Surface pressure (4/28/23)

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In today's edition...🌙 Artemis 3 on track🤑 Earnings-palooza highlights💫 Payload's picks

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Nelson ‘Fairly Confident’ In Lunar Surface Mission Timeline

Lawmakers quizzed NASA Administrator Bill Nelson on Thursday about what the space agency needs to keep the first crewed mission to the Moon’s surface on track for a 2025 launch date.

In addition to Artemis, members of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee asked the former FL Democrat how the US could stay competitive with China in LEO, how the agency is cooperating with Russia on the ISS, and how a Republican-backed 22% budget cut to civilian agencies would impact everything from returning samples of Martian soil to Earth to tracking climate change and extreme weather from space.

Surface or bust: Lawmakers asked excitedly about Artemis 3, which will use a lunar lander version of Starship to bring NASA astronauts to the Moon’s surface for the first time since Apollo. After Starship blew up mid-air during its first orbital test launch last week, Rep. Frank Lucas, R-OK, who chairs the committee, asked Nelson his level of confidence that the mission would launch as expected in late 2025.

Nelson acknowledged that Starship is the only piece for the mission still in development, since Orion and SLS flew on Artemis 1.

“It blew a hole in that launch pad, so I have asked so I can report to you as of today that SpaceX is still saying that they think it will take about at least two months to rebuild the launch pad and concurrently about two months to have their second vehicle ready to launch,” Nelson said.

“The explosion, that’s not a big downer in the way that SpaceX does things,” he continued. “I’m fairly confident [in the timeline], but there are a lot of things that still have to be done.”

Zing: Not all the lawmakers were convinced, despite Nelson’s optimism. Shortly after Nelson explained that SpaceX’s lander was chosen because SpaceX “underbid everyone else by half,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-CA, the committee’s ranking member, responded with a dig.

“When I saw that rocket blow up, I thought, ‘Thank God there’s no people onboard,’” she said. “Sometimes the lowest bidder is not always the best choice.”

Like Christmas morning: Nelson came bearing a gift for lawmakers: a copy of the 2010 NASA Authorization Act that flew in space on the Artemis 1 mission last year.

Sponsored 

Join ITA at SpaceTech

The Italian Trade Agency, in collaboration with ASI, Italian Space Agency, is proud to announce its participation at the latest edition of SpaceTech, Long Beach, CA. from May 2-4.

The Italian pavilion will be spotlighting an industry-leading delegation (Booth #6016) of 6 Italian companies including:

CONNEX-ITALIA, FORGITAL, INGENI, JOINTEK AEROSPACE, P.C.M., ZOPPAS INDUSTRY 

Don't miss the chance to experience Italian hospitality and learn more Italy in Space during our Prosecco at the Pavilion, Networking events.

These events will be held at the pavilion, booth 6016 on Wednesday, May 3, at 2:30pm.

This will be the ITA’s fourth aerospace exhibiting event of the year, continuing to build on the momentum from last year’s launch of our “There’s a Lot of Space in Italy” campaign to further promote the Italian Space sector in the US.

Northrop, L3Harris, and Honeywell Release Q1 2023 Earnings

A slew of prime space companies announced Q1 earnings this week and overall performance was in the green. With increased defense spending and no end in sight for the conflict in Ukraine, companies saw an uptick in space and defense revenue.

Northrop Grumman:

• Operating income = $947M, a 6% increase YoY

• Revenue = $9.3B, a 6% increase YoY

• Total backlog = $77.5B

• Space revenue = $3.4B, a 17% increase YoY

Northrop’s space systems division saw the biggest year on year revenue increase of all business areas. Northrop also completed a critical design review this quarter of an SDA communications satellite over the span of 13 months.

L3Harris:

• Operating cash flow = $350M

• Revenue = $4.5B, a 9% increase YoY

• Total backlog = $24.5B

• Space revenue = $1.7B, a 9% increase YoY due to a ramp-up of DoD, NASA, and NOAA programs

This quarter, L3Harris won a $750M NOAA contract to build a high-res imager for the GeoXO satellite system, a $400M contract to build an EO constellation for a European customer, a $225M contract for a classified responsive space program, and a deal with Japan’s Meteorological Agency.

Honeywell:

• Net income = $1.4B

• Operating cash flow = -$784M

• Sales = $8.9B, an 8% increase YoY

• Total backlog = $30.3B

Honeywell’s aerospace division, which makes up 35% of total sales, grew by 14% YoY. The company’s space and defense division returned to growth, underpinned by a strong order book.

In Other News

• ISS partners officially committed to keeping the station flying through 2028.

• NASA performed a hot-fire test of the redesigned Aerojet RS-25 engine, which will be used on future SLS flights.

• China's Zhurong Mars rover likely broke down due to dust accumulation on its solar panels.

• UAE announced plans for a new lunar rover, Rashid 2, just days after Rashid 1 was lost during the ispace hard landing on the Moon.

• NASA, from 12 billion miles away, altered Voyager 2’s power supply to avoid a sensor failure.

• SpaceX scrubbed yesterday’s Falcon Heavy launch due to inclement weather. The mission is now scheduled for tonight.

• Correction: Yesterday’s newsletter incorrectly stated the dollar value of Astroscale’s debt. Each loan is $22M.

The View from Space

Officials from the Department of Veterans Affairs announced this week that they’re using NASA imagery, like this 2016 pic of smoke over Mosul, Iraq, to study veterans’ exposure to air pollution during deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq that could cause long-term lung damage.