EPA Plans to Phase Out Two Common
Solvents, One That Helped in the Space Race (Source: Florida
Today)
"Trike" and "perc" helped purify our way to space, cleansing rocket
parts to maximize performance and safety. Now the federal government
plans to ban the two common solvents: both used by NASA, and one
primarily to dry clean our most-coveted clothes. Long-term exposure to
the two toxic solvents, trichloroethylene and perchloroethylene —
called "trike" and "perc" for short — can be deadly. But the former, in
particular, has fueled cancer and other chronic health concerns on the
Space Coast and in other aerospace and military towns for decades.
While the two solvents get phased out, cleaning up their toxic legacy
on the Space Coast and elsewhere will take decades. Some who live near
Patrick Space Force Base have for decades feared the dangers from
trike, chlorobenzene (used in DDT production during and after World War
II) and other commonly used solvents from past military and aerospace
activities. More than 300 homes lie within a 52-acre area south of
Patrick Space Force Base currently targeted for cleanup.
NASA's Kennedy Space Center had been finding trike and related
compounds in the groundwater for decades. TCE dominates a combined two
square miles of chemicals that have plumed out on KSC's grounds, a 2011
analysis found. More than a decade ago, NASA estimated it would cost
$96 million over 30 years at KSC to clean up trike and other chemical
plumes. Around the same time, the Air Force said it could take another
$50 million to get the rest of its cleanups that were expected to be
underway at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. (1/3)
OneWeb Outage Caused by Leap Year
(Source: Aviation Week)
Eutelsat’s OneWeb constellation went down for 48 hr. after its ground
segment, maintained by Hughes Network Systems, was not programmed so
that 2024 was a 366-day-long leap year. The calendar error caused the
“manual calculation for the GPS to UTC offset,” Eutelsat said on Jan.
3. (1/4)
Does Colorado's Cheyenne Mountain Have
a Modern-Day Military Use? (Source: Denver Post)
The U.S. military’s mountain bunker along Colorado’s Front Range, built
during the Cold War to survive a Soviet nuclear attack, now must
withstand scrutiny by lawmakers who see it as a costly relic. They
question the need for a not-so-secret command post cocooned in 2,000
feet of granite. It sits inside Cheyenne Mountain, where North American
Aerospace Defense (NORAD) crews in front of a large map can scan skies
and track missile and satellite launches around the planet, along with
potentially disruptive space junk.
“It is not a museum piece, not something sitting here mothballed,
waiting for a new purpose or a new life. It is being used daily.” NORAD
and U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) post skeleton crews in the
mountain to keep the place ready for training exercises and occasional
conflict simulations to test readiness. More than a dozen other federal
agencies also are using the mountain. U.S. Space Force officials
declined to discuss their activities. (1/3)
FBI Investigating ‘Possible Bomb
Threats’ Against SpaceX at Boca Chica (Source: myRGV)
The FBI is investigating “possible bomb threats” in South Texas. And
the San Antonio Express-News reported Friday that those threats have
been aimed at SpaceX’s Starbase facility at Boca Chica Beach after the
FBI received a report that several people threatened to blow up a
Starship rocket. The FBI does not confirm or deny the existence of any
specific investigation. However, in a statement to MyRGV.com, the
agency did confirm that it had been provided information related to
possible bomb threats in the recent weeks. (1/3)
As the US and China Race to the Moon,
These Loopholes in Space Law Could Cause Conflict (Source: The
Conversation)
Both countries aim to set up long-term research stations on the lunar
surface, a bit like there are now in Antarctica. But could disputes
between these two countries – and potentially others, such as Russia or
India – arise over where to locate bases on the lunar surface? And
could the same happen over claims to the Moon’s resources, such as the
water ice located in craters at the lunar poles?
Countries will want to extract this ice because it can be turned into
rocket fuel for onward journeys and for life support at their lunar
bases. Indeed, the prospect of “space water wars” is actually nearer,
timewise, than the prospect of providing clean drinking water to
everyone in the developing world. But the legal arguments around rights
to space water and other resources are complex. Laws are also in place
to ensure countries don’t pollute bodies such as the Moon while they
are exploring them. Click here.
(1/3)
Money, Musk and Mission Creep: How
Trump Could Shape DOD’s Space Drift (Source: Defense News)
Since 2020, the service’s budget has doubled to around $30 billion in
fiscal 2025, and today’s leaders have called for even more resources in
the coming years to strengthen the military’s defenses against
adversaries in space, build an arsenal of offensive-capable systems and
take on new missions. “That budget is going to need to double or triple
over time to be able to fund the things we’re actually going to need to
have,” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said.
The path to a larger Space Force budget isn’t clear — even as former
President Donald Trump, who oversaw the creation of the service,
prepares to begin his second term in the coming weeks. Despite his
administration’s past emphasis on space policy, analysts and former
defense officials told Defense News Trump’s enthusiasm for space
doesn’t necessarily portend a larger budget for the Space Force. “When
it comes down to actually proposing big increases in the Space Force’s
budget, I’d say what matters more is the Secretary of Defense.”
In the House, the chances of a seeing larger defense budget in the near
term are “not good,” Harrison said, especially as the House Freedom
Caucus — a small group of budget hawks with outsize influence due to
the Republican party’s narrow majority — proposes aggressive cuts to
government spending. “They are pushing for such a high level of
spending cuts that there’s no way to get what they want without at
least capping defense, if not cutting,” he said. Loverro also predicted
a “decreased stomach” for major budget increases, particularly the
tripling proposed by Kendall. (1/3)
Bellatrix Aerospace Achieves Another
Milestone with Successful Green Propulsion Test in Space
(Source: New Indian Express)
Bellatrix Aerospace, a Bengaluru-based space tech start-up, announced
on Thursday that it had achieved another milestone with the successful
firing of its green mono-propellant propulsion package for the second
time in space. This achievement was part of the Indian Space Research
Organization’s (ISRO) Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) C60 PSLV
Orbital Experimental Module (POEM)-4 mission. (1/4)
Musk: “We’re Going Straight to Mars.
The Moon is a Distraction.” (Source: Ars Technica)
Although SpaceX founder Elon Musk is known for outspokenness and
controversial comments on his social media site X, he has been
relatively restrained when it comes to US space policy in recent years.
For example, he has rarely criticized NASA or its overall goal to
return humans to the Moon through the Artemis Program. Rather, Musk,
who has long preferred Mars as a destination for humans, has more or
less been a team player when it comes to the space agency's
lunar-focused plans.
This is understandable from a financial perspective, as SpaceX has
contracts worth billions of dollars to not only build a Human Landing
System as part of NASA's Artemis Program but also to supply food,
cargo, and other logistics services to a planned Lunar Gateway in orbit
around the Moon. But privately, Musk has been critical of NASA's plans,
suggesting that the Artemis Program has been moving too slowly and is
too reliant on contractors who seek cost-plus government contracts and
are less interested in delivering results.
During the last 10 days, Musk has begun airing some of these private
thoughts publicly. On Christmas Day, for example, Musk wrote on X, "The
Artemis architecture is extremely inefficient, as it is a
jobs-maximizing program, not a results-maximizing program. Something
entirely new is needed." Then, on Thursday evening, he added this: "No,
we’re going straight to Mars. The Moon is a distraction." (1/3)
India to Launch 100th Mission on GSLV
in January (Source: WION)
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has announced the launch
of its 100th mission from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota
in January 2025. According to Chairman S Somanath, ISRO will use its
Geosynchronous Launch Vehicle (GSLV) to launch the second-generation
navigation satellite NVS-02. This milestone follows the successful
launch of PSLV-C60 mission on December 30, 2024. (1/3)
Satellite for UAE-Based Space42
Launches Into Orbit From Florida (Source: The National)
Space42, the Abu Dhabi-based Space technology company, successfully
launched its Thuraya 4 telecoms satellite into orbit, the company said
on Saturday. The satellite was aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket from
Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. It will take several
months until Thuraya 4 reaches its operational geostationary orbit,
about 36,000 kilometers above Earth, Space42 said. The satellite will
provide mobile communications services throughout Europe, the Middle
East and Africa. (1/4)
From Commercial Moon Landers to
Asteroid Investigations, The Year Ahead (Source: Space Daily)
In 2024, space exploration dazzled the world. NASA's Europa Clipper
began its journey to study Jupiter's moon Europa. SpaceX's Starship
achieved its first successful landing, a critical milestone for future
deep space missions. China made From new commercial Moon landers to
asteroid investigations, expect a slate of exciting space missions in
2025s with the Chang'e 6 mission, which successfully returned samples
from the far side of the Moon. Meanwhile, the International Space
Station continued to host international crews, including private
missions like Axiom Mission 3. Click here.
(12/28)
OneWeb Outage Underscores Value of
Multi-Orbit Connectivity (Source: Runway Girl)
On 31 December 2024, Eutelsat experienced a “temporary, 48-hour outage”
of its Eutelsat OneWeb Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite service, the
Paris-headquartered satellite operator reports this morning. “The root
cause was identified as a software issue within the ground segment,”
Eutelsat says in a statement. “Eutelsat was fully mobilized and worked
with the vendor to restore full service, while maintaining a constant
dialogue with affected customers. The constellation is operating
nominally once again.” (1/2)
UAE to Launch New Monitoring Satellite
on SpaceX Rocket (Source: ARN)
The Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) announced the MBZ
satellite will be launched this month from the United States on a
SpaceX Falcon rocket. The satellite was reportedly entirely built by
Emirati engineers and is characterized by its high capacity for
accurate imaging and data transfer compared to its counterpart, the
Khalifa-SAT. (1/3)
Public Meetings to Discuss SpaceX
Proposal for 25 Starship Launches Per Year in Texas (Source:
KRGV)
The public will soon have the opportunity to give their opinion on
SpaceX’s proposal to launch their Starship vehicle 25 times a year from
their Boca Chica location. The public meetings are part of the Federal
Aviation Administration’s permit review process. The permit review is
based on an environmental report that came out in November that
included details on the impacts of the launches. (1/2)
How a Small NASA Facility in East Texas Builds the Largest Balloons in
the Country (Source; Longview News Journal)
Longview’s brand is synonymous with hot air balloons. The city hosts
the Great Texas Balloon Race, and for one week in the summer, the skies
of Gregg County are filled with wicker baskets bobbing under hot air
balloons of almost every size, shape, and color. But Longview is not
where you’ll find the largest or highest flying (hot) aircraft in East
Texas. Seventy miles southwest in Palestine, mammoth siblings to
Longview’s hobby and race balloons are assembled at a NASA complex.
These balloons can inflate to the size of a football stadium and rise
to altitudes where the sky turns black — the Earth 130,000 feet below
as well as 98% of the planet’s atmosphere. Dangling from each one is a
scientific payload that can be as large as a truck; think telescopes,
cosmic ray detectors or instruments measuring stratospheric winds. The
Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Palestine was constructed in
the early 1960s to help experiments studying the atmosphere take
flight. (1/2)
Ohio Researchers on Team for New NASA
Telescope Concept (Source: Toledo Blade)
The late Carl Sagan once famously said that we’re all made of star
stuff. But that didn’t happen overnight. “The Earth wasn’t just ejected
from the star,” said University of Toledo graduate student Cory
Whitcomb. “It had to go through a bunch of different phases in order to
go from the star to the interstellar medium to a protostar cloud and
then now eventually into the Earth and things that we can see and
feel.” Working under faculty member J.D. Smith, Mr. Whitcomb is part of
a science working group on dust and metals for a potential future space
observatory called PRIMA.
The PRobe far-Infrared Mission for Astrophysics is one of two concepts
selected by NASA for further study. After evaluation at the end of
2025, one of the proposals will proceed to construction in 2026 with a
$1 billion budget and would launch into orbit in 2032. The selected
observatory would be the first in a new class of missions within NASA's
Explorers Program. (1/3)
India's Space Ambitions to Soar in
2025, ISRO Eyes Big-Ticket Missions (Source: India Today)
India's space ambitions are set to soar in 2025 as the Indian Space
Research Organization (ISRO) prepares for a robust series of launches.
The lineup includes four GSLV Mk II flights and a commercial mission
using the powerful LVM3. Among the highlights is the G1 mission, the
first uncrewed test flight under the Gaganyaan program, utilizing the
advanced Human-rated LVM3 (HRLV3). Three PSLV missions are planned for
2025. They will carry groundbreaking payloads, including an electric
propulsion system. ISRO will also launch the recently inducted SSLV.
(1/3)
Luxembourg Leads Way in European Space
Funding (Source: Luxembourg Times)
Luxembourg is the European country which invests the most in space
exploration efforts, according to data from the continent’s space
agency. The Grand Duchy invested just over 0.13% of GDP in space
exploration in 2023, according to the European Space Agency’s December
2024 space economy report. Luxembourg came out on top for investment
levels among the agency’s 22 member countries, which vary widely.
France is the second-highest investor on the continent, followed by
Italy and Belgium. On average Europe invests 0.06% of its GDP into the
space sector, through public and private channels. Luxembourg’s space
investment as measured as a percentage of total government spending
represents an even bigger 0.281% - a metric where it also leads the
curve ahead of the average 0.12% government spend across ESA member
states. Globally, Luxembourg’s investment in space is third, behind the
USA (0.262% of GDP) and Russia (0.169%). (1/3)
Why India Should Get Behind Space
Mining (Source: NDTV)
Japan's Space Capable Asteroid Robotic Explorer is a first-of-its-kind
climbing robot with potential asteroid mining applications developed
through a partnership between Japan's Tohoku University and the
Asteroid Mining Corporation. Besides Japan, the US has been a leader in
asteroid mining initiatives, driven by NASA and private companies like
SpaceX, Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries. ISRO has
expressed interest in asteroid mining but is currently focused on lunar
and Mars exploration. However, it has a strong foundation to explore
asteroid mining.
But should India jump onto the asteroid exploration bandwagon? The
counter question is, why should any country mine asteroids? Several
nations with big economies are eyeing asteroid mining as a solution to
both economic and environmental challenges, particularly as Earth's
finite resources face growing pressure. (1/3)
SpaceX Signals Expansion in Singapore (Source:
Business Times)
SpaceX is expanding its presence in Singapore, establishing accounting
and finance teams to support its satellite Internet provider unit,
Starlink. The company is recruiting for treasury and tax roles to
bolster Starlink’s Asia-Pacific (Apac) operations, as seen in multiple
job listings. On LinkedIn, a recently hired, Singapore-based director
of financial operations at SpaceX stated in her profile that she is
“building accounting and tax teams from (the) ground up”. (1/3)
SpaceX's Starship to Deploy Mock
Satellites in Next Test (Source: Reuters)
Elon Musk's SpaceX said on Friday its upcoming Starship test flight
would include the rocket's first attempt to deploy payloads in space by
releasing 10 model Starlink satellites, a key demonstration for
Starship's potential in the satellite launch market. "While in space,
Starship will deploy 10 Starlink simulators, similar in size and weight
to next-generation Starlink satellites as the first exercise of a
satellite deploy mission," SpaceX said. (1/3)
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