October 21, 2017

Bezos Presents New Competition for Musk (Source: Quartz)
The BE-4 is designed to lift the huge New Glenn rocket Blue Origin wants to fly in 2020. It is also the leading contender to be the main in engine in a new rocket being built by ULA. But the biggest threat here is to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which was the last private company to develop and fly a liquid-fueled rocket engine in the US. SpaceX’s low-cost liquid-fueled Merlin engine has powered its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket and reusable first stage, rapidly taking huge swathes of the launch market.

Now, the company is working on larger rockets like the Falcon Heavy, expected to fly for the first time this year, and the BFR, a longer-term vision for planetary exploration that also uses a natural gas engine. If Blue or ULA can get their heavy rocket off the ground first, SpaceX could find itself leap-frogged. The sea change here is that US space firms like SpaceX and Blue Origin are designing and building their own rocket engines, not building designs created by government agencies. (10/20)

Virginia Spaceport Signs Another Customer for Orbital Launches (Source: Daily Press)
Virginia Space has finally signed another customer to use the state-owned spaceport on the Eastern Shore to launch orbital missions. Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced that Tucson-based Vector Space Systems, a nanosatellite launch company, will make three commercial missions to low-Earth orbit from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at NASA Wallops Flight Facility over the next two years, with an option for five more.

The governor and other state officials heralded the agreement for furthering Virginia’s commercial space ambitions. McAuliffe is a big booster for Virginia as a major hub for the multibillion-dollar commercial launch business. MARS was built at a cost of nearly $150 million to enable Dulles-based space transportation company Orbital ATK to launch resupply missions from Virginia to the International Space Station under a $1.9 billion commercial contract with NASA. Orbital is set to launch its latest mission from MARS next month. (10/20)

Close Encounters With Congress? (Source: NPR)
A congressional candidate in Florida drew a little ridicule this week. Bettina Rodriguez Aguilera, one of the Republicans in the crowded field in Florida's 27th Congressional District, said in 2009 that she was taken aboard a spaceship when she was 7 years old. She does not mean at Disney World.

Aguilera says she met three beings aboard the ship, two women and a man, all blond and tall, which sounds a little like the Swedish pop group ABBA. She says that their arms were outstretched, like the Christ the Redeemer statue that overlooks Rio, and that the beings have communicated with her ever since, telepathically. (10/21)

City-Size Lunar Lava Tube Could House Future Astronaut Residents (Source: Space.com)
A city-size lava tube has been discovered on the moon, and researchers say it could serve as a shelter for lunar astronauts. This lava tube could protect lunar-living astronauts from hazardous conditions on the moon's surface, the researchers said. Such a tube could even harbor a lunar colony, they added.

Spacesuits can't substantially shield astronauts from these dangers over long periods of time, but a lava tube could potentially help protect any space travelers, the researchers said. Lava tubes are channels that form when a lava flow cools and develops a hard crust; this crust then thickens and makes a roof over a still-flowing lava stream, they explained. Once the lava stops flowing, the channel sometimes drains, leaving behind an empty tube. (10/20)

54 Years Since the First Cat in Space (Source: EuroNews)
Fifty-four years ago today, the first cat set paw in space. Félicette was launched from a base in the Sahara desert aboard the rocket Véronique AVI – V47. After a 12 minute flight, including five minutes of weightlessness she returned to earth, safe and sound not far from the launchpad.

Her history is much less well known than that of Laïka who became the first dog in space in 1957. Félicette was chosen from a cohort of around a dozen astrocats after a rigorous session of training and tests including a spin in a centrifuge. Just a few days after the launch an attempt to repeat the experiment ended in tragedy when the lone feline occupant of another rocket died when the craft crashed to earth shortly after takeoff. (10/18)

China, France Plan to Launch First Joint Oceanic Satellite in 2018 (Source: Xinhua)
The first satellite jointly developed by the Chinese and French space agencies will be launched from China in the second half of 2018. The China-French Oceanic Satellite is being tested in a Beijing-based assembly testing center of the China National Space Administration. The 700-kilogram satellite will be primarily used for waves forecast and monitoring, as well as research in floating ice, polar glacier and ocean dynamics. (10/20)

An Apollo Astronaut's Anger at NASA's Lost Decades (Source: Popular Mechanics)
Most of the Apollo astronauts, at one time or another, have voiced grievances at how slowly the American manned spaceflight program has advanced. Why wouldn't they? Since the end of the focused, breakneck race to the moon during the 1960s and early 70s, NASA lost its ambitious mandate to send humans to explore other worlds. Each new presidential administration had a new plan that required scrapping the old one. And America still hasn't sent astronauts back to the moon, much less set foot on Mars.

Tom Stafford may have more reason to complain than most. He witnessed the rise and fall of American human spaceflight from the inside, and he's the one who wrote the original plan to use the moon as a stepping-stone to Mars. At 87, Stafford still has a gleam in his eye as he talks about manned spaceflight. But over the years, his plan has been repeatedly picked up and abandoned as administrations changed. The Trump administration and its Space Council is now talking up the moonshot once more. (10/20)

NASA Chooses Not to Tell Congress How Much Deep Space Missions Cost (Source: Ars Technica)
This week, the US Government Accountability Office reported on progress the space agency is making to prepare the Space Launch System rocket, Orion spacecraft, and launch systems at Kennedy Space Center for future missions. NASA is making progress on these complex integration activities, the report finds, but the space agency has a long ways to go to make a test flight in late 2019 or early 2020.

One surprise in the report is that NASA still has not provided Congress (or anyone else) with cost estimates for the first crewed mission of the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft, which could occur in 2023 or later. This "Exploration Mission 2," which would entail flying a crew of four into deep space and possibly delivering the first component of a space station into lunar orbit, would mark the first human mission after 12 years of development of the rocket and nearly two decades of work on Orion. (10/20)

Bridenstine Wins a Democrat's Support for NASA's Top Job (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Jim Bridenstine has been nominated to lead NASA as its 13th administrator. It is my honor to support his nomination. NASA’s mission is to go where no one has gone before, explore the unknown, and reveal the secrets of the universe for the benefit of America and the world.

Jim Bridenstine is well-equipped to lead NASA as it develops return missions to the moon, sends astronauts to Mars, explores distant planets and their moons, looks into deep space from the Hubble and soon-to-be launched James Webb Space Telescopes, and assists with understanding the sun and both short- and long-term weather patterns.

I serve with Bridenstine on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee. My first real interaction with him occurred a number of years ago when he visited Colorado to meet with scientists, engineers and technicians from a number of our universities, national laboratories and aerospace companies. I found him to be a good listener and well adept at understanding a lot of technical jargon. (10/20)