Capsized lunar lander awakes 🌗

Iran notches second space launch in as many weeks • Virgin Galactic flies again

View this email in your browser 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]   #sponsored The average geostationary satellite weighs 6,500 kg and is the size of a double decker bus. Ours weigh 420 kg and are about the size of a dishwasher. On average, a single geostationary satellite takes 10 years to design, build, and launch. We're scaling up to build 24 a year. Other commercial LEO and GEO solutions force you to share bandwidth with the rest of their traffic. We offer fully dedicated, closed networks. If our MicroGEO platform sounds better than settling for what's out there, get in touch with us here. 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: Chinese Coastal Waters: Projected launch of a Jielong-3 rocket carrying several satellites at 10 p.m. Eastern. Forward First Up to a friend or Subscribe for yourself Copyright © 2024 Multiverse Media Inc., All rights reserved. You signed up to receive this newsletter on Spacenews.com. At times you may receive marketing material. Our mailing address is: Multiverse Media Inc. 100 Filmore St. 5th Floor Denver, CO 80206 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

NASA's HALO suffers fresh losses 🌖

Bent blade ends Mars helicopter's epic run • Major league eclipse on deck for home opener • Firefly added to NRO roster

View this email in your browser A SpaceNews daily newsletter | Friday, January 26, 2024 Top Stories NASA has ended the mission of the Ingenuity Mars helicopter after it was damaged on its latest flight. NASA announced Thursday that Ingenuity suffered damage to at least one of its rotor blades when hit the ground on the Jan. 18 flight. The helicopter is otherwise in good condition, but the damaged blade means it can no longer fly. Engineers are still studying what happened, but speculate that the relatively featureless terrain it was flying over may have confused its navigation system. Ingenuity racked up 72 flights spanning 17 kilometers as it accompanied the Perseverance rover. The helicopter, weighing less than two kilograms, was included as a technology demonstration with the original intent of making no more than five flights. [SpaceNews] Boeing and Lockheed Martin have won contracts to design new narrowband communications satellites for the U.S. Space Force. Each company received a $66 million contract Thursday to carry out the design work for a program that calls for building two satellites that will expand the Mobile User Objective System (MUOS), a network of satellites used by the U.S. military to transmit voice and data communications. Over the next 15 months, the companies will create prototype satellites showing how they would meet the Space Force's requirements for the MUOS satellites. [SpaceNews] Northrop Grumman has taken another charge against earnings for its contract to build a lunar Gateway module. The company disclosed Thursday in its fourth quarter earnings report that it took a $42 million charge on its contract to build the Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) module. Northrop took a $36 million charge on HALO in the second quarter and said the overall loss on the contract totaled $100 million in 2023. The company blamed "evolving" requirements for the module and overall Gateway as well as broader economic issues for the loss. Northrop received a $935 million fixed-price contract from NASA in 2021 to build HALO. [SpaceNews] The National Reconnaissance Office has added Firefly Aerospace to a launch contract. The NRO announced Thursday that Firefly will be allowed to bid for task orders to launch NRO small satellites on its Alpha rocket through the NRO's Streamlined Launch Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity Contract, or SLIC, to procure commercial launch services for its more risk-tolerant missions. The SLIC program is projected to award about $700 million in task orders over 10 years. [SpaceNews] Three European organizations are joining forces to help space companies raise money. The European Commission, European Space Agency and European Investment Bank (EIB) announced an agreement this week to help more space companies get financing, including from a largely untapped multi-billion-dollar fund for strategic investments. That fund, the Strategic European Security Initiative, has awarded about a quarter of its eight billion euros to date, but only a fifth of that has gone to the space industry. The EIB says it will also proactively identify promising European space projects and offer them financial advice. [SpaceNews] Zeno Power Systems will work with the Department of Energy to recycle decades-old radioactive material for space applications. Under the agreement, Zeno will have access to a large supply of strontium-90, a radioisotope created as a byproduct in nuclear fission reactors. The company will use the material to build radioisotope power sources for space and other applications. The company has several contracts to develop radioisotope-powered satellites for national security and space exploration missions, and expects to deliver its first satellite to the U.S. Air Force by 2026. [SpaceNews]   Other News Virgin Galactic is preparing to conduct a suborbital spaceflight today. The Galactic 06 mission is scheduled to take off from Spaceport America in New Mexico at noon Eastern. The company's VSS Unity suborbital spaceplane will carry four customers for the first time, after previous flights carried three private astronauts and one company employee in the cabin. Virgin has not announced plans to webcast the flight. [Space.com] The growth of private human spaceflight is prompting calls for new health research programs. One effort, discussed at a workshop this week in Oklahoma, seeks to organize medical data collection and research to better understand the health risks posed to private astronauts. Scientists note that the population of private astronauts is more diverse than professional astronauts, with various medical issues not seen in professionals. The effort, they emphasized, is focused on research and not seeking to regulate who can go to space. [SpaceNews] Satellites scheduled to launch this year will help fill gaps in tracking of atmospheric methane. A combination of government and commercial spacecraft will help scientists monitor emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Several of those spacecraft will launch this year, but scientists cautioned that the new satellites alone will not be sufficient to fill data gaps and better understand the sources and strengths of methane emissions. [SpaceNews] ESA has given formal approval to two science missions. ESA announced Thursday it agreed to proceed with development of the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission. LISA will fly three spacecraft able to detect gravitational waves. The mission, scheduled for launch in 2035, will cost $1.9 billion and include contributions from NASA. ESA also approved a Venus orbiter mission, EnVision, slated for launch in 2031. [BBC] Astronomers have detected water vapor in the atmosphere of a small exoplanet. Hubble Space Telescope spectroscopic observations of GJ 9827d, an exoplanet about twice the diameter of Earth, detected water vapor in the planet's atmosphere. It's unclear if the water vapor is a small part of a much larger atmosphere made primarily of hydrogen or makes up most of the planet's atmosphere. The planet has a temperature about the same as Venus, making it inhospitable. [NASA] Major League Baseball's Cleveland Guardians are facing a cosmic scheduling conflict. The team's first home game of the 2024 season is scheduled for April 8, the same day as a total solar eclipse whose path of totality passes through Cleveland. The team usually starts its home openers at 4:10 p.m., which would be shortly after totality ends. The Guardians are considering changing the start time of the game to avoid any conflict with the eclipse, as well as heavy traffic expected in the city from people coming to see the eclipse. [The Athletic]   Martian Mechanics "Honestly, if you were to ask me who I would send to Mars, I would send two mechanics, one software IT guy and a doctor. That's who I'd send. There's not even any room for science because you're just trying to keep the damn thing working." –  Erik Antonsen of the Baylor College of Medicine, discussing planning for Mars missons during a commercial human spaceflight health workshop this week in Tulsa, Oklahoma.   Forward First Up to a friend or Subscribe for yourself Copyright © 2024 Multiverse Media Inc., All rights reserved. You signed up to receive this newsletter on Spacenews.com. At times you may receive marketing material. Our mailing address is: Multiverse Media Inc. 100 Filmore St. 5th Floor Denver, CO 80206 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.