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Europe is considering moving the launch of a Copernicus Earth observation satellite to Falcon 9. At a briefing Thursday, ESA officials said they are studying with the European Commission moving the Sentinel-1C spacecraft, currently scheduled to launch late this year on the Vega C, to Falcon 9. The move could allow an earlier launch for Sentinel-1C, a radar mapping satellite that will replace the Sentinel-1B satellite that failed two years ago, and address concerns about placing a valuable payload on the Vega C's return to flight. ESA and the Commission expect to decide whether to change Sentinel-1C's launch "in the coming days and weeks." Europe has turned to the Falcon 9 for other science and navigation satellite launches because of problems with the Vega C and delays in introducing the Ariane 6. [SpaceNews]
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) plans to procure commercial satellite imagery under a new program. NGA issued a solicitation this week for Luno, a program that aims to leverage commercial satellite imagery and data analytics to bolster NGA's global monitoring capabilities. NGA is interested in commercial data and analytics relevant to economic activity, environmental monitoring and keeping watch of military capabilities worldwide, building on an earlier program called Economic Indicator Monitoring. [SpaceNews]
The U.S. Space Force plans to award contracts for upgrading the IT infrastructure at its launch sites. As part of the Digital Spaceport of the Future project announced this month, the Space Force's SpaceWERX technology arm will award Small Business Innovation Research contracts worth up to $1.9 million each. The proposals more likely to be selected are those that offer ready technologies that can be put into use within 18 months, the service said. Most of the work under the digital spaceport project is unclassified because of the heavy use of launch facilities for civil and commercial payloads. [SpaceNews]
Spanish startup Sateliot is seeking to raise more money for a satellite constellation. The company, which has raised 28 million euros ($31 million) since its founding in 2018, is looking to raise 30 million euros to build out a constellation of smallsats that will provide internet-of-things services. Its first four commercial satellites are scheduled to launch this year, and the new funding would go towards 64 additional satellites. The constellation would be compatible with 5G networking protocols so that customers could connect to the satellites with mass market devices. [SpaceNews]
Several payloads on Astrobotic's Peregrine lander are operating as the company tries to stretch out the life of the ailing spacecraft. The company said Thursday that nine payloads are powered up and generating data, while a tenth is powered up but is not designed to return data. The other payloads on the lander are passive. NASA said it is collecting data from two instruments to measure the radiation environment in cislunar space. Peregrine launched Monday with the intent of landing on the moon next month, but a fuel leak shortly after launch will prevent a landing attempt. Astrobotic said late Thursday the fuel leak is slowing, giving the spacecraft at least two more days of life. [SpaceNews]
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Japan launched a reconnaissance satellite overnight. An H-2A rocket lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center at 11:44 p.m. Eastern and placed the IGS-Optical 8 satellite into a 500-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit. The spacecraft is the latest in a series of optical reconnaissance satellites for the Japanese military used primarily for monitoring North Korea, but also support civil activities like disaster relief. The launch is one of the last for the H-2A, which is set to be retired after two more launches later this year. [SpaceNews]
Intuitive Machines raised $11.8 million in a stock sale. The company said Thursday that an unnamed "existing accredited investor" exercised a warrant to purchase 4.7 million shares in the company. That raised $11.8 million before transaction expenses. The company is preparing for the launch of its first lunar lander mission, IM-1, in mid-February. [Intuitive Machines]
After months of effort, NASA has finally removed fasteners that blocked access to samples from an asteroid. Two of 35 fasteners on the sample container from NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission could not be opened with existing tools, requiring engineers to develop new tools that could remove the fasteners but also not contaminate the pristine asteroid material. That effort paid off this week, NASA said, removing the stuck fasteners. Scientists will soon open the container to curate the material inside. That material is in addition to abut 70 grams outside the container itself, some of which has already been handed over to scientists for analysis. [CNN]
A nearby exoplanet may have an abundance of liquid water. Observations of LHS 1140b, an exoplanet orbiting in the habitable zone of a star 50 light-years away, show the planet's density doesn't' match what is expected if it was made solely of rock. Astronomers said that the planet, with a radius 1.7 times that of the Earth, could have large amounts of water or a thick atmosphere of hydrogen and helium. Future observations by the James Webb Space Telescope could determine its composition. If it does have water, it could become one of the leading candidates in the search for life. [Space.com]
| | Who Wouldn't Rather Be the Tourist?
"The human condition is curious, but I just don't think we want to do the mundane. I don't want to do the mundane. I'd much rather be the tourist and enjoying that instead of having to worry about if I'm getting enough regolith manufactured to stay on schedule."
– Tom Cooley of TC Space Consulting, discussing the roles of humans and robots in space during a panel discussion at the AIAA SciTech conference Thursday.
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