September 2, 2024

General Dynamics Secures $491 Million Contract Extension From Space Development Agency (Source: Space News)
General Dynamics Mission Systems, a unit of defense contractor General Dynamics, has been awarded a $491 million contract extension by the Space Development Agency for satellite ground systems. The modification nearly doubles the company’s existing contract with the Space Development Agency (SDA) to approximately $900 million through 2029. General Dynamics in 2022 was selected to build the ground operations and integration segment for the SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA), a mesh network of satellites in low Earth orbit designed to support global military operations. (8/30)

Space Perspective's Prototype Neptune Now at Port Canaveral (Source: Florida Today)
On Saturday Space Perspective’s prototype sphere Neptune was trucked to Port Canaveral from their hangar at Space Coast Regional Airport. Early Sunday morning the sphere was moved onto the ship Voyager by crane. The high altitude balloon will eventually be taking tourists to the stratosphere. (9/1)

This Company Wants to Reinvent the Space Rocket — as a Space Plane (Source: CNN)
Livingston Holder, an aerospace engineer, former USAF astronaut and program manager of X-33, is now CTO of Radian Aerospace — a Seattle-based company he co-founded in 2016 to revive the dream of the SSTO.

“Things have changed dramatically since the X-33 — we’ve got composite materials that are lighter, tougher and can take a larger thermal range than we had back then. And propulsion is better than anything we had, in terms of how efficiently it burns propellant and how much the systems weigh,” he says. The product of this updated technology is the Radian One, a new space plane that will replace vertical launch with a very unusual system — a rocket-powered sled. Click here. (9/2)

Over 2 Million Pounds of Space Debris Caused by NASA Mission May Create First Human-Made Meteor Shower (Source: New York Post)
Rocky debris caused by a NASA mission could create the first human-made meteor shower. In Sept. 2022, NASA’s Double Asteroids Redirect Test (DART) intentionally collided with a tiny moonlet named Dimorphos, which orbited the asteroid Didymos, to test its asteroid deflection technology.

Scientists believe the crash produced over 2 million pounds of rocks and dust — and a new study suggests fragments of Dimorphos could land around Earth and Mars in 10 to 30 years, and the meteor showers could last for up to a century. (8/31)

China's Starlink-Rival Triggers Anxiety In Washington; Top U.S. Commander Wants To Keep A Tab On Qianfan G60 (Source: Eurasian Times)
As China ramps up satellite launches in an effort to develop its own version of the Starlink satellite network, the United States is faced with a new challenge: piles of space debris that would likely be generated in the process of releasing these satellites and the opacity surrounding such space trash.

The commander of the U.S. Space Command, Gen. Stephen N. Whiting, said he hopes Beijing will alert Washington the next time it launches a rocket that leaves behind persistent space debris instead of forcing the United States to figure out the orbital mess on its own. (9/1)

Huge SpaceX Rocket Explosion Shredded the Upper Atmosphere (Source: Nature)
The huge explosions that destroyed SpaceX’s Starship mega-rocket last year also blew one of the biggest ‘holes’ ever detected in the ionosphere, a layer of thin air in the upper atmosphere. The hole stretched for thousands of kilometers and persisted for nearly an hour, a study found. Study co-author Yury Yasyukevich says that the extent of the disturbance took his team by surprise: “It means we don’t understand processes which take place in the atmosphere.” He adds that such phenomena could have implications for future autonomous vehicles that might require precision satellite navigation. (9/1)

Real Estate Investor Moves to Ease Space Coast Strain (Source: Space News)
Real estate investor Hines plans to start building a large industrial complex on Florida’s Space Coast this year to help ease strained infrastructure at the world’s busiest launch hub. Hines aims to construct up to three rear-load buildings totaling 60,000 square meters by the end of 2025 under the first phase the project, located close to Florida’s Space Coast Regional Airport, the nearest commercial airport to the Kennedy Space Center.

The Space Coast Innovation Park (SCIP) could later span 279,000 square meters. Ryan Wood, managing director of industrial development and acquisitions at Hines, said the company is targeting aerospace names and their suppliers that are struggling to find enough space for operations in the area. (8/30)

Starliner Spacecraft Noises Puzzle Astronauts (Source: Ars Technica)
On Saturday NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore noticed some strange noises emanating from a speaker inside the Starliner spacecraft. "I've got a question about Starliner," Wilmore radioed down to Mission Control, at Johnson Space Center in Houston. "There's a strange noise coming through the speaker ... I don't know what's making it."

Wilmore said he was not sure if there was some oddity in the connection between the station and the spacecraft causing the noise, or something else. He asked the flight controllers in Houston to see if they could listen to the audio inside the spacecraft. A few minutes later, Mission Control radioed back that they were linked via "hardline" to listen to audio inside Starliner, which has now been docked to the International Space Station for nearly three months. (9/1)