18 Jul 24. Military Experts Highlight Space Opportunities, Threats at Aspen Conference. Attendees of the Aspen Security Forum yesterday discussed a subject that influences all other topics the experts at the Colorado conference will talk about: space.
Space Force Gen. Stephen Whiting, commander of U.S. Space Command, and Air Force Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, spoke of the all-encompassing need for the United States to maintain space capabilities and the threats to U.S. space assets during their discussions with Bloomberg’s Loren Grush.
Kruse said space is an arena of enormous change, especially when combined with the development of artificial intelligence. “I would say the technology that we see in space, the change in how space is being used, and the impact that space can have on ground is really in a new place,” he said. “We all need to address it.”
The DIA director sees two big trends: the growth of partnerships and the increasing counter-space capabilities.
He cited the growing number of partnerships in the space community, both formal and informal. This can be government with government, government with industry, and even informal relationships between nations. “There’s tremendous goodness in that. The only way we’re going to be able to be as effective as we need to be in space is through those partnerships.”
These are important because space is ubiquitous, he said. Space impacts economies, diplomatic capabilities, military capabilities and more. “This domain becomes more and more important every day,” Kruse said.
Challengers see this, too, he said. “From a military perspective, what we see … is the increasing amount in intent to use counter-space capabilities to threaten space as we see it today.”
The intelligence director gave the Aspen attendees a CliffsNotes version of threats emanating from China and Russia. China “absolutely intends to be a broad-based, fully capable space power, both economically and militarily,” he said. “And we see that in the amount of research and development that they are doing, we see that in the increase of launch capabilities, we see that in what they are doing.”
China aims to displace the United States as the global leader in space and to exploit space in a way that is to the detriment of the United States, he said. ” counts on what they perceive as a U.S. over reliance on space, and it intends to hold that capability at risk,” Kruse said.
He cited Chinese efforts to develop directed-energy weapons, electronic warfare, and anti-satellite capabilities. China is testing some of these technologies. “We need to really think about how do we defend space,” he said.
Russia — once the original space superpower — is concentrating on reinvigorating its space capabilities, Kruse said. Russia’s lack of conventional superiority is on display in Ukraine, the general said, and that causes the Kremlin to look at space capabilities as an asymmetric capability.
Russia “very much considers space a warfighting domain,” Kruse said. “What I would offer is both Russia and China view the use of space early on — even ahead of conflict — as important capabilities to deter or to compel behaviors, and we just need to be ready for those,” he said.
Whiting, as the combatant commander responsible for space defense, is also concerned about anti-satellite capabilities. “We have seen development of counter-space weapons just rapidly, breathtakingly increase,” he said.
The U.S. military responded to the threats establishing U.S. Space Command and the Space Force. “Now, it is about having professionals laser-focused on this problem: How do we defend against these threats?” Whiting said.
There is no one answer, he said. The United States is making current satellite constellations more resilient, Spacecom is making low-Earth satellites more difficult to target. “We’re seeing a whole host of our constellations now heading in a direction of being more disaggregated, more distributed, having built-in defensive capabilities against these threats,” he said. “But resilience is not going to get us there solely by itself.”
Whiting said that’s because the United States depends on legacy systems built before the new threats emerged. “We’ve got to defend those constellations because they are going to be with us for a much longer period, even as we replace them,” the general said.
On the purely military side, Space Command must work to protect the joint force against the space-enabled militaries of China and Russia, he said. “China is building a kill web … in space tailor-built to find, fix and track targets and help provide … engagement vectors for over-the-horizon fires against U.S. and allied forces throughout the Indo-Pacific area of responsibility,” Whitling said.
The command also must build a test and training infrastructure for new capabilities. “We’re planning for a war we hope to deter, a war we hope never happens,” he said. But unlike in the air, the maritime and the ground domains where we have hundreds of years of history and we have very robust training infrastructures, we don’t have that in space at the level that we need.”
Whiting also addressed Russian threats to put nuclear weapons in space. “The Soviet Union was the original signer of the Outer Space Treaty, which was signed the year I was born, in 1967,” he said. “My entire life, it has been an expectation for mankind that we will not put a nuclear weapon or weapons of mass destruction in space. And now, they are potentially doing that. And if that were to happen, it is a completely indiscriminate weapon. It would affect United States satellites, Chinese satellites, Russian satellites, European satellites, Indian satellites, Japanese satellites. It’s really holding at risk the entire modern way of life.
“It is just an incredibly reckless decision,” he continued. “It is not the action of a responsible space actor. And we hope that Russia returns to its roots as a responsible space actor … .” (Source: U.S. DoD)
15 Jul 24. Southern Launch signs up Korean firm for blast-offs. The agreement will allow Unastella to iteratively test and launch a small lift rocket that will pave the way for it to eventually develop a larger crewed rocket and spaceship.
Space Connect understands the deal will allow blast-offs from both Southern Launch’s traditional Whalers Way orbital launch spaceport and its separate Koonibba sub-orbital test range in SA.
Southern Launch CEO Lloyd Damp hailed Unastella as an “ambitious company with a bright future”.
“We will have everything ready for Unastella when it’s time to launch,” he said. “They just need to bring the rocket.”
The formal agreement was signed in Seoul last week, and the pair will now work to gain regulatory approval from the Australian Space Agency.
Unastella – named after the Latin for “one star” – hopes to begin its “human space flight platform” with suborbital space tourist flights before progressing to missions to 400km (the height of the ISS) and eventually “deep space manned space exploration” to the Moon and Mars.
“This partnership will create greater momentum for Unastella by overcoming launch site obstacles,” said Jaehong Park, the rocket manufacturer’s founder and CEO.
“The ability to conduct regular launches out over the Southern Ocean as we develop our vehicles is incredibly valuable as we can iterate our technology safely.
“This partnership with Southern Launch will provide us with an instrumented range as well as the regulatory approvals and logistics, meaning we can continue to concentrate on the development of the vehicle.”
The news comes after German rocket manufacturer HyImpulse said it intended to sign up for more sub-orbital blast-offs from Southern Launch’s Koonibba Test Range following a successful launch in May.
“Thanks to Southern Launch’s overland test range at Koonibba, the team from HyImpulse were able to recover their rocket to understand the performance of the vehicle,” said Damp.
“Being able to recover the rocket means the HyImpulse team has vital information at their fingertips rather than at the bottom of the ocean, which is what differentiates the Koonibba Test Range from most other test ranges around the world.”
Koonibba – a joint venture between the launch firm and the Koonibba Community Aboriginal Corporation – is designed to test rockets and payloads by blasting them into sub-orbital space before they return to Earth in the same location.
It differs from Southern Launch’s more traditional Whalers Way Complex at the tip of the Eyre Peninsula, which specialises in orbital launches over the sea. (Source: Space Connect)
15 Jul 24. New Sierra Space Partners Accelerate Effort to Bring Dream Chaser Spaceplane to Japan.
- MUFG Bank, Ltd., Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co., Ltd., Join Sierra Space, Oita Prefecture, Kanematsu and Japan Airlines in Spaceport Oita Utilization Study
- Company Eyes the Future with Growing Global Network of Landing Sites
Sierra Space, a leading commercial space-tech company that is Building a Platform in Space to Benefit Life on Earth®, announced today that two additional partners will help accelerate the investigation into Spaceport Oita in Kunisaki, Oita, Japan, as a potential landing site in Asia for Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser®, reaffirming its plans to expand a global network of return locations for the revolutionary new commercial spaceplane.
MUFG Bank, Ltd., and Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co., Ltd., anchor investors in Sierra Space’s Series B funding round, are joining forces with Sierra Space, Oita Prefecture, Kanematsu Corporation and Japan Airlines to conduct a comprehensive utilization and landing site study at Spaceport Oita. The consortium will work together to identify and develop new business opportunities for Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser in Japan and across the Asian continent.
“Our dual-use and fully reusable Dream Chaser spaceplane will transform space travel,” said Sierra Space CEO Tom Vice. “Dream Chaser’s unique ability to land on compatible commercial runway worldwide – transporting precious cargo efficiently in a low-g landing – opens myriad, new global economic opportunities.”
“Two major Sierra Space investors, MUFG Bank, Ltd., and Tokio Marine and Nichido Fire Insurance Co., Ltd., will help extend the robust commercial economy we’re building in Low Earth Orbit to businesses and academic institutions in Japan and across the Asia-Pacific region. We are honored to share this vision with them, along with our partners in Oita Prefecture, Kanematsu and Japan Airlines.”
Dream Chaser – the world’s first winged commercial spacecraft – recently arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and entered into operations ahead of its first International Space Station (ISS) servicing mission. The Dream Chaser fleet is growing rapidly, with a second spaceplane under construction, and the company is eyeing multiple global partnerships to establish the following runway landing sites in addition to Oita, Japan:
Kennedy Space Center, Florida
Space Florida holds a Launch and Reentry Site Operator License, issued by the FAA in January 2021, allowing Dream Chaser to land at Space Florida’s Launch & Landing Facility (LLF). The spaceplane, dubbed Tenacity®, will be the first spacecraft to travel from the ISS to the historic runway since Space Shuttle Atlantis touched down on the iconic landing strip in 2011.
Spaceport Cornwall, U.K.
Sierra Space’s Memorandum of Understanding with Spaceport Cornwall in June 2021 followed the successful completion of a Concept of Operations (CONOPS) funded by the UK Space Agency that examined U.S.-U.K. regulatory framework, return mission trajectory analysis, risk analysis, environmental and infrastructure review, as well as a consideration of present and future supply chain capability. The resulting agreement specifically identifies Spaceport Cornwall as a suitable and viable landing site.
Huntsville, Alabama
In May 2022, the FAA issued a license allowing the Huntsville International Airport in Alabama to accept landings from Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser spaceplane. The FAA license evaluation process involved environmental and safety reviews; the agency will work with the Huntsville Airport to develop the necessary notifications and other procedures for safely and efficiently integrating commercial space reentries into its operations.
Spaceport America, New Mexico
Spaceport America, located in southern New Mexico, is the most recent addition to a growing list of compatible runways worldwide where the Dream Chaser could land. The agreement was signed in June 2022. This latest addition to the portfolio solidifies Spaceport America as a versatile location, encapsulating Sierra Space’s vision of accessible space for all.
Sierra Space products and programs are working towards a more accessible space economy. As the next generation of space transportation, the first Dream Chaser is in pre-launch preparations for its inaugural cargo supply and return mission for NASA, and will deliver up to 12,000 pounds of cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) per flight. Dream Chaser is a reusable spaceplane, uniquely capable of a smooth 1.5 low-g re-entry for crew and cargo transportation with the ability to land on existing commercial runways worldwide. (Source: ASD Network)
12 Jul 24. US court rejects challenges to FCC approval of SpaceX satellites. A U.S. appeals court on Friday upheld the decision of the Federal Communications Commission to approve a SpaceX plan to deploy thousands of Starlink satellites to provide space-based broadband internet service.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rejected a legal challenge from DISH Network (DISH.MX), and an environmental group composed of amateur astronomers and dark-sky enthusiasts. DISH had argued the FCC did not adequately consider the risk of signal interference with other satellites, while the astronomer group said the FCC had not followed an environmental law in its approval. The court in 2022 rejected a separate challenge to SpaceX’s plan to deploy satellites at a lower Earth orbit than planned.
In late 2022, the FCC approved SpaceX’s request to deploy up to 7,500 satellites after the commission in 2018 approved SpaceX plans to deploy up to 4,425 first-generation satellites.
SpaceX has sought approval to operate a network of 29,988 satellites, to be known as its “second-generation” or Gen2 Starlink constellation to beam internet to areas with little or no internet access.
The three-judge panel said the FCC “decision to license SpaceX’s Gen2 Starlink satellites was lawful and reasonable.” DISH did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In 2022, the FCC turned down applications from bnaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX and LTD Broadband for funds that had been tentatively awarded in 2020 under the commission’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, a multibn dollar program in which SpaceX was poised to receive $885.5 m to beam satellite internet to U.S. regions with little to no internet connections.
FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel defended the decision at a U.S. House hearing this week. The FCC in December said the decision was based on the Starlink failure to meet basic program requirements and that Starlink could not demonstrate it could deliver promised service.
(Source: Reuters)
15 Jul 24. Airbus and Thales ‘seriously’ looking at tie-up of space activities, La Tribune reports. Airbus (AIR.PA), and Thales (TCFP.PA), are considering merging their space activities, French business paper La Tribune reported on Monday, citing unnamed sources.
“The two groups have launched low-key discussions that are exploratory in nature, according to several sources,” the paper said.
The companies did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment outside regular business hours.
Airbus Defence & Space, a unit of the European aviation conglomerate headquartered in Germany, employs well over 100,000 people and is one of the world’s largest suppliers of the space industry.
Thales’ Alenia Space unit, in which Italian arms maker Leonardo holds a minority stake, produces high-tech solutions for telecommunications, navigation and surveillance, mainly in the field of satellites. (Source: Reuters)
08 Jul 24. Aerojet Rocketdyne, an L3Harris Technologies company, has completed modernising the four flight-proven RS-25 engines that will help power NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket on the Artemis IV mission. Artemis IV will be the first flight of the enhanced Block 1B configuration of the super-heavy-lift rocket and the last to use engines remaining in inventory from the space shuttle program.
Aerojet Rocketdyne has upgraded the Artemis IV engines with modern flight computers that will allow them to withstand the higher temperatures due to being located next to the SLS solid rocket motors. NASA and Aerojet Rocketdyne completed testing of the flight computers and former space shuttle main engines for the first four Artemis missions at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.
Artemis IV infographic [© L3Harris]
Artemis IV marks the debut of the upgraded SLS Block 1B rocket featuring the exploration upper stage powered by four Aerojet Rocketdyne RL10 engines. The first three Artemis missions are using the SLS Block 1 configuration that uses the interim cryogenic propulsion stage powered by a single RL10.
“The SLS Block 1B upgrade is a game changer that will enable the most ambitious missions ever attempted,” said Kristin Houston, President, Space Propulsion and Power Systems, Aerojet Rocketdyne, L3Harris. “The new universal stage adapter above the exploration upper stage provides 24% more volume for a co-manifested payload than an industry-standard five-metre-class payload fairing.”
Crewed versions of the SLS Block 1B with the exploration upper stage will be capable of delivering 38 metric tons of payload to cislunar space in a single mission, versus 27 metric tons for the SLS Block 1. This means more than 10 metric tons of additional cargo can fly with every crewed mission. Cargo-only versions of the enhanced vehicle will be able to deliver 42 metric tons to cislunar space.
Beginning with Artemis V, the SLS deep space exploration rocket will use newly manufactured versions of the RS-25 engines that take advantage of production efficiencies and advances in manufacturing to reduce unit costs by more than 30% from the shuttle versions, while also flying at a higher thrust level. (Source: www.joint-forces.com)
07 Jul 24. EUSPA funding scheme for integration of Galileo HAS into maritime receivers. EUSPA has opened a call for a GNSS positioning/navigation in a close-to-market solution, integrating Galileo High Accuracy Service (HAS) enabled maritime receivers, to be embedded within the vessel navigation equipment. Galileo HAS is aimed at applications requiring higher performance than what is offered by the Galileo Open Service.
The introduction of Galileo HAS has the potential to be a breakthrough technological advance for current and new applications in which decimeter-level high accuracy is essential.
Currently, high accuracy is mainly used in professional applications. Waterborne transportation (passengers and cargo) and engineering operations stand to benefit from Galileo HAS in terms of efficiency and safety thanks to the increased level of accuracy provided by this Galileo service.
The Galileo HAS-enabled Maritime receiver Call for Proposals aims at designing, developing, testing and demonstrating a GNSS positioning/navigation solution, integrating Galileo HAS receiver, suitable to be embedded within the vessel navigation equipment. Find more information about the call at this direct infolink… Deadline for submission to the call: Friday, September 20, 2024 – 23:59 CEST.
(Source: Satnews)
08 Jul 24. ICEYE, the global leader in Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite operations for Earth Observation, and the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine have signed a Memorandum of Cooperation to further strengthen their cooperation in remote sensing of the Earth in the interest of Ukraine’s national security and defence.
The Memorandum of Cooperation builds on ICEYE’s unwavering support for the Government of Ukraine since 2022. In the Memorandum, ICEYE continues to constantly ensure that the imagery captured pertinent to Ukraine’s territory is used in the interests of ensuring the security and defence of Ukraine in conditions of armed aggression and not shared in any circumstance with hostile countries or entities. The Memorandum also outlines ICEYE’s and Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense partnering to strengthen Ukraine’s space defence capabilities even further and provide SAR expertise to support defence activities. The Memorandum focuses on advancing remote sensing technology, improving data use for security, and supporting Ukraine’s integration into the global space economy.
In August 2022, ICEYE announced signing a contract with the Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation to provide the Government of Ukraine with ICEYE’s SAR satellite imaging capabilities. As part of the agreement, one of ICEYE’s SAR satellites is designated for the Government of Ukraine’s use over the region. In addition, ICEYE provides access to its constellation of SAR satellites, allowing the Ukrainian Armed Forces to receive radar satellite imagery on critical locations with a high revisit frequency.
“Cooperation with ICEYE and the signing of the memorandum will enhance our intelligence work. I’m grateful to the company for its commitment to values and the Ukrainian people. I support the intention to limit space imaging over the territory of Ukraine. We must protect the country on land, in the air, at sea, and in space,” commented Deputy Minister of Defense Kateryna Chernohorenko on the signing of the memorandum.
Oleksandra Ustinova, Head of Ukraine’s Parliamentary Commission on Arms, commented: “I plead with all satellite companies to follow ICEYE’s lead in not selling imagery to Russia. ICEYE has been an important partner for Ukraine in providing satellite data responsibly. We are grateful that they are taking the technological lead within the industry to help protect Ukraine from Russian aggression. ICEYE’s modern technologies will be able to provide Ukraine with an advantage on the battlefield and far beyond enemy lines. I foresee this cooperation to strengthen with time and that together, we will engage in new defence space projects, directing Ukraine toward building a highly technological sovereign space capability.”
“ICEYE has been working closely with the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine from Day 1 to support and help Ukraine in building space defence capabilities. In line with our vision to improve life on Earth by becoming the global source of truth in Earth Observation, we take pride in our efforts to provide objective, actionable data and technological support to Ukraine. The use of new, ground-breaking technology will continue to add significant value to the Government of Ukraine,” said Rafal Modrzewski, CEO and Co-founder of ICEYE.
“As an operator of highly advanced space capabilities and as a supplier of geospatial intelligence, we believe that we have a responsibility to prevent the misuse of our services against Ukraine,” continued Rafal Modrzewski, “We ask our peers to stand with us and Ukraine in this approach against unwarranted foreign aggression.”
Owning and operating the world’s largest SAR satellite constellation, ICEYE delivers proven and reliable Earth Observation data and solutions. At any given time, most of the Earth is covered in clouds or darkness. Unlike traditional Earth observation satellites, ICEYE’s small radar imaging satellites can form high-resolution images of areas of the Earth in daylight, at night, and through cloud cover. In other words, they can collect images and data from any part of the Earth multiple times a day, with the necessary reliability for critical decision-making. (Source: www.joint-forces.com)