SMART: Space Force turning to commercial sats to enhance in-space monitoring.

Space Force interest in commercially owned neighborhood watch satellites largely has been limited to experiments — in part because commercial capabilities are somewhat embryonic, as license restrictions on sales of what is often called “non-Earth imaging” were lifted only last year.

That said, the Space Force in March released a request for information (RFI) seeking industry ideas to inform its early work to develop concepts for “for a constellation of free-flyer space vehicles with electro-optical payloads to detect, track, and characterize resident space objects in geosynchronous orbit.” The RFI explained that at the moment the service wants ideas to “support near and midterm studies and acquisition decisions” about satellites that can not just sit still and take pictures of adversary satellites but also perform “rendezvous and proximity operations” to stay up close to their targets.

Meanwhile, Gagnon stressed that the Space Force is “making great progress” in its current efforts to integrate commercial capabilities and thereby enhance its space monitoring chops.

Faster, please — and probably cheaper, too.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: NASA’s Gateway space station Halo module moves closer to launch. “The Habitation and Logistics Outpost, or HALO, is one of four modules in which astronauts will live, conduct science and prepare for lunar surface missions.”

SO I FINALLY FINISHED J.N. CHANEY & JONATHAN BRAZEES’ Sentenced to War series. Good future Space Marines style military SF, though at 15 books, it’s an awful lot thereof. But it came to a satisfactory conclusion. Plenty of page-turning entertainment!

I took a break in the middle to read Blood-Warm Waters, the latest in Scott Cook’s WWII submarine series. Good reading, though I doubt that Admiral Yamamoto spent much time thinking about any particular U.S. sub as he went about his business. Also good page-turning entertainment, if not quite in P.T. Deutermann territory.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Study: Short-duration spaceflights pose no significant health risks.

HAVE YOU TRIED SPACE LYSOL? ISS spacewalk to study microorganisms on exterior of orbiting lab.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: China selects new batch of astronauts with an eye on the moon.

SPACE: Scientists study artificial meteor in NASA’s asteroid sample mission.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Space tourism dreams live on.

FROM MY FORMER RESEARCH ASSISTANT ISABELLE THIBAULT, a terrific article on space mining.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: NASA is commissioning 10 studies on Mars Sample Return—most are commercial.

SPACEX AND THE IMPERATIVE TO LOWER LAUNCH COSTS. One quibble: It’s true that SpaceX hasn’t yet lowered launch prices to match launch costs, but it has offered much greater availablilty, reliability, and scheduling flexibility, which is more value for the price. As for the rest of this article, it’s interesting but it’s all based on speculation.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: SpaceX wants to build 1 Starship megarocket a day with new Starfactory.

CHANGE: U.S., Germany double down on space exploration. “Future collaborations include gravity studies, information sharing on Earth-surface changes and national threat assessments regarding possible hostile uses of space.”

AND THEY THOUGHT ELON WAS RETRO WITH STAINLESS STEEL SPACESHIPS: Wooden Satellites.

STARSHIP VS. STARLINER: Jim Meigs: Can Boeing Catch Up with SpaceX? The aerospace giant’s long-delayed Starliner finally flies astronauts, while Elon Musk’s enterprise pushes into the next frontier. The new space race is on. “The mission Starliner is finally conducting—carrying astronauts to the ISS—is one that Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been doing routinely since 2020. Now, Musk’s team is working on a much bigger breakthrough in space travel.”

Related thoughts here. Personally, I’d be happy to see SpaceX face real competition. I think even Elon might feel that way. But at present if it comes from anyone it’s probably going to be from the Chinese.

IT’S SKED FOR 10:30 EDT THIS MORNING: Virgin Galactic launching final commercial spaceflight on VSS Unity spaceplane today.

MEANWHILE, IN A PART OF AMERICA THAT STILL WORKS:

Falcon 9 lands for the 300th time pic.twitter.com/syimP1jcxl

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) June 8, 2024

Related:

With the success of Starship, it’s important to realize how important and counter-intuitive it was for @elonmusk to overcome his team’s resistance and use stainless steel. https://t.co/XesQwYgGIK pic.twitter.com/fmTt2Dkfbl

— Walter Isaacson (@WalterIsaacson) June 7, 2024

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Chang’e 6 probe’s far-side moon samples enter return-to-Earth module in lunar orbit, China says.

YES. SpaceX’s Starship Scores Huge Win With First Ocean Splashdown.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: China seeks its own Apollo moment – and more.

SPACEX STARSHIP LAUNCH IS SKED FOR 8:50 AM EDT: You can watch here. “Today is just a test, the fourth test of many to come.”

UPDATE: Launch was good, Super Heavy did soft splashdown in the Gulf, Starship now in space.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Soft splashdown for Starship in the Indian Ocean. Some heat damage to flaps and camera, but everything continued to work to the end, and they got data the whole time. Big win. (Bumped).

GODSPEED…

Now targeting 7:50 a.m. CT for launch of Starship’s fourth flight test. Weather conditions are 95% favorable. The webcast will go live ~30 minutes ahead of liftoff → https://t.co/bJFjLCiTbK pic.twitter.com/Qf8bnsvysd

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) June 6, 2024

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Fish on Board China’s Space Station Are Doing Swimmingly, Confused as Hell. “And so far, according to the state-owned Xinhua News Agency, the striped catch is thriving in the microgravity environment of its celestial space aquarium. That’s despite the astronauts on board the station observing the fish ‘showing directional behavior anomalies, such as inverted swimming and rotary movement.'”

FASTER, PLEASE: First metal 3D printer on space station dribbles molten steel. “The first metal 3D printer aboard the International Space Station successfully dribbled out a molten ‘S curve’ last Thursday, in what the European Space Agency (ESA) is calling a ‘giant leap forward for in-orbit manufacturing.’ Combining a high-power laser and stainless-steel wire, an Airbus-built metal 3D printer deposited its first liquefied test lines inside the ESA’s Columbus research module. For ‘safety reasons,’ the machine operated in a ‘fully sealed box, preventing excess heat or fumes from escaping.'”

FINALLY: Boeing’s Starliner capsule finally launches, carries crew into space for first piloted test flight.