TYB
How they Cheated with Jovan Pulitzer | The Roseanne Barr Podcast #62
Aug 22, 2024
Jovan Pulitzer is an American patriot and amazingly successful entrepreneur who has personally put his own millions on the line to prove that Joe Biden stole the election in 2020.
He used his connections and tech savvy to organize and run the forensic audit of Arizona in 2020. Jovan discusses how democrats and even republicans slow rolled and sabotaged the audit. He lays out just how they used disinformation, sneaky language, lawfare and misinformation to throw Americans off of their scent. This is the single most important episode that we have ever done. And, most importantly he lays out a plan on how we can prevent them from doing it again in 2024.
https://rumble.com/v5bzzd1-how-they-cheated-with-jovan-pulitzer-the-roseanne-barr-podcast-62.html?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83krSAxLWuU
Thanks a bunch.
It was my fault, didn't see your last call until after the final.
I would've dragged it over here, you're busy enough imo.
Hubble Reaches a Lonely Light in the Dark
Aug 23, 2024
A splatter of stars glows faintly at almost 3 million light-years away in this new image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.
Known as the Tucana Dwarf for lying in the constellation Tucana, this dwarf galaxy contains a loose bundle of aging stars at the far edge of the Local Group, an aggregation of galaxies including our Milky Way, bound together by gravity.
The Tucana Dwarf was discovered in 1990 by R.J. Lavery, the same year Hubble launched.
What makes the Tucana Dwarf distinct from other dwarf galaxies comes in two parts: its classification, and its isolation.
As a dwarf spheroidal galaxy, it is much smaller and less luminous than most other dwarf galaxies.
Dust is sparse and the stellar population skews towards the older range, giving them a dimmer look.
Additionally, the Tucana Dwarf lies about 3.6 million light-years from the Local Group’s center of mass, far from the Milky Way and other galaxies.
It is only one of two dwarf spheroidal galaxies in the Local Group to be this remote, making astronomers theorize that a close encounter with a larger galactic neighbor called Andromeda slingshotted it into the distance about 11 billion years ago.
Having such pristine properties enables scientists to use the Tucana Dwarf as a cosmic fossil.
Dwarf galaxies could be the early ingredients for larger galaxies, and with older stars residing in such an isolated environment, analyzing them can help trace galaxy formation back to the dawn of time.
For that reason, Hubble reached far across the Local Group using the capabilities of the Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 to meet this distant, lonely galaxy.
Examining its structure, composition, and star formation history sheds light on the epoch of reionization, when the first stars and galaxies arose from the dark billions of years ago.
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/hubble-reaches-a-lonely-light-in-the-dark/
"Native Terror"
NASA’s EXCITE Mission Prepared for Scientific Balloon Flight
Aug 22, 2024
Scientists and engineers are ready to fly an infrared mission called EXCITE (EXoplanet Climate Infrared TElescope) to the edge of space.
EXCITE is designed to study atmospheres around exoplanets, or worlds beyond our solar system, during circumpolar long-duration scientific balloon flights.
But first, it must complete a test flight during NASA’s fall 2024 scientific ballooning campaign from Fort Sumner, New Mexico.
“EXCITE can give us a three-dimensional picture of a planet’s atmosphere and temperature by collecting data the whole time the world orbits its star,” said Peter Nagler, the mission’s principal investigator at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
“Only a handful of these types of measurements have been done before.
They require a very stable telescope in a position to track a planet for several days at a time.”
EXCITE will study hot Jupiters, giant gas exoplanets that complete an orbit once every one to two days and have temperatures in the thousands of degrees.
The worlds are tidally locked, which means the same side always faces the star.
The telescope will observe how heat is distributed across the planet, from the scalding hemisphere facing the star to the relatively cooler nightside.
It will also determine how molecules in a world’s atmosphere absorb and emit light over the entire orbit, a process called phase-resolved spectroscopy.
Not only can this data reveal the presence of compounds — like water, methane, carbon dioxide, and others — but also how they circulate globally as the planet orbits its star.
NASA’s Hubble, James Webb, and retired Spitzer space telescopes have collected a handful of these measurements between them.
In 2014, for example, Hubble and Spitzer observed an exoplanet called WASP-43 b. To collect data over the world’s 22-hour day, scientists needed 60 hours of Hubble time and 46 hours from Spitzer.
Resource-intensive studies like this on space-based observatories are difficult.
Time is a limited resource, and studies must compete with hundreds of other requests for that time.
“During its first science flight, EXCITE aims to fly for over a dozen days from the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility’s site in Antarctica,” said Kyle Helson, an EXCITE team member and a research scientist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and NASA Goddard.
“And at the pole, the stars we’ll study don’t set, so our observations won’t be interrupted.
We hope that the mission will effectively double the number of phase-resolved spectra available to the science community.”
EXCITE will fly to about 132,000 feet (40 kilometers) via a scientific balloon filled with helium. That takes it above 99.5% of Earth’s atmosphere.
At that altitude, the telescope will be able to observe multiple infrared wavelengths with little interference.
“The telescope collects the infrared light and beams it into the spectrometer, where it kind of goes through a little obstacle course,” said Lee Bernard, an EXCITE team member and a graduate research assistant at Arizona State University in Tempe.
“It bounces off mirrors and through a prism before reaching the detector. Everything must be aligned very precisely — just a few millimeters off center and the light won’t make it.”
The spectrometer rests inside a vessel called a cryostat situated behind the telescope. The cryostat cools the spectrometer’s detector — once a flight candidate from Webb'sNIRSpec (Near InfraRed Spectrograph)— to about 350 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (minus 210 degrees Celsius) so it can measure tiny intensity changes in the infrared light.
The entire telescope and cryostat assembly rests in a rowboat-shaped base where it can rotate along three axes to maintain stable pointing down to 50 milliarcseconds.
That’s like holding a steady gaze on a U.S. quarter coin from 65 miles away.
“Several different institutions contributed to EXCITE’s subsystems,” said Tim Rehm, an EXCITE team member and a graduate research assistant at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.
“It’s great to see them all assembled and working together. We’re excited to do this test flight, and we’re looking forward to all the future science flights we hope to have.”
The EXCITE instrument was primarily built by NASA Goddard, Brown, Arizona State University, and StarSpec Technologies in Ontario, with additional support from collaborators in the U.S., Canada, Italy, and the United Kingdom.
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/scientific-balloons/nasas-excite-mission-prepared-for-scientific-balloon-flight/
https://www.csbf.nasa.gov/
Leadership to Discuss NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test
Aug 22, 2024
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and leadership will hold an internal Agency Test Flight Readiness Review on Saturday, Aug. 24, for NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test.
About an hour later, NASA will host a live news conference at 1 p.m. EDT from the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Watch the media event on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website.
Learn how to stream NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.
Media interested in attending the news conference must contact the newsroom at NASA Johnson no later than 1 p.m., Friday, Aug. 23, at 281-483-5111 or jsccommu@mail.nasa.gov.
Media participating by phone must RSVP no later than one hour prior to the start of the event. A copy of NASA’s media accreditation policy is online.
NASA and Boeing have gathered data, both in space and on the ground, regarding the Starliner spacecraft’s propulsion and helium systems to better understand the ongoing technical challenges.
The review will include a mission status update, review of technical data and closeout actions, as well as certify flight rationale to proceed with undocking and return from the space station.
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/leadership-to-discuss-nasas-boeing-crew-flight-test/
https://plus.nasa.gov/scheduled-video/nasas-boeing-crew-flight-test-status-news-conference/
Sunrise Begins
Aug 22, 2024
NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick captured the start of this orbital sunrise on Aug. 15, 2024, while aboard the International Space Station.
Crew members aboard the orbital lab have produced hundreds of thousands of images of the land, oceans, and atmosphere of Earth, and even of the Moon through Crew Earth Observations.
Their photographs of Earth record how the planet changes over time due to human activity and natural events.
This allows scientists to monitor disasters and direct response on the ground and study a number of phenomena, from the movement of glaciers to urban wildlife.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/sunrise-begins/
https://x.com/dominickmatthew
200 meteorites on Earth traced to 5 craters on Mars
August 23, 2024
Believe it or not, debris from Mars has frequently made its way to Earth after powerful impacts hit the Red Planet's surface and launch it into space.
There have been at least 10 of these meteorite-forming events in Mars' recent history.
When these massive impacts occur, meteorites can be flung away from the Red Planet with enough velocity that they break free of Mars' gravitational pull to enter orbit around the sun, with some eventually falling to Earth.
Scientists at the University of Alberta have now traced the origins of 200 of these meteorites to five impact craters in two volcanic regions on Mars, known as Tharsis and Elysium.
"Now, we can group these meteorites by their shared history and then their location on the surface prior to coming to Earth," said Chris Herd, curator of the university's meteorite collection and professor in the faculty of science, in a statement.
Meteorites fall to Earth all the time — an estimated 48.5 tons (44,000 kilograms) of meteorite material falls each day, according to NASA — though the majority make it to the surface as tiny unnoticeable particles of dust.
Determining their origins can often be difficult, but in the 1980s, scientists became suspicious of a group of meteorites that appeared to have volcanic origins with ages of 1.3 billion years.
This meant that these rocks had to have come from a celestial body with recent (in geological terms) volcanic activity, making Mars a likely candidate.
However, proof came when NASA's Viking landers were able to compare the composition of Mars' atmosphere with trapped gases found in these rocks.
Identifying exactly from where on Mars they originated was previously difficult to do.
The team noted in their paper that this difficulty arose from using a technique called spectral matching, a technique used to identify and compare the composition of materials by analyzing the patterns of light they absorb or emit.
However, this method is limited by factors such as terrain variability and extensive dust cover, which can skew spectral signals, especially on younger terrains like Tharsis and Elysium.
But knowing exactly where these Martian meteorites came from would allow scientists to better piece together the planet's geological past.
"[It would] enable the recalibration of Mars' chronology, with implications for the timing, duration and nature of a wide range of major events through Martian history," said Herd.
"I call that the missing link — to be able to say, for example, the conditions under which this meteorite was ejected were met by an impact event that produced craters between 10 and 30 kilometres across."
The team combined high-resolution simulations of impacts into a Mars-like planet.
"One of the major advances here is being able to model the ejection process, and from that process be able to determine the crater size or range of crater sizes that ultimately could have ejected that particular group of meteorites, or even that one particular meteorite," said Herd.
The model's output allowed the team to determine the impact events' "peak shock pressures" and the duration the rocks were exposed to these pressures.
This can be determined from "shock features" observed in the meteorites—for example, unique mineral changes, impact glass, and special fracture patterns.
From this data, Herd and his colleagues were able to estimate the size of the impact craters that could have launched the meteorites, as well as how deep the rocks were buried before the impact.
Although these depth estimates come with some uncertainty, the researchers compared them with the local geology of possible source craters and the characteristics and ages of the meteorites to see if they align.
"[Our modelling approach] allows us to say, of all these potential craters, we can narrow them down to 15, and then from the 15 we can narrow them down even further based on specific meteorite characteristics," he said.
"We can maybe even reconstruct the volcanic stratigraphy [the geological record], the position of all these rocks, before they got blasted off the surface."
This could help the scientists better understand when volcanic events on Mars occurred, the different sources of Martian magma, and how quickly craters formed during an era of low meteorite bombardment on the Red Planet known as the Amazonian period, some 3 billion years ago.
"It is really amazing if you think about it," Herd added.
"It's the closest thing we can have to actually going to Mars and picking up a rock."
https://www.space.com/mars-meteorites-5-craters-tharsis-elysium
https://www.space.com/trappist-1-history-orbital-resonance
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-024-02342-4
Why the 7 worlds of TRAPPIST-1 waltz in peculiar patterns
August 23, 2024
Scientists may have finally revealed the history of the tantalizing TRAPPIST-1 system, an intricate collection of seven worlds that sit about 40 light-years away from us.
These worlds, many astronomers and astrobiologists say, may offer us a promising chance of finding life outside the solar system — but they also exhibit peculiar orbital patterns.
The newly outlined history of TRAPPIST-1 may, at last, explain how those patterns came to be.
When planets form around a young star, their orbital periods often enter "resonances" with each other.
An everyday example of a resonance has to do with pushing someone on a playground swing — if you time the push to coincide with the natural frequency of the swing, such as when the swing is just about to go back down, your push would amplify the size of the swing's arc.
Similarly, planets often find themselves in resonances with each other. For example, an inner planet can orbit exactly twice for every one orbit of an outer planet.
This is a 2:1 resonance, and like pushing a child on a swing amplifies how fast they swing, the exchange of gravitational energy between resonant planets usually makes their orbits unstable, amplifying orbital periods until the planets eventually move out of resonance with one another. Another common planetary resonance is 3:2.
For the above reason, planetary resonances often become unstable over time, such as in our solar system — but not always.
Some planetary systems manage to keep their resonance patterns, and TRAPPIST-1 is one of those systems.
Systems with stable resonances are no doubt aided by how compact the system is; TRAPPIST-1's seven worlds are spread across less than 8 million kilometers, and they would all easily fit inside the orbit of Mercury multiple times over.
TRAPPIST-1's outer three planets — designated f, g and h — are in a chain of 3:2 resonances.
"The outer planets behave properly, so to speak, with the simpler expected resonances," said Gabriele Pichierri, who is a planetary scientist at Caltech, in a statement.
"But the inner ones have resonances that are a bit spicier."
For example, the orbital periods of the two innermost planets, b and c, are in an 8:5 resonance, meaning planet b orbits eight times for every five orbits of planet c. Meanwhile, planets c and d are in a 5:3 resonance.
So, how did these complex arrangements arise?
Pichierri is the lead author of a new research paper that delves into the early history of TRAPPIST-1 to discover how its planets wound up in this delicate configuration.
The crew found a story of a shifting protoplanetary disk of gas and dust combined with powerful torques that pushed the planets around.
The innermost planets would have formed first, so Pichierri and his team divided the TRAPPIST-1 system into two sub-groups — the inner planets b, c, d and e, and the outer planets f, g and h.
(Unlike our solar system, in which the outer planets are gas giants, the outer planets of TRAPPIST-1 are rocky worlds.) Their modeling identified three phases in the evolution of the system.
1/2
Here's what the team found.
In the first phase, the four innermost planets all start life in 3:2 resonances with each other, so b and c are in a 3:2 orbital resonance, as are c and d, and d and e.
As the inner planets formed out of material from the protoplanetary disk, and their burgeoning red dwarf star ignited nuclear fusion in its core and produced radiation that began to dissipate the disk, the inner edge of the disk would have receded outwards.
In the second phase, planet e, anchored in the receding inner edge of the disk, would have found itself being dragged outwards, away from planets b, c and d and towards the worlds forming in the outer part of the system. This had the effect of causing the orbits of planets b, c and d to waver, and they crossed through the 8:5 and 5:3 resonances as their orbital periods widened, but were then pushed back via a gravitational torque (a twisting, rotational force) from the outer system, until they settled into the 8:5 and 5:3 resonances that they have today.
What of planet e, though? By the final phase, the three outer worlds had formed.
Often, when planets form in a protoplanetary disk, they shed orbital angular momentum, exchanging this angular momentum with the disk that they are accreting material from in order to grow.
This results in them migrating towards the inner edge of the disk. In the TRAPPIST-1 system, this likely had the effect of pushing planet e back, until the inner and outer parts of the planetary system settled into the configuration that they are in today.
"By looking at TRAPPIST-1, we have been able to test exciting new hypotheses for the evolution of planetary systems," said Pichierri.
"TRAPPIST-1 is very interesting because it is so intricate: it’s a long planetary chain, and it’s a great exemplar for testing alternative theories about planetary system formation."
The research was published on Aug. 20 in the journal Nature Astronomy.
2/2
Amazon expands Kennedy Space Center facility to accelerate satellite deployments
August 22, 2024
Amazon is investing $19.5 million to expand its satellite processing facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Florida, to mitigate delays in deploying its 3,200-strong Project Kuiper broadband constellation.
The company said Aug. 22 the investment will support a secondary, 3,900-square-meter support facility at the site, which would help accelerate launch cadence amid a looming regulatory deadline to deploy half the constellation by July 2026.
The building would join a 9,300-square-meter satellite processing facility Amazon announced last year at Kennedy’s runway-equipped Launch and Landing Facility, bringing total investment in the site to nearly $140 million.
Space Florida, the state’s aerospace finance and development authority, has agreed to reimburse Amazon for up to $3.2 million in construction costs.
Amazon said in a blog post that it expects construction for the second facility to be completed in early 2025.
An Amazon spokesperson said building the primary payload facility remains on track to finish this year.
The company would use the two buildings to store and perform final preparations for satellites produced from its manufacturing hub in Kirkland, Washington, which opened in April.
The Kirkland factory is designed to produce five satellites per day at peak capacity, and most of them would be sent to Florida to launch “dozens” at a time.
In June, Amazon said its first batch of production Project Kuiper satellites are set to launch from Florida on an Atlas V rocket from United Launch Alliance (ULA) in the last three months of this year.
The company, which had planned to deploy these satellites in the first half of 2024 after its two prototypes aced in-orbit tests, said the delay pushed initial services into the next year.
Amazon has bought eight Atlas Vs from ULA and 38 of its next-generation Vulcan Centaur rockets as part of a multibillion-dollar launch roster that also includes 18 Ariane 6 rockets from Arianespace, up to 27 New Glenn missions from Blue Origin and three SpaceX Falcon 9s.
Unlike the rest, Ariane 6 would use Arianespace’s facilities at the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana to launch Project Kuiper satellites.
Europe’s next-generation launcher reached orbit July 9 during its long-awaited inaugural flight, but experienced an issue with the power unit needed to reignite its upper stage.
Still, Arianespace aims to fly Ariane 6 again later this year in a mission for a military satellite.
New Glenn recently suffered two mishaps involving its first stage, Bloomberg reported Aug. 21, although it is unclear whether they affected plans for its maiden flight this fall.
Vulcan has not flown since its maiden mission in January.
ULA plans to fly an inert payload on its second Vulcan in September, following delays with Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser cargo spaceplane, and has two national security missions booked for the rocket by the end of this year.
The next Vulcan launch after that is scheduled late in the first quarter of 2025 for an undisclosed payload.
ULA used Atlas V to launch Amazon’s two Project Kuiper prototypes last year, but had previously planned to use Vulcan’s debut flight before switching rockets to avoid further delays.
At one point, Amazon had aimed to fly its test satellites in 2022 with rocket developer ABL Space Systems.
Amazon is investing in infrastructure and service upgrades at Cape Canaveral as part of its launch agreement with ULA, including a second vertical integration facility (VIF) dedicated to Project Kuiper missions.
Construction for the second VIF, dubbed VIF-A, is slated to be completed in early 2025, enabling ULA to prepare for two Vulcan missions simultaneously.
Amazon has outlined around $10 billion in overall investment to get Project Kuiper off the ground.
Under deployment rules tied to Amazon’s Federal Communications Commission license, the company must deploy all the constellation’s satellites in low Earth orbit by July 2029.
https://spacenews.com/amazon-expands-kennedy-space-center-facility-to-accelerate-satellite-deployments/
Norwegian spaceport receives government license
August 22, 2024
A Norwegian spaceport is a step closer to hosting the first orbital launch for Isar Aerospace after receiving a government license.
Andøya Spaceport announced Aug. 22 that it received a license from Norway’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries that allows it to conduct launches from the site, located on the island of Andøya north of the Arctic Circle.
The spaceport will be the initial launch site for Isar Aerospace, the German company developing the Spectrum small launch vehicle.
The spaceport formally marked completion of the pad that Spectrum will launch from last November.
“There is a huge team effort behind the work to get this license in place.
Ever since 2018, our team has been building the foundation that now enables launch of satellites from Norwegian soil,” said Lasse Berg, interim president of Andøya Spaceport, in a statement.
According to a statement from the Norwegian ministry, the license allows the spaceport to conduct up to 30 launches a year, including four during overnight hours.
Those launches, to be overseen by the Civil Aviation Authority of Norway, can take place on azimuths between 280 and 360 degrees, supporting missions primarily to polar and sun-synchronous orbits.
“The first satellite launch from Andøya will be a historic moment for Norway as a space nation.
Norway will have a capacity that few other countries have, and which will be of great use not only for Norway, but also for our allies and partners in the EU and NATO,” Cecilie Myrseth, the country’s industry minister, said in a translated statement.
Andøya Spaceport said that with its license now in hand, Isar Aerospace will be able to proceed with final tests of its vehicle, including hotfire tests of the stages, before a first launch.
The spaceport did not provide a schedule for those tests or when it anticipated a first launch.
Isar Aerospace, which raised 65 million euros ($72 million) in June in an extension of a Series C round led by the NATO Innovation Fund, has also provided few schedule specifics.
“Depending on the outcome of the first and second stage tests, we will approach our first test flight as soon as possible,” a company spokesperson told SpaceNews Aug. 22.
The company offered a similar comment after the funding round in June.
Norway’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries noted in its statement that Isar Aerospace will need its own launch license separate from the spaceport license, and that the Civil Aviation Authority was currently reviewing the company’s license application. It added that the first launch is planned for some time this year.
If that schedule holds, Isar Aerospace could become the first of a group of European startups to at least attempt an orbital launch.
Rocket Factory Augsburg was in line to do so as soon as September, but the company lost its first stage in a static-fire mishap at SaxaVord Spaceport in the Shetland Islands Aug. 19.
https://spacenews.com/norwegian-spaceport-receives-government-license/
NASA adds three companies to launch services contract for smallsat missions
August 22, 2024
NASA added three companies to a contract for launching smallsat missions, including one publicly traded company that has had recent financial struggles.
NASA announced Aug. 22 that it selected Arrow Science and Technology, Impulse Space and Momentus Space for its Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) contract.
That selection allows them to compete for task orders for launching specific missions, typically small satellites willing to accept higher levels of risk in exchange for lower launch costs.
Arrow Science and Technology provides satellite deployment services on other launch vehicles and orbital transfer vehicles.
The company announced Aug. 6 it had acquired Xterra, a developer of satellite deployers, for an undisclosed sum that Arrow said would allow it to provide “comprehensive rideshare services.”
Impulse Space developed the Mira orbital transfer vehicle, launching it on its first mission last year with a second planned for later this year.
The company announced in January it was developing a high-energy kick stage called Helios, and said Aug. 6 it would use that vehicle for a rideshare program to carry payloads to geostationary orbit.
Momentus has launched three of its Vigoride orbital transfer vehicles to date, most recently Vigoride-6 in April 2023 on SpaceX’s Transporter-7 rideshare mission.
It has also launched payloads on other Transporter missions using a standard deployer, although in the most recent such mission on Transporter-9 in November three of the five satellites failed to deploy.
Momentus announced in January that it was delaying the launch of its next tug, Vigoride-7, which was to launch on Transporter-10.
The company said it was postponing the mission while laying off 20% of its staff to reduce expenses.
That came after the company laid off 30% of its staff around the middle of 2023.
Momentus has provided few details about its financial status since then.
The company was late in filing its Form 10-K annual report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, delivering it in June, months behind schedule.
It has also failed to file 10-Q quarterly reports with the SEC for the first and second quarters of 2024.
In an Aug. 15 filing announcing it would not deliver its second quarter 10-Q form on schedule, the company said the document, when ultimately filed, “will reflect certain steps the Company has taken to reduce expenses and financing transactions completed since June 30, 2024” and that its results for the first half of 2024 “will include significant impacts relating to those activities.”
Momentus announced July 18 that it had arranged a loan from an investment firm, Space Infrastructure Ventures, that will allow the company to borrow up to $2.3 million.
The company added that six of its directors and officers also agreed to loan a combined $500,000 to the company.
The company said it would use the funding to support business development efforts, including bidding on satellite programs from the Space Development Agency and Space Systems Command.
Momentus has developed a satellite bus based on its work on Vigoride.
Momentus has not provided an update on when, or if, it will fly Vigoride-7 or any future orbital transfer vehicles.
The company noted in its 10-K filing that Vigoride-7 is complete and Momentus could use it on a future mission, convert it into a satellite bus or sell it to another company.
The selection of three companies that provide rideshare or orbital transfer reflects a continued shift in the VADR program from small launch vehicles to rideshare missions.
Recent task orders awarded as part of VADR have primarily been for rideshare missions, either directly to SpaceX for launches on its missions or to companies like SEOPS, which arranged for the launch of two NASA tech demo cubesats on SpaceX’s Transporter-11 mission that launched Aug. 16.
NASA has used VADR for a few dedicated launches, including one pair of Rocket Lab Electron rockets for launches of the TROPICS cubesats in 2023 and another pair of Electrons for the PREFIRE cubesats earlier this year.
NASA awarded a VADR task order to Blue Origin for the launch of the ESCAPADE Mars mission, currently scheduled to fly on the inaugural flight of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket this fall.
A NASA fact sheet about VADR, though, continues to emphasize the use of small launch vehicles.
That fact sheet, linked to in the NASA press release about the addition of the three companies to the contract, listed five examples of venture-class launch vehicles available for such missions.
https://spacenews.com/nasa-adds-three-companies-to-launch-services-contract-for-smallsat-missions/
Ahead of October Launch, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin Rocket Explodes During Testing
Aug 22, 9:56 AM EDT
Jeff Bezos' rocket venture Blue Origin is tripping over its own feet as it races to meet an October deadline.
The company is still hoping to have its New Glenn orbital rocket ready for NASA's EscaPADE mission, which is scheduled to launch later this year, taking advantage of a rare alignment of the Earth and Mars to launch two spacecraft toward the Red Planet.
The next time the two planets will be this close won't occur for another two years.
But as Bloomberg reports, Blue Origin is facing major setbacks in the development of the 321-foot rocket.
According to the report, an upper rocket portion failed during stress testing and exploded during testing, and a separate portion imploded like a soda can after engineers failed to install the necessary pressure-release valves before moving it from a humid exterior hangar into an air-conditioned space.
The launch platform, designed to compete with SpaceX's Falcon 9 and launch Amazon's Project Kuiper satellite constellation, is already a whopping four years behind schedule.
And given the latest news, it's starting to look increasingly unlikely that New Glenn will be ready to boost NASA's two Mars spacecraft into Earth's orbit in a matter of just two months.
That's despite all the flight hardware being complete, as a Blue Origin spokesperson told Bloomberg.
The company is now working on assembling the various parts and engine integrations.
The company has already experienced other major setbacks, including an engine explosion of its much smaller New Shepard rocket in September 2022, which grounded the space tourist shuttle until December 2023.
Blue Origin has also reshuffled much of its upper management in the midst of the drama, including the appointment of a new CEO in December, Dave Limp, who has since installed several new executives in an apparent attempt to kick the company into high gear. The company is still hiring at a breakneck pace.
But even with a slate of new talent, it's still facing some major technical hurdles, including the much-plagued BE-4 rocket engines that will power its New Glenn rocket.
The engines, which are also being used for the United Launch Alliance's Vulcan rocket, have faced years of delays and were only recently delivered.
With easily avoidable user errors plaguing its rocket's development, Blue Origin is facing a major uphill battle to rise to the occasion — and a lucrative NASA contract hangs in the balance.
Rocket Lab, the maker of the two Mars spacecraft, recently revealed that it had entered "hero mode" to get the probes ready for an October launch.
But whether those efforts will pay off remains to be seen.
https://futurism.com/the-byte/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-rocket-explodes-testing
SpaceWERX announces Program Year 24.2 STRATFI selections at Fed Supernova
Aug. 23, 2024
SpaceWERX, the innovation arm of the U.S. Space Force and a unique division within AFWERX, announced the Program Year 2024.2 Strategic Funding Increase, or STRATFI, contract award selections from its Phase II-eligible applicants at the Fed Supernova conference in Austin, Aug. 22.
SpaceWERX Director Arthur Grijalva made the announcement at the conclusion of the panel titled SpaceWERX STRATFI Successes and Selections, at Capital Factory, the home of AFWERX’s Austin hub.
The panel invited current SpaceWERX STRATFI-contracted companies at various stages in their period of performance to share their experiences with the STRATFI program.
It concluded with a special announcement highlighting the nine PY24.2 SpaceWERX STRATFI selected companies.
“Our growth stage investment programs, STRATFI and Tactical Funding Increase, are central to the AFWERX and SpaceWERX mission of advancing space technologies,” Grijalva said.
“By actively collaborating with Space Force representatives, we are leveraging both government and private investment to rapidly accelerate the development of cutting-edge space capabilities.”
STRATFI is both an AFWERX and SpaceWERX effort to help Small Business Innovation Research, or SBIR, and Small Business Technology Transfer, or STTR, projects overcome the difficult transition between development and full production.
This multi-year infusion of funds gives small businesses an opportunity to find the investors they need and the ability to continue research and development as they march toward full-rate capability.
Funding amounts within the STRATFI program range from $3 million to $15 million for each defense project.
The PY24.2 SpaceWERX STRATFI cohort accounts for a total of $146 million in SBIR/STTR funds, $155 million in government matching funds, and $217 million in private matching funds.
Small businesses that have received a SBIR/STTR Phase II award within the prior 24 months may be eligible to apply for the STRATFI program.
“Accelerating these technologies is crucial for maintaining our advantage in space exploration and defense,” said Daniel Carroll, AFVentures division chief.
“The STRATFI program is propelling these U.S. small company-based innovations from prototypes to operational capabilities."
This year’s SpaceWERX 24.2 STRATFI selections supporting the U.S. Space Force are:
American Lithium Energy, Advanced Nano Si/C Prismatic Cell
Apex Technology, Satellites for Low Earth Orbit and Geostationary Equatorial Orbit Dynamic Space Operations
Impulse Space, Inc., Tactically Responsive High Energy Kick Stage
Inversion Space Company, Arc: In-Space and Re-Entry Vehicle
K2 Space, Mega Class Satellite Bus
Outpost Technologies, Joint Precision Orbital Carryall
Portal Space Systems, Scaled Supernova Spacecraft
Turion Space, Multi-Payload SDA Satellites and Real Time C2
Wildstar, LLC, Next Generation Narrowband Antennas
In addition to the announcement of PY24.2 selected STRATFI companies, the SpaceWERX team also announced a supplemental PY24.1 selection in support of the U.S. Space Force: Nooks, Nooks Shield and speed.
Several selected companies in the PY24.2 cohort started their SBIR journey as part of the SpaceWERX Tactically Responsive Space Challenge in summer 2023.
As a part of this challenge, small businesses were able to submit for a SpaceWERX Open Topic SBIR contract award, with each awarded firm automatically enrolled into the Innovate to Accelerate, or I2A, program as a cohort under the SpaceWERX The Bridge initiative.
Through engagement in the lifecycle of innovation product lines, these cohort companies were provided access to resources, strategic guidance and networking opportunities tailored to their needs that culminated in a capstone event dubbed Expo Day.
These innovation achievements highlight the effectiveness of utilizing the full AFWERX and SpaceWERX toolkit in accelerating the transition from innovation to operational needs within the space sector.
Once STRATFI contracts are awarded, the partnering government organization works with the awarded small businesses to execute each contract.
The goal is to transition the technology to a Phase III contract that will allow the effort to be fully deployed and leveraged within the supporting customer’s organization.
Throughout the life of the contract, the STRATFI team works with the technical point of contact to track contract progress, milestones and performance.
https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3882173/spacewerx-announces-program-year-242-stratfi-selections-at-fed-supernova/