December 7, 2017

Rocket Lab Poised to Provide Dedicated Launcher for CubeSat Science (Source: Science)
Atop an emerald green hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean, at the tip of New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula, sits a diminutive launch pad, built and operated by Rocket Lab, a Los Angeles, California–based aerospace company. On 8 December, a 10-day launch window will open for the second flight of the Electron, one of the world’s first rockets specifically designed to carry small satellites to orbit—a capability that intrigues many scientists. (12/7)

Fleet Details 100 Nanosat Constellation for Internet of Things Connectivity (Source: Space News)
The space industry has at least 10 startups all wanting to use cubesats or other small satellites to help keep all manner of interoperable devices connected to a rapidly expanding Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem. Among them is Fleet, an Adelaide, Australia-based company formed in 2015 that counts the French space agency CNES as one of its partners. Fleet raised roughly $3.8 million in a Series A funding round at the beginning of this year, providing capital to build two of a desired 100 nanosatellites for connecting industrial IoT devices. (12/6)

Private Space Company to Return to Apollo 17 Landing Site – Carefully! (Source: SpaceWatch Middle East)
On the 45th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 17, the last mission to take humans to the surface of the Moon, commercial space company PTScientists plans a mission to revisit the Apollo 17 landing site. This is the first time any organisation – private or public – has planned to return to any of the historic landing sites on the Moon. Announcing a partnership with For All Moonkind, Inc., PTScientists is making a public pledge of support for their initiative to safeguard sites of historical and cultural significance on the Moon and elsewhere in outer space. (12/7)

Industry Sees New Opportunities for Space Manufacturing (Source: Space News)
Space manufacturing, a field whose promise has gone unrealized for decades, is now offering new opportunities thanks to the use of the International Space Station and reduced space access costs, some experts believe. The best near-term opportunity to demonstrate the ability of space manufacturing to produce products of value on Earth may come from experiments flying to the station in the next year to test the production of high-quality optical fibers.

One key demonstration of space manufacturing will take place on the ISS in the next year. Two companies plan to fly payloads on the station to test the ability to produce a high-quality optical fiber called ZBLAN, taking advantage of the microgravity conditions to make the fiber without the flaws created when such fiber is made on Earth. Made In Space’s experiment that will go to the station on a Dragon cargo mission scheduled for launch as soon as Dec. 12. “We’re using the space station as the testbed to prove out that you can actually make the product in space, bring it back down to Earth and sell it for a profit.” (12/6)

Study Validates NanoRacks Concept for Commercial Space Station Module (Source: Space News)
A five-month study supported by NASA has concluded that it is technically feasible to convert a launch vehicle upper stage into a habitat module that could be used on the International Space Station or future commercial space station. NanoRacks discussed the results of the study, part of NASA’s Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships 2 (NextSTEP-2) effort. The concept, called Ixion, involves taking an Atlas 5 (or Vulcan) upper stage left in low Earth orbit after a launch and refitting it with life support and other systems needed to support a crew. That converted module could then be attached to the ISS or be used as part of a standalone commercial space station.

Potential uses range from space tourism to on-orbit manufacturing. There are “several legitimate consumer non-traditional customers that have interest in using a commercial platform,” Jeff Manber said, stating those potential users were under non-disclosure agreements. “We’ll have some more announcements in the coming months on what we’re going to be doing with this commercial module,” he said. (12/6)

NASA Seeks Industry Partnerships on In-situ Resource (Source: Parabolic Arc)
NASA is seeking “proposals for trade studies and design, fabrication, and testing of critical components and subsystems for acquisition and processing of extraterrestrial resources into water, oxygen, and fuel.” The broad agency announcement (BAA) came in an appendix to the space agency’s Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships 2 (NextSTEP-2) program, which has been working with commercial companies on facilitating space exploration and development beyond Earth orbit. NASA is seeking proposals “using technologies and processes that leverage and support space or terrestrial commercial activities,” the announcement states. (12/7)

Virgin Galactic to Relocate Dozens of Employees from Mojave Spaceport to Spaceport America (Source: Albuquerque Business First)
Next year could finally bring some things New Mexico has been waiting on for years: Virgin Galactic's commercial space flights, and the economic prosperity that would follow. Wednesday afternoon representatives with Virgin Galactic said that in 2018 it will prepare to make its more-than-10-year-old plan to send private citizens to the final frontier a reality – and Spaceport America will be its exclusive host. The company will start to ramp up its commercial flight service there next year, moving nearly 100 families to the state and creating new jobs along the way. (12/6)

Boeing: We Are Going to Beat SpaceX to Mars with SLS Rocket (Source: Ars Technica)
It was about a year ago that Boeing Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg first began saying his company would beat SpaceX to Mars. "I'm convinced that the first person to step foot on Mars will arrive there riding on a Boeing rocket," he said during a Boeing-sponsored tech summit in October 2016. On Thursday, Muilenburg repeated that claim on CNBC. Moreover, he added this tidbit about the Space Launch System rocket—-for which Boeing is the prime contractor of the core stage—-"We’re going to take a first test flight in 2019 and we’re going to do a slingshot mission around the Moon."

Unlike last year, Muilenburg drew a response from SpaceX this time. The company's founder, Elon Musk, offered a pithy response on Twitter: "Do it."

The truth is that Boeing's rocket isn't going anywhere particularly fast. Although Muilenburg says it will launch in 2019, NASA has all but admitted that will not happen. The rocket's maiden launch has already slipped from late 2017 into "no earlier than" December 2019. However, NASA officials have said a 2019 launch is a "best case" scenario, and a slip to June 2020 is more likely. (12/7)

MLS Bringing Ukraine Crew to Nova Scotia Spaceport Site (Source: Guysborough Journal)
Plans for development of a rocket launch site in the Canso/Hazel Hill/Little Dover area are proceeding quickly. Maritime Launch Services CEO Steve Matier will be in the Canso area and Dartmouth next week for a series of events, meetings and activities to help move the project forward and share information with local residents. Officials with Yuzhnove, the Ukrainian maker of the Cyclone-4M rockets to be used at the site to launch commercial satellites into orbit, will be given a tour of the site on Dec. 13. (12/6)

NASA is Going Beyond Pluto (Source: The Hill)
It’s not over for New Horizons. The spacecraft is now on its way to another distant world, 972 million miles beyond Pluto, still called by its discovery designation of 2014MU69 — or just MU69 by its close friends. On Jan. 1, 2019 the spacecraft will fly by MU69, and we have little idea what we will find. MU69 is small, less than 50 miles across, and dark like charcoal. There is some evidence it has a strange shape. It may even be two smaller objects in a tight orbit around each other.

Does MU69 have active geology? We don’t think so because it is so small. Does it have an atmosphere? Probably not, for the same reason. MU69’s importance lies in a different field of science, and that is the study of origins. (12/6)

Russia Looks Past Soyuz-2 Failure to Soyuz-5 (Source: Space News)
Try as they might, the Russian space program is having a hard time sustaining a positive news cycle. For every small step forward, it seems they take one giant leap back. Budget cuts, program delays [and embezzlements], and regular launch failures dog Russia’s space industry at every turn — making small victories and promises of glories still to come harder and harder to swallow.

With the latest setback, last week’s botched launch of a new weather satellite and 18 secondary payloads, fate seems to be piling on. It is never good to lose a rocket, but the timing of this loss — the 12th failure across different families of launch vehicles since 2010 — is especially unfortunate for Russia’s space program. In recent months, industry leaders and Roscosmos officials have been touting the development of their own next-generation spacecraft, hoping to keep up with Western private space firms.

As part of the 2016-2017 Federal Space Program, Roscosmos announced project Phoenix — a 30-billion-ruble ($512 million) crash program to develop a new medium-class launcher to replace Soyuz, and the Russian-Ukrainian Zenit, by the early 2020s. The idea was to have alternatives to Angara should any problems with that, primary, project arise. Several design proposals were forwarded from Russia’s major rocket production centers to compete for the Phoenix tender. In the end, it was Energia’s proposal for a Soyuz-5 that won over. (12/17)

Putnam: Workforce Training, Technical Education Key to Job Growth (Source: Florida Today)
Florida must invest in work force and economic development programs to grow space industry and other jobs, Republican gubernatorial candidate Adam Putnam told local aerospace officials Wednesday in Melbourne. “The state that launched a man to the moon ought to be a leader in innovation and 21st Century careers,” said Putnam, the Commissioner of Agriculture since 2011 and a former congressman. “Finding the talent to fill the jobs that are out there continues to be a concern.”

Putnam met with representatives from Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Harris Corp, Orlando Melbourne International Airport, Space Florida and others during an aerospace roundtable discussion hosted by the Economic Development Commission of Florida’s Space Coast. The EDC hopes it is the first of many meetings with 2018 candidates for state and federal offices, helping to prioritize aerospace issues in their campaigns. Six other Republicans and four Democrats are among the declared candidates for governor so far. (12/17)

CASIS and the NSF Announce Second Space Station Funding Opportunity in Fluid Dynamics (Source: CASIS)
The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced a joint solicitation wherein researchers from the fluid dynamics community will have the ability to leverage resources onboard the U.S. National Laboratory aboard ISS. Up to $2 million will be awarded for multiple research investigations to support flight projects. This is the second collaboration between the NSF and CASIS funding of fluid dynamics research.

Through this partnership, CASIS and NASA will facilitate hardware implementation and on-orbit access to the ISS National Laboratory.  NSF will fund the selected projects to advance fundamental science and engineering knowledge. CASIS is the nonprofit organization responsible for managing and promoting research onboard the ISS National Laboratory. NSF supports transformative research to help drive the U.S. economy, enhance national security and maintain America’s position as a global leader in innovation. (12/6)

When Will Space Tourism Begin? Real Soon! (Source: Parabolic Arc)
I’m like the guy in the office — head in hand, exasperated, looking at his watch, heard this 1,000 times — listening to someone tell me how space tourism is right around the corner. Thirteen years and we’re still at the dawn of it. (12/6)

NASA Remains Tops on Federal Best Places To Work Ranking (Source: Federal News Radio)
NASA not only remains the number one large agency in government, but it also managed to improve its employee engagement score for the sixth consecutive year. The agency has been continually honing into the details and specific questions on the FEVS, Morris said.

“Driving down into the specifics, into specific offices, [and get a] better understanding of what is on the lower end, what is the area on the higher end and really rolling their sleeves up and getting into the blocking and tackling, that’s what iconic government organizations like NASA continually do,” he said. “The fact that NASA was able to raise their number by a further 2.5 points is phenomenal.” (12/6)

Six New Entrants Into the Satellite Industry in 2017 (Source: Via Satellite)
Despite tough margins across the market, 2017 marked a number of significant milestones for the global space industry. In March, SpaceX successfully launched and relanded a flight-proven, first-stage booster for the first time; in February, the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) PSLV broke a record for the most satellites launched simultaneously at 104; and in June, Arianespace launched the heaviest payload in history into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO), lofting the combined weight (21,977 pounds) of ViaSat 2 and Eutelsat 172B.

But 2017 was pockmarked by smaller victories too. A number of countries and universities that previously had lackluster or nonexistent space programs have taken big risks to place some of their first satellites into orbit. Here’s a rundown of the newest entrants to the satellite industry this year, as well as other players who have announced their plans to orbit an asset in the near future. Click here. (12/5) 

New Russian Lunar Orbiter Contracted to be Built (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
The Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos) is proceeding with a new project to build a lunar orbiter which will be the first of numerous new lunar missions the agency is planning. Based on information TASS obtained from the official government procurement website, the new Luna-Resurs Orbiter will be contracted out to several different companies with a total price tag not to exceed 2 billion rubles (a little over $33,500,000 at the current exchange rate).

The primary contractor of the new spacecraft will be the NPO Lavochkin aerospace company. They will receive about 80 percent of the contract’s value in an advance payment. The procurement contract stated that the new orbiter will be completed by February 29, 2020. (12/6)

Vector Plans Orbital Flight and New Arizona Factory (Source: KGUN)
Vector Space Systems is building bigger facilities for its program of small rockets for the new generation of smaller satellites. Vector is building a new rocket factory and pushing towards sending rockets higher than it ever has before. Vector's had a series of successful launches and engine tests. In its push to fill a growing market for small rockets to launch the new small, but still very capable satellites.

On the floor of a temporary factory there’s a Vector R, that's R for rapid. It's about 45 feet long altogether and it's designed to boost a small satellite into low Earth orbit. Besides space to assemble the rockets, the factory will be home base for engineers and a variety of other workers--and that means job opportunities. Alex Rodriguez says,  "We will have over 200 employees working in high impact roles in engineering, in manufacturing, in high technical roles that provide technical support and across the board." (12/6)

LC-40 Back in Action with SpaceX Test, Allowing Future Twice Daily Launches for SpaceX (Source: Florida Today)
SpaceX conducted a successful test fire of a Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Wednesday, breathing new life into a launch pad that had not seen smoke and fire since a 2016 explosion left it heavily damaged. The test firing and subsequent launch to the ISS next week will initiate SpaceX's era of two functioning launch pads at the Eastern Range. The company leases LC-40 from the Air Force and LC-39A from NASA.

Brig. Gen. Wayne Monteith, 45th Space Wing commander and director of the Eastern Range, noted that SpaceX could launch as rapidly as once a week if necessary, and said that next year the Range could be capable of supporting two launches on the same day, if needed. (12/6)