BUSINESS | POLITICS | PERSPECTIVE FEBRUARY 15, 2021 TALENT CRUNCH Building a 21st Century Space Workforce INSIDE n Astra’s 100-year plan n China ban could cost Mars InSight n Is Bezos about to kick-start Blue Origin? VISIT SPACENEWS.COM FOR THE LATEST IN SPACE NEWS 702X SATELLITES REPROGRAM REALLOCATE REIMAGINE Elevate your competitive edge with Boeing’s family of software-defined satellites. With the ability to reallocate resources on the fly, the revolutionary 702X adapts to evolving market conditions, maximizes return on investment and is ready today. boeing.com/satellites C O N T E N T S 0 2 . 1 5 . 2 1 DEPARTMENTS 3 QUICK TAKES TALENT CRUNCH 5 NEWS WELL Building a 21st Century Space Workforce 26 COMMENTARY Milton “Skip” Smith Startups Representing the 11 facing hiring private astronaut challenges 28 COMMENTARY Shelli Brunswick Schools Space initiatives in 13 strive to stay Africa offer a canvas of hands-on in virtual opportunities environment 30 NATIONAL SECURITY Recruiting Biden’s declaration of 15 talent in support puts Space trying times Force on firmer ground 32 FOUST FORWARD Spaceforce Will Jeff Bezos kick- 16 wants digitally start Blue Origin? Does minded troops he need to? Security 20 Clearance backlog remains NEXT ISSUES Our next three issues will stumbling block for be published March 15, employers April 19 and May 17. 5 Mars interference China’s first 21 Book attempt to land on Mars could provide Excerpt NASA scientists with unprecedented seismic data but political barriers may Liftoff prevent the necessary coordination. Elon Musk and the Desperate Early 7 Astra's 100-year plan The once- Days that Launched stealthy launch startup is about to go public via SpaceX by Eric a SPAC. Astra CEO Chris Kemp discusses the Berger merger, plans for ramping up launch activity and how it will compete against both small and large launch providers. COVER AND ABOVE: A sampling of several of the hundreds of thousands of people who work in the global space industry. 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PHOTOCOPY PERMISSION: For permission to reuse material from SpaceNews Inc., ISSN 1046-6940, please access www.copyright.com or contact the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400. CCC is a not-for-profit organization that provides licenses and registration for a variety of uses. For bulk reprint requests of more than 500, send to SpaceNews Attn: Reprint Department. 2 | SPACENEWS 02.15.21 QUICK TAKES SIGNIFICANT DIGITS $42MThe sum Isotropic Systems recently raised to continue development of broadband terminals foforr use bbyy a wide range ooff satellite systems in a round led bbyy satellite operatoroperator SES. Isotropic aims to have its first commercial system readyready next year. THALES ALENIA SPACE TO BUILD TELESAT LEO CONSTELLATION Telesat has selected Thales Alenia Space to build its low Earth orbit constellation. Telesat said that the 298-satellite system, which it now calls Lightspeed, will begin providing broadband connectivity services in 2023. Telesat chose Thales Alenia for the $3 billion project based on Thales Alenia’s work on the Iridium Next constellation and the original O3b satellite for SES. The Lightspeed HoHow$60Mw much Omnispace raised to fund satellites will include laser intersatellite links to minimize the number of ground stations required. development ooff a hybrid space and Telesat plans to focus on business-to-business services, rather that customer broadband. terrestrial network to provide 5G and internet ooff things services. Virginia- based Omnispace is focused on enterprise market segments, including agriculture, mining and energy, and shipping and logistics. Omnispace has not disclosed hohoww much funding it has raised to date but business information website Crunchbase lists it as $106.8 million. Ball Aerospace won a NASA contract for a space science mission. Ball won the contract 81The numbernumber ooff mini satellites Swarm FALCON HEAVY FOR WIN LUNAR Feb. 9 to build the Global Lyman-alpha Imager has in orbit, allowing the internet of of the Dynamic Exosphere, or GLIDE, satellite things startup to declare the start ooff its that will launch in 2025. The $75 million mission commercial data service. GATEWAY LAUNCH CONTRACT will observe the uppermost region of the Earth’s NASA awarded a $331.8 million contract to atmosphere, the exosphere, studying how it SpaceX Feb. 9 for the launch of the first two responds to solar activity. elements of its lunar Gateway on a Falcon Heavy in 2024. The Falcon Heavy rocket will NASA longer plans to launch its Europa $32MThe amount Earth observation launch the Gateway Power and Propulsion Clipper mission on the Space Launch System. startup Umbra raised $32 million to Element and Habitation and Logistics Outpost At an advisory group meeting Feb. 10, project fund development ooff a constellation modules. The value of the contract is nearly officials said they were informed by the agency ooff synthetic aperture radaradarr (SAR) three times higher than NASA’s $117 million satellites. The round was led bbyy the last month to “immediately cease efforts award to SpaceX to launch the Psyche asteroid familfamilyy office venture fund ooff Passport to maintain SLS compatibility” and instead mission. Psyche mission will likely use a standard Capital foundefounderr John Burbank with prepare to launch the mission on a commercial Falcon Heavy vehicle, but the lunar Gateway participation from existing Umbra rocket. Congress had mandated for years in launch may need an extended payload fairing investors. Umbra is preparing to appropriations bills that NASA use SLS, but SpaceX is developing for national security launch its first microsatellite this year relented in the 2021 bill. NASA intends to issue to provide SAR imageryimagery at a resolution missions. The contract also covers prelaunch a request for proposals for launch service. THALES ALENIA SPACE/SPACEX/ECE ILLINOIS ooff betterbetter than 25 centimeters. payload processing. SPACENEWS.COM | 3 QUICK TAKES SpaceX violated the conditions of a launch license for its Starship vehicle during a December launch, the FAA said Feb. 2, the same day another Starship prototype, SN9, crash landed at the company’s Boca Chica, Texas, test site after performing a suborbital flight. Before the Dec. 9 flight of the Starship SN8vehicle, which also ended in a crash, SpaceX requested a waiver to its FAA license for Starship suborbital test flights. That waiver, the FAA said, would have allowed SpaceX to “exceed the maximum public risk allowed by federal safety regulations.” The FAA denied the request, but SpaceX went ahead with the launch. No injuries or third-party damage was reported during the Dec. 9 flight, but the FAA determined that SpaceX violated the conditions of its license by proceeding without the waiver. The FAA said that, as a result of violating the terms of its license, it required SpaceX perform a review, including “a comprehensive review of the company’s safety culture,” before allowing the company to proceed with the SN9 flight. The FAA said Starship SN9 it did not expect to take any further enforcement action against SpaceX. Eutelsat won a contract to provide a navigation overlay service. The $121 million contract covers the hosting of a European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) payload on Eutelsat’s Hotbird 13G communications satellite, scheduled for launch in 2022.