Facebook Scraps Satellite Plans
(Source: Business Insider)
Facebook has scrapped plans for a broadband Internet satellite, even
before those plans were formally announced. Facebook abandoned plans to
develop a broadband satellite in geostationary orbit that would have
provided Internet access to underserved regions of the world, like
Africa. Cost estimates of the system ranged from $500 million to $1
billion, but the reports did not disclose what was included in those
estimates. Facebook may instead lease capacity on other satellites
should it seek a space-based approach to its Internet access plans.
(6/9)
ISS Dodges Space Debris
(Source: NASA)
The International Space Station dodged a piece of space debris Monday.
The station shifted its orbit slightly, using thrusters on a Progress
spacecraft docked to the station, to avoid a possible conjunction with
a Minotaur upper stage left in orbit from a 2013 launch. The stage was
projected to come within five kilometers of the station prior to the
maneuver. That maneuver does not change plans for Thursday's departure
of three ISS crew members on a Soyuz. (6/9)
China to Track Space Debris
(Source: Xinhua)
China opened a center Monday to track orbital debris. The center, run
by the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for
National Defence and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, will use data
from Chinese facilities as well as "surveillance data from both home
and abroad" to track debris and monitor any threats to Chinese
spacecraft. Officials said they have recorded an average of 30 close
calls a year, where debris came within 100 meters of Chinese
spacecraft. (6/9)
Florida Legislators Split on
Incentives, Fight Could Keep Gov. from Paris Air Show (Source:
Miami Herald)
Governor Rick Scott's planned trip to the Paris Air Show to recruit
aerospace companies to Florida could be canceled as he works to push an
increase in incentive funding through a contentious Special Session of
the Florida Legislature. Scott wanted $85 million in job incentive
money next year for Enterprise Florida even though it already has $86
million in escrow set aside for unfinished deals.
The Senate offered Enterprise Florida $30 million next year and the
House abruptly raised its ante from $25 million to $39 million Monday.
Enterprise Florida received $66.5 million this year for incentive
deals. A Senate analysis shows it spent $9 million through Sunday, but
EF's Bill Johnson said $42 million is committed to firms and will be
paid after they meet performance criteria of jobs and capital
investment.
The Senate analysis showed Enterprise Florida spent $18 million of $98
million budgeted for incentives in fiscal 2014, and $19 million of $156
million in fiscal 2013. Enterprise Florida’s Quick Action Closing Fund
is by far the largest of eight incentive programs and the most
secretive, with the state approving confidential multimillion dollar
grants to companies that agree to relocate to Florida, expand or retain
jobs. (6/8)
Planning the Proving Ground of
Cislunar Space (Source: Space Review)
NASA is clear about its long-term goal of human spaceflight -- sending
humans to Mars -- but has been vague about the next steps beyond low
Earth orbit to achieve that goal. Jeff Foust reports how NASA, working
with companies and potential international partners, is starting to
look at a series of missions in cislunar space in the 2020s as those
next steps. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2768/1
to view the article. (6/8)
How Military Space Programs Need to
Deal with Change (Source: Space Review)
America's lead in military space capabilities is threatened by a number
of internal and external factors. Tom Taverney discusses what those
factors are and what the US needs to do to overcome them. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2767/1
to view the article. (6/8)
How Much Money Would it Take to Launch
Enterprise Into Space? (Source: Space Review)
Estimates of the cost of a NASA Mars mission for six astronauts are
north of $100 billion. Sam Dinkin wonders how this cost estimate would
change if reusable rocket launches cost what SpaceX predicts they will.
Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2766/1
to view the article. (6/8)
SpaceX Wants to Fill Wetlands at Texas
Spaceport Site (Source: Brownsville Herald)
After the public comment period ended Monday, the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers now will decide whether to grant a permit modification to
SpaceX , which has requested permission to fill in an additional 2.13
acres of wetland in order to build a commercial space launch facility
at Boca Chica Beach.
USACE issued a permit last September for the placement of 3.3 acres of
fill material at the SpaceX site, located in tidal wetlands where State
Highway 4 meets the Gulf of Mexico, roughly 18 miles east of
Brownsville. SpaceX held a ceremonial groundbreaking at the project
site of the project in September. If USACE approves the requested
permit modification, 5.43 acres of “special aquatic site,” rather than
3.3 acres, would be directly impacted. (6/9)
Space-Training Company Awaits
Congressional Decision (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
The future is up in the air for a small commercial space company here
unless Congress gives it permission to resume private-astronaut
training operations. Starfighters is one of the small space-technology
spinoff companies NASA has in mind when its top officials talk about
converting Kennedy Space Center into a multiuser spaceport.
Starfighters operates a fleet of former military F-104 jets from a
hangar at the shuttle landing facility.
"We were brought out here specifically to help in the development of
the commercial space industry," said Starfighters President Rick
Svetkoff. "We are literally ready to fly, as we speak." But the
company's seven operational aircraft, purchased from the U.S.,
Jordanian and Italian militaries, don't have FAA approval for
commercial passengers and are technically considered experimental
aircraft.
Starfighters received a "letter of deviation authority" from the
Orlando FAA office, allowing the company to fly paying customers. But
in 2011 the FAA in Washington revoked it, saying the agency did not
have authority to allow such flights. Now Starfighters is one of the
commercial space companies waiting to see what Congress does in the
next couple of weeks with a bill to reauthorize the Commercial Space
Act. Click here.
(6/9)
Garvey Picks Alaska Microsatellite
Launches (Source: Parabolic Arc)
Garvey Spacecraft Corp. has selected the Alaska Aerospace Corporation’s
Pacific Spaceport Complex–Alaska (PSCA) on Kodiak Island as host range
for the next phase of the company’s Nanosat Launch Vehicle (NLV) flight
test program. Initial efforts will be conducted through a recently
awarded NASA Small Business Technology Transfer project in which GSC is
teamed with the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
The NLV is a small launch vehicle focused on providing launches for
commercial space companies. According to GSC’s program manager Chris
Bostwick, the company has focused on the Kodiak facility in part
because “…its location enables routine access to polar orbit – a
capability that is not commonly available with existing launch options
for the emerging cubesat and nanosat markets.”
Editor's Note:
Alaska recently offered some generous incentives for launch companies
to use their spaceport. Of course, the site is suited mainly for
high-inclination/polar orbits or suborbital missions. (6/9
NASA's 'Flying Saucer' Mars Test
Partially Succeeds (Source: USA Today)
NASA's Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator project completed its second
flight test Monday when the saucer-shaped craft splashed down safely
off the coast of the Hawaiian island of Kauai. The decelerator, a
flying-saucer shaped craft designed to slow spacecraft in thin
atmospheres like on asteroids and on Mars, launched at 1:45 p.m. ET
from the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility using a large
scientific balloon.
After it was carried to an altitude of nearly 120,000 feet, the test
vehicle separated from the balloon. An on-board rocket motor ignited
and continued to carry the vehicle to nearly 180,000 feet. NASA tested
two technologies — a supersonic inflatable aerodynamic decelerator and
a supersonic parachute. The decelerator deployed and inflated. The
supersonic parachute also deployed, but didn't inflate. (6/9)
Alabama Wants a Spaceport (Source:
Motherboard)
Though lawmakers often tout spaceports as a potential economic driver,
there’s been little formal investigation into how much a spaceport can
help an economy. Spaceports in New Mexico and California have gotten
little use so far, but SpaceX’s Texas facility is expected to add
several hundred jobs to a small town economy. SpaceX apparently will
receive as much as $30 million in incentives to build the spaceport
there.
Logistically, it makes sense to put a spaceport in Alabama—the state
could put it somewhere along the Gulf of Mexico to allow rockets to
abort missions or ditch rocket stages over water. Alabama is already
home to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and the US Space and Rocket
Center. Alabama has previously talked about building a spaceport, but
the discussions never led to any sort of formal action. Last week,
however, state senator Gerald Dial introduced this legislation, which
has already garnered support in committees in the State Senate and
House of Representatives.
Editor's Note:
The Alabama bill (SB-17) received a 24-1 vote to move forward to its
"third reading," but the Alabama legislative session ended without
conclusive action. Alabama's governor is expected to call a "special
session" in August or September and the bill's sponsor intends to
advance SB-17 to its third reading at that time. (6/3)
Cecil Spaceport State Funding at Risk
(Source: Florida Times Union)
House and Senate have been wrangling over how much to fund
infrastructure improvements at the spaceport at Cecil Airport on
Jacksonville's Westside, along with hundreds of other budget items
still in dispute. Until this evening, the dispute was over whether to
give the repurposed military base $1 million or $2 million in new
funding.
Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, surprised Cecil Spaceport supporters
this evening during a budget subcommittee meeting when he said that
Cecil had $2 million in unspent funding that would be carried over into
the next year instead of giving the spaceport any new state dollars.
Sen. Audrey Gibson, D-Jacksonville, sprang into action and insisted
that Cecil Field's existing dollars were spoken for and new money was
needed.
That is when things got interesting. A representative from Space
Florida was called to testify and told the budget committee that Cecil
Spaceport had not spent its money and would not be able to do so
anytime soon. Then Michael Stewart, spokesman for Jacksonville Aviation
Authority that operates the spaceport, came forward and said that the
money was indeed spoken for. Click here.
(6/8)
Harris, exactEarth To Place AIS Gear
on Iridium Craft (Source: Space News)
Canada’s exactEarth Ltd. and Harris Corp. of the United States on June
9 announced a strategic partnership in which Harris will use
exactEarth-patented technology to mount maritime ship-monitoring
payloads on 58 next-generation Iridium mobile communications satellites.
Harris and exactEarth will divide the cost of the payloads, to launch
in 2016 and 2017, and will also divide the growing satellite-based
Automatic Identification System (AIS) market. Melbourne, Florida-based
Harris will have exclusive rights to the technology for the U.S.
government market, while Cambridge, Ontario-based exactEarth will
market to the rest of the world. (6/9)
XCOR Selects Matrix Corp to Supply
Lynx Chine Panels (Source: Parabolic Arc)
XCOR has selected Matrix Composites of Rockledge, Florida as the
manufacturer and supplier of the XCOR Lynx Mark I spacecraft composite
chine panels. “The chines allow the Lynx fuselage to have a continuous
aero surface from the tip to the back of the strakes,” noted XCOR Chief
Technology Officer Jeff Greason. “Once the strakes are bonded and the
nose is installed, the chines will be added to unify the space between
the two, with some custom fitting at each end.”
The chine panels, manufactured by Matrix Composites, are an integral
part of the structural airframe and will allow access to vital life
support and flight control system components that are mounted within
the spacecraft. The panels are a carbon fiber and epoxy sandwich
laminate with a lightweight foam core. Matrix Composites will
manufacture the chine panels in their Rockledge, Florida facility with
completion expected by June 2015. (6/9)
Thales Alenia Space Opens Subsidiary
in Poland, Expands Presence in Europe (Source: SpaceRef)
Thales Alenia Space has expanded its presence in Europe by creating a
new subsidiary in Poland, Thales Alenia Space Polska. Based in Warsaw,
company plans to strengthen cooperation with the newly opened Polish
Space Agency, local research centers and industry to support Poland in
the construction of its own space program and the development of
satellite technologies and Earth observation systems. (6/9)
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