December 12, 2017

Rocket Lab Test Delayed in Dramatic Last-Minute Post-Ignition Scrub (Source: Space News)
Rocket Lab scrubbed a launch attempt for its Electron rocket Monday night after a last-second abort. The launch, from the company's New Zealand facility, was aborted just two seconds before the planned 10:50 p.m. Eastern liftoff, just as the rocket's first-stage engines ignited. The company did not disclose the cause of the abort, and said the next launch attempt would be no sooner than Wednesday because of weather. The launch will be the second for the Electron small rocket, after a partially successful inaugural test flight in May. (12/12)

SpaceX Pushes LC-40 Launch Back One Day (Source: Space.com)
SpaceX has delayed the Falcon 9 launch of a Dragon cargo spacecraft to Wednesday. The company said Monday night that the launch, previously scheduled for Tuesday, was delayed to allow for additional time for pre-launch ground system checks. Forecasts predict an 80 percent chance of acceptable weather for the launch at 11:24 a.m. Eastern. (12/12)

OneWeb Gets $500M More From SoftBank (Source: Wall Street Journal)
SoftBank will reportedly invest an additional $500 million in broadband satellite venture OneWeb. The new round will increase SoftBank's investment in OneWeb to $1.5 billion, but will be structured so that its stake in the satellite company remains less than 50 percent. OneWeb plans to start launching satellites for its initial constellation next year, with global service by the end of 2020. A second constellation, offering more bandwidth, is under development for the mid-2020s. (12/12)

Japan Endorses Deep Space Gateway (Source: Kyodo)
The Japanese government has formally endorsed plans to participate in NASA's proposed Deep Space Gateway. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tuesday at a space policy meeting that the government will "accelerate discussions" of cooperation with the United States and others on space exploration. Japan seeks to be a part of the Deep Space Gateway as a means to eventually send Japanese astronauts on missions to the lunar surface. (12/12)

India Plans Small Launch Vehicle (Source: The Hindu)
The Indian space agency is planning to develop a small launch vehicle to serve the growing smallsat market. Preliminary work on the unnamed vehicle started three months ago, the director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre said. The rocket, designed to place payloads weighing up to 500 to 600 kilograms into low Earth orbit, will utilize technology already in use on other vehicles, like the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. A first test launch of the rocket could take place in as soon as a year. (12/12)

Canadian Spaceport Could Host Monthly Launches (Source: Canadian Press)
Supporters of a planned Canadian spaceport say the site could host up to 12 launches a year. Maritime Launch Services is seeking government approval to build the site in Nova Scotia to host launches of the Ukrainian Cyclone-4M rocket. The company says that, pending those approvals, it can start construction of the site as soon as next May, with launches there beginning in 2020. The site will initially host one to three launches a year, slowly ramping up to the long-term goal of a dozen per year. (12/12)

How NASA Innovations Make Money for America (Source: Cheddar)
The United States spends a lot of money on NASA. Tens of billions of dollars a year. Did you know that NASA is actually returning more in value to the American economy than we spend on it? The technologies NASA develops for space travel and exploration have been developed commercially with NASA's blessing by companies large and small. Click here. (12/11)

Robot Moon Base: Beijing's New Lunar Landing Program (Source: Space Daily)
Scientists are mulling a robot moon station, Chinese space experts said on Tuesday. The base can conduct bigger, more complicated research and experiments, according to space officials who announced the plan at an international symposium in Shanghai at the end of November. Such a station could slash the costs of returning rock samples to Earth, Jiao Weixin, a Peking University space science professor, told the Global Times on Tuesday. (12/12)

The Connected Car and Where Satellite Fits In (Source: Satellite Today)
Automotive telematics pioneers harking back 20 years to tinkerers at Volvo Cars saw a hybrid cellular-satellite connectivity proposition as the ideal connectivity solution. Volvo learned the hard way, at that time, that the satellite industry is a fickle partner and potentially expensive. Volvo’s partner at that time was Orbcomm, before its Chapter 11 bankruptcy — a filing that scotched Volvo’s plans.

The dream of hybrid sat-cell connectivity in moving vehicles lives on in the commercial vehicle space with satellite connections providing tracking and some communications capability and cellular providing dispatching and emergency coms. The applications for satellite connections have expanded as the variety of satellite players has grown and interest in the automotive market has increased.

Today, the key automotive applications for satellite connectivity include: tracking, location, emergency response, content delivery (entertainment), and over-the-air software updates. The players lining up include: Intelsat, Inmarsat, Ligado, SiriusXM, and Pivotal Commware. Click here. (12/12)

Pacific 'Baby Island' is Natural Lab to Study Mars (Source: BBC)
It is one of Earth's newest landforms and it could just tell us where to look for evidence of life on Mars. The tongue-twisting volcanic island of Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha'apai exploded out of the Pacific Ocean in 2015, and its shape has been evolving ever since as it has been lashed and bashed by waves.
Scientists are watching this slow erosion very closely.

They think they see the remnants of many such water-birthed islands on the Red Planet. If that is true, it is really intriguing. On Earth, we know that wherever you get submarine volcanic processes, you also very often get conditions that support microbial communities.

What the researchers see occurring at Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha'apai (HTHH) therefore may be a kind of template to help them understand better the water environment on early Mars and, by extension, whether the conditions might also have been favourable for the initiation of simple life. (12/12)

Embry-Riddle Wins $1 Million to Establish New Aviation and Engineering Research Center (Source: ERAU)
A new project at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Daytona Beach, Fla., campus, funded by a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce through its Economic Development Administration (EDA), is expected to create 387 new jobs and spur $1.6 million in private investment. The $1 million award to Embry-Riddle will be used to establish a new aviation and engineering research center in Florida. Specifically, the grant will “help build the Applied Aviation and Engineering Research Hangar in Volusia County,” the U.S.  Department of Commerce reported in an official news release.

The new facility will serve as the new home for Embry-Riddle’s Eagle Flight Research Center, a hub for engineering research and development. “The Eagle Flight Research Center will help to foster innovation in the state’s aeronautical cluster and increase its attractiveness to the private sector. This project was made possible by the regional planning efforts led by the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council." (12/11)

Why Boeing can make a brash prediction about beating Elon Musk to Mars (Source: Chicago Tribune)
Defense and aerospace giant Boeing is strongly signaling how crucial deep-space exploration is to its future. Muilenburg is boldly stating his intent to aggressively take on all competitors — including celebrity billionaire rivals like Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who is bankrolling a space exploration company.

Chicago-based Boeing has reason to be brash. Aside from being an important supplier to NASA, the Chicago-based company’s current run of upbeat financial and business fortunes makes it a favorite to win the space race to Mars. More than bragging rights, a successful Mars initiative will boost the company’s stature and business prospects and create more jobs.

Last week, Fortune magazine’s tech site tweeted a story link about Muilenburg accompanied by this message, “Boeing CEO: We’re going to beat Elon Musk to Mars.” Within minutes of its posting, Musk retorted: “Do it.” Boeing’s Twitter response: “Game on!” Boeing is building NASA’s Space Launch System, a design that Muilenburg touted in an October speech as the “largest and most powerful rocket ever built.” A test flight is expected in 2019, according to Boeing. (12/12)

A Bridge to Venus (Source: Space Review)
Planetary scientists who study Venus were disappointed by the outcome of NASA’s latest Discovery competition, but are doing more than placing all their bets on the ongoing New Frontiers program. Jeff Foust reports on how smallsats may provide a new option for sending missions to the planet. Click here. (12/11)
 
“Do We Want to Get to the Moon or Not?” (Source: Space Review)
In the concluding portion of his history of the decision-making process to get humans to the Moon in the Apollo program, Carl Alessi examines how the debate on the various modes came to a head as John Houbolt lobbied for lunar orbit rendezvous. Click here. (12/11)
 
Liability for Space Debris Collisions and the Kessler Syndrome (Source: Space Review)
A growing concern for those who operate satellites is potential damage from space debris, and determining who, if anyone, can be held liable for it. In the first of a two-part paper, Scott Kerr examines some of the legal issues on this subject. Click here. (12/11)

Safety and Efficiency Went Hand-in-Hand in Rebuild of SLC-40 (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
SpaceX hosted a briefing to members of the media on Dec. 8 to provide an overview of work that has been done to return to service Cape Canaveral’s Launch Complex 40 (LC-40) after the 2016 explosion of a Falcon 9 rocket caused severe damage to the site. According to John Muratore, director of SLC-40, SpaceX tied safety and efficiency to improve the effectiveness of launch operations at SLC-40. Click here. (12/10)

Another 'Moon on the Way to Mars' Speech - What's Different This Time? (Source: Astralytical)
Today, President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence gave a joint speech on the signing of Space Policy Directive 1 to direct NASA to return astronauts to the Moon on the way to Mars and beyond. Space Policy Directive 1 is also very similar to the space policies promoted by President George H. W. Bush in 1989 known as the Space Exploration Initiative and President George W. Bush in 2004 known as the Vision for Space Exploration.

If this sounds familiar, Space Policy Directive 1 is the formal signing of a concept promoted by Vice President Pence during the inaugural reestablished National Space Council meeting on October 5, and rumored to be this Administration’s policy for months prior.

Lacking in President Trump and Vice President Pence’s speech were details regarding mission planning and architecture, space vehicles, dates, and budget requirements to request from Congress. It is likely these details have not yet been determined. Until those detailed are worked out, it is difficult for Space Policy Directive 1 to move forward. Click here. (12/11)