GAO Pushes FAA To Look At 'Space
Support Vehicle' Regs (Source: Law360)
The Government Accountability Office urged the Federal Aviation
Administration on Friday to take a look at the market for potential
“space support vehicles” such as high-performance jets and consider
whether the still highly nascent area requires dedicated new
regulation. FAA statutory or regulatory change would be needed to allow
Space Support Vehicle operations. Here is a summary
of the GAO report.
"To respond to changes in the aviation and commercial
space-transportation industries, the Secretary of Transportation should
direct the FAA Administrator to fully examine and document whether the
current regulatory framework is appropriate for aircraft that could be
considered space support vehicles, and if not, suggest legislation or
develop regulatory changes, or both, as applicable." (11/28)
Russia Falls Behind In Annual Space
Launches For First Time Ever (Source: Moscow Times)
This year, for the first time in history, Russia has fallen behind the
United States and China as the world's leading launcher of space
rockets. Russia will finish 2016 with just 18 launches, according to
open source data, compared to China's 19 and America's 20 launches.
Alexander Ivanov, deputy chief of Russia's Roscosmos space agency, said
on Nov. 29 that the launch rate has decreased because Moscow's space
strategy has changed. Currently, it's top priority is reviving existing
and aging satellite groupings. With the Russian economy in crisis,
space budgets have plummeted. Funding for the next decade of Russian
space activity stands at just 1.4 trillion rubles ($21.5 billion), a
figure that was only finalized after three rounds of cuts to proposed
funding, which began at 3.4 trillion rubles ($52.3 billion). The U.S.
space agency, NASA, received a budget of $19.3 billion in 2016 alone.
But there are other reasons Russia's launch rate may be falling behind.
Russian rockets are becoming uncharacteristically undependable.
Historically reliable vehicles like the Proton rocket have seen a slew
of catastrophic and embarrassing launch failures over the past few
years. Quality control issues now plague Russian space production
lines. (11/29)
US Launch Leadership Over Russia
Should Widen (Source: Ars Technica)
The gap should only widen in the coming years. Before its accident in
September, SpaceX was moving toward a schedule of one or more launches
per month, matching or possibly exceeding the cadence of its US-based
competitor United Launch Alliance. Blue Origin, too, could join their
ranks as early as 2019, potentially fulfilling the promise of
capitalism—that private sector rocketry can offer a cheaper, better
alternative to a government-led launch model. (11/29)
The Proper Role of the Federal
Government in Space Exploration (Source: The Hill)
I am a big fan of space exploration and I think that Elon Musk’s SpaceX
is a visionary company that is trying to conduct meaningful space
exploration. Yet, Congress might want to take a hard look at the ticket
price for Musk’s latest endeavor before spending $10 billion to
populate Mars. Men like Elon Musk are visionaries who may not be very
good at politics, yet they are great at building billion dollar
companies that break new ground.
I am a limited government conservative, yet I fully support government
funded space travel. But it must be smart and it can’t fund risky
adventures. The one concern I have about SpaceX’s plan to travel
to Mars is that, on its face, the plan seems more like a for-profit
enterprise than true space exploration. I would support pure
exploration of Mars and a project that has a stated goal of forwarding
humanity. Musk’s idea seems like he is more in it for profit than
science. (11/29)
Ex-Astronaut's Plans to Take Tourists
to Outer Atmosphere (Source: BBC)
Retired Nasa astronaut Ron Garan spoke at the summit about space
company World View's plans to take tourists 30km (20 miles) above the
Earth. Mr Garan believes travel above the Earth can bring a new
perspective to our lives on the ground. Gigantic high altitude balloons
blown up to the size of a professional football pitch will be attached
to a pressurised gondola-like craft holding two crew and six passengers.
The first trip is planned before the end of 2018. Here's a video.
(11/29)
Boeing, SpaceX, OneWeb Vie for Right
to Deploy LEO Satellite Constellations (Source: Radio)
Boeing has found that it needs to defend its proposal to launch a
constellation of low Earth orbit satellites (LEOS) in order to offer
broadband services to “all Americans.” In its latest filing with the
FCC, Boeing addresses concerns brought up by Straight Path
Communications, a small company that holds hundreds of 39 GHz licenses,
including those it acquired from Winstar. Boeing’s proposal specifies
2,956 satellites, with an initial deployment of a constellation of
1,396 LEO satellites operating at a 1,200 kilometers altitude.
SpaceX has proposed a similar system, operating at altitudes ranging
from 1,110 kilometers to 1,325 kilometers. Boeing filed its application
with the FCC in June and SpaceX submitted its application to the FCC on
Nov. 15.
OneWeb is planning the launches of at least 700 satellites as the basis
for its LEO constellation, which would orbit at an altitude of 1,200
kilometers. OneWeb proposes the use of for low-cost Ku-band user
terminals, and a small number of globally distributed Ka-band gateway
antennas. OneWeb submitted its license application with U.S. regulators
back in April, and has the backing of backing of Qualcomm’s Paul Jacobs
and Virgin Group’s Sir Richard Branson. (11/28)
Blue Origin President to Speak at
Embry-Riddle Daytona Beach Fall Commencement Ceremony (Source:
ERAU)
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Daytona Beach Campus will
welcome guest speaker Rob Meyerson, President of Blue Origin, as part
of a weekend-long honoring of graduates at its Fall 2016 Commencement,
Master’s Hooding and ROTC Commissioning ceremonies to be held Dec.
16-19.
As the university celebrates the culmination of its 90th anniversary,
the Dec. 19 Commencement ceremony will also feature another milestone
with 10 Ph.D. degrees scheduled to be awarded – the largest number in
the school’s history. (11/28)
Jacobs Supports Evolution of Thermal
Protection Capability at KSC (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
The Thermal Protection System Facility, or “TPSF”, is one of the many
capabilities at KSC that has had to redefine itself in the post-shuttle
era. Fortunately, as NASA works to repurpose Kennedy Space Center and
convert it into a multi-user spaceport, the buildings’ unique
capabilities are continuing to serve the agency as it focuses on
sending crews to asteroids, Mars, and other potential deep space
destinations.
The Thermal Protection System Facility (TPSF) Annex at KSC is used to
manufacture the advanced heat-resistant materials needed to protect
vehicles such as the Space Shuttle and now Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser
vehicle. The TPSF works in concert with the Arc Jet Complex at Ames
Research Center (ARC), which provides a high-intensity plasma jet for
simulating the heat of re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere. (11/28)
Russia's Super-Heavy Rocket Project
Estimated at $23 Billion (Source: Tass)
The project for creating Russia’s super-heavy space rocket and launch
pad for it will cost approximately 1.5 trillion rubles (roughly $23
billion at the current official rate of exchange), the first deputy CEO
of the state-run corporation Roscosmos, Aleksandr Ivanov, said on
Tuesday. (11/29)
Why NASA's First Good Look at Mars
Almost Ended Its Exploration (Source: National Geographic)
November 28 is also Red Planet Day, which commemorates the 1964 launch
of the Mariner 4 spacecraft to Mars. The images sent back to Earth as
the probe flew by Mars eight months later provided our first detailed
glimpse of the surface of an alien planet. And the data collected by
Mariner 4 provided key information about how to safely deliver future
missions to the Martian surface.
But, in the short-term, Mariner 4 was a PR disaster for NASA. The
grainy, black-and-white images revealed a barren planet pockmarked with
craters. It looked no different than the moon. Nobody had seriously
expected images of lush vegetation growing along the banks of
water-filled canals. But Mars had captivated the public imagination for
centuries. The bleak Mariner 4 images could only disappoint.
“Mars, it now appears, is a desolate world,” declared a July 30, New
York Times editorial titled “Dead Planet.” “Its surface bathed in
deadly radiation from outer space, it has very little atmosphere and
has probably never had large bodies of water such as those in which
life developed on this planet.” (11/28)
The U.S. and China Are Fighting Over
Mars, but Japan May Win the Space Race (Source: Bloomberg)
The U.S. and China are spending billions of headline-grabbing dollars
in a tacit race to put humans on Mars. Japan prefers lower-key missions
in the opposite direction, sending mechanical explorers toward Venus
and Mercury for a fraction of the price. A $290 million probe orbiting
Venus is collecting information about the scorching atmosphere that may
foretell Earth’s future. A collaborative mission with Europe will
measure Mercury’s magnetic field and electromagnetic waves. Another
craft is gliding toward an asteroid to search for water.
With a budget less than a 10th the size of NASA’s, the Japan Aerospace
Exploration Agency, or JAXA, is more about scientific endeavors with
earthly applications than spectacular travels. JAXA-launched satellites
track movements in the Earth’s crust that can portend volcanic
eruptions and earthquakes, and its astronauts are helping a Tokyo drug
developer pursue a cure for cancer.
“There’s definitely a ‘Space Race’ going on: Who can get to Mars
first?” said agency President Naoki Okumura, who’s led JAXA for three
years. “There are lots of debates, but we’re focusing on small-scale
experiments and tools that are useful for daily life.” (11/29)
Orbital ATK to Develop Critical
Technology for In-Orbit Assembly with NASA (Source: SpaceRef)
Orbital ATK announced that it has begun a public-private partnership
with NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) to establish a
Commercial Infrastructure for Robotic Assembly and Services (CIRAS) in
space. The CIRAS program will advance key technologies for in-orbit
manufacturing and assembly of large space structures that will help the
agency meet its goals for robotic and human exploration of the solar
system. (11/29)
Georgia Spaceport Opponents Question
Suitability of Site (Source: Ars Technica)
The site of a planned commercial spaceport in southeastern Georgia is a
safety and environmental threat, opponents of the project argued
Monday. Rockets launched from the proposed Spaceport Camden would fly
over about 2,000 acres of private property and more than 60 homes on
Cumberland Island and Little Cumberland Island, as well as portions of
the environmentally fragile Cumberland Island National Seashore, Dick
Parker, a Little Cumberland Island property owner, told members of a
state Senate study committee.
“We’ve got people here and a national seashore that would be put at
risk by rockets literally flying over their heads,” he said.
The study committee was formed this year after the General Assembly
balked at legislation aimed at shielding the spaceport from lawsuits
resulting from injuries or deaths suffered by passengers on commercial
space flights. The bill is considered vital to allow Georgia to compete
for commercial spaceflight business with states that provide such
liability protection to spaceport operators. Click here.
(11/28)
EchoStar Expects Early January Launch
with SpaceX (Source: Space News)
EchoStar expects to launch a communications satellite on a SpaceX
Falcon 9 in early January. The company said it is planning the launch
of the EchoStar 23 satellite on a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral on Jan.
8 or 9. That mission will likely come after the Falcon 9
return-to-flight mission, carrying 10 Iridium satellites, tentatively
scheduled for mid-December. EchoStar 23 is designed to serve the
Brazilian market, and the company is facing a mid-2017 deadline from
that country's regulators for bringing the satellite into service. The
company is also planning the launch of the EchoStar 21 satellite on a
Proton Dec. 22. (11/28)
NASA Plans More Extended Stays on ISS
(Source: Ars Technica)
NASA is planning several more one-year missions on the ISS. NASA
officials say they would like to do five more one-year missions,
modeled after the one flown by NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian
cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko that concluded early this year. The
earliest the next one would begin is September 2018, and some of the
one-year missions could overlap with each other. The additional
extended missions would make it more likely scientists can get
statistically significant data on the effects of long-duration zero-g
spaceflight. (11/28)
Love and a Red Planet: Popular
Entertainment and the Settlement of Mars (Source: Space Review)
A new wave of movies and television shows depicts humans exploring, and
settling, Mars. In the first of a two-part essay, Dwayne Day examines
one upcoming movie that mixes teen romance with Mars settlement. Click here.
(11/28)
Recommendations to the Next
Administration Regarding Commercial Space (Source: Space Review)
Prior to the election, the National Space Society convened a group of
experts to discuss what the next administration should do in space.
That group provides here a set of five recommendations about how the
government can bolster commercial space initiatives. Click here.
(11/28)
Commercial Space in the Next
Administration (Source: Space Review)
Since the election, much of the attention space policy has received has
focused on the future of NASA programs and the agency’s leadership.
Jeff Foust reports there are commercial space issues for the incoming
administration to contend with as well. Click here.
(11/28)
A New Approach to Selling Human Mars
Exploration (Source: Space Review)
A long-running challenge for advocates of human Mars exploration is
building up and sustaining public interest in such missions. Joseph
Smith argues that the best way to do that might be to go all-in on
robotic Mars missions. Click here.
(11/28)
Space Florida Welcomes Trump
Administration's Space Focus (Source: Space Florida)
“On behalf of Space Florida, I welcome President-Elect Trump’s incoming
administration and look forward to continuing our positive relationship
with NASA. I have been encouraged by what I have heard of
President-Elect Donald Trump’s plans for our national space program. As
the incoming administration develops policies and priorities for the
upcoming term, Space Florida encourages President-Elect Trump’s
incoming administration to sustain the balance of programs of record,
including NASA’s Commercial Cargo and Crew programs, Space Launch
System (SLS), Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (Orion), and affiliated
Ground Systems Development and Operations.
Collectively, these programs sustain the Cape Canaveral Spaceport in
Florida, this nation’s premier gateway to a great future in space."
(11/28)
Courtney Stadd Offers Advice for Space
Transition Team (Source: Space News)
When you come to NASA, you and your team will be assigned a location at
NASA Headquarters, which will become your transition office for
processing agency materials and meeting with your team and select
agency officials. I recommend you choose to meet officials in their
offices and treat the transition office as a hide-away for the team to
collect its thoughts and lay out future plans.
Bureaucracies relish process and paperwork, so prepare yourself to be
offered a lovely set of tabbed notebooks (in physical or electronic
form). These will include background on all the major programs,
position descriptions of all senior officials at HQ and the field
centers, budget history and out-year projections. It is worth poring
through, but don’t forget the notebooks represent what the
bureaucracy and the outgoing administration want you and the new
administration to see. Click here.
(11/21)
US Military Prepares for the Next
Frontier: Space War (Source: CNN)
Since man first explored space, it has been a largely peaceful
environment. But now US adversaries are deploying weapons beyond
Earth's atmosphere, leading the US military to prepare for the
frightening prospect of war in space. Click here.
(11/29)
Astronaut Vision Issues Understood:
Fluid That Cushions Brain Floods Eye Cavities in Microgravity
(Source: Ars Technica)
When Scott Kelly returned from his one-year space mission last March,
he admitted that he, like many of his colleagues, came back with vision
troubles. In fact, nearly two-thirds of astronauts who have gone on
long-duration space missions inexplicably returned with blurry vision,
flattened eyeballs, and inflamed optic nerves—and now researchers have
a new hypothesis as to why.
Despite years of research, the cause of the problems remains fuzzy.
However, scientists have dubbed the astronauts’ condition “visual
impairment intracranial pressure syndrome” or VIIP. The name is based
on the leading theory that, in space, bodily fluids normally dragged
down by gravity can freely flow into the head and increase the pressure
on the brain and eyeballs. A researcher at Georgia Tech is even looking
into a mechanical way to draw fluid back down to the legs to spare
space-goers' eyesight. (11/29)
Got A Great Idea For Dealing With Poop
In A Spacesuit? Let NASA Know (Source: NPR)
NASA is looking for some help making the solar system's most portable
port-a-potty. So if you think you know the best way to poop in a
spacesuit, the agency is ready to hear it ... and you might make
$30,000 for your trouble.
The "Space Poop Challenge" — that's what it's called, we're not making
this up — is the latest project of the NASA Tournament Lab, a program
to invite members of the public to help come up with "novel ideas or
solutions" for space-related problems. It's hosted on HeroX, a
crowdsourcing platform. And here's the challenge: Create an "in-suit
waste management system" that can handle six days' worth of bathroom
needs. (11/28)
NASA X-Ray Tech Could Enable Superfast
Communication in Deep Space (Source: Space.com)
New technology could use X-rays to transmit data at high rates over
vast distances in outer space, as well as enable communications with
hypersonic vehicles during re-entry, when radio communications are
impossible, NASA scientists say.
The technology would combine multiple NASA projects currently in
progress to demonstrate the feasibility of X-ray communications from
outside the International Space Station. The radio waves used by mobile
phones, Wi-Fi and, of course, radios, are one kind of light. Other
forms of light can carry data as well; for instance, fiber-optic
telecommunications rely on pulses of visible and near-infrared light.
(11/28)
What Will We Do When Hubble Dies?
(Source: Seeker)
t's an old telescope, unmaintained since the last space shuttle mission
visited in 2009. While the observatory is in excellent health today,
it's expected to stop collecting data sometime in the 2020s. What will
we lose when the telescope finally dies?
NASA is quick to point out that the James Webb Space Telescope,
expected to launch in 2018, will enhance Hubble's capabilities in many
ways. But for the telescope's higher resolution and ability to peer
back to the very early days of the universe, there is one key thing it
doesn't have: ultraviolet capabilities. (It also will lack some of
Hubble's fine spectral resolution, and ability to observe a special
spectral line called H-alpha that is useful for nebulae and stars.)
Astronomers are being urged to submit as many UV proposals to Hubble as
possible because once it dies, there are no immediate plans to launch a
successor. (Astronomers could then pull from the archive as needed in
future decades.) (11/28)
Russia to Develop Super-Heavy Class
Rocket for Building Station on Moon (Source: Tass)
Russia is about to launch a project for building a new super-heavy
space rocket that will make it possible to create a research station on
the Moon someday, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin while addressing
an audience at the space rocket corporation Energiya.
The project for creating a super-heavy class rocket was approved in the
autumn of 2014, but in the spring of 2015 the head of the space rocket
corporation Roscosmos Igor Komarov said the work on a new rocket had to
be postponed. The project was absent from the federal space program for
2016-2025 adopted last spring. At the same time there are plans for
creating a Feniks rocket, which is seen as the first stage of a future
super-heavy rocket. (11/28)
New Russian Resupply Ship May Perform
Maiden Flight After 2020 (Source: Interfax)
Russia's new resupply ship with an increased lift capacity may perform
its maiden flight after 2020, Energia Corporation said. "The resupply
ship with an increased lift capacity, which will give transportation
and engineering support to the International Space Station (ISS), may
take off for the first time after 2020," the corporation said. The
conceptual design of the spaceship will be ready in December 2016, the
corporation said, noting that the spaceship would not be a re-entry
vehicle. (11/28)
Massive Ice Reservoir on Mars Could
Keep Settlers Alive (Source: Seeker)
Beyond Earth, Mars is the most habitable planet in the solar system —
but that doesn't mean we can simply move there and expect to live off
the land. Though the surface of Mars is more barren (and a lot more
toxic) than the most arid desert on Earth, NASA has uncovered a vast
underground supply of water ice that may, someday, be an oasis for
future Mars explorers.
Water isn't only a requirement for keeping astronauts alive, it's
needed for fuel production and would sustain any burgeoning Martian
agriculture. Put simply, unless we find Mars water and understand how
to access it, our Mars colonization dreams are over. But the discovery
of a vast reservoir of subsurface water ice by an orbiting NASA Mars
satellite could represent a game-changer for the future of Mars
colonization. (11/28)
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