Scout Space announces new investors

Scout Space, a startup developing technologies for space situational awareness, announced June 21 it has secured undisclosed funding from the venture capital firm Decisive Point and from government contractor Noblis. Noblis Ventures is the majority investor in Scout’s recently closed seed round led by Decisive Point, the company said. Scout Space said it could not disclose the value of the seed round. Other participating investors included VIPC and Fusion Fund. A Scout spokesperson said the company, based in Alexandria, Virginia, has raised about $5.5 million in venture funding since it was founded in 2019. Noblis, based in Reston, Virginia, is a federal contractor focused on science and technology. It was formed as a spinoff of the nonprofit MITRE Corp.

Space tracking software application developed by Scout Space. Credit: Scout Space

Sensors for spacecraft navigation

Scout developed a sensing payload that helps spacecraft in orbit see and understand the environment around them. The company has won Air Force and Space Force small business innovation research contracts.

“Now more than ever, space-based situational awareness is critical to our national security and economy,” said Mile Corrigan, Noblis’ president and CEO.

Eric Ingram, Scout’s co-founder and CEO, said the new round of investments signal “confidence in our vision and technological capabilities in the space situational awareness domain. Space-based sensing and software technologies are key to enabling spacecraft autonomy and national security.”

China attracts moon base partners, outlines project timelines

China says a number of countries have committed to join its International Lunar Research Station moon base initiative. Russia, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates and the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO) have signed agreements to engage in the ILRS, with more than ten further countries and organizations currently negotiating agreements, according to a report by the state-owned Ta Kung Pao newspaper. Malaysia is one of the countries discussing terms of the project, according to the Kuala Lumpur-based China Press. Venezuela has also spoken positively to an invitation to join the ILRS. The ILRS project aims to construct a permanent lunar base in the 2030s with a series of stepping stone missions before the end of this decade. China announced in April that it was establishing the International Lunar Research Station Cooperation Organization (ILRSCO) to coordinate and manage the project. According to a recent presentation by the Deep Space Exploration Laboratory (DSEL) under the China National Space Administration (CNSA), China aims to complete the signing of agreements and memorandums of understanding with space agencies and organizations for founding members of ILRSCO by October this year. First signatories will enjoy more favorable terms and more rights as founding members, according to DSEL.

 

Illustration displaying the China-led ILRS concept. Credit: DSEL

The organizations’ headquarters will be located in the Deep Space Science City, in Hefei in Anhui province, with centers focusing on design simulation, operation control, data processing, sample storage and research, and international training centers. The centers will be named after Chinese names for the planets of the solar system.

China aims to define ILRS task sharing and sign and approve intergovernmental agreements among founding countries of the ILRSCO before the end of 2024.

Wu Weiren, director of DSEL, in April reiterated that all countries and organizations around the globe are welcome to join the ILRS. DSEL was founded in 2022 and acts as a contractor for lunar exploration and is engaged in the ILRS and international cooperation.

“As with the United States’ Artemis programme, the devil is in the detail of the agreements between China and smaller partners or participants in their respective lunar projects, “ Bowen, an associate professor at the University of Leicester, told SpaceNews.

“These are symbolic gestures today, whilst the actual contributions and returns in material, financial, political and human terms remain to be seen. The precedents both ILRS and Artemis may set for the future governance of the moon within the Outer Space Treaty (OST) framework make it increasingly attractive for many smaller states or emerging space powers to sign up to one or both lunar projects and have a say in the moon’s political future, and that of the OST’s implementation as the Moon gets busier.“

The ILRS base itself will be constructed in the 2030s by five planned missions. These will establish nuclear energy, communications, astronomical observation and other infrastructure for an initially robotic research station which will later host astronauts. A later stage will see ILRS used to validate technology and capabilities for a crewed mission to Mars, according to DSEL.

The ILRS was first presented in 2021 as a joint project by China and Russia. It is now described as a project proposed by China and to be jointly built by many countries. The change follows Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

China also envisions building a Queqiao constellation to provide communication, navigation and remote sensing services for its lunar and deep space exploration plans.

China’s next step in its lunar exploration plans will be the launch of the Queqiao-2 lunar relay satellite early next year. This will be followed by the Chang’e-6 lunar far side sample return mission scheduled to launch in May 2024.

Chang’e-7, consisting of an orbiter, lander, rover and hopping spacecraft designed to seek out water-ice in permanently shadowed craters, will launch in 2026 and target a landing site Shackleton crater. Chang’e-8 will launch two years and land nearby Chang’e-7, carrying a robot designed to test 3D printing bricks from lunar regolith. These missions will serve as a basis for the full ILRS project to follow in the 2030s.

The ILRS project and ILRSCO are somewhat analogous to the U.S.-led Artemis program and its political underpinning, the Artemis Accords, to which 25 countries, most recently Spain, have signed up.

The countries so far attracted by China are those with established ties with Beijing and its space endeavors.

“Many of these countries are not surprisingly leaning towards the ILRS as they are already partnered with China in space projects or on other economic and technological fronts, and China’s leadership do not want ILRS to be seen as less internationally-oriented than Artemis,” says Bowen.

The emergence of two separate, nascent moon projects within a tense geopolitical context suggests potential issues and friction as the future of lunar exploration unfolds. Yet, both may develop alongside each other.

“Some of those states are also members of the Artemis Accords, which reminds us that since both projects are ostensibly exploratory and scientific in nature, we do not need to adopt a zero-sum mentality to the Artemis – ILRS situation on the Moon,” says Bowen.

“However, as we have seen with the UAE, it fell foul of ITAR regulations when developing its contribution to the ILRS, meaning that members of both the ILRS and Artemis need to walk a fine line between the streams of both initiatives.”

The UAE had signed an MoU to participate in the Chang’e-7 through a small rover, but it is reported that U.S. export control rules meant that components needed for the spacecraft could not be used, leading to the withdrawal of the UAE from the project.

UK Space Agency prioritizes sustainability

The UK Space Agency has a direct message on space sustainability. “We’re going to stop making it worse. And we’re going to start making it better,” Julie Black, UK Space Agency director of missions and capability for discovery and sustainability, said June 13 at the Secure World Foundation’s Space Sustainability Summit. Toward that goal, the UK Space Agency is continuing to encourage and prioritize space sustainability, both domestically and internationally. “A cross-agency space sustainability program is designed to mitigate the risks caused by space debris and promote the responsible use of space through a combination of regulation, standards development technology development, and national and international missions,” Black said. For example, the UK divisions of Japan-based Astroscale and Switzerland-based ClearSpace are conducting design studies for a UK mission in 2026 to deorbit a piece of UK space debris. “Crucially, at the end of that mission, the service that will be refuelable and will be ready to be used again,” Black said. In 2028 the UK plans to send a satellite to repair, replenish or refuel a UK spacecraft. And by the end of the decade, the UK intends “to have developed orbital assembly or manufacturing, where we’re using the spacecraft previously launched to remove debris or perform the servicing mission,” Black said. Investing in companies working to address space sustainability through innovation is a UK Space Agency priority, Black said.

An artistic impression of ClearSpace's servicer approaching its target, the upper part of a Vespa (Vega Secondary Payload Adapter) left after a 2013 launch. Credit: ClearSpace

Space Surveillance and Tracking

For the first time, the UK is establishing a space surveillance and tracking service for UK-licensed satellite operators. The service will warn operators of potential collisions so they can maneuver as necessary.

International partnerships with the European Space Agency and global organizations will help the UK achieve its space sustainability goals, Black said.

The UK intends to “be a thought leader by championing change, but we just can’t do that alone,” Black said. “We’re here to work together as sustainability champions to take collective action now, to mitigate the effects reduce the burden on future generations and ultimately, to ensure the safe and responsible use of space.”

Air Force orders a Viasat-3 terminal to demonstrate space relay service

The Air Force Research Laboratory has ordered a Viasat-3 space terminal that will be used to demonstrate communications services for low-Earth orbit spacecraft. Viasat will deliver a space-qualified Ka-band terminal that will be launched to orbit on a LEO satellite and serve as a data communications relay to the ViaSat-3 network. AFRL will use the terminal for high data rate LEO-to-GEO communications, said Lt. Col. David Johnson, head of the lab’s Integrated Experiments and Evaluations Division. Viasat received a $10 million task order from AFRL for the Viasat-3 space terminal, Johnson said in a statement to SpaceNews. The task order is part of a seven-year contract worth up to $50 million that AFRL awarded Viasat in 2020 for satellite communications technologies and services. Satellite operator Viasat on April 30 launched the first of three planned Viasat-3 Ka-band broadband satellites.

Data transfer via Viasat-3

LEO satellites that collect Earth observation data, for example, would use Viasat’s space relay service to send data through the Viasat-3 high-throughput satellite.

“Having the persistent capability to communicate to LEO spacecraft by relaying through a constellation of spacecraft in geosynchronous Earth orbit can enable the ability to maintain almost near constant communication with those LEO spacecraft,” Johnson said.

The relay service using the Viasat-3 satellite, “once proven, would enable reduced response time for mission-tasking or spacecraft anomalies and frees up bandwidth on government ground communications assets,” he said.

AFRL’s project, Johnson said, is “focused on providing 24-7 persistent command and control capabilities to LEO spacecraft by utilizing GEO constellations that are always in view of ground stations.”

Viasat in a June 7 news release said the AFRL mission will be the first pathfinder demonstration of the company’s space relay service expected to become available in late 2025.

In addition to a Ka-band space relay payload, Viasat will provide engineering analysis, integration and test support for the on-orbit demonstration.

Craig Miller, president of Viasat Government Systems, said this “real-time space relay capability will offer an efficient method of moving LEO satellite data to the ground for operations.”

Ursa Major confirms layoffs: ‘Necessary workforce reductions’

Rocket propulsion startup Ursa Major confirmed on June 9 that it has laid off workers as it reorganizes the company. Ursa Major is a venture-funded maker of rocket engines for small and medium launch vehicles. The company was founded in 2015 and manufacturers engines in Berthoud, Colorado. The company has won several U.S. Air Force contracts to support the development of its liquid engine for hypersonic and small launch vehicles. CNBC reported on Friday that 27% of the company’s 250-employee workforce was laid off. A spokesperson for Ursa Major told the company could not confirm the number of layoffs but said the management is “reorganizing the company and realigning our workforce to better meet the needs of our national security customers.” “As part of this realignment, we made some necessary workforce reductions to reallocate and focus on our priorities,” the spokesperson said. “While we cannot discuss the number of reductions made as part of the reorganization, we do want to acknowledge contributions of every current and former Ursa Major professional.” No engine programs will be terminated as a result of this reorganization, the spokesperson said.

 

Drop in venture investment

Layoffs in the space industry have been expected as investment in the sector has fallen in recent quarters due to factors such as the rise in interest rates and the poor performance of some companies. A recent report by Space Capital calculated that $2.2 billion was invested in space companies in the first quarter of 2023, the lowest quarterly total by its metrics since 2015.

Ursa Major CEO Joe Laurienti has said the company is producing about 30 Hadley engines a year for the U.S. Air Force and several commercial customers, including small launcher startup Phantom Space and Stratolaunch.

The Air Force Research Laboratory is supporting the development of Arroway, a reusable liquid oxygen and methane staged combustion engine for medium and heavy launch vehicles, expected to hotfire in 2025.

The engine was introduced in August 2022 with the goal of supporting next-generation heavy launch.