Expedition Space: Space Launch, Events, News

A mere 46 million light-years distant, spiral galaxy NGC 2841 can be found in planet Earth's night sky toward the northern constellation of Ursa Major. This sharp image centered on the gorgeous island universe also captures spiky foreground Milky Way stars and more distant background galaxies within the same telescopic field of view. It shows off the bright nucleus of NGC 2841, along with its inclined galactic disk, and faint outer regions. Dust lanes, small star-forming regions, and young star clusters are embedded in the galaxy's patchy, tightly wound spiral arms. In contrast, many other spirals exhibit broader, sweeping arms with large star-forming regions. NGC 2841 has a diameter of over 150,000 light-years, making it even larger than our own Milky Way. X-ray images suggest that extreme outflows from giant stars and stellar explosions create plumes of hot gas extending into a halo around NGC 2841. via NASA https://ift.tt/HDshMQ9

Massive stars can blow bubbles. The featured image shows perhaps the most famous of all star-bubbles, NGC 7635, also known simply as The Bubble Nebula. Although it looks delicate, the 7-light-year diameter bubble offers evidence of violent processes at work. Above and left of the Bubble's center is a hot, O-type star, several hundred thousand times more luminous and some 45-times more massive than the Sun. A fierce stellar wind and intense radiation from that star has blasted out the structure of glowing gas against denser material in a surrounding molecular cloud. The intriguing Bubble Nebula and associated cloud complex lie a mere 7,100 light-years away toward the boastful constellation Cassiopeia. This sharp, tantalizing view of the cosmic bubble is a reprocessed composite of previously acquired Hubble Space Telescope image data. via NASA https://ift.tt/XQfAkwx

by Liz Pillow Overnight, or so it seems, space has become “red-hot,” facilitating new financing and exit options for space entrepreneurs and investors. A frequent question is whether this change in market sentiment is a flash in the pan or the beginning of a new, sustainable era? If the former, investors and executives would be well-advised to hastily run for the exit while the gates are still open. If the latter, then the space, the final frontier, is at last open for business. A QUICK REWIND … Since its birth nearly 70 years ago, the space sector has depended almost entirely on government support, supplemented by limited corporate investment and practically no venture or private investment. This dynamic was upended in the 1990s, with numerous telecom and defense companies leading the charge to develop new rockets, broadband GEO satellites, and constellations of LEO satellites. The spectacular demise of this effort at the turn of the last century (epitomized by the bankruptcy of...

by Jason Rainbow TAMPA, Fla. — Lithuanian nanosatellite maker Nanoavionics is moving into the heavier microsatellite market as it looks to grow fivefold by 2025. Vytenis Buzas, CEO of NanoAvionics, claims its 50-kilogram-plus ‘MP42’ product will be the microsat industry’s first commercially available modular bus. The company said last August its modular approach for small satellite buses ranging from 12 to 35 kilograms helped triple revenues over the previous 12 months .  After expanding from 30 people to more than 100 since moving from cubesats to larger nanosatellite-class spacecraft around 2017, Buzas has high hopes for its larger and more capable MP42 bus. “It will enable a large number of organisations to enter and benefit from the space market previously prevented by barriers in the microsat segment such as cost, lack of modularity, mechanical restraints and suitable mission operations,” Buzas said in a published statement. “Their high-end applications and mega const...

by Brian Berger NASA astronauts (from left) Jessica Meir, Joseph Acaba, Jessica Watkins, Matthew Dominick and Anne McClain discuss being part of the Artemis Team of astronauts after the Dec. 9. 2020, meeting of the National Space Council. Credit: NASA TV O n April 2, 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower called on Congress to form the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The Soviet Union was succeeding in the space domain, and President Eisenhower knew it was imperative the United States win the space race or face severe national security consequences. Congress met that call 12 days later when both the Senate and House of Representatives introduced legislation that would create today’s NASA. Almost a decade after President Eisenhower made that initial call to action, Neil Armstrong was taking his giant leap for all mankind.   We have now entered a new space race for the moon and beyond. Russia and China have stepped into the arena, with both countries recent...

by Sandra Erwin WASHINGTON — Lockheed Martin announced March 23 it has signed an agreement with Omnispace to share business and technical information on the deployment of 5G networking technology in space. Virginia-based Omnispace is developing a hybrid space and ground network to provide 5G and internet of things services. Lockheed Martin said the “strategic interest agreement” with Omnispace does not involve any financial investment and is intended to explore joint development of 5G mobile broadband capability from space.   Lockheed Martin, the nation’s largest military contractor, is interested in applying commercial broadband and wireless technologies for government use. The ability to transmit large amounts of data at high speeds and low latency is one capability that Lockheed Martin wants to bring to the government market .   Omnispace is targeting markets like agriculture, mining and energy, shipping and logistics. 5G satellite connectivity would be a significant...

by Jeff Foust F or Bessemer Venture Partners, March 1 was a red-letter day. Specifically, the letters S, P, A and C. In separate announcements only minutes apart on that Monday morning, two space companies that Bessemer had invested in, Rocket Lab and Spire, announced deals to go public through mergers with special-purpose acquisition corporations, or SPACs. The mergers would provide each company with hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and value them at billions of dollars. That was big news for those companies and for investors like Bessemer, which owns 20.5% of Rocket Lab and 6.5% of Spire. “With Rocket Lab and Spire solving real problems for terrestrial businesses, Bessemer knows they have outgrown venture capital,” said David Cowan, a partner at Bessemer and a member of the board of Rocket Lab. The SPAC boom has reshaped the space startup sector. Until recently, there was plenty of capital flowing into startups, thanks to funds like Bessemer, but few exits: means for ...

by Jeff Foust The wave of deals involving special-purpose acquisition corporations (SPACs ) has grabbed the space industry’s interest in the last few months. It’s also prompted more than a few people to ask: what, exactly, is a SPAC? SPACs are an alternative way for companies to go public. They’re sometimes called “blank check companies,” which is an apt description. A SPAC forms and goes public through a traditional initial public offering. The SPAC uses the proceeds of that IPO to merge with a private company, allowing it to go public without itself going through a lengthy IPO process. A SPAC typically has two years to complete a deal or return its proceeds to shareholders. SPACs are not new, having been used since the 1990s. Virgin Galactic, which kicked off the latest surge in SPACs in 2019, is not even the first space company to go public via a SPAC: Iridium went public by merging with a SPAC in 2009. However, SPACs are soared in popularity in the last year thanks to the spee...

by Jeff Foust WASHINGTON — Canadian space technology company MDA Ltd. filed paperwork March 22 for an initial public offering of stock, raising funding to pay down its debt and invest in new projects. In a filing with Canadian securities regulators, MDA announced its intent to raise $500 million Canadian ($397 million U.S.) in an IPO, valuing the company at more than $2.2 billion. The company’s intent to file for an IPO was first reported last week by The Globe and Mail . MDA became an independent company last April when its sale to a group of investors led by Canadian private equity firm Northern Private Capital, announced in December 2019 , closed. That group paid $1 billion Canadian to Maxar to acquire its historically Canadian business units, best known for the Radarsat series of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites and the Canadarm robotic arms used on the space shuttle and International Space Station. In its preliminary prospectus, MDA said it would use $340 million of...

Why are these large stones here? One the more famous stone circles is the Duddo Five Stones of Northumberland, England. Set in the open near the top of a modest incline, a short hike across empty fields will bring you to unusual human -sized stones that are unlike anything surrounding them. The grooved, pitted, and deeply weathered surfaces of the soft sandstones are consistent with being placed about 4000 years ago -- but placed for reasons now unknown. The featured image -- a composite of two consecutive images taken from the same location -- was captured last October under a starry sky when the Earth was passing near Mars, making the red planet unusually large and bright. Mars remains visible at sunset, although increasingly close to the horizon over the next few months. via NASA https://ift.tt/3lIymH7

by Jeff Foust WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab launched six smallsats for a variety of commercial and government customers March 22 on a mission also intended to demonstrate the performance of its own smallsat bus. The company’s Electron rocket lifted off from Launch Complex 1 at Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand, at 6:30 p.m. Eastern. The rocket deployed its kick stage eight and a half minutes after liftoff and, after a 40-minute coast, fired its Curie engine for nearly two minutes. Four minutes later, it deployed five payloads into a 550-kilometer circular orbit inclined at 45 degrees. The kick stage performed two more firings of its Curie engine before releasing the sixth payload into a 450-kilometer orbit 1 hour and 49 minutes after liftoff. The largest payload on the launch was a Gen-2 satellite for satellite imaging company BlackSky, the seventh in that series of spacecraft that produce high-resolution imagery. It was the satellite deployed to the lower orbit. The launch also carried tw...

by Sandra Erwin WASHINGTON — Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, said the Space Force is making progress in the organization of its acquisition office and expects to see new proposals to accelerate acquisition programs.   Rogers told reporters March 22 that Chief of Space Operations Gen. John Raymond brought in veteran space procurement expert Ellen Pawlikowski to help set up the service’s acquisition organization. Congress directed the Department of the Air Force to stand up a separate civilian acquisition executive for space by 2022.   Pawlikowski is a retired four-star general who ran the Air Force Materiel Command, the Space and Missile Systems Center and held senior posts at the National Reconnaissance Office and the Air Force Research Laboratory. “I was very happy that General Raymond brought in retired general Ellen Pawlikowski to help from the ground up,” said Rogers.   The Space Force last year planned to s...

by SpaceNews Inside the March 15th issue: * The State of Space Finance * SPAC – Can you still spell space without SPAC * M&A Space merger boom appears right on time * In there still space for export credit agencies Download the March 15th issue Not a subscriber? Sign up today  to help support the industry’s trusted source of independent space journalism. SpaceNews from SpaceNews https://ift.tt/3se4mFw