Astronomy Prints 🌌: Capsized lunar lander awakes 🌗

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A SpaceNews daily newsletter | Monday, January 29, 2024

Top Stories

Japan's SLIM lunar lander has resumed operations. The Japanese space agency JAXA said Sunday that the spacecraft had started to transmit again, nine days after landing. The spacecraft landed on its nose with its solar panels oriented away from the sun, causing the spacecraft to shut down hours after touchdown. The changing angle of the sun has now illuminated the solar panels, JAXA said, reviving the spacecraft and allowing some scientific operations to resume, including imaging of a nearby rock dubbed "toy poodle". SLIM may be able to operate for only a few days, until the sun sets at its landing site; the spacecraft is not designed to survive the two-week lunar night. [SpaceNews]

The federal government is asking a court to dismiss a $40 billion lawsuit filed by Ligado regarding its use of satellite spectrum for terrestrial services. Ligado sued several federal agencies in October, claiming they blocked efforts to deploy assigned L-band satellite spectrum terrestrially so the Department of Defense could use the frequencies instead. Attorneys for the government filed a motion last week to dismiss the lawsuit, saying the U.S. Court of Federal Claims lacks jurisdiction because the Communications Act requires an exclusive administrative and judicial review framework for such claims arising out of FCC licensing decisions. The attorneys also said Ligado could not claim property rights for an intangible license. Ligado had been planning to roll our a 5G network using that satellite L-band spectrum, winning FCC approval, but faced strong opposition from the Defense Department and other agencies that were concerned about interference with GPS signals in neighboring bands. [SpaceNews]

The Space Force has added three companies to a contract to provide suborbital launch services. Kratos Space & Missile Defense Systems, L3Harris' Aerojet Rocketdyne Coleman Aerospace and Corvid Technologies were awarded indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contracts for Sounding Rocket Program-4, which is used by the Space Force for sounding rocket launches. They join Space Vector and Northrop Grumman, who won seven-year IDIQ contracts for the program in 2018. [SpaceNews]

A Cygnus cargo spacecraft will launch on a Falcon 9 for the first time this week. The NG-20 Cygnus spacecraft is scheduled to launch Tuesday from Cape Canaveral after a one-day delay. The mission is the first of three Cygnus launches using the Falcon 9 as Northrop Grumman works with Firefly Aerospace on a new version of the Antares rocket that had previously launched most Cygnus missions. Northrop said the shift to the Falcon 9 was smooth, with only minor changes in its processing flow. SpaceX did have to modify the Falcon 9 payload fairing, adding a door to enable access to the Cygnus for late loading of cargo before launch. [SpaceNews]

The FCC clarified but did not change its orbital debris mitigation rules. FCC commissioners voted unanimously last week to approve an order on reconsideration of rules it approved in 2020. The order clarified some elements of the rules based on three industry petitions, but did not make any changes as requested by the companies. The FCC vote came the same day as a bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill that would formally authorize the work by the Office of Space Commerce to establish a civil space traffic coordination system. [SpaceNews]

Other News

Virgin Galactic launched four private astronauts on a suborbital flight Friday. The company's VSS Unity spaceplane, attached to its VMS Eve aircraft, took off from Spaceport America in New Mexico at 12 p.m. Eastern. Unity detached from the plane and flew a suborbital trajectory, reaching an altitude of 88.8 kilometers before landing back at the spaceport. The vehicle carried four customers from the U.S., Ukraine and Austria. Virgin Galactic said in November it would reduce Unity's flight rate from monthly to quarterly and end flights later this year to focus on development of its new Delta class of vehicles. [SpaceNews]

SpaceX conducted two Starlink launches hours apart Sunday night. One Falcon 9 lifted off from Kennedy Space Center at 8:10 p.m. Eastern, placing 23 Starlink satellites into orbit. The booster for that mission completed its 18th flight. A second Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 12:57 a.m. Eastern and put 22 Starlink satellites into orbit. [Spaceflight Now]

Iran conducted its second orbital launch in as many weeks Sunday. A Simorgh rocket lifted off from the Imam Khomeini Space Center and placed three small satellites into low Earth orbit, according to Iranian media. One of the satellites, Mahda, is a microsatellite intended for research while the other two, Kayhan-2 and Hatef-1, are cubesats. There had been five consecutive failed launches of the two-stage liquid-fueled Simorgh before this launch. This launch came after a Jan. 20 launch by another Iranian rocket, the Qaem 100. [AP]

Congress has moved a step closer to completing long-delayed spending bills for fiscal year 2024. House and Senate appropriators finalized allocations for each of 12 spending bills after previously agreeing on overall spending levels. The allocations, not publicly disclosed, allow appropriators to craft those spending bills. The federal government is operating on a continuing resolution that expires March 1 for some agencies and March 8 for others. [Politico]

The Indian space agency ISRO says it has wrapped up operations of a technology demonstration payload launched at the beginning of the month. ISRO said Saturday that the POEM-3 mission, a set of hosted payloads on the upper stage of a PSLV rocket, had completed all of its objectives since its Jan. 1 launch. POEM-3 tested various technologies, including propulsion and solar panels, and carried several experiments. ISRO said the upper stage should deorbit within 75 days. [PTI]

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The Week Ahead

Monday-Thursday:

Baltimore: The 104th Annual Meeting of the Americal Meteorological Society includes sessions on weather satellites and related capabilities.
Orlando, Fla.: Commercial Space Week features the Global Spaceport Alliance Summit on Monday, Space Mobility conference on Tuesday, and SpaceCom/Space Congress on Wednesday and Thursday.

Monday-Friday Feb. 9:

Vienna: The Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the U.N.'s Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space holds its 65th meeting.

Tuesday:

Cape Canaveral, Fla.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying Northrop Grumman's NG-20 Cygnus spacecraft at 12:07 p.m. Eastern.
Reston, Va.: John Sherman, chief information officer of the Department of Defense, speaks at a United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation networking event at 5 p.m. Eastern.

Tuesday-Thursday:

Tucson, Ariz./Online: NASA's Small Bodies Assessment Group meets to discuss NASA missions and research programs involving small solar system bodies.

Wednesday:

Mahia Peninsula, N.Z.: Rescheduled launch of a Rocket Lab Electron on the "Four of a Kind" mission at 1:15 a.m. Eastern.
Herzliya, Israel/Online: The 19th Ilan Ramon International Space Conference will discuss various topics related to Israel's space industry.
Online: Boeing releases its fiscal fourth quarter and full year 2023 financial results and holds an earnings call at 10:30 a.m. Eastern.
Online: NASA's Science Mission Directorate holds a town hall meeting at 1 p.m. Eastern.

Thursday: