September 6, 2024

NASA to Support DARPA Robotic Satellite Servicing Program (Source: NASA)
NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) have signed an interagency agreement to collaborate on a satellite servicing demonstration in geosynchronous Earth orbit, where hundreds of satellites provide communications, meteorological, national security, and other vital functions.

Under this agreement, NASA will provide subject matter expertise to DARPA’s Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites (RSGS) program to help complete the technology development, integration, testing, and demonstration. The RSGS servicing spacecraft will advance in-orbit satellite inspection, repair, and upgrade capabilities. (9/5)

 Traffic Piling Up at Port Canaveral with Space Industry Vessels (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
The arrival this week of Blue Origin’s new rocket landing support ship marks a busy time for Port Canaveral as government and private maritime ship traffic begins to pick up steam. Earlier this week, the port also hosted the Space Perspective MV Voyager ship, which took advantage of one of the port’s mobile harbor cranes to place a capsule that will someday be used on space balloon flights by the company. (9/6)

Polaris Dawn Mission Will Push the Envelope Further Than Any Private Mission Has Before (Source: The Conversation)
The Polaris Dawn’s four-person civilian crew will receive a hefty dose of radiation, getting as much in a few hours as they would in 20 years on the Earth. NASA is doing research to understand the extent of the health risks from radiation.

The mission will also include a spacewalk – the first for nongovernment astronauts. It will use spacesuits never tested in space. Since the spacecraft they’re using – the SpaceX Dragon – has no airlock, the inside of the capsule will be exposed to the vacuum of space, with all the crew members wearing spacesuits.

Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov nearly died during the first spacewalk in 1965, and other spacewalks have led to temporary blindness, near drowning and nearly being lost in space forever. A spacesuit is like a miniature spacecraft, and it has to withstand rapid temperature changes of hundreds of degrees when moving in and out of direct sunlight. Even a small tear or puncture can be fatal. (9/6)

First Ever Tour Of Blue Origin's Massive New Glenn Launch Pad w/ Jeff Bezos (Source: Everyday Astronaut)
Join Jeff Bezos for a tour of Blue Origin's New Glenn launch pad, LC-36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. Click here. (9/5) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu8SlfmpKM4

Sailors Secretly Installed Starlink On Their Littoral Combat Ship (Source: The War Zone)
As the Independence class Littoral Combat Ship USS Manchester plied the waters of the West Pacific in 2023, it had a totally unauthorized Starlink satellite internet antenna secretly installed on top of the ship by its gold crew’s chiefs. That antenna and associated WiFi network were set up without the knowledge of the ship’s captain, according to a fantastic Navy Times story about this absolutely bizarre scheme. It presented such a huge security risk, violating the basic tenets of operational security and cyber hygiene, that it is hard to believe. (9/5)

ABL's Recent Launch Failure: A Detailed Analysis (Source: New Space Economy)
ABL Space Systems has been making strides in the burgeoning small satellite launch industry. Founded in 2017, the company has quickly gained attention with its cost-effective and modular RS1 rocket designed to launch small payloads to low Earth orbit (LEO). However, like many young companies in the space sector, ABL has faced significant challenges, including its most recent high-profile launch failures. This article provides an in-depth analysis of these failures, the company’s response, and what it means for the future of ABL and the broader commercial space industry. Click here. (9/5)

SpaceX Blew Up Two Rockets and Punched a Massive Hole in One of Earth's Layers (Source: Popular Mechanics)
Lying at the edge of the planet’s atmosphere and outer space some 50 to 400 miles above the surface, the ionosphere is a sea of electrically charged particles vital to global radio and GPS technologies as well as protecting us from harmful solar rays. Because of its important role in the everyday function of modern society, scientists are eager to understand how disturbances in the ionosphere can impact life on Earth, and that’s why team of researchers from institutes and universities in Russia and France analyzed the explosion of the tallest and most powerful rocket ever built.

Although bad news for SpaceX, the explosion oddly presented a rare opportunity to study aspects of the ionosphere that would, under normal conditions, be too weak to detect. There’s also a well-documented history of human-made rockets ripping open holes in this electrically-charged protective layer. Scientists report that this Starship-induced ion hole caused by “catastrophic phenomena” closed up after 30 or 40 minutes. But these kinds of interactions are still poorly understood, and that’s concerning considering how central the ionosphere is to global technologies—not to mention human health. (9/5)

MIT Team Wins Grand Prize at First Nations Launch Competition (Source: Space Daily)
The members of the MIT First Nations Launch team had never built a drone before when they faced the 2024 NASA First Nations Launch High-Power Rocket Competition. This year's challenge invited teams to design, build, and launch a high-power rocket carrying a scientific payload that deploys mid-air and safely returns to the ground, integrating Indigenous methodologies. The eight-student team of all Indigenous students earned the competition's grand prize, as well as first place in the written portion. (9/5)

Korea Space Transport Ambitions Hopes to Challenge SpaceX (Source: Space Daily)
South Korea's new space agency said Thursday it was looking to grow its share of the industry and take on Elon Musk's SpaceX, as it unveiled plans to create a "space passageway". The Korea Aerospace Administration (KASA) opened in May with the goal of turning the land of K-pop into a new space powerhouse, following the United States, Russia, and China.

"We're going to make the aerospace industry a core industry, and we're aiming for a 10 percent global market share by 2045," Yoon Young-bin, administrator of KASA, told reporters at a press conference. Currently, transport rates for SpaceX range around $2,000 to $3,000 per kilogram, with many countries using them to get people or supplies to the International Space Station, and put satellites into orbit. "We aim to reduce the cost of space transport within low Earth orbit to below $1,000 per kilogram," said Yoon. (9/5)

China's Military Spaceplane Lands After Months in Orbit (Source: Space News)
A Chinese robotic spaceplane landed Thursday night after nearly nine months in orbit. The experimental reusable spaceplane likely landed around 9:10 p.m. Eastern at the Lop Nur landing site, based on orbital data. Chinese media announced that the spaceplane had successfully landed but provided no other details. The spaceplane spent 267 days in orbit on its third flight, including carrying out proximity operations with a small satellite it released. (9/6)

Viasat Wins $135 Million Army Contract for Force Tracking (Source: Space News)
Viasat won a U.S. Army contract to modernize a system used for tracking friendly forces. The $153 million contract covers technical support to update the Blue Force Tracker (BFT) system that the Army uses to know where allied units are on the battlefield. BFT utilizes GPS technology to track troop and vehicle locations, allowing soldiers and commanders to view updated positions on screens in vehicles and aircraft. The system leverages Viasat's global L-band network, which is used for emergency data transmission and voice communications. (9/6)

Blue Origin Racing the Clock for Mars-Window Launch (Source: Space News)
Blue Origin is racing the clock to launch its first New Glenn rocket next month. The company announced this week that it rolled out the second stage of the first New Glenn to the launch pad for an upcoming static-fire test, and that the ship that will serve as the landing platform for the first stage had arrived in Florida. The company is working to get the rocket ready for a launch between Oct. 13 and 21, the window that its payload, NASA's ESCAPADE mission, requires in order to get to Mars. NASA only recently disclosed the exact launch window for the mission after previously being unusually vague about when the mission would launch. Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp acknowledged last week that the company has "lots to do" to be ready in time. (9/6)

Europe's Aerospacelab Opens SoCal Factory (Source: Space News)
European smallsat manufacturer Aerospacelab has opened a factory in the United States. The company's new 3,300-square-meter factory in Southern California is capable of producing two satellites a week on a single shift. The company sees opportunities from the U.S. Space Force and Space Development Agency as well as American companies, but has not disclosed how many satellites it has under contract in the U.S. Aerospacelab's original factory in Belgium can produce 24 satellites a year and is building a new factory there capable of 500 satellites annually. (9/6)

SpaceX Launches NRO Satellite From California Spaceport (Source: Space News)
A Falcon 9 launched the third set of satellites for an NRO constellation Thursday night. The Falcon 9 lifted off at 11:20 p.m. Eastern from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on the NROL-113 mission. The launch was the third in a series of launches carrying imaging satellites developed by SpaceX and Northrop Grumman for a proliferated constellation. NRO did not disclose how many satellites were on the launch, but the first two launches each carried about 20 satellites. (9/6)

China Launches 10 Satellites for Geespace Navsat Constellation (Source: Reuters)
A Chinese company launched 10 satellites for its own communications constellation. A Long March 6 lifted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Thursday and placed 10 satellites into orbit for Geespace, a subsidiary of automaker Geely. The satellites are part of a constellation that would provide communications and navigation services for vehicles. (9/6)

NOAA Awards $10.4 Million for Radio Occultation Weather Data (Source: NOAA)
NOAA has awarded nearly $10.4 million in task orders to two companies for satellite radio occultation weather data. NOAA said Thursday it selected PlanetiQ and Spire for the task orders to provide 3,000 near-real-time global navigation satellite system radio occultation data profiles per day for a year. Those profiles are used to support weather forecasting models. PlanetiQ won about two-thirds of the overall funding. (9/6)

NASA Solar Sail Working As Planned (Source: NASA)
NASA says a solar sail smallsat is working well now that the sail is deployed. The agency released the first image from the spacecraft Thursday, showing part of the roughly 80-square-meter sail. The spacecraft is tumbling, which explains the variations in brightness noticed by some observers, but NASA says that tumbling is intentional as controllers turned off the spacecraft's attitude control system for the sail deployment. Once engineers complete their analysis of the deployed sail and its booms, that attitude control system will be turned back on and the sail used for maneuvers. (9/6)

Outer Solar System is More Populated Than Previously Thought, Research Reveals (Source: Phys.org)
Survey observations using the Subaru Telescope's ultra-widefield prime focus camera have revealed that there may be a population of small bodies further out in the Kuiper Belt waiting to be discovered. The results, which are important for an understanding of the formation of the solar system, were obtained through an international collaboration between the Subaru Telescope and the New Horizons spacecraft traveling through the outer solar system. (9/5)

Small Exoplanet Challenges Existing Theories on Planet Formation (Source: Phys.org)
A research team discovered a small planet that displays peculiar orbital motion. The shimmying planet, located 455 light-years from Earth, shows that planetary systems can be considerably more complex than researchers have previously thought. Planet TOI-1408c has a mass equivalent to eight Earths and circles very close to a larger planet, the hot gas giant TOI-1408b. After starting to study both planets and their star, TOI-1408, in detail, the researchers felt puzzled. The small planet has a very peculiar orbital motion. The interactions between the two planets and their star can be likened to a rhythmic dance. (9/5)

House Republicans Push Controversial Issues as Government Shutdown Looms (Source: The Hill)
House Republicans' planned proposal for a six-month continuing resolution and support of a new voter eligibility law appeals to conservative lawmakers but will make negotiations with Democrats difficult. Some Republicans have expressed concerns that the proposal heightens the risk of a government shutdown.

The GOP plan pairs a six-month continuing resolution (CR) with a Trump-supported bill to require proof of citizenship to register to vote — grants a win to the House Freedom Caucus, which pushed for a longer stopgap that includes the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act. Pairing the SAVE Act with the CR grants a request from Trump, who has continued to focus on unsubstantiated allegations of illegal voting. Editor's Note: The CR would lock NASA spending at its previous budget level, driving potential cuts and delays. (9/5)

With Both X and Starlink Under His Control, the World’s Richest Man Wields Unprecedented Power (Source: The Atlantic)
For a service that took off only about five years ago, Starlink has become impressively ubiquitous, available for use on all seven continents. Musk dispatched terminals to places reeling from natural disasters, and then to the front lines of war. Soon, Musk found himself with immense decision-making power, as Ukrainian authorities pleaded with him to activate Starlink in Crimea. By the end of the war’s first year, when SpaceX no longer wanted to foot the bill for Starlink operations, the Pentagon jumped to take over the job before SpaceX could cut off access.

As one undersecretary said, “Even though Musk is not technically a diplomat or statesman, I felt it was important to treat him as such, given the influence he had on this issue.” Israel has imposed internet blackouts and destroyed telecommunications infrastructure in Gaza, a common tactic in modern warfare, but after lengthy negotiations Israeli authorities allowed SpaceX to activate Starlink in one hospital in Gaza, with more service on the way. The deal resembled agreements between Israel and other world powers for humanitarian aid, but as far as we know, the USA did not send Musk to the Middle East to broker it. He flew over on his private jet.

Other companies are working on their own internet constellations, including Amazon, but they’re lagging far behind—and none of their leaders owns prominent social-media companies, where they can govern the flow of information. Compared with SpaceX, the world’s town square, as Musk calls X, is a cauldron of chaos, especially for users. Since Musk took over Twitter, he has made it a cozy home for far-right provocateurs, reinstated the accounts of previously banned bad actors, promoted conspiracy theories, and made the website worse at separating fact from fiction. (9/4)

Moon's Volcanic Activity as Recent as 120 Million Years Ago, Study Suggests (Source: Science Alert)
Three tiny, microscopic beads of glass retrieved from the surface of the Moon reveal that the wild past of Earth's largest natural satellite was actually not all that long ago. According to a thorough and painstaking new analysis of material collected by the China National Space Administration's Chang'e‑5 mission, these once-molten minerals count as evidence of lunar volcanism that occurred as recently as just 120 million years ago.

That's significantly later than we expect to see such activity on the Moon, which was very volcanically active between around 4.4 and 2 billion years ago. After this, it's thought the Moon had cooled too much for significant volcanism. The discovery reveals that the Moon still has many secrets – and we might just have to go there to get to the bottom of them. (9/6)

A Lot is Riding on Blue Origin’s New Glenn Rocket Launch (Source: Interesting Engineering)
It’s easy to forget that Blue Origin was founded before SpaceX. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos set up the private space firm in 2000. More than two years later, in March 2002, Elon Musk founded SpaceX. The rest, as the saying goes, is history. Since that time, SpaceX has flown more than ten crewed missions to orbit using its Falcon 9 rocket. Blue Origin has flown a number of space tourist and scientific flights to suborbital space using its New Shepard vehicle. Crucially, though, it has yet to reach orbit.

Blue Origin’s reputation is at stake with the launch of New Glenn, which was originally scheduled to fly in 2020. The company hopes to take on SpaceX’s dominance of the heavy launch space. It is also racing against the clock to launch in time for an upcoming Mars-Earth alignment window. New Glenn is set to be one of the most powerful rockets in the world. The launch vehicle’s reusable first stage will be powered by BE-3U engines, each producing 110,000 lbs of thrust at launch. It will have the capacity to lift 45 metric tons to low-Earth orbit.

Blue Origin’s experience building BE-4 engines for customers, including the United Launch Alliance, puts it in a good position. Still, the stakes are high for the first New Glenn launch. Ironically, given Rocket Lab’s launch experience, the company will have to rely on Blue Origin’s first mission to orbit to launch its ESCAPADE mission to Mars. (9/4)

NASA Reaffirms Decision to Cancel OSAM-1 (Source: Space News)
NASA is proceeding with plans to shut down a satellite servicing mission at the end of the month after rejecting a proposal to revise the mission to meet a 2026 launch date. In a statement posted online Sept. 5, NASA announced it would proceed with closing out the On-orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing 1 (OSAM-1) project, ending work on the mission at the end of the current fiscal year, which concludes Sep. 30.

NASA announced March 1 that it had decided to cancel the mission, which was years behind schedule and far over budget. A fiscal year 2024 appropriations bill enacted later that month, though, directed NASA to develop a plan that would revise OSAM-1 in a way that could allow it to launch in 2026. (9/5)

The Artificial Divide Between the Space and Geospatial Sectors (Source: Space News)
After the plenary of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) in June, the global space community typically looks to the 75th International Astronautical Congress in the fall for the next opportunity to come together to discuss the major issues facing the sector. But this overlooks another major UN-convened forum that took place in early August and that happens to be very relevant to the success of global space efforts: the 14th Session of the UN Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM).

Beyond the alphabet soup, there is a disconnect between those who follow UN-COPUOS and those who follow UN-GGIM, resulting in an artificial gap between the space and geospatial communities that especially hurts emerging space ecosystems. Click here. (9/4)

Canopy Wins Air Force Contracts to Develop Thermal Protection Systems (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Air Force awarded Canopy Aerospace two contracts with a combined value of $2.8 million to develop thermal protection systems (TPS). One contract focuses on Canopy’s transpiration-cooled TBS. Under a second contract, Canopy will embed high-temperature sensors in the TPS material. Denver-based Canopy was founded in 2021 to develop manufacturing processes that rely on software, automation and 3D-printing to supply heat shields for spacecraft and hypersonic vehicles. (9/5)

SpaceX Launches Thursday Starlink Mission From Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Space.com)
A SpaceX rocket carrying a new batch of Starlink internet satellites launched into orbit from Florida on Sep. 5, then returned to Earth in a flawless droneship landing. The used Falcon 9 rocket carried aloft SpaceX's 7,001st Starlink satellite. (9/5)

Space Force Wants More Money To Battle Adversaries, Satellite Aircraft Tracking (Sources: Breaking Defense, Aviation Week)
The U.S. Space Force must invest quickly in new satellite communications (SATCOM) and resilient GPS technologies—along with capabilities to protect on-orbit systems—to combat more sophisticated and widespread offensive activity in space, the service’s vice chief of space operations says.

By the early 2030s, the Space Force hopes to have satellites equipped with sensors to target aircraft in the hands of operators, according to the service’s second in command, Gen. Michael Guetlein. Satellites equipped with Air Moving Target Indicators (AMTI), which would send precise tracking data to “shooters” on the ground, at sea and in the air, would be a new capability. (9/4)

SpaceX Faces Skepticism Over Environmental Damage (Source: Texas Tribune)
ENTRE is among a coalition of Rio Grande Valley groups that have scrutinized the activity at Starbase, SpaceX's Boca Chica headquarters, and have spent years pushing back on attempts by the company to expand its operations here. ENTRE and other concerned groups continue to challenge the company and regulatory agencies over fears of the environmental impact and increasing denial of beach access to the public.

In a letter to the FAA, they called for a full environmental impact statement, in English and Spanish, that takes into account all the potentially adverse effects of SpaceX. They also asked for more time for the public to review the reports. “SpaceX is an issue that's constantly changing, that is getting rubber-stamped permits by regulatory agencies that have really broken processes,” said Bekah Hinojosa, co-founder of the South Texas Environmental Justice Network. (9/4)

New Zealand Joins US Space Defense Effort (Source: RNZ)
New Zealand has accepted a US invitation to join a top-level group that aims to deter hostile actors in space and reduce space debris. The US military made the invite in April to join Operation Olympic Defender, and extended it to France and Germany, too. Minister of Defense Judith Collins said New Zealand would gain experience from sending a liaison officer to US Space Command for two years. This "shows New Zealand's willingness to uphold the norms of responsible behavior in space", she said in a statement on Thursday. (9/5)

Trump Says He Will Appoint Musk Head of Government Efficiency Commission if Elected (Source: Reuters)
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Thursday he would establish a government efficiency commission headed by billionaire supporter Elon Musk if he wins the Nov. 5 election, during a wide-ranging speech in which he laid out his economic vision for the country. The former president has been discussing the idea of a government efficiency commission with aides for weeks, people with knowledge of those conversations have told Reuters. His speech to the New York Economic Club on Thursday, however, was the first time he had publicly endorsed the idea.

It was also the first time Trump said that Musk has agreed to head the body. He did not detail precisely how such a commission would operate, besides saying it would develop a plan to eliminate "fraud and improper payments" within six months of being formed. (9/5)