Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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January 12th, 2023
A new, just-released report on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) highlights the greater awareness of airspace and increased opportunity to resolve UAP events.
The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 required the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), in consultation with the Secretary of Defense, to submit an annual report to Congress on unidentified aerial phenomena. ODNI has submitted the classified annual report to Congress and published an unclassified annual report.
New reports
In summary, the report explains that, in addition to the 144 UAP reports covered during the 17 years of UAP reporting included in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) preliminary assessment, there have been 247 new reports and another 119 that were either since discovered or reported after the preliminary assessment’s time period.
Credit: Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies (SCU)
This totals 510 UAP reports as of 30 August 2022.
Additional information is provided in the classified version of this report.
Possible threats
An All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) was established on July 20, 2022.
AARO and ODNI assess that the observed increase in the UAP reporting rate “is partially due to a better understanding of the possible threats that UAP may represent, either as safety of flight hazards or as potential adversary collection platforms, and partially due to reduced stigma surrounding UAP reporting.”
Shown at Congressional hearing, Video 1 2021 flyby movie showing a purported UAP.
Credit: Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation Subcommittee/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Given this increased reporting, it allows more opportunities to apply rigorous analysis and resolve events, the new report adds.
The document adds that UAP events continue to occur in restricted or sensitive airspace, “highlighting possible concerns for safety of flight or adversary collection activity.”
Collection bias?
“We continue to assess that this may result from a collection bias due to the number of active aircraft and sensors, combined with focused attention and guidance to report anomalies,” the report notes.
An executive summary explains that there will be continuing investigation to gather any evidence of possible foreign government involvement in UAP events.
“We are confident that continued multi-agency cooperative UAP prosecution activities will likely result in greater awareness of objects in and across the air, space, and maritime domains, as well as the nature and origin of UAP in the
future,” the document states.
Urgent and critical need
In response, Ryan Graves, a former Navy F/A-18 pilot and Chair of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena Integration & Outreach Committee, said:
“With 247 new incidents of UAP since the 2021 report, including events in sensitive airspace, it is clear that there is an urgent and critical need to improve aerospace safety by dedicating scientific research into UAP.”
“I am glad to see the government is taking the accounts of pilots and other witnesses seriously,” Graves said in a statement, “and I am heartened by ODNI’s acknowledgement of the profound, harmful effect stigma has in preventing the necessary data collection we need to understand UAP.”
Graves said that there’s need to “stop unscrupulous speculation, break stigma, and invest in science to address this national safety threat.”
To access the full, unclassified report — 2022 Annual Report on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena – go to:
https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/Unclassified-2022-Annual-Report-UAP.pdf
Posted in 
Image credit: Virgin Orbit
The recent Virgin Orbit launch mishap is being analyzed with preliminary data under review that already sheds some light on the premature shutdown of the “Start Me Up” air-launched rocket mission.
Virgin Orbit has begun an internal investigation into root causes of the failure after the mission departed on January 9th from the newly commissioned Spaceport Cornwall in the UK.
After release from the aircraft, Cosmic Girl, the rocket ignited its first stage engine, quickly going hypersonic and successfully completed the stage one burn.
Image credit: Virgin Orbit
Initial data assessments indicate that the first stage of the rocket performed as expected. Following that stage separation, ignition of the upper stage, and fairing separation similarly occurred per the planned mission timeline, according to a Virgin Orbit statement issued today.
Safety corridor
However, later in the mission, at an altitude of approximately 112 miles (180 kilometers), the rocket’s upper stage experienced an anomaly.
“This anomaly prematurely ended the first burn of the upper stage,” the statement adds. “This event ended the mission, with the rocket components and payload falling back to Earth within the approved safety corridor without ever achieving orbit.”
Image credit: Virgin Orbit
Virgin Orbit has initiated a formal investigation into the source of the second stage failure that led to the loss of 9 satellites. All required corrective actions identified during the investigation of the anomaly will be completed prior to the next flight.
Next flight
That next flight by Virgin Orbit is planned to occur from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California.
“Virgin Orbit also anticipates returning to Spaceport Cornwall for additional launches, and is in active discussions with key government and commercial stakeholders in the UK to start planning mission opportunities for as soon as later this year,” the statement explains.
Virgin Orbit was founded in 2017 by business tycoon, Sir Richard Branson.
Coolant spraying instrument-assembly compartment of the Soyuz spacecraft.
Image credit: NASA
Russian space experts via a State Commission have detailed a plan to deal with the compromised Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft now docked with the International Space Station.
In mid-December of last year, a radiator pipeline spewed its coolant out into space, putting to question the overall integrity of the craft to return crew members safely to Earth.
A specially convened team of experts have reported that Soyuz MS-22 should be brought back to Earth without a crew.
Image credit: Roscosmos
State of the ship
“Taking into account the analysis of the state of the ship, thermal calculations and technical documentation, it was concluded that the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft should descend in an unmanned version,” said Russia’s Roskosmos chief, Yuri Borisov, following a meeting of the State Commission, according to a TASS news agency report.
“In the event of particularly critical situations at the station, the possibility of using the spacecraft to rescue the crew will be determined by a separate decision of the State Commission,” Borisov added in the TASS story.
Image credit: Roscosmos
“Sporadic” meteoroid impact
As for the cause of the coolant issue, studies aided by cameras mounted on a robotic arm have shown that the Soyuz MS-22 radiator was damaged by a “sporadic” meteoroid impact.
The tiny hole in the radiator is less than 1 millimeter in size, created by an impactor zooming through space at a speed of 7,000 meters per second.
Technical damage to the radiator during manufacture is not confirmed.
Speed-up mode
Meanwhile, in speed-up mode, the launch of an uncrewed Soyuz MS-23 to the ISS is moving forward, now slated for February 20th.
It was previously planned that Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, along with NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara, would go to the station on March 16 on this ship.
Meanwhile, ISS members of the up and running expedition — Sergei Prokopiev, Dmitry Petelin and Francisco Rubio — is being extended. They will return to Earth on the freshly launched Soyuz MS-23.
Aerogel for Aerogel Core Fission Fragment Rocket Engine.
Image credit: NASA, Ryan Weed
Where do you go for a high-tech look into the future of what’s possibly possible?
Enter the far-out world of NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program.
Image credit: NIAC
Be it a Fluidic Telescope (FLUTE) to enable the next generation of large space observatories or pellet-beam propulsion, or a lunar south pole oxygen pipeline, even an aerogel core fission fragment
rocket engine – new NIAC projects are underway.
Graphic depiction of Fluidic Telescope (FLUTE).
Image credit: Edward Balaban
The latest round of NIAC Phase 1 awards will provide $175,000 grants to 14 visionaries.
For more details, go to:
Once again, the Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) advised the country’s public to take precautions related to launch of China’s Long March 7A from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan Island.
That booster hurled three satellites, Shijian-23, Shiyan-22A and Shiyan-22B, into orbit from Wenchang on January 8, 2023, at 22:00 UTC (9 January, at 06:00 local time).
PhilSA noted that unburned debris from the rocket were projected to fall in two drop zones.
- Drop zone area 1 is 79.877 kilometers from Burgos, Ilocos Norte, and 121.306 kilometers from Dalupiri Island in the Babuyan Islands.
- Drop zone area 2 is 41.686 kilometers from Sta. Ana, Cagayan, 41.37 kilometers from Camiguin Island in the Babuyan Islands, and 47.844 kilometers from Babuyan Island.
Danger and potential risk
Image credit: China Central Television (CCTV)/China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC)
“While not projected to fall on land features or inhabited areas,” the PhilSA advisory explains, “falling debris poses danger and potential risk to ships, aircraft, fishing boats, and other vessels that will pass through the drop zone. There is also a possibility for the debris to float around the area and wash toward nearby coasts. Additionally, the possibility of an uncontrolled re-entry to the atmosphere of the rocket’s upper stages returning from outer space cannot be ruled out at this time.”
PhilSA repeated earlier advice for the public to inform local authorities if suspected debris is sighted.
“PhilSA also cautions against retrieving or coming in close contact with these materials that may contain remnants of toxic substances such as rocket fuel,” the advisory adds.
Image credit: PhilSA
Advance notice
Prior to the launch, the Civil Aviation Administration of China issued Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) warnings “due to an aerospace flight activity.”
Upon coordination with the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, the coordinates of the areas where expected unburned debris from the rocket fallout were identified.
“PhilSA immediately issued advance notice to relevant government agencies and authorities as soon as the launch dates have been confirmed, and has recommended the issuance of appropriate air and marine warnings,” the advisory explains.
China Long March-5B Y3 rocket remains from July 24, 2022.
Image credit: Philippine Coast Guard/Mamburao
Beijing and Manila spat
In a recent agreement signed between Beijing and Manila, the countries made a joint statement that a notification system for rocket launches is to be established. That cooperation reportedly flowed from a recent diplomatic spat about turning over Chinese debris found in Philippine waters.
Both sides have noted their willingness to establish an information notification system on rocket launches, as well as hammer out procedures for the retrieval and return of space debris.
Wait a Minute!
An old, two-ton + spacecraft made its uncontrolled and fiery nose dive into the Earth’s atmosphere over the Bering Sea – off the coast of Alaska, near the Aleutian Islands.
NASA and the US Department of Defense report that the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite, ERBS for short, reentered Earth’s atmosphere at 11:04 p.m. EST on Sunday, Jan. 8th.
ERBS deployment from space shuttle.
Image credit: NASA
Most of the 5,400-pound satellite was expected to “burn up” in its high-speed plunge through the atmosphere. Prior to its fall, NASA noted that some components of the satellite were considered likely to survive the reentry.
Deployed from the space shuttle Challenger on Oct. 5, 1984, the ERBS spacecraft was flown to measure the Earth’s radiative energy budget and measure stratospheric constituents, including ozone.
Image credit: The Aerospace Corporation/CORDS
Willy-nilly
The willy-nilly nature of the demise of the nearly 2.5-ton ERBS did trigger worries.
Due to the uncontrolled nature of the spacecraft’s demise, exactly where the craft was to auger in created a stir in Korea. ERBS predicted trajectory and possible reentry time took it across the Korean Peninsula.
“High Alert” – Seoul Incheon Airport
Image credit: CC BY-SA 2.0/Wikimedia
That being the case, the Korean Ministry of Science and Ministry of Knowledge Economy (ICT, Postal and Future Planning) had issued messages asking residents to stay inside and for Korean people to remain vigilant about satellite leftovers that might reach the ground.
According to local media reports, several airports, including Incheon International Airport, did for a short period of time suspend flights due to the prospect of incoming debris passing through Korean Peninsula airspace. Overall all, according to The Korea Times, 29 flights were delayed in the region, including 18 departures and 11 arrivals.
Image credit: ESA
Red Planet researchers that have benefited by the European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter are advocating extending the spacecraft’s mission, a probe launched back in June 2003.
The Mars Express team is soliciting the support of the global scientific community for a mission extension. That orbiter’s work in progress is to end in March of this year.
The final decision on any new extension will be made at the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Science Program Committee meeting on March 7-8th.
The Red Planet as seen by Europe’s Mars Express.
Credit: ESA/D. O’Donnell – CC BY-SA IGO
Accomplishments
“We invite all planetary scientists, astrobiologists, astrophysicists, and engineers interested in Mars science to show their support,” notes a Mars Express team statement.
There’s a long list of Mars Express accomplishments to date, such as:
- First detection of hydrated minerals at the surface, which has firmly established that Mars harbored once conditions conducive to the emergence of life;
- The characterization and mapping of water ice on the surface and deep below it, data that has helped decipher the recent evolution of Mars’ climate and the internal layering of the planet’s polar ice caps;
- A new vision of the Martian atmosphere, with the first annual survey of ozone;
- The first detection of methane whose presence defies our understanding of chemistry on Mars;
- A first comprehensive survey of the plasma surrounding the planet.
Uniquely equipped
Mars Express (MEx) “remains uniquely equipped to cover a broad spectrum of disciplines and feed Mars’community at large. Over time, MEx has come to serve as a backbone for planetary science in Europe; by fostering, and then retaining the expertise and knowledge for the new generation of scientists and engineers who carry ESA’s future in planetary exploration,” the communiqué adds.
Europe’s ExoMars 2020 rover.
Credit: ESA
Furthermore, keeping MEx on the fly would help support the European community that is now engaged in getting ESA’s ExoMars spacecraft off and onto the surface of Mars, as well as ESA’s key role in Mars Sample Return activities.
An ESA review has established that the Mars Express orbiter can operate for at least six more years.
More work to do
A new extension period would, for example, allow identifying and characterizing Oxia Planum, the landing site of the ExoMars rover.
“Stopping MEx in 2023 would not only weaken ESA’s role in exploring Mars, it would also weaken the long-term effort of the scientific community to solve the outstanding questions the Red planet still poses to us,” the support solicitation letter concludes.
To date, over 500 researchers have signed up to support the Mars Express extension. That document can be found at:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KrNKkFV6uNv3tvfln-tirmgkkPq6DfNICitBROeVGBQ/edit
Image credit: Virgin Orbit
Start Me Up is the first launch of Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket from the United Kingdom – the firm’s first mission outside the United States – departing Spaceport Cornwall at Cornwall Airport Newquay.
The mission will be livestreamed on Virgin Orbit’s YouTube channel on Monday, January 9th
The Start Me Up launch window officially opens Monday, Jan. 9 at 2:16pm PT/22:16 UTC.
Virgin Orbit is backed by entrepreneur Richard Branson. The aircraft, Cosmic Girl, carries LauncherOne skyward under the plane’s left wing – and then released. This will be the first ever orbital launch from the UK, and the fifth operational mission for Virgin Orbit, and the sixth overall flight of LauncherOne.
Image credit: Virgin Orbit
Manifestly yours
The Start Me Up manifest includes:
IOD-3 AMBER – Developed by Satellite Applications Catapult (“SA Catapult”) and Horizon Technologies and built by AAC Clyde Space, all based in the U.K. IOD-3 Amber is expected to be the first of more than 20 Amber satellites to provide space-based Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) data to users.
Prometheus-2 – Two cubesats owned by the U.K. Ministry of Defense’s (MOD) Defense Science & Technology Laboratory Dstl. These satellites, co-funded with Airbus Defence and Space who are designing them jointly with In-Space Missions, will support MOD science and technology (S&T) activities both in orbit and on the ground through the development of ground systems focused at Dstl’s site near Portsmouth.
CIRCE (Coordinated Ionospheric Reconstruction CubeSat Experiment) – CIRCE is part of a joint mission between the U.K.’s Defense Science and Technology Laboratory and the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL).
Image credit: Virgin Orbit
DOVER – Developed by RHEA Group in the UK, it is the company’s first satellite in its 30-year history. The satellite is being co-funded through the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Navigation Program (NAVISP) and built by Open Cosmos of the United Kingdom. DOVER is a SmallSat that was created as a pathfinder for resilient global navigation satellite systems.
ForgeStar-0 – Developed by Space Forge of Wales, the satellite is a fully returnable and reusable platform to enable in-space manufacturing. This launch will be the first for the company’s ForgeStar platform and will test future returns from space technology.
AMAN – Oman’s first orbital mission, it is a single earth observation satellite meant to demonstrate the future feasibility of a larger constellation and was developed after a memorandum of understanding among the Sultanate of Oman, Polish Small Satellite manufacturer and operator SatRev, Poland-originated AI data analytics specialists TUATARA, and Omani-based merging technology innovator ETCO. The agreement includes additional planned small satellites, including this, the first in Oman’s history.
STORK-6 – Stork-6 is the next installment of Polish Small Satellite manufacturer and operator SatRev’s STORK constellation. Virgin Orbit previously launched two spacecraft in this constellation on a previous launch and looks forward to continuing to launch SatRev’s STORK spacecraft in the future.
Image courtesy: Virgin Orbit
According to Virgin Orbit, “Start Me Up” is so named as a newspace nod to the Rolling Stones, the iconic British rock and roll band. Their hit song debuted on the 1981 album Tattoo You and was later released on the Forty Licks compilation by Virgin Records in 2002.
Flight details
For more details on this flight, go to:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lEUcwgIKUHeorVZuADvtrBr2szAqWxDF/view
An overview video is available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_NV_cgDiFE
For live coverage of launch, go to:
Artist’s concept of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter flying through the Red Planet’s skies. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter chalked up some new stats at Jezero Crater, flying above the Red Planet on its 38th flight.
On this trek the micro-device flew on January 4, 2023, reaching a horizontal distance of roughly 364 feet and approximately 33 feet in altitude. Overall, the flight lasted 74.3 seconds.
Here’s what happens when Ingenuity picks where to land. Go to Mars Guy at: https://youtu.be/NAPK8UM8-eM
Image credit: Mars Guy
New imagery from the flight has been posted by NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory:
Helicopter acquired this image using its high-resolution color camera mounted in the helicopter’s fuselage and pointed approximately 22 degrees below the horizon. This image was acquired on Jan. 5, 2023, the date of Ingenuity’s 38th flight.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Mars helicopter acquired these images using its navigation camera mounted in the helicopter’s fuselage and pointed directly downward to track the ground during flight. This image was acquired on Jan. 5, 2023, the date of Ingenuity’s 38th flight.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Deployed during 1984 space shuttle mission, NASA’s Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBS) spacecraft is making an uncontrolled death dive into the atmosphere.
Image credit: NASA
NASA’s Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBS) spacecraft is nearing its uncontrolled death plunge into the atmosphere.
Weighing in at nearly 2.5 tons (2,449 kilograms), NASA expects most of the satellite to “burn up” as it dives through the atmosphere.
However, some components are expected to survive the reentry. The space agency’s risk of harm stats for anyone on Earth is approximately 1 in 9,400.
Mitigation guidelines
The hefty ERBS satellite was the first spacecraft to be launched and deployed by a NASA space shuttle mission, back in early October 1984. For 21 years the ERBS studies how the Earth absorbed and radiated energy from the Sun, and made measurements of stratospheric ozone, water vapor, nitrogen dioxide, and aerosols.
Image credit: NASA
In 2002, the spacecraft’s perigee (low point to Earth) was lowered to ensure that the vehicle would naturally decay within 25 years after its end of mission, in compliance with NASA and then national orbital debris mitigation guidelines.
Yellow Icon – location of object at midpoint of reentry window
Blue Line – ground track uncertainty prior to middle of the reentry window (ticks at 5-minute intervals)
Yellow Line – ground track uncertainty after middle of the reentry window (ticks at 5-minute intervals)
Pink Icon (if applicable) – vicinity of eyewitness sighting or recovered debris
Note: Possible reentry locations lie anywhere along the blue and yellow ground track. Areas not under the line are not exposed to the debris.
Image credit: CORDS
Orbit lowering
In 2005, as part of that ERBS decommissioning process, all residual propellants were expended during a two-month interval. The spacecraft’s orbit lowering was deemed “fortuitous” as ERBS’s propulsion system had further degraded and was no longer capable of such a maneuver.
According to the Aerospace Corporation’s Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies (CORDS), the ERBS nosedive to Earth is predicted to be January 9, plus or minus a handful of hours.
To keep an eye on the incoming spacecraft, go to:
