August 12, 2024

Industry Pressure Forces NASA to Press Pause on SEWP VI (Source: FNN)
Increasing pressure from the industry about the lack of clarity of the SEWP VI solicitation has forced NASA to hit a pause on its governmentwide acquisition contract. Vendors are unhappy that the SEWP VI program office chose not to answer more than 4,500 questions submitted about the solicitation, and with bids due later this month, a letter-writing campaign spurred NASA’s decision.

“There is a lot of ambiguity in this procurement in a number of areas. That lack of clarity is concerning to a lot of people, and it resulted in more than 6,700 questions,” said Robert Turner. Turner said the NASA SEWP program office provided answers to about 120 questions out of more than 6,700 submitted. “It’s inconceivable that 97% of questions do not deserve answers,” Turner said. “The primary problem with SEWP VI is it combines IT products with IT services, which makes it the largest GWAC in the federal government with a 10-year lifespan and a ceiling of over $100 billion. (8/9)

Space Advocates and NASA Consider Ideas for Mars Sample Return (Source: Geekwire)
Robotically controlled Cybertrucks could be part of a Mars exploration system that also includes SpaceX’s Starship super-rocket as well as spaceworthy versions of all-terrain vehicles and humanoid robots built by Tesla, according to mission plans suggested by Mars Society co-founder Robert Zubrin, retired NASA engineer Tony Muscatello and business analyst Kent Nebergall. Zubrin said the Starship-based concept could even accelerate progress toward crewed missions to Mars.

“We use Starship to deliver a robotic expedition that has already examined thousands of samples on Mars, gathered from hundreds of kilometers away by helicopters, and tens of kilometers away gathered by rovers, and then we land the crew to do follow-up exploration, including drilling in well-characterized sites to bring up water and see what the life on Mars is,” he said during a Thursday night session at the convention.

How way out is that? It sounds like science fiction, but theoretically, at least some elements of the plan could show up in SpaceX’s proposal for reworking NASA’s Mars sample return strategy. More than two dozen samples have been collected by NASA’s Perseverance rover over the past three years, and they’ll be stored for pickup and return during a future series of missions. (8/11)

Starlab Set To Orbit Above Moscow’s Missiles, If Space Truce Holds (Source: Forbes)
The Kremlin’s threats to escalate Space War I - by firing its anti-satellite missiles against any allied spacecraft aiding Ukraine - are imperiling Western plans to loft a cluster of independent space stations into orbit. Yet the globe-spanning partners co-creating the Starlab Space Station - which will glitter with next-generation technologies - say they are on still on track to launch the new outpost aboard SpaceX’s revolutionary Starship rocket.

Starlab will be patterned after the ISS, built by an alliance of space-tech leaders based in the U.S., Europe, Japan and Canada, says Manfred Jaumann, head of Low Earth Orbit Programs at Airbus, a co-founder of Starlab Space LLC. But unlike its forerunner, which was constructed over the course of a decade, via dozens of flights of the American Space Shuttle and Russian rockets, Starlab will be launched on a single mission of the colossal Starship capsule.

Starlab, which has already sealed a pact with the European Space Agency to host ESA astronauts and spacecraft, will be open to spacefarers and scientists around the world - except for cosmonauts or cosmologists from the Russian Federation, Jaumann says. Jeff Manber says he hopes Roscosmos’s ongoing partnership in the ISS, which hosts Moscow’s cosmonauts, and the lofting of a flotilla of independent space stations piloted by astronauts across the globe, will prevent Russia’s Space Forces from launching attacks on orbiting spacecraft. (8/10)

I Trust NASA’s Safety Culture This Time Around, and So Should You (Source: Ars Technica)
If it does not precisely repeat itself, history certainly echoes. Two decades after Columbia, Starliner is presently docked to the International Space Station. As with foam strikes, issues with reaction-control system thrusters are not unique to this flight; they were also observed during the previous test flight in 2022. So once again, engineers at NASA are attempting to decide whether they can be comfortable with a "known" issue and all of its implications for a safe return to Earth.

NASA is the customer for this mission rather than the operator—the space agency is buying transportation services to the International Space Station for its astronauts from Boeing. However, as the customer, NASA still has the final say. Boeing engineers will have input, but the final decisions will be made by NASA engineers such as Steve Stich, Ken Bowersox, and Jim Free. Ultimately, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson could have the final say.

Decision-makers today have some decided advantages over their predecessors for Columbia. Whereas the shuttle had made dozens of successful flights by 2003, Starliner remains very much in its test and development phase. Therefore, it's difficult to fall into the "we've seen this before" trap. Additionally, whereas the shuttle had a limited lifetime in orbit due to fuel cells and other consumables, mission managers have the luxury of studying Starliner's issues not over a matter of days but over weeks and even months. (8/12)

Eutelsat Plans Private Equity-Funded Shift in Ground Station Services (Source: Space News)
Eutelsat is in exclusive talks with a private equity fund to turn its ground station infrastructure into a service business. Eutelsat said Friday that it would carve out ground segment infrastructure worth 790 million euros ($863 million) into a ground station-as-a-service business and sell 80% of it to a fund run by EQT Partners of Sweden. According to Eutelsat, the new business would be the world’s largest pure-play, operator-neutral, ground station-as-a-service company. Eutelsat would remain a long-term shareholder, anchor tenant and partner in the new infrastructure company, but would use the proceeds of the sale to improve its finances. The company reported a 5.5% increase in revenues, but 12.9% decline in adjusted EBITDA, in its fiscal year that ended in June. (8/12)

Space Force to Expand Missile Tracking Satellites in MEO (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Space Force plans to expand a network of missile-tracking satellites in medium Earth orbit. The service issued a "request for prototype proposals" Friday, inviting vendors to submit designs for satellites known as Missile Track Custody Epoch 2. The Epoch 2 program builds upon the foundation laid by Epoch 1, the first version of the MEO missile warning and tracking constellation being built by Millennium Space Systems scheduled to launch in late 2026 and early 2027. The Space Force is seeking prototype proposals for Epoch 2 so it can test and explore new technologies before moving to full-scale production. (8/12)

Rocket Lab Launches Capella SAR Satellite (Source: Space News)
Rocket Lab launched a Capella Space radar imaging satellite Sunday. An Electron rocket lifted off from New Zealand at 9:18 a.m. Eastern and released the Acadia-3 satellite, also known as Capella-13, into a mid-inclination orbit nearly an hour later. The launch was the second in less than 10 days for Electron, but the company said in an earnings call last week it had only one other launch of Electron scheduled for the remainder of the quarter. Rocket Lab said that customer readiness was to blame for the number of launches falling short of projections, while emphasizing the flexibility that the rocket provides to customers who need to go to specific orbits at specific times. (8/12)

SpaceX Launches Arctic Satellites From California (Source: Space News)
A Falcon 9 launched two communications satellites designed to serve Arctic regions Sunday night. The rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 10:02 p.m. Eastern and placed two satellites into orbit for Space Norway's Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission (ASBM). The ASBM satellites, built by Northrop Grumman, are designed to provide broadband communications services over the North Pole and high-latitude areas. The satellites carry payloads for the U.S. Space Force, Norwegian Armed Forces and Viasat. The satellites will operate in highly elliptical orbits optimized to serve the Arctic. (8/12)

India's Commercial Launch Revenue Drops (Source: News9live)
India's commercial launch revenue has dropped substantially in recent years. Antrix, the commercial arm of the Indian space agency ISRO, reported revenue of 15 billion rupees ($179 million) in its 2019-2020 fiscal year, but that revenue dropped to less than 1.2 billion rupees in 2022-2023 before rebounding slightly last year. That revenue is driven by demand for launches from foreign customers, which has fallen in recent years. ISRO has performed only two launches so far this year with a third scheduled for later this week. (8/12)

Milky Way Might Not Collide with Andromeda (Source: Science)
The Milky Way may not collide with the nearby Andromeda galaxy after all. Astronomers for years had concluded that a collision between the two galaxies, several billion years from now, was inevitable, disrupting both galaxies. However, a study posted to a preprint server last month concluded that there is only a 50-50 chance of such a collision, which if it does occur would not take place for eight billion years, based on updated simulations of the galaxies' motions. "As it stands, proclamations of the impending demise of our Galaxy appear greatly exaggerated," the astronomers who led the study conclude. (8/12)

University Teams Compete for Blue Origin "Blue Ring" (Source: University of Michigan)
Two rising sophomores at the University of Michigan won first place in the first ever Blue Origin Blue Ring Competition. The Blue Ring competition invited students from Caltech, MIT, Purdue, Stanford, University of Colorado Boulder,, University of Michigan, and University of Washington to share their ideas for a future mission using the company’s new orbital transfer vehicle, Blue Ring. For winning first place, the students will get an opportunity to travel to Blue Origin’s Rocket Park facilities in Florida to network and meet with representatives from Blue Origin.

“Our idea is that no matter where you are on the surface of Mars, there will always be a satellite above you where you can transmit data to,” Dominik Bodzianowski stated. Their winning concept would use the Blue Ring to ship all the satellites, while using its onboard computing services to manage them once in Martian orbit, also using novel laser-based communications systems to increase data transfer rates in between the planets. (8/1)

NASA Payload to Fly on First Blue Origin Lunar Lander Mission (Source: Space News)
A NASA payload will hitch a ride to the moon on Blue Origin’s first lunar lander mission, scheduled to launch as soon as next March. In an Aug. 6 procurement filing, NASA revealed it selected Blue Origin to fly a camera system to study how engine plumes interact with regolith at south polar regions of the moon, collecting data to support future crewed landing missions. The payload, called Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume Surface Studies (SCALPSS), will fly through NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. (8/12)

ClearSpace and Plextek Strengthen Alliance for Enhanced In-Orbit Services (Source: Space Daily)
ClearSpace, a leader in space logistics and orbital servicing, has reaffirmed its partnership with Plextek, an engineering consultancy renowned for its technical expertise. Together, they are addressing critical challenges in space debris removal and satellite servicing. This collaboration combines the strengths of both companies to improve the reliability and accuracy of in-orbit operations. (8/10)

Scout Space Joins Space Domain Awareness TAP Lab Accelerator (Source: Space Daily)
Scout Space Inc., a prominent provider of in-space observation services and Space Domain Awareness (SDA), has been selected for the U.S. Space Systems Command's Space Domain Awareness (SDA) Tools Applications and Processing (TAP) Lab Apollo Accelerator Cohort 4. Scout will concentrate on generating attitude change patterns for individual satellites using orbital data. The program starts on August 6th, 2024.

The SDA Tap Lab is an innovative initiative aimed at improving Space Domain Awareness capabilities by addressing key challenges. Scout will utilize its in-space observation and data analytics expertise to develop solutions that detect and characterize changes in satellite orientation, including movements of both the satellite bus and payload. (8/8)

Space Rider Model Successfully Completes Drop Test (Source: Space Daily)
Over the last four months, the Space Rider team has conducted a series of drop tests, using a full-scale model of their future orbital laboratory. These tests, carried out at Salto di Quirra in Sardinia, Italy, aim to validate the deployment of the spacecraft's parachutes. The Space Rider project features an uncrewed laboratory approximately the size of two minivans, designed to remain in orbit for up to two months. The spacecraft consists of two segments: an orbital module, providing essential in-flight support, and a reentry module that returns Space Rider and its experiments to Earth. (8/8)

EdgeRunner AI's Battle Buddy Recognized by Space Force SSC for Military Support (Source: Space Daily)
EdgeRunner AI, a startup focused on developing Generative AI for the edge, has received commendation from the U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command (SSC) for its innovative offline AI platform, Battle Buddy. Designed to enhance military support, this system operates seamlessly with devices such as laptops and smartphones in fully air-gapped environments. It aims to bridge knowledge gaps among non-commissioned officers (NCOs) and officers of varying experience levels. The EdgeRunner Battle Buddy uses the advanced EdgeRunner Tactical model with 7 billion parameters, delivering performance comparable to Meta's Llama 3-70B model while requiring fewer resources. (8/8)