Studying the shadows (6/23/23)

Good morning, Payload readers! This is Ari and Mo joining you guys for a very special announcement: Jacqueline Feldscher, who has been our interim managing editor since March, is interim no more! She’ll stay at the helm of Payload’s editorial operation in a permanent capacity (and she couldn’t be more excited!). Join us in congratulating Jacqueline on this well-deserved promotion!

In today's edition...
🪄 ESA’s dark energy mission
🌕 India, US space plans
💫 Payload’s picks

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Euclid to Launch Next Week to Study Dark Energy

Euclid, ESA’s dark energy surveyor satellite, is slated to launch July 1 aboard a Falcon 9 rocket, the space agency announced this week.

Ministry of magic: The spacecraft, named after the Greek mathematician Euclid of Alexandria, will map the cosmos in 3D and study how dark energy shapes its structure. Scientists hope the data will unlock secrets of the universe’s most mysterious and abundant matter.

The dark arts: In recent years, scientists have observed the universe accelerating its expansion, which would run counter to our current understanding of gravity and physics. This strange phenomenon seems to be the work of a shadowy force, which scientists aptly call dark energy.

We know only a few things about dark energy:

• Dark energy and matter make up a whopping 95% of the universe.

• The force does not interact with light—hence the name dark—making it difficult for Earthlings to detect.

• Dark energy plays an integral role in forming and structuring galaxies.

Platform 9 ¾: A Falcon 9 will deploy Euclid to a halo trajectory around the Sun-Earth Lagrange point 2 (L2), accompanying JWST. At a distance of ~1.5M km beyond Earth’s orbit, it will take optical and near-infrared images of billions of galaxies across a third of the sky.

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For India, US, ‘The Sky is Not the Limit’

From human spaceflight to responsible use of space, the US and India announced a number of space-related agreements during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to the White House on Thursday.

“We are creating a strong and futuristic partnership,” Modi said at a joint press conference, highlighting the new agreements in space.

Ready to launch: NASA and ISRO will work together on a pair of human spaceflight initiatives, according to a White House fact sheet:

• NASA will help train ISRO astronauts in Texas, with a longer-term goal of launching a joint mission to the ISS in 2024.  

• The two space agencies are also working on a strategic framework for human spaceflight cooperation, which is set to be completed by the end of the year.

Hardware: The leaders announced a commitment to increased commercial collaboration and technology transfer, in addition to partnership on three specific missions:

• India is spending $318M on a Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory in the country that will study the origins of the universe in partnership with similar facilities in the US, Europe, and Japan.

• A joint synthetic aperture radar spacecraft that will launch in 2024 to study climate change has been delivered to India.

• There will be increased data sharing between the US Landsat program and ISRO’s Resourcesat program.

Diplomacy in orbit: India also became the 27th signatory to the Artemis Accords—and the second this week, after Ecuador joined in a ceremony at its embassy in DC on Wednesday.

“By making the decision to join the Artemis Accords, we have taken a big leap forward in our space cooperation,” Modi said. “In short, for the India and America partnership, even the sky is not the limit.”

A quick note: While space agreements have been part of multiple recent international visits to DC, they are typically buried in the joint statement and not mentioned in any public engagements. Modi’s mention of space during the press conference (and listing space priorities as the third of 58 bullets in the joint statement), shows that the leaders are really highlighting the significance.

Want more? Subscribe to Payload’s weekly policy newsletter, Polaris! On Tuesday, we’ll take a deeper dive into the Biden administration's international space outreach and the future of the Artemis Accords in an exclusive interview with Valda Vikmanis-Keller, the director of the State Department’s Office of Space Affairs.

In Other News

• Virgin Galactic ($SPCE) stock dropped more than 13% on news that the company is seeking to raise $400M through a stock offering, on top of the $300M just sold.

• SpaceX confirmed in a letter to the FCC that it made a connection between its Gen2 Starlinks and ground stations.

• SpiderOak demonstrated its cybersecurity software solution in orbit.

• Firouz Naderi, the former Mars program director at JPL, died at 77.

The View from the Space Coast

Euclid is gassing up in Florida for its trip to space as early as next week.