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Category: satellites

The lies cost NASA more than $700 million and years of scientific work.

On Tuesday, NASA revealed that aluminum manufacturer Sapa Profiles, Inc. (SPI) “altered test results and provided false certifications” for materials used in the rockets, causing their fairings not to separate as designed.

“For nearly 20 years, Sapa Profiles and Sapa Extrusions [SPI’s corporate parent] falsified critical tests on the aluminum they sold — tests that their customers, including the U.S. government, depended on to ensure the reliability of the aluminum they purchased,” Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski said in an April 23 statement.

SPI has agreed to pay $46 million to NASA, the Department of Defense, and others. But according to LSP Director Jim Norman, that’s just a fraction of the damage caused by the manufacturer’s actions.

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Southwest Research Institute has developed a cyber security system to test for vulnerabilities in automated vehicles and other technologies that use GPS receivers for positioning, navigation and timing.

“This is a legal way for us to improve the cyber resilience of autonomous vehicles by demonstrating a transmission of spoofed or manipulated GPS signals to allow for analysis of system responses,” said Victor Murray, head of SwRI’s Cyber Physical Systems Group in the Intelligent Systems Division.

GPS spoofing is a malicious attack that broadcasts incorrect signals to deceive GPS receivers, while GPS manipulation modifies a real GPS signal. GPS satellites orbiting the Earth pinpoint physical locations of GPS receivers embedded in everything from smartphones to and aircraft. SwRI designed the new tool to meet United States federal regulations. Testing for GPS vulnerabilities in a mobile environment had previously been difficult because federal law prohibits over-the-air re-transmission of GPS signals without prior authorization.

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Commercial space companies are cropping up left and right in China.

Two Chinese launch startups have successfully tested and demonstrated rockets that set the groundwork for future reusable launch vehicle technology, SpaceNews reports.

China decided to open up the launch of small satellites to private companies in 2014 and at least 15 SpaceX-like startups, according to Reuters, have emerged as a result.

Orbit and Beyond

Space Transportation, a Chinese startup that was founded last year, launched an 8,100 pound hypersonic aircraft it developed with Xiamen University during an April 22 test flight. The craft reached an altitude of 16 miles and was later recovered after landing in a predetermined spot.

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SpaceX is half a day away from the planned launch debut of Falcon Heavy Block 5, a milestone that will also be the rocket’s second launch ever and first mission with a commercial payload.

First and foremost, Falcon Heavy’s job is to safely place the Saudi Arabian communications satellite Arabsat 6A into a high-energy geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) more than 35,000 km (~22,000 mi) above Earth’s surface. Despite the satellite weighing no less than 6000 kg (13,200 lb), Falcon Heavy will still have enough latent performance to attempt the recovery of all three of its new Block 5 boosters. With any luck, this will hopefully return SpaceX’s East Coast landing zones (LZ-1 and LZ-2) to successful operations after an anomaly in December 2018 caused Falcon 9 B1051 to landing a mile or so offshore.

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COLORADO SPRINGS — Blue Origin wants the U.S. Air Force to wait until 2021 before picking the two companies it intends use for launching critical military satellites in the decade ahead.

The Air Force, however, aims to solicit proposals this spring and choose its two preferred launch providers in 2020 — perhaps a year or more before the new rockets that the Air Force is fostering at Blue Origin, United Launch Alliance and Northrop Grumman make their first flights.

All three companies were chosen in October by the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center to share $2.3 billion in so-called Launch Service Agreement (LSA) funding to support development of next-generation rockets capable of meeting the military’s satellite launch needs.

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COLORADO SPRINGS – Made in Space unveiled a product April 8 to help customers conduct interferometry missions on small satellites.

Possible applications for the new product, Optimast-Structurally Connected Interferometer (Optimast-SCI) include space situational awareness and detection of near-Earth objects, Andrew Rush, Made In Space president and chief executive, told SpaceNews.

Traditional space-based interferometry missions bring along large deployable structures to separate their telescopes or other instruments. Hinges and mechanical systems on the deployable structures allow them to be folded in launch fairings and extended in orbit.

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Want one more option for home internet? Today it was announced that Amazon is planning to launch 3,236 satellites to build a network to provide global high-speed internet. Unlike current satellite internet, these devices will be in a far lower orbit and offer far faster speeds compared to current sa…

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