September 24, 2024

New Glenn Completes Second Stage Hotfire (Source: Blue Origin)
New Glenn’s second stage (GS2) successfully completed a risk reduction hotfire test today, a milestone on our road to first flight, scheduled for launch in November, from Launch Complex 36 in Cape Canaveral, FL. NG-1 will carry Blue Ring technology as its first manifested payload. The hotfire lasted 15 seconds and marked the first time we operated the vehicle as an integrated system. (9/23)

An Ambitious Mission to Neptune Could Study Both the Planet and Triton (Source: Phys.org)
The Arcanum mission is designed to orbit Neptune and land on Triton, giving insight into both objects of interest in the system. Neptune has some of the highest winds in the solar system and the "Great Dark Spot" storm system. Triton is even more interesting, with potential active volcanism and possibly a subsurface ocean. Given the different requirements to study both the planet and moon, Arcanum is split into three distinct parts—an orbiter, an "orbital maneuverer," and a lander. (9/22)

Neither Elon Musk Nor Anybody Else Will Ever Colonize Mars (Source: Defector)
Mars does not have a magnetosphere. Any discussion of humans ever settling the red planet can stop right there, but of course it never does. Do you have a low-cost plan for, uh, creating a gigantic active dynamo at Mars's dead core? No? Well. It's fine. I'm sure you have some other workable, sustainable plan for shielding live Mars inhabitants from deadly solar and cosmic radiation, forever.

Let's imagine that Mars's lack of a magnetic field somehow is not an issue. Would you like to try to simulate what life on Mars would be like? Step one is to clear out your freezer. Step two is to lock yourself inside of it. (You can bring your phone, if you like!) When you get desperately hungry, your loved ones on the outside may deliver some food to you no sooner than nine months after you ask for it. This nine-month wait will also apply when you start banging on the inside of the freezer, begging to be let out.

Earth's atmosphere is rich with oxygen due in large part to all of the green plants photosynthesizing here. We got green plants out the ass. Some people have the idea that making Mars's atmosphere breathable is as simple as introducing some green plants to it. Earth's South Pole, like everywhere else on Earth, is around 44 million miles closer to the sun than any point on Mars. It sits inside the nutritious atmosphere of a planet teeming with native life. Compared to the most hospitable place on Mars it is an unimaginably fertile Eden. Here is a list of the plant-life that grows there: Nothing. Click here. (9/11)

Musk Says SpaceX Plans to Launch 5 Starships to Mars in 2 Years (Source: WKRC)
SpaceX plans to launch five Starships to Mars in two years. Elon Musk said the company plans to launch five uncrewed Starships to Mars and if all of them land safely, then crewed missions are possible in four years. Musk also said if the American spacecraft manufacturer does encounter challenges, crewed missions would be postponed another two years.

"No matter what happens with landing success, SpaceX will increase the number of spaceships traveling to Mars exponentially with every transit opportunity," said Musk. (9/22)

NSpOC – Space Related Risks Increased in August (Source: Unmanned Airspace)
The number of space-related threats, risks, and hazards were higher in August than in July with more re-entry, conjunction and space weather alerts issued by the UK’s National Space Operations Centre (NSpOC). The NSpOC monitored 89 uncontrolled re-entries in August to protect the UK and UK Overseas Territories as well as support its international partners. This represents more than double the number of objects re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere in August than July. The center largely attributes the increase to the planned decommissioning of small communications satellites. (9/16)

Quantum Entanglement At The Highest Energy Yet Observed At CERN (Source: IFL Science)
Experiments at the Large Hadron Collider have shown that top quarks, the heaviest of all elementary particles, can end up being entangled. Such quantum entanglement is happening at the highest possible energy we have ever measured, 12 orders of magnitude higher than standard experiments. 

The intriguing results were seen by the ATLAS experiment last year in preliminary results and it has now been confirmed by a fellow experiment, Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS). Both detectors report spin entanglement between top quarks with a statistical significance larger than five standard deviations. In physics terms, it means that it is definitely a detection and not a fluke. (9/23)

HEXAGON vs. Kirov: American Satellite Reconnaissance and the Soviet Union’s Most Powerful Warship (Source: Space Review)
During the Cold War, the US intelligence community was able to track the development a major new Soviet warship class using satellite imagery. Dwayne Day describes how those images helped analysts provide key insights into the building of the Kirov. Click here. (9/24)
 
“Pending Regulatory Approval”: Launch Companies Struggle with Licensing (Source: Space Review)
SpaceX says that its next Starship vehicle is ready for launch but that the FAA won’t be able to provide a license for it until November. Jeff Foust reports on an increasingly strident dispute between SpaceX and the FAA amid broader industry concerns about the launch licensing process. Click here. (9/24)
 
Isle of Wight Aerospace: Flying Boats, Rocket Interceptors, Hovercraft, and Launch Vehicles (Source: Space Review)
The Isle of Wight, just off the coast of England, is known for shipbuilding and holidays, but also has played a role in aerospace. Trevor Williams examines efforts by one aerospace company there after World War II that led to the development of aircraft and a launch vehicle. Click here. (9/24)
 
What Will Happen in the First Space Hostage Crisis? (Source: Space Review)
A hostage crisis in space sounds like something out of science fiction, but the growth of commercial space capabilities could one day make it fact. Three experts examine how such a crisis might emerge and what the US government can do to prepare for it. Click here. (9/24)

Space Force Taps Four Companies to Design ‘Resilient GPS’ Satellites (Source: Space News)
The Department of the Air Force announced Monday that Astranis, Axient, L3Harris Technologies and Sierra Space had been invited to submit proposals for the Resilient GPS (R-GPS) program, which seeks to explore the use of proliferated small satellites transmitting core GPS signals. The selection marks the first of three phases aimed at producing up to eight R-GPS satellites, potentially ready for launch by 2028. Subsequent phases will involve down-selecting companies for final design reviews and prototype development, with one or more vendors ultimately chosen to build the initial satellites. (9/23)

AFRL NTS-3 GPS Project Approaching Launch on Vulcan Centaur (Source: Space News)
A separate effort to develop improvements to GPS may finally be approaching launch. The Navigation Technology Satellite-3 (NTS-3), developed by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, aims to test advanced technologies for future GPS and satellite navigation systems. It may launch by the end of the year if ULA's Vulcan Centaur rocket is certified shortly after an upcoming test flight. Once in geostationary orbit, AFRL plans 100 flight experiments using NTS-3, which has six electronically steerable array panels to direct energy to specific areas, potentially improving signal strength in areas with interference or weak GPS coverage. (9/23)

House Passes 2024 NASA Authorization Bill (Source: Space News)
The House passed a NASA authorization bill Monday. The House approved the NASA Reauthorization Act of 2024 with a 366-21 vote after a brief debate on the House floor where no members spoke against the bill. The legislation, approved by the House Science Committee in July, would largely keep major NASA initiatives on track, formally authorizing a number of existing programs while also directing several reports on topics ranging from non-NASA use of the SLS to studies of Hubble servicing missions. The bill goes to the Senate, where it is unclear if there is interest in taking it up. (9/23)

NASA Picks Firefly to Launch NOAA Satellite (Source: Space News)
NASA selected Firefly Aerospace to launch a NOAA satellite. NASA announced Monday that it awarded a task order through its Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) contract to Firefly for the launch of the QuickSounder spacecraft. NASA did not disclose the value of the task order. QuickSounder is the first element of NOAA’s Near Earth Orbit Network (NEON), a new generation of polar-orbiting weather satellites, and is slated to be ready for launch by February 2026. (9/23)

Chinese Rideshare Mission Launches From Sea-Based Platform (Source: Space News)
A sea-based launch placed eight Chinese satellites into orbit late Monday. A Jielong-3 solid-fuel rocket lifted off from a platform off the coast of Haiyang city, in the eastern province of Shandong, at 10:31 p.m. Eastern. The rideshare mission carried eight satellites for several companies and organizations. The launch was the fourth for the Jielong-3, which can carry up to 1,500 kilograms to sun-synchronous orbit. (9/23)

NASA SPAR Lab Sharing Spacecraft AI Tools (Source: Space News)
A NASA lab is sharing AI tools it has developed to make spacecraft operations more efficient. The Space Autonomy and Resilience (SPAR) lab at the Goddard Space Flight Center created the Onboard Artificial Intelligence Research platform, called OnAIR. It is an open-source-software pipeline and cognitive architecture tool that is available through the GitHub platform. OnAIR was tested in a project with drones flying in Alaska to collect data on methane emissions from permafrost, as well as on the ISS. (9/23)

X-Rays From Nuclear Explosion Could Divert an Asteroid (Source: Science News)
X-rays from a nuclear explosion could help divert an incoming asteroid. A study published Monday examined how the blast of X-rays created in a nuclear detonation near an asteroid could vaporize material on the surface of an asteroid. That would create a plume of gas that pushes the asteroid, changing its trajectory. Researchers said this approach could work for larger asteroids where crashing a spacecraft into the asteroid, the "kinetic impactor" approach tested by NASA two years ago on the DART mission, would be insufficient to deflect the asteroid. (9/24)

China's Astronauts Conduct Emergency Drills and Deploy Payloads Into Space (Source: Space.com)
Life remains busy in orbit for China's astronauts with a range of drills, maintenance and experiments to carry out. The Shenzhou 18 crew — Ye Guangfu, Li Cong, and Li Guangsu — currently aboard the Tiangong space station recently went through a depressurization drill, as seen in new footage released by China's human spaceflight agency on Sep. 15.

The footage shows the three astronauts donning masks attached to air bottles before apparently seeking for the source of a simulated leak. The trio, who have been aboard the Tiangong space station since late April, conducted a similar drill in July with a simulated debris strike and decompression event. (9/23)

Musk Complains Again About Launch Regulations (Source: Benzinga)
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Monday that there are multiple regulatory hurdles to launching a rocket, including getting clearance from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “We need multiple Fish licenses to launch a rocket (actually)!,” Musk wrote on social media platform X, referring to clearance from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service required ahead of space missions confirming that the operations will not impact surrounding wildlife.

On Sunday, Musk also raised concerns about the Starship program getting “smothered” by government bureaucracy. The bureaucracy is rising and the regulatory red tape is affecting all large projects in America, the CEO said. The regulations, Musk previously said, will intensify if Kamala Harris is elected President in the upcoming elections. While Republican Donald Trump has expressed willingness to initiate a government efficiency commission aimed at reducing regulations, the red tape would only rise under a Democratic party administration, Musk opined. (9/23)