July 14, 2018

Billionaire Peter Hargreaves' Cash Injection Boosts The UK Space Race (Source: Forbes)
Billionaire Peter Hargreaves' cash injection boosts the UK's space race. This isn't a sentence you'd expect to find the name Peter Hargreaves in. Hargreaves the man who made his name and his billions from the financial services firm Hargreaves Lansdown, which he founded with Stephen Lansdown.

But following the lead of US super-rich Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, Hargreaves has just invested £24 million in the satellite communications facility and space gateway Goonhilly Earth Station, based on the Lizard Peninsula of England's Cornish coast. The funding came about after Goonhilly's chairman Kenn Herskind was put in touch with Hargreaves, explains Ian Jones, Goonhilly's CEO. (7/13)

Meet The Unknown Immigrant Billionaire Betting Her Fortune To Take On Musk In Space (Source: Forbes)
Even in the bloated-budget world of aerospace, $650 million is a lot of money. It's the amount of money NASA and the Sierra Nevada Corp. spent developing the Dream Chaser, a reusable spacecraft designed to take astronauts into orbit. Sierra Nevada, 100% owned by Eren and Fatih Ozmen, put in $300 million; NASA ponied up the other $350 million. In 2014, NASA passed on Sierra Nevada's space plane and instead awarded the multibillion-dollar contracts to Boeing and SpaceX.

The original Dream Chaser, which looks like a mini space shuttle with upturned wings, now serves as an extremely expensive lobby decoration for Sierra Nevada's outpost in Colorado. But the nine-figure failure barely put a dent in the Ozmens' dream of joining the space race. Within months of the snub, the company bid on another NASA contract, to carry cargo, including food, water and science experiments, to and from the International Space Station. This time it won. Sierra Nevada and its competitors Orbital ATK and SpaceX will split a contract worth up to $14 billion.

The Ozmens, who are worth $1.3 billion each, are part of a growing wave of the uber-rich who are racing into space, filling the void left by NASA when it abandoned the space shuttle in the wake of the 2003 Columbia disaster. Elon Musk's SpaceX and Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic are the best-known ventures, but everyone from Larry Page (Planetary Resources) and Mark Cuban (Relativity Space) to Jeff Bezos (Blue Origin) and Paul Allen (Stratolaunch) is in the game. Most are passion projects, but the money is potentially good, too. Editor's Note: These articles keep overlooking Naveen Jain (Moon Express). (7/13)

Moon Shot Changed Local Landscape, Lives (Source: Florida Today)
Joan Van Scyoc doesn't remember the color of the swimsuit she wore in the second annual Moonwalk Festival Parade, or the names of those who rode in the convertible with her. But she does remember the intensity of the excitement along the Space Coast, as plentiful as sunshine and sand. She remembers the adulation showered on those who had suited up and headed for space and those who had anything to do with getting them there.

And the pride. She can still feel the pride. "It's part of the fabric of who I am," Scyoc said. As the 49th anniversary of the first moon landing approaches, Van Scyoc said that pivotal moment in American history is important to her "to this day." And she still feels its impact on this sliver of Florida where the space race was won. Countless other Brevard residents who lived through that special period of Space Coast life share her sentiments. (7/12)

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine Wants to Boost Collaboration with Israel (Source: Houston Chronicle)
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine on Thursday said he wants to increase the space agency's collaboration with Israel -- a statement that quickly followed the unveiling of Israel's spacecraft that will rocket to the moon in December. "We're trying to figure out what all [Israel's] capabilities are and how those capabilities might fit into [NASA's] architecture," Bridenstine said in a video posted Thursday to Twitter, highlighting the country's ability to miniaturize electronics and build small satellites. (7/13)

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Capsule Arrives in Florida to Get Set for Uncrewed Test Flight (Source: GeekWire)
After months of testing, a SpaceX Dragon capsule that’s designed to carry astronauts to and from the International Space Station has arrived in Florida, marking a significant step toward this summer’s scheduled test launch. Even though the vehicle is called a “Crew Dragon,” this Dragon won’t carry crew on its first flight. Instead, it’s due to make an uncrewed practice run to the space station during what’s known as Demonstration Mission 1, or DM-1.

NASA’s current schedule calls for SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket to launch the DM-1 mission next month from Kennedy Space Center. However, that schedule is dependent not only on the pace of preparations, but also on the timetable for station arrivals and departures. After several weeks, the Crew Dragon would unhook from the station and descend back down to Earth, still uncrewed, for a Pacific splashdown and recovery. (7/13)