Wish list (3/10/23)

Howdy, y’all. Happy South by Southwest to those who celebrate.

In today's edition...💸 Proposed NASA budget👩🏼‍🚀 Spanish space agency🌍 SkyFi Summit x SXSW💫 Payload's picks

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Digging Through NASA’s FY24 Budget Proposal

The White House is requesting $27.2B for NASA next year, a 7% (or $1.8B) increase from the 2023 enacted level. Highlights from the budget include a significant boost to the Artemis program and funding for the eventual deorbit of the ISS.

It’s worth noting the budget represents Biden’s wish list. With a divided Congress, the final allocation may look a little different.

Highlights

What Jumps Out?

Artemis program: The $8.1B lunar exploration proposal represents a $500M increase from last year’s enacted level. The budget fully funds the Artemis II mission to send astronauts to lunar orbit and the Artemis III mission to land astronauts on the Moon’s south pole.

• The budgetary bump comes just days after NASA confirmed that Artemis II remains on track for a Nov. 2024 launch.

ISS deorbiting tug: NASA will begin developing a space tug on steroids, designed to safely deorbit the ISS when the time comes in 2030. This is the first time ISS deorbit and decommissioning funding has been sought.

Mars sample return: The budget allocates $949M to bring Martian soil back to Earth. Successful retrieval and return would allow scientists to examine the Red Planet under a microscope for the first time.

“These samples will help us answer the ultimate question, was there life on another planet,” said NASA chief Bill Nelson in yesterday's State of NASA address.

+ Honorable mention: Although it’s a small line item, the budget request allocates $39M for NASA to address the issue of orbital debris.

Are you in Austin for SXSW?

Payload is partnering with SkyFi to host a full day event focused on bringing space technology to the masses. Starting at 9am, fuel up with free coffee at our Space Meet-Up + Coffee and meet your space friends in person. Catch lightning talks on Little Place Labs and Albedo; along with panels on investment outlook, the value of Earth observation, and mentoring the next generation of the aerospace industry.

Register now for the SkyFi Summit!

Vamos al Espacio

This week, Spain’s Council of Ministers voted to approve a statute green-lighting the country’s new space agency to formally begin operations.

The vote is “a determined commitment by the Government of Spain for a sector that is key, that generates opportunities, that generates quality employment, and we endow it with an initial budget of more than 700 million euros in this first year,” said Ministry of Science and Innovation Diana Morant during an address after the statute was approved.

In September, when the Spanish government approved the creation of the agency, officials were given a one-year deadline to make it a reality. With Tuesday’s developments, Spain managed to reach the finish line six months ahead of schedule. There’s a joke about siestas somewhere in there, but this team clearly didn’t take any.

EEA, the newest space kid on the block

The Agencia Espacial Español (EEA) will coordinate and centralize the country’s various space efforts into a single governing entity. EEA will be responsible for managing Spain's strategic space direction going forward. Its mandate covers both technological development and the use of space for functions like security, EO, connectivity, and PNT services.

EEA will be based in Seville with an initial staff of 75. The agency will be attached to the country's Ministries of Science and Innovation and Defence.

Microlauncher funding: During her address, Minister Morant highlighted a recent commitment from the Ministry of Science and Innovation to make €45M in funding available for the development of a domestic microlauncher. This class of launch vehicle, Morant said, is the "the commercial future of the space sector."

The launcher is funded via Spain’s €4.5B Strategic Project for Aerospace Economic Recovery and Transformation (PERTE) initiative, an element of the country’s Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (RRTP), which is financed through the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Mechanism.

Currently, there is really only one serious contender to receive the funding. PLD Space, founded in 2011, is developing its suborbital Miura 1 and orbital Miura 5 launch vehicles.

• Miura 5 is designed to be capable of delivering 540-kg payloads to SSO.

• Miura 1 is expected to debut this month while a maiden flight of Miura 5 is expected in 2024 if the company can secure additional funding.

Barcelona-based Pangea Aerospace had also been developing a microlauncher called Meso which would have debuted in 2025 and would have been capable of carrying 400-kg payloads to low Earth orbit. However, the startup appears to have wiped all Meso mentions from its website and pivoted to focus on only developing propulsion solutions.

Payload’s takeaway: Spain clearly has ambitious goals for its space industry. Only time will tell if it can deliver on its promises.

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In Other News

• SpaceX launched OneWeb 17, lifting off from the Cape and landing the F9 booster back at the launch site.

• OneWeb, with its latest 40 satellites deployed, is now 90% of the way to completing its full first-gen constellation.

• Elon plans to build a new town outside of Austin, the WSJ reports. Snailbrook, the planned community, will be co-located with new SpaceX and Boring Company facilities.

• NASA and SpaceX set the next ISS resupply mission next for Tuesday.

• The mission, which will be SpaceX’s 27th cargo run to the space station, will include supplies to fabricate a human meniscus, among other things.

• Crew-5 is set to return to Earth tomorrow at 2:05am ET.

• NASA will announce the Artemis II crew on April 3rd.

The View from Earth

Hoping you can glide into the weekend as smoothly as this Falcon 9 booster returned to Earth...