August 22, 2024

Rocket Lab CEO: 'We Have the Right Combination' to Break SpaceX’s Monopoly (Source: Yahoo! Finance)
Rocket Lab (RKLB) CEO Peter Beck has positioned himself as an outsider since the company’s inception in 2006. A New Zealand native with no college degree, Beck has long been seen as the anti-Elon Musk. He often reminds employees: “We have no money, so we have to think.” Now, with its Neutron rocket, a fully reusable medium-lift launch vehicle set to take off in mid-2025, Beck says he is poised to pose the most formidable threat to what he describes as a “technical monopoly” held by Elon Musk and SpaceX.

"50% [of Neutron] is to break the monopoly that’s in medium launch right now," Beck said. "50% is to be able to launch our own stuff into orbit. I think we have the right combination of expertise and execution to be a real competitor." Beck sees Neutron as “the last piece of the puzzle” in an ongoing quest to build out an end-to-end space company. (8/18)

Commercial Spaceflight Operations Act Picks Up Key Endorsement (Source: GSA)
At the recent annual meeting of the Aerospace States Association (ASA) in New Orleans, a resolution was adopted unanimously to urge Congressional passage of the Commercial Spaceflight Operations Act of 2024. The proposed legislation, which was developed by the Global Spaceport Alliance, is intended to meet the needs of the evolving commercial spaceflight industry by updating national policy, streamlining government oversight, and providing needed infrastructure funding. Click here. (8/21)

Blue Origin Suffers New Glenn Upper Stage Issues (Source: Bloomberg)
Blue Origin reportedly suffered two recent mishaps involving upper stages for its New Glenn launch vehicle. In one incident, an upper stage crumpled when it was moved from an outdoor storage area into an air-conditioned hangar; valves to equalize pressure were misconfigured and as the air inside chilled, the stage crumpled. In the other incident, another upper stage failed stress testing and burst. The stages were meant for the second and third flights of New Glenn, and it is not clear what impact the incidents will have plans for the rocket's inaugural launch scheduled for this fall. (8/22)

NASA Ships SLS Stage Adapter to KSC (Source: Space News)
As NASA ships another component of the next Space Launch System vehicle to Florida, the agency is extending the contract for work on it in anticipation of future launch delays. NASA rolled out the Launch Vehicle Stage Adapter (LVSA) for the SLS launching Artemis 2 Wednesday, placing it on a barge to ship from Alabama to Florida. The LVSA is used on the Block 1 version of SLS to connect the rocket's upper stage to the core stage.

NASA, in a procurement filing last week, said it was extending the contract awarded a decade ago to Teledyne Brown Engineering to produce the LVSA by two years, to September 2026, to allow completion of the third and final adapter. That extension, though, includes six options for additional extensions that would push the contract's period of performance through the end of 2029. That suggests NASA is at least preparing for the possibility of extended delays in the launch of the next two SLS missions, currently scheduled for September 2025 and September 2026. (8/22)

Axiom Working with Nokia on Artemis Spacesuit Comms (Source: Space News)
Axiom Space is working with Nokia to provide high-speed wireless communications for Artemis lunar spacesuits. The companies announced Wednesday they are working together to adapt 4G/LTE cellular technologies for use on missions starting with Artemis 3. A "network in a box" on the lander will provide wireless communications to Axiom's suits at distances of up to two kilometers from the lander. That will allow the astronauts to stream high-definition video from their suits, among other applications. Nokia plans to test that technology on the IM-2 robotic lunar lander mission late this year, although the company said the use of the technology on the Axiom suits isn't dependent on the success of that mission. (8/22)

SpaceX Delays Polaris Dawn Launch to Tuesday (Source: SpaceX)
SpaceX is delaying the launch of a private astronaut mission by a day. The company said late Wednesday the Polaris Dawn mission is now scheduled to launch early next Tuesday on a Falcon 9 from the Kennedy Space Center. The launch slipped a day, the company said, to provide "additional time for teams to complete preflight checkouts" ahead of the launch. The mission, scheduled to last five days, will feature the first spacewalk on a commercial mission and also the highest altitude for a crewed mission since Apollo 17 went to the moon in 1972. (8/22)

ESA Prepares for Science Satellite Reentries (Source: ESA)
ESA is preparing for the controlled reentry of a set of space science satellites. The first of the four Cluster spacecraft, nicknamed "Salsa," is scheduled for reentry Sept. 8 over the South Pacific to ensure any debris that survives reentry does not fall over populated areas. The four Cluster spacecraft were launched in 2000 on what was initially designed to be a two-year mission to study the Earth's magnetosphere. ESA plans to study this reentry, including potential observations by an aircraft, and incorporate any changes into the reentry of the other three Cluster satellites — Rumba, Samba and Tango — for reentry between November 2025 and August 2026. (8/22)

India Completes Lunar Mission Designs (Source: The Print)
India's space agency ISRO has completed the designs of its next two lunar missions. In an interview, the head of ISRO, S. Somanath, said the designs of Chandrayaan-4 and Chandrayaan-5 are complete and awaiting government approval to go into development. Chandrayaan-4 is a lunar sample return mission, while Chandrayaan-5 is now associated with a joint India-Japan mission called LUPEX that involves an Indian lander and Japanese rover. (8/22)

The Government Tried To Catch UFOs With Huge Radioactive Traps (Source: Jalopnik)
Ex-Pentagon official turned whistleblower Luis Elizondo has been making some pretty outlandish claims about the U.S. government’s knowledge of alien life this week. The whistleblower, who reportedly once led a secret government UFO program, claims there was once a plan to try and catch and study an alien craft. Elizondo claims that the government once hatched an ambitious plan to entice alien craft to Earth with an enormous nuclear footprint. Once a UFO passed close by, the government’s trap would spring into action and capture the craft. (8/22)

MeerKAT Observations Detect a Mysterious Faint Radio Ring (Source: Phys.org)
An international team of astronomers reports a serendipitous discovery of a new radio ring toward the Galactic center. The newfound object is relatively faint and its true nature is yet unknown. Recent wide area radio continuum surveys have revealed the presence of low surface brightness ring-like radio sources, often associated with the late phases of stellar evolution. These so-called odd radio circles (ORCs) are in general mysterious gigantic rings of radio waves and their origin is still unexplained. (8/21)

The New Generation of Heavy Lift Rockets is Rising to Challenge SpaceX (Source: Tech Crunch)
We’ve surveyed the current medium-, heavy- and super-heavy lift rocket landscape, from vehicles that are currently operational to those rockets yet to fly. We decided to exclude smaller launchers in development – like Stoke Space’s Nova and ABL Space’s RS1 – but even so, this is a fairly broad view. Some of the rockets we discuss below may not compete directly with each other and will vary widely in price.

Any one of them coming online would likely mean a shake-up to their vehicle class: Relativity’s Terran R could destabilize Falcon 9’s dominance; New Glenn and Starship could unlock regular travel to the moon and beyond. If even one succeeds, which is all but a certainty, it will change everything. Click here. (8/21)

Port Canaveral Cancels New Cruise Terminal Over Space Industry Concerns (Source: SPACErePORT)
On Wednesday, Port Canaveral's plans to build a new cruise ship terminal have been canceled. The Canaveral Port Authority voted 4-1 against the project after receiving a letter from Florida state officials expressing concerns about the potential impact on the space industry and cargo needs. The officials threatened to withhold current and future funding from the port if the plans went ahead. (8/21)

Starpath Robotics, Founded by Former SpaceX employees, Raised $12 Million for Lunar Power (Source: Business Insider)
Starpath Robotics, a startup founded by former SpaceX engineers who want to make lunar spacecraft reusable, has raised $12 million in seed funding. Founded in 2022, Starpath plans to mine lunar craters for ice-containing water to help make rocket propellant so spacecraft can refuel and return to Earth. Starpath's proposed solution will use a large solar array on the Moon's surface to provide the power to run mining rovers and a fuel processing plant. That energy will be used to heat the ice before splitting the water's hydrogen and oxygen and liquefying the oxygen to combine it with combustible fuel, making rocket propellant. (8/20)

Space Force Is Calling for Space Weapons to Dominate the Final Frontier (Source: Popular Mechanics)
The head of Space Command has called for the United States to develop what he calls “space fires”—a clear reference to some kind of weapons system. General Stephen Whiting stated that the U.S. must develop these weapons to ensure “space superiority” over adversaries, deter others from attacking American space assets, and use them operationally in the event of war. While space has remained free of weapons for the better part of a century, a new Cold War with China and Russia could quickly result in orbital weaponry sooner than anyone expects. (8/20)

Space Cadets for Harris Livestream was as Cringey as You Thought it Would Be (Source: Washington Examiner)
Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign has been so addicted to identity politics that it has sliced and diced various groups to support her quest for the White House. White Dudes for Harris and Evangelicals for Harris are two recent examples. However, the cringiest of all of these groups has to be Space Cadets for Harris, which recently held their fundraising livestream. Space Cadets for Harris is an eclectic group that includes former astronauts, scientists, Star Trek actors, Poppy Northcutt, a pioneering former female NASA engineer, two former NASA administrators, and Bill Nye. (8/20)

Protecting Military Space Technology from Bad Actors (Source: FNN)
With new technologies comes new ways that bad actors can get a hold of your software. It doesn’t get more cutting edge than military space technology, so that means the security practices in place need to be top notch and updated just as frequently. To find out how it’s going about that, we talk to Lt. Col. Laila Barasha, material leader at the Evolved Strategic SATCOM (ESS) ground segment with the U.S. Space Force. Click here. (8/20)

UF Pioneers Brewing Beer in Space: The Future of Fermentation (Source: Earth.com)
A recent study by University of Florida (UF) researchers sheds light on how beer yeast might behave when fermented in outer space, revealing insights that could have far-reaching applications not only for brewing but for a range of fermentation-based industries. Published in the journal Beverages, this pioneering research is a collaborative effort between UF’s Food Science and Human Nutrition Department and the Horticultural Sciences Department, bringing together expertise from multiple fields to explore the possibilities of space fermentation.

“We are absolutely going to be conducting fermentations under microgravity in the future, as we continue space exploration, and there are going to be outcomes that will be very difficult for us to predict,” said Andrew MacIntosh, a UF/IFAS associate professor of food science. “It’s essential that we look at what some of those outcomes may be now."

The study, led by undergraduate researcher Pedro Fernandez Mendoza, involved mashing barley grown in Live Oak, Florida, to create wort. This liquid was then fermented using Saccharomyces pastorianus, the yeast species used for brewing lagers. The researchers divided the wort into six identical samples, three of which were fermented under simulated microgravity using a clinostat. (8/20)

India Aims 10% Share in Global Space Economy in 10 Years (Source: Business Standard)
India has outlined an ambitious 25-year vision plan for the space sector, which includes vaulting the size of the space economy from around 2 per cent globally to 10 per cent in the next decade, setting up a human space station, and sending an Indian to the Moon by 2040. S Somanath, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), expects the size of India's space economy to zoom from $9 billion currently to $45 billion in the next ten years, with the private sector playing a major role. (8/20)

Philippine Space Policy the Focus of Essay Competition (Source: Philsa)
The Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) officially announces the winners of its Space Policy and Law Essay Writing contest. Participants were required to write an essay centered on the question: What is the importance of the study of law in our country’s quest to be a spacefaring and space capable nation? (8/21)

NASA Wants Clarity on Orion Heat Shield Issue Before Stacking Artemis II Rocket (Source: Ars Technica)
NASA would like to start stacking the Space Launch System rocket for the Artemis II mission—the first human flight around the Moon since 1972—sometime next month, but the agency's exploration chief says the milestone could be delayed as engineers continue studying the readiness of the Orion spacecraft's heat shield.

The heat shield, already installed at the base of the Orion spacecraft, will take the brunt of the heating when the capsule blazes through Earth's atmosphere at the end of the 10-day mission. On the Artemis I test flight in late 2022, NASA sent an Orion spacecraft to the Moon and back without a crew aboard. The only significant blemish on the test flight was a finding that charred chunks of the heat shield unexpectedly stripped away from the capsule during reentry as temperatures increased to nearly 5,000° Fahrenheit (2,760° Celsius). (8/21)