December 17, 2017

XCOR Update: Bankruptcy Court Now Recognizes the MDC as a Secured Creditor [Along With Space Florida] (Source: Midland Reporter-Telegram)
The MDC voted at its meeting Tuesday to amend its agreement with bankrupt aerospace company XCOR to pursue becoming a secured creditor. In 2012, the MDC paid XCOR $10 million to relocate its headquarters to Midland from Mojave, California. The original contract did not have the MDC as a collateralized secured creditor.

Tuesday’s action was a retroactive approval, as Chairman Brent Hilliard had filed uniform commercial code (UCC) financing statements with the Texas, California and Florida secretaries of state on Nov. 8, the day XCOR filed for bankruptcy in California. The bankruptcy court now recognizes the MDC as a secured creditor, according to court documents. XCOR’s debt to the economic development group is the full $10 million.

In the same document, it is stated that XCOR has $1,106,624.21 in assets — all of it personal property — and $27,460,550.15 in total liabilities. Of its liabilities, $13,860,756.59 is for creditors who have secured claims. Space Florida is another major creditor with a secured claim. Space Florida, a state-backed economic development group, enticed XCOR with a $5.7 million deal. XCOR agreed to manufacture and fly the Lynx from Kennedy Space Center. (12/17)

Soyuz MS-07 Crew Begins Two-Day Trek Toward ISS (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
Just three days after one trio left the International Space Station, another launched toward it. A Soyuz rocket lofted Soyuz MS-07 into orbit where it and its U.S., Russian and Japanese crew members will spend some two days catching up with the outpost. The Soyuz will utilize the longer, 34-orbit rendezvous profile to reach the space station. The spacecraft was originally targeting Dec. 27, but NASA asked for the launch to be moved forward to avoid having personnel at Baikonur or in transit over the holidays. As such, the spacecraft was not able to employ the much faster six-hour, 4-orbit rendezvous profile. (12/17)

Boeing Wants to Put its DNA Into UAE’s Space Efforts (Source: Zawya)
Both the UAE Space Agency and commercial aerospace giant Boeing are looking to a new golden age of space exploration — a sector of the space industry that has been eclipsed for decades by the commercial space sector’s emphasis on satellites. Now the UAE Space Agency (UAESA) and NASA are looking outward once more, their eyes fixed on the red planet. Mars beckons.

UAESA has several Mars projects on the pipeline. First up is its Mars probe, Hope, which completed its critical design review this year and is on track to launch in 2020 and reach Mars in 2021. Its mission is to study the Martian atmosphere and climate. Boeing's Peter McGrath, who was inspired to become an engineer when he watched moonshots as a four year old, said the firm had been involved with the UAE’s space exploration projects since UAESA was founded, notably with the competitive Genes in Space program, designed to test the effects of microgravity on DNA. (12/17)

Air Force's First GPS III Satellite Receives Commands From Next-Generation OCX Ground Control Segment (Source: Lockheed Martin)
The first advanced GPS III satellite successfully established remote connectivity and communicated with the Next Generation Operational Control System (OCX), further validating the U.S. Air Force's modernized Global Positioning System (GPS) is ready to launch its first satellite.

On November 2, 2017, GPS III Space Vehicle 01 (GPS III SV01), the first of 10 GPS III satellites designed by Lockheed Martin, and OCX, being developed by Raytheon, successfully completed Factory Mission Readiness Testing (FMRT). The FMRT validated the command and control interaction between GPS III and the OCX's Launch and Checkout System (LCS) through a simulated full launch and early orbit mission event sequence. (12/13)

Head of Pentagon’s Secret ‘UFO’ Office Sought to Make Evidence Public (Source: Washington Post)
Just before leaving his Defense Department job two months ago, intelligence officer Luis Elizondo quietly arranged to secure the release of three of the most unusual videos in the Pentagon’s secret vaults: raw footage from encounters between fighter jets and “anomalous aerial vehicles” — military jargon for UFOs. The videos, all taken from cockpit cameras, show pilots struggling to lock their radars on oval-shaped vessels that, on screen, look vaguely like giant flying Tic Tacs.

The first public revelations of the program came in a video conference aired in October by To the Stars Academy of Arts and Sciences, the firm Elizondo joined as a consultant after retiring from his Pentagon job. The New York Times and Politico reported the existence of the program on their websites Saturday. The Washington Post conducted several confidential interviews over two months with Elizondo and Christopher Mellon, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for intelligence who also is an officer of the private firm.

Documents provided by the former officials included letters of support by former Senate majority leader Harry M. Reid (D-NV), a key backer of the initiative who helped secure funding for the program and sought to ensure a high degree of secrecy. Elizondo said knowledge of the program was limited, even within the Pentagon itself. He said the program had multiple enemies at senior levels of the department, from officials who were either skeptical or ideologically opposed to AATIP’s mission. Click here. (12/16)

Bigelow a Recipient of DOD UFO Money (Sources: New York Times, Newsweek)
Most of the money went to an aerospace research company run by a billionaire entrepreneur and longtime friend of Mr. Reid’s, Robert Bigelow, a wealthy Las Vegas-based businessman who is currently working with NASA to produce expandable craft for humans to use in space.

In order to investigate reports of UFO sightings, a building in Las Vegas was modified to house any materials that were suspected to have come from an unidentified flying object. This reportedly included metal alloys and plastics, while a section of the facility was also used to study people who claimed to have had contact with the objects that resulted in physical and physiological changes. The Las Vegas-based facility also described sightings of flying objects that remained airborne despite no visible signs of propulsion or lift. (12/16)

NORAD Readies to Track Santa (Source: NORAD)
For 60 years, NORAD and its predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) have tracked Santa’s flight. The tradition began in 1955 after a Colorado Springs-based Sears Roebuck & Co. advertisement misprinted the telephone number for children to call Santa. Instead of reaching Santa, the phone number put kids through to the CONAD Commander-in-Chief's operations "hotline." The Director of Operations at the time, Colonel Harry Shoup, had his staff check the radar for indications of Santa making his way south from the North Pole.

Children who called were given updates on his location, and a tradition was born. In 1958, the governments of Canada and the United States created a bi-national air defense command for North America called the North American Aerospace Defense Command, also known as NORAD, which then took on the tradition of tracking Santa. Click here. (12/16)

USF Installs Sensors at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport, Using Rocket Rumbles to Study Volcanoes (Source: BBC)
Scientists have installed sensors at the Kennedy Space Center that would normally be used to monitor volcanoes. Glenn Thompson and Steve McNutt from the University of South Florida in Tampa are behind the work. They told our science correspondent Jonathan Amos why they were doing it. Click here. (12/16)

Space Isn't a Place to Go - It's a Place to Do (Source: LinkedIn)
There's a lot of talk out there about going to space. But space isn't just a place to go. It's a place to do. To do amazing things that make a difference in people's lives. And the reality is, after decades of progress, the barriers to getting into orbit really are coming down. As a result, space is becoming more accessible to everyone. These days, not just countries but also companies are leaving the Earth. And pretty soon, everyday people will join them. That's pretty amazing to think about.

We're not far from the day when the first person steps foot on the surface of Mars, or when a booming space economy is part of our everyday lives. And space itself is changing, becoming increasingly crucial to global security and also increasingly congested, contested and competitive.

When it comes to space, Lockheed Martin is a company that doesn't just think big thoughts -- we get big things done. From the earliest days of the space program, we've been on the forefront of space technology. Lockheed Martin and its heritage companies built the United States' first reconnaissance satellite, its first Mars lander, and its first GPS ground system. (12/15)

Talks Underway About Second Rocket Landing Site at Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Florida Today)
In the future, the rockets may target a second local landing site: a proposed pad at Kennedy Space Center that is the subject of early discussions between the Air Force, NASA and Space Florida. The goal would be to lessen the burden landings impose on the Cape’s nearby industrial area, which workers must evacuate for hours during some missions.

As outlined in KSC’s master plan, the new landing pad could be built near the northern end of the spaceport’s secure perimeter — north of pad 39B and south of State Road 402 leading to Canaveral National Seashore's Playalinda Beach. "We have land further to the north that’s not populated like the industrial area of the Cape is, and that might make for a really good location for a new landing zone for an increased landing rate,” said Nancy Bray, KSC’s director of spaceport integration and services.

The notional landing site now consists of wetlands that would need to be filled, adding to the time and cost needed to permit and complete such a project. Who is leading the initiative and who would pay for it were not immediately clear: SpaceX said Tuesday it has no plans to build a KSC landing zone. It was also unknown if the site, if built, would be exclusive to SpaceX — the only company currently landing large rockets — or available for other uses. Blue Origin also intends to recover and reuse its New Glenn orbital rocket boosters, but so far has only revealed plans for landings at sea. (12/14)

Orion Parachute Tests Prove Out Complex System for Human Deep Space Missions (Source: NASA)
When NASA’s Orion spacecraft hurtles toward Earth’s surface during its return from deep-space, the capsule’s 11 parachutes will slow the spacecraft from 300 mph to a relatively gentle 20 mph for splashdown in the Pacific in the span of about 10 minutes. As the astronauts inside descend toward the water, their lives will be hanging by a series of threads that have been thoroughly ruggedized, tested and validated.

Through a series of tests in the Arizona desert, the engineers refining Orion’s parachutes have made the road to certifying them for flights with astronauts look easy, including a successful qualification test Dec. 13 that evaluated a failure case in which only two of the systems three orange and white main parachutes deploy after several other parachutes in the system used to slow and stabilize Orion endure high aerodynamic stresses. (12/15)