Trump Ally Dana
Rohrabacher Loses to Democratic Challenger Harley Rouda
(Source: Washington Examiner)
The Associated Press has declared Democrat Harley Rouda to be the
winner in his House race against Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., a few
hours after Rouda declared victory. In its announcement Saturday
evening, the AP said the updated vote count showed Rousa with 52
percent of the vote and around a 8,500-vote lead over Rohrabacher.
Rohrabacher, a 30-year incumbent and staunch Trump ally, has yet to
concede the race. Hours earlier, Rouda claimed the race after breaking
away with the lead. (11/10)
Rocket Lab Aces First
Commercial Launch (Source: Space.com)
The spaceflight startup's Electron rocket aced its first commercial
flight tonight (Nov. 10), lofting six small satellites and a technology
demonstrator to low-Earth orbit, about 310 miles (500 kilometers) above
our planet. The mission, which Rocket Lab called "It's Business Time,"
lifted off from the company's New Zealand launch site. The two-stage
Electron first delivered its payloads to an elliptical parking orbit; a
"kick stage" that separated from the rocket's upper stage then
circularized the orbits of the satellites, which were deployed about 54
minutes after liftoff, Rocket Lab representatives said. (11/10)
Cape Canaveral Can Now
Launch Commercial Spaceplanes (Source: Popular Mechanics)
Cape Canaveral Spaceport is made of more than launchpads. The famed
space coast site also has a 15,000-foot runway, a veteran of more than
130 Space Shuttle landings. Those landings came to an end in 2011,
though, but now, seven years later, that runway is open for commercial
business. Yesterday, Florida's spaceport authority reported that the
FAA issued a launch license for operations at the site.
The runway, for now still called the Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF), is
a symbol of where spaceflight has been—now it's becoming a key hub of
the future. Since 2015 the runway, tower, and other pieces have been
operated by Space Florida, the state's spaceport development authority.
Space Florida has been working on this license since December 2015 and
just submitted the more than 120-page application in February. On
Thursday the FAA approved the paperwork, which allows the Cape
Canaveral Spaceport to support operations of aircraft that carry
air-launched rockets.
SLF Airfield Manager James Mofitt said that direct-to-orbit spaceplanes—those
that take off from a runway and cruise directly into suborbital space
without using a carrier—are covered by the license. The best-known
company offering this type of spacecraft was XCOR, which folded earlier
this year, but the spaceport wants to be ready for future developments.
The license cost “a couple million dollars” but that amount includes
work being done to credential a secondary site. Spaceports are often
accused of a build-it-and-they-will-come strategy, but Mofitt points to
the plethora of space launch companies that are coming online. “Did we
get this license on spec? Sure. But it’s safe to say this will pay
off,” he says. (11/9)
If Everyone Left the
International Space Station (Source: The Atlantic)
It’s important to note that the ISS doesn’t depend on the presence of a
crew to fly. Mission controllers on the ground can operate the station
as it coasts through space, traveling at an average speed of 17,500
miles an hour. ISS systems are built to be redundant; a failure of one
of several identical systems doesn’t signal a major catastrophe. If
necessary, Russia can also deliver uncrewed Progress capsules to dock
to the ISS and, as has been done in the past, fire their thrusters to
elevate the station, keeping it in its usual orbit.
After the Soyuz launch failure, NASA spent several weeks preparing for
the possibility of leaving the ISS unoccupied. The space agency has a
“de-crew” document for this scenario, which instructs the departing
astronauts to make sure systems are running fine, install backups, and
top off science experiments. But NASA’s protocols don’t specify exactly
how long the ISS could theoretically operate without a crew. Although
the station can be operated remotely, there’s no substitute for having
people on board. Astronauts conduct repairs inside and outside the
station, replace aging hardware, and perform regular checks of
life-support systems. (11/9)
NASA’s Europa Lander in
Jeopardy After Midterms -- and Some are Fine Seeing it Go
(Source: The Verge)
Now that Rep. John Culberson (R-TX) is about to leave public office,
the Europa lander will no longer have its champion, making its future
at NASA uncertain. NASA never formally requested a lander for Europa,
and the president’s latest budget request noted that the administration
had no intention of funding such a program. No other lawmaker seems to
be as passionate about the project, nor in the same position to keep
the program alive.
Plus, there are some in the science community who wouldn’t be upset to
see the mission go. In fact, a few experts are concerned that sending a
lander to Europa right now is premature, as we don’t know enough about
the moon’s surface to successfully touch down on it. And there’s
frustration over the fact that the lander was born from a politician
rather than scientific consensus. “The Europa lander was always
Culberson’s,” Emily Lakdawalla, the senior editor at The Planetary
Society, tells The Verge. “It’s a mission that came out of Congress as
opposed to a mission that came out of the [science community].” (11/10)
NASA and Yuri Milner
Working Together on Life-Hunting Mission to Enceladus
(Source: Gizmodo)
It looks like NASA will offer billionaire entrepreneur and physicist
Yuri Milner help on the first private deep-space mission: a journey
designed to detect life, if it exists, on Saturn’s moon Enceladus,
according to documents acquired by New Scientist. New Scientist’s Mark
Harris reports:
"Agreements signed by NASA and Milner’s non-profit Breakthrough
Starshot Foundation in September show that the organisations are
working on scientific, technical and financial plans for the ambitious
mission. NASA has committed over $70,000 to help produce a concept
study for a flyby mission. The funds won’t be paid to Breakthrough but
represent the agency’s own staffing costs on the project." (11/8)
Camden Spaceport Won't
Live Up to Expectations (Source: Brunswick News)
Not only was Nov. 6 Election Day, but it was the ignoble third
anniversary of the announcement in the Federal Register that Camden
County was going to spend a rocket-load of money on its spaceport
odyssey. Six million dollars and three years later, the spaceport
Environmental Impact Statement is now officially paused. Camden
Commission chair Jimmy Starline says it’s the FAA “process,” but the
FAA states it’s due to “project sponsor factors.” Whatever.
The public’s input and participation has temporarily stopped this
ill-advised project that would have severe consequences for Camden and
Glynn. We were promised by Camden’s spaceport consultant that rockets
were 99.01 percent safe. But the Draft EIS had to admit a failure rate
of up to 6 percent, which the FAA figures up to 93 percent for new
rockets. That’s one launch failure every 17 months. Shockingly, the EIS
failed to study the consequence of a rocket crash on Cumberland,
Jekyll, or St. Andrews Sound although the National Environmental
Protection Act requires it.
Meanwhile, Vector Space, the company that launched an amateur rocket
from Camden in 2017 and promised us a rocket factory, hasn’t launched
anything since. But Vector promised Virginia and Alaska rocket launches
to orbit in 2018. The first won’t happen until next year, if then.
Neither will the promised Florida rocket factory. We just re-elected
the politicians that continue to waste money on the spaceport that will
never launch a rocket. Are they tell us they don’t have better uses for
our taxes? (11/10)
Two More Mysterious Rogue
Planets Found (Source: Popular Mechanics)
Rogue planets wander through space without orbiting a star, and now
scientists have found two more of these free-floating worlds. For
centuries, the very existence of rogue planets was hypothetical.
Because they're not close to a star that lights them up, they're
tremendously difficult to spot. Then a technique known as gravitational
microlensing came around.
Using gravitational microlensing, scientists find planets by noting
when a rogue planet interrupts a star's light from our point of view.
The planet suddenly acts as a lens for the star's light, curving it as
it would be seen from Earth. The bigger the planet, the bigger the
interruption. While humanity has proven great at finding exoplanets
attached to stars, scientists have only identified a dozen or so
rogues. That's what makes adding two more to the pile such a big deal.
The planets are officially called OGLE-2017-BLG-0560 and
OGLE-2012-BLG-1323, respectively, and there's a lot we don't know about
them. (11/9)
SpaceX Wants to Fly Some
Internet Satellites Closer to Earth to Cut Down on Space Trash
(Source: The Verge)
SpaceX is revising its satellite internet initiative, Starlink, and it
now hopes to operate some of its spacecraft at a lower altitude than
originally planned. In a new filing to the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC), SpaceX is asking the agency to modify its license so
that more than 1,500 Starlink satellites can operate at an altitude 600
kilometers lower than the company originally requested.
SpaceX argues that this change will make the space environment safer,
as it will be easier to get rid of these satellites at this new
altitude when they run low on fuel or can no longer function properly
in orbit. This update could also explain the unexpected behavior of two
of SpaceX’s test satellites for Starlink, which have remained in lower
orbits than expected.
Back in March, the FCC approved SpaceX’s license for the first phase of
its ambitious Starlink initiative — the company’s long-term plan to
launch nearly 12,000 satellites into orbit to beam internet coverage
down to Earth. Initially, SpaceX asked the FCC for permission to launch
4,425 satellites into orbits ranging between 1,110 to 1,325 kilometers
high. But with this new filing, SpaceX is requesting that 1,584 of
those satellites, which were supposed to operate at 1,110 kilometers,
be allowed to operate at 550 kilometers instead. (11/9)
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