NASA releases draft strategy for long-term robotic Mars exploration

NASA has unveiled a draft strategy for long-term robotic exploration of Mars that emphasizes low-cost missions and potential commercial partnerships. At a meeting of two committees of the National Academies’ Space Studies Board March 29, Eric Ianson, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters, outlined a plan for a steady cadence of missions after Mars Sample Return that would advance science and refresh the infrastructure needed to support other missions. “We wanted to look two decades into the future as far as what are the things that we can do to create equally dramatic and profound science” as Mars Sample Return, he said. “What we’re proposing to do here is to do it at lower cost and a higher cadence of missions.” That strategy, called “Exploring Mars Together” by NASA, is intended to create what Ianson called a “sustainable” series of missions to Mars after the remaining elements of Mars Sample Return, the NASA-led Sample Retrieval Lander and European-led Earth Return Orbiter, launch in the late 2020s. NASA currently has no other robotic Mars missions in development other than ESCAPADE, a smallsat mission scheduled to launch in late 2024. “Historically we’ve had peaks and valleys in the Mars program. When we talk about sustainable, it’s something that can be constant throughout,” he said. “We want to try and maintain missions on a regular cadence.” That means launching relatively low-cost missions during every opportunity, which opens about once every two years. An “aspirational” timeline Ianson showed at the meeting had the first such mission launching in the early 2030s, moving into that regular cadence by the middle of the decade.

The draft strategy proposes a steady cadence of missions to do science and refresh infrastructure like the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) that provide communications and imagery. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Those low-cost missions would come in between $100 million and $300 million each, he projected, with the option to fly a single mission costing $300 million or multiple smaller missions with the same total cost. “It provides a good opportunity for the proposing community to get really creative,” he said. Those competitively selected missions, he suggested, could draw on experience from commercial partnerships such as the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program or commercial cargo and crew development.

That regular series of smaller missions would be supplemented by medium-class missions similar in size to the New Frontiers line of planetary science missions. An example of such a mission would be Mars Life Explorer, a lander focused on astrobiology that was recommended by last year’s planetary science decadal survey. There would also be smaller payloads that could fly as missions of opportunity on international or commercial missions.

Those missions would support three broad science themes. One would be continued search for signs of life, such as biosignatures and other evidence of habitability. A second would inform future human missions to Mars, including analysis of ice deposits or characterizing potential health hazards. A third would study other aspects of a “dynamic Mars” such as geology and climate.

Another element of the strategy is to strength an aging infrastructure of orbiters that provide communications and imagery. “In particular, we are quite concerned about our Mars relay network,” he said, the set of science orbiters also tasked with relaying communications from spacecraft on the surface. The notional timeline he presented included a spacecraft with a high-resolution camera and relay payload launching in the early 2030s.

That infrastructure work could provide opportunities for commercial partnerships, he suggested. “That’s one of the things that we’re going to explore: how do we find these win-win solutions where we can get science but it’s also benefiting the things that they’re looking to do,” he said of such partnerships. “There is no shortage of companies that have interest. The real question is, do they have the capability to be able to do that job?”

There are no specific budget numbers tied to the plan beyond the figures given for low-cost missions. Ianson said the draft plan is not reflected in NASA’s fiscal year 2024 budget proposal, which includes a line for “Mars Future Missions” but is devoted to development of a facility for hosting Mars samples and NASA’s support for ESA’s ExoMars mission. The agency will be looking for feedback on the plan from the science community, such as at an upcoming meeting of the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group, to refine the strategy.

China to begin constructing its own megaconstellation later this year

China is preparing to launch its first satellites for a national low Earth orbit broadband megaconstellation to challenge SpaceX’s Starlink. A Long March 5B rocket will be equipped with a Yuanzheng-2 second stage for the first time and launched from the coastal Wenchang spaceport in the second half of the year. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the country’s main space contractor, stated in early March that the new Long March 5B and upper stage configuration would be used to launch satellites for a LEO satellite network. China is developing its plans to deploy a 13,000-satellite low Earth orbit (LEO) broadband megaconstellation, sometimes referred to as “Guowang,” or national network, to rival Starlink and other Western ventures. The project will have ramifications for international competition to secure customers for satellite communications, international infrastructure, space debris and for the use of, and coordination in, LEO. It may also have implications for commercial space development in China. The China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), a major subsidiary of CASC, and the Innovation Academy for Microsatellites (IAMCAS) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, are understood to be two entities contracted to manufacture satellites for Guowang. IAMCAS is expected to deliver its first 30 satellites for the project by the end of the year. Other and potentially commercial setups could also be involved in the project. China has greatly increased its small satellite manufacturing capacity in recent years, with a number of entities each now capable of producing hundreds of satellites per year. Other actors include GalaxySpace and the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC). The former launched six LEO communications test satellites last year.

The fourth Long March 5B rocket lifts off from Wenchang carrying the Mengtian module, Oct. 31, 2022. Credit: Ourspace

CASC’s main rocket-making arm is meanwhile preparing the Long March 5B rocket for a “high-density launch stage to meet the country’s needs for large-scale and rapid access to space.”

This includes ramping up production of required kerosene-liquid oxygen engines for the launch vehicle’s side boosters.

The Long March 5B rocket was earlier used to send the country’s three modules directly into orbit to construct the Tiangong space station. The upper stage would instead allow for multiple satellites to be injected into various orbits.

The earlier launches saw the 30-meter-long, roughly 23-ton dry mass first stages make high-profile, uncontrolled reentries after reaching orbital velocity. It is possible but unknown if the use of YZ-2 upper stage will allow for the first stage to remain suborbital land within a targeted drop zone.

The State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND) published a notice on the management of civil space launch projects in early March.

It states that the last stage of a launch vehicle should be deorbited according to regulations after taking passivation and other measures. Satellites and spacecraft should be actively deorbited when their design life expires according to their license, the points of the notice state.

A number of Chinese commercial launch companies have meanwhile stated their aim to secure contracts to launch satellites for the Guowang project. This has apparently been reflected in newer companies looking to build medium and large launch vehicles earlier in their development.

The earliest commercial launch companies emerging in China after a 2014 national policy shift first looked to develop light-lift launchers targeting contracts from other private and commercial companies looking to reach space.

China now appears to be looking to Guowang and the newly-completed Tiangong space station to provide opportunities for commercial space firms.

Globally, megaconstellations appear set to be an issue of strong competition and contention in the near future.

U.S. space internet companies have expressed concerns over the potential competitive threat from a Chinese LEO constellation with strong government backing. A report published in December by the Center for Strategic and International Studies stated that the development means the United States “could lose its competitive edge.”

Its deployment could mean that western operators find it more difficult to compete internationally, particularly in countries with political ties to China.

China’s military has meanwhile claimed that SpaceX has intended for Starlink to be used for military purposes in the wake of Ukraine’s defense against the invasion of Russia. CASC’s chairman Wu Yansheng said late last year that he believes the U.S. to be restarting great power competition. He claims the U.S. is seeking to seize strategic resources including specific orbits, locations and radio frequencies.

Canada agrees to ISS extension to 2030

The Canadian government formally committed March 24 to an extension of the International Space Station to 2030, joining other Western partners but not Russia. As part of a summit meeting in Ottawa between Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Joe Biden, the two governments confirmed that Canada would participate in the ISS through 2030 as part of a renewed commitment to space exploration that includes contributions to the NASA-led lunar Gateway. “Prime Minister Trudeau agreed to extend Canada’s commitment to the International Space Station (ISS) and support science on the Lunar Gateway,” the Canadian government said in a statement outlining overall cooperation between the two countries. “Our country’s continued participation in ISS and Lunar Gateway cement Canada’s global leadership in robotics in space and on Earth.” The White House announced at the end of 2021 its intent to extend ISS operations through 2030. Since then, the U.S. has been working with its major partners to confirm their participation in the station beyond the previously agreed-to date of 2024. The Japanese government formally agreed to the extension in November 2022, followed shortly thereafter by the European Space Agency at its ministerial meeting. Canada was expected to also agree to an extension, with timing the only issue. “No one would have expected Canada to make a decision before the U.S. or even ESA or Roscosmos,” one Canadian Space Agency official, Christian Lange, said at a January 2022 conference. The White House announcement, he said then, would allow the agency “to propose options and come to a decision in a timely manner” but gave no timeline for doing so.

The International Space Station as seen from a Crew Dragon spacecraft in 2021. Credit: NASA

“The United States strongly welcomed Canada’s decision to support the extension of operation of the International Space Station through 2030,” the White House said at the end of a fact sheet.

With the Canadian announcement, Russia is the only ISS partner that has not agreed to an extension to 2030. Last July, Yuri Borisov, new head of Roscosmos, said that Russia would leave the ISS partnership after 2024. Officials later clarified that meant some time after 2024, not necessarily immediately after 2024.

In February, a Roscosmos council approved a plan to extend Russian operations on the station to 2028. The agency said it would then prepare documents to get formal approval from the Russian government for that extension.

The U.S. and Canada also promoted the impending announcement of the crew of Artemis 2, the first flight of the Orion spacecraft to carry astronauts. The four-person crew will be announced at an event in Houston April 3.

One of the four will be Canadian as part of an agreement NASA and the Canadian Space Agency announced in late 2020 regarding Canada’s contribution to the Gateway. In exchange for providing the Canadarm3 robotic arm for the Gateway, Canada got a seat on Artemis 2 as well as a future, unspecified mission to the Gateway.

Biden mentioned the Artemis 2 announcement in a speech March 24 to the Canadian Parliament. “In just a few days, NASA is going to announce an international team of astronauts who will crew the Artemis 2 mission. The first human voyage to the moon since the Apollo mission ended more than 50 years ago will consist of three Americans and one Canadian,” he noted. “Together we’ll return to the moon.”

Relativity launches first Terran 1

Relativity Space’s first Terran 1 rocket successfully got off the launch pad March 22 but failed to reach orbit because of an upper stage malfunction. The Terran 1 rocket lifted off at 11:25 p.m. Eastern from Launch Complex 16 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on a test flight dubbed “Good Luck, Have Fun” by the company. Liftoff was delayed by nearly 90 minutes because of upper-level winds as well as a boat that strayed into restricted waters. The rocket’s first stage, powered by nine Aeon 1 methane-fueled engines, appeared to operate as planned, passing through the region of maximum dynamic pressure known as “Max-Q” 80 seconds after liftoff. Getting through Max-Q was a major goal for this launch to demonstrate the integrity of the rocket’s 3D-printed structure. Stage separation took place 2 minutes and 45 seconds after liftoff, and the rocket’s single Aeon Vacuum upper stage engine ignited. However, footage from a camera on the stage showed the plume flickering seconds after ignition, and telemetry on the company’s webcast of the launch indicated the vehicle was slowing. Mission control declared an anomaly with the upper stage five minutes after liftoff, but didn’t immediately disclose additional details about the failure.

Relativity Space's Terran 1 rocket lifts off March 22 on its first mission, a test flight called "Good Luck, Have Fun" by the company. Credit: Relativity Space webcast

Despite failing to reach orbit, the company was pleased with the performance of the earlier phases of flight. Before the launch the company emphasized that simply getting through Max-Q would be a major milestone. “This will essentially prove the viability of using additive manufacturing tech to produce products that fly,” wrote Tim Ellis, chief executive and co-founder of Relativity, in a series of tweets before the first launch attempt. The rocket did not carry a satellite payload, only a small 3D-printed component from the company’s first printer.

“Although we didn’t reach orbit, we significantly exceeded our key objectives for this first launch, and that objective was to gather data at Max-Q, one of the most demanding phases of flight, and achieve stage separation,” said Arwa Tizani Kelly, technical program manager for test and launch at Relativity, during the webcast. “Today’s flight data will be invaluable to our team as we look to further improve our rockets, including Terran R.”

Terran R is a much larger, fully reusable launch vehicle that Relativity is developing for a first launch as soon as 2024. Terran 1, which can place up to 1,250 kilograms into orbit, is a technology pathfinder for Terran R, with a payload capacity of about 20,000 kilograms.

Relativity scrubbed its first Terran 1 launch attempt March 8 because of a problem with ground systems that were unable to get liquid oxygen propellant in the rocket’s upper stage to the right temperature. The company tried again three days later only to abort two countdowns during a three-hour window, one because of a sensor reading just 0.5 seconds before liftoff and the other because of a drop in fuel pressure in the upper stage at T-45 seconds.

The company was able to correct both problems but had to work around airspace limitations on the Eastern Range during the busy spring break travel season. Moving from an afternoon launch window, used for the first two launch attempts, to one at night reduced airspace conflicts.

Relativity did not announce plans before the launch when, or even if, they would perform another Terran 1 launch. Before the first launch attempt, Ellis suggested the company might skip ahead to Terran R even if the launch failed, depending on the feedback the company got from its customers. “Do they want us to continue down the path of producing more Terran 1’s to solve for those issues on this vehicle? Or, would like us to solve the remaining rocket science problems on the vehicle they are actually most interested in, Terran R?”

Frontier collects $10 million from AEI HorizonX

Frontier Aerospace raised $10 million in Series A funding from AEI HorizonX, the venture capital fund formed by AE Industrial Parters and Boeing. “This latest funding round will accelerate Frontier’s engine development activities, support major expansion of manufacturing and vacuum test facilities,” Frontier Aerospace president Jim McKinnon said in a statement. “In the past, test facility availability has been by far the largest schedule driver. With this new investment, a modern test facility will be fully developed for rapid implementation supporting major upcoming development programs.” Space propulsion startup Frontier Aerospace, a successor to Frontier Engineering, was founded in Simi Valley, California, in 2014. In 2021, AE Industrial Partners subsidiary American Pacific Corp. announced a multimillion-dollar investment in Frontier Aerospace. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Frontier is providing thrusters for the Astrobotic Peregrine and Griffin Lunar Landers. In addition, Frontier is developing and testing “a range of thrust classes for NASA and government primes, for missions ranging from deep space exploration to commercial space and defense,” according to the March 21 news release. “We are proud to support Frontier in its next stage of development as it grows to meet the strong demand from NASA, commercial aerospace and defense companies for state-of-the-art propulsion solutions,” Brian Schettler, who leads AEI HorizonX. “AEI HorizonX looks forward to partnering with the Frontier team to take advantage of the new opportunities created by increased investments and innovation in the new space economy.”

Frontier Aerospace conducted extensive hot-fire testing of engine designs as part of a NASA program called Thruster for the Advancement of Low-temperature Operation in Space (TALOS). Frontier Aerospace plans to fly its first TALOS engines on Astrobotic Technology's Peregrine lunar lander. Credit: NASA

Boeing’s corporate venture capital arm, AEI HorizonX, was established in 2017. Private equity firm AE Industrial Partners manages AEI HorizonX, which has $5 billion in assets under management. AEI HorizonX focuses primarily on aerospace, defense and government services, space, power and utility services, and specialty industrial markets.

SpaceX launches final two satellites in SES C-band clearing plan

SpaceX launched the last two satellites March 17 that SES needs to claim C-band spectrum clearing proceeds worth nearly $4 billion in total. The operator said it has successfully made contact with SES-18 and SES-19 after they were dropped off in geosynchronous transfer orbit by a Falcon 9, which lifted off 7:38 p.m. Eastern from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The rocket’s first-stage booster also successfully landed on SpaceX’s droneship in the Atlantic Ocean for reuse following its sixth flight. Earlier in the day, a Falcon 9 launching from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, deployed 52 satellites in low Earth orbit for SpaceX’s Starlink broadband constellation. SES said SES-18 and SES-19, built by Northrop Grumman, are due to start services in June after using onboard hydrazine-fueled propulsion to reach their geostationary orbital slots. SES-18 is set to replace the operator’s aging SES-3 satellite at 103 degrees west. SES-19 is heading to 135 degrees west to join the SES-22 satellite that SpaceX launched last year. SES-22 was the first to launch of six satellites SES ordered to help migrate broadcast customers into a narrower swath of C-band so more frequencies can be used for terrestrial 5G services in the United States. United Launch Alliance launched two other satellites for the operator’s C-band clearing strategy in October on an Atlas 5 rocket: SES-20 and SES-21. The sixth C-band satellite SES ordered under this plan is being used as a ground spare.

A Falcon 9 launches the last two satellites in SES' C-band spectrum clearing plan March 17. Credit: SpaceX

All costs related to the C-band clearing are eligible for reimbursement, using proceeds the Federal Communications Commission raised in 2021 from auctioning off the frequencies to wireless operators.

SES also stands to get $3.97 billion in total incentive payments from the FCC if it can move customers and filter antennas on the ground in time for clearing the frequencies by Dec. 5.

The operator said its C-band clearing activities are currently running ahead of schedule.

Intelsat also holds a sizable chunk of C-band in the United States and has ordered seven satellites for its clearing plan, with none serving as ground spares.

SpaceX is slated to launch Intelsat-37, the final satellite left to launch in this spectrum-clearing strategy, on a dedicated Falcon 9 in June.

Intelsat is in line to get $4.9 billion in total proceeds if it can meet the FCC’s deadline in December, although SES is challenging its share of this windfall.

SES and Intelsat have already unlocked more than $2 billion in combined proceeds by hitting the FCC’s initial incentive payment milestone in 2021.

China launches second classified Gaofen-13 remote sensing satellite

China added its initially civilian Gaofen Earth observation series Friday with the launch of the classified optical geostationary Gaofen-13 (02) satellite. A Long March 3B rocket lifted off from the hill-surrounded Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 4:33 a.m. Eastern, March 17. The launch successfully sent the Gaofen-13 (02) satellite into geosynchronous transfer orbit, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CASC), announced. The payload was only revealed after launch, with speculation that the Long March 3B would carry a ChinaSat communications or Beidou navigation satellite. CASC provided no details of the satellite’s capabilities, stating only that the optical remote sensing satellite is a high-orbit, high-resolution Earth observation technology satellite with great significance to the development of China’s space technology. The mission patch features a galloping horse behind a Long March 3B rocket. The Gaofen-13 (02) (gaofen means high resolution) satellite is nominally part of the civilian China High-resolution Earth Observation System (CHEOS). Land surveys, crop yield estimation, environmental governance, meteorological early warning and forecasting, as well as comprehensive disaster prevention and mitigation are noted as the main uses of the satellite, according to Chinese state media. The first Gaofen-13 satellite was launched in October 2020, also using a Long March 3B rocket. The pair are thought to be more capable versions of the Gaofen-4 geostationary optical satellite launched in December 2015. Gaofen-4 has a reported ground resolution of 50 meters.

Gaofen-13 (02) heads for GTO atop of a Long March 3B lifting off from Xichang, March 17, 2023. Credit: Ourspace

China also stated earlier in the year that it planned to launch a 20-meter-resolution synthetic aperture radar satellite to geostationary orbit in 2023.

(CHEOS) was approved in 2010 and was initially planned to consist of seven Gaofen satellites and a near space and airborne system and a ground segment, according to China National Space Administration (CNSA) presentations to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA).

While details have been published of the Gaofen 1 through 7 satellites, those designed Gaofen-8 remain classified, indicating military customers.

China has so far launched four Gaofen-11 satellites from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China using Long March 4B rockets. Earlier reports indicate these satellites belong to the classified segment of China’s Gaofen series, with the capability to return optical imagery at a resolution of around 10 centimeters.

CHEOS comprise optical, multispectral, hyperspectral and synthetic aperture radar satellites. A CHEOS near space segment comprising airships, air flight platforms, and airborne Earth observation instruments and data processing system was however also included in the plan to augment its capabilities and data collection, though little information has been published on this aspect.

The balloon and other platforms are to carry three types of earth payloads, including optical, laser and synthetic aperture radar (SAR). These were to be capable of providing images with a spatial resolution of better than 0.1 meters, and a spectral resolution of better than 1 nanometer.

Notably this is much higher than the 1 meter spatial resolution intended to be provided by the Gaofen satellites. The balloons would also allow surveillance for longer periods of time than the few minutes it takes a satellite in LEO to pass overhead.

An undeclared Chinese high altitude surveillance balloon was detected in U.S. airspace earlier this year. Reports followed of a variety of high-altitude surveillance balloons in countries across five continents, suggesting balloons have been widely deployed for data collection.

The New York Times reported Feb. 13 that in 2019 an airship was sent around the world, including across North America. That near-space vehicle was, according to sources linked within the story, developed as part of CHEOS.

Firefly wins second NASA CLPS mission

NASA selected Firefly Aerospace to land payloads on the far side of the moon and to place a European satellite into lunar orbit. NASA announced March 14 it awarded a $112 million task order through its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program to Texas-based Firefly Aerospace for a 2026 mission to the moon using the company’s Blue Ghost lander. Unlike previous CLPS missions, which have focused solely on delivering payloads to the lunar surface, the Blue Ghost 2 mission will also place a satellite into lunar orbit. The mission will deliver the Lunar Pathfinder spacecraft, built by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. for the European Space Agency, which will serve as a communications relay for other spacecraft on or around the moon. ESA and NASA announced in June 2022 that they would cooperate on Lunar Pathfinder. NASA would provide a launch of Lunar Pathfinder using CLPS and, in turn, be able to use the spacecraft for communications. The Blue Ghost lander will then deliver to the far side of the moon the Lunar Surface Electromagnetics Experiment-Night (LuSEE-Night) payload developed by a partnership that includes NASA, the University of California Berkeley and the Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory. LUSEE-Night will take advantage of the radio-quiet conditions on the lunar farside to perform radio astronomy observations of the early universe. The lander will also carry for NASA a new communications terminal to support LUSEE-Night and to commission Lunar Pathfinder. Firefly said in a statement that the spacecraft will be able to carry other payloads for additional government and commercial customers.

The award is the second that Firefly has received through CLPS. Its first CLPS mission, awarded in 2021, is scheduled to launch in 2024, landing in the Mare Crisium region of the near side of the moon. It will carry 10 NASA payloads as well as two commercial payloads.

Firefly said the Blue Ghost 2 mission will use both a transfer stage and the lander, enabling it to both deliver Lunar Pathfinder into orbit and land on the moon. That system could be used for other applications, from interplanetary missions to lunar sample return.

“This mission will debut Firefly’s unique two-stage Blue Ghost spacecraft, offering NASA and other customers multiple deployment options as we collectively build the infrastructure for ongoing lunar operations and planetary exploration,” Bill Weber, chief executive of Firefly, said in a statement about the award.

The award to Firefly is the ninth overall in the CLPS program, spread across five companies. Intuitive Machines has won three CLPS task orders, with its first mission, IM-1, scheduled to launch later this year. Astrobotic has won two, including its Peregrine lander scheduled to launch in May on the first Vulcan Centaur rocket and a 2024 mission to deliver NASA’s VIPER lunar rover.

Draper won a task order for the first farside CLPS mission, launching in 2025. A ninth task order was awarded to Masten Space Systems in 2020, but its status remains uncertain after Masten filed for bankruptcy last year and had most of its assets acquired by Astrobotic.

NASA started the CLPS program several years ago to enable low-cost access to the moon for lunar science and technology demonstration payloads. Agency officials emphasized a “shots-on-goal” philosophy for CLPS, with the expectation that not all missions will be successful.

Getting the first missions off the ground to attempt those shots on goal has taken longer than expected. The initial CLPS awards, made in 2019, projected launches by Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines in 2021.

“We’ve been looking at that in terms of trying to understand what really drove that and how that might change our planning for the future,” said Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration in NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, during a panel at the Goddard Memorial Symposium March 8.

Scientists who plan to fly payloads on CLPS missions remain upbeat about its prospects to open up the moon for enhanced exploration. “The CLPS program is going to open doors for us to do lunar science all across the lunar surface,” said Rachel Klima, director of the Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium at the Applied Physics Laboratory, on that panel.

She noted that while NASA’s planning for Artemis will focus on establishing a “base camp” in the south polar region of the moon, CLPS missions can visit the rest of the lunar surface. “It drives great science. It drives competition among the different providers and hopefully builds this new economy, driving technical development and innovations that we can use on Earth as well.”

Crew-5 mission ends with Florida splashdown

A SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft splashed down off the Florida coast March 11, returning four people from the International Space Station after more than five months in space. The Crew Dragon spacecraft Endurance splashed down at the primary landing location west of Tampa, Florida, at 9:02 p.m. Eastern. The splashdown took place nearly 19 hours after the spacecraft undocked from the station. The splashdown marked the end of the 157-day Crew-5 mission that started with an Oct. 5 launch on a Falcon 9. NASA astronaut Nicole Mann commanded the mission, with fellow NASA astronaut Josh Cassada serving as pilot. JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina were mission specialists on Crew-5. Endruance departed the station eight days after the arrival of another Crew Dragon, Endeavour, on the Crew-6 mission. It delivered to the station NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, Emirati astronaut Sultan Alneyadi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev. They will remain on the station for about six months, when they are relieved by the Crew-7 mission, which will also use the Endurance spacecraft. SpaceX will conduct two commercial Crew Dragon missions before Crew-7. The Ax-2 mission for Axiom Space is tentatively scheduled for May, going to the ISS for about 10 days. It will feature former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson as commander and John Shoffner, a customer, as pilot along with Saudi astronauts Rayyanah Barnawi and Ali Alqarni. Polaris Dawn, a Crew Dragon mission that is part of billionaire Jared Isaacman’s Polaris Program of private astronaut missions, is expected to launch in the summer, Isaacman said Feb. 23. Isaacman will command the mission with Scott “Kidd” Poteet as pilot and SpaceX employees Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon as mission specialists. The five-day mission will not dock with the ISS but instead conduct other tasks, including the first spacewalk from a Crew Dragon.

Upcoming missions

NASA and SpaceX will now turn their attention to the next Dragon cargo mission, SpX-27. That mission, carrying more than 2,700 kilograms of cargo, is scheduled to launch March 14 at 8:30 p.m. Eastern from the Kennedy Space Center.

The next crewed mission to the station is scheduled to be the first crewed test flight of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner vehicle, with two NASA astronauts on board. At a post-splashdown briefing, Steve Stich, NASA commercial crew program manager, said that mission, the Crew Flight Test (CFT), was scheduled for no earlier than the end of April.

“We really need to step back here in March and take a look at where we’re at and then determine what the next steps are,” he said, noting work was ongoing to complete certification work and final software testing.

The uncrewed Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft is scheduled to undock from the station March 28. That spacecraft, which brought two Russian cosmonauts and one American astronaut to the station in September, suffered a damaged radiator in December that caused it to lose coolant. Roscosmos launched a new, uncrewed Soyuz spacecraft, Soyuz MS-23, in February to replace Soyuz MS-22.

Joel Montalbano, NASA ISS program manager, said at the briefing that while the damaged radiator does not return to Earth, controllers will collect data on the temperature and humidity conditions inside the capsule during its return to Earth.

He said that Russian engineers are investigating the possibility that it, along with a Progress cargo spacecraft that suffered a similar loss of coolant in February, had a manufacturing defect. “Did something change in the production of these vehicles?” he said, calling such a review “exactly what we would do on our side.”

He added NASA still believed that Soyuz MS-23 could safely return crew home from the station in September, according to current station manifests. “We’re confident in that. Confidence is good, but we’re always looking.”

Intelsat and Eutelsat forge multi-orbit capacity deal

Eutelsat said March 9 it has signed a multi-million euro deal to provide more satellite capacity to Intelsat, including from OneWeb’s low Earth orbit (LEO) network the French operator is acquiring. The seven-year agreement will help Intelsat enhance connectivity services it already provides over Europe, the Middle East, and the Pacific with its own fleet of satellites in geostationary orbit (GEO). The contract expands a deal Eutelsat reached in 2019 with Gogo Commercial Aviation, the inflight connectivity provider Intelsat later acquired, for capacity on Eutelsat 10B that SpaceX launched in November. Eutelsat 10B is slated to enter service from GEO by the middle of 2023. Eutelsat said the expanded agreement includes capacity from two more GEO satellites: Eutelsat 172B launched in 2017 and Flexsat that was recently ordered for services starting in 2026. The agreement also includes LEO capacity that would enable Intelsat to provide integrated multi-orbit connectivity services “in the air, at sea, or on the ground,” Eutelsat and OneWeb executives said in a joint statement. OneWeb’s network is currently only available in a handful of countries across the upper part of the northern hemisphere. The British broadband operator expects to provide global commercial services by early next year following a launch of satellites slated for later this month out of India. Financial details about the capacity agreement were not disclosed.

Artist view of the Eutelsat 10B satellite that SpaceX launched in November 2022. Credit: Thales Alenia Space

Intelsat’s nimble growth strategy

In August, Intelsat announced a global distribution deal with OneWeb for providing multi-orbit connectivity services to airlines.

The GEO operator’s third-party capacity deals are part of a cost-saving growth strategy following its emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection early last year.

This strategy also saw Intelsat order a satellite from 3D printing specialist Swissto12 in November that is one-tenth the size of a conventional GEO communications spacecraft.

For Eutelsat, their agreement underlines the value of its proposed combination with OneWeb and its push out of a declining broadcast business into high-growth connectivity markets.

Eutelsat recently said it expects to complete its OneWeb acquisition in the second or third quarter of this year, subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals.

Japanese lunar lander company ispace to go public

Japanese lunar exploration company ispace plans to list its shares on the Tokyo Stock Exchange next month, just before the company attempts its first landing on the moon. Tokyo-based ispace announced March 8 it won approval to list shares on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Growth Market, reserved for smaller, higher-risk companies. Shares will start trading on the exchange April 12. According to a filing with the exchange, ispace plans to offer about 24.7 million shares, out of 78.6 million issued, in the initial public offering (IPO). The company will set the price of those shares on April 3. “Through this new listing, ispace seeks to commence dialogues with as many global investors in the stock market as possible and request their participation in this infrastructure construction project,” ispace said in a statement about the listing, referring to its long-term goal of establishing a “unified ecosystem” between the Earth and moon. The listing would take place just before ispace’s first lander, HAKUTO-R Mission 1, attempts a landing on the moon. At a Feb. 27 briefing, company executives said the spacecraft would land at Atlas Crater, located on the edge of Mare Frigoris in the northeastern quadrant of the near side of the moon, around the end of April. The spacecraft is scheduled to enter orbit around the moon in late March. Takeshi Hakamada, founder and chief executive of ispace, deflected a question at that briefing about the possibility of going public. “We are always looking for multiple ways to raise funds to support our future missions,” he said. “An IPO is one solution for that.”

An artist's depiction of ispace's M1 lunar lander. Credit: ispace

The company has raised nearly $200 million in several private rounds, including a $46 million Series C round in August 2021. In the exchange filing, ispace reported having 93 million yen ($0.7 million) in capital as of March 8.

The plan by ispace to go public comes after another lunar lander developer, Houston-based Intuitive Machines, went public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that closed Feb. 13. That raised $55 million from capital provided by an affiliate of the SPAC sponsor and company founders, rather than from proceeds of the SPAC itself.

Shares in Intuitive Machines, trading on the Nasdaq exchange, soared in the first days after the SPAC merger closed. The company’s shares closed Feb. 22 at nearly $82 after trading at one point during the day at $136.

It was not clear what drove the sharp increase, as the company made no major announcements during that time. “We are pleased with the interest in Intuitive Machines as we embark on life as a public company and continue to work tirelessly to deliver on our commitments to our customers and shareholders,” company spokesman Josh Marshall said Feb. 17, adding that the company is “focused on execution” after completing the SPAC merger.

Intuitive Machines’s stock price has tumbled since that Feb. 22 peak, though. Shares closed March 8 at $10.26, down 18.3% for the day and bringing the price back to just below where it was Feb. 13.

Investors in space startups see hurdles in defense market

In some sectors of the space industry, innovative technologies from startups don’t stand much of a chance to be part of a DoD program due to institutional and cultural barriers, says venture investor Jordan Noone. In the procurement of space launch services, DoD has come a long way from a decade ago when SpaceX sued the Air Force to be allowed to compete for national security launches. The Space Force now plans to open up the next round of launch procurements to a broad range of commercial players. But in other sectors of the space industry, emerging technologies from startups don’t stand much of a chance to be part of a DoD program due to institutional and cultural barriers, said Jordan Noone, co-founder and general partner of Embedded Ventures, a Los Angeles-based firm that invests in aerospace and defense startups. Amid the infusion of venture capital into the space industry, U.S. defense officials have called for faster adoption of commercial technology in military programs. But that is not likely to happen in the short run due to ingrained barriers in the military procurement system, said Noone, a co-founder of Relativity Space. He formed Embedded Ventures in 2020 with co-founder Jenna Bryant. Those hurdles persist even though DoD and the Department of the Air Force have created several organizations — the Defense Innovation Unit, AFWERX and SpaceWERX — specifically to work with startups. These entities mentor startups and fund research and development projects but are disconnected from the Space Systems Command’s procurement offices that manage major programs, Noone said in an interview. DIU, AFWERX and SpaceWERX operate almost completely independently and that makes it difficult for emerging technologies to migrate to so-called programs of record.

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy prepares to launch USSF-67 for the U.S. Space Force Jan. 14, 2023. Credit: SpaceX

A key obstacle for startups is that DoD procurements ask for “prescriptive solutions,” meaning that they dictate specific components or subsystems, he said. That prevents many commercial companies from competing because they are optimized for “performance based” contracts that reward the most innovative solutions.

Cooperative agreement with Space Force

With these concerns in mind, Embedded Ventures in 2021 signed a five-year agreement with SpaceWERX to facilitate dialogue. One of the goals of this partnership is to figure out the “commercial integration” problem, Noone said. If a technology is not in a program of record with a budget line item, “that is an Achilles heel to the entire commercial integration effort where we put years of effort and nothing comes out of it.”

The cooperative agreement so far has been helpful to enable these discussions, Noone said. But the reality is that the large program offices “still live behind the firewall that even SpaceWERX has not been able to break through terribly effectively.”

Embedded Ventures in January announced its inaugural $100 million fund intended to back companies with dual-use commercial and national security applications. To date the fund has announced investments in Akash Systems Inc., Chromatic 3D Materials, Inversion Space, KittyCAD, Slingshot Aerospace and Skyryse.

Companies and investors need more than virtue signaling, he said. Meanwhile, the U.S. national security sector is missing out on opportunities to integrate innovative technologies.

To help build its relationship with DoD, Noone hired Mandy Vaughn as operating partner of Embedded Ventures. Vaughn, CEO and founder of the consulting firm GXO Inc., is the former president of Virgin Orbit subsidiary VOX Space and serves on the National Space Council’s Users Advisory Committee.

Vaughn told SpaceNews that she is seeing inklings of change in the space procurement enterprise although not as fast as VCs would like.

“Part of the problem is just legacy,” she said. “It’s a lot of inertia. And the major systems and programs of record haven’t changed for a really long time.”

Program managers are not necessarily incentivized to bring in cutting-edge innovation, he said. Their duty is to “deliver cost, schedule and performance on those programs of record, which are tied to a congressional budget line.”

Under the cooperative agreement, said Vaughn, “what we’re trying to do is also educate the program executives” so they better understand the maturity of commercial technologies and figure out ways to insert them into programs as they go along.

Many of the top leaders of the Space Force and Space Systems Command are advocating for the adoption of venture-funded technology, she said. They are telling buyers to think less about “programs of record” and more about “mission areas” that could be accomplished with commercial products or services.

“But that’s a long process,” Vaughn said. “It’s all still pretty formative.”

An example is a new Space Force initiative to use commercial space transportation systems and on-orbit logistics to support military operations. That would include using rockets to deliver cargo, using space tugs to deliver satellites to nontraditional orbits and on-orbit tankers to refuel satellites.

“This is awesome,” Vaughn said. “But where’s the budget wedge to help close the story, and the demand signal to help calibrate the investor community?”

Nozzle erosion blamed for Vega C launch failure

Europe plans to return the Vega C rocket to flight by the end of the year after concluding an eroded nozzle component caused the failure of its previous launch last December. The European Space Agency announced March 3 it had completed an independent investigation into the failed Dec. 20 launch of the Vega C on the VV21 mission, which experienced a loss of thrust from its Zefiro-40 solid-fuel second stage. The failure resulted in the loss of two Pléiades Neo imaging satellites for Airbus Defence and Space. The investigation concluded that a component in the motor called a throat insert, made of carbon-carbon material designed to withstand high temperatures, suffered “thermo-mechanical over-erosion” during the launch. That insert regulates the flow of exhaust through the nozzle, and as it eroded the chamber pressure dropped, causing thrust to decrease. By 207 seconds after liftoff, or a little more than a minute after the second stage ignited, acceleration of the vehicle became “quasi-null” and put the rocket on a ballistic trajectory, said Pierre-Yves Tissier, chief technical officer of Arianespace and co-chair of the independent investigation, in a briefing about the report. A fault tree analysis led investigators to rule out other causes of the failure. The erosion of the insert, he said, was linked to higher porosity of the carbon-carbon material, confirmed in other testing of the material but not detected earlier. “The acceptance criteria established for this material were not able to detect such a weakness,” he said. Avio procured the throat insert from a Ukrainian company, Yuzhnoye. Giulio Ranzo, chief executive of Avio, said the company went with Yuzhnoye during the design phase of Vega C in 2015 to 2017 after concluding that other European suppliers could not provide the material in required quantities “on the schedule compatible with the development program” of the rocket.

A Vega C lifted off Dec. 20, only to suffer a failure with its second stage about two and half minutes later. Credit: Arianespace webcast

The flaw, he said, was not directly linked to disruptions caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a year ago because they were manufactured before the war. He suggested that lockdowns linked to the pandemic might have been a factor, though.

The erosion was not seen in the Zefiro-40 motor used on the inaugural Vega C launch last July, or in two earlier qualification firings. “The acceptance criteria were not the right ones,” said Giovanni Colangelo, ESA inspector general and the other co-chair of the investigation. In those earlier firings of the motor, the materials exceeded requirements.

“The one for VV21 was exactly in line with specification, so were not as good as the previous one, so that is the reason why there was a failure,” he said.

The investigation concluded that the Yuzhnoye material can no longer be used on the Zefiro-40 motor. It will be replaced with a carbon-carbon throat insert from ArianeGroup, which already produces similar components for motors used on other Vega stages.

Ranzo said that Avio had already purchased several such throat inserts from ArianeGroup last year as a hedge against potential supply chain disruptions caused by the war in Ukraine. “We have secured the next several flights by having procured this strategic stock several months ago,” he said, adding that Avio was looking at longer-term options for the component from ArianeGroup or others.

ESA said that additional analysis and testing of the Zefiro-40 is planned for the coming months, allowing a return to flight of the Vega C tentatively scheduled for late this year. The payload for that mission will be the Sentinel-1C radar imaging satellite.

“Sentinel-1C is indeed a very precious payload,” acknowledged Josef Aschbacher, ESA director general. That satellite will replace Sentinel-1B, whose radar payload failed last year. “We are putting measures in place which are very robust and we have confidence this will all succeed.”

The Zefiro-40 problem does not affect the original Vega rocket, which uses a different motor in its second stage that does not have a throat insert from Yuzhnoye. ESA plans a launch of that rocket, one of two remaining of that version, before the end of the summer.

Stéphane Israël, chief executive of Arianespace, said that Vega launch will carry two primary payloads and several smallsat rideshares. “We will give more information on these passengers in a few weeks,” he said.

In addition to fixing the problem with the Zefiro-40, there will be a broader assessment of the vehicle’s supply chain to look for other potential quality issues. “We will try to improve substantially the monitoring of the performance and supply chain management activities,” Ranzo said.

Both ESA and Arianespace leadership expressed some frustration with the Vega program, noting that the VV21 failure was the third in eight flights of the Vega and Vega C. They are also dealing with delays with the development of the Ariane 6 that have pushed its first launch back to at least late 2023, as well as the loss of the Soyuz rocket after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“We are in a crisis,” Aschbacher said. “For me, this is really a moment where we need to reflect deeply how to regain independent access to space for Europe.”

Rocket Lab reconsidering mid-air recovery of Electron boosters

Rocket Lab is reconsidering the use of mid-air recovery of Electron boosters as part of its efforts to reuse the vehicle. In comments during a Feb. 28 earnings call, Peter Beck, chief executive of Rocket Lab, said the company was weighing recovering stages from the ocean and refurbishing them for launch rather than catching a stage with a helicopter, something that the company attempted twice, unsuccessfully, last year. In the second attempt last November, Rocket Lab called off the helicopter catch because of a momentary loss of telemetry from the booster. The company instead allow the stage to splash down in the ocean, where a boat recovered it and returned it to Rocket Lab’s facilities. “This turned out to be quite a happy turn of events,” he said on the call. “Electron survived an ocean recovery in remarkably good condition, and in a lot of cases its components actually pass requalification for flight.” He said the company is planning an ocean recovery on an upcoming flight after incorporating additional waterproofing into the vehicle “Pending this outcome of testing and analysis of the stage, the mission may move us towards sticking with marine recovery altogether and introduce significant savings to the whole operation.” “In 2022 we proved that it was possible to rendezvous with a returning stage mid-air and get it on the helicopter hook,” Beck said, referring to the first recovery attempt where the stag was snagged by the helicopter but released moments later, “but if we can save ourselves the extra step by just plucking out in water we will.”

The Electron booster, descending under a parachute (right), as seen from the helicopter as it attempted to grapple the parachute. The helicopter released the booster moments later, though. Credit: Rocket Lab

He said later that the cost was “neutral” between mid-air and ocean recovery: the additional work to waterproof the booster and refurbish it was offset by not needing to operate a helicopter. However, Beck estimated that it can perform helicopter recovery on about 50% of Electron launches, but that increases to 60-70% for water recovery.

“What the water landing does enable us to do is recover more vehicles because we don’t have the constraints of the operations of the helicopter,” he said. “So, financially it’s kind of the same, but we get to actually reuse more vehicles.”

Capella contract and upcoming launches

Rocket Lab separately announced Feb. 28 a contract with Capella Space for four Electron launches of that company’s synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging satellites. Each launch will carry a single satellite of Capella’s new Acadia series of satellites. Those launches will begin in the second half of 2023 from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand, although Rocket Lab said it has the option to move launches to Launch Complex 2 at Wallops Island, Virginia.

“The latest multi-launch deal with Capella Space further to meet our leadership position as the trusted small launch provider of choice for constellation operators,” Beck said in the earnings call. “We’ve now launched and signed deals with some of the most prominent constellations and operators globally, demonstrating the value that Electron provides to these customers by offering reliable and flexible launch to tailored orbits.”

The new contract is in addition to an Electron launch for Capella scheduled for March from Launch Complex 2, carrying two Whitney-series satellites. That launch will take place within days of another Electron launch from Launch Complex 1 with two BlackSky Gen2 imaging satellites. Rocket Lab did not disclose specific dates for the two launches, but there are airspace restrictions in place for a launch from Wallops between March 11 and 17.

Those launches will come after Rocket Lab’s first launch of the year, its inaugural mission from Launch Complex 2 in January. The three launches will account for $19 million in projected revenue in the first quarter, part of overall projections of $51-54 million in revenue for Rocket Lab in the quarter.

Those launches will set the company up for as many as 15 launches in 2023. “With the targeted three launches in the first quarter, I think we’re in great shape to get to that 15 number,” Adam Spice, Rocket Lab’s chief financial officer, said. Demand is higher, but he cautioned that the “school of hard knocks” taught the company of the risks of customer slips.

“We’ve risk adjusted the numbers, so we think 15 is the right number for the year given where we’re at and given the likelihood that some programs could push to the right,” he said.

That demand, Beck added, meant that the company was not seeing pricing pressure on Electron launches. “Electron pricing has never gone down. It’s only ever gone up.”

That will continue, Spice predicted, as other small launch vehicle developers drop out of the market. “I think it’s just a matter of time before kind of the natural selection process really leads us down to a point where launch for Electron becomes more expensive, not less expensive,” he said.