Good morning. Today's the day!!! #UnfoldTheUniverse

In today's newsletter:🔊 Pathfinder 0007👩🏽‍🚀 ESA astronauts📷 POTUS on JWST 🔁 On the move

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Pathfinder #0007, ft. Sierra Space CEO Tom Vice

On this week's episode of the Pathfinder podcast, Ryan sits down with Sierra Space CEO Tom Vice. His one-year anniversary as chief executive is one week from today. In the last year, Sierra has:

• Raised a $1.4B (yes, billion) Series A.

• Announced that it will build the Orbital Reef space station with Blue Origin, Boeing, Redwire, and others.

• Readied Dream Chaser for its first orbital flight and identified new runways around the world for the spaceplane to land.

• Created an astronaut program, led by company president and former NASA astronaut Janet Kavandi.

So, needless to say, Sierra has been keeping busy. We couldn't have picked a better time to talk with Tom and check in on the company's progress. Pathfinder is brought to you by SpiderOak Mission Systems — www.spideroak-ms.com — an industry leader in space cybersecurity. Check out the company’s space cybersecurity white paper here.

Sneak peek of the conversation

• Tom's resume, and rising through the ranks at Northrop Grumman

• Air and space as a proving ground for autonomy

• Why did the space company spin out of Sierra Nevada Corp. last year?

• Sierra Space's cap table and fortifying the balance sheet before a downtown

• The space platform play...Dream Chaser is the transportation, Orbital Reef is the destination, and then there's all the space applications built on top

• Tom's visions for the future, with a constellation of private space stations and thousands living and working in space

• Sierra's growth from 1,000 employees at the end of 2021 to 1,800+ now

• For All Mankind

• When is Tom going to space?

...and more!

There's plenty of mind-boggling bits baked into this conversation, from manipulating the electromagnetic spectrum to peering back in time with JWST to Tom's concept for an Asian fusion restaurant in low-Earth orbit. We'll leave it to you to listen to the episode at your leisure. Hopefully, your mind will be as blown as ours were.

Where to get Pathfinder 0007

▶️ Watch on YouTube 🎧 Listen on Spotify🍏 Tune in via Apple 🚀 Or…get Pathfinder wherever you listen to podcasts.

ESA Astronaut Candidates Get a Physical

ESA has confirmed that its astronaut selection process has entered the fourth phase. This is only the third time the agency has recruited new astronauts, with the last round occurring between 2008 and 2009.

Progress thus far:

• ESA announced in Feb. 2021 that it had opened a call for new astronauts.

• The agency received a record 22,000+ applications.

• The applicant pool was whittled down to 1,361 candidates, who were invited to phase two of the selection process. That phase ended in March.

• 400 candidates were then invited to round three, which concluded in June.

• An undisclosed number of candidates are currently busy with phase four.

On to phase four…The current phase of ESA’s astronaut selection process will see candidates go through a medical evaluation to assess their health and physical capabilities.

Europe’s current astronaut candidate selection process takes on a new meaning compared to those previously conducted by ESA, each of which followed a similar phased selection process. In a world’s first, ESA opened up the call to astronaut candidates with physical disabilities, which the agency is calling “parastronauts.” 247 applications were received for this call, with 27 being invited to phase two. It’s unclear if any of the 27 are still in the running.

What’s next? Invitations for the final phase of the selection process are expected to be sent this summer. This phase will involve the candidates participating in panel interviews with experts and high-ranking officials. The final selection of the agency’s latest astronaut class is expected to take place by the end of the year.

Share this with someone overdue for a physical:

It's a Big Wide Wonderful Universe

Standing alongside NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, President Biden and VP Harris unveiled the first image from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, taken by Webb's Near-Infrared Camera.

After enough of a delay to fill Space Twitter™️ with nervous laughter, the image revealed the deepest and highest-resolution infrared view of the universe ever captured. The picture shows an astonishing number of galaxies as they appeared 4.6 billion years ago from an area of universe about the size of a grain of sand held up at arm’s length. It took 12.5 hours of capturing images at different wavelengths of light to produce the composite image.

But wait, is it early? NASA surprised all those patiently waiting for July 12 with a weekend announcement that POTUS would reveal the first JWST image a day early, at COB Monday. Nothing like a high-res infrared view of the universe to keep the Monday scaries away.

Context: The Biden Administration rarely discusses space issues despite Harris chairing the National Space Council. Does Monday’s event mark an exception to that rule or is the White House turning a corner?

At the event, Biden thanked the team at NASA and highlighted the value of increasing science and technology funding. “These images will remind the world that America can do big things and remind the American people, especially our children, that there is nothing beyond our capacity. We can see possibilities no one has ever seen before. We can go places no one has ever gone before.”

Share this with your friends who are afraid of deep space:

In Other News

• Ericsson, Qualcomm, and Thales will trial 5G from space.

• ISRO, India’s space agency, plans to let industry own and operate EO satellites.

• The Moon will reach its closest point to Earth all year at 5am Eastern tomorrow.

• SpaceX’s Booster 7 engine test caused a fire on the pad. Per Elon Musk on Twitter last night: “Base of the vehicle seems ok by flashlight.” More details to come.

• Nanoracks will conduct a second Bishop Airlock mission with Gitai, a Japanese space robotics startup.

Re: Monday’s X-37B story…SWF’s Brian Weeden wrote in: “If you guys want to know where the X-37B is, just ask Jonathan McDowell or one of the hobbyist satellite trackers :) They've been tracking it pretty constantly since the very beginning of the program. Right now, OTV-6 is in about a 385 km x 370 km orbit at 45 degrees inclination.” Check out SWF’s X-37B factsheet for more helpful info.

The View from Mars

The Martian rocky outcrop called “Enchanted Lake” is believed to have hosted water in the past. This image, taken by one of Perseverance’s Hazard Avoidance Cameras, is the rover’s first close-up view of sedimentary rocks, which scientists think could hold remnants of ancient microbial life.