Alien hunting (1/13/23)

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In today's newsletter:🚀 Esrange spaceport👾 Declassified UAP report🗣️ Payload’s picks

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Uncertain Future Hangs Over Esrange Inauguration

The Swedish Space Corporation completed the inauguration of its Esrange orbital launch facility today with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. 

The ceremony was attended by Swedish and European dignitaries, including the King of Sweden, Carl XVI Gustaf; President of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen; and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. The trio concluded the short ceremony by cutting a yellow and blue ribbon.

“It’s a big moment for Europe,” said von der Leyen during a short address prior to the ribbon cutting. “It’s a big moment for Europe’s space industry. The first orbital launch site on the European mainland. This spaceport offers an independent European gateway to space. It is exactly the infrastructure we need not only to continue to innovate but also to further explore the final frontier.” 

An uncertain future

Although Esrange is the first European mainland orbital launch facility to be completed, there is currently a distinct lack of providers interested in launching from the facility.

In 2020, both Rocket Factory Augsburg and Isar Aerospace from Germany signed agreements to test at the Esrange spaceport, seemingly weighing the possibility of a future launch from the facility. Since then, however, both companies have selected multiple other launch facilities to host flights.

ArianeGroup is the only company currently planning to launch from the Esrange. The European rocket builder will complete the first hop tests of its Themis reusable booster demonstrator there. The first hop is only expected to take place in 2024. Once the first handful of tests is complete, the booster will be moved to Guiana Space Centre for higher altitude test flights. 

In contrast, SaxaVord in Scotland, Cornwall in England, and Andøya in Norway, the three other spaceports either under construction or beginning operations in Europe, have each signed launch facility contracts with multiple operators.

The Swedish government has invested 150M Swedish krona (approximately $14.4M) into the development of the facility’s testing capabilities and orbital launch infrastructure. It is currently unclear if the country will see any return on that investment.

The Latest from the Alien (?) Beat

Through 60 Minutes, Congress, and incremental declassification, American citizens have been treated to a closer look into what the US government’s “aliens(???)” desktop folder looks like. 

Driving the news: The intelligence community’s (IC) quest to understand elusive UFO-esque unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) sightings has borne fruit. Those fruits, though, don’t offer any conclusive evidence of aliens. (At least, that’s what the declassified UAP report offers.)

Yesterday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released an unclassified report on its investigation into UAP reports made over the last 17 years across the nation. The ODNI combed through analysis from the various agencies that make up the US intelligence community.

The report is an update to last year’s findings, which reviewed 144 supposed UAP sightings. Since then, 366 new reports were filed and reviewed, including 247 new reports and 119 from the initial period that hadn’t already been reported.

Why study UAPs? The US government is more concerned that UAPs are terrestrial aircraft that may pose a threat to national security, rather than an extraterrestrial greeting party. The Pentagon formed the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) in July 2022 to coordinate all UAP investigations.

The findings: Of the 366 new UAP sightings reported to ODNI and included in this report, the IC marked more than half as known objects showing “unremarkable characteristics.” 

• Of note…more than half of the new sightings came from Navy and Air Force pilots.

• ODNI identified 26 as unmanned aircraft systems (aka drones). Similarly, 163 reports ended up being balloons or “balloon-like entities.” 

• Rounding out the list were six entries classified as “clutter.” What’s clutter, you say? Allow us to present the best footnote of all time: 

Shout out to anyone who reported a bird or a bag to the FBI.

What are we left with? 171 newly reported sightings that don’t yet have explanations. The Pentagon's AARO is still investigating the origins of (or explanations for) this cohort.

“We are confident that continued multi-agency cooperative UAP prosecution activities will likely result in greater awareness of objects in and across the air, space, and maritime domains, as well as the nature and origin of UAP in the future,” the report’s authors wrote.

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In Other News

• DirecTV will lay off 10% of its 200+ managers to reduce overhead as consumers ditch satellite TV for streaming services. 

• A replacement Soyuz is now scheduled to dock with the ISS on Feb. 22. In case of an emergency, NASA astronaut Frank Rubio would fly home on the Crew-5 Dragon.

• ISRO is targeting three launches for Q1. The Indian agency aims to launch SSLV, LVM-3, and PSLV over the next few months. 

• SpaceX is targeting Jan. 20 (next Friday) for Starship’s 33-engine static fire test, The Information reports. 

• Djibouti signed an MoU with Chinese firms HKATG and Touchroad International to develop a commercial spaceport in the country’s northern Obock Region.

• JWST found its first exoplanet. Formally known as LHS 475 b, the planet’s diameter is 99% of Earth’s.

• 2022 was Earth’s sixth warmest year on record, per NOAA:

The View from Space

SpaceX’s drone photographer deserves a raise. ‘Nuff said. (And, on the off chance the above photo wasn’t shot from a drone, this video definitely was.)

Have a great weekend, everyone. We’ll see you back here Monday.