Astronomy Prints 🌌: 🛰️ SpaceX launches new spy satellites for NRO

A SpaceNews daily newsletter | Wednesday, May 22, 2024

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NASA and Boeing have once again delayed the launch of the company's CST-100 Starliner commercial crew spacecraft, this time without setting a new launch date. NASA said late Tuesday that Saturday's launch of the Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission, which had been already delayed several times since early this month, will be postponed again with no new date immediately announced. Boeing has been working to resolve a helium leak in one spacecraft thruster, but neither NASA nor Boeing provided specifics on the issues that were holding up the launch beyond what NASA said was work "assessing flight rationale, system performance, and redundancy." CFT will be the first crewed flight of Starliner, sending two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station on a mission lasting a little more than a week. [SpaceNews]

SpaceX launched the first in a new line of NRO reconnaissance satellites this morning. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 4 a.m. Eastern on the NROL-146 mission. The rocket carried an undisclosed number of small reconnaissance satellites developed by SpaceX and Northrop Grumman for the NRO, part of a new constellation. NRO officials previously said six launches are planned in 2024 for its proliferated architecture of small satellites but has not stated how large the constellation will be. [SpaceNews]

Pentagon officials say they are working with SpaceX to block illicit use of Starlink by Russian forces. At a Senate hearing Tuesday, officials said SpaceX has been "more than cooperative" and "forward leaning" in its efforts turn off terminals that are in Russian hands. Some members of Congress has questioned what the Defense Department and SpaceX were doing to block Russian use of Starlink after reports that Russian troops were accessing the service through terminals acquired on the black market. The officials added, though, that efforts to block Russian use of Starlink is a constant struggle as Russia acquires additional terminals. [SpaceNews]

SpaceX is nearing its fourth Starship integrated test flight as the company continues to scale up the facility where the vehicle is built and launched. SpaceX conducted a wet dress rehearsal of the vehicle Monday, fueling it and going through a practice countdown. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the launch should take place in about two weeks, pending receipt of an updated launch license from the FAA. The company is working to expand the Starbase facility in Texas where Starship is built and currently launched, with a new factory set to be completed by the end of the year along with work on a second launch pad. [SpaceNews]

The Dominican Republic is working with an American company to study the feasibility of developing a spaceport. The study, announced Wednesday between the country's National Intelligence Directorate and Florida-based Launch On Demand, will examine technical and other factors for a spaceport in the south of the country. The country is interested in a spaceport to support launches of satellites for national security needs, while Launch On Demand sees interest from companies looking for alternatives to congested spaceports like Cape Canaveral. A spaceport in the Dominican Republic, though, could pose export control and missile technology proliferation challenges. [SpaceNews]

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Other News

A team from Boston University has won a student competition run by a smallsat industry group. The team took home top honors in the SmallSat Alliance Collegiate Space Competition by proposing a cubesat-based system to move defunct satellites out of geostationary orbit and into higher graveyard orbits. The SmallSat Alliance established the annual competition last year to highlight space sector job opportunities and to attract talent. [SpaceNews]

A NASA instrument will be hitching a ride on a European space science mission. NASA announced Tuesday it selected for development the Joint EUV coronal Diagnostic Investigation, or JEDI, instrument for monitoring the sun at extreme ultraviolet wavelengths. The $45 million JEDI will be incorporated on ESA's Vigil spacecraft slated to launch in 2031 to monitor the sun from the L-5 Lagrange point. [NASA]

An astronomer has won a million-dollar prize for his studies of supernovas and other transient objects. Shrinivas Kulkarni of Caltech will receive the $1.2 million Shaw Prize in Astronomy this year for work studying "variable or transient astronomical objects" that include supernova explosions as well as millisecond pulsars and gamma-ray bursts. His research has involved the first measurements of the distance of a gamma-ray burst as well as development of new instruments to study variable astronomical objects. [Physics World]

Jeff Bingham, who worked on space policy at NASA and in the Senate, has died. Bingham, 77, passed away last week from cancer. He worked on space policy issues for Sens. Jake Garn and, later, Kay Bailey Hutchison, securing funding and support for programs like the International Space Station and the Space Launch System. He later chaired the board of directors of the Virginia Spaceport Authority, which operates the commercial Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island. [SpacePolicyOnline]

Sounds Like a Lot

"If you're really colonizing Mars, you need a crapload of missions to be able to do that."

– Kathy Lueders, general manager of SpaceX's Starbase facility in South Texas, discussing the company's plans to build and launch Starship vehicles there during an event last week. [ValleyCentral.com]