Crew-7 launches to the space station

A Falcon 9 launched a multinational crew to the International Space Station Aug. 26 after a one-day delay to check the spacecraft’s life support system. The SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 3:27 a.m. Eastern on the Crew-7 mission for NASA. The Crew Dragon spacecraft Endurance separated from the Falcon 9’s upper stage a little more than 12 minutes later. Endurance, with its crew of four, is scheduled to dock with the zenith port on the Harmony module of the ISS at 8:39 a.m. Eastern Aug. 27. That will kick off a roughly six-month stay on the station. The launch was scheduled for Aug. 25 but postponed several hours before the scheduled liftoff. NASA said that engineers needed more time to review a component of the Crew Dragon’s life support system, known as ECLSS. NASA did not initially state what that component was but later said it was valves in an air supply system. Steve Stich, NASA commercial crew program manager, said at the post-launch briefing that after discovering corroded valves in the propulsion system of a cargo Dragon in June, SpaceX “out of an abundance of caution” decided to review all valves on the spacecraft, including for life support and propulsion. The review was designed to check the “force margin,” or the ability of the valve to open and close. “It took a little bit more time to get through the ECLSS valves,” he said, which led to the one-day slip. “We said, let’s stand down for 24 hours and make sure we understand it before we go fly.” That review confirmed that the valves were working properly and required no changes.

A Falcon 9 lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center Aug. 26 on the Crew-7 mission to the ISS. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

During the launch countdown, controllers reported a sensor issue that was cleared shortly before liftoff. At the post-launch briefing, officials said that sensors had detected trace amounts of nitrogen tetroxide, or NTO, from the Crew Dragon spacecraft that indicated a possible propellant leak. NTO is one of the two hypergolic propellants used by the spacecraft’s thrusters.

Benji Reed, senior director of the human spaceflight program at SpaceX, said at the post-launch briefing that the levels of NTO detected were about 0.25 parts per million. Three engineers independently calculated what level of leak could cause that reading and all three came to the same conclusion. “The good news was that the number that we came up with was well within the range of what you might normally see.”

That assessment, though, came down to the wire. “We were working the problem and we cleared it within the last two minutes of the count,” he said.

Crew-7 is the first commercial crew flight to carry people from four different agencies. The mission is commanded by NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli on her first flight to space. European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen is the pilot; he made a 10-day trip to the station on a Soyuz spacecraft in 2015. Satoshi Furukawa of the Japanese space agency JAXA and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov are mission specialists. Furukawa flew a long-duration mission to the ISS in 2011 while Borisov is on his first trip to space.

That multinational lineup was simply how the crew assignments worked out, said Joel Montalbano, NASA ISS program manager, at a preflight briefing Aug. 21. “The way the timing worked out for this one with our integrated crew agreement that we have with Roscosmos, it was time for these other folks to fly,” he said.

Stich said at that briefing that another milestone for Crew-7 is having a non-NASA astronaut, Mogensen, be a Crew Dragon pilot for the first time. “It’s a very big deal for us,” he said then.

Such multinational crews will not always be the case. The next Crew Dragon mission to the ISS, Crew-8 launching in early 2024, will have three NASA astronauts and one Roscosmos cosmonaut.

The arrival of Crew-7 will allow NASA to begin preparations for the return of the Crew-6 mission, which has been on the station for nearly six months. Montalbano said at the post-launch briefing that the agency was planning a five-day handover between Crew-6 and Crew-7 before Crew-6 departs on the Crew Dragon spacecraft Endeavour. That timing, though, will depend on weather at splashdown locations off the Florida coast, which could be affected by the expected formation of a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico in the next several days.

Space Development Agency awards $1.5 billion to Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman for 72 satellites

The Space Development Agency announced Aug. 21 it awarded contracts worth $1.5 billion to Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin to build and operate 72 satellites. The Space Development Agency (SDA), an organization under the U.S. Space Force, is building a mesh network of military satellites in low Earth orbit. The 72 satellites will make up a portion of SDA’s network known as Tranche 2 Transport Layer. SDA is building a large constellation called the proliferated warfighter space architecture that includes a Transport Layer of interconnected communications satellites and a Tracking Layer of missile-detection and warning sensor satellites. Northrop Grumman’s contract for 36 satellites is worth approximately $733 million. The agreement with Lockheed Martin, also for 36 satellites, is worth $816 million, SDA said. Transport Layer Tranche 2 “will provide global communications access and deliver persistent regional encrypted connectivity in support of warfighter missions around the globe,” the agency said. The 72 satellites ordered from Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman are the “Beta” portion of Tranche 2 Transport Layer. They will be deployed in orbital planes of 12 satellites each, with the first plane projected to launch in September 2026.

Rendering of the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 2 Transport Layer-Beta data transport satellites. Credit: Northrop Grumman

Commercial-like model

SDA uses a commercial-like model to acquire satellites, incrementally adding new technologies as they become available, in contrast to DoD’s traditional method of funding one large acquisition over many years.

“We are now solidly in the procurement phase for Tranche 2 of the PWSA to support a 2026 delivery,” said Derek Tournear, SDA director. “Tranche 2 brings global persistence for all our capabilities in Tranche 1 and adds advanced tactical data links and future proliferated missions.

The Beta variant of the Tranche 2 Transport Layer vehicles are similar to the 126 Tranche 1 Transport Layer satellites that SDA ordered last year from Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and York Space.

The Tranche 2 contracts make Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman the largest awardees of SDA satellite contracts. In February 2022, SDA selected Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and York Space Systems to each produce 42 satellites for the Tranche 1 Transport Layer. Northrop Grumman in July 2022 also won a contract for 14 missile-tracking satellites for SDA’s Tracking Layer Tranche 1.

To date Lockheed Martin has won SDA contracts for 88 satellites and Northrop Grumman has won orders for 92 satellites.

True Anomaly opens spacecraft manufacturing facility in Colorado

True Anomaly, a startup based in Denver, opened a manufacturing facility where it plans to produce small satellites designed for surveillance and reconnaissance of objects in space. The company on Aug. 17 unveiled the 35,000 square-foot facility in Centennial, Colorado. True Anomaly designed a spacecraft called Jackal aimed at the U.S. military and intelligence market. The satellite, equipped with three cameras, will be capable of performing rendezvous and proximity operations, and servicing missions, the company said. The first two Jackals are scheduled to launch to low Earth orbit in early 2024 on the SpaceX Transporter-10 rideshare. CEO Even Rogers said True Anomaly has obtained licenses from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for Jackal vehicles to perform in-space surveillance.

True Anomaly’s GravityWorks facility in Centennial, Colorado. Credit: True Anomaly

NOAA, FCC licenses

A commercial remote-sensing license from NOAA authorizes the company to conduct non-Earth imaging. The FCC authorized the company to conduct ground tests of Jackal transmitters and to demonstrate spacecraft-to-spacecraft rendezvous in close proximity with its two Jackal vehicles.

The non-Earth imaging license includes radar, shortwave infrared, longwave infrared, and visible wide and narrow field of view imagery. “This variety of sensor phenomenology will enable Jackal to collect data even in poor lighting conditions such as when the spacecraft is in Earth’s shadow,” Rogers said.

Rogers said obtaining these licenses are “significant milestones in True Anomaly’s mission to define the next generation of space security.”

At the new facility, called GravityWorks, the company plans to produce more Jackal vehicles and other systems, said Rogers. “GravityWorks will be able to produce a fully-tested, mission-ready satellite every five days.”

Earth observation evolution: Bigger satellites promise bigger payoff for imagery operators

Earth observation satellites are bulking up. “Everyone’s moving to these bigger satellites because the cost and volume constraints have changed,” said James Mason, Planet senior vice president of space systems. “All of our customers are demanding different types of data, higher quality and lower latency.” Capella Space’s latest generation of Acadia synthetic aperture radar satellites are 50 percent larger than their predecessors. Moving from 112-kilogram Whitney to 165- to 187-kilogram Acadia makes no difference in terms of launch costs since Capella is purchasing a dedicated Rocket Lab Electron for each satellite. “Mass is not as important anymore,” said Christian Lenz, chief technology officer for San Francisco-based Capella. “Things like capacity, performance, [and] lifetime are all more important at this stage.” Customers for Capella’s SAR imagery and data, including government defense and intelligence agencies, are responsible for the satellite’s redesign. Acadia satellites are “tailored more precisely towards their needs,” Lenz said. Customers want high-resolution imagery and a high signal-to-noise ratio. In addition, they prefer Capella’s multi-look images that look less speckled because satellites focus on a location for tens of seconds. “Latency is another thing that is extremely important to a very important set of customers,” Lenz said. “There are some customers who need their images within 24 hours. There’s also a customer set that needs it within four hours. And an entire new customer set that needs it within 15 minutes.”

To reduce latency, Capella is mounting Mynaric optical communications terminals on Acadia satellites. The terminals, which are compatible with the interoperability standard established by the Pentagon’s Space Development Agency, “provide the promise of having latencies of under 15 minutes sometime in the future,” Lenz said.

Acadia satellites also feature larger solar panels than Whitney and more batteries. Capella bought Electron launches to send Acadia satellites to mid-inclination orbits. Those orbits “give us faster revisit for the areas that people care about,” including the Asia-Pacific region, Lenz said.

Agile aerospace

Planet is well known for gathering daily, moderate-resolution imagery of Earth’s land with a constellation of about 130 Dove and SuperDove cubesats.

The San Francisco-based company also is known for rapidly updating cubesat designs. SuperDoves, which gather imagery in eight spectral bands versus four for Doves, were the 14th iteration of the design. The 17th version is now in the works.

“We’ve spoken a lot over the years about agile aerospace and the transition from a more traditional satellite development model into this more agile, higher paced one,” Mason said.

For Planet, that meant moving from an 11-megapixel camera to 29 megapixels to 47 megapixels as Doves evolved. Each new camera required additional power, better radios, improved hard drives and updates to Planet’s ground infrastructure.

Birds of a feather

Planet’s in-house manufacturing extends from Doves to Pelican and Tanager, 100- to 200-kilogram satellites with a common bus.

The larger bus “removes those hard constraints of trying to pack everything in this tiny box,” Mason said. “It allows us to build more reliable, modular systems because we’ve got a bit more space to work with. We’ve taken the best of what we’ve learned from the SkySats and SuperDoves, and we put that into a new satellite design that is more flexible, more agile, lower cost and higher performance.”

Pelicans, scheduled to begin launching this year, will capture 30-centimeter Earth imagery. Tanager satellites with NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory hyperspectral sensors are being built for Carbon Mapper, a public-private partnership focused on pinpointing, quantifying and tracking sources of methane and carbon dioxide.

Remapping the world

Satellogic, an agile aerospace proponent that builds satellites in Uruguay, equipped its latest Mark V with a more spacious hosted payload bay and improved downlink capabilities.

Mark V, which began launching in 2022, obtains 80-centimeter multispectral resolution imagery compared with 99-centimeter for its predecessor. Mark V also observes a larger swath: 8 kilometers from a 520-kilometer orbit, compared with five kilometers for Mark IV. And a hyperspectral camera on Mark V provides 18-meter resolution imagery.

“The Mark V is the cornerstone of Satellogic being able to remap the world monthly, weekly and then daily with higher resolution, larger swath and faster download capability,” said Matt Tirman, chief commercial officer for Satellogic North America.

Mark V’s updated electronics did not have a significant impact on satellite size or cost. Each satellite costs satellite about $1 million to build and launch.

“The real leap is going to be our NewSat in 18 to 24 months, which will be in a larger bus with a much higher resolution,” Tirman said.

Blended missions

The 140 satellites in Spire Global’s constellation range in size from three to four, six and 16-unit cubesats. (Cubesats measure 10 centimeters on each side.)

“Generally, our satellites are getting a little bit bigger,” said Joel Spark, Spire co-founder and chief satellite architect.

The adoption of 16U cubesats was prompted by Spire’s Space Services customers whose applications sometimes required more power, data downlink capacity and volume than Spire could offer with 6U cubesats.

Still, Spire does not make a sharp distinction between satellites gathering weather, maritime or aircraft tracking data for Spire products and Space Services satellites. In many cases, hardware and software for multiple customers fly on the same Spire satellites.

When Spire was founded in 2012, the company manufactured its own cubesats because few companies could meet its needs. Now, it’s the rapid iteration cycle that keeps the Vienna, Virginia-based company manufacturing satellites in-house.

“We’re constantly upgrading the technology both from a hardware perspective and a software perspective,” Spark said. “Customers want increasing volumes of data, and they generally want it more quickly.”

To speed up communications, Spire is equipping satellites with both optical and radio-frequency intersatellite links.

“We also preload our satellites with additional processing capability, more than we currently use,” Spark said. “By moving that data processing to the satellite, our customers have been able to do really incredible things.”

For example, Spire’s internal and Space Services customers are improving sensor performance with artificial intelligence. AI also helps satellites work together to monitor objects or areas of interest.

“It’s a brave new world in terms of people being able to use these sensors to do incredible things,” Spark said.

Chinese startup launches 7th Ceres-1 rocket, preps for first sea launch

Chinese commercial firm Galactic Energy achieved its seventh launch success from seven attempts early Thursday and is now set for a first sea-based mission. The seventh Ceres-1 solid rocket lifted off using a transporter erector launcher at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert at 12:03 a.m. Eastern, Aug. 10 (0403 UTC). Aboard were seven satellites for a variety of customers. The Beijing-based commercial firm is now preparing to make the first attempt by a Chinese commercial rocket company to launch from a mobile sea platform, a Galactic Energy representative told SpaceNews. The rocket will lift off from a platform off the coast of Haiyang, Shandong province, during a window starting Aug. 20 and running until the end of the month. So far only the state-owned China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) and its affiliated China Rocket company have launched from the sea, using Long March 11 and Jielong-3 (“Smart Dragon-3”) solid rockets. Thursday’s launch carried Xiguang-1 (01), Star Pool-1B satellite, GeoSat Intelligent Emergency-1, and the Xi’an Hangtou -88, -96, -104 and -112 satellites. The satellites are expected to enter roughly 500-kilometer-altitude sun-synchronous orbits. Xikuang-1 (01) is a 100-kilogram class hyperspectral satellite belonging to the Xikuang-1 series developed by Xi’an Zhongke Xikuang Aerospace Science and Technology Co., Ltd., or Xiopm Space. The satellite carries multiple payloads including a hyperspectral camera, infrared camera, panchromatic camera, on-board intelligent processing unit for a range of Earth observation uses.

The seventh Ceres-1 rocket lifts off from Jiuquan spaceport at 0403 UTC, Aug. 10. Credit: Galactic Energy

The four Xi’an Hangtou satellites are lightweight, low-power optical satellites focusing on assisting ecological sustainability in the Qinling region of Shaanxi, the province in which Xiopm Space is based.

Star Pool 1B is a wide-view, integrated sensing satellite independently developed by Elliptical Space and Time (EllipSpace). The multi-payload satellite features inter-satellite/satellite-ground communication and navigation enhancement capabilities.

The mission aims to verify miniaturization of payloads and the core technologies of the satellite of Star Pool Program and demonstrate its applications. The program envisions constructing a constellation or more than 100 “intelligent” satellites.

Geosat Intelligent Emergency-1 is an “AI-centered satellite” with an intelligent operating system, which is jointly developed by Geosat 2 Space Technology (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd. and Suzhou Tianxun Space Technology Co., Ltd. It is equipped with high-resolution array cameras, near-infrared cameras and IoT communications payloads, utilizing on-board intelligent processing technology.

The Ceres-1 solid rocket has a diameter of 1.4 meters, a length of about 20 meters, a mass at take-off of about 33 tons and a liquid propellant upper stage. It can deliver 400 kg to LEO or 300 kg to a 500-kilometer-altitude sun-synchronous orbit (SSO).

Galactic Energy now moves to focus on its first sea launch of the Ceres-1. The sea launch will carry the satellites Tianqi 21-24 for Guodian Gaoke, a commercial firm constructing its Tianqi low-Earth orbit narrow-band Internet of Things constellation.

The firm’s Tianqi-13 satellite took a Ceres-1 ride to orbit in January of this year.

The upcoming sea launch attempt adds to a number of breakthroughs for China’s commercial launch sector in 2023. These include the first successful launch of a commercial liquid propellant rocket, a global first methane-powered rocket reaching orbit, and an increased launch rate.

So far commercial firms Galactic Energy, iSpace, Space Pioneer and Landspace, as well as state-owned commercial spinoffs CAS Space and Expace, have all reached orbit so far this year. Another, Orienspace, is targeting its first launch with the Gravity-1 solid rocket in December. China is building commercial launch pads at Wenchang, Hainan island, to ease a bottleneck in access to spaceports. The sea launch facilities at Haiyang may also allow more commercial and liquid launchers in the future.

India’s Chandrayaan-3 lander arrives in lunar orbit

India will make its second moon landing attempt in 18 days’ time after its Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft arrived in lunar orbit Saturday. Chandrayaan-3 began a roughly 30-minute burn around 9:30 a.m. Eastern, seeing the spacecraft enter an elliptical lunar orbit, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) stated via social media. “MOX, ISTRAC, this is Chandrayaan-3. I am feeling lunar gravity,” ISRO Tweeted. “A retro-burning at the Perilune was commanded from the Mission Operations Complex (MOX), ISTRAC, Bengaluru.” The spacecraft will gradually alter its orbit with a burn to reduce apolune Sunday, Aug. 6. It will settle into a 100-kilometer-altitude, circular polar orbit on Aug. 17. From here, the Vikram lander will separate from the mission’s propulsion module and enter a 35 x 100-km orbit in preparation for landing. Final descent and the soft landing attempt is set for Aug. 23. The primary landing site is in the vicinity of the lunar South Pole region, located at 69.37 degrees south latitude and 32.35 degrees east longitude. No previous Moon mission has landed at a lower latitude. If successful, Chandrayaan-3 will make India only the fourth country in the world to achieve a lunar landing, joining the U.S., the former Soviet Union and China. Chandrayaan-3 launched July 14 on a LVM-3 heavy-lift rocket from Satish Dhawan Space Centre into an initial orbit similar to a geosynchronous transfer orbit, beginning a circuitous journey to the moon.

An LVM-3 rocket carrying the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft lifts off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre on July 14, 2023. Credit: ISRO

The spacecraft performed five orbit-raising maneuvers across the following two weeks before making a successful translunar injection burn July 31 (UTC).

European Space Tracking (ESTRACK) is providing ground station support for tracking the mission. ESTRACK has previously supported Chinese lunar missions.

ISRO chose the prime landing site using high-resolution photographs and data from Chandrayaan-2 orbiter and NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The mission is a follow-up to the Chandrayaan-2 landing attempt which experienced a hard landing in 2019 due to a software glitch. That mission carried an orbiter which is still in operation around the moon.

ISRO says it has studied the lessons from 2019 and upgraded the software for Chandrayaan-3.

The main mission objective is to demonstrate a safe landing on the lunar surface. Beyond this, the mission will seek to demonstrate surface operations through the small, 26-kilogram Pragyan rover and conduct in-situ science experiments.

The 1,752-kilogram Vikram lander will deploy the six-wheeled Pragyan rover via a ramp. The solar-powered duo will carry out a set of scientific experiments for the duration of daytime at the landing site. One period of lunar daylight on the moon lasts for fourteen Earth days. Without radioisotope heater units the spacecraft are not expected to survive the deep cold of lunar nighttime.

India’s first lunar mission, the Chandrayaan-1 orbiter, launched in 2008. It spent a year in lunar orbit hunting for evidence of water molecules. It was then deliberately commanded to crash-land onto the lunar surface in 2009. The Chandrayaan-2 mission orbiter is still in orbit collecting science data.

NASA selects Axiom Space for fourth ISS private astronaut mission

NASA has selected Axiom Space to carry out the fourth in a series of private astronaut missions to the International Space Station in 2024. NASA announced Aug. 3 it selected the Houston-based company for the mission, currently scheduled for no earlier than August 2024. The four-person mission, flying on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, will spend up to two weeks docked to the station. NASA had previously selected Axiom for three private astronaut missions to the station. The Ax-1 mission went to the station in April 2022, followed by Ax-2 in May 2023. NASA selected Axiom for the third mission, Ax-3, in March, and the agency said at the time it was in negotiations with an unnamed company for the fourth mission. At the time of the announcement of Ax-3, NASA and Axiom Space said that mission was planned for as soon as November 2023. However, in a speech at the ISS Research and Development Conference Aug. 1, Dana Weigel, NASA ISS deputy program manager, said the mission was now scheduled for early 2024. The agency tweeted Aug. 2 that a revised launch date of no earlier than January 2024 “allows for teams to collaborate on the integration of the mission’s scientific research priorities.” Neither NASA nor Axiom Space have announced who will fly on either Ax-3 or Ax-4. NASA regulations require private astronaut missions be commanded by former NASA astronauts with flight experience, leaving three seats available for paying customers. In January, Michael Suffredini, chief executive of Axiom, said he expected government-sponsored astronauts to be most of the customers of Ax-3 and Ax-4.

A SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft docked to the International Space Station during Axiom Space's Ax-2 private astronaut mission in May 2023. Credit: NASA

Axiom is using the private astronaut missions to gain experience ahead of installing its first commercial modules on the station as soon as late 2025. Those modules will form the core of a standalone space station the company plans to establish by the time the ISS is retired.

“These missions are instrumental in expanding commercial space activities and access to space for individuals and nations around the world, as well as developing the knowledge and experience needed to normalize living and working in microgravity,” Suffredini said in a statement about the Ax-4 award.

The private astronaut missions are part of NASA’s ISS transition strategy, supporting the development of commercial space stations that will succeed the ISS around 2030. Phil McAlister, director of commercial space at NASA Headquarters, described the Ax-4 award in an agency statement as “another milestone in our efforts to transition low Earth orbit from primarily a government-sponsored activity to one where NASA is one of many customers.”

That approach has the support of NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, an independent safety committee. During an Aug. 3 public meeting, panel member Mark Sirangelo noted the Ax-2 mission completed a “full manifest of science, outreach and commercial activities” and was able to return more than 135 kilograms of cargo for NASA.

“We think this whole mission seems to have gone considerably more smoothly” than the first mission, he said of Ax-2. “You can see very good progress in these private astronaut missions.”