House Rules
How the ORBITS Act – not the gum – could clean up a dirty space, and all the other bills that the U.S. government hopes will support space innovation
Hello Celestial Citizens and Continuum readers,
Cheers to another Friday and another space news cycle. We’ve got a lot to cover today, so I’ll keep this brief and ask the question on everyone’s mind…
And now, the space beat you came here for...
Top Headlines
Bill, Please – You know what they say, clean it up with ORBITS. Well, at least the U.S. government is saying that with a new bill passed unanimously in the Senate last week, directing NASA to create an orbital debris removal program. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: the risk of space junk accidents climbs with each new satellite launch. While continued space innovation should be encouraged, it must be met with safety plans in equal seriousness (in our humble opinion). The idea here is to develop removal technology before some loosey-goosey celestial scrap “knocks out a scientific satellite, threatens a NASA mission, or falls to the ground and hurts someone,” according to Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell. And if the ORBITS Act sounds familiar, it may be because the Senate passed the same bill back in 2022, before it got ditched by the House. This new version of the bill will have to pass through the House too, along with a bill that would streamline launch communications via the FCC. Perhaps, the House will be as supportive to these programs as they are with the Mars Sample Return, having just produced a report on the 2024 spending bill that would grant NASA the full budget request for MSR. This being said, the report was published pending the results of the Independent Review Board, which we now know has painted a very different picture of the MSR’s budget and schedule needs.
Red Light – Potentially linked to the 2024 budget uncertainty is NASA’s contract for a Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) – to be used in future Artemis missions – which the agency anticipated awarding this month but has now pushed to March 2024. The U.S. space agency has not confirmed any justification for the delay beyond the fact that it will “allow additional time to evaluate proposals,” collected back in July. While a bit of a bump in the Artemis road, a delay could give the agency time to wrangle enough funds to provide more than one contract. This is particularly exciting when you have partnerships like a Lockheed Martin and General Motors collab, as well as Leidos x NASCAR. Startups Astrolab and Intuitive Machines are also in the running for the contract. You know, we could be looking at a classic marshmallow test, where the act of waiting results in greater gains– er, more marshmallows.
Double Dinky – On the first of the month, NASA’s Lucy spacecraft passed her first diamond in the sky, flying by asteroid Dinkinesh within the main belt between Mars and Jupiter. Meant to be a practice run of sorts for future targets – Trojan asteroids closer to Jupiter that the spacecraft won’t reach until 2027 – the snapped images of “Dinky” provided scientists with a new revelation…Dinky is not alone. A small moon orbits the asteroid, about a third of its size. So, not only did Lucy’s flyby result in a successful test of the spacecraft’s asteroid tracking and capture technology, but also a reminder that no asteroid is the same, and in fact each “is carrying with it a memory of a different part of the history of our solar system,” in the words of planetary scientist Thomas Statler. In the case of recent asteroid popstar Bennu, for instance, that memory is now immortalized in the Smithsonian, which has a part of the asteroid sample on display starting later this month.
Eyes in the Sky – When knowledge is power, being left in the dark can be a tactic of control. With satellite imagery access revolutionizing war, there are new legal and ethical questions for commercial satellite companies cropping up in real time. The latest example of this is evident in, as you may have guessed, the Israel-Hamas war. San Francisco satellite imaging company Planet Labs has recently been called out for limiting customer access to imagery over Gaza, allegedly curbing medium and high resolution versions of its images, restricting downloads, adding redaction-like color blocks to portions of images, and delaying delivery of certain images. Major U.S. news outlets like the New York Times and Washington Post have received days-old satellite data from Planet and Maxar Technologies. And while Planet claims that any delays or other imagery limitations are “standard” and “not any way specific to this region or event,” some question if they are at all linked to an update from October 19th that featured an overhead of Israeli tank positions. It will also be interesting to examine how their distribution repeats (or doesn’t) these patterns in other scenarios. Look, it is understandably very nuanced for commercial providers; these are decisions that affect national security, and companies are not typically equipped to make them. Governments are – for the most part. We will be keeping up with all this – plus the possible beginnings of weapons beyond the Kármán line – as we navigate these new parameters of warfare.
International Space Station Updates – In far less-heavy news, our favorite orbiting lab is experiencing some seasonal self-care. First, astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara completed a spacewalk on November 1st, successfully replacing a bearing assembly in a solar array. Due to the state of the degraded assembly, O’Hara and Moghbeli had to spend more time on this portion of the mission and skip the second goal of the spacewalk, which was to retrieve a failed communications device. Tomorrow, the International Space Station will receive a NASA cargo mission known as CRS-29, after a Dragon capsule launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida yesterday. While the SpaceX Dragon capsule is currently the only robotic spacecraft that can also return supplies from the space station back to Earth, the spacecraft did experience a couple delays this past week due to a leak in one of its Draco thruster valves. Fortunately, the team was able to remedy the issue and launch approximately 6,500 pounds (2,950 kilograms) of supplies and science equipment to the station, including a laser array and an experiment from ESA to improve ISS water recovery. Hey, we know what that means, and it sure does put a tinkle – er, twinkle in our eye.
The JWST Download
Over 100 astronomers have called on the Webb to take on a “multi-epoch, large-area, multi-wavelength survey of the Milky Way’s innermost regions,” as its size and infrared vision make it the only telescope up to the task. Is it just us, or is this giving Gandalf-sending-Frodo-to-the-fires-of-Mordor energy?
A recent study used data from the JWST and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory to confirm the oldest supermassive black hole yet – one with a mass equal to all the stars in its entire galaxy. That's, according to an astrophysicist on the case, “absolutely crazy.”
Euclid’s coming for the JWST’s job, evidenced by its first five science photos released this week portraying a level of detail that astronomers have “never seen” before, according to project scientist René Laureijs. The images – which feature the Perseus galaxy cluster, Horsehead nebula and a globular cluster orbiting the core of the Milky Way – show how powerful the wide angle of Europe’s deep space telescope can be, even at one fifth the size of the Webb. Insert “size doesn’t matter” joke here.
A Global Space
China – The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CASC) launched a communications satellite to orbit yesterday, atop a Long March 3B rocket. The satellite, known as ChinaSat-6E, or Zhongxing-6E will replace an older model in geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO), with a planned lifespan of 15 years operating in radio and broadcasting. Of course, this wasn’t the only Chinese launch this month, as the nation also used a Long March 7 rocket to carry a “communication technology experiment” into space just last week. Not much is known about the experiment, but we do know that like ChinaSat-6E, the satellite is in a GTO. Finally, when China isn’t launching they’re landing; in last week’s case, the nation landed the Shenzhou 16 astronauts in the Mongolian desert, despite a ripped parachute. The crew’s safe return also marks the first completed mission of a Chinese civilian astronaut without prior military experience. Wishing Professor Gui Haichao a restful recovery back here on Earth, after helping his country reach this exciting milestone.
Norway – In the face of years-long launch tribulations, Europe might now look to Norway to give the continent the launch autonomy it so craves. The Crown Prince of Norway inaugurated a new spaceport last week on a northern island in the Arctic Circle, known as Andøya. Germany’s Isar Aerospace already secured exclusive access to Andøya Spaceport’s first launch pad; having gotten in on the ground floor of the project, the pad was designed specifically to meet the needs of Isar’s Spectrum vehicle. Assuming all goes to plan, Norway will likely achieve the milestone of having “the first satellite launches ever from European soil to take place from Andøya.”
ESA – With SpaceX’s Dragon capsule as currently the only robotic spacecraft that can both deliver and return supplies between Earth and the ISS, the European Space Agency is hoping to add more fish to the pond. Announced November 6th, ESA will initiate a competition to incentivize European companies to develop commercial cargo vehicles. Some companies, like Munich and Bordeaux-based The Exploration Company, have already set off on this path; the aforementioned company raising over €40 million back in February with plans to launch a cargo capsule to the ISS as soon as 2027. ESA currently has €75 million set aside for the first round of this program – which the agency plans to allocate between two to three companies – with additional funding for later rounds to be gathered in the future between ESA member states. While we don’t have a detailed timeframe yet, we do know the agency is hoping this program will yield a cargo capsule ready to launch to the ISS by 2028.
Netherlands & Iceland – In a final Euro-update, the Artemis Accords recently gained two European signees. On November 1st, Harm van de Wetering, the director of the Netherlands Space Office signed the Accords for the nation, accompanied by NASA Administrator and Artemis hype guy Bill Nelson. The Netherlands government has also committed to investing €22.2 million ($23.6 million) into improvements to their national European Space Agency facility, called the European Space Research and Technology Centre. With no known ceremony nor financial promises, Iceland also signed the Accords preceding the Netherlands. The nations are now the 31st and 30th partners, respectively.
India – A nation that has been surrounded with outstanding press over the last few months, India just experienced an unexpected pinch of controversy, involving an upcoming memoir written by ISRO Chairman S. Somanath. However, “pinch” is really the key word here, as the fuss started with an early released excerpt where Somanath appears to accuse former ISRO chairman of hindering his promotion to the same role. Somanath has since clarified that this conclusion is a “misinterpretation” of his book, which solely tries to portray his journey to chairmanship of the Indian space agency as a motivational story, and one not free of challenges along the way. Despite the clarification, Somanath has decided to withhold the release of his memoir – perhaps indefinitely.
Canada & U.S. – A space venture firm in Pasadena, California – founded by a NASA JPL alum – is running the 2024 SoCal-Canadian Space Accelerator this coming year, which invites Canadian entrepreneurs in the fields of Earth observation, AI, space mining and more. The Canadian government, including the Canadian Space Agency is backing the accelerator and the $500,000 to $20 million that startups stand to win at the end of the virtual program in April. Los Angeles trade commissioner for Canada, Maddie Morris, identifies Southern California as a key “ecosystem” for her nation’s entrepreneurs, where there are “partnership opportunities with corporates, NewSpace companies, VCs, NASA JPL and other public-sector partners.” Wishing all accelerator hopefuls good luck with their applications, which are due on November 22nd.
Japan – As it turns out, Japan’s date with destiny is delayed. That is, the nation’s DESTINY+ mission – a JAXA mission to study an asteroid known as 3200 Phaethon – has been postponed from a 2024 launch to a 2025 one, after a July engine test explosion slowed development of the Epsilon S rocket that would carry the mission to orbit. Here’s hoping the Epsilon gets back on track, as DESTINY+ and its survey of Phaethon could provide astronomers with a lot of answers. Somewhere between an asteroid and a comet, Phaethon is a curious near-Earth celestial rock, and is the source of an annual December meteor shower known as the Geminids. While DESTINY+ may be sliding into the future, a Kyoto University researcher’s dream of a sky full of wooden satellites is becoming a reality as JAXA and NASA plan to send his team’s prototype into orbit early next year.
Space Reads!
In remembrance of acclaimed NASA commander Ken Mattingly, who passed away last week at age 87, the New York Times shares his downright thrilling story of how a measles scare turned into one of the most heroic rescue missions NASA has ever seen. If you’ve watched Apollo 13, you may already know the tale, but it’s worth a refresher.
A new book by self-described “space bastards” examines Mars settlement topics well beyond 3D printed habitats (think: democracy, reproduction, etc) in an effort to answer the most basic question of all: “have we really thought this through?”
If you’re still thinking about the “cannibal” solar flare from August, you’re not alone (and if you’re not, please tell us what anxiety drugs you’re taking), as space weather forecasters have been drilling down to create a more accurate forecast for the peak of Solar Cycle 25, hitting skies near you in 2024.
For anyone who’s felt both the burn of a robotic rejection and the anxiety of impromptu interviews, you should feel heard in this compelling story of one engineer’s first steps into the SpaceX rocket factory from
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And that’s a wrap on this week in space news! Keep an eye out this coming Monday for MOONSHOT, our paid subscriber newsletter covering the commercial space sector. A big thank you to Tess Ryan for writing this edition with me and for keeping up with the cosmos! We hope you enjoyed reading Continuum this week and will share it with your friends. And if you really, really like us, then consider becoming a paid subscriber or gifting a subscription so we can keep putting out more space content.
Keep it celestial people,
Britt
CEO of Celestial Citizen & Creator of Continuum
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