Hello and welcome back to Max Q. I hope all of our Florida readers stayed safe during Hurricane Ian \u2014 thinking of you guys. In this issue:<\/p>\n
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- How the Space Coast braced for the storm<\/li>\n
- Humans: 1, Asteroids: 0<\/li>\n
- News from Astra, Firehawk Aerospace and more<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
By the way<\/em>\u2026We are just a few weeks away from Disrupt<\/strong>, which is returning live and in-person to San Francisco on October 18-20. Use this link to receive 15% off passes (excluding online and expo).<\/p>\n
Florida\u2019s Space Coast battened down the hatches in preparation for the arrival of the extremely powerful and slow-moving Hurricane Ian, with officials rolling rockets back to the safety of hangars and delaying launches until the storm passes.<\/p>\n
By Wednesday afternoon, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and Kennedy Space Center (KSC) entered HURCON I, indicating that 50-knot sustained winds are likely within 12 hours. In light of these impending conditions, all non-essential facilities closed and the majority of staff were sent home. NASA also made the critical decision to roll back the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft from the launch pad to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) on Monday, giving employees enough time to safely move the massive launch system ahead of the storm. The rollback, while indisputably necessary, will affect possible launch opportunities for the Artemis I moon mission. It\u2019s looking likely that the next possible launch window will be no earlier than sometime in November.<\/p>\n
Private companies with facilities on the Space Coast, including Relativity Space, United Launch Alliance and SpaceX, also secured their assets in hangars prior to the storm\u2019s arrival. Two launches \u2014 NASA\u2019s Crew-5, which was to launch on board a SpaceX Falcon 9, and United Launch Alliance\u2019s Atlas V launch of two SES telecommunications satellites \u2014 were also postponed.<\/p>\n
In an update, a NASA spokesperson writing on the KSC Twitter page tweeted that minimal damage was reported<\/a> across most operational facilities.<\/p>\n
\nHurricane Ian as viewed from the International Space Station. Image Credits:<\/strong> NASA<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
In a big win for humanity, NASA successfully smashed a vending machine-sized satellite into a small asteroid, part of what the agency was calling the \u201cDouble Asteroid Redirection Test\u201d (DART). The target asteroid, Dimorphos, is part of a two-asteroid system; while neither were in any risk of hitting Earth, the space agency saw them as an opportunity to test whether us humans could redirect an asteroid that\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>targeting Earth. After all, it\u2019s happened before \u2014 just ask the dinosaurs.<\/p>\n
NASA launched DART last November, using a SpaceX Falcon 9 to send the satellite on its collision course with Dimorphos. The DART spacecraft smashed into the asteroid moon at a speed of roughly 6.5 km per second on Monday evening at 7:14 p.m. ET, with confirmation of impact coming in a series of images from its onboard camera.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/gp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/dart-impact-nasa-2.gif\")
<\/p>\nImage Credits:<\/strong> NASA<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
More news from TC\u2026<\/h2>\n
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- Astra<\/strong> will no longer send the remaining NASA TROPICS payloads to space, but instead will launch other \u201ccomparable\u201d scientific missions for the agency, the company announced Wednesday. The change to the launch agreement comes a little over three months after Astra\u2019s first TROPICS launch\u00a0ended in failure\u00a0after the upper stage shut down prior to delivering the payload to orbit.<\/li>\n
- Astra\u00a0<\/strong>also announced it had appointed a new CFO to help the company navigate a new capital market landscape as it seeks to grow its launch and propulsion businesses.<\/li>\n
- The FCC\u00a0<\/strong>passed new rules that commercial satellite operators must ensure their spacecraft are de-orbited no more than five years after their mission is complete, in the hopes of cutting down on the amount of \u201cspace junk\u201d orbiting the Earth.<\/li>\n
- Firehawk Aerospace<\/strong> has developed new rocket engines, a stable solid fuel to power them, and has landed millions in new funding to take the company through the next round of tests to its first in-atmosphere demonstration launch.<\/li>\n
- SpaceX\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0NASA\u00a0<\/strong>signed a new agreement to study the feasibility of sending a private crew to Hubble Space Telescope, in order to boost the telescope\u2019s orbit. Such a mission could extend the operational lifespan of the telescope by as much as 20 years.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"Hubble](\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/gp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/GettyImages-72315315.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe Hubble Space Telescope, as seen from the Space Shuttle Discovery during Hubble\u2019s second servicing mission in 1997. Image Credits:<\/strong> NASA via Getty Images.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2026and beyond<\/h2>\n
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- ARK\u00a0<\/strong>Invest<\/strong>, an investment firm run by Cathie Woods, used two of its funds to purchase about 729,000 shares of Rocket Lab.<\/li>\n
- Astroscale\u2019s<\/strong> British subsidiary opened a new, 20,000-square-foot satellite manufacturing facility in Oxfordshire it\u2019s calling \u201cZeus.\u201d<\/li>\n
- BryceTech\u00a0<\/strong>released its quarterly launch report, finding that SpaceX launched nearly 500 spacecraft in Q2; a Chinese launch firm and Rocket Lab tied for second place, launching 36 spacecraft each.<\/li>\n
- A congressional subcommittee <\/strong>is keeping close tabs on the Federal Aviation Administration\u2019s investigation into the anomaly that led to a booster failure on a Blue Origin New Shepard rocket.<\/li>\n
- Firefly Aerospace\u2019s<\/strong>\u00a0latest launch attempt was scrubbed at T-0<\/a>, and the launch vehicle went into auto abort shortly after ignition. The company is \u201creviewing data to determine [its] next launch window.\u201d<\/li>\n
- Sierra Space\u00a0<\/strong>is mulling a public offering in order to fund its private space station ambitions.<\/li>\n
- SpaceX\u00a0<\/strong>hit its fastest launchpad turnaround ever, conducting two launches within the span of just six days from the same pad.<\/li>\n
- Spire Global\u00a0<\/strong>was awarded $4 million from the National Oceanographic and Oceanic Administration to fund the development and demonstration of a hyperspectral microwave sensor in orbit.<\/li>\n
- Starlink\u00a0<\/strong>has manufactured over 1 million user terminals<\/a>, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter.<\/li>\n
- STOKE Space Technologies<\/strong> won a $1 million grant<\/a> from the National Science Foundation to test its metallic heat shield technology.<\/li>\n
- The National Reconnaissance Office\u00a0<\/strong>awarded study contracts for commercial radio frequency remote sensing to six companies: Aurora Insight, HawkEye 360, Kleos Space, PredaSAR, Spire Global and Umbra Lab.<\/li>\n
- The UK Space Agency<\/strong> awarded two contracts to ClearSpace and Astroscale to demonstrate in-space debris removal. The contracts are worth \u00a32.25 million ($2.4 million) and \u00a31.7 million ($1.8 million), respectively.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Max Q is brought to you by me, Aria Alamalhodaei<\/a>. If you enjoy reading Max Q, consider forwarding it to a friend.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
- Astroscale\u2019s<\/strong> British subsidiary opened a new, 20,000-square-foot satellite manufacturing facility in Oxfordshire it\u2019s calling \u201cZeus.\u201d<\/li>\n
- Astra\u00a0<\/strong>also announced it had appointed a new CFO to help the company navigate a new capital market landscape as it seeks to grow its launch and propulsion businesses.<\/li>\n
- Astra<\/strong> will no longer send the remaining NASA TROPICS payloads to space, but instead will launch other \u201ccomparable\u201d scientific missions for the agency, the company announced Wednesday. The change to the launch agreement comes a little over three months after Astra\u2019s first TROPICS launch\u00a0ended in failure\u00a0after the upper stage shut down prior to delivering the payload to orbit.<\/li>\n