Astronomy Prints 🌌: 🚀 SpaceX sets record with Starlink launch from California

A SpaceNews daily newsletter | Friday, September 13, 2024

Top Stories

The Pentagon is looking for information on advanced space domain awareness (SDA) technologies. The Space Security and Defense Program (SSDP), a joint initiative of the Department of Defense and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, issued an RFI this week seeking input on SDA technologies to monitor and understand satellites and debris in Earth orbit. The SSDP is responsible for assessing potential threats to U.S. space assets and for gathering insights on technologies for the defense of U.S. systems. The RFI specifically seeks information on "proven and innovative SDA concepts for use between 2030 and 2040." It comes after retired Lt. Gen. John Shaw, a former top official at U.S. Space Command, voiced concerns over the U.S. military's ability to adapt to the changing dynamics of space. [SpaceNews]

Japanese company ispace plans to launch its second lunar lander mission as soon as December. The company said at a Wednesday briefing that its Resilience lander was on schedule to launch as soon as December on a Falcon 9, targeting a landing at Mare Frigoris in the northern part of the near side of the moon about four to five months after launch. The lander is the same design as ispace's first mission, which crashed attempting a landing in April 2023 because of a software glitch. The lander is carrying six payloads, including a small rover called Tenacity built by ispace's European subsidiary. Resilience is one of three lander missions planning to launch around the end of the year, joining Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost 1 and Intuitive Machines' IM-2. [SpaceNews]

The IM-2 mission will take with it a NASA smallsat. The agency's Lunar Trailblazer spacecraft will launch as a secondary payload on IM-2, mapping water ice deposits from lunar orbit. The lander itself will touch down in the south polar regions of the moon to deliver a NASA payload to drill into the surface to look for ice as well as a "hopper" vehicle. [SpaceNews]

NASA says it received 11 responses to an RFI about taking over its VIPER rover. NASA announced in July it would cancel the mission even though the rover is complete and going through environmental testing, but later released an RFI to solicit concepts for taking over the mission from the agency. NASA said it would assess the responses but did not offer a schedule for next steps. Members of the House Science Committee sent a letter to NASA earlier this month asking for details about its plans for the rover and the rationale for its decision to cancel it at this phase of development. [SpacePolicyOnline.com]

Other News

SpaceX launched a set of Starlink satellites from California Thursday night. A Falcon 9 lifted off at 9:45 p.m. Eastern from Vandenberg Space Force Base and deployed 21 Starlink satellites, 13 with direct-to-cell payloads. The launch was the 31st orbital launch this year from Vandenberg, an annual record for the base; all but one of the launches have been by SpaceX. [Spaceflight Now]

The EPA intends to fine SpaceX nearly $150,000 for activities at its Starbase site. A proposed settlement between the EPA and SpaceX, announced this week, covers use of a water deluge system at the launch pad there without a permit as well as a liquid oxygen spill there in 2022. The settlement comes even as SpaceX continues to claim it has not broken any environmental laws there. The settlement is open to public comment to late October. [San Antonio Express-News]

Slingshot Aerospace has raised $30 million for its space situational awareness services. The company said Thursday that Trinity Capital provided the funding through a debt facility to allow it to scale up its operations and support growth initiatives. Slingshot tracks objects in Earth orbit and provides space traffic coordination and related services. [Slingshot Aerospace]

NASA has delayed the launch of the Crew-9 mission to the ISS by a day. NASA said Thursday that mission, which had been scheduled to launch as soon as Sept. 24, is now scheduled for Sept. 25 to provide additional time for prelaunch preparations and more separation between ISS activities. The Crew Dragon spacecraft will send Nick Hague of NASA and Aleksandr Gorbunov of Roscosmos to the station. They will return next February with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who remained on the station when NASA decided to bring back their Starliner spacecraft uncrewed. [NASA]

Remember the Booties

"Zeigler made his way back out of the airlock and began stripping off his bunny suit. He reminded the visitor to remove his booties: 'Earlier this week, I was standing in line at Jimmy John's, and I look down, like, Damn it.'"

– From an article in The New Yorker about a tour of NASA's lunar sample archive in a clean room at the Johnson Space Center provided by curator Ryan Zeigler.

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