Omnibus includes budget increases for Office of Space Commerce and FAA commercial space office
Original Publication Date: 2022-12-21 12:21
The omnibus spending bill includes $70 million for the Office of Space Commerce. The administration requested $87 million for the office in its budget request in March. The FAA requested $37.854 million for its Office of Commercial Space Transportation. NOAA requested $653.8 million for its next-generation geostationary weather satellite effort.
Virgin Orbit receives license for U.K. launch
Original Publication Date: 2022-12-21 13:00
British regulators have issued a launch license to Virgin Orbit for its first mission. Virgin Orbit now has all the regulatory approvals needed for its first launch from the U.K. The company has not announced a specific launch date. The launch will carry seven satellites for commercial and government customers.
NASA requests information on Hubble reboost options
Original Publication Date: 2022-12-22 21:30
NASA is seeking concepts from industry on how they would reboost the orbit of the Hubble Space Telescope. The agency said it is looking for technical information about how a company would carry out the mission. NASA emphasized in the RFI that it had no plans to procure a mission to reboost Hubble.
Eutelsat taking financial hit from TV sanctions against Russia and Iran
Original Publication Date: 2022-12-22 21:05
Eutelsat stands to lose up to 15 million euros ($16 million) in annual revenues. The amount represents 2.2% of the broadcast revenues Eutelsat reported for previous fiscal year. France’s TV regulator gave Eutelsat a week to stop broadcasting Russia’s Rossiya 1.
Northrop Grumman clears key hurdle for space-based solar power
Original Publication Date: 2022-12-22 17:53
Northrop Grumman has completed ground-based tests to demonstrate critical technology. The testing was conducted in one of Northrop Grumman’s anechoic test chambers in Baltimore. The company is relying on phased array technology to control the RF beam. The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory awarded the company a $100 million contract.
South Korean pharma invests $50 million in Axiom Space
Original Publication Date: 2022-12-22 17:36
Boryung will take a 2.28% stake in Axiom by Dec. 30 in exchange for the investment. Boryung’s $10 million investment in Axiom, disclosed in a May 16 regulatory filing, gave the Korean company a 0.4% stake. Axiom raised $130 million in Series B funds in early 2021.
NASASpaceFlight.com
India launches a new ocean monitoring satellite on Saturday morning. The PSLV rocket lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at 11:56 local time (06:26 UTC) The mission, PSLV C54, delivered the EOS-06 spacecraft into a low Earth orbit.
Commercial Archives
Two NASA astronauts conducted a spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday, Dec. 22. The Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA) follows a previous one on Dec. 2 that installed the third iROSA. The second EVA of the pair was scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 21, but was postponed at the last minute when controllers determined a piece of Russian rocket debris would pass dangerously close to the ISS.
International Archives
Arianespace has suffered a failure during Vega-Consolidation’s (Vega-C) first operational launch. The rocket was set to carry the Pléiades Neo 5 and 6 Earth-observation satellites to a Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) The launch failure occurred during stage 2 flight, with CEO Stephane Israel citing an “underpressure” indicated during that stage’s burn.
ISS Updates – Spaceflight101 – International Space Station
A veteran NASA spacewalker and an EVA rookie from Japan ended their week with nearly six hours of work outside the International Space Station. The restoration of the Station’s Mobile Servicing System started last year and continued in January to provide Canadarm2 with a new pair of grappling hands.
Featured – Spaceflight101
SpaceX Falcon 9 takes to the skies over Florida’s Cape Canaveral Monday afternoon. The flight-proven Dragon spacecraft will deliver science gear, supplies and maintenance hardware to the International Space Station. This is the first of at least six cargo ships inbound to the U.S. Segment of ISS this year.
News – Spaceflight101
Russia's Rockot booster is set to blast off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome at 17:57 UTC with the Sentinel-3B multi-function satellite. Sentinel-3B is the latest addition to Europe's Copernicus satellite fleet. The Russian Rockot booster is a Russian Rockot booster.
Re-Entry: Long March 11 Rocket Body – Spaceflight101
The CZ-11 fourth stage used leftover propellant for a partial de-orbit maneuver, lowering its perigee to 120 Kilometers to significantly accelerate its orbital decay. It is reportedly built around a YF-50 main engine and in a nominal mission conducts the orbital circularization after the three CZ-11 stages.
Construction Begins on NASA’s Next-Generation Asteroid Hunter
NASA’s Near-Earth Object Surveyor recently passed a rigorous technical and programmatic review. Now the mission is transitioning into the final design-and-fabrication phase. The mission supports the objectives of NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO)
Moon Water Imager Integrated With NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer
Lunar Trailblazer, NASA’s mission to understand lunar water and the Moon’s water cycle, is one step closer to launching next year. Earlier this month, the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California delivered a key science instrument to Lockheed Martin Space in Colorado. The instrument, called the High-resolution Volatiles and Minerals Moon Mapper, is one of two on Lunar Trailblazer.
NASA Explores a Winter Wonderland on Mars
The surface of Mars is covered in snow and ice in winter. The Red Planet's elliptical orbit means it takes many more months for winter to come around than Earth. A single Mars year is around two Earth years, so it takes a long time for winter to arrive.
Juno Spacecraft Recovering Memory After 47th Flyby of Jupiter
NASA’s Juno spacecraft completed its 47th close pass of Jupiter on Dec. 14. Afterward, as the solar-powered orbiter was sending its science data to mission controllers from its onboard computer, the downlink was disrupted. The issue was most likely caused by a radiation spike as Juno flew through a radiation-intensive portion of Jupiter’s magnetosphere.
NASA Retires InSight Mars Lander Mission After Years of Science
NASA's InSight lander has been unable to communicate with Earth since Dec. 15. Mission controllers conclude the spacecraft's solar-powered batteries have run out of energy. The agency will continue to listen for a signal, just in case, but hearing from it at this point is considered unlikely.
NASA’s Perseverance Rover Deposits First Sample on Mars Surface
NASA's Perseverance Mars rover has placed a titanium tube on the Red Planet's surface. Over the next two months, the rover will deposit a total of 10 tubes at the location, called “Three Forks. The depot marks a historic early step in the Mars Sample Return campaign.
Assembly Begins on NASA’s Next Tool to Study Exoplanets
The Coronagraph Instrument is being tested on NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. The instrument will block the light from each distant star it observes so that scientists can better see the planets around the star. It will demonstrate technologies needed to eventually study potentially habitable planets with future missions.