Satellite Operators Hope to Sustain
Three Viable Launch Options (Source: Aviation Week)
At a time when Russia’s heavy-lift Proton has lost the confidence of
the commercial market, the June 28 failure of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket
raises long-standing questions as to how many launch vehicles the
market needs to remain healthy, and how many it can sustain over time.
Up to now only rockets with strong government backing have been able to
survive on the roughly 20-25 commercial geostationary satellites
launched to orbit each year. (7/2)
Scaled Composites Continues Rutan’s
Innovation Culture (Source: Aviation Week)
The model for fast-paced development and testing in aviation has long
been Scaled Composites, and that has survived both acquisition by
aerospace giant Northrop Grumman and involvement in the massive
Stratolaunch project, say insiders. “The innovation and culture, the
creativity and environment that we work so hard to protect is really
the constant here,” says Kevin Mickey, president of the Mojave,
California-based aircraft design and flight-test company. (7/2)
You Don't Have to be Elon Musk to
Invest in Space (Source: CNBC)
SpaceX's rocket carrying supplies to the International Space Station
may have exploded into a million pieces this past weekend, but the
company's dream of sending up manned spaceflights in 2017 are
undaunted, according to the company. Since SpaceX is still a private
company, investors don't pay for the woes of failed missions. But some
other public space exploration competitors are worth investing in
because they're more diversified, say analysts. Click here. (7/3)
The Odds Of The Next Rocket Failure
Are Not Small (Source: Buzzfeed)
Despite more than half a century of space launches since the Soviet
Union’s 1957 launch of Sputnik, rockets still blow up, go off course,
or otherwise misbehave with a steady regularity. Why? “Most rockets are
experiments,” engineering risk expert M. Elisabeth Paté-Cornell of
Stanford University told BuzzFeed News.
A handful of launches doesn’t really qualify as the full-blown kind of
testing that other machines get, she said. Because there are so few
opportunities for trial and error, the odds that a rocket will fail
increase with each launch — until there is a failure, after which
scientists can figure out what isn’t quite right. (7/3)
Editorial: A Frustrating Setback on
Spaceport Road (Source: Las Cruces Sun-News)
The oft-frustrated efforts to construct a much-needed southern road to
Spaceport America suffered another setback recently when it was
discovered that the county's proposed corridor for the roadway did not
align with the corridor being reviewed by the Bureau of Land Management.
County Engineer Robert Armijo told members of the County Commission
that it was "unclear" how the mistake was made. But the consequences of
the mistake are clear — more delays. The county now has two choices,
redesign its plans to match those of the BLM, or extend the
environmental review process to the new area, with all the additional
delays and uncertainty that will bring. County officials have wisely
chosen to redesign their route, but that will add another two or three
months to the process. (7/2)
Orbital ATK Chosen To Launch U.S. Air
Force’s ORS-5 Satellite (Source: Space News)
Orbital ATK has won a $23.6 million contract to launch a small space
surveillance satellite for the U.S. Air Force’s Operationally
Responsive Space Office in 2017. The announcement did not say which
rocket Orbital would use to launch the ORS-5 satellite or where the
launch would take place. The Air Force, in an April 2014 posting to the
Federal Business Opportunities website, detailed ORS-5 launch
requirements that fit the performance of Orbital’s Pegasus XL or the
Minotaur rockets. (7/3)
Russia Launches Progress M-28M Cargo
Load to ISS (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
The Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos ) successfully launched the
Progress M-28M cargo craft on July 3, with approximately 2.4 metric
tons of food, fuel, and supplies for the International Space Station.
The cargo spacecraft’s lifted-off atop a Soyuz-U rocket at the Baikonur
Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. (7/3)
Arianespace Delays Launch
(Source: Arianespace)
Arianespace has postponed the launch of two satellites scheduled for
next week. The company announced Friday that the Ariane 5 launch of the
Star One C4 and MSG-4 satellites, scheduled for July 8, will be delayed
by a few days to perform "additional checks." The company did not
disclose the nature of those checks, or when the launch would be
rescheduled, but an industry source said the check was due to a "minor
issue" on Star One C4 that will delay the launch about a week. (7/3)
Federal Contractors Must Report
Inversions Under New Rule (Source: Law360)
The Department of Defense, NASA and the General Services Administration
have finalized changes to acquisitions rules requiring contractors
newly incorporated overseas to come clean to contracting officers about
their domestic inversion status, part of the Obama administration’s
efforts to keep federal contractors based stateside. (7/2)
SpaceX In-Flight Abort Test Moves From
California to Florida (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
NASA announced that SpaceX’s in-flight-abort test would move from
Vandenberg Air Force Base’s Space Launch Complex 4E in California – to
Kennedy Space Center’s historic Launch Complex 39A in Florida. The test
will likely take place later than this fall, when the test had been
scheduled to take place.
Before the in-flight-abort test takes place, SpaceX will launch an
orbital test flight of the crew-rated dragon (without the crew). Once
that mission has been completed and that Dragon has been recovered and
restored – it will be used on the in-flight-abort test. Whereas the May
6, 2015 pad-abort-test demonstrated the crew-rated Dragon’s ability to
lift astronauts away from an accident at the launch site, the
in-flight-abort test will validate the craft’s ability to do the same –
from a launch vehicle on ascent. (6/2)
SpaceWorks Shoots for the Moon...and
Mars (Source: Reporter Newspapers)
He still sets his sights on space travel and the moon, but now he and
others at his 15-year-old company also think about Mars, or asteroids,
or high-altitude flight. Olds, a former Georgia Tech professor, is
owner and CEO of SpaceWorks Enterprises Inc., a Dunwoody-based, private
aerospace engineering company. SpaceWorks consults with NASA, the U.S.
military and private aerospace companies about engineering problems
such as how to set up refueling stations around the moon or how to
divert an asteroid headed toward Earth.
Olds started SpaceWorks while teaching at Georgia Tech. He says
he learned about science from his father, but he was inspired to go
into business by his entrepreneurial grandfather, who lived in
Tennessee. “I wanted to try my hand at owning my own business.” About a
decade ago, he moved to SpaceWorks fulltime. “We had maybe five people
and I would come in on Fridays,” he said. “Then we had a couple of big
projects from NASA and I thought, ‘I need to be more involved in that.’”
SpaceWorks now employs about 15 people, he said. They’re looking 15 to
20 years into the future, Olds said. “I can’t remember what I wore to
work yesterday, but I can imagine what 10 years from now will look
like,” Olds said. “It’s a little bit science fiction and a little bit
science.” Click here.
(7/3)
NASA Met Unprecedented Challenges
Sending Spacecraft to Pluto (Source: Space Daily)
NASA's New Horizons mission presented challenges like no other, but its
goal also was unprecedented. The spacecraft will soon begin a study of
the farthest reaches of the solar system. It was an historic journey of
over 3.6 billion miles that began at the agency's Florida spaceport.
Plans call for New Horizons to send the first-ever, close-up images and
scientific observations of distant Pluto, its system of large and small
moons, and the Kuiper Belt. A region of the solar system beyond the
planets, the Kuiper Belt consists mainly of small planetary bodies.
To reach its primary target, the New Horizons spacecraft has traveled
farther away and a longer time - more than nine years - than any
previous space mission. The flight through the Pluto system is planned
to begin July 14, 2015. (7/3)
Rocket Lab Commits to Protect New
Zealand Environment (Source: RadioNZ)
The company proposing a rocket launch pad on Canterbury's coast says it
is committed to protecting the environment. Rocket Lab's proposed site
on Kaitorete Spit was officially unveiled this morning in front of
Prime Minister John Key and representatives from the Department of
Conservation. Rocket Lab's chief executive, Peter Beck, said the
company is all about reducing the cost of reaching space.
"New Zealand is not known for space, but we became the first private
company in the Southern Hemisphere to launch a rocket into space." He
told those gathered for the unveiling that the firm is committed to
protecting the environment around Kaitorete Spit. "I acknowledge the
spit is special from a ecological stand-point and a cultural
stand-point, so we want to be excellent tenants on the land." (7/3)
The End of the Universe: Dependent of
Gooeyness? (Source: Huffington Post)
The Big Rip, the Big Crunch, the Big Freeze, it pretty much sounds like
a list of 'big' Hollywood B-movies. Funny as they may sound, these are
some of the most fundamental theories for the beginning and the ending
of the Universe. Viscosity, that sticky, gooey consistency of things,
could actually hold the key for astrophysics to determine how it will
all end billions of years into the future.
The Big Freeze, for example, considers that all available material in
the Universe used to form new stars will have been used up; existing
stars would eventually burn out. Being the main producers of thermal
energy, the cosmic eternity would then suffer from the cold vastness of
space. Black holes, those enigmatic consumers of everything that
crosses their path, will eventually evaporate --through a process
called Hawking radiation-- as space becomes a cold living ground. Click
here.
(7/2)
Resolution to Replace California's
Statue in U.S. Capitol Put on Hold (Source: LA Times)
A measure calling for the statue of Father Junipero Serra in the U.S.
Capitol to be replaced with one of NASA astronaut Sally Ride, the first
American woman in space, was shelved in the Legislature on Thursday.
The measure has been controversial since it was introduced in January.
Roman Catholics in particular have criticized the proposal to remove
the likeness of Serra, an 18th century Franciscan friar who created the
California mission system and whose legacy has been controversial. (7/2)
Editorial: NASA Needs Clearer Mission,
More Money (Source: Tampa Bay Times)
Exploring in the unforgiving environment of space will always present
daunting challenges. That's why NASA's vision needs to be robust and
clear. President Barack Obama vacillated early in his tenure before
calling on the space program to envision a manned mission to Mars. But
the money to pursue that lofty goal has not materialized.
The focus instead has shifted to replacing the shuttle program with a
new commercial crew capsule to ferry astronauts to the space station,
thus relieving the need to buy seats on Russian Soyuz capsules.
America's space conversation is sadly unimaginative, with more chatter
about space tourism for billionaires than a real strategy for putting
Americans into deep space. NASA's budget of about $18 billion is not
expected to increase markedly before 2020.
Private contractors have long played a major role in America's space
program. But NASA needs to be more of a driving force in setting this
nation's agenda in space. There is nothing wrong with helping to build
a strong commercial space industry; few states have as large a stake in
that effort as Florida. But NASA needs to get a firmer grip on the many
moving parts of the space program and better define what frontier
America will explore and when. (7/2)
Preparations Underway at Wallops for
Orbital ATK Antares Return to Flight (Source: America Space)
Seven months after an Antares rocket carrying the doomed Orb-3 mission
plummeted onto its launch pad, reconstruction efforts are in full swing
in preparation for the rocket’s return to flight.
As catastrophic as the accident appeared, the damage to Launch Complex
0A was not as extensive as expected. Antares impacted just feet from
the north wall of the flame trench. The reinforced concrete structure
protected much of the launch pad from the force of the resulting
explosion. Fortunately, the nearby storage tanks on the north side of
the pad were also spared in the accident.
Orbital ATK will soon take delivery of the new RD-181 engine from NPO
Energomash, which will replace the Aerojet AJ-26 that powered the first
stage of Antares. In the meantime, preparations are underway in the
Horizontal Integration Facility (HIF) to modify an existing booster
core to accept the RD-181. Launch pad renovations are expected to be
completed in time for a 29-second static test firing of the new Antares
booster by the end of the year. The first launch of the upgraded
Antares is on track for next spring. (7/2)
Ex-Im is Closed to New Business; Will
the U.S. Space Industry Suffer? (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Export-Import Bank, as expected, closed its doors to new
business July 1 following the U.S. Congress’s inability to renew bank
authorization, but said all existing loans and guarantees will be
maintained and carried to their maturity. The same U.S. industry
officials who had hoped Congress would approve an 11th-hour
reauthorization said Ex-Im is likely to be shuttered only for a few
months, the time needed for congressional backers to regroup.
Congressional opponents to Ex-Im have marshaled several arguments on
their behalf, but the common thread – backed by some U.S. airlines — is
that the bank is an unnecessary government hand on the scales of the
free market. (7/2)
U.S. Spending on Space Protection
Could Hit $8 Billion through 2020 (Source: Space News)
Emerging threats from Russia and China and an eye-opening government
study known as the Space Portfolio Review have led the White House to
add as much as $8 billion to intelligence and defense budgets over the
next five years for activities to improve the resiliency of U.S.
national security space capabilities, sources told SpaceNews.
Previously, Defense Department officials said they had budgeted $5
billion in fiscal years 2016-2020 for what they describe as space
protection activities, a broad category that includes space
surveillance. The funding is contained in both classified and
unclassified budget projections, these officials have said. (7/2)
ULA Makes Space Look Easy, But it’s Not
(Source: Decatur Daily)
As NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, who is spending almost a year on the
ISS, said via Twitter after Sunday’s failed launch, “Space is hard.”
It’s not surprising Congress tends to forget exactly how hard it is.
United Launch Alliance has had a monopoly on military launches since it
was formed in 2006 out of a merger of the rocket divisions of Boeing
and Lockheed Martin. Since then, it has had a phenomenal 96 successful
launches. Both its Atlas V and Delta IV rockets have near-perfect
success rates, both before ULA was formed and since.
ULA has been a victim of its own success. Its reliability is so high
its successful launches have become boring to the nation. Space is
hard, but ULA makes it look easy. ULA rockets are expensive. Because
ULA’s success has lulled many into the assumption the nation can count
on rockets getting their payloads into orbit, Congress has begun to
focus on cost. Monopolies are bad, many in Congress figure, even
monopolies tightly controlled by NASA and the Defense Department.
Competition is good, because it decreases cost and encourages
innovation. (7/2)
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