Schweickart Prize to Joseph DeMartini, an astronomy graduate student at the University of Maryland, for a concept to perform twilight observations to detect near Earth asteroids that are closer to the sun than the Earth. Such asteroids are difficult to observe and thus pose a challenge to efforts to find potentially hazardous asteroids. The $10,000 prize, named after B612 founder and Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweickart, includes access to a network of people and organizations that could help carry out his proposal. (7/1)

EarthCARE Satellite Sheds Light on Clouds (Source: ESA)
A new Earth science satellite has returned the first views of structures inside clouds. ESA and JAXA said last week that the cloud profiling radar instrument, part of the EarthCARE satellite launched in late May, is working well and provided the first views of the interior of clouds. The radar is designed to monitor the concentration and velocities of particles in clouds, helping scientists understand their dynamics. The first data from three other instruments on EarthCARE will be released in the coming weeks and months. (7/1)

Contest to Put Indian Researcher on Blue Origin Suborbital Flight (Source: The Hindu)
An organization has announced a contest to fly an Indian on a Blue Origin suborbital flight. The Space Exploration and Research Agency (SERA) said Monday it will offer a seat on a future New Shepard flight through a contest. Indians can register for the contest online for a $2.50 fee, with a three-phase voting process to follow to select the winning person. SERA, formerly known as the Crypto Space Agency, announced a similar contest last month to fly a Nigerian to space. SERA says it is seeking to fly people from "underrepresented countries" on New Shepard, although the previous flight of the vehicle in May included an Indian among its crew. (7/1)

Bill Signed to Expand Space Florida Territory (Source: Space Florida)
Space Florida thanked Governor Ron DeSantis for signing Senate Bill 968 into law, as well as Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Nuñez, who serves as the Chair of the Space Florida board of directors. "This legislative change, effective July 1, 2024, reflects our commitment to establishing Florida as the premier global and interplanetary capital for aerospace commerce. Through investment into these strategic locations, we will continue to bolster the aerospace ecosystem across the entire state of Florida by bringing companies together and providing access to essential resources, shared knowledge, and innovative ideas." (7/1)

PLD Space Offers Free Access to Space on First Two MIURA 5 Flights (Source: Space Daily)
PLD Space has presented its MIURA 5 SPARK program, offering educational centers, universities, institutions, and companies worldwide access to the first two MIURA 5 launches free of charge. The company will cover mission costs to promote scientific and technological innovation aimed at improving life on Earth from space. This initiative is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, the Spanish Space Agency (AEE), the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), ESA, and others. (7/1)

Chang'e 6 Mission Raises Potential for China-US Space Cooperation (Source: Space Daily)
"China's latest achievement as the first country to land on the far side of the moon reinforces its space exploration strengths and capabilities," Bland wrote in a newsletter. "Despite an ongoing space race with the United States, China's collaboration with the European Space Agency on the Chang'e 6 mission highlights the potential for cooperation, not competition," she said.

However, ongoing tensions between the two nations pose a significant hurdle to such collaboration. The US has excluded China from NASA projects since 2011 and has increased restrictions to limit China's access to US-developed technologies, aiming to contain its AI development. Sinotalks suggests that the US's exclusionary approach, intended to weaken China's space technology advancement, might be counterproductive as it also bars US participation in China's space missions.

"Unlike their counterparts from France, Italy and Sweden engaging in moon-related research supported by payloads carried by the Chang'e 6 probe, US scientists have missed these opportunities because US restrictions have also excluded them from participating in China's space projects," Sinotalks noted. (7/1)

NASA Explores the Potential of Fungi to Grow Space Habitats (Source: Space Daily)
As NASA prepares for extended missions to the Moon and Mars, a newly selected concept aims to "grow" habitats using fungi for future explorers. Researchers at NASA Ames Research Center have received funding under NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program to advance their habitat research. The Phase III NIAC award provides $2 million over two years to further develop the Mycotecture Off Planet project, preparing for a potential demonstration mission. (7/1)

Raytheon Awarded Contract to Develop Landsat Next Instruments (Source: Space Daily)
Raytheon, a division of RTX, has secured a $506 million contract from NASA to design and build the Landsat Next Instrument Suite (LandIS), featuring three advanced space instruments, with an option for an additional instrument. This instrument suite will enable Earth observation from three identical Low-Earth orbit observatories. Using multispectral imaging technology, LandIS will capture images of the Earth's surface every six days, identifying both natural and human-induced changes. (7/1)