September 8, 2024

Starliner Lands Without Incident in New Mexico (Source: Florida Today)
The Starliner spacecraft was released from the space station at approximately 6:04 p.m. EDT, springs pushing the spacecraft away − in the opposite direction of the space station before it fired its thrusters without issue. Starliner flew up and over the space station before preforming its deorbit burn. The thrusters, which caused the concern about the spacecraft, preformed without issue. Starliner's service module then was jettisoned, revealing the heatshield.

The troublesome thrusters were located in the service module and will not be recovered for further analysis. Just after midnight Eastern time, Starliner landed under parachute and airbag at NASA's White Sands Space Harbor facility in New Mexico. Boeing teams began action to recover the spacecraft, which will be shipped back to Kennedy Space Center for evaluation. (9/7)

Can New Glenn Rocket Dethrone SpaceX's Launch Dominance? (Source: Interesting Engineering)
Much like Rocket Lab, Blue Origin wants to be able to send its own technology into space. SpaceX has risen so far ahead of the competition in part because it could launch its mega-constellation of Starlink satellites into space using Falcon 9. New Glenn will fly many of Amazon’s Starlink competitor satellites to orbit if all goes to plan. The rocket is contracted to fly 12 of 83 launches for Amazon’s Project Kuiper internet satellite constellation.

Besides flying internet infrastructure to space, Bezos’ overall vision for space travel’s future is very different from that of Elon Musk. Unlike Musk, Bezos doesn’t believe we should be looking to colonize Mars. Instead, he thinks we should move mining, agriculture, and other activities that reduce our planet’s resources, off-world. This vision has guided Blue Origin’s strategy. For Bezos’s vision to come true, a lot has to go right, starting with New Glenn’s first flight. (9/4)

No Interim Spectrum Likely for OneWeb, Jio to Start Satellite Services in India (Source: Financial Express)
The department of telecommunications (DoT) is unlikely to issue any provisional or interim spectrum to companies such as Eutelsat OneWeb and Jio to commercially roll out their satellite internet services in the country, people in the know said. The government is expected to wait for the recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) before it decides to allocate spectrum to the satellite firms administratively. (9/5)

If the Moon Ever Had a Magnetic Field, it Wasn’t for Long (Source: Cosmos)
Scientists in the US have estimated a new timespan for when the Moon’s magnetic field could have existed, if it ever did. The analysis of lunar rocks collected from the Apollo missions suggests that, if a magnetic field did once exist on the Moon, it had to have been during its first 140 million years. (9/7)

SpaceX Ready to Invest, Offer Starlink Services in Vietnam (Source: Tuoi Tre News)
Tim Hughes, senior vice president for Global Business and Government Affairs at SpaceX, the U.S.-based provider of spacecraft, satellite launch services, and satellite communications, stated during a meeting with Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh in Hanoi on Friday that SpaceX is ready to invest and offer its Starlink satellite internet services in Vietnam. (9/7)

Facts about New Mexico’s Spaceport America (Source: KRQE)
With commercial space flights becoming increasingly common, New Mexico has made its way into international headlines for its role in the quickly advancing space technology industry. One of the main reasons for that attention is Spaceport America. Spaceport America’s New Mexico launch base provides a unique advantage – a starting elevation of approximately 4,600 feet above sea level, meaning a nearly one-mile head start toward space.

Although the spaceport got its license to launch in December 2008, the first phase of construction was not completed until fiscal year 2016. The final cost to build the spaceport was $218.5 million, made up of $142 million in state-allocated funds and $76.4 million from local spaceport gross receipt taxes. As of 2024, over 300 rockets have been launched into space from Spaceport America; one of which was the first private passenger spaceflight launched by Virgin Galactic in June 2023. (9/6)

Meet ‘Blue Ghost’ — The Spacecraft Set To Photograph A Sunset On The Moon For The First Time (Source: Forbes)
Since the moon has no atmosphere, day turns to night as soon as the sun dips below the horizon. It goes from hot to cold in seconds. All of that is theoretical because no one has even photographed a sunset on the moon. That will all change later this year when Firefly Aerospace sends its spacecraft, Blue Ghost, to the moon. Click here. (9/7)

China to Test Lunar-Soil Bricks in Space to Pave the Way for its Planned Moon Base (Source: Space.com)
China will send samples of bricks to its space station in the coming months to test their durability in extreme conditions and potential use in building moon bases. Samples of bricks made of varying compositions from lunar soil simulant will be launched to the Tiangong space station aboard the upcoming Tianzhou 8 cargo mission, according to a report from Chinese state media CCTV.

The bricks will be subjected to three years of exposure tests in space. They will be bombarded by ultraviolet light and cosmic rays and subjected to temperature differences. This will test the strength and durability of bricks in extreme environments and how the materials behave in the vacuum of space. The experiment is designed to give insight into which composition and which methods of producing bricks from lunar soil will be most suitable for building structures on the moon. (9/6)

UAE's Orbital Space Joins China’s Ambitious Moon Base Program (Source: The National)
A UAE company will support China’s ambitious plan to build a research station on the Moon in the next decade. Orbital Space will help to develop lunar exploration technologies, or payloads, for missions that could launch as part of China's International Lunar Research Station program. An agreement was signed on Thursday between Orbital Space and China’s Deep Space Exploration Lab at the International Deep Space Exploration Conference, being held in China. (9/8)

Plasmonic Modulators Could Enable High-Capacity Space Communication (Source: Frontiers in Optics)
Researchers have achieved data rates as high as 424Gbit/s across a 53-km turbulent free-space optical link using plasmonic modulators— devices that uses special light waves called surface plasmon polaritons to control and change optical signals. The new research lays the groundwork for high-speed optical communication links that transmit data over open air or space.

Free-space-optical communication networks could aid space exploration because they can provide high-speed, high-capacity data transmission with lower latency and less interference than traditional radio frequency communication systems. This could lead to more efficient data transfer, better connectivity and enhanced capabilities for space missions. (9/4)

Musk Says SpaceX to Launch First Uncrewed Starships to Mars in Two Years (Source: Reuters)
SpaceX will launch its first uncrewed Starships to Mars in two years when the next Earth-Mars transfer window opens, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said, opens new tab in a post on social media platform X on Saturday. "These will be uncrewed to test the reliability of landing intact on Mars," Musk said, adding if those landings go well, his space company will launch its first crewed flights to Mars in four years.

"Flight rate will grow exponentially from there, with the goal of building a self-sustaining city in about 20 years," the billionaire said. In April, Musk, who founded SpaceX in 2002, said the first uncrewed starship to land on Mars would be within five years, with the first people landing on Mars within seven years. (9/7)

Detecting Satellite Orbit Anomalies Requires Human Intelligence (Source: Space News)
Identifying anomalous operations of satellites is more than a technical task. It must depend on human intelligence gathering and advance warning. Click here. (9/6)