Public forum (6/29/22)

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In today's newsletter:🎙️ Pathfinder #0005🌎 FORUM contract💸 The term sheet

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Pathfinder #0005

Gather around, gather around–we have a new Pathfinder episode out. This week, we chatted with Lori Garver, the former deputy administrator of NASA.

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To many of you, Lori needs no introduction. She led President Obama’s NASA transition team, served as the second in command at the agency, and set the foundation for the US’s booming commercial space sector.

Lori is out with a brand-new book, Escaping Gravity: My Quest to Transform NASA and Launch a New Space Age. Per Lori's website, “from inside the space agency, Garver collaborated with key players such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and President Obama to usher in a more peaceful, inclusive and meaningful space age.”

Currently…

Lori is a senior fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, an EIR at Bessemer, and a member of the board at Hydrosat. In addition, she founded Earthrise Alliance, a philanthropic organization utilizing satellite data to address climate change, and cofounded the Brooke Owens Fellowship, an internship and mentorship program for collegiate women.

What we discuss

• Lori’s career

• Her new book (duh)

• The politics of space

• Government’s role in LEO, deep space, and beyond

• Fighting against entrenched interests

• The rise of commercial space

• Diversifying the ranks of the space industry

• Space pirates

• Elephant payloads

• Astro Mom and NSYNC

…and much more.

Where to listen

📱 Spotify🍎 Apple 💻 Online 

Airbus Builds FORUM

The European Space Agency has inked a €160M ($168M) contract with Airbus UK for the agency’s ninth Earth Explorer mission. The FORUM satellite is slated to launch in 2027 and will measure radiation emitting from the Earth into space.

The science: FORUM (Far-infrared Outgoing Radiation Understanding and Monitoring) will be the first satellite to observe Earth in the far-infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Earth’s outgoing radiation at these wavelengths is strongly affected by water vapor and ice clouds which, in turn, play a pivotal role in the regulation of surface temperatures. Observations made by FORUM will improve our confidence in climate change models that drive policy decisions.

The satellite: Airbus UK will lead the development of the FORUM mission with contributions from Airbus Germany and Airbus France. German space technology company OHB will be responsible for the main instrument through a subcontract worth approximately €90M.

Although a launch contract has not yet been awarded, the baseline vehicle utilized by the team was an Avio-built Vega C rocket in a dual launch configuration. Vega C is expected to make its debut next month carrying the LARES-2 space disco ball.

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In Other News

• NASA Administrator Bill Nelson sent a message to agency employees on the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade: “I strongly believe this ruling directly and detrimentally impacts the NASA workforce as it delegates an intensely personal decision to lawmakers in states where NASA employees live and work” (h/t Joey Roulette).

• JWST has cleared its first instrument, the Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS), for operations.

• A Cygnus module disembarked from the ISS three days after using its thrusters to boost the outpost’s orbit.

• SLS could launch between August 23 and September 6, Ars reports.

The View from Space

Look out, InSight, NanoAvionics may rival your selfie game. The company’s MP42 microsat used a GoPro and selfie stick to capture the first 4K resolution full satellite selfie in space. In it, the satellite is seen over the Great Barrier Reef.