Space @ interstellar news

  China launches latest trio of Yaogan-30 remote sensing satellites A Long March 2C lifts off from LC-3 at Xichang carrying the Yaogan-30 (07) group of satellites. Credit: OurSpace HELSINKI — China launched a seventh group of Yaogan-30 reconnaissance satellites Oct. 26, marking the country’s 31st launch of 2020. A Long March 2C rocket lifted off from LC-3 at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 11:19 a.m. Eastern Monday carrying three Yaogan satellites and one smaller commercial payload. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CASC), China’s state-owned main space contractor, confirmed launch success ( Chinese ) within an hour of liftoff.  The trio of satellites are expected to orbit in a roughly 600 kilometer altitude orbit inclined by 35 degrees. They join six earlier groups of Yaogan-30 designated satellites in similar orbits. The first Yaogan-30 trio was launched in September 2017. No details of the satellites have been released. Chinese state media reports sta...

  NASA weighing lunar lander budget options NASA's Human Landing System program manager said there are ways to stretch out the program should there be extended delays in a final fiscal year 2021 spending bill, but reiterated the need to get the $3.2 billion requested to support a 2024 landing. Credit: NASA WASHINGTON — NASA is looking at ways to stretch out the budget for its Human Landing System program should there be further delays in a final appropriations bill while still seeking full funding for the program in 2021. Funding for the HLS program, which supports development of commercial landers to carry astronauts to and from the lunar surface, has become a major uncertainty in the ability of NASA’s Artemis program to achieve the goal of landing humans on the moon by 2024. NASA requested $3.2 billion for the program in its fiscal year 2021 budget proposal. However, a House bill passed in July provided only about $600 million, while the Senate has yet to release its version of a...

  Lunar water discovery may have limited effect on NASA exploration plans Despite the discovery of traces of water in a sunlit crater on the moon, NASA's lunar exploration plans remain focused on the polar regions, the destination for an ice-prospecting rover called VIPER. Credit: NASA Ames/Daniel Rutter WASHINGTON — Water ice may be more prevalent on the surface of the moon that previously thought, but that discovery appears unlikely to have any near-term effect on NASA’s lunar exploration plans. In a paper published in the journal  Nature Astronomy  Oct. 26, scientists reported detecting traces of water in the crater Clavius on the near side of the moon using NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) aircraft. SOFIA detected an infrared emission feature at a wavelength of 6 microns consistent with water on the surface in the vicinity of the crater. The detection is not the first time that water has been seen on the moon. Over the last quarter-centu...

  Axiom Space finalizing first commercial ISS mission Axiom Space expects to finalize in the next few weeks its first commercial mission to the ISS, on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft in late 2021. Credit: NASA WASHINGTON — Axiom Space hopes to soon finalize its first commercial mission to the International Space Station, scheduled for late 2021, as it continues development of a commercial module for the station. During a panel discussion at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) Oct. 13, Michael Suffredini, president and chief executive of Axiom Space, said his company had lined up the the customers for that first mission, a 10-day flight to the space station on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2021. “We have all of our customers identified and we’re about to finish their contracting,” he said. The company  previously announced a contract with SpaceX for the flight  and is “just about done” with a NASA contract for the mission. ...

  Senate bill would assign space traffic management work to Commerce Department A Senate bill would authorize the Office of Space Commerce to take over civil space traffic management, but funding for that work has yet to be appropriated. Credit: ESA illustration WASHINGTON — The chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee introduced a bill Oct. 21 to formally give the Commerce Department space traffic management (STM) responsibilities, but the funding required to carry out that work remains uncertain. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) announced he had introduced the Space Preservation and Conjunction Emergency, or SPACE, Act, a bill intended to codify portions of Space Policy Directive (SPD) 3 that transfer responsibility for civil STM from the Defense Department to Commerce. The bill would allow the Commerce Department to collect space situational awareness data from both U.S. government agencies and foreign and commercial sources, as well as provide such data and related services to gove...

  Pentagon has not shown COVID stimulus helps small businesses, says HASC chairman Pentagon aerial photo by the 316th Wing Public Affairs Rep. Adam Smith: “We remain concerned that COVID relief money isn’t getting to the right people." WASHINGTON — The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said Democratic lawmakers  remain opposed  to giving DoD more money to help the industrial base. The concern is that DoD has not shown that the funds are helping the companies that truly need it, said Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.).   “We remain concerned that COVID relief money isn’t getting to the right people,” Smith told reporters Oct. 21.   The Pentagon has estimated it  needs an additional $10 billion to $20 billion  to reimburse contractors for coronavirus-related expenses and to ensure companies can continue to carry out DoD programs.   Smith said he is not opposed to helping financially stressed national security contractors, but he suspects a lot o...

  NASA selects first human-tended suborbital research payload As Virgin Galactic prepares for its next SpaceShipTwo powered test flight later this fall, scientist and suborbital research advocate Alan Stern has won a NASA Flight Opportunities award to conduct research on a future SpaceShipTwo mission. Credit: Virgin Galactic WASHINGTON — NASA has selected its first human-tended commercial suborbital research payload, clearing the way for the biggest advocate of such research to fly on a future Virgin Galactic mission. NASA announced Oct. 14 it selected a proposed experiment by the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) as part of its Flight Opportunities program for testing technologies on suborbital vehicles and aircraft. That experiment will test the operation of a camera designed to work at low light levels in order to see how it could be used for astronomical imaging, as well as a separate suite of biomedical sensors. What sets this experiment apart from the other 30 payloads NASA...

  ESA awards contracts for moon and Mars exploration Thales Alenia Space won ESA contracts to build the I-Hab international habitation module and ESPRIT refueling and telecommunications element for the lunar Gateway. Credit: Thales Alenia Space WASHINGTON — The European Space Agency has awarded contracts for work on elements of its moon and Mars exploration program, ranging from modules for the lunar Gateway to a mission to return Mars samples to Earth. ESA’s announcement of the contracts was tied to an Oct. 14 session of the International Astronautical Congress (IAC), where ESA and European companies discussed their partnership with NASA on both the Artemis lunar exploration program and the Mars Sample Return series of missions. The projects are funded by the contributions that ESA’s member states provided to exploration programs at the Space19+ ministerial meeting last November. “This gives us new possibilities to go to low Earth orbit, the moon and Mars, and to do it together,” ...

  Eight countries sign Artemis Accords Representatives of the United States and seven other nations formally signed the Artemis Accords during a virtual ceremony at the International Astronautical Congress Oct. 13. Credit: NASA TV WASHINGTON — Seven countries have joined the United States in signing the Artemis Accords, a set of principles governing norms of behavior for those who want to participate in the Artemis lunar exploration program. During a session of the International Astronautical Congress Oct. 13, NASA announced that Australia, Canada, Japan, Luxembourg, Italy, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom had joined the United States as being the first to sign the accords, which NASA announced in May. Representatives of all eight nations signed the documents in a virtual ceremony. “Fundamentally, the accords are about avoiding conflict, transparency, public registration, deconflicting activities,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said at the ceremony. “These are t...

  Space industry rebounds from pandemic Companies in the remote sensing industry like HawkEye 360 that have been able to raise larger later rounds of funding have pulled away from competitors struggling to get past seed rounds. Credit: HawkEye 360 WASHINGTON — Despite dire predictions just six months ago, space companies in general, and startups in particular, have survived the pandemic and its economic fallout in relatively good shape. In sessions at the three-day Satellite Innovation 2020 conference that concluded Oct. 8, executives and other industry observers concluded that the industry fared better than expected in the spring, when the pandemic caused a sharp drop in overall economic activity. “Despite my worst fears, we seemed to have rolled through this whole COVID thing with not nearly the amount of damage I thought we could have sustained,” said Chris Quilty, president of Quilty Analytics, during an Oct. 6 panel. He credited an economy that, at least in some sectors, rebou...