October 16, 2017

SpaceX Adds Mystery “Zuma” Mission, Iridium-4 Aims for Vandenberg Landing (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
In what has already been a busy year for SpaceX, the commercial launch provider is adding one more mission to its jammed-packed end-of-year schedule. A mysterious mission codenamed “Zuma” will launch No-Earlier-Than Nov. 10 from LC-39A. Meanwhile, CRS-13 is slipping at least one week, and the Iridium NEXT-4 mission from Vandenberg has received permission to debut RTLS landing of the Falcon 9 booster back at SLC-4W.

Northrop Grumman is the payload provider for Zuma through a commercial launch contract with SpaceX for a LEO satellite with a mission type labeled as “government” and a needed launch date range of 1-30 November 2017. Zuma represents a likely rapid launch response from SpaceX for the satellite’s operator.

Under the recently realigned launch manifest, Koreasat-5A (on a brand new Falcon 9) is targeted to leave LC-39A NET Oct. 30. Meanwhile, nearby LC-40 will be “flight ready” by the end of November after extensive repairs and modifications. (10/16)  

Why Should We Go? Reevaluating the Rationales for Human Spaceflight (Source: Space Review)
A perennial struggle for space advocates has been developing rationales for human spaceflight that can be sustained over the long term. Cody Knipfer argues that now is the time to reexamine those arguments, particularly given the rise of commercial human spaceflight. Click here. (10/16)
 
Back to Back to the Moon (Source: Space Review)
With a statement by the vice president at the National Space Council meeting, NASA is back in the business of returning humans to the Moon. Jeff Foust reports on what that means for agency plans, including potentially greater roles for international and commercial partners. Click here. (10/16)

From Skylab to Shuttle to the Smithsonian (Source: Space Review)
When NASA transitioned from the Skylab program to the space shuttle, once piece of Skylab hardware almost found new life. Dwayne Day describes studies on adapting instrument hardware for the shuttle, and how that hardware made its way instead to the National Air and Space Museum. Click here. (10/16)
 
Some Commentary About the National Space Council’s Inaugural Meeting (Source: Space Review)
The first meeting of the National Space Council earlier this month is, to many, a good start for the administration’s focus on space policy. Mike Snead offers some recommendations for the council’s upcoming activities in the first of a two-part report. Click here. (10/16)

Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson, and Finding My Virginity (Source: Space Review)
It’s been 13 years since the last suborbital flight of SpaceShipOne, and Virgin Galactic is still at least months away from flying people into space on SpaceShipTwo. Jeff Foust examines what company founder Richard Branson had to say about the company’s progress and setbacks in his new autobiography. Click here. (10/16)

Astronomers Have Captured Images of "the Greatest Fireworks Show in the Universe" (Source: Washington Post)
This is the story of a gold rush in the sky. Astronomers have now seen and heard a pair of dead stars collide, giving them the first glimpse of what they call a “cosmic forge,” where the world’s jewels were minted billions of years ago.

The collision rattled space-time and sent a wave of fireworks across the universe, setting off sensors in space and on Earth on Aug. 17 as well as producing a long loud chirp in antennas designed to study the Einsteinian ripples in the cosmic fabric known as gravitational waves. It set off a stampede around the world as astronomers scrambled to turn their telescopes in search of a mysterious and long-sought kind of explosion called a kilonova.

After two months of underground and social media rumblings, the first wave of news is being reported Monday about one of the least studied of cosmic phenomena: the merger of dense remnants known as neutron stars, the shrunken cores of stars that have collapsed and burst. Click here. (10/16)

DOD Pushing Forward For Commercial Radar Satellite (Source: Space News)
A Defense Department unit plans to press ahead with supporting commercial radar satellite initiatives despite a funding setback. Congressional appropriators rejected a request to transfer $50 million to the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx) for support of commercial synthetic aperture radar efforts. DIUx has already provided funding to a "handful" of companies developing satellites or analysis tools for radar imagery. The Pentagon is examining other ways to continue to support the program. (10/16)

New Zealand Establishes Legal Framework for Launches (Source: Stuff.co.nz)
A new space law is set to go into effect in New Zealand later this year. The Outer Space and High-altitudes Activities Act, passed by the country's parliament in July, takes effect in December to provide a legal framework for space launches from the country. The law was prompted by Rocket Lab, which launches its Electron rockets from the country and is planning its second launch in the "next couple of months." (10/16)

Some Support at FCC for C-Band Sharing (Source: Space News)
An FCC commissioner has offered support for an industry proposal for sharing C-band spectrum between satellite and terrestrial users. At a conference Friday, Michael O'Rielly said the joint proposal by Intel and Intelsat was "very beneficial" and "provides one mechanism to look at closely." That proposal would allow satellite operators to clear out parts of C-band spectrum desired by terrestrial wireless companies for 5G services on a case-by-case basis, with the wireless providers compensating the satellite operators for moving customers to different bands. (10/16)

Satellite Data Show Largest CO2 Increase Comes From Earth’s Tropics (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
Data collected by NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) satellite, launched in 2014 to measure changing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) worldwide, indicates that Earth's tropics have been the largest sources of recent CO2 emissions.

OCO-2 measured record CO2 increases in 2015 and 2016, which coincided with one of the largest ever El Niño events. El Niño is a cyclic phenomenon in which a band of warm ocean water develops in the central and eastern equatorial regions of the Pacific Ocean and impacts weather globally. (10/16)

Bringing Back Supersonic Flight, with Quieter Sonic Booms (Source: CBS)
This past weekend, at Edwards Air Force Base in California, the U.S. Air Force celebrated the 70th anniversary of Captain Chuck Yeager becoming the first pilot to fly faster than the speed of sound. Yeager, now 94, was there to commemorate the event.

The only commercial passenger plane that flew faster than sound on a regular basis was the now-retired Concorde back in the 1970s, '80s and '90s. But the Concorde was only allowed to go that fast over the ocean, because supersonic flight creates a disturbing side effect -- a loud explosion of energy called a sonic boom.

Today, NASA engineers are working to lower the boom, so airlines can quietly hit those speeds and cut travel times for everyone in half -- seven decades after Yeager's historic achievement. (10/16)

SpaceFab Plans Public Use Commercial Space Telescope (Source: Parabolic Arc)
SpaceFab.US is a new space startup company working on space telescope satellites, asteroid mining, and space manufacturing. The company, also known as SpaceFab, is designing and building its first space telescope, scheduled for launch in late 2019.

The satellite, called the Waypoint space telescope, will be available to the general public to take astronomical or Earth observation pictures, making it the world’s first dual purpose commercial space telescope. It can be used for astronomy when orbiting over the night side of Earth, and used for Earth observation when orbiting over the daylight side, about 40 to 50 minutes on each side. (10/16)

What NASA's Simulated Missions Tell Us About the Need for Martian Law (Source: Space Daily)
Space law has always supported the position that objects and stations placed on celestial bodies are to remain under national ownership, jurisdiction and control. Private companies or other entrepreneurs cannot therefore have legitimacy or mine these bodies for resources unless they exercise lawful control through a sovereign state.

Current rules say the establishment of a space station and the area required for its operation should be notified to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. These would then be under the exclusive jurisdiction of the state where the spacecraft is registered or the state bringing the component parts of the station.

In many ways, this makes sense - it is difficult to see how a permanent station on Mars may be maintained without some form of tenure of the ground. The same goes for tenure over areas around the station sufficient for its maintenance (such as creating fuel from nearby resources). In fact, the closest practical analogies to a future Mars station in current jurisdictional terms would be the Antarctic stations maintained by Antarctic claimant states. Click here. (10/16)

As Paris Climate Goals Recede, Geoengineering Looms Larger (Source: Space Daily)
90 percent of projections in the UN climate science panel's most recent report that would keep the planet under the 2 C threshold depend heavily on such "negative emissions". (The others assume greenhouse gas emissions peaked in 2010, when in fact they are still climbing.)

One of two broad categories under the geoengineering umbrella, carbon dioxide removal (CDR) schemes include "enhanced weathering" of rocks that soak up CO2; large-scale production of charcoal from organic waste; sequestering CO2 cast off from burning biofuel plants; and sucking carbon dioxide directly from the air with high-tech machines.

Even the massive planting of trees -- which store CO2 as they grow -- is seen as part of the "CDR" arsenal. The other, far more controversial approach to climate engineering, known as solar radiation management, would deflect enough sunlight back into space to cool the planet a degree or two. (10/16)