July 10, 2024

End-of-Mission Anomaly for Ariane 6 Debut (Source: CNN)
Cheers rang out in the control room as the Ariane 6 strolled through milestones, including deploying its first satellites. However, around 2 hours and 50 minutes into the flight, before the Ariane 6 upper stage dove back toward Earth, officials announced that an anomaly occurred.An engine’s reignition stopped prematurely. That prevented the rocket from finishing its mission as expected. The root cause of the issue was not immediately clear.

The engine reignition was to demonstrate its ability to make multiple stops in orbit. The engine relit just once before the anomaly. Two experimental capsules were supposed to be jettisoned and attempt to survive the trip home. The mission ended before those events occurred. (7/10)

Ariane 6 Launches (Source: Space News)
Ariane 6 made its long-awaited inaugural launch Tuesday, but the mission was not a complete success. The rocket lifted off from Kourou, French Guiana, at 3:01 p.m. Eastern Tuesday after a brief delay caused by a data-acquisition issue. The rocket's upper stage reached orbit and deployed several cubesats and activated experiments that remained mounted on the stage. However, the rocket was not able to perform a final burn to deorbit because of a problem with its auxiliary propulsion unit (APU). That kept it from deploying two reentry capsules as originally planned. Officials said that despite the APU issue they considered the launch a success and planned to move ahead with its first operational launch late this year. (7/10)

House Bill Directs NASA to Study SLS Alternative Users, Among Other Things (Source: Space News)
A House bill would give NASA a lot of homework to do. The bipartisan leadership of the House Science Committee released its version of a NASA authorization act on Tuesday, with the committee scheduled to mark up the bill today. The bill would formally authorize many ongoing NASA programs, but also direct the agency, and in some cases the GAO, to study aspects of those programs, such as alternative users of the Space Launch System and commercial procurement of space weather data. (7/10)

Astroscale Continues Spacecraft Inspection (Source: Space News)
Astroscale says its ADRAS-J spacecraft continues to inspect a derelict upper stage despite a recent anomaly. The company said Tuesday the spacecraft suffered an "unexpected attitude anomaly" while flying around the H-2A upper stage at a distance of 50 meters. The spacecraft aborted the maneuver and moved a safe distance away, which Astroscale says demonstrates best practices for such operations. ADRAS-J will resume its close maneuvers to the stage soon, the company stated. ADRAS-J is a precursor to a mission that will attempt to deorbit the stage. (7/10)

Japan's Mitsui Creates Unit to Develop Space Station Module (Source: Space News)
A new Japanese venture wants to develop a module for commercial space stations. Mitsui & Co. formally established a subsidiary called Japan LEO Shachu, Inc., this month. The new venture's CEO said at the Spacetide conference Tuesday that the company is proposing to develop a module based on the HTV and HTV-X cargo spacecraft that could be installed on commercial stations. The company is looking to attract both commercial and government users for the module. (7/10)

Maxar Offers 15-Centimeter Imagery (Source: Space News)
Maxar Intelligence is now offering 15-centimeter imagery for major metropolitan areas. The Vivid Advanced 15-centimeter HD Basemap, unveiled Tuesday, will be particularly important for mapping and navigation applications, the company says. Customers for the upgraded imagery include national map makers. In addition, the maps will serve customers focused on visualization and simulation. For areas of frequent change, Maxar's goal is annual refresh, while elsewhere it will update images every other year. (7/10)

NASA Assigns Douglas as Artemis 2 Backup (Source: NASA)
NASA has assigned a backup astronaut for the Artemis 2 mission. The agency said Andre Douglas will train as a backup for any of the three NASA astronauts on the prime crew for the lunar flyby mission: Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch. The fourth person on the mission, Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, has his own backup, fellow Canadian Jenni Gibbons. (7/10)

Mars Sample Return Orbiter Passes CDR (Source: ESA)
One part of the Mars Sample Return (MSR) program is making progress. The ESA-led Earth Return Orbiter recently passed its critical design review, validating the design of the spacecraft. Under the current architecture, the spacecraft will go into orbit around Mars and pick up the sample canister placed in orbit by NASA's Sample Retrieval Lander, then return it to Earth. NASA is currently examining changes to the MSR architecture to reduce its cost and shorten its schedule, and it's unclear how it might affect plans for the Earth Return Orbiter. (7/10)

GOES-U Arrives at GEO (Source: NOAA)
The GOES-U weather satellite has reached geostationary orbit and taken a new name. NOAA said this week that GOES-U, launched last month on a Falcon Heavy, performed the final maneuver to go into GEO. NOAA has now renamed the spacecraft GOES-19, following its practice to giving such spacecraft numerical designations once they reach their final orbit. GOES-19 still has months of commissioning work to complete before it can enter service. It is scheduled to take over from GOES-16 as the GOES-East operational satellite next April. (7/10)

Space Force Seeks Info on Open, Modular Systems (Source: Military & Aerospace Electronics)
The US Space Force is seeking industry input for modernizing operational collaboration capabilities, including missile warning launch and early orbit. The Space Systems Command Government Enterprise Collaboration and Knowledge Objective-NET project is laying the groundwork for new, open systems by asking companies to provide unclassified information on potential solutions. (7/9)

Lunar Impact Flux Insights (Source: Space Daily)
Comparing crater densities between lunar highlands and maria indicates a late heavy bombardment event, with the impact flux significantly higher around 3.8 billion years ago. The South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin, possibly one of the largest lunar impact structures, may have formed around 4.3 billion years ago, followed by the late heavy bombardment (LHB) period around 3.8 billion years ago, leading to significant geological and biochemical evolution on the Moon and terrestrial planets. (7/8)

JWST Unveils Potential Ice World in Habitable Zone (Source: Space Daily)
Researchers discovered a promising exoplanet, LHS 1140 b, which may be an ice or water world within the habitable zone. The study indicates that LHS 1140 b is unlikely to be a mini-Neptune, a type of small gas giant. Located about 48 light-years away in the constellation Cetus, this exoplanet is one of the most promising candidates in the habitable zone, potentially featuring an atmosphere and possibly a liquid water ocean. (7/10)

Researchers Uncover New Insights into Neutron Star Matter (Source: Space Daily)
Alongside black holes, neutron stars are the densest objects in the universe. Under such intense conditions, matter can transform into exotic states, including a theorized formation known as "nuclear pasta," where protons and neutrons deform into plates and strings. Scientists have adopted a novel theoretical approach to explore the state of nuclear matter within the inner crust of neutron stars. Their research has revealed that both neutrons and protons can "drip out" of atomic nuclei, stabilizing the nuclear pasta structure. (7/10)

Artemis IV Set to Launch with Modernized RS-25 Engines (Source: Space Daily)
Aerojet Rocketdyne, an L3Harris company, has successfully upgraded the four RS-25 engines that will propel NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket for the Artemis IV mission. This mission will feature the first flight of the advanced Block 1B configuration of the SLS rocket and will be the last to use engines from the space shuttle era.

The upgraded Artemis IV engines now include modern flight computers designed to handle higher temperatures due to proximity to the SLS solid rocket motors. NASA and Aerojet Rocketdyne conducted comprehensive tests on these flight computers and the former space shuttle main engines for the initial four Artemis missions at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. (7/9)

SpaceX Secures NASA Contract for COSI Space Telescope Launch (Source: Space Daily)
NASA has selected SpaceX to provide launch services for the COSI (Compton Spectrometer and Imager) mission. The firm-fixed-price contract is valued at approximately $69 million and includes launch services and associated mission costs. The COSI mission is scheduled to launch in August 2027 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. (7/8)

Making the Zero-G Plane More Accessible to Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Researchers (Source: Aerospace America)
The weightlessness aboard the Zero-G Corp.’s modified Boeing 727 is helping the AstroAccess project with its goal of making space friendly to people with disabilities, including those who are deaf or hard of hearing. Brenda Williamson tells the story of her undergraduate project to create an automated lighting system to warn when the weight is coming back. Click here. (7/9)

Starship May Mess Up the Lunar Surface (Source: Popular Science)
Although its reusable stage has yet to successfully return intact, SpaceX’s Starship appears on track to eventually pull off the necessary feat. But each of the four test launches have come with hefty impacts near the Texas launchpad. Upon liftoff, Starship’s 33 Raptor engines have already blasted massive craters into the ground, shattered windows, destroyed vehicles, and generated huge plumes of dust and debris.

In a paper published in The Planetary Science Journal, researchers at the Space Science Institute, NASA, Johns Hopkins University, and DeepSpace Technologies argue the power needed to land Starship’s 164-feet-tall upper stage (its 226-feet-tall lower stage detaches after leaving Earth’s orbit) could contaminate portions of the lunar surface before its passengers even step foot onto the moon. More specifically, it could foul up any icy cold traps located across the moon’s permanently shadowed regions, or PSRs, near the lunar south pole. (7/9)

Researchers Develop New Way for Beneficial Microbes to Survive Extreme Conditions and Space (Source: Brigham and Women's Hospital)
Extremophiles, microbes that live in harsh environments such as Yellowstone’s hot springs or far beneath the ice of Antarctica, provide fascinating insights on the history and potential of life on earth and the universe beyond. Humans have used microbes to help produce food and medicine for thousands of years, but modern applications face immense challenges in ensuring that microbial products, such as probiotics, remain viable through production, transportation, and storage.

Researchers developed synthetic extremophiles by mixing microbes with different materials to make them shelf-stable without refrigeration and able to withstand conditions like extreme temperatures, manufacturing processes, and even radiation encountered in space flight. They tested a range of over-the-counter products to see if there was discrepancy between what was listed on the package and the viable material they contained.

They found that many of the products contained a much lower level of active cells than was listed on the label. These findings, along with a growing need to be able to send materials like probiotics into space and to better treat a variety of GI and metabolic diseases, inspired the team to attempt to develop synthetic extremophiles. (7/9)

Space Now a Priority for NATO Leaders (Source: Breaking Defense)
When NATO leaders meet July 9-11, space is firmly on the agenda as allies work to build up a stronger collective infrastructure for coordination, and key European space players hasten to develop new capabilities. “One of the NATO priorities for the summit will be space,” Allied Command Transformation (ACT) said. On June 25, ACT announced that NATO’s ruling North Atlantic Council had officially approved the establishment of a new Space Branch within the command, to be led by a senior French Air and Space Force Officer. (7/9)

Evidence of Water Vapor Detected in the Atmosphere of Smertrios (Source: Phys.org)
Using the CARMENES spectrograph, astronomers have found evidence of water vapor in the atmosphere of a hot Saturn exoplanet designated HD 149026 b, dubbed Smertrios. The finding, reported in a research paper published on the preprint server arXiv, could be key to a better understanding of the structure and formation scenario of this alien world. (7/9)

NOAA's Upcoming GeoXO Satellites Could Be 'Weather-Monitoring Platform of the Future' (Source: Space.com)
For the second time in a row, Lockheed Martin will be at the forefront of the creation of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s next generation weather satellites. Last month, NASA awarded the aerospace company a $2.27 billion contract to develop and manufacture spacecraft for the next generation of NOAA satellites that will follow the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) series, Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO).

The contract includes developing three initial spacecraft and will also allow the option for an additional four. New instruments aboard the GeoXO satellites will enable the first geostationary observations of our coastal ecosystems and "continental U.S.-wide observations of harmful pollutants in the air we breathe," Lockheed Martin's statement adds. (7/9)

New Mars Pictures Reveal Massive, Grand Canyon–Like Scar (Source: Newsweek)
A huge scar carved into the surface of Mars has been captured in never before seen detail by the European Space Agency's (ESA) Mars Express orbiter. The huge canyon, named Aganippe Fossa, stretches about 375 miles across the red planet, making it larger than the Grand Canyon, which is 277 miles. The Martian valley was first spotted by astronomers early in the 20th century but was officially named only in 1976. Now, it has been snapped in high definition. (7/8)

NASA’s Begoña Vila Awarded 2024 Galician Excellence Award (Source: NASA)
Begoña Vila, an instrument systems engineer from KBR who worked on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, has been selected to receive the 2024 Galician Excellence Title in the Sciences and Medicine Category for her career and work on Webb. This award comes from the Spanish Association of Galician Entrepreneurs of Catalonia (AEGA-CAT), a civic and social organization of entrepreneurs who seek to extend their vocation outside the country of Spain. (7/8)

Earth Has 7 Strange Quasi-Moons — and You Could Name One of Them (Source: Space.com)
The International Astronomical Union, which oversees naming procedures for celestial objects and phenomena, is inviting the public to submit name ideas for one of Earth's quasi-moons. Right now, the object is named 2004 GU9, or asteroid 164207 — but it's dubbed a "moon" because it appears tagged to our planet's gravitational tides.

Yet, 2004 GU9 is a "quasi" satellite because its orbit is actually dictated by the force of the sun; its trajectory around the sun just happens to occur in the same timeframe Earth orbits the sun. 2004 GU9's orbit is also unstable. In fact, this strange object won't always hang around our corner of the solar system. After the year 2600 or so, it's expected to zip away. The contest is happening in partnership with the podcast Radiolab. (7/8)

Space Force Looks to Shift More Units Into ‘Integrated’ Structure Over Next Year (Source: Defense Scoop)
After experimenting with a more centralized structure for its mission deltas over the last 10 months, the Space Force now hopes to transition nearly all of its units to the new organizational design in the next year, according to the head of Space Operations Command (SpOC). The service announced the new unit structure, known as integrated mission deltas (IMDs), in September as a way to address gaps in readiness. (7/8)

Space Operations Boss Wants More Virtual Simulations to Boost Training (Source: Defense One)
The Space Force wants better virtual training simulations that mimic real-life threats to better hone guardians’ skills, a top defense official said. “We don't have the emulation capability for the threat and the simulation capability across units to allow us to train at the high fidelity levels that we will need to,” Lt. Gen. David Miller, commander of Space Operations Command, said.

“We are walking through tabletop exercises, threat academics, planning iterations and charrettes, and we do some exercises already, primarily with the support of our [Space Training and Readiness Command (STARCOM)] teammates…that allow us to get the mission area to focus right in one set of exercises and training venues,” he said. Additionally, the training simulations must be incorporated across multiple missions and weapons systems, Miller said.

Editor's Note: Based at Patrick Space Force Base on Florida's Space Coast, STARCOM will likely leverage the defense simulation and training capabilities centered in Orlando to support this Space Force need. (7/9)

How Tiny Black Holes Would Behave Inside the Sun, Earth – and Us (Source: New Scientist)
For a really tiny black hole, placing it inside a star or planet wouldn’t have much of an effect – it would either pass straight through or stick around in the center, depending on the mass of the object. But once they get a little bigger, perhaps the mass of Earth but the radius of a grape, things start to get interesting. Such a black hole would dramatically decrease the sun’s lifetime, or swallow up a planet from the inside out.

On the plus side, black holes in this size range could be used to reorganize the cosmos through their gravitational pull. A tiny black hole near the surface of the moon could stop its inexorable retreat from Earth, for example.

For a human being, standing several meters away from a tiny black hole would be reasonably safe, but the closer you get, the more its gravity will affect whatever part of your body is closest, and if you get too close it will rip you apart. If you somehow managed to teleport the black hole inside your body, it would also not go well for you. (7/9)

Will Europe's Latest Heavy Lift Rocket Take On Elon Musk's SpaceX? (Source: NDTV)
"With 30 missions in our order book, Ariane-6 has already gained the trust of institutional and commercial customers. We are preparing to make Ariane-6's second launch by the end of the year, followed by a steady rise to around 10 launches a year once we reach cruising speed. It represents a splendid challenge for Arianespace and our partners," said Stephane Israel, CEO of Arianespace. (7/9)

Ariane 6 Uses Irish Technology (Source: RTE)
The Ariane 6 will use two technology systems designed and built by Irish space engineering company Réaltra. Réaltra, meaning 'galaxy' in Irish, created a video recording and transmission system to provide live HD images during launches. The six cameras the company designed onboard the rocket were seen to deliver "perfect images" of Tuesday's launch. (7/9)