August 31, 2024

Scientists Detect Invisible Electric Field Around Earth For First Time (Source: Science Alert)
An invisible, weak energy field wrapped around our planet Earth has finally been detected and measured. It's called the ambipolar field, an electric field first hypothesized more than 60 years ago, and its discovery will change the way we study and understand the behavior and evolution of our beautiful, ever-changing world. (8/30)

NASA Makes Room on SpaceX Trip to Return Astronauts Stuck in Orbit (Source: The Guardian)
NASA on Friday cut two astronauts from the next crew to make room on the return trip for the two stuck on the ISS. NASA’s Nick Hague and the Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov will launch in September onboard a SpaceX rocket for the orbiting laboratory. The duo will return with Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore in February. Nasa decided it was too risky for Williams and Wilmore to fly home in their Boeing Starliner capsule, marred by thruster troubles and helium leaks. Bumped from the SpaceX flight: the NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson. NASA said they could fly on future missions. (8/30)

Raytheon Wins AFRL Contract for Satcom Terminals (Source: Space News)
Raytheon Technologies won an Air Force Force Research Lab contract to develop satellite communications terminals for military aircraft. The three-year contract, worth $51.7 million, is part of the Defense Experimentation Using Commercial Space Internet (DEUCSI) program that aims to create advanced satcom networks leveraging commercial space internet constellations. Under the contract, Raytheon will develop multi-band, high-throughput  satellite communications antennas that can be integrated onto various military aircraft. (8/30)

China Wants Better SSA Too (Source: Space News)
Chinese researchers say the country needs to improve its space situational awareness (SSA) capabilities to keep pace with the United States. A study by researchers, many of whom are affiliated with the Space Engineering University in Beijing, assessed U.S. SSA space-based capabilities that involve programs like the Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP) and Silentbarker. The authors concluded China needs to enhance its capabilities, although Western analysts note that China already appears to be doing so. (8/30)

UF Professor Becomes First Academic to Do Suborbital NASA Research in Space (Source: Tampa Bay Times)
University of Florida professor Rob Ferl first began doing space-related research in the 1990s. In 2021, he and research partner Anna-Lisa Paul sent test tubes with British billionaire Richard Branson on a voyage to space on Virgin Galactic’s Unity spaceship. In 2022, they grew plants using soil from the moon. They’ve had 12 experiments at the International Space Station.

On Thursday, Ferl made history again when he became the first academic to conduct an experiment in space on a suborbital spacecraft through a NASA-funded program. At 8:07 a.m. Thursday, Ferl and five other passengers launched on the Jeff Bezos-founded Blue Origin New Shepard to an altitude of 345,958 feet. They spent several minutes in space before returning at 8:19 a.m. to West Texas. (8/31)

FAA Clears SpaceX to Resume Falcon 9 Launches Following Starlink Mission Mishap (Source: WESH)
The Federal Aviation Administration has cleared SpaceX to resume Falcon 9 flights after grounding them on Wednesday due to a mishap during the mission. The FAA had grounded all SpaceX Falcon 9 flights after a fiery mishap during Wednesday morning's Starlink launch. Although Falcon 9 is cleared for future flight operations, the investigation remains ongoing to address what caused the anomaly. (8/30)

Heated Arguments Led to NASA Decision on Starliner (Source: New York Post)
Days after NASA announced that two astronauts had been stranded on the International Space Station, the space agency had a series of contentious meetings with Boeing to determine how to bring them back to Earth, sources at both Boeing and NASA told The Post. The meetings — attended by senior-level employees on both sides — were tense, and often descended into yelling and arguments, sources said. “It was heated,” said a NASA executive familiar with the talks. (8/30)

The CSA is Looking for a Launch Service Provider (Source: SpaceQ)
The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has issued a request for proposals (RFP) for a launch service provider for the CubeSats Initiative in Canada for STEM (CUBICS) program. The CUBICS program is a follow-on to the Canadian CubeSat Project which saw 14 CubeSats from across Canada deployed from the International Space Station using the NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer.

For this RFP the CSA it is seeking “a Sun-Synchronous orbit launch service provider for CubeSats. University teams from across Canada are designing, building and will operate their CubeSats largely through the CSA CUBICS 2022 Announcement of Opportunity. The resulting contract from this RFP will involve providing technical expertise with regards to CubeSat development, integrating CubeSats in the contractor’s deployer, manifesting CubeSats for launch and coordinating all activities for successful orbital deployment.” (8/30)

Chinese Scientists Release AI Model for Lunar Exploration (Source: Xinhua)
The world's first professional, multimodal large language model (LLM) for the field of lunar science has been released in China to significantly accelerate the processing speed of massive amounts of lunar data. The new tool was debuted at the China International Big Data Industry Expo in Guiyang, the capital of southwest China's Guizhou Province, by the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Geochemistry and the Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group.

The Institute of Geochemistry has built a comprehensive "digital moon" platform with the world's most complete bank of data related to the exploration of the moon. (8/30)

Scientists Want to Build a ‘Doomsday’ Vault on the Moon (Source: Grist)
As humanity continues to blow past key climate thresholds, the security risks threatening the longevity of the repository also continue to climb. Launched in 2008 as a “fail-safe” site for more than 1.3 million seed samples, the vault is on an archipelago above the Arctic Circle that researchers have since identified as warming six times faster than the global average.

Those looming threats are, in part, behind a grand vision a team of U.S. scientists introduced in a new study published in the journal BioScience: A new, even more secure vault, this time not just for seeds, but for plant, animal and microbial samples. Oh, and they want to build it on the moon. Automated, and without need of human maintenance, the proposed lunar biorepository would house cryopreserved cells, stored at temperatures so cold that biological activity is suspended. (8/27)

Falcon 9 Launches and Lands Twice Successfully After FAA Stand-Down (Source: Florida Today)
A bright Falcon 9 rocket bolted into the Saturday predawn sky at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport, kicking off Labor Day weekend and loudly declaring SpaceX back in business after a brief grounding by the FAA. Rumbles sounded throughout the Brevard area as the rocket carried 21 Starlink internet satellites to orbit. Not only did SpaceX get back to business in Florida. But another Starlink launch lifted off just over an hour afterward from Vandenburg Space Force Base in California.

The big unknown that still remains is the Polaris Dawn launch. As of Saturday morning, the FAA has the launch slated for no earlier than 3:33 a.m. Wednesday morning. After Polaris Dawn was delayed multiple days due to poor weather forecasts for the splashdown time, SpaceX has yet to provide an official new launch date. (8/31)

Boeing’s No Good, Never-Ending Tailspin Might Take NASA With It (Source: New York Times)
Fifty-five years ago, when humans first walked on the moon, the Apollo 11 astronauts left Earth through the massive power of the Saturn V rocket. The greatest punch came from the rocket’s first stage, which provided 7.5 million pounds of thrust. The awesome spectacle of that first stage was thanks to the work by engineers at Boeing. Fast forward to the present day, and here is a new spectacle in space provided by Boeing. It’s not awesome.

NASA spin doctors object to headlines declaring that the Starliner astronauts are “stranded” or “stuck” in space, pointing out correctly that they are not in jeopardy. But make no mistake: This is a fiasco. And not just because of the strain it puts on Ms. Williams and Mr. Wilmore and their families. Boeing’s engineering woes extend beyond Starliner; they threaten NASA’s bigger goals of going back to the moon through its Artemis program, for which Boeing has become an essential partner.

I was told that a number of retired astronauts are increasingly troubled by Boeing’s performance. This loss in confidence helps put the entire Artemis program into a new state of uncertainty. (8/28)

NASA Contracts Intuitive Machines for 2027 Lunar South Pole Research Mission (Source: Space Daily)
NASA has awarded a $116.9 million contract to Intuitive Machines of Houston to deliver a new set of science experiments and technology demonstrations to the lunar South Pole in 2027 as part of the agency's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. The mission will involve transporting six NASA payloads to a region of the Moon characterized by extremely cold nighttime temperatures, rugged terrain, and permanently shadowed areas that may offer insights into the origins of water across our solar system.

This delivery is a key component of NASA's broader Artemis program, which aims to advance scientific understanding of the Moon and support future crewed missions. The CLPS initiative focuses on enabling a consistent cadence of lunar science and technology missions. (8/30)

SPACECOM Boss Wants to Talk with China on Space Debris (Source: Benzinga)
The head of U.S. Space Command hopes the next time China launches a rocket that leaves behind long-lived space debris, Beijing will give Washington a heads-up, rather than leaving the U.S. to discover the orbital mess on its own. Gen. Stephen N. Whiting referenced two recent incidents involving Chinese space debris as cause for concern and better communication moving forward. (8/29)

NASA Confronts 72% Asteroid Impact Probability: A Planetary Defense Test (Source: SciTech Daily)
NASA’s hypothetical asteroid impact exercises, held every two years, simulate a potential Earth impact to prepare global defense responses. These exercises incorporate realistic asteroid tracking data and emphasize international cooperation in emergency planning and asteroid deflection strategies, highlighted by recent successful tests such as DART.

Making such a scenario realistic and useful for all involved is no small task. Scientists from the Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, which specializes in the tracking and orbital determination of asteroids and comets and finding out if any are hazards to Earth, have played a major role in designing these exercises since the first 11 years ago. (8/28)

Blue Origin's Powerful New Glenn Rocket to Debut Oct. 13 with NASA Mars Launch (Source: Space.com)
The inaugural flight of Blue Origin's New Glenn heavy-lift rocket, which will send NASA's ESCAPADE mission on its way to Mars, now has a tentative launch date. NASA announced on Monday that the mission will launch no earlier than Oct. 13. Blue Origin's first New Glenn rocket will lift off from Space Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, debuting at last after years of delays in its development. An Oct. 13 launch falls within the window of opportunity for traveling to Mars, which occurs every 26 months. (9/29)

NASA Makes Discovery ‘As Important as Gravity’ About Earth (Source: The Telegraph)
A new planet-wide electric field that is as fundamental to Earth as gravity has been discovered in a major scientific breakthrough. The ambipolar electric field, which begins 150 miles above the planet, has been described as a “great invisible force” that lifts up the sky and is responsible for the polar winds. The polar winds interact with the jet streams to help drive the majority of weather patterns across the globe. (8/29)

Youngest Woman Makes Space History on Blue Origin's Space Flight (Source: ABC7.com)
A University of North Carolina student achieved one of her lifelong goals Thursday morning by going into space. Karsen Kitchen, 21, was one of six crew members for Blue Origin's New Shepard 26 flight, which launched around 9 a.m. E.T. The flight took just over 10 minutes launching the crew at a maximum velocity of 2,238 miles per hour. (8/30)

Space Force No. 2 Says There Is Risk of China or Russia Launching Large-Scale Attack in Orbit (Source: Air and Space Forces)
China and Russia have been monitoring U.S. efforts to protect its space assets and are trying to devise ways to counter them, to include a potential large-scale attack, the Space Force’s No. 2 officer said Aug. 28. The Space Force and the Department of Defense have turned to proliferated constellations to make the U.S. satellites less vulnerable to attack and say the U.S. remains ahead in space. (8/28)

Verizon to Start Satellite Messaging on Android Phones (Source: Space News)
Verizon is starting an emergency messaging service using satellites for some Android smartphones. The company announced this week a partnership with Skylo, using L-band services from GEO satellites to provide messaging services for some Google and Samsung phones when out of reach fo terrestrial networks. Verizon said it will offer the service at no charge to customers. Apple started providing a similar service to iPhone users two years ago using Globalstar satellites. (8/30)

Starlink Embroiled in Musk X Controversy in Brazil (Source: CNBC)
Starlink has become entangled in a dispute between Elon Musk's X social network and a Brazilian judge. Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered Starlink's bank accounts in the country frozen to guarantee payment of fines levied against X. Musk, who has stridently attacked de Moraes on X, said that SpaceX would continue to provide Starlink services in Brazil at no charge while its accounts are frozen. X itself could be blocked in Brazil as part of the months-long dispute linked to efforts by the Brazilian government against misinformation on social media platforms. (8/30)

South Korea to Pursue Human Spaceflight (Source: JoongAng Daily)
Human spaceflight is a priority for the head of South Korea's new space agency. Yoon Young-bin, administrator of the Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA), said at a conference Thursday that he wants the agency to "foster new astronauts" through training programs and international partnerships. One South Korean, Yi So-yeon, has been to space so far, flying on a short-duration mission to the ISS in 2008 through an agreement with Russia. (8/30)

ACS3 Deploys Solar Sail (Source: NASA)
A NASA smallsat has successfully deployed a solar sail. NASA said Thursday that Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3) smallsat deployed its sail, according to telemetry relayed back to Earth earlier in the day. High-resolution images of the deployed sail will be downlinked next week. NASA will now test the ability of the 80-square-meter sail to adjust the orbit of the spacecraft. (8/30)

Lueders: SpaceX is Bringing Another 300 Engineers and Technicians to Starbase (Source: Rio Grande Guardian)
SpaceX is about to bring another 300 engineers and technicians to its Starbase facility at Boca Chica. This news was revealed by Kathryn Lueders, general manager of Starbase, at a luncheon event hosted by Brownsville Chamber of Commerce. Lueders was the keynote speaker for a program titled: “Bridging Borders & Beyond – The Impact of US-Mexico Relations and Space Exploration in the Rio Grande Valley.” It was held at Brownsville Events Center. (8/28)