Clean and green (9/6/22)

Good morning, and welcome to a new week. We missed you over the long weekend.

We had some audiovisual issues with this week’s episode of Pathfinder, but we’ll have them all sorted by tomorrow.

In today's newsletter:🌍 Scotland space sustainability🚀 Skyroot Series B🗓️ The week ahead

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Going Green

Scotland’s space program is making moves to encourage a more sustainable approach to spaceflight. Space Scotland has published a roadmap to grow its space sector in a sustainable way through strategically funding greener space technologies. The ultimate goal: reaching net zero emissions and space debris neutrality by 2045.

Scotland in space: The country’s space initiatives have had an eye on sustainability, both on Earth and in orbit, for a while now.

• Scotland is currently developing the Space Hub Sutherland spaceport for small satellite launches, which it says will be the world’s greenest spaceport.

• Multiple Scottish companies are heads-down developing more eco-friendly rockets and fuels, including Orbex, Skyrora, and HyImpulse Technologies.

Ultimately, Scotland's goal is to grow its nascent space industry significantly over the next few decades. Space Scotland aims to create 20,000 jobs in the space sector by the end of the roadmap term, and set aside a £4B ($4.6B) share of the global space economy for its domestic space industry.

Carrots and sticks: The sustainability roadmap is divided into short-term goals to complete by 2025, and medium- and long-term goals to complete by 2035 and 2045, respectively.

The short-term goals are primarily focused on funding more eco-friendly space technologies to cut down emissions from the space sector. The Scottish government plans to offer domestic space companies carrots (incentives and funding awards for developing greener technologies to use in space and for complying with sustainability guidelines) and sticks (penalties for not complying).

Also in the short term, Space Scotland said it plans to join the Net Zero Space initiative, unveiled during last year’s Paris Peace Forum. The plan is to cut emissions by 50% by 2030 and reach net zero by 2045.

In the medium term, Scotland aims to solidify many of its sustainability guidelines into legislation. That would include making the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC) and UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) guidelines legally binding for Scottish companies.

Long term, on top of reaching net zero emissions from the space sector, Space Scotland is also targeting “space debris neutrality.” That means that by 2045, for every launch that creates debris, an equal amount of debris from past Scottish launches will be removed from orbit.

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The Largest Indian Funding Round To Date

Skyroot Aerospace has raised $51M in a Series B round led by GIC, a global investment firm based in Singapore. This is the largest funding round in the Indian private space sector to date. The company raised an $11M Series A in 2021.

The launch startup is developing India’s first private launch vehicle and was the first to sign an MoU with the Indian space agency ISRO. The Vikram Series—a nod to Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, India’s space program founder—will be able to launch up to 800kg to LEO. A demonstration is planned for later this year.

So far, Skyroot has tested and validated its engine and propulsion tech. The funds will go towards expanding its space engineering team, as well as funding infrastructure and developmental launches. The startup has already begun booking payload slots.

“Our objective is to establish ourselves as a provider of best-in-class rocket launch services and the go-to destination for affordable and reliable small satellite launches.” said Pawan Kumar Chandana, co-founder and CEO of Skyroot, in a press release.

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In Other News

• Artemis I was scrubbed again, after a second attempt to launch was foiled by a large leak in the hydrogen line. NASA is considering its options for the next launch attempt.

• SpaceX sent a batch of Starlink satellites and a Spaceflight space tug to orbit.

• China has begun assembling the Long March 5B rocket it will use to launch the last module of its space station.

• Scout Space and Privateer announced a data partnership to improve space situational awareness information.

• ESA’s Solar Orbiter was struck by a coronal mass ejection from the Sun at the beginning of its Venus flyby. The probe, ESA reports, survived the weather just fine.

The View from Space

JWST captured an “Einstein ring,” which happens when one galaxy is directly behind another when viewed from Earth. The blue center dot is a closer galaxy whose gravity is warping the view of the galaxy behind it, making it appear as a reddish halo through the telescope.