July 30, 2024

Boeing Wins Space Mission Contracts Owing To Its 'Armies Of Lobbyists,' Says Elon Musk (Source: Benzinga)
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Saturday that its rival Boeing Co. is awarded government contracts in the space segment owing to their “armies of lobbyists” despite safety concerns around its commercial plane segment. “They have armies of lobbyists,” Musk wrote in response to an X user who wondered why Boeing is awarded big contracts from the government despite the issues flagged with its passenger flight segment. (7/29)

Planet Labs Extends Data Provision Contract with Taylor Geospatial Institute to 2026 (Source: Space Daily)
Planet Labs announced an extension of its contract with the Taylor Geospatial Institute (TGI) through 2026. This collaboration represents Planet's most extensive direct engagement with a university consortium. The multi-year agreement enables TGI to utilize various industry-leading products from Planet, including PlanetScope data, a comprehensive data archive, high-resolution SkySat data, and multiple Planetary Variable analytic products. (7/29)

Two Environmental Protection Satellites Begin Operations in China (Source: Space Daily)
China has officially commenced the operation of two advanced environmental protection satellites, as announced by the China National Space Administration (CNSA). During a handover ceremony at CNSA's headquarters in Beijing, control of the Atmospheric Environmental Surveyor and the Terrestrial Ecosystem Carbon Inventory Satellite was transferred to their designated users. (7/29)

Ariel's Carbon Dioxide Indicates Potential Subsurface Ocean on Uranus' Moon (Source: Space Daily)
The surface of Uranus' moon Ariel contains substantial carbon dioxide ice, particularly on its trailing hemisphere, the side that faces away from its orbital motion. This is unexpected as carbon dioxide, even in the distant Uranian system-20 times farther from the Sun than Earth-easily sublimates into gas and escapes into space.

Researchers propose that the carbon dioxide on Ariel's surface might originate from interactions between the moon's surface and charged particles in Uranus' magnetosphere. This process, known as radiolysis, involves the breakdown of molecules by ionizing radiation. However, a new study published on July 24 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters suggests a different possibility-carbon dioxide and other molecules could be emanating from within Ariel, potentially from a subsurface ocean. (7/29)

AST SpaceMobile Prepares to Ship First Five Commercial Satellites (Source: Space Daily)
AST SpaceMobile announced the completion of its first five commercial satellites, named Bluebirds. These satellites, each equipped with communications arrays spanning 693 square feet, are set to be shipped to Cape Canaveral in the first week of August. A 7-day launch window is scheduled for September. (7/29)

Atlas Launches Final National Security Mission at Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Space News)
An Atlas 5 lifted off this morning on the rocket's final national security launch. The Atlas 5 551 lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 6:45 a.m. Eastern. The mission, designed USSF-51, is carrying a classified payload to geostationary orbit. The launch is the 100th national security mission for United Launch Alliance but the final one for the Atlas 5, as ULA shifts to the new Vulcan rocket. (7/30)

India's NISAR Launch Delayed as Antenna Shipped for NASA Fix (Source: Space News)
The launch of a joint U.S.-Indian Earth science mission is likely to slip to next year. NASA and the Indian space agency ISRO had planned to launch the NISAR radar mapping mission in the spring on an Indian GSLV rocket, but delayed the launch to ship the spacecraft's deployable antenna back the United States to make fixes to it after finding that the antenna would face higher-than-expected temperatures while stowed.

NASA said in an update Monday that the work is nearly complete and that the antenna would be shipped back to India to be reinstalled on the NISAR spacecraft. NASA did not disclose a launch date but noted that a launch is not possible from early October to early February because of lighting conditions that would create temperature fluctuations in the antenna. An Indian government minister last week did not include NISAR among the missions ISRO expected to launch this year. (7/30)

UK Investor Raising $129 Million for Space Fund (Source: Space News)
A British financial adviser is seeking to raise a venture capital fund focused on sustainability-focused space opportunities. Citicourt & Co is looking to raise £100 million ($129 million) for the fund, which would support companies in Series A and B rounds seeking to scale up their businesses. Citicourt plans to use a scoring system to identify ventures deemed to have a clear path to positively impacting Earth, such as the sustainable production of food, deforestation and carbon mitigation. (7/30)
 
NASA Proceeds with August Crew-9 ISS Launch Plan (Source: Space News)
NASA is proceeding with an August launch of the Crew-9 mission to the International Space Station. Officials said Friday they were still targeting a mid-August launch for the mission despite the Falcon 9 upper-stage anomaly that grounded the rocket earlier this month. The rocket has since returned to flight on three Starlink missions. SpaceX says that Polaris Dawn, another Crew Dragon mission that had been scheduled to launch at the end of July, is now planned for "late summer" after Crew-9. NASA also announced that the first operational Starliner mission, Starliner-1, has been delayed from February to August 2025, with Crew-10 now slated to launch in February. (7/30)

SpaceX Exploring Starship Recovery/Landings in Australia (Source: Reuters)
SpaceX is in talks to recover or even land Starship vehicles in Australia. The company is reportedly exploring towing Starship vehicles that splash down in the Indian Ocean to Australia, which could be a precursor for landing or even launching Starships in the country. Those efforts could also be tied to SpaceX's work for the Air Force Research Lab on its "rocket cargo" initiative that seeks to deliver cargo around the world within an hour. (7/30)

Astroscale Completes In-Orbit Fly-Around of H-2A Upper Stage (Source: Astroscale)
An Astroscale spacecraft has completed a fly-around of an upper stage left in low Earth orbit. The company announced Tuesday that its ADRAS-J spacecraft performed two loops around the H-2A upper stage, maintaining a distance of 50 meters from the stage. A previous fly-around in June was aborted one-third of the way around because of an attitude anomaly. The inspections by ADRAS-J showed that the stage's payload attach fitting remains intact; that fitting will be used by a follow-on Astroscale mission to grapple the stage and deorbit it. (7/30)

European Soccer Trainer Lends Expertise to NASA (Source: The Athletic)
The trainer for a major European soccer club is lending his expertise in exercise to NASA. Antonio Pintus, performance director and head fitness coach for Real Madrid, visited the Johnson Space Center recently at the invitation of a Spanish engineer and Real Madrid fan there. Pintus discussed how his training methods, known for their intensity and reliance on data, could be used on Orion missions where there is limited room and equipment for exercising. (7/30)

NASA TV Sings-Off in Favor of NASA+ Streaming (Source: NASA)
NASA TV is soon going off the air. The agency said Monday that it plans to shut down the linear TV broadcast in late August in favor of NASA+, its streaming service. NASA TV has, for decades, provided live coverage of missions along with documentaries and educational programming. Those will continue on NASA+, along with new programs. (7/30)

White House Says Agencies Hired 200 AI Experts Through Governmentwide ‘Talent Surge’ (Source: Executive Gov)
The Biden administration says it’s nearly halfway to its goal of bringing 500 artificial intelligence experts into the federal government by the end of the next fiscal year. The White House, in an update on progress made under President Joe Biden’s AI executive order, said agencies have made over 200 hires to date through its AI “talent surge.” Among them are Dave Salvagnini at NASA. (7/30)

Space Systems Command’s 2,000 Mile Cyber Screwdriver (Source: Executive Gov)
The Space Systems Command in the Space Force is bringing zero trust to the final frontier. From the satellites that orbit the earth to the ground stations that control the flow of data, the goal is to protect each piece of the system through these concepts. The challenge, of course, is Space Systems Command can’t go and touch the satellites to upload software or change the settings, said Col. Craig Frank, the chief information officer of the Space Systems Command.

“We’re just looking at keeping control of them from a distance, what we’d like calling the IT world, the 2,000 mile screwdriver, where you might have a ground station in Nevada, but the person who’s doing all the work on it is sitting in Florida, we got to make sure that that connection is secure,” Frank said. (7/29)

Five Cancer Projects Selected for Future Spaceflight Studies (Source: CASIS)
The International Space Station (ISS) National Laboratory and NASA have selected five projects through the inaugural Igniting Innovation solicitation to leverage the unique space environment for cancer and other disease-related research. Through this solicitation, more than $7 million in total funding is being awarded to the selected teams for multiflight translational and transformative studies on the ISS to advance cancer research to benefit patients on Earth. (7/30)

Why Don’t Kids Want to be Astronauts Anymore? (Source: LaunchPad)
Being an astronaut has equated to being a hero from start. So why don’t kids care anymore? In the early days of the Space Age, in both America and the Soviet Union, all of them were recruited from the military. These men and women were war heroes, veterans of the Second World War and pioneers into new frontiers never before explored by humans.

That powerful foundation shaped their public perception, and even as civilian scientists joined their ranks, the standards never dropped. To be an astronaut is to be among the select few judged and chosen to be worthy of leaving the planet itself. In the US and UK, children are three times more likely to want to be a social media influencer than an astronaut. In China, the opposite is true, with more than half of 8 to 12-year-olds saying that they would most prefer to become an astronaut when they grow up and only 18 percent an influencer.

It’s no secret that the education system in China places a high emphasis on the value of science and space exploration. While still valued traits in the West, the glamorization and unfiltered exposure to social media is much more profound than in China, where heavy restrictions limit people’s online activities. In China, TikTok’s algorithm is designed to promote science and education, while everywhere else, you get, well…..you get TikTok. (7/30)

Space Industry Calls for Bolder Bets in UK Funding Strategy (Source: Financial Times)
The UK space agency has come under fire from industry over its latest funding awards, which allocated £33mn to more than 20 companies, including £5mn to the UK subsidiary of a Germany launcher start-up. Phillip Chambers, chief executive of rocket start-up Orbex, questioned the government’s decision to award £5mn to help HyImpulse, a private company based in Germany, launch its suborbital rocket from the SaxaVord spaceport in the Shetland Islands. The award brings the total UK funding for HyImpulse to £8.8mn.

“HyImpulse have had more funding from the UK than they have had from the German government,” Chambers said in an interview on the sidelines of the Farnborough air show last week. “It is an interesting strategy. I don’t think Orbex would get the same treatment from the German government.” Orbex, founded in 2015, is planning to send satellites into orbit with its Prime microlauncher from its own spaceport in Sutherland, northern Scotland, next year. It has had £23mn in grants from the UK and £3mn from Denmark, where its propulsion systems are manufactured. (7/29)

Starliner Passes In-Orbit Tests But First Operational Launch Slips (Source: Space Policy Online)
Boeing and NASA put the Starliner spacecraft through its paces this weekend, successfully testing the thrusters and confirming the helium leaks are stable. But in a nod to the amount of work that lies ahead before NASA certifies Starliner for operational launches, the agency said a SpaceX Crew Dragon will be used for the February 2025 space station crew exchange, not Starliner-1.

The first operational Starliner launch is Starliner-1. NASA hoped to launch it in February 2025, but NASA Commercial Crew Program Manager Steve Stich said at a Friday news conference they will use a Crew Dragon instead. Starliner-1 will wait at least until August 2025, the subsequent crew rotation, but it could be longer. Stich said they are double-booking another Crew Dragon, Crew-11, in that slot just in case Starliner-1 slips into 2026. (7/29)

Congressman Frank Lucas Aims to Guide Space Policy to the Moon and Beyond (Source: KOSU)
As the chair of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, Congressman Frank Lucas (R-OK) is keeping his eyes on the horizon. “It's the committee that is not just about tomorrow, or the next day,” Oklahoma’s third congressional district representative said. “It's about the future. It's what happens in five years, or 50 years or 250 years from now.” (7/29)

U.S. Senate Spending Bill Sets Up Congressional Clash Over Research Spending (Source: Science)
Setting up a familiar clash over federal research spending, a U.S. Senate panel yesterday approved legislation that would give the National Science Foundation (NSF), NASA, and several other research agencies more money for the 2025 fiscal year than the U.S. House of Representatives has endorsed in its version of the bill.

Despite generally bipartisan support in Congress for science funding, in recent years the Democrat-controlled Senate has often backed higher spending levels than the Republican-controlled House for key research agencies, leading to sometimes thorny final negotiations. Yesterday’s Senate vote seems to ensure that dynamic will hold for negotiations over spending in the 2025 fiscal year that begins on 1 October. (7/26)

Capital Allocators Should Consider Adding Space Assets to their Portfolio (Source: SpaceFund)
SpaceFund co-founder Meagan Crawford presented new research that shows the space industry is weakly correlated to eight tested market indices and alternative investment asset classes. This lack of correlation, coupled with the industry’s consistent growth could offer valuable diversification and hedging opportunities for investors. (7/30)

Pentagon's Satellite Investment Surge (Source: LaunchPad)
Despite troubles in the smallsat launch market due to fierce competition and stark price wars, the U.S. Department of Defense is significantly ramping up its investment in satellite technology of the smaller variety, awarding millions of dollars in contracts to bolster its communications and defense capabilities.

This move highlights the increasing strategic importance of space assets for national security and defense operations. By enhancing its satellite infrastructure, the Pentagon aims to improve communication, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities, ensuring robust and secure space operations. (7/30)

Rocket Lab's Mars-Bound Spacecraft Pass Latest Tests (Source: Space Daily)
Rocket Lab has completed the integration and testing of two spacecraft for NASA's Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers mission to Mars, developed in collaboration with the University of California Berkeley's Space Science Laboratory. These spacecraft, set to launch later this year, will study plasma and magnetic fields around Mars. (7/30)

Airbus Plots Space Systems Turnaround (Source: Reuters)
Airbus is developing a turnaround plan for its Space Systems business, aiming to announce a restructuring in September and complete a strategic review by the fourth quarter. Airbus is also exploring consolidation talks with France's Thales and Italy's Leonardo as CEO Guillaume Faury seeks to scale operations in the defense, space and satellite markets. (7/29)

NASA and JAXA Exchange Laser Signals Between SLIM Lander and LRO in Lunar Orbit (Source: Space Daily)
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has successfully transmitted a laser pulse to a small retroreflector on JAXA's (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) SLIM lander on the Moon, receiving a return signal on two occasions. During two orbits on May 24, 2024, LRO passed 44 miles above the SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) and used its laser altimeter instrument to send signals to the lander. Unlike previous attempts, the signals were returned to LRO's detector this time. (7/30)

Is the United States Doing Enough to Engage with China on Space Policy? (Source: Space Review)
Some in the space community have pushed for the United States to more closely cooperate with China in space. Mariam Kvaratskhelia argues that the United States is doing enough given what each country has to gain from any new civil space partnership. Click here. (7/30)
 
Cleaning Up the Mess in LEO (Source: Space Review)
Both the number of satellites and debris objects in low Earth orbit is increasing, showing the need to tackle a growing problem. Jeff Foust reports, though, that realizing there is a problem is easier than trying to solve it. Click here. (7/30)
 
For the ISS, to Be or Not to Be? (Source: Space Review)
NASA is pressing ahead with plans to deorbit the International Space Station at the end of the decade, recently awarding SpaceX a contract for a deorbit vehicle. Ajay Kothari describes how the station could be saved in a higher orbit for potentially far less money. Click here. (7/30)
 
No More Space for the Press? (Source: Space Review)
The International Astronautical Congress is one of the biggest annual conferences in the space field, attracting 10,000 people. But, Brian Harvey states, the organizers are for some reason making harder for the media to cover what goes on there. Click here. (7/30)