August 16, 2017

Iran Threatens To Quit Nuke Deal Unless US Sanctions Stop (Sources: Law 360, DW)
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani threatened Tuesday to pull out of a 2015 agreement to halt Iran's nuclear program in exchange for the easing of certain international sanctions, if the U.S. does not stop imposing new sanctions on Iran. Each side has accused the other of violating the spirit the 2015 deal, which saw the world's leading power agree to lift sanctions against Iran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program and caps on its uranium enrichment levels.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly lambasted the nature of the deal, once describing it as the "worst deal ever." Iran, meanwhile, has carried out a series of ballistic tests in recent weeks, prompting the US to respond by imposing sanctions against individuals and companies alleged to be supporting Iran's missile program. That, in turn, has only spurred the Iranian regime to ratchet up military spending by more than half a billion dollars to fight Washington's "adventurism." Rouhani admitted that he would prefer to stick to the nuclear agreement, but warned that this was not the "only option." (8/15)

AI Likely to Guide Future Space Probes (Source: Space News)
Artificial intelligence will play a greater role in future space missions as their complexity grows. NASA's next Mars rover, Mars 2020, will implement AI to allow it to be more autonomous, making better use of limited communications with Earth. The same will be true for more distant missions, like the Europa Clipper mission to Jupiter's icy moon Europa, and even for commercial crew vehicles under development, reducing the time astronauts have to spend training to fly them. (8/15)

Air Force Should Improve Nuclear Command and Control (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Air Force needs to do more to improve nuclear command and control issues, according to a new report. The Government Accountability Office, in a report issued Tuesday, said that the service's nuclear command, control, and communications systems, which include satellites as well as terrestrial assets, face both short- and long-term issues. The Air Force, the GAO concluded, has not had the resources to focus on those long-term issues, including modernization of elements of the overall system. (8/15)

Brooks Loses Bid for Alabama Senate Seat (Source: Politico)
An Alabama congressman active on space issues missed out in his bid to become a senator. Rep. Mo Brooks finished third in the Republican primary for the special election to fill the seat formerly held by Sen. Jeff Sessions, who resigned to become U.S. attorney general. Former state supreme court judge Roy Moore and Luther Strange, appointed to fill the seat on an interim basis, finished first and second and will go on to a runoff next month. Brooks, whose district includes NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, serves as vice chair of the House space subcommittee. (8/16)

Dragon Arrives at ISS (Source: NASA)
A Dragon cargo spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station early Wednesday. Astronauts used the station's robotic arm to grapple the Dragon spacecraft at 6:52 a.m. Eastern, and will berth it to the station later this morning. The Dragon, launched Monday, is carrying more than 2,900 kilograms of scientific investigations and cargo for the station. (8/16)

UrtheCast Delays Constellation Plans for Standalone Satellite (Source: Space News)
UrtheCast will build a standalone radar satellite for an unnamed customer, pushing back a planned constellation. UrtheCast said this week that the unidentified customer signed a contract valued at more than $78 million for a single synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite. A second customer is in negotiations with UrtheCast for a similar deal. If the second deal is concluded, the two SAR satellites would launch together in 2021. That would delay the company's OptiSAR constellation of eight high-resolution optical-imaging satellites and eight SAR satellites by at least a year, to 2023, but also reduce technical and financial risks for that system. (8/15)

NASA Contracts Energy Firm to Refine Nuclear Thermal Propulsion Concepts (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
As the U.S. government continues to pursue plans for a crewed mission to Mars, NASA has contracted with BWXT Nuclear Energy Inc. of Lynchburg, Virginia, to advance concepts in Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP), which could drastically reduce travel times to Mars. This is part of NASA’s Game Changing Development Program, which takes ideas from academia and industry as well as NASA and other government programs, to advance new approaches to space technologies to accommodate the changing needs of U.S. space efforts.

NTP is not a new concept, but it was abandoned in 1972 when plans for a Mars mission were shelved. NASA conducted ground tests since 1955 to determine the viability of NTP and has occasionally been revisited as a conceptual part of Mars mission feasibility studies. (8/14)

NASA May Finally be Getting a Leader—Oklahoma Pilot Jim Bridenstine (Source: Ars Technica)
NASA may finally be close to getting some clarity about its leadership during the Trump administration. On Tuesday, NASA Watch reported that the President will nominate US Representative Jim Bridenstine (R-OK) as administrator and Aerojet Rocketdyne Vice President John Schumacher as deputy administrator. Both men have been rumored to be nominated for these posts in recent weeks, but there have been no official confirmations as yet.

Two sources familiar with Washington, DC, space politics confirmed the choices to Ars, but one of them offered a caveat. "I have heard same from multiple sources, but this is Trump world," one DC-based source said. A formal announcement has been in the works for September, but a date and location have not yet been set. "To the best of my knowledge, there have been no White House announcements on this subject matter at this time," NASA's associate administrator for communications, Jen Rae Wang, told Ars on Tuesday evening. (8/15)

Orbital ATK Prepping Minotaur for Cape Canaveral Spaceport Debut (Source: Aviation Week)
Orbital ATK is preparing for its first Minotaur launch from Florida, aiming to put a gap-filler space surveillance satellite into orbit for the U.S. Air Force’s Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) office. Comprising three rocket motors from decommissioned Peacekeeper ICBMs and a pair of Orion 38 second stages, the Minotaur IV is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 46 (LC46) during a 4-hr. launch window that opens at 11:15 p.m. EDT Aug. 25. (8/16)

Smallsat Developers Propose Self-Regulation to Address Orbital Debris Concerns (Source: Space News)
As the number of cubesats and other small satellites grows, experts advise that some degree of industry self-regulation will be needed to avoid collisions that could lead to more restrictive government regulations. Representatives from across the smallsat community said that while the odds of a collision involving a smallsat remained low, such an event could trigger an overreaction of government regulations if the community isn’t prepared. (8/15)

Could Georgia Become the Next Launchpad for Space Startups? (Source: Hypepotamus)
Camden County is located close to the Florida border in the southeastern corner of Georgia. Its population is a little over 50,000, about twice the size of the Georgia Tech student population.

Vector is just one of hundreds of startups capitalizing on the growth of the private space industry. The global space economy is already over $300 billion. The federal government left a gap with NASA’s exit from the shuttle launch business; all cargo going to and from the Space Station is outsourced to private companies. Space tourism is becoming an attainable prospect. All this opens up opportunity for private space startups. Click here. (8/15)

Cosmic Magnifying Lens Reveals Inner Jets of Black Holes (Source: Caltech)
Astronomers using Caltech's Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO) have found evidence for a bizarre lensing system in space, in which a large assemblage of stars is magnifying a much more distant galaxy containing a jet-spewing supermassive black hole. The discovery provides the best view yet of blobs of hot gas that shoot out from supermassive black holes. (8/15)

NASA Science-Enabling Relay Satellite Poised for Launch Atop Atlas 5 (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
Resembling a cocooned insect with antennas and appendages tucked snuggly to its body for launch, NASA’s latest communications relay hub will be shot into space Friday to blossom in geosynchronous orbit for routing signals to and from the International Space Station, the Hubble Space Telescope and three dozen science observatories.

The $408 million Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-M, or TDRS-M, will be sent aloft aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket. Liftoff from Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral is scheduled for 8:03 a.m. EDT. “The spacecraft continues our ability to provide a data path for communications and tracking services from all of the different users out there in orbit today from human spaceflight component of NASA to robotic missions,” said Dave Littmann, NASA’s TDRS project manager. (8/15)

North Korea Puts Spotlight on U.S. Space-Based Missile Defense (Source: Space News)
North Korea’s threat to strike Guam with a salvo of ballistic missiles has raised the stakes for a U.S. missile shield some see as compromised by potentially exploitable seams in its all-important space layer. Years of program changes, delays and cancellations have created gaps in parts of the space-based layer of the missile defense shield meant to protect the United States and some allies from ballistic missile attacks, say military space analysts, although U.S. missile defense officials dispute such claims.

“The biggest deficiency in current U.S. missile defense plans is the absence of a satellite constellation for reliably tracking ballistic threats during the midcourse of their trajectory,” said Loren Thompson, chief operating officer and space analyst for the Lexington Institute think tank based in Washington. “Once boosters burn out and warheads are coasting through space, their signatures become difficult to detect — especially if an attacker is using penetration aids like decoys to confuse defenders,” he said.

Of mounting concern, said John Pike, military analyst for GlobalSecurity.com, is the possibility that  North Korea or Iran will  “get more serious” about their submarine-launched ballistic missiles. If that happens, he said, “the whole thing will require a complete rethink.” (8/15)