October 31, 2024

Sidus Space Announces Iridium-Powered Communication Upgrade for LizzieSat Platform (Source: Sidus Space)
Sidus Space announced a strategic communication upgrade for its LizzieSat platform, integrating Iridium-enabled technology into future satellites to deliver low-latency data capabilities from space. This upgrade leverages the Iridium satellite constellation to provide real-time, direct-to-satellite phone messaging for a range of time-sensitive applications, including environmental monitoring, disaster response and maritime security. (10/31)

North Korea's Solid-Fuel ICBMs (Source: Space Daily)
North Korea said Thursday it had test-fired one of its newest and most powerful weapons to boost its nuclear deterrent, with Seoul warning it could be a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile. Solid-fuel missiles are powered by a chemical mixture which is cast into the missile's airframe when it is built -- like a firecracker rocket, ready to go. In contrast, liquid-fueled missiles typically require that the fuel and an oxidizer be inserted before they can be fired -- a slower and more cumbersome process.

For leader Kim Jong Un's purposes, this creates "a time period for South Korea to detect and target preemptively before the launch," said Han Kwon-hee of the Korea Association of Defence Industry Studies. This is the whole premise of South Korea's so-called "Kill Chain" defence system, Han said. That is why Kim wants solid fuel missiles. "It allows for rapid launches with minimal preparation," Han said, adding that they can be deployed "almost instantly". (10/31)

NASA's Lunar Trailblazer Will Map and Analyze Moon Water (Source: Space Daily)
NASA's Lunar Trailblazer mission is poised to answer longstanding questions about the distribution and composition of water on the Moon. While scientists have long suspected the presence of lunar water, the details of where it resides, its forms, and its movement across the Moon's surface remain unknown. Launching next year, Lunar Trailblazer will circle the Moon to create a high-resolution map of its surface water, determining water's exact abundance, location, forms, and changes over time. Managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and led by Caltech, this small satellite mission will provide critical insights to help advance lunar science and support future lunar exploration efforts. (10/30)

Axient Secures Contract for Resilient GPS Constellation Under USSF Initiative (Source: Space Daily)
Axient, now operating under Astrion following its recent acquisition, has received a Performer Agreement through an Other Transaction Agreement (OTA) established between the Space Enterprise Consortium (SpEC) and Space Systems Command. This contract supports the U.S. Space Force's mission by advancing a next-generation Resilient GPS (R-GPS) satellite constellation, designed to enhance space infrastructure security. The initial contract includes a six-month preliminary design phase, with potential expansions leading to a capability demonstration and the delivery of eight R-GPS satellites by 2028. (10/30)

AXIS Mission Selected as NASA Astrophysics Probe Competition Finalist (Source: Space Daily)
The MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research (MKI) is a project lead for one of two finalist missions recently selected for NASA's new Probe Explorers program. Working with collaborators at the University of Maryland and Goddard Space Flight Research Center, the team will produce a one-year concept study to launch the Advanced X-ray Imaging Satellite (AXIS) in 2032. (10/30)

Gateway HALO Unit to Support Vital Space Science on Lunar Missions (Source: Space Daily)
Set to serve as humanity's first space station orbiting the Moon, Gateway will offer a platform for astronauts to live, perform experiments, and prepare for extended missions, particularly targeting the lunar South Pole region. Gateway's HALO (Habitation and Logistics Outpost) module will be equipped to host essential experiments, including NASA's Heliophysics Environmental and Radiation Measurement Experiment Suite and ESA's and JAXA's Internal Dosimeter Array.

The heliophysics experiment will be mounted on HALO's exterior to analyze solar activity, while the dosimeter will be stationed inside, providing critical insights into radiation levels within Gateway. These studies are expected to inform long-term strategies for astronaut protection during deep-space missions, particularly for future journeys to Mars. (10/30)

Water Extraction From Moon Rocks Advances for Astronaut Support (Source: Space Daily)
Water extraction in space is critical for expanding human exploration of the Solar System. Led by the German Aerospace Center (DLR), a new technique is being validated to harvest water from the Moon. Through the LUWEX research project, dedicated to testing lunar water extraction and purification for in-situ resource use, researchers at the Technical University (TU) Braunschweig have conducted large-scale experiments over several months. The trials aim to produce at least half a liter of water per run.

The LUWEX project's primary objective is to develop and test a method for extracting and purifying water from lunar regolith containing ice. This process could supply both drinking water and rocket fuel for future Moon missions. Recently, the technique has shown promising results in experimental conditions. (10/30)

Space Force Reopens On-Ramp for New Launchers (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Space Force is reopening a launch contract for new providers. The service announced Wednesday the first "on-ramp" for the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 3 Lane 1 program to allow new entrants to offer their vehicles. Lane 1 currently includes Blue Origin, SpaceX and ULA, with the first awards made earlier this month to SpaceX. For the current on-ramp, prospective providers must demonstrate readiness for a first launch by December 2025. Among the potential new entrants, Rocket Lab stands out with its Neutron launch vehicle, anticipated to be ready for its first flight by mid-2025. (10/31)

NRO Picks Three Companies for In-Space Servicing and Logistics (Source: Space News)
The NRO has selected three companies for technology agreements regarding new in-space capabilities. As part of the Agile Launch Innovation and Strategic Technology Advancement program, the NRO signed agreements with Cognitive Space, Impulse Space and Starfish Space to assess the companies' capabilities. Cognitive Space is developing AI-driven satellite operations while Impulse Space is working on orbital transfer vehicles and Starfish Space on satellite servicing and logistics technologies. (10/31)

Startup Matter Intelligence Developing Earth Observation Sensors (Source: Space News)
Matter Intelligence has emerged from stealth with $12 million to develop a unique Earth observation sensor suite. The company says it has developed a combination of a high-resolution camera, thermal sensor and spectrometer that can be used on satellites as well as aircraft and drones. The company says the seed round will allow it to demonstrate that sensor system and line up customers, although it has provided few details about the sensor suite's capabilities or when it will be first flown in space. Lowercarbon Capital led Matter's seed round with participation from several other funds as well as billionaire Mark Cuban. (10/31)

Lockheed Martin Completes Terran Orbital Acquisition (Source: Space News)
Lockheed Martin has completed its acquisition of smallsat manufacturer Terran Orbital. Lockheed said Wednesday it closed the deal, announced in mid-August and valued at about $450 million. Terran Orbital, now formally known as "Terran Orbital, a Lockheed Martin Company," will continue to serve as a merchant supplier of smallsats for customers beyond Lockheed, which had been a key customer and partner. Terran Orbital was among the space companies that went public through SPAC mergers but which then struggled in the public market. (10/31)

Tamarack Global Seeks Space Startups for New Investment (Source: Space News)
Early-stage investor Tamarack Global is hunting for more space opportunities after announcing the close of a $72 million fund. About a third of that fund has been allocated so far, including an investment in Impulse Space's $150 million Series B round. The fund is looking for investments from seed to Series B rounds. Support for the fund came from a broad mix of investors, including high-profile venture capitalists such as Marc Andreessen and Chris Dixon of Andreessen Horowitz. (10/31)

NASA Refines Artemis 3 Landing Sites (Source: Space News)
NASA has refined the list of potential lunar landing sites for Artemis 3. The agency released this week a new list of nine areas near the south pole of the moon it is considering for that mission, the first crewed landing of the Artemis effort. Officials said they took into account a wide range of factors, from the capabilities of the Starship lander that will be used on Artemis 3 to lighting conditions and the ability to communicate directly with Earth. NASA will consider other sites for future Artemis missions, but expects to stay in the vicinity of the south pole of the moon. (10/31)

SpaceX Launches Wednesday Starlink Mission From Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Florida Today)
SpaceX launched another set of Starlink satellites Wednesday afternoon. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 5:10 p.m. Eastern and deployed 23 Starlink satellites. The launch took place about nine hours after another Falcon 9 launched 20 Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. (10/31)

ULA Investigating Payload Fairing Issue (Source: Ars Technica)
United Launch Alliance is investigating potential issues with payload fairings. On an Atlas 5 launch last year, debris came off the fairings as they separated from the upper stage. That debris may be insulation from the interior of the fairings. That loss of debris apparently did not affect the satellites inside but is being investigated by ULA and the Space Force. That could impact plans to certify ULA's Vulcan rocket for national security missions because the Vulcan fairing is made by the same company, Beyond Gravity, using similar processes. (10/31)

Viridian Developing Propulsion for VLEO Smallsats (Source: Space News)
A startup is developing an electric propulsion system for spacecraft in very low Earth orbit (VLEO) that scoops up air for plasma thrusters. The thrusters, being developed by Viridian Space Corp., would use the tenuous atmosphere in very low orbits as propellant for electric thrusters. That could significantly increase the lifetime of spacecraft in VLEO, which require propulsion to maintain their orbits against atmospheric drag. Viridian plans to test its technology in space in the next three years. (10/31)

Aldrin Endorses Trump (Source: Politico)
Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin has endorsed Donald Trump for president. In a statement Wednesday, Aldrin said he was "impressed" by the support Trump gave space during his first term, but didn't cite any specific space policy plans he would expect Trump to pursue in a second term. Aldrin has previously supported Republican candidates for office and served on the National Space Council's Users' Advisory Group in the Trump administration. (10/31)

Voyager 1 Activates Backup Transmitter (Source: Space.com)
The distant Voyager 1 spacecraft has switched to a backup radio transmitter. NASA said this week that the spacecraft is back in contact with Earth after a brief outage apparently triggered by the spacecraft's fault protection system. Voyager 1 resumed communications using a backup S-band transmitter that had not been used since 1981. NASA said it is investigating the issue and studying ways to resume normal operations. (10/31)

The New Glenn Rocket’s First Stage is Real, and it’s Spectacular (Source: Ars Technica)
Blue Origin took another significant step toward the launch of its large New Glenn rocket on Tuesday night by rolling the first stage of the vehicle to a launch site at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. Although the company's rocket factory in Florida is only a few miles from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, because of the rocket and transporter's size, the procession had to follow a more circuitous route. In a post on LinkedIn, Blue Origin's chief executive, Dave Limp, said the route taken by the rocket to the pad is 23 miles long.

Moving the rocket to the launch site is a key sign that the first stage is almost ready for its much-anticipated debut. Development of the New Glenn rocket would bring a third commercial heavy-lift rocket into the US market, after SpaceX's Falcon Heavy and Starship vehicles. It would send another clear signal that the future of rocketry in the United States is commercially driven rather than government-led. Critically, New Glenn is also designed to have a fully reusable first stage, which will attempt a droneship landing on its first flight.

The rocket must still undergo two key milestones, completing a wet dress rehearsal in which the vehicle will be fully fueled and its ground systems tested. This will be followed by a hot-fire test during which the first stage's seven BE-4 rocket engines will be ignited for several seconds. (10/30)

Firefly’s New CEO is Working ‘Maniacally’ to Scale Launches, Spacecraft and Moon Missions (Source: CNBC)
Jason Kim just nabbed one of the most coveted yet high-pressure C-suite gigs in the space industry. As the new CEO of rocket and spacecraft builder Firefly Aerospace, he’s no longer under the Boeing umbrella after leaving his previous role leading their satellite-making subsidiary Millennium. And he’s joined an operation that’s in rarefied air — as one of only four companies in the U.S. with an operational orbital rocket — with growing spacecraft and lunar lander product lines.

But now he’s taking on a launch market dominated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Legacy player ULA and rising challenger Rocket Lab are also ramping up their efforts in the market — with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin hot on their heels. But Kim is unfazed. He sees gaps in the launch market for Firefly’s Alpha and coming MLV rockets, which slot into the middle of the small-to-heavy class of vehicles.

“In the history of the world, we started with the sea and then we went to rail, roads and then airplanes. I think space is the next big transportation play. It’s a new category that Firefly is going to help create,” Kim told CNBC, speaking in his first interview since joining the company at the start of this month. (10/29)

Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck Is Most Excited About a ‘Completely Unfunded’ Mission (Source: Observer)
What excites its founder and CEO Peter Beck the most is a “completely unfunded,” “nights and weekends” project aimed at finding life on Venus, the entrepreneur revealed. The New Zealand-born space founder has long been fascinated by Venus, our nearest neighbor planet in the solar system, because of how similar it is to Earth.

Rocket Lab is working to send a life-hunting probe into the clouds of Venus. “There’s a very interesting, sweet zone about 50 kilometers off the surface of Venus. The conditions are just good enough that there could be life there,” Beck said. Because the destination is essentially air above a planet, the mission will be a lot trickier than landing a rover on a hard surface. Beck said, if the probe gets to Venus successfully, it will have only about 250 seconds to interfere with the planet’s atmosphere and deploy a nephelometer instrument there to look for life. (10/29)

How to Free Elon Musk’s SpaceX From Federal Red Tape: a "Space Coast Compact" (Source: Wall Street Journal)
Tensions between SpaceX and its federal regulators have spilled into public view. The FAA is seeking $633,009 in civil fines, alleging that the company neglected necessary paperwork for two 2023 launches. CEO Elon Musk has vowed to sue the FAA for “regulatory overreach.” The issue underscores a larger problem: The FAA’s issuing a launch license to SpaceX constitutes a “major federal action” under the National Environmental Policy Act, requiring a full environmental review and often subsequent mitigation measures.

The earliest the Space Force anticipates finishing its environmental review for Florida-based Starship Super Heavy operations is next autumn. A growing bipartisan "Abundance Agenda" has seen recent successes in creating new categories of NEPA exemptions. And there's a powerful alternative rooted in America's tradition of federalism: the interstate compact. The Constitution's Compact Clause permits states to create legally binding agreements among themselves. Its only limitation is that Congress must authorize any compact that encroaches on federal power or implicates federal concerns.

Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida might consider banding together to create a Space Coast Compact. The terms could establish the authorities, structure, and governance of a Space Coast Launch Authority with the right to review plans and issue launch [and landing] permits for operating in the signatory states. The new authority, an alternate to the FAA, would be accountable to the states' governments. The authority could still retain a relationship with the FAA, but the compact would break the chokehold of federal bureaucracy. (10/29)

UCF Fuels America’s Space Program with Innovative Education, Medicine and Tech (Source: UCF)
As America’s Space University, the University of Central Florida continues to drive advancements in space technology, medicine and workforce development, preparing students to lead in the evolving space industry. This commitment to the space sector will be celebrated at UCF football’s annual Space Game on Saturday, Nov. 2, as the Knights take on the University of Arizona Wildcats, honoring UCF’s roots in supporting the U.S. space program.

Founded in 1963 with the mission to provide talent for Central Florida and the growing U.S. space program, the university’s extensive involvement in space research and education not only drives innovations in space technology but also prepares the next generation of leaders in the field. With more than 40 active NASA projects totaling more than $67 million in funding, UCF continues to push the frontiers of space research, and its contributions promise to help shape the future of humanity’s presence in the cosmos. (10/29)

Insuring the Rise of Space Tourism (Source: Insurance Times)
Despite the high prospects for growth in this niche area, many challenges remain – including for the insurance industry. The main challenge is that space tourism is very different to the more established space risks that insurers are used to dealing with. Whereas traditional space insurance focuses almost exclusively on satellites – valuable but fundamentally non-human assets – insuring space tourists brings the human element much more to the fore.

“When you see [NASA] sending people to the ISS, or people launching on SpaceX, it’s normally government or company funded,” explained Ben Spain, a senior partner at broker Gallagher. “So, they’re either government employees or private company employees, not paying commercial customers. And that’s the biggest difference from a risk management point of view.

“[With space tourism], it’s an individual with families and commitments and a very different way of viewing a claim situation – from a piece of hardware that’s worth X amount to an individual with kids and a legacy behind them. So, it is a bit of a step change for us because we really haven’t seen that type of cover in the market.” Spain explained that with the typical actuarial driven insurance process, industry professionals would use a dataset with hundreds of thousands of records to base policies on. But when it comes to space tourism, insurers might only have three launches of one type of spacecraft on which to base their risk analysis. (10/30)

Spaceport is the Prize for Scotland (Source: John O'Groat Journal)
Sutherland Spaceport is set to be “a real prize” for the far north when satellite launches get under way next year, the chief executive of Highlands and Enterprise has said. He also reported that Orbex, the company behind the development and operation of the project on the A’Mhoine peninsula on the north coast, has a “very, very positive” order book.

Mr. Black was speaking after visiting the spaceport site as part of a two-day tour of businesses and community ventures along with other senior figures from the region’s economic and community development agency. Orbex will use the site to launch up to 12 orbital rockets a year. It is hoped the spaceport will eventually support around 250 jobs, including 40 jobs in Sutherland and Caithness. (10/30)