SPHEREx and PUNCH Missions Delayed

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): NASA’s SPHEREx and PUNCH satellites being prepared for launch inside the Astrotech Space Operations facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, on Thursday, February 27, 2025. (NASA)

While NASA’s Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) and Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) missions were expected to launch last weekend, they have been delayed until Thursday, March 6th. The launch will take place from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

SPHEREx will spend two years collecting data on the origins of the universe by studying more than 450 million galaxies as well as more than 100 million stars in the Milky Way. You can learn more about the satellite’s mission by watching this Jet Propulsion Laboratory video.

PUNCH will be focused on events here in our own solar system. Consisting of four small satellites in low Earth orbit, the mission will study the entire inner heliosphere to learn how the Sun’s corona becomes the solar wind. You can learn more about the mission by watching this NASA video.

Thursday should be a busy day with these two satellites being launched and Intuitive Machines’ Athena lunar lander touching down on the Moon.

Is Blue Origin Ready to Challenge SpaceX?

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket. (Blue Origin)

Sometime next week, Blue Origin is expected to launch its New Glenn rocket, which could put it back in the running as a true challenger to SpaceX for space launches. I know, we already heard this story about Boeing’s Starliner challenging Space’s Dragon capsule, but this may be different.

Per the last posting on Blue Origin’s website on December 27, the rocket is ready to go:

New Glenn successfully completed an integrated launch vehicle hotfire test today, the final major milestone on our road to first flight. NG-1 will carry a Blue Ring Pathfinder as its first manifested payload and will launch from Launch Complex 36 in Cape Canaveral, FL.

The boosters on the 30-story New Glenn rocket are designed to land safely after the launch for future use. Sound familiar? In face, Blue Origin was the first company to successfully test a reusable rocket, so this is nothing new. The New Glenn also has a greater capacity than SpaceX’s Falcon 9.

Blue Origin has high hopes for it new rocket, including military satellite contracts, a new space station (Orbital Reef), and the launch of Amazon’s broadband satellite system (Project Kuiper).

NASA and the US space industry also have high hopes that the Blue Origin can increase the competition for launches and add some redundancy (you know, in case Mr. Musk really goes off the rails).

If commercial space is the future, then we need more capable players to keep it alive and vibrant. With that in mind, we can only hope for a very successful launch and increased competition down the road.

Space Stories: Support for the Near Space Network, Another Interesting Exoplanet, and Firefly Gets Fourth Lunar Contract

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Part of NASA’s Near Space Network. (NASA)

Here are some recent stories of interest.

—Satnews: “NASA Selects Four Commercial Companies to Support Near Space Network“

NASA has selected multiple companies to expand the agency’s Near Space Network’s commercial, direct-to-Earth capabilities services, which is a mission-critical communication capability that allows spacecraft to transmit data directly to ground stations on Earth. The work will be awarded under new Near Space Network services contracts that are firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contracts. Project timelines span from February 2025 to September 2029, with an additional five-year option period that could extend a contract through Sept. 30, 2034. The cumulative maximum value of all Near Space Network Services contracts is $4.82 billion.

—Daily Galaxy: “NASA Discovers Massive Planet Bigger Than Earth with Gas Tied Exclusively to Living Organisms“

Scientists have made a groundbreaking discovery on a planet over eight times the mass of Earth, located 120 light-years away. Using advanced technology, researchers detected a gas in its atmosphere that, on Earth, is only produced by living organisms. Could this be the first real hint of life beyond our planet? While the findings are intriguing, they come with questions that still need answering.

—Express News: “Texas-based Firefly Aerospace Gets Another NASA Moon Mission, a $179.6M Deal That’s Part of Artemis“

NASA gave Texas-based Firefly Aerospace a Christmas present of sorts — a $179.6 million deal to deliver six scientific instruments to the lunar surface as part of the Artemis program, which is intended to put astronauts back on the moon. Awarded a week before the holiday, the contract is the fourth for the Cedar Park company under the space agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. The $2.6 billion program aims to create a lunar economy while learning more about the moon in preparation for the first crewed flights to the lunar surface in more than 50 years.

Space Quote: Maryland Delegation Wants NASA to Explain Canceling the OSAM-1 Mission

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Artist’s rendering of the OSAM-1 (bottom) docking with a satellite. (NASA)

“As members of the Maryland Delegation, we write to request information regarding NASA’s decision to cancel the On-Orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing 1 (OSAM-1) mission on September 4, 2024. OSAM-1 is a space technology mission developed to demonstrate NASA’s capabilities to extend the lifespans of government-owned satellites and other satellites that were not originally built or intended to be serviced in space…On September 4, 2024, members of the Maryland delegation were notified of NASA’s intent to proceed with canceling the OSAM-1 mission. NASA officials cited feasibility of the 2026 launch plan, risk tolerance, lack of interest from potential partners per verbal communication, return on investment, and interest in expanding other Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) priorities. The Delegation wishes to note that return on investment and other STMD priorities are extraneous factors that Congress did not include in its direction. Furthermore, we have concerns regarding the Agency’s decision-making process.”

-Statement by Maryland Democratic Senators and Congress members in a September 16, 2024 letter to NASA regarding the status of the OSAM-1 mission. NASA explained on its website that it re-evaluated its earlier decision to cancel the mission and found it was still proper to cancel the mission, noting “factors that informed the decision were cost, schedule, and technical risk associated with the 2026 launch plan, the return on investment of flying OSAM-1 technology, uncertain technology infusion path to industry, and impacts on other NASA technology development efforts.” While these are serious reservations, the growing level of space debris in orbit is also a serious concern. Hopefully, NASA has a back-up plan if it does not move forward with this specific mission.

Building Data Centers in Space?

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Lumen Orbit

We have all read stories about the enormous about of electricity being soaked up by data centers. These data centers are removing green energy from the grid faster than it can be produced. So what is the solution?

How about solar-powered data centers in space?

In a recent white paper, Lumen Orbit highlights the advantage of such an approach, including the use of renewable energy, the elimination of fresh water cooling, and unlimited scaling up. In the paper, we read:

Significant operational cost savings can be achieved by using inexpensive solar energy without the limitations of terrestrial solar farms discussed below. Orbital data centers can leverage lower cooling costs using passive radiative cooling in space to directly achieve low coolant temperatures. Perhaps most importantly, they can be scaled almost indefinitely without the physical or permitting constraints faced on Earth, using modularity to deploy them rapidly. All of this will have a net benefit on the environment – a recent study by the European Commission concluded that orbital data centers will significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from grid electricity and eliminate fresh water usage for cooling.

The European Commission financed the Advanced Space Cloud for European Net zero emission and Data sovereignty (ASCEND) – a 16-month-long study on the feasibility of placing data centers into orbit. The study found that such data centers are technically, economically and environmentally feasible.

Pushing data centers as well as cryptocurrency data mining into space is a great idea as these processes are not going away. Just ask the Texans about the problems of sharing the state’s electricity grid with these centers. Texas may soon as these data centers to find a new home.

This is something that deserves more attention as we hit our energy limits here on Earth.