September 7, 2024

Embry‑Riddle’s Rocket Development Lab Makes Debut at Spaceport America Cup (Source: ERAU)
Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University’s Rocket Development Lab (RDL) made its mark on the 2024 Spaceport America Cup in June, placing in the top 40% in their first year of competition. The Spaceport America Cup is the world's largest intercollegiate rocket engineering conference and competition, located outside of Las Cruces, New Mexico. The competition hosted 152 teams from colleges and universities from 20 countries to launch solid, liquid and hybrid rockets to altitudes up to 30,000 feet. (8/21)

Valkyrie and Lonestar Data Holdings’ AI Technology Scheduled to Land on the Moon (Source: Intelligent CEO)
Valkyrie, an applied sciences lab and leader in AI-driven technologies, has partnered with Lonestar Data Holdings, a leader in advanced data storage solutions, to include Valkyrie’s knowledge graphs in Lonestar’s payload scheduled to land on the Moon in late 2024 onboard Intuitive Machine’s IM-2 Mission. This mission will test the operations of Valkyrie’s Graph Database (GDB) and the viability of using this technology on astrophysics data stored onboard by the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Valkyrie Intelligence shares Lonestar’s vision of safeguarding Earth’s data, one byte at a time, through the development of a lunar network of satellites. This network will provide some of the most secure data storage services available, built on an independent infrastructure designed for government and enterprise customers. The spacecraft in orbit will be linked to a ground station, allowing critical data to be stored and transferred securely, bypassing terrestrial networks entirely. (8/30)

SpaceX Hit for Alleged Violations; FAA Explains Meeting Postponement (Source: My RGV)
Explaining why it postponed planned public meetings on SpaceX’s proposal to launch up to 25 times a year from Boca Chica, the FAA announced on Aug. 29 that it did so after becoming aware of allegations that the company had violated the Clean Water Act at the launch site. The Environmental Protection Agency notified SpaceX on March 13 that it had violated the Act in deployment of its water-deluge system, designed to lessen the impact of the blast during rocket launches.

According to the FAA, the deluge system is capable of spraying a maximum of approximately 359,000 gallons of freshwater during each launch. The EPA did not assess a fine but did demand SpaceX comply with federal regulations. On March 14, SpaceX deployed the deluge system again, despite the EPA warning, for its the third Starship orbital test flight. The company deployed the system for three such test flights, as well as testing it several times between launches, before finally applying to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for a permit on July 1. (9/5)

New Glenn’s Debut to Mars Delayed as NASA Decides to Not Fuel ESCAPADE (Source: Ars Technica)
NASA and Blue Origin announced Friday that they have agreed to delay the launch of the ESCAPADE mission to Mars until at least the spring of 2025. The decision to stand down from a launch attempt in mid-October was driven by a deadline to begin loading hypergolic propellant on the two small ESCAPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) spacecraft.

While it is theoretically possible to offload fuel from these vehicles for a future launch attempt, multiple sources told Ars that such an activity would incur significant risk to the spacecraft. Forced to make a call on whether to fuel, NASA decided not to. Although the two spacecraft were otherwise ready for launch, it was not clear the New Glenn rocket would be similarly ready to go. Now, with the closing of a Mars launch window next month, NASA will not fuel the spacecraft until next spring, at the earliest. (9/6)

Blue Origin New Glenn Debut Shifts to November with Blue ring Prototype (Source: Ars Technica)
Blue Origin appears to have worked with some urgency this year to prepare the massive rocket for its initial launch. However, when the company missed a key target of hot firing the rocket's upper stage by the end of August, NASA delayed fueling of the ESCAPADE mission. Blue Origin successfully rolled the New Glenn second stage to its launch pad at Launch Complex-36 in Florida on Tuesday. The company is now targeting Monday, September 9, for a hot fire test of the second stage.

At the same time, preparations for the rocket's first stage are nearing completion. All seven of the rocket's BE-7 engines have arrived at the launch site following acceptance testing. Engineers and technicians are presently attaching the engines to the first stage of the vehicle. Blue Origin will now pivot to launching a prototype of its Blue Ring transfer vehicle on the debut launch of New Glenn, with the intent of testing the electronics, avionics, and other systems on the vehicle. Blue Origin is targeting the first half of November for this launch. (9/6)

NASA Invites Public Input on Low Earth Orbit Microgravity Strategy (Source: NASA)
As NASA and its partners continue to conduct groundbreaking research aboard the International Space Station, the agency announced it is seeking U.S. industry, academia, international partners, and other stakeholders’ feedback on newly developed goals and objectives that will help guide the next generation of human presence in low Earth orbit. (8/26)

UAE On Track to Launch Bold 7-Asteroid Mission in 2028 (Source: Space.com)
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Space Agency is moving forward on a one-after-another mission to the main asteroid belt. The probe will conduct high-speed flybys of six asteroids, completing the spectacular sojourn with a rendezvous and orbiting of a seventh mini-world — and then deploy a small lander onto that final space rock destination. (9/4)

Space Center to Rise in Philippines (Source: Manila Times)
The Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) signed a 50-year contract with the Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) to build a space center. 'Once built, we are confident that the Philippines will have one of the most modern space centers in Southeast Asia, and what better place for this to happen than in New Clark City, the first smart and disaster-resilient city in the Philippines,' said BCDA President and CEO Joshua Bingcang. (8/31)

Hints of a Hidden Structure Detected at The Edge of The Solar System (Source: Science Alert)
If you travel far enough away from the Sun, the Solar System becomes a lot more populated. Out past the orbit of Neptune lies the Kuiper Belt, a vast, ring-shaped field of icy rocks. This is where Pluto resides, and Arrokoth, and countless other small objects in the cold and the dark.

These are known as Kuiper Belt objects or KBOs, and astronomers have just found hints of an unexpected rise in their density, between 70 and 90 astronomical units from the Sun, separated by a large, practically empty gap between it and an inner population of KBOs closer to the Sun. (9/6)

Does Virgin Galactic (SPCE) Have the Potential to Rally 467.09% as Wall Street Analysts Expect? (Source: Zacks)
Virgin Galactic (SPCE) closed the last trading session at $6.29, gaining 19.4% over the past four weeks, but there could be plenty of upside left in the stock if short-term price targets set by Wall Street analysts are any guide. The mean price target of $35.67 indicates a 467.1% upside potential. (9/5)

A Lava Tube Has Been Found on the Moon for the First Time (Source: Washington Post)
Sometimes, a hole in the ground is just a hole. Other times, it’s a portal to an underground cave spanning miles in width and length. You don’t really know what’s inside unless you dive into the void. Lava caves, formed from cooled lava flows underground, are found near shield, basalt volcanoes across Earth. These lava tubes should ideally be found anywhere in the universe near basalt volcanoes, like on the moon or Mars, but that notion has long been hypothetical — until now.

One such lava tube has been confirmed on the moon for the first time, according to a recent study. These caves could shelter future human visitors and even harbor signs of microbial life, scientists say. But to learn more about what these features may look like on the moon, they’ve been studying similar lava tubes on Earth. (9/6)