September 16, 2018

'The First' Is a Dazzling, Portentous Space Drama (Source: The Atlantic)
It’s no secret at this point that Beau Willimon is preoccupied with ambition. After working on Howard Dean’s abortive 2004 presidential campaign, Willimon turned his experiences into a play, Farragut North, about toxic political aspiration. Then he created Netflix’s House of Cards, an almost comically bleak excavation of power and the rotten, sociopathic people who crave it.

Willimon’s The First, released in its entirety Friday on Hulu, is different. Its characters are defined by the earnestness of their dreams, not their Machiavellian drive toward self-advancement. They deliver stirring monologues about heroism and the human race that, if you squint a little, seem almost Sorkinian. In early episodes, Commander Tom Hagerty (Sean Penn) emphasizes over and over that his family’s needs supersede his career ambitions. Make no mistake, though: He’s lying.

Because the astronauts of The First, compelled to sacrifice all to be the first humans to set foot on Mars, are no less driven than the Franks and the Claires of the fictional D.C. power matrix. It’s just a different kind of ambition. The show is called The First for a reason—it’s interested primarily with what compels people to make history, even when the cost is everything else you care about. (9/16)

Why on Earth Would a Company Offer Insurance for Space Travel? (Source: CNN)
Drivers need insurance before they get on the road. And space companies need it before they hurtle metal projectiles into the sky. Offering insurance for space flight might seem like an insane business decision. The pool of customers is tiny, and the risk is, well, astronomical.

The industry collected $715 million in premiums and paid out $636 million in claims last year, according to an insurance industry expert. That's a slim profit, but margins are known to bloat or thin from year to year. Having a small pool of customers means dealing with volatility. Yet, it remains a consistently profitable business. A small group of insurance underwriters around the world have racked up expertise that helps the space industry assess risk and write policies. But a new era of space flight is ushering in drastic changes. Click here. (9/16)

Jerusalem, We Have a Problem: Why Israel's NASA Isn't Taking Off (Source: Haaretz)
Advanced research satellites, cooperation with foreign space agencies, support for Israeli research, educational activities. These are the flagship projects of the Israel Space Agency. The space agency represents Israel in the field, but suffers from budget issues and uses the help of external contractors. Is the Israeli NASA still soaring high despite these hurdles? Click here. (9/16)

South Korea to Test-Launch Rocket in October (Source: Yonhap)
South Korea plans to conduct the first test flight of its locally developed booster engine at the end of next month, the ICT ministry said Sunday, as part of a long-term effort to produce the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-2 (KSLV-2), a three-stage rocket.

The single-stage rocket, with a 75-ton thrust engine, developed by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) is set to be launched between Oct. 25 and Oct. 31 from the Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Jeolla Province. It said the launch date has been set after examining all variables and that related countries and agencies, such as the International Civil Aviation Organization and International Maritime Organization, will be notified in advance. (9/16)

Indian PSLV Launches Two British Satellites (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket has launched two British satellites into a 583 km Sun Synchronous Orbit on Sunday. The lofting of SSTL S1-4 and NovaSAR-1 took place from the First Launch Pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre with T-0 occurring at 16:37 UTC. ISRO’s return to action is set to mark an upturn in launch activity for the Indian space agency.

“We are going to conduct 19 missions, including 10 satellites and nine launch vehicles, between September and March,” noted ISRO chairman K Siva to the Times of India ahead of this launch. “For ISRO, this will be the highest density period for launches as never before we had launched two satellites within 30 days consecutively for months.” (9/16)

India, France Plan Satellites for Maritime Surveillance, says French Space Agency Chief (Source: Financial Express)
India and France have planned eight-10 satellites as part of a “constellation” for maritime surveillance, French space agency CNES chief Jean-Yves Le Gall has said. This will be India's largest space cooperation with any country, officials said.

The launch of eight-10 maritime surveillance satellites will focus on the Indian Ocean, a region that has been witnessing increasing Chinese presence. France will also share its expertise with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on inter-planetary missions to Mars and Venus, the Indian space agency’s two major missions, Gall said. (9/16)

Elon Musk Plans to Send Japanese Billionaire to Moon? (Source: International Business Times)
SpaceX, founded by South African billionaire Elon Musk is expected to announce the name of the space tourist who will orbit the moon in the BFR rocket on Sep. 17. As per reports, the cost of the flight will be $150 million, and as an initial step, only one passenger will fly around the moon. Even though the name of the tourist is being kept under the wraps by SpaceX, a recent tweet made by Elon Musk has made many believe that the space tourist will be a Japanese billionaire.

Recently, Taylor Harris, the Minecraft YouTuber who runs the channel 'Ant Venom' asked Musk regarding the details of the passenger who will fly around the moon as a space tourist. Surprisingly, Elon Musk did not reply anything verbally, instead, he tweeted a Japanese flag. There are only a few Japanese billionaires on a list published by Forbes, and interestingly, most of them are aged more than 60.

There are only less than fifteen Japanese billionaires who fall in the age suitable for space travel, and one among them is Yusaku Maezawa. Yusaku Maezawa, the 42-year-old billionaire is the founder of online fashion retail website Zozotown. As per Forbes, Maezawa is the 14th richest person in Japan with a net asset of $3.6 billion. Another probable candidate who may fly around the moon is Kenji Kasahara. Kasahara is 42-years-old and he is the founder of social networking site Mixi. (9/16)

The Canadian Space Agency Has its First Science Advisor (Source: SpaceQ)
Nearly six months after putting out a call for a Science Advisor to the president of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the agency has selected Dr. Sarah Gallagher of Western University. (9/15)

ULA to Display Last Unused Delta II at KSC Visitor Complex (Source: ULA)
ULA's last Delta II rocket will join a lineup of historic rockets in the Rocket Garden on display at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Delta II rockets have launched 154 successful missions, including several trips to Mars, launch of the Kepler planet hunter, the twon lunar-orbiting GRAIL spacecraft, 48 GPS satellites, and numerous commercial imaging and communications satellites. (9/15)

California Gov. Jerry Brown to Launch Satellite to Track Greenhouse Gas Emissions (Source: NBC)
“In California, with science under attack, in fact we’re under attack by a lot of people, including Donald Trump. But the climate threat still keeps growing,” Brown told delegates at Moscone Convention Center, near the city’s financial district. “With science still under attack, we’re going to launch our own satellite, our own damn satellite, to figure out where the pollution is.”

Brown’s office said the satellite — to be developed in conjunction with the San Francisco-based Earth-imaging company, Planet Labs, and launched by 2021 — will allow the state to track greenhouse gas emissions. It hasn’t yet been determined whether data from the satellite would be available to other governments or private organizations that want to track greenhouse gas emissions, said Stanley Young, a spokesman for the state Air Resources Control Board. (9/14)

Delta II Launches Final Mission, Including UCF Payload (Source: WESH)
It was the last time a Delta II rocket will dazzle its way across the sky Saturday. The Delta II's last liftoff happened from California, putting NASA's new ice satellite into space. It will track earth's ever-changing polar regions. Also on board the Delta II, and now in orbit, a satellite built by UCF students and their professor Adrienne Dove. UCF SurfSat is no bigger than a shoebox, but it packs in plenty of science. SurfSat's charge is to find ways to better protect electronics from the harsh effects of space. (9/15)

New Mexico Solar Observatory Denies Aliens Involved in ‘Security’ Closure (Source: The Hill)
A New Mexico solar observatory this week denied aliens were involved in a security-related closure that began last week and is still in place. “I can tell you it definitely wasn’t aliens,” a spokeswoman for the National Solar Observatory, part of the Sunspot Solar Observatory consortium, told The Washington Post.

It is still unclear what led to the evacuation and closure of the facility, which is typically open to the public. The Post reported that only the director and an assistant have been allowed into the building and even the security guards have reportedly been kept in the dark. (9/15)