March 21, 2018

The Outer-Space Tugboat That Doubles as a Weapon (Source: Daily Beast)
A British company has announced plans to launch two new “space tugs” designed to attach to old communications satellites and give them a life-extending boost in orbit. But the Space Drone tugs, built by London-based Effective Space, are capable of so much more. They could help to clean up orbital junk that endangers satellites and space stations. And under the right circumstances, they—and spacecraft like them—could become weapons.

The Space Drone is the latest in a growing number of satellite models that can, with the proverbial flip of a switch, transform from peaceful space tools to orbital aggressors. These “dual-use” satellites, including several types of orbital inspection and repair spacecraft, arguably raise the risk of war in space. Weaponizable satellites are “the Pandora’s box of space operations,” said James Oberg.

The 800-pound, cube-shape Space Drone is essentially an orbital tugboat. The spacecraft features a docking system and a small motor. A Space Drone can maneuver close to an aging satellite that’s slowly falling back to Earth, attach to it, fire up its own motor, and shove the comms sat back into its proper place. (3/20)

Elon Musk’s ‘Big F**king Rocket’ Is a Big F**ing Deal (Source: Daily Beast)
Consider how different this is: NASA’s Apollo missions to the moon needed the 36-story high three-part Saturn V rocket to get off the pad and then, once in space, four separate vehicles to get to the moon and back—a service module; a command module (the capsule that returned to Earth); and the lunar lander with a descent stage (left on the moon); and the ascent stage (from which the astronauts transferred back to the command module).

Musk’s breakthrough idea is to conflate all the deep space roles into the one vehicle. This is a really tough call. As Musk said, talking to Aviation Week, “That is a pretty ridiculous set of requirements for a ship.” It sure is. First, the ship has to handle a huge range of speeds: subsonic, transonic, supersonic, and hypersonic. No single vehicle has ever done that. To land on Mars it would have to travel through that planet’s atmosphere and land on unprepared terrain and then, its mission completed, takeoff, blast back to Earth and then, depending critically on its heat shield, come safely down through the atmosphere to a landing.

And, suggestively, the SpaceX website is showing the sub-orbital possibilities of the spaceship in which it could fly hypersonically from New York to London in 30 minutes. Just exactly who or what would take that ride and at what cost is not explained. What is for sure is that Musk intends to open a pathway to the moon and Mars that is far cheaper and simpler than that of any rival. Click here. (3/17) https://www.thedailybeast.com/elon-musks-big-fking-rocket-is-a-big-fing-deal

Rocket Lab's Giant Disco Ball to Plummet Back to Earth (Source: CNN)
The party is coming to an end, and much sooner than anticipated. The Humanity Star, a reflective satellite launched by private company Rocket Lab, is expected to flame out sometime this week. Launched in New Zealand in January, it had been expected to keep us looking to the skies for the majority of 2018.

Richard Easther, an astronomer from Auckland University, said the earlier-than-expected re-entry is likely down to flawed modeling. "I'm guessing that the forecast was based on a regular sized satellite, and an object that is essentially a balloon will feel a lot more drag, more than the regular satellites that are sent up, (which resemble) a hunk of metal," he said. (3/21)

NASA Reaches $15M Deal After Breaching Audit Contract (Source: Law360)
NASA has reached a $15 million settlement with recovery audit contractor Horn & Associates Inc., after the Court of Federal Claims previously found the agency had unfairly harmed H&A’s ability to conduct audits under an audit deal and wrongly denied related recovery claims. The $15 million settlement ends the long-running case after Judge Marian B. Horn ruled in May 2017 that NASA had breached the disputed contract. (3/20)

AAR Denies DynCorp Claim That Trade Secret Deal Is Far Off (Source: Law360)
AAR Airlift Group told a Florida federal court on Monday that DynCorp’s suit accusing an AAR unit of stealing secrets to score a $10 billion U.S. Department of State counternarcotics services contract should only be reopened to enforce a settlement, contradicting DynCorp’s claim that the parties were far from reaching agreement. AAR rebutted DynCorp’s assertion that the parties had been unable to come to a final agreement since reaching a tentative deal in January. (3/20)

Blue Origin Shakes Up Its Short Game (Source: Aviation Week)
Blue Origin is going for the long game, developing new tools, materials and manufacturing processes to operate fleets of suborbital and orbital rockets, in-space tugs and lunar landers capable of carrying 10,000 lb. (4,500 kg) to the surface of the Moon, about the capacity of an Apollo Lunar Excursion Module.

Toward that end, the company sometimes scrambles the playbook, such as by delaying development of a BE-4 engine test stand in Florida and aiming to compete for U.S. national security space launch business, a decision that puts Blue in direct competition with one of its first industry partners, United Launch Alliance (ULA). Before partnering with ULA, Blue was developing the BE-4 exclusively for its orbital launch system, New Glenn, which is targeted for a debut flight in 2020. That is the same year ULA intends to debut its Vulcan rocket.

A ULA engine production contract would trigger construction of a second engine manufacturing facility in Huntsville, Alabama, though Smith says the company might proceed with the plant at some point in the future even without ULA’s business. Likewise, Blue will wait to see what need there is for a second engine test stand before proceeding with a facility at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport, as was announced in 2015. Further on the horizon: a heavy-lift reusable launcher named New Armstrong, a lunar lander and a recently unveiled in-space orbital tug, all stemming from the technology developed for the BE-3. (3/20)

Alaska Spaceport Readies for Secretive Commercial Launch for California Company (Source: Space News)
An Alaskan spaceport will host a commercial launch next week by a secretive company. Alaskan Aerospace Corporation, which operates the Pacific Spaceport Complex Alaska on Kodiak Island, confirmed that a launch is planned between March 26 and April 6. It provided few details about the launch, other than it is a commercial suborbital launch of a rocket by an unnamed California company. That company could be Astra Space, which signed a contract with Alaska Aerospace last year to conduct a series of launches from the spaceport. (3/21)

ESA to Study Exoplanet Atmospheres (Source: BBC)
The European Space Agency has selected a mission to study exoplanet atmospheres. Ariel, or Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey, will fly a one-meter space telescope to measure the composition of exoplanet atmospheres by their spectral signatures at visible and infrared wavelengths. The mission, with an estimated cost of $560 million, is scheduled for launch in 2028. (3/20)

Cabana: KSC Infrastructure for SLS Ready This Year (Source: Florida Today)
The Kennedy Space Center will have the infrastructure needed to support Space Launch System ready this year. KSC Director Robert Cabana said in a speech Tuesday that the ground infrastructure needed for SLS missions, including modifications to the Vehicle Assembly Building and a mobile launch platform, should be complete by the middle of this year. The first SLS launch is scheduled for no earlier than the end of 2019. (3/20)

Webb Telescope Could Break Cost Cap with Launch Delay (Source: Space News)
A new launch date for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, and any possible breach of its cost cap, could be announced next week. Speaking at a NASA Advisory Council science committee meeting Tuesday, Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA associate administrator for science, said an independent review of the space telescope's schedule was wrapping up. NASA announced last September the launch of JWST would slip to March-June 2019, but a GAO report last month warned additional delays are likely because of limited schedule margin. Further delays could cause JWST to break a cost cap of $8 billion established by Congress. (3/20)

Japan Plans $1 Billion Investment Fund for Space Startups (Source: Space News)
The Japanese government will establish a fund of nearly $1 billion to support space startups. The fund, supported by the government and other organizations, would offer $940 million to Japanese companies in the space industry. The fund is part of a broader package that includes human resources and technical support for startups and plans to establish a legal regime for space resources and other innovative space applications. (3/20)

StratComm Chief Not Ready to Support Space Force (Source: Space Policy Online)
The head of U.S. Strategic Command said Tuesday he's not ready yet to support a proposed "space force." Speaking at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Air Force Gen. John Hyten said "that someday we'll have a Space Corps or a Space Force in this country, but I don't think the time is right for that right now." Hyten said he did appreciate that President Trump, in a speech last week, acknowledged that space is a "warfighting domain." (3/20)

House Members Offer Bipartisan Support for Bridenstine Nomination at NASA (Source: Space News)
More than 60 House members signed a letter asking the Senate to confirm Jim Bridenstine as NASA administrator. The members, led by space subcommittee chairman Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX), include all the Republican members of the House Science and Armed Services Committees, as well as a dozen Democrats. In the letter, they asked Senate leadership to confirm Bridenstine "swiftly" to avoid a leadership vacuum at the agency with the impending retirement of acting administrator Robert Lightfoot. Bridenstine's nomination is stalled in the Senate because of opposition from Democratic members as well as Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL). (3/20)

Wideband Communications May Require ‘Hybrid’ System (Source: Aviation Week)
When it comes to updating the U.S. military’s future protected satellite communication needs, finding a solution may involve different approaches and industry demonstrations of technology. The Defense Department currently uses a constellation of X-band and Ka-band Boeing satellites for its Wideband Global Satcom system. The department has been conducting an analysis of alternatives (AOA) for a follow-on system since 2016, which is expected to be complete in May. (3/15)

Meet SpaceX's Drone Ships (Source: Popular Science)
SpaceX is known for its spaceships—from the Dragon capsule that resupplies the space station, to the proposed interplanetary transport system. But it’s the company's more traditional, water-going vessels that keep the lofty dreams of affordable spaceflight afloat. Once towed into position the drone ship's GPS and thrusters keep it in one place, waiting for the return of the rocket. The rockets aren’t small, and these ships aren’t either. They’re modified barges about the size of a football field, with hulls 20 feet deep. Barges like this are typically used to haul cargo, but their large area also makes them a perfect landing pad for rockets. Click here. (2/22)

Satellite Can Prevent Another MH370, Though Difficult (Source: Via Satellite)
Despite the existence of the requisite technology, despite the fact that everyone likes the idea of additional safety, knowledge, connectivity and agility, despite the fact that there are no theoretical objections, there are competing agendas and viewpoints about how to go about realizing that. It is a reason that effecting the change that everyone hypothetically supports is slow.

That there is a need is clear. Daniel Baker, CEO of aviation tracking software and data services company FlightAware, said that the problem in cases like MH370 was a lack of a mechanism to swiftly respond rather than a technical deficiency. “If you don’t begin to react to it for a couple hours, you have a ‘pi-r-squared problem,’” he said. Even if an aircraft's last position is known before losing contact, additional time spent preparing to rescue it means an exponential increase in the area it could have reached and, therefore, the area that needs searching. Click here. (3/21)

Crush Of Cubesats Prompts Rethink Of Planetary Protection Protocols (Source: Aviation Week)
In the future, the conundrum may be partly resolved by new sampling and assessment techniques, including sterilization technologies borrowed from the food, pharmaceutical and medical devices industries. “If we can figure out a way to make cubesats that are absolutely sterilized and encapsulated in a way that they don’t get recontaminated, those kinds of smaller, life-detection missions are really important for helping us move forward-—particularly on Mars—-in time to do it before we start to have humans in the vicinity.” Click here. (3/14)

Lockheed Awarded Contract for Trident II Production, Support (Source: UPI)
Lockheed Martin has been awarded a contract for production and support of the Trident II D5, a submarine-launched ballistic missile. The deal is valued at more than $522.3 million under the terms of a fixed-price-incentive, cost-plus-incentive-fee, and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract, which is a modification to a previous award by the U.S. Navy. A portion of this activity takes place at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport, where the Naval Ordnance Test Unit supports testing and other engineering work for the Trident missiles and the submarines that carry them. (3/20)

Arms Race: Pentagon Mulling New Submarine- or Surface-Based Nuclear Cruise Missile (Source: Aviation Week)
The Pentagon is mulling either a new submarine- or surface ship-based nuclear cruise missile and low-yield nuclear ballistic missiles in response to Russian and Chinese capabilities. The Navy formerly had a nuclear-armed Tomahawk submarine-launched cruise missile (SLCM) but this was retired by the 2010 Nuclear Posture Review. In the latest 2018 review, the Pentagon said it will “immediately begin efforts to restore this capability by initiating a capability study leading to an Analysis of Alternatives” to rapidly develop a modern SLCM. (3/20)