Investors Say Orbital
Withheld Info On $9.2B Northrop Deal (Source: Law360)
Stockholders of aerospace and defense contractor Orbital ATK Inc. filed
a putative class action Monday in Virginia federal court to stop a
proposed $9.2 billion sale of the company to Northrop Grumman, saying
shareholders have been left in the dark regarding key aspects of the
sale. (10/17)
Bigelow and ULA Plan
Lunar Orbit Habitat (Source: Space News)
Bigelow Aerospace and United Launch Alliance said Tuesday they have an
agreement to jointly develop a habitat around the moon, provided NASA
is willing to help pay for it. The companies said their "lunar depot"
would use a Bigelow B330 module launched on a ULA Vulcan rocket and
placed into a low orbit around the moon by an ACES upper stage as soon
as 2022. Bigelow Aerospace President Robert Bigelow said the companies
could develop it in partnership with NASA, with the agency providing
$2.3 billion in addition to the "hundreds of millions" already being
spent on the companies to develop their technologies. Bigelow said the
companies had briefed several "key" government officials about the
concept and have received a good reaction. (10/17)
Soyuz Suffered Partial
Pressure Loss During Crew Re-entry (Source: Space News)
A Soyuz capsule returning to Earth earlier this year suffered a partial
loss of pressurization during descent, although not endangering the
crew. The incident took place during the deployment of the main
parachute on the Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft in April, when a buckle in the
parachute system struck a welding seam on the spacecraft. Thomas
Stafford, chairman of NASA's ISS Advisory Committee, said at a
committee meeting this week that while some air escaped the capsule as
a result, the crew was in pressure suits and not threatened by the
incident. (10/17)
Satellite Access Needs
Policy Attention Too (Source: Space News)
The president of a rideshare company says that U.S. policy needs to
support not just the launch industry but the satellite industry as
well. In an interview, Curt Blake, president of Spaceflight, said that
policy debates have to avoid protecting the U.S. launch industry at the
expense of the U.S. small satellite industry, which has often struggled
to find rides to orbit. These debates involve access to India's PSLV
rocket, which has become a major player in the smallsat secondary
payload market, but for which U.S. companies need a regulatory waiver.
The company says that the development of dedicated smallsat launchers
will be good in the long run, providing additional options for its
customers. (10/17)
Culberson Wary of China's
Military Space Goals (Source: Huntsville Times)
A key congressman warns that China is building an "unfriendly navy" in
space. In a speech earlier this month, Rep. John Culberson (R-TX),
chairman of the House appropriations subcommittee that funds NASA,
warned against cooperating with China in space. "The Chinese are
aggressively building a navy in space, and we need to be aware that
it's not friendly," he said. Another congressman at the same event,
Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL), agreed, and also warned of cooperating further
with Russia in space. (10/17)
Relativity Space Opens Up
on 3-D Printed Rocket Plans (Source: Bloomberg)
A secretive launch startup has offered a first look inside its factory
where it plans to make rockets with 3-D printers. Relativity Space is
developing large 3-D printers that it claims will be able to built
entire launch vehicles at lower costs, and with far fewer moving costs,
than existing rockets. The company is planning its first launch of a
rocket capable of placing nearly a ton into orbit in 2021. The
14-person company has raised $10 million to date from several
investors, including billionaire Mark Cuban. (10/17)
Discovery Plans Space
Documentary for NASA Anniversary (Source: RealScreen)
A member of the Kennedy family is producing a documentary about NASA in
time for the agency's 60th anniversary. Rory Kennedy, daughter of Ethel
and Robert Kennedy, will produce and also narrate Above &
Beyond: NASA's Journey to Tomorrow, a documentary looking at both the
history of NASA and its future plans. Kennedy, whose previous work
includes the Oscar-nominated Last Days of Vietnam, said this film is
"more of a personal essay, which allows me and thereby the viewer to
jump around some of the extraordinary highlights of NASA." Discovery
plans to air the film next June. (10/17)
Here’s Bigelow Plans to
Build an Orbiting Space Station for the Moon (Source:
Washington Post)
The moon — that cold, gray outpost that NASA last visited 45 years ago
— is hot again. The vice president says so. So do Elon Musk and Jeff
Bezos. And as the Trump administration sets its sights on the lunar
surface, a growing number of companies say they are ready for the
challenge. The latest is Bigelow Aerospace, the Las Vegas-based maker
of inflatable space habitats.
Bigelow is hoping to send one of its space stations, the B330,
to lunar orbit by 2022 in partnership with ULA. If NASA goes for it,
the $2.3 billion mission would go something like this: The habitat
would launch on ULA’s Vulcan rocket into low Earth orbit, where it
would stay for a period of months, receiving supplies and cargo, while
it underwent testing to make sure everything was working properly.
Then a space tug would ferry it from Earth orbit to lunar orbit, where
it would essentially become a space station for the moon. The Trump
administration is looking for a first-term coup, and, Bigelow said,
this “can actually be done within one administration.” NASA also needs
a destination for the Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft it has
been developing for years and at great expense, he said. (10/17)
Scott Kelly: Don't Doubt
Elon Musk (Source: CNBC)
Elon Musk is racing to land SpaceX on Mars in five years, a vision he
unveiled late last month at the 2017 International Astronautical
Congress. One man not among Musk's critics is Scott Kelly, a retired
astronaut who set the record in 2015 for total accumulated days in
space, during the single longest mission by an American.
"When Elon Musk said he was going to launch his rocket and then land
the first stage on a barge, I thought he was crazy," Kelly told "Squawk
Box" on Tuesday. "And then he did it. I'm not going to ever doubt what
he says, ever again." (10/17)
Delivery by Rocket Could
Change the Game for UPS, FedEx (Source: CNBC)
Airplanes and Panamax cargo ships redefined the parcel service in the
20th century, but those days may be fading quickly. Morgan Stanley
believes the SpaceX plan for the Big Falcon Rocket as a reusable mode
of Earth transportation could change the game for United Parcel
Services and FedEx.
"The freight transportation business — especially parcel delivery — is
on the cusp of transformation from multiple new transportation
modalities," a team of Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a note
Thursday. "Elon Musk recently announced a new option that could
potentially have the biggest impact of all — rockets."
The booster system BFR is a 42-engine rocketcapable of holding around
100 people – and yes, the code name connotes more than just "Falcon" to
those inside SpaceX. With a payload capacity of 150 tons, BFR would be
nearly 10 times the capacity of the flight-proven Falcon 9 rocket and
five times that of the soon-to-be-tested Falcon Heavy rocket. (10/13)
First SLS Flight in Late
2019 (Source: Aviation Week)
The first flight of NASA’s heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS) rocket,
which is slated to put an unmanned Orion capsule into orbit around the
Moon for Exploration Mission 1 (EM-1), is now targeted for launch in
late 2019, according to a Lockheed Martin program director. (10/17)
Filling the Early
Universe with Knots Can Explain Why the World is Three-Dimensional
(Source: Space Daily)
The next time you come across a knotted jumble of rope or wire or yarn,
ponder this: The natural tendency for things to tangle may help explain
the three-dimensional nature of the universe and how it formed. An
international team of physicists has developed an out-of-the-box theory
which proposes that shortly after it popped into existence 13.8 billion
years ago the universe was filled with knots formed from flexible
strands of energy called flux tubes that link elementary particles
together. (10/17)
Why We Go to the Moon
(Source: Air & Space)
First we must consider the activities encompassed by a human return to
the Moon, beginning with a transportation system that permits access to
and from the Moon for people and cargo. Once on the Moon, we must
protect ourselves from the hostile environment with such a degree of
utility and comfort as to permit the performance of useful work. This
protection includes life support, shielding from radiation, habitation,
mobility, maintenance and continuous, daily operations. Finally, we
must identify a series of activities that yield long-term societal
value and contribute to the enhancement and furtherance of our
spacefaring capabilities.
I suggest that all of these activities are summarized in the following
mission statement: We go to the Moon to learn how to live and work
productively on another world. It is not enough to simply get
there—once on the Moon, we must accomplish some significant goals. It
is not enough to simply live on the Moon—we must learn the skills and
acquire the technologies necessary to support human life indefinitely,
making use of local resources to support this effort. Click here.
(10/17)
Will General Dynamics Buy
Harris? (Source: Space News)
Speculation has swirled around the industry for a while. General
Dynamics has a lot of cash and Harris Corp. is one of the few remaining
mid-cap, pure-play defense companies focused on defense electronics and
space. Strategically it does make some sense. But financially it
doesn’t, at least not now. Harris at this moment is too expensive. GD
executives have publicly commented about “not doing dumb deals.” Things
could change if Harris’ price drops. (10/17)
GPS Satellites Will Be
Prized Targets (Source: Space News)
Dean Cheng predicts GPS satellites will come increasingly under threat.
Their billion-dollar price tags and their value to modern society make
them attractive targets. The U.S. needs to consider alternatives, he
says. “It might be worth looking into this.” For instance, a team of
researchers at the University of California has developed a navigation
system that exploits signals such as cellular and Wi-Fi, rather than
GPS. The technology can be used as a standalone alternative to GPS, or
complement current GPS-based systems. (10/17)
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