Plus: Space Force marks five years, and LeoLabs boosts space tracking with new Arizona radar
| | | A SpaceNews daily newsletter | | 12/11/2024 | | | | | China is preparing to launch the first satellites of a national broadband megaconstellation. A Long March 5B rolled out to the pad at the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center Tuesday ahead of a launch expected in the coming days, based on publication of airspace restrictions. Leaked mission patches suggest the payload for the mission will be Guowang satellites for China Satellite Network Group Co., Ltd. (China SatNet), which runs the national Guowang megaconstellation. Guowang, or "National Network," is China's project to establish a national satellite internet constellation with nearly 13,000 satellites. It is separate from Qianfan, another Chinese megaconstellation that has already launched its first satellites. [SpaceNews]
The general in charge of the U.S. Space Force says he is "extremely proud" of what the service has done since it was established five years ago. In a speech Tuesday at the Spacepower Conference, Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman reflected on what the Space Force has done since its creation in December 2019. He emphasized a key Space Force mission known as "space control" that involves ensuring freedom of action in space and singled out China as the most significant threat to U.S. space operations. He said actions by China and Russia have become "our best PR" for securing additional resources and support in a bureaucracy that often moves slowly. [SpaceNews]
The Space Force is strengthening its partnership with Japan in a bid to counter Chinese activities in space. Brig. Gen. Anthony Mastalir, commander of U.S. Space Forces Indo-Pacific, said at the Spacepower Conference that the two countries are working more closely on space security issues, including shared capabilities in space object surveillance in order to track increasingly sophisticated Chinese satellites capable of dynamically altering their orbits. The U.S. and Japan have also agreed to include space within the scope of their mutual defense commitments, meaning that an attack on one country's satellites could trigger a collective defense response. [SpaceNews]
The breakup of a commercial GEO communications satellite also illustrates threats to space activities. The October incident involving Intelsat-33e created more than 700 pieces of debris, according to ExoAnalytic Solutions. That cloud of debris creates "noise" in GEO, a company executive said: if "you were planning for it as a bad guy, you could deploy anything you wanted at GEO in the noise that created." Boeing is still investigating what caused the failure of Intelsat-33e after a similar satellite, Intelsat-29e, was lost in 2019. [SpaceNews]
LeoLabs has opened a new radar for tracking space objects. The company said Tuesday it opened its seventh radar site, this one located in Arizona. The radar installation features next-generation UHF technology designed to track activities in low and very low Earth orbit as well as potential future applications in missile and hypersonic glide vehicle detection. The new radar includes capabilities to maintain custody of maneuverable objects, detect non-cooperative launch activities and track objects nearing atmospheric reentry. [SpaceNews]
Geomagnetic storms can affect satellite orbits and the ability to predict potential collisions. A major storm in May caused predictions of satellites' orbits to be off by as much as 20 kilometers, according to research presented at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) this week. Those errors are linked to low accuracy of forecasts of the timing and intensity of the storms, which increase atmospheric density and thus drag. The May storm, as well as another in October, also caused "mass migrations" of up to 5,000 satellites, primarily SpaceX Starlink spacecraft, in a single day as they raised their orbits automatically to counteract the drag. That can also degrade the ability to accurately maneuver to avoid potential collisions. [SpaceNews]
| | | | | A NASA official is cautiously optimistic that a key heliophysics mission threatened with cancellation will continue. Speaking at a town hall meeting during the AGU conference, Joe Westlake, director of NASA's heliophysics division, said there was "positive movement" for securing funding for the Geospace Dynamics Constellation (GDC) mission but added that it was "still not quite out of the woods". NASA proposed canceling GDC in its fiscal year 2025 budget request despite the fact that GDC was a top priority of the previous heliophysics decadal survey. GDC would fly six spacecraft in low Earth orbit to study interactions between the magnetosphere and upper atmosphere. [SpaceNews]
French propulsion startup Ion-X raised 13 million euros ($13.7 million) to further work on electric propulsion systems. The company announced the Series A funding round Tuesday from private investors as well as European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund and the Île-de-France regional government. The company said the funds will allow it to accelerate development and expand production of electrospray thrusters for small satellites and constellations. Ion-X plans to begin producing 10 thrusters per month by 2026, building up to 200 thrusters per year by 2028. [SpaceNews]
The chairman of the House Science Committee's space subcommittee will lead the full committee next year. Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas) announced Tuesday that the House's Republican Steering Committee selected him as the next chairman of the House Science Committee. Babin, whose district includes NASA's Johnson Space Center, has chaired the space subcommittee the last two years. In a statement, he signaled that regulatory reform will be a priority for the committee in the next Congress: "industry should operate at the rapid speed of innovation rather than the sluggish pace of bureaucracy." [House of Representatives]
A European radar imaging satellite launched last week has already returned its first images. ESA released Tuesday the first radar images taken by the Sentinel-1C spacecraft that was launched last Thursday. ESA emphasized "an exceptional level of data quality" in those initial images, the first of which was taken less than two and a half days after launch. Full commissioning of the spacecraft will still take several months. [ESA]
The UAE is in discussions with American and European companies to build an airlock for the lunar Gateway. The UAE's Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre is considering bids from a "publicly listed US aerospace manufacturing and space infrastructure technology company" and a French manufacturer for the airlock module. NASA announced early this year an agreement with the UAE, where that country would provide the airlock module for the Gateway in exchange for NASA flying an Emirati astronaut to the Gateway. The UAE hopes to complete the airlock by 2030, assuming no changes by the next administration in NASA's plans to develop the Gateway. [The National (UAE)]
| | | | | | Wooing Europa
"We launched the Europa Clipper to go search for signs and the building blocks of life. Every time I say 'Europa Clipper' someone in the room goes 'Woo!'"
– Nicky Fox, NASA associate administrator of science, speaking at an AGU town hall meeting Tuesday where at least one audience member cheered the successful launch of Europa Clipper in October.
| | | | | | What's New With SpaceNews? |  | | Check out the latest episode of Commercial Space Transformers, our new video series featuring conversations between SpaceNews Senior Staff Writer Jason Rainbow and the people driving the space industry's commercial transformation. This week, ST Engineering iDirect CEO Don Claussen discusses virtualization, automation and the push for standardization in satellite networks.
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