Imagine, just stick with me here, imagine that you're the moon, just hanging out in space for billions of years and then all of a sudden your nearest neighbor that you've been peacefully orbiting just starts chucking stuff at you and trying to land things on you and even walking around on you. Yeuns of quiet and now this and if that wasn't enough they start putting things on your back. You didn't even think they could see your back. And then they go on and do it again. How rude! Well, sorry moon, it wasn't the first time and it definitely won't be the last. Today is June 3rd, 2024. I'm Maria Varmausis and this is T-minus. China lands Chang'e 6 on the far side of the moon. The dear moon mission is cancelled. Boeing's Starliner crewed mission scrubbed again and rescheduled for June 5th. And our guest today is Dr. Min Kwan Kim, Associate Professor in Astronautics at the University of Southampton. We're going to be discussing his new research project on the environmental impact of the orbiting satellite. So definitely stay with us for that chat. Every Monday everybody, let's get into our intel briefing. China has landed a spacecraft on the far side of the moon for a second time with Sunday's successful lunar touchdown of Chang'e 6. The first far side landing was in 2019 with Chang'e 4 and, by the way, China is still the only nation to have accomplished this feat, let alone twice. And it is no small feat technologically, as the lunar far side of the moon always faces away from us. Landing on its far side means you cannot rely on the usual line-of-sight communications. And we've seen many times in recent years that even with line-of-sight, soft landing on the moon is tough. Chang'e 6 used its onboard cameras and autonomous obstacle avoidance system to find a safe spot to land in the Aitken basin on the lunar south pole. There are several scientific payloads aboard Chang'e 6, with the primary being a 2 kg lunar sample and return mission, but notably there are several international collaborations with Pakistan, Sweden, Italy, and France as well. Lunar sample collection is expected to take two days, and the samples should help us better understand the history of our solar system and the moon. Should all continue going well, the expected return of these lunar far side samples is June 25th. And speaking of lunar missions, the famous "Dear Moon" project has officially been cancelled. Japanese billionaire Yusaku Mayazawa was planning the first private flight around the moon on SpaceX's Starship. The plan had included artists from around the world who would participate in the project to share what the mission's called "the invaluable experience in space with the rest of the world." Arrangements were being made with SpaceX to target the launch by the end of 2023. Unfortunately, it is now 2024, and launch obviously within 2023 became unfeasible. And without clear schedule certainty in the near term, Mayazawa made the unavoidable decision to cancel the project. Boeing's Starliner just does not seem to be able to catch a break lately. After years of delays and now two scrubs, the first crewed mission to the ISS is now scheduled to launch on Wednesday, June 5th. Fingers crossed again. On Saturday, the launch was scrubbed just four minutes before departure. An investigation into the cause of the malfunction that caused the scrub is currently underway. ULA CEO Tori Bruno told reporters at a press conference held over the weekend that, and a quote, "the leading suspect would be either a hardware problem or a problem with the network." And he also noted that the investigation is not complete. L3Harris has completed its sale of the company's antenna and related businesses to an affiliate of Candor's and Company for $200 million. According to the press release, the deal aligns with L3Harris's portfolio-shaping strategy of divesting non-core assets with transaction proceedings to be used consistent with capital allocation plans. The transaction includes $175 million in cash and a $25 million seller note. Science Applications International Corporation, also better known as SAIC, reported their first quarter financial results. The company reported revenues of $1.85 billion and a net income of $77 million. Sounds great, but revenues for the quarter did decrease $181 million, or 9%, compared to the same period in the prior year. SAIC says the loss is primarily due to the sale of the logistics and supply chain management business. SAIC CEO Tony Towns-Wittley says, "We are confident that the strategy and investments we are making best position the company to maximize long-term shareholder value. While we are seeing early indications of progress, we expect returns from our investments to further accelerate in financial year 26 and 27." Astrospace has received a deficiency notice from NASDAQ, indicating that because Astra did not timely file its quarterly report on Form 10Q for the quarter-ending March 31, 2024 with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Astra was therefore not in compliance with the NASDAQ listing rule, which by the way requires NASDAQ-listed companies to timely file all required periodic financial reports with the SEC. That pesky paperwork. The May 22, 2024 deficiency notice had no immediate effect on the listing of Astra's Class A common stock, and the notice provides that Astra has until July 22 of this year to submit to NASDAQ a plan to regain compliance with the rule. The US Space Development Agency, or also known as the SDA, has released a program solicitation for the hybrid acquisition for a proliferated LEO, also known as Halo effort. The selected awardees will be eligible to compete for future prototype orders. Now, Halo is an acquisition approach to solicit an award rapid, affordable mission feasibility demonstrations. This solicitation provides an opportunity for industry to submit proposals for eligibility into an established vendor pool in order to compete for specific flight demonstration opportunities in the future. Only vendors in the Halo pool will be able to bid against specific demonstration prototype orders geared toward this effort, with the anticipation of multiple prototype orders being initiated and awarded per year. A key goal of Halo is to put a flexible and fast contracting mechanism in place in order to compete and award SDA demonstration projects like the Tronch-Dew demonstration and experimentation system as well as others. Halo will also increase the pool of performers capable of bidding on future SDA programs, including participation in layers of future Tronches. If you're interested in learning more, you can find more details in our show notes. The US Space Agency has selected three industry proposals to help develop technologies for future large space telescopes and plan for NASA's habitable world's observatory mission concept. The mission could be the first space telescope designed to search for life outside of our solar system. NASA is currently in the early planning stages for this mission concept, with community-wide working groups exploring its fundamental science goals and how best to pursue them. NASA has now selected three proposals for two-year fixed-price contracts with a combined value of $17.5 million, targeted to begin by late summer 2024. And Satellite Communications Company, UTELSAT, has achieved a Platinum Space Sustainability rating in recognition of the company's commitment to responsible space utilization. The ratings aim is to reduce the creation of space debris, limit the risk of satellite collisions, and help ensure that space operations are managed safely and sustainably. The SSR rating is based on six modules including Mission Index, which calculates the impact of spacecraft on operational risk, collision avoidance capabilities, data sharing, detectability, identification and trackability, application of design and operation standards, as well as the use of future external services. We'd like to see more of this, please. Yes, and thank you. And that concludes our briefing for today. Head to the selected reading section of our show notes for further information on all of the stories that we've mentioned. We've also included an article on China gifting Arab states flags that have been flown to space. AT-Mine is crew. Every Monday we produce a written intelligence roundup, and it is called Signals and Space. So if you happen to miss any T-minus episodes, this strategic intelligence product will get you up to speed in the fastest way possible. It's all signal, no noise. You can sign up for Signals and Space in our show notes or at space.ntuk.com. Our guest today is Dr. Mingkwan Kim, associate professor in astronautics at the University of Southampton. Dr. Kim is leading a new research project on the environmental impact of deorbiting satellites. And I started by asking him to tell me more about his work. Our research team is investigating the potential environmental impact caused by the satellite at the end of the missions. So we have many satellites for supporting our life, for the GPS, the internet, or communication, TV. So most of the case, those are the satellites, especially operating at the low Earth orbit. At the end of the missions, we dispose them through the burning at the atmosphere. Many years ago, we have very few satellites, like 100, few hundred. Now we have a couple thousand or a couple of tens of thousands. So 10 years ago, this supporting satellite through the burning, we didn't recognize this might cause the problem. Now we recognize this causing some serious problems. So our research is actually identifying what is the environmental problems caused by those burning satellites. I remember hearing late last year that there were some studies that NOAA had done about finding large proportions of unexpected metals in the high atmosphere. And then also there was, I'm trying to remember, I may be misremembering, but there was a, I think a talk at ESA earlier this year, at a conference earlier this year, about the need for this kind of research that you and I have just kicked off. So I'm really thrilled to hear that this is happening. To me, when I was learning about it, I said, I had no idea that this was something that was occurring at that scale. I mean, I, maybe, maybe I'm just out of the loop. I had no idea. So whether the people recognize or not. So every day our life, there are many asteroids falling through the, our atmosphere, they're burning it. So they contain some metal. So most of the metal, the heavy metal, it is fine. But satellite or spacecraft rocket, we want to make them very, very, very, very, very, very, very light. So therefore we're using the very special metal, specially for the aluminum. This is one of the problems we think. So when the aluminum is the bond, we call this the oxide. So it generates the aluminum oxide. So the easy term is that is the white powder. If you buy the sun cream, so that is, it consists with the aluminum oxide. So think about it, we sprayed a large amount of the sun cream at the very high altitude. So it blocked the sunlight or disturbing it. So if it having the accumulate a lot, it potentially affect the global climate. It might be not the warming, it might be the cooling. So other thing is those, the aluminum, so when the oxide it, so we call this the alumina. So they are very interact with the ozone. So ozone particularly at the high altitude. So those, the alumina is kind of the catalyst to decompose the ozone in the oxygen. So now we have, if we have the more aluminum in there, we're having some, the ozone 2.0 problems. A very complex issue. And also I would imagine the location, just where it is in the high atmosphere also, do we even understand with those compounds being so high up in the atmosphere, do we even understand how that interacts with the rest of the atmosphere? How, you know, will that even settle or will that stay there? Do we even know that? We have the very little knowledge about this one because we never think about those might be the problems. So what we know it, so this, the metal particle at the high altitude, that will stay really, really long time. And then it is very, very difficult to removing it. Once we contaminating high altitude, so pretty much it is not likely possible to clean it out. My goodness. All right. So, and the research has just begun. I will be so fascinated to hear what you and your team discover. Can you tell me a little bit about maybe anticipated process or I imagine the work has just started. So can you tell me anything about how things are going? Our project is the phase one project. So during the phase one, we want to identify what is the problem we have? What is the potential like directions we have to investigate and what effort and the resource we might need to investigate further this kind of problems. So it's kind of developing the initial framework for this kind of the new research area or new the kind of the issues. Yeah. So a lot of work still to be done clearly. It's exciting though that such a new area. It's going to be very interesting to hear how things progress. And my understanding also is that the UK Space Agency is funding this researcher in part at least. Can you tell me about that? Yeah. So this is the project is funded by the UK Space Agency. It's the kind of the sustainability program. So the UK Space Agency, they came to make this space is the more like a sustainable resource. It's not just used by the our generations to ensure that our next generation can keep the benefit by using the space. Absolutely. I know again we're the I'm catching at the beginning at the very beginning stages here. But is there anything else you'd like to share with the public and with our audience about this research that you've just kicked off anything you'd like people to know? So the uniqueness of this research is the pretty much the multidisciplinary. So we have the scientists, we have the engineers like me, but we also have the lawyers and the policy makers. So people might wonder why the scientific research, engineering research having the lawyers and the policy makers, because of the nature of this problem is quite complicated. So if we put the satellite at the space, we know they are not governed by the US law or UK law or European law, because they are the common space. But when they set the lights actually burning through the atmosphere, they are closing from the space to the Earth. So sometimes it starts with the space, but actually the final destination is the is the Earth. But we don't know how we can treat those environmental regulations. It is the trade with the US regulation or European regulation or UK regulations. We don't know which one is the more benefit because of that happened all across the continent or countries. My goodness. So it sounds like then part of the potential study output would be maybe, I don't know if recommendations is the right word, but some sort of policy guidance. Yeah, so one of the, our expecting outcome is the suggesting to the politicians or lawmakers, okay, this kind of the regulation or guideline might be think about it. Other thing we have in the project, we have some of the industry partners. We have the small industry partners called the Spaceforge. That is the SME based in the UK. And we have the big industry, the manufacturers, the Airbus. So they are representing the large size the industry. But when we set the regulations actually to those, the small industry or large industry, they are directly impacted by the regulations. For example, if we set the regulations very harsh, we can protect our environment, but we cannot make the sustainable for the small industry or large industry. So we want to listen to their opinions, how we can introduce those regulations gradually, not the minimizing their impact or their lack of the financial or fitness development. We'll be right back. Welcome back. It is the brightest planet in our solar system and our morning star, that would be Venus. And it might be a little while until we pay it a visit again. That's because our only active spacecraft, which has been in orbit around Venus since 2015, has sadly gone silent. That spacecraft is JAXA's Akatski, which is the Venus climate orbiter, a mission that launched in 2010 and had a rough time getting started when it first arrived at Venus. Its main engine didn't fire for long enough for the orbiter to achieve orbital insertion around Venus, basically kind of missed. So for a little while, JAXA hibernated Akatski while it figured out a new plan. And the little orbiter then went into a solar orbit until 2015, when it was able to attempt another Venusian orbital insertion, this time using its attitude control thrusters instead of the main engine, and then it was able to achieve orbit. A different orbit around Venus than the one originally planned, mind you, but an orbit around Venus nonetheless. In the last near decade, Akatski has been studying Venus' climate and its meteorological phenomena in a number of wavelengths, helping us better understand how and why Venus' horrifically inhospitable atmosphere is the way it is, and maybe even teach us a little bit about how our own atmosphere works as well. Now, before we say that Akatski is officially done, I should note that JAXA is still trying to re-establish communications with it, at least as of May 29th, that is. So perhaps its mission will continue, fingers crossed. And if not, we'll make our way back to Venus… eventually. NASA's Veritas mission locked in the funding it needed to succeed back in March this year, so set those calendars for 2031 for Veritas, and give or take. That's it for T-minus for June 3rd, 2024, brought to you by N2K Cyberwire. For additional resources from today's report, check out our show notes at space.n2k.com. We'd love to know what you think of this podcast. Your feedback ensures that we deliver the insights that keep you a step ahead in the rapidly changing space industry. And if you like the show, please share a rating and a short review in your favorite podcast app. Also, please fill out the survey in the show notes, or send an email to space@n2k.com. We're privileged that N2K Cyberwire is part of the daily routine of the most influential leaders and operators in the public and private sector, from the Fortune 500 to many of the world's preeminent intelligence and law enforcement agencies. N2K makes it easy for companies to optimize your biggest investment, your people. We make you smarter about your teams while making your teams smarter. Learn how at N2K.com. This episode was produced by Alice Carruth. Our associate producer is Liz Stokes. We are mixed by Elliot Peltzman and Trey Hester, with original music by Elliot Peltzman. Our executive producer is Jennifer Iben. Our executive editor is Brandon Karpf. Simone Petrella is our president. Peter Kilpie is our publisher. And I'm your host, Maria Vermazes. Thanks for listening. We'll see you tomorrow. [MUSIC PLAYING] T-minus. [MUSIC PLAYING] [BLANK_AUDIO]
