January 18, 2019

Japan's Epsilon Rocket Launches Multiple Satellites (Source: Asahi Shimbun)
A Japanese rocket successfully launched several small satellites Thursday night. The Epsilon rocket lifted off on schedule at 7:50 p.m. Eastern from the Uchinoura Space Center, the fourth flight of the small launch vehicle. The rocket's primary payload was Rapid Innovative Payload Demonstration Satellite 1, a small technology demonstration satellite, along with six smaller secondary payloads. Among those other satellites was ALE-1, a satellite by Japanese startup ALE that will later demonstrate the ability to create artificial shooting stars for entertainment purposes. (1/18)

Can Missile Defense Expansion Survive Congressional Budget Pressures? (Source: Defense News)
“I will accept nothing less for our nation than the most effective, cutting-edge missile defense systems,” Trump said. “We have the best anywhere in the world. It's not even close.” But unless Congress approves the major funding increase that will be required to make it all a reality, many of those programs may fall by the wayside — and questions are emerging over whether these systems will be funded by a Democratic House of Representatives that is looking to cut defense spending.

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith, D-WA, signaled at the competing budget pressures in a hallway interview after the rollout, saying: “It’s not sustainable to expand everything.” “I mean, you saw the Air Force, they wanted 25 percent more planes than were currently projected.” Smith said. "We got the nuclear modernization program that’s enormously expensive; we’re hellbent to have a 355-ship Navy; they want an end strength — I forget what the hell it was Trump said about that. Missile defense, they want more for that. I would like to have a discussion about the choices involved.” (1/17)

Trump’s New Missile Policy Relies Heavily on Largely Unproven Technologies (Source: Defense One)
The new missile-defense strategy rests most of its hopes on other technologies that essentially do not exist, and may never do so. The review says, for example, that the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter could be networked with new sensors and outfitted with new missiles to take out adversary missiles on the launch pad. Tests have shown that the F-35 can do this. But the distance is the larger problem: the jet basically has to be in the enemy’s airspace already.

The notion of multiple F-35s loitering over China and Russia waiting to kneecap rockets during liftoff is a fantasy. Another possible way to hit ascending missiles s with lasers mounted on satellites in low Earth orbit. In the review, Pentagon leaders declare that they will be studying taking a good look at the potential. This is one of the most controversial aspects of the policy, since it is, in essence, a declaration of an intent to weaponize space.

Trump expressed a desire to remove bureaucratic hurdles that inhibiting the export of U.S. missiles. In fact, the review’s release was delayed by months,in part by considerations about how to strike the right tone with allies. It seems to acknowledge that the best defense for the U.S. homeland against missiles, particularly from Russia and China, begins with foreign partners who are deeply interested in joining your collective defense. That’s difficult to do while you’re alienating them. (1/17)

Hubble Returns to Full Service (Source: NASA)
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is once again fully functional after an instrument returned to service Thursday. NASA said the Wide Field Camera 3 instrument resumed operations midday Thursday, a little more than a week after it went offline because of anomalous voltage readings. Engineers reset the camera's electronics to correct the problem. (1/17)

Uncrewed Test Considered for New Soyuz Capsule (Source: TASS)
Russia may launch a Soyuz spacecraft without a crew in September as a test of a new launch vehicle version. The uncrewed test flight would use the Soyuz-2 rocket, which has been used for satellite and cargo spacecraft launches but has yet to be used for a crewed flight. Soyuz spacecraft are currently launched on the Soyuz FG rocket, but the final four vehicles of that version will be flown this year. (1/17)

Saturn Rings Younger Than Thought (Source: AP)
Saturn's rings may be less than 100 million years old. A new study published Thursday concluded the rings may have formed between 10 and 100 million years ago, a fraction of the 4.5-billion-year age of the planet itself. The age estimate is based on data collected by the Cassini spacecraft near the end of its mission that estimated the mass of the rings. Scientists think the rings could have formed from the collision of two of Saturn's moons, or a moon and a comet. (1/17)

Asteroid Impacts on the Rise (Source: Science)
The number of asteroid impacts has grown significantly in the last several hundred million years. Planetary scientists used data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to date craters on the moon, concluding that the impact rate there, and thus also for Earth, has increased by a factor of 2.5 in the last 300 million years. The cause of the increase in impacts is not yet known. (1/17)