Signals and Space is your weekly intelligence briefing to ensure you know what's going up and what’s going on in space—and why it matters.
Here’s what we covered this week:
- NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program:
- Who: NASA and six organizations from industry and academia.
- What: Received $600k grants each for their second phase projects, which include initiatives for planetary defense, lunar far side radio array, silent solid-state propulsion, quantum Rydberg radar, and radioisotope electric propulsion systems.
- Why: The funding aims to support the development of advanced concepts that could enable space exploration and scientific research.
- Space situational awareness via DARC:
- Who: Brig. Gen. Anthony Mastalir, commander of Space Forces Indo-Pacific.
- What: Urges the need for space situational awareness radar systems, specifically the Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability (DARC).
- Why: The urgency is due to concerns about China's space capabilities, as they could potentially use space to generate long-range precision strikes against maritime and air components.
- The future of Baikonur Cosmodrome:
- Who: Roscosmos and Baikonur Cosmodrome.
- What: A contract dispute between Roscosmos and Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan has put the future of Baikonur Cosmodrome in question.
- Why: The dispute may jeopardize the future of the Soyuz-5 project, which is critical for keeping Baikonur alive beyond 2030.
- Featured interview: friend-of-the-show Dr. Diane Janosek, NSA Deputy Director of Compliance, discussed the implications of nanosatellites for the security of IoT devices and the potential challenges in maintaining cybersecurity.
- Rocket Lab to Launch TROPICS Satellites from New Zealand:
- Who: Rocket Lab USA, NASA.
- What: Launching two Electron rockets carrying satellites for the TROPICS constellation.
- Why: To better understand and predict tropical storms, ensuring the satellites are operational for the 2023 hurricane season in North America.
- Ball Aerospace, Loft Orbital, and Microsoft Collaborate for SDA's NeXt Program:
- Who: Ball Aerospace, Loft Federal (subsidiary of Loft Orbital), Microsoft.
- What: Collaboration on the Space Development Agency's National Defense Space Architecture Experimental Testbed (NeXt) program.
- Why: To send 10 satellites with experimental payloads to orbit for defense purposes, with the launch set for 2024.
- Space Force Aims for Flexibility in National Security Space Launch Contracts:
- Who: US Space Force, Space Development Agency (SDA).
- What: Preparing for the third phase of the National Security Space Launch contracts, open for solicitation this summer.
- Why: To improve the speed and flexibility of buying and scheduling missions for the SDA.
- GAO Report Highlights Aging Military Satellite Antennas:
- Who: US Government Accountability Office (GAO), US Space Force.
- What: A report on the aging Satellite Control Network (SCN) and plans to add 12 new antennas by 2025 and transition from parabolic to phased array antennas with the new antennas.
- Why: To address system availability concerns and improve throughput and bandwidth for the control network.
- ITU Prepares Major Report planned for World Radiocommunication Conference 2023:
- Who: International Telecommunications Union (ITU).
- What: ITU has approved a major report to address issues with radio-frequency spectrum and satellite orbits, which will be released at WRC-2023 in November.
- Why: To ensure secure, reliable, affordable, and accessible digital services worldwide.
- European Space Industry Gains Venture Capital Funding:
- Who: European space industry, OTB Ventures.
- What: A surge in venture capital funding for the European space industry.
- Why: The European Space Agency (ESA) awarding contracts to smaller players, driving optimism for the region's space business ecosystem.
- Tlon Space Preparing for First Orbital Flight Test of Aventura I Rocket:
- Who: Tlon Space, an Argentina-based startup.
- What: First orbital flight test of the small launch vehicle, Aventura I.
- Why: To prove its viability as a lightweight and cost-effective solution for launching nanosatellites and picosatellites.
- Satellite Vu Awarded Grant for Infrared Monitoring System for Solar Farms:
- Who: Satellite Vu, Energy Entrepreneurs Fund.
- What: Grant awarded for the development of a satellite-based infrared monitoring system, SARM-PV.
- Why: To improve the efficiency of power generation through solar cells by 2-4% and reduce overall costs for solar providers.
- Featured interview: Brandon Bailey of The Aerospace Corporation discussing the SPARTA framework and cybersecurity for spacecraft.
- FCC International Bureau Split:
- Who: Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Julie Kearney, Chief of the FCC Space Bureau.
- What: Split of the International Bureau into the Office of International Affairs and the FCC Space Bureau.
- Why: To make the FCC more agile and responsive to the rapidly changing space economy and improve coordination among federal agencies.
- Arianespace and Reusable Rockets:
- Who: Arianespace, SpaceX, Stephane Israel (Arianespace CEO).
- What: Arianespace focusing on Ariane 6 instead of reusable rockets, with the Ariane Next set to debut in the 2030s.
- Why: Arianespace may have missed the window for incorporating reusable rocket tech into the Ariane 6, which is expected to be in use for the next decade.
- HAKUTO-R Mission 1 Lunar Lander:
- Who: Japanese private company ispace.
- What: Historic lunar landing attempt.
- Why: If successful, Japan will become the fourth nation to soft-land on the Moon, and it will be the first privately funded spacecraft to do so.
- CAS Space Reusable Rocket Model:
- Who: Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Space.
- What: Successful launch and vertical landing of a jet-engine-powered reusable rocket model.
- Why: Proof of concept for CAS Space, which could lead to more organizations scaling up their efforts in reusable rocket stages.
- AI in Space: Spiral Blue's Space Edge One:
- Who: Australian space startup Spiral Blue.
- What: Space Edge One, an NVIDIA Xavier NX-based AI device, performs real-time data processing in space.
- Why: More efficient, targeted data transmission to end users on Earth.
- AI in Space: Microsoft's Azure Space:
- Who: Microsoft.
- What: Azure Space uses generative AI to make sense of space data.
- Why: Allows end users to ask natural language questions to find locations from satellite data.
- South Korea's First Commercial-Grade Satellite:
- Who: South Korea, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).
- What: Launch of NEXTSat-2 and seven cubesats on the KSLV-II Nuri rocket.
- Why: First commercial-grade satellite for South Korea and first joint manufacture of the Nuri rocket by a private company.
- Midland Spaceport Development Board:
- Who: Midland Spaceport Development Board, Texas state legislature.
- What: Attempting to secure state funding for Midland International Air & Space Port.
- Why: To revive the spaceport, which shut down in 2019 due to a lack of funding.
- Eclipse Venture Firm Funds:
- Who: Eclipse venture firm.
- What: Raised $1.2 billion across two new funds to invest in industries that create physical things, bringing their total managed funds to $4 billion.
- Why: To help bring these industries into the digital era, focusing on sectors like manufacturing, supply chain, transportation, healthcare infrastructure, semiconductor, and energy.
- Flexible Mirror for Space Telescopes:
- Who: Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics.
- What: Development of high-quality, flexible membrane mirrors for use in space telescopes.
- Why: To advance space telescope technology by making mirrors more easily transportable and deployable.
- Featured interview: Zhanna Malekos-Smith, Senior Associate at CSIS and Cyber Law Fellow at the Army Cyber Institute. We discussed the US-Japan Space Pact agreement and the meaning of “peaceful purposes.”
- Relativity Space changes plans:
- Who: Relativity Space.
- What: Scrapping Terran 1, focusing on Terran R development. First launch scheduled for 2026.
- Why: To compete in the medium to heavy launch vehicle market and capitalize on market and financial opportunities.
- US Space Force to task commercial satellites:
- Who: US Space Force.
- What: Building capabilities to directly task commercial satellites for faster imagery.
- Why: To improve response times and coordination with the commercial sector to directly support the warfighter.
- Combat drones receiving orders from LEO:
- Who: General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI).
- What: The successful demonstration of an MQ-20 Avenger Unmanned Aircraft System controlled by human and AI pilots via LEO satellite communications, the first such demonstration of LEO satellites controlling a drone.
- Why: To explore the potential for faster and more efficient communication with combat drones. Before now, such drones have been controlled by satellites in GEO.
- Microsoft and Viasat collaboration:
- Who: Microsoft and Viasat.
- What: Connecting Viasat's Real-Time Earth ground service to Microsoft's Azure cloud.
- Why: To scale operations and provide faster access to larger amounts of data for customers.
- Kepler Communications funding news:
- Who: Kepler Communications.
- What: Raised $92 million to deploy the Kepler Network, a constellation of 140 optical data relay satellites.
- Why: To enable real-time and continuous connectivity with satellites in LEO.
- Slingshot Aerospace to improve space situational awareness:
- Who: Slingshot Aerospace.
- What: Adding 80 ground-based optical telescopes to its existing network of 150.
- Why: To supplement radar observations and track objects in LEO more effectively.
- Astra Space granted extension by Nasdaq:
- Who: Astra Space.
- What: Granted a six-month extension to raise its stock price above $1 per share.
- Why: To avoid being delisted from the stock exchange.
- Featured interview: Brandon Karpf, Executive Director of N2K Networks and our Executive Producer. We discussed the US Space Force component commands and the challenges facing the resource-constrained SPACECENT.
- Launch of ESA’s mission to Jupiter:
- Who: ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE).
- What: Successfully launched on an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana.
- Why: To explore Jupiter and its icy moons; the spacecraft will take 8 years to reach Jupiter and the mission will last until 2031.
- New space systems report from CSC 2.0:
- Who: Cyberspace Solarium Commission (CSC) 2.0.
- What: A new report calling for space systems to be designated as critical infrastructure.
- Why: To close current gaps and prioritize space security and resilience through improved risk management and public-private collaboration.
- Large global market opportunities in satellite broadband access.
- Who: Satellite industry consulting group Euroconsult.
- What: A report predicting $18 billion in revenues for the universal satellite broadband access market by 2031.
- Why: The untapped market for service providers is worth about $74 billion, with 2.6 billion people still lacking access to broadband, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, India, and parts of Asia.
- AWS ground station expands services with increased frequency support.
- Who: Amazon Web Services (AWS) Ground Station.
- What: Expanded services to offer Wideband Digital Intermediate Frequency to customers.
- Why: To enable customers to demodulate and decode downlink data in real-time in their Amazon Virtual Private Cloud using a software-defined radio of their choice.
- Intelsat and Optus contract Northrop Grumman for in-space servicing.
- Who: Northrop Grumman, Intelsat, and Optus.
- What: Announced that two of the three mission extension pods (MEPs) on the planned 2026 mission robotic vehicle have been spoken for.
- Why: The MEPs will service large satellites in geosynchronous orbit (GEO), expanding in-space servicing, assembly, and manufacturing (ISAM) capabilities.
- Successful launch from a Chinese private space startup.
- Who: Chinese private rocket startup i-Space.
- What: Successful launch of their four-stage solid rocket, Hyperbola 1.
- Why: Marks their first successful launch since 2019 after three consecutive failures, and the 16th rocket launch for China this year.
- NASA initiates the second independent review for the Mars Sample Return mission.
- Who: NASA, Orlando Figueroa, and the Mars Sample Return mission.
- What: Figueroa appointed as the chair of the 2nd independent review of the Mars Sample Return mission.
- Why: To oversee the complex mission planned for later this decade; Figueroa is a former director for Mars Exploration at NASA.
- Featured interview: Raphael Roettgen, Founder & Partner at E2MC Ventures and host of the Space Business Podcast, on the venture capital environment for new space startups and SpiderOak's recent Series C investment round. You can follow Raphael on LinkedIn and Twitter.