Moon Express Pays
Intuitive Machines (Source: Space News)
Commercial lunar transportation firm Moon Express delivered 590,710
shares of stock worth an estimated $2.25 million to Intuitive Machines
LLC, a firm with autonomous systems expertise, as ordered Oct. 15 by a
federal judge in Delaware. “I recently received the shares per the
judge’s order,” Steve Altemus, Intuitive Machines president, said. The dispute between the two companies is not
settled, though. Moon Express is preparing to appeal the judgment.
Intuitive is asking the Delaware court to convert the Moon Express
equity awarded into cash. (11/9)
Rocket Lab's Third Launch
Could Be The Start Of Something Big (Source: Forbes)
The US-based company Rocket Lab is gearing up for its third-ever launch
tomorrow, its first fully commercial flight and a key milestone as it
aims to prove the viability of smaller rockets. Their Electron rocket,
given the nickname “It’s Business Time”, is set to lift off from Rocket
Lab’s Launch Complex 1 on the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island
this weekend.
The rocket has a nine-day launch window, with the first launch
opportunity coming on Saturday 10 November at 10pm Eastern time. On
board will be seven payloads, including a demonstration drag sail to
practice de-orbiting space junk and a student-led experiment. If all
goes to plan, the rocket will place these payloads into an orbit 500
kilometers (310 miles) above Earth. (11/9)
Australia’s Space Future:
Where To Next on the Final Frontier? (Source: ASPI)
With the establishment of the Australian Space Agency on 1 July this
year and the growth of Australia’s space industry, the future has
arrived for many Australian space advocates. A critical mass of
participants, initiatives and developments are riding a wave of
government enthusiasm and private-sector support. It’s a good time to
be involved in space in this country. It’s also a good time to look
forward, and consider where we might head over the next decade in space.
The starting point has to be with the Australian Space Agency, which
released its charter setting out its purpose, values, roles,
responsibilities, approach to governance, and reporting arrangements at
the end of October. The agency’s purpose is to ‘transform and grow a
globally respected Australian space industry that lifts the broader
economy, inspires and improves the lives of Australians—underpinned by
strong international and national engagement’. Click here.
(11/9)
Mars Demands Component,
Packaging and Design Trifecta (Source: EE Times)
Tried and true is the battle cry of military and aerospace
organizations determined to study Mars. Although emerging technologies
could facilitate the journey, heritage devices with a proven track
record remain the best path forward for systems that can withstand
unexpected events, intense radiation, and the harsh conditions of the
Red Planet. Click here.
(11/8)
SpaceX Targeting Next
Week for Falcon 9 Mission; First Daytime Launch in 6 Months (Source:
Florida Today)
If schedules hold, SpaceX next week will vault a Falcon 9 rocket from
the Cape Canaveral Spaceport into the day's last light, signaling a
break from the Space Coast's streak of late-night launches. Teams next
Thursday have a launch window at pad 39A that opens in the afternoon
and closes around sunset. It will also mark SpaceX's first launch from
the historic Apollo and space shuttle-era pad since May.
The rocket's first stage is expected to perform an automated descent
toward the Of Course I Still Love You drone ship shortly after liftoff,
so Space Coast residents and visitors should not anticipate the usual
triple sonic booms that are heard when the booster returns. It should
sail into Port Canaveral before the end of the weekend. On board:
Es'hail-2, a Qatari communications satellite for operator Es'hailSat
that will cover the Middle East and North Africa region from a
geostationary orbit.
SpaceX's following launch is also scheduled for a daytime liftoff from
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Dec. 4. That mission, the company's
16th resupply of the International Space Station, has an instantaneous
1:38 p.m. launch window and will ferry thousands of pounds of cargo,
science experiments and supplies. (11/10)
Antares Rocket to Launch
from Virginia Thursday (Source: Virginian-Pilot)
Stardust, protein crystals, virtual reality, cement, recycled plastics
– these are key components of a few of the science experiments set to
launch from Virginia’s spaceport to the International Space Station
next Thursday. The idea behind these experiments is to advance our
understanding of how the universe formed from stardust, the pathology
of Parkinson’s disease, making and using concrete on celestial bodies,
and the sustainable fabrication and repair of plastic materials on
lengthy space missions.
The rocket is set to lift off at 4:49 a.m. on Nov. 15 from the
Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA Wallops Flight Facility. It
will boost an unmanned Cygnus cargo craft bearing 7,500 pounds of
groceries, hardware and research to space station crew. Weather
permitting, Antares launches are visible throughout the mid-Atlantic,
with Hampton Roads residents treated to front-row seats. (11/8)
The Republican Space Fans
Exiting the House (Source: The Atlantic)
After eight years in power, Republicans in the House of Representatives
will soon hand over the gavel to Democrats. When the new Congress
convenes in January, the chamber will contain dozens fewer
Republicans—and fewer Republican supporters of space exploration. The
outcome of Tuesday’s elections will sweep several longtime champions of
NASA out of the House. Some have held office for many years, and their
interest in space exploration has led to hundreds of millions of
dollars in funding for ambitious projects. Plenty of ardent NASA
advocates remain in the chamber, but the departure of these well-known
faces could lead to a shift in legislative priorities.
Perhaps the most significant loss occurred in Texas’s Seventh
Congressional District, home to thousands of the employees at the
Johnson Space Center in Houston. A political newcomer, Lizzie Pannill
Fletcher, defeated the incumbent John Culberson, who has served in the
House since 2001. Culberson, an attorney, doesn’t have a science
background. Culberson has fiercely supported one mission in particular:
a journey to one of Jupiter’s moons, the icy Europa. (11/8)
NASA Awards $7 Million to
University to Search for Extraterrestrial Life (Source:
The Hoya)
NASA awarded a $7 million grant to Georgetown University biology
professor Sarah Johnson and a team of researchers to work on a project
in search of extraterrestrial life. The Laboratory for Agnostic
Biosignatures led by Johnson and her team is working to pioneer a new
way of approaching the search for life outside of planet Earth,
focusing on Mars and on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. The NASA
funding is set to continue for the next five years. LAB is a
collaborative effort of 15 members from universities and scientific
research institutions from around the world. (11/9)
Trump's Space Force Faces
an Uncertain Fate (Source: The Atlantic)
For the past several months, Donald Trump’s administration has explored
the creation of a new military branch to protect national interests in
outer space. Perhaps no one is as excited about this effort as
President Trump, who came up with the idea. “He only asks me about the
Space Force every week,” Mike Pence joked at a meeting of the National
Space Council last month, where members formulated plans to bring the
Space Force to life.
But the outcome of the midterm elections has derailed their efforts.
The Trump administration cannot establish the Space Force on its own.
It needs Congress. It needs individual lawmakers to support the
proposal, and then translate that support into legislation that
provides funding and empowers government officials. And, in an ideal
world, those lawmakers would be in the majority. (11/9)
McClain Ready for Flight
to ISS Next Month (Source: Houston Chronicle)
Two major mishaps in the Russian space program have made the last three
months tumultuous for NASA astronaut Anne McClain, raising questions
about whether her planned December flight to the International Space
Station would ever take off. First, a hole that caused an air leak was
discovered in August in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft attached to the
space station, but was later patched. Then last month, the launch of a
different Soyuz headed to the space station was aborted because of a
rocket booster failure, grounding American astronauts who depend on
Russia to ferry them into space until the cause was determined.
But on Friday -- with her launch date moved up to Dec. 3 and her
training regimen adjusted -- McClain said she is more confident than
ever to strap into a Soyuz and rocket out of Earth's atmosphere. This
will be McClain's first spaceflight since being selected as an
astronaut in 2013. She, along with Russia's Oleg Kononenko and Canadian
Space Agency's David Saint-Jacques initially were supposed to launch
from Kazakhstan on Dec. 20. (11/9)
UCF Researcher Will Use
Blue Origin Rocket to Study Dust Clouds in Low-Gravity Environment
(Source: Orlando Sentinel)
A UCF researcher’s experiment will hitch a ride into areas of space
with low gravity on a Blue Origin rocket. Julie Brisset, an associate
scientist at the school’s Florida Space Institute, recently landed a
$250,000 NASA grant to study how microgravity affects dust clouds. The
research could eventually help scientists learn more about the birth of
stars or research smog in major cities. (11/6)
We Need to Change the Way
We Talk About Space Exploration (Source: National
Geographic)
To ensure that humanity’s future off-world is less harmful and open to
all, many of the people involved are revising the problematic ways in
which space exploration is framed. Numerous conversations are taking
place about the importance of using inclusive language, with scholars
focusing on decolonizing humanity’s next journeys into space, as well
as science in general. “Language matters, and it’s so important to be
inclusive,” NASA astronaut Leland Melvin said recently during a talk at
the University of Virginia.
The language we use automatically frames how we envision the things we
talk about. So, with space exploration, we have to consider how we are
using that language, and what it carries from the history of
exploration on Earth. Even if words like “colonization” have a
different context off-world, on somewhere like Mars, it’s still not OK
to use those narratives, because it erases the history of colonization
here on our own planet. There’s this dual effect where it both frames
our future and, in some sense, edits the past. (11/9)
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