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The first cubesats designed to study the moon are scheduled to launch late this year, with more in development in the next few years. Thomas Gardner, director of engineering at Advanced Space and program manager for CAPSTONE, said during a session of the 35th annual Small Satellite Conference Aug. 9 that the launch is currently scheduled for late October or early November. Gardner said that CAPSTONE, if it sticks to its current launch schedule, will be the first cubesat in cislunar space.

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Lunar cubesats head to the launch pad - SpaceNews The first cubesats designed to study the moon are scheduled to launch late this year, with more in development in the next few years.

Ground station providers anticipate a new era of collaboration after coming together to support Astroscale, the startup months away from conducting the world’s first privately funded debris-removal demonstration. A typical LEO mission typically only needs one or two ground stations. Astroscale’s two spacecraft were launched March 22 aboard a Soyuz-2 rocket, and are continuing to perform tests in preparation for a series of maneuvers this year that will demonstrate the startup’s capabilities.

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Ground station collaboration paving way for pioneering space missions - SpaceNews Ground station providers anticipate a new era of collaboration after coming together to support Astroscale, the startup months away from conducting the world’s first privately funded debris-removal demonstration.

Intuitive Machines announced Aug. 10 that its IM-3 lander mission will launch on a Falcon 9 in 2024. The Nova-C lander will carry up to 130 kilograms of payloads to the lunar surface. Company spokesman Josh Marshall said the company has not selected a landing site for the mission. The company previously selected SpaceX to launch its IM-1 and IM-2 lander missions, which are currently scheduled to launch in the first and fourth quarters of 2022, respectively.

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Intuitive Machines selects SpaceX for launch of third lunar lander mission - SpaceNews Lunar lander developer Intuitive Machines will launch its third lunar lander mission on a SpaceX Falcon 9, just as it will its first and second missions.

Japanese company IHI Aerospace plans to market a version of the little-used Epsilon small launch vehicle to commercial customers, although at prices significantly higher than similar vehicles in development. IHI Aerospace, the launch vehicle integrator, plans to start offering launch services using the Epsilon rocket in 2023. The commercial launches will use a new version of the rocket, called Epsilon S. That version will include several upgrades to the existing Epsilon, including replacing the rocket’s first stage, based on the strap-on booster used on the H-2 series of rockets, with one based on a new strap-on booster for the H3 vehicle.

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IHI Aerospace to offer Epsilon rocket commercially - SpaceNews Japanese company IHI Aerospace plans to market a version of the little-used Epsilon small launch vehicle to commercial customers.

Accion Systems plans to supply miniature ion thrusters for Xplore Inc.’s 150-kilogram LEO Xcraft (XLEO) satellite scheduled to launch in 2023, under an agreement announced Aug. 10. If successful, the flight would demonstrate the utility of Accion’s Tiled Ionic Liquid Electrospray (TILE) thrusters to move ESPA-class satellites into their desired orbits after launch and provide stationkeeping, collision avoidance and deorbit capabilities. (ESPA stands for Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Secondary Payload Adapter.) To date, Accion TILE thrusters have flown on cubesats, including the NanoAvionics D2/Atlacom-1 and OQ Technology’s Tiger-2 cubesat launched June 30 on the SpaceX Transporter-2 rideshare flight.

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Rocket Lab said Aug. 10 it will perform the three launches between late August and the end of September from New Zealand as part of a multi-launch agreement Rocket Lab reached with BlackSky and arranged by launch services provider Spaceflight earlier this year. Each launch will carry two Gen-2 BlackSky imaging satellites. The three launches, if they take place on the schedule Rocket Lab announced, will be the fastest cadence the company has demonstrated to date. Rocket Lab performed three Electron launches between late October and mid-December 2020.

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The U.S. Space Force plans to demonstrate later this year two approaches to provide rides to space for small satellites and hosted payloads, including a version of a common adapter equipped with a propulsion system. The Space Test Program 3 mission, scheduled to launch later this year on an Atlas 5, will carry the first Long Duration Propulsive ESPA (LDPE) payload. LDPE uses the EELV Secondary Payload Adapter (ESPA), a ring-shaped adapter for secondary smallsat payloads, as a bus equipped with power and propulsion systems to maneuver after launch and carry payloads to their final orbits.

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Space Force developing “freight train to space” for smallsats - SpaceNews The U.S. Space Force plans to demonstrate later this year two approaches to provide rides to space for small satellites and hosted payloads.

The space industry needs to significantly simplify services for customers outside the sector to unlock its next phase of growth, space executives told the Small Satellite Conference Aug. 9. New space-as-a-service (SaaS) business models have vastly expanded the market, offering more customers the benefits of space infrastructure without the burdens of satellite manufacturing, launch, regulations or other technical intricacies. SaaS offerings from companies including Spire Global, SSTL, Momentus and Loft Orbital Solutions — which participated in a Northern Sky Research panel for the virtual conference, aim to lower barriers to entry for companies lacking in-house expertise to develop space services. They also promise to significantly speed up the time it takes these customers to launch their services.

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Simplification is key to space industry growth - SpaceNews The space industry needs to significantly simplify services for customers outside the sector to unlock its next phase of growth, space executives told the Small Satellite Conference Aug. 9.

China’s main spacecraft maker is developing a human landing system for lunar missions, according to an account of an official academic visit. China is already known to be developing and testing new launch vehicles and a new-generation spacecraft capable of sending astronauts to the moon. A lunar landing and ascent system has one of the missing key components of a human lunar landing architecture.

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China is working on a lander for human moon missions - SpaceNews China’s main spacecraft maker is developing a human landing system for lunar missions as part of a national strategy, according to a report.

In an Aug. 6 statement, Boeing said it was continuing to study why several valves in the propulsion system of the spacecraft were unexpectedly in the closed position during the countdown to the Aug. 3 launch attempt of the Orbital Flight Test (OFT) 2 mission, an uncrewed test flight. Boeing scrubbed the launch about three hours before the scheduled liftoff because of the problem. Neither NASA nor Boeing have set a new launch date for the OFT-2 mission. Boeing said in its statement that it is “assessing multiple launch opportunities for Starliner in August” and will work with NASA and United Launch Alliance to determine an appropriate launch date.

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Starliner investigation continues - SpaceNews Boeing is continuing its investigation into the thruster issue that delayed the launch of its CST-100 Starliner but could soon run into schedule conflicts.

In a statement late Aug. 6, NASA said that while Perseverance had drilled a sample from a rock on the floor of Jezero Crater, that sample did not make it into a titanium sampling tube that would store the material for eventual return to Earth. It’s unclear why the sample didn’t make it into the tube, but for now project officials believe it is more likely unforeseen properties of the rock kept it from entering the tube rather than a malfunction of the sampling system itself. In a worst-case scenario, a problem with the sampling system would upend NASA’s long-term Mars exploration strategy. Perseverance is the first of three missions by NASA and the European Space Agency to collect and return Mars samples to Earth. The samples cached by Perseverance will be collected by a NASA-led lander mission, which will place them into a container and launch it into Martian orbit. An ESA-led orbiter will grab that container and return it to Earth. Those two later missions, still in their early phases of development, will launch no earlier than 2026, returning the samples to Earth as soon as 2031.

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The Long March 3B ignited at 12:30 p.m. Eastern August 5, rising above the hills of the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province after midnight local time. CASC’s China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) provided the launch vehicle, while another major CASC subsidiary, the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), developed the satellite. China plans to launch seven further Long March 3B rockets in the remaining five months of 2021, CALT stated post-launch.

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China launches Zhongxing-2E communications satellite - SpaceNews China sent the Zhongxing-2E into geosynchronous transfer orbit Thursday with the launch of a Long March 3B rocket from Xichang.

Rocket Lab announced Aug. 6 that it will launch the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) mission on an Electron rocket from its Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand in the fourth quarter. However, CAPSTONE would be the second Rocket Lab mission in recent weeks that shifted from Virginia to New Zealand. The most recent Electron launch July 26 placed into orbit Monolith, a smallsat developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory. Monolith was originally going to launch on the first Electron mission from Virginia.

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Rocket Lab shifts CAPSTONE launch to New Zealand - SpaceNews A NASA smallsat mission to test the orbit that will be used by the lunar Gateway will launch from New Zealand and not Virginia as originally planned.

As wildfires currently devastate western North America, a new airborne project team hopes to develop a space solution to stop conflagrations before they get out of control. The project could one day help future firefighters acquire "fire behavior" maps within 20 minutes of an outbreak, using satellite data combined with machine learning (a kind of artificial intelligence), according to a statement from the University of California, Berkeley. The project, funded by a $1.5 million grant, will fund "spotter planes" with infrared detectors — heat-seeking sensors to examine flame length and geometry to learn more about how fires spread. Meanwhile, machine learning algorithms — provided they are trained well on other "hot spot" datasets — could spot new fires in the region within milliseconds, to send alerts.

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This flying fire sensor could help track wildfires from a satellite in space As wildfires currently devastate western North America, a new airborne project team hopes to develop a space solution to stop conflagrations before they get out of control.

Space vehicles powered by small nuclear reactors — a technology that NASA believes could help get humans to Mars faster — also could be used for military missions in deep space, the vice chief of the U.S. Space Force said July 28. One scenario the Space Force is planning for is to be able to deploy and move satellites or other vehicles around cislunar space — the vast region between the Earth and the moon. That creates a challenge for traditional technologies like solar-powered systems. The space industry for decades has used nuclear batteries known as radioisotope thermoelectric generators as power sources in satellites and space probes.

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Space Force sees ‘advantages and opportunities’ in nuclear-powered space missions - SpaceNews Space vehicles powered by small nuclear reactors could be used for military missions in deep space, the vice chief of the U.S. Space Force said July 28.

A Chinese private launch company carried out a first low-altitude vertical takeoff, vertical land test in late July. The 7.3-meter-high Nebula-M used a variable thrust Leiting-5 (Thunder 5) kerosene-liquid oxygen, electric-pump-fed engine. The test was part of the development of the 2.25-meter-diameter Nebula-1 orbital launcher, which is to be capable of lifting 500 kilograms to 500 km Sun-synchronous orbit. Deep Blue Aerospace described the test as a “grasshopper jump,” referencing SpaceX’s Grasshopper experimental flights as part of Falcon 9 development.

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Chinese space firm launches and lands small test rocket - SpaceNews Chinese private launch company Deep Blue Aerospace carried out a first low-altitude vertical takeoff, vertical land test late July.

An Ariane 5 successfully launched two commercial communications satellites July 30 in the first flight of the rocket in nearly a year, and the first of two missions before it launches a NASA space telescope. The rocket’s upper stage deployed the Star One D2 satellite 30 minutes after liftoff and the Eutelsat Quantum satellite six minutes later, both into geostationary transfer orbits. Star One D2 is a Maxar-built satellite for Brazilian operator Embratel Star One. Eutelsat Quantum was built by Airbus Defence and Space for Eutelsat through a public-private partnership with the European Space Agency.

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Ariane 5 launches two satellites on first mission in nearly a year - SpaceNews An Ariane 5 successfully launched two satellites July 30 in the first flight of the rocket in nearly a year, and the first of two before it launches JWST.

Rocket Lab returned its Electron rocket to flight July 29 with the successful launch of an experimental satellite for the U.S. Space Force. The launch was the first for Electron since a May 15 mission that failed to reach orbit when the rocket’s second stage engine shut down moments after ignition. The company traced the failure to “a previously undetectable failure mode” in the ignition system not seen in earlier launches or in ground testing. That problem corrupted signals in the computer on the stage, which in turn caused the thrust vector control system to “deviate outside nominal parameters” and forced the engine to shut down. This mission, called “It’s a Little Chile Up Here” by Rocket Lab, carried a single small satellite called Monolith developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and built by Utah State University’s Space Dynamics Laboratory.

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Rocket Lab returns Electron to flight with Space Force launch - SpaceNews Rocket Lab returned its Electron rocket to flight July 29 with the successful launch of an experimental satellite for the U.S. Space Force.

As the Space Force plans possible missions in cislunar space — the vast area between the Earth and the moon — one of the concerns are the limitations of traditional chemical propulsion. Spacecraft powered by solar thermal energy that use water as its main propellant could provide a viable alternative, says Shawn Usman, astrophysicist and founder of startup Rhea Space Activity. The company envisions a spacecraft that, once launched into space, will deploy an origami-like solar reflector panel. The concentrated sunlight will provide both thermal and electric propulsion using water as the propellant. Delivering payloads fast to destinations beyond geosynchronous orbit is not efficient with chemical propulsion. Electric propulsion can move large payloads but it could take months or years to reach cislunar space.

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The U.S. Government Accountability Office denied protests July 30 that Blue Origin and Dynetics filed of NASA’s award of a single lunar lander contract to SpaceX. GAO further concluded there was no requirement for NASA to engage in discussions, amend, or cancel the announcement as a result of the amount of funding available for the program.

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GAO denies Blue Origin and Dynetics protests of NASA lunar lander contract - SpaceNews The GAO denied protests July 30 that Blue Origin and Dynetics filed of NASA’s award of a single lunar lander contract to SpaceX.

Launch services for Space Development Agency satellites will be procured under the National Security Space Launch program run by the U.S. Space Force, according to an agency announcement. SDA is a Defense Department agency that is building a large constellation of small communications satellites in low Earth orbit known as the Transport Layer. Future launches will be procured from either United Launch Alliance or SpaceX under the National Security Space Launch program (NSSL).

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SpaceX or ULA to launch future Space Development Agency satellites - SpaceNews Launch services for Space Development Agency satellites will be procured under the National Security Space Launch program run by the U.S. Space Force.

NASA announced July 23 that it awarded a launch services contract to SpaceX for the October 2024 launch of Europa Clipper on a Falcon Heavy rocket. The contract is valued at $178 million. That decision made it likely NASA would select SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy given the technical requirements for the mission and the launch vehicles available to meet it. NASA placed Europa Clipper in its “Category 3” requirements for launch services, requiring that vehicles have performed at least three successful launches, including at least two successful consecutive launches.

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Falcon Heavy to launch Europa Clipper - SpaceNews NASA has selected SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy to launch its Europa Clipper mission, a choice that appeared likely once NASA was no longer required to use the SLS.

China is developing a new lunar relay satellite to support future exploration missions to the south pole of the moon. The mission is one of the first for an initial phase of a proposed joint International Lunar Research Station with Russia and potentially other partners. Objectives include survey the region and seek evidence of water ice using an orbiter, lander, rover and a small hopping probe to investigate shadowed craters.

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China is working on a relay satellite to support lunar polar missions - SpaceNews China is developing a new lunar relay satellite to support future exploration missions to the south pole of the moon.

Measurements taken by NASA's InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) lander have uncovered details, including a crustal layer that varies dramatically from previous understanding, a mantle less dense than the surface and a core that is larger and less dense than previously estimated, new results reveal. These findings will impact our understanding not only of the Red Planet today, but also how it and other rocky worlds formed and evolved in our solar system, scientists said.

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Marsquakes reveal Red Planet has surprisingly large core, thin crust Mars keeps surprising us.

Canadian startup Exodus Orbitals plans to launch its first satellite in March to take the software-defined space trend a step further, providing a platform for third parties to upload and run their applications from orbit. Software-defined satellites can be reprogrammed in space, enabling operators on the ground to reconfigure them for different applications after they are launched to orbit.

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Exodus Orbitals is developing an open satellite platform - SpaceNews Canadian startup Exodus Orbitals plans to launch its first satellite in March to take the software-defined space trend a step further, providing a platform for third parties to upload and run their applications from orbit.

NASA approved plans July 22 for the launch of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft on a second uncrewed test flight that seeks to demonstrate that the company has corrected the problems seen on the first. A launch July 30 would set up a docking attempt by the Starliner with the International Space Station about 24 hours later. Starliner would remain docked to the station until Aug. 5, undocking and landing later that day at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico.

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Starliner cleared for second uncrewed test flight - SpaceNews NASA approved plans July 22 for the launch of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft on a second uncrewed test flight.

Russia launched a long-delayed module for its segment of the International Space Station July 21, but that module reportedly suffered technical problems after reaching orbit. A Proton-M rocket lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 10:58 a.m. Eastern carrying the Multipurpose Laboratory Module, or Nauka. The module separated from the rocket’s upper stage about nine and a half minutes after launch. Both Roscosmos and NASA said that Nauka deployed its solar arrays and navigational antennas shortly after separation. Neither agency has provided additional updates on the status of Nauka, but Russian industry sources, posting online, claimed that the module suffered several problems after reaching orbit. Those problems included the inability to confirm that an antenna and docking target deployed as expected, as well as issues with infrared sensors and thrusters.

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Russia launches Nauka module to International Space Station - SpaceNews Russia launched a long-delayed module for its segment of the International Space Station July 21, but that module reportedly suffered technical problems.

Virgin Galactic and its founder, Richard Branson, hailed a successful test flight by the company’s SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplane that carried him and five others to suborbital space, but offered few new details about the company’s future plans. Branson, who said he went on this flight to evaluate the overall experience, said he took note of minor things in the week leading up to the flight. “I’ve written down 30 or 40 little things that would make the next experience for the next person who goes to space with us that much better,” he said. “But, having said that, 99.99% was beyond my wildest dreams.”

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Virgin Galactic, Branson laud SpaceShipTwo flight “beyond my wildest dreams” - SpaceNews Virgin Galactic and its founder, Richard Branson, hailed a successful test flight by the company’s SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplane July 11.

China’s Zhurong rover has approached and imaged the parachute and backshell which helped the vehicle land safely on Mars. The rover has now driven 450 meters in Utopia Planitia as of July 15 Beijing time, according to the China Lunar Exploration Program. The parachute and backshell are located around 350 meters south of the rover’s landing platform. Zhurong has been operating for 60 sols and has a primary mission of 90 sols (92 Earth days). It is currently unknown if Zhurong’s mission will be extended beyond this.

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China’s Zhurong Mars rover visits own parachute - SpaceNews China’s Zhurong rover has approached and imaged the parachute and backshell which helped the vehicle land safely on Mars.

NASA published a request for proposals July 12 for its Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development, or CLD, program. The effort, announced earlier this year, will provide funding for initial studies of commercial space stations that could ultimately be used by NASA and other customers. Proposals are due to the agency Aug. 26. The CLD program is part of NASA’s broader LEO commercialization strategy, tied to its plans to transition from the International Space Station to one or more commercial stations. That process is likely to take a decade, given interest by both NASA and Congress to continue operations of the ISS through the 2020s.

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NASA seeks proposals for commercial space station development - SpaceNews NASA is seeking proposals for a program to support the development of commercial space stations, even as funding for that effort is in jeopardy in Congress.

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope returned to science operations July 17 after a hiatus of more than a month as controllers successfully switched the orbiting observatory to a backup payload computer. After weeks of investigation, engineers concluded that the most likely cause of the payload computer problem was a malfunction of a power control unit, which supplies voltage to the hardware in the computer. With no ability to reset the power control unit from the ground, engineers decided to switch to the backup Science Instrument Command and Data Handling hardware, which has its own power control unit.

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Hubble returns to normal operations after switch to backup computer - SpaceNews The Hubble Space Telescope returned to operations July 17 after a hiatus of more than a month as controllers successfully switched to a backup computer.

Malaysian operator Measat announced July 17 it has maintained continuous telemetry and command control of an aging satellite that ExoAnalytic Solutions, a space tracking company, said has been drifting westward in geostationary orbit for nearly a month. Measat-3 appears to have made several in-orbit maneuvers after beginning to drift June 22, but “none since our analysts confirmed on July 1 that it was tumbling,” said ExoAnalytic Solutions executive vice president of engineering Bill Therien.

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Malaysia’s Measat-3 satellite tumbling in GEO - SpaceNews Malaysian operator Measat announced July 17 it has maintained continuous telemetry and command control of an aging satellite that ExoAnalytic Solutions, a space tracking company, said has been drifting westward in geostationary orbit for nearly a month.

New Shepard lifted off from Blue Origin’s Launch Site One in West Texas at 9:12 a.m. Eastern on the NS-16 mission. The crew capsule, called RSS First Step, separated from its booster and reached a peak altitude of 107 kilometers before descending under parachutes to a landing 10 minutes and 10 seconds after liftoff. The booster performed a powered landing nearly seven and a half minutes after liftoff. The flight was the first time that New Shepard, which started its test flight program in 2015, carried people. The vehicle is designed to fly autonomously, and all previous flights carried only experiments or other cargo. Blue Origin plans to conduct two more crewed New Shepard flights this year, with the first in late September or early October.

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Blue Origin launches Bezos on first crewed New Shepard flight - SpaceNews Blue Origin performed its first crewed New Shepard launch July 20, sending company founder Jeff Bezos and three other people on a suborbital flight.