Space News for Saturday, April 22, 2023

Swedish astronaut to fly to ISS on Axiom mission

Original Publication Date: 2023-04-21 22:42

Swedish astronaut may fly to the International Space Station on a commercial mission within the next year. Agreement would allow an ESA astronaut, most likely from Sweden, to go to the station on an Axiom commercial mission. One astronaut representing Sweden has flown to space to date. None of the active ESA astronauts today are Swedish.

Inmarsat still trying to restore satellite phone services in Asia Pacific

Original Publication Date: 2023-04-21 21:45

Inmarsat has restored maritime and aviation safety capabilities on its I-4 F1 satellite. The operator is still trying to recover services for L-band phones that have been down for nearly a week. Inmarsat has not said how many partners or customers have been affected.

Government calls for greater responsibility by satellite operators

Original Publication Date: 2023-04-21 17:23

Government officials say satellite operators need to take greater responsibility. Richard DalBello: "Not all operators are operating at the same level of competence" Office of Space Commerce is leading efforts to establish a civil space traffic management. DoD currently provides that civil space traffic management capability.

LeoLabs highlights on-orbit maneuvers

Original Publication Date: 2023-04-21 14:49

LeoLabs dashboard tracked the location of about 30 Chinese, Iranian and Russian spacecraft. The dashboard showed, for example, an experimental Chinese spaceplane that had lowered its altitude. LeoLabs tracks objects in low-Earth orbit with phased array radars in Alaska, Australia, Portugal.

Nelson supports continuing restrictions on NASA cooperation with China

Original Publication Date: 2023-04-21 12:20

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson says he supports current restrictions on the agency’s ability to work with China. Nelson: “We’re in a space race with China,” he said when asked by the subcommittee’s chair. The hearing took place the same day as House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced legislation to increase the debt ceiling.

USSPACECOM outlines requirements for sustained maneuver, ‘Dynamic Space Operations’ – SatNews

Original Publication Date: 2023-04-21 00:00

U.S. Space Force Lieutenant General John Shaw, deputy commander of U.S. Space Command, called upon commercial space professionals to be part of a solution that delivers sustained maneuver. These in-domain platforms – called “dynamic space operations” platforms – aim to mitigate the effects of constraints imposed by USSPACECOM’s assigned area of responsibility.

New Keysight study reveals software validation as a top technical challenge for the satellite industry – SatNews

Original Publication Date: 2023-04-21 00:00

Keysight has released Defying Gravity, a new space technology survey. Survey found that 76% of industry professionals see software test automation as the top challenge. Keysight offers complete space and satellite solutions focused on the end-to-end design and development product lifecycle.

The Q1 2023 Space Investment Quarterly is now available – SatNews

Original Publication Date: 2023-04-21 00:00

Venture funding to startups fell by more than 50% YoY to $76B globally and $37 billion investment in the Space Economy. With a total of just $2.2 billion invested in Q1 – a 53% decrease from the prior quarter – this was the lowest quarter for space investment since 2015. There has now been $272.2 billion of equity investment into 1,746 unique companies in the Space Economy since 2014.

Astræa launches satellite tasking capabilities with major satellite imagery providers – SatNews

Original Publication Date: 2023-04-21 00:00

Astræa has initiated a new ordering service that offers access to advanced satellite imagery sources. Customers get scalable access to the most advanced commercial satellite imagery on the market. Astræa is continually adding new data partners, including non-EO datasets, which provide customers with unique, low-latency data sources.

EGS launch team applying first SLS launch lessons to future Artemis missions

Original Publication Date: 2023-04-21 18:20

The Artemis I mission took three attempts to get to liftoff. One of the goals of the lessons learned effort is to reduce the number of attempts necessary to launch, increase the chances of liftoff on a given launch day. “We certainly learned a lot about the systems that maybe in Shuttle we had just depended upon because they had been used so frequently,” Anton Kiriwas said.