April 13, 2019

Ready for Orbit! Starliner Passes Environmental Qualification Testing (Source: Boeing)
“Test like you fly” is a mantra Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner team takes to heart, proven by the success of a recent environmental test campaign at Boeing’s Space Environment Test Facility in El Segundo, Calif. During testing, the first Starliner that will carry people to space was subjected to similar environmental conditions it will see on launch, ascent and orbit.

“Environmental testing is one of the most challenging campaigns of any spaceflight development program, and we succeeded in under 100 days," said John Mulholland, Vice President and Program Manager, Boeing’s Commercial Crew Program. "Thorough ground testing is a critical part of our strategy to ensure the shortest possible time between flight tests and long-duration missions for our NASA customer. "

In Boeing’s acoustic chamber, test teams subjected Starliner to intense sound waves that simulated liftoff and ascent. In the large thermal-vacuum chamber, the spacecraft experienced extreme temperature swings, from freezing cold to heat from solar radiation in a vacuum simulating the space environment. Finally, teams tested the spacecraft’s systems for potential electromagnetic interferences in a highly specialized, noise-free anechoic chamber. (4/12)

Former CASIS Executive Charged With 'Expensing' Prostitutes for Travel Reimbursements (Source: Florida Today)
Federal prosecutors have charged a former executive of the Brevard County-based nonprofit that runs the International Space Station's national laboratory for using government funds to pay for escort services, and for falsifying tax returns. Charles Resnick, served as chief economist for the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, or CASIS, which is primarily funded by about $15 million annually from NASA.

According to a 10-count indictment filed Thursday by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Tampa, Resnick created phony receipts and other documents when filing expense reports that hid spending on prostitutes and escorts during trips to Europe and New York between 2011 and 2015. "Expenses incurred for escorts, prostitutes, and commercial sexual activities were not part of the ordinary, necessary, and reasonable travel expenses or related expenses for which employees could be reimbursed," the indictment reads. (4/12)

Stratolaunch Aircraft Takes Flight (Source: CNN)
After years of development in the desert north of Los Angeles, a gigantic, six-engined megajet with the wingspan of an American football field flew Saturday morning for the first time. Stratolaunch Systems, the company founded in 2011 by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, conducted the first test flight of the world's largest plane. Basically, Stratolaunch aircraft is a giant flying launch pad, designed to hurtle satellites into low Earth orbit. It aims to offer the military, private companies and even NASA itself a more economical way to get into space.

"Whatever the payload, whatever the orbit, getting your satellite into space will soon be as easy as booking an airline flight," said CEO Jean Floyd in 2018. The aircraft's wingspan measures 385 feet -- wider than any airplane on the planet. From tip to tail, it's 238 feet long. It weighs half a million pounds. It's so big, it has two cockpits, one in each fuselage (but only one is used to fly the plane. (4/13)

We Now Know Why Israel’s Lunar Lander Crashed Into the Moon (Source: BGR)
In the immediate aftermath of the lander’s crash it as unclear exactly what went wrong. An issue with the spacecraft’s engine was suspected, but the lander’s signal was lost shortly after the engine came back online so answers were hard to come by. Now, after studying the data from the landing attempt, SpaceIL has a better idea of what went wrong.

“Preliminary technical information collected by the teams shows that the first technical issue occurred at 14 km above the Moon,” SpaceIL explained in a tweet. “At 150 meters when the connection with #Beresheet was lost, it was moving at 500 km/h, making a collision inevitable...Our engineers think that a technical glitch in one of the components caused the main engine to shut down – making it impossible to slow the spacecraft’s descent. By the time the engine was restarted its velocity was too high to land properly.” (4/13)

Male Colleague Defends Female Black Hole Software Scientist After Internet Trolling (Source: The Hill)
Katherine Bouman, a 29-year-old researcher who worked on the crucial algorithm that led to capturing the first-ever image of a black hole, has become the target of online sexist trolls seeking to discredit her work on the historic project. After the first-ever image captured of a black hole was revealed online, another image began to make the rounds on social media.

The photo that showed Bouman with her hands clasping her face as she reacted to the team’s achievement became an instant symbol for female representation in STEM. But since she's received her newfound fame, a number of sexist trolls on Reddit and Twitter have circulated memes contrasting Bouman's work with that of Andrew Chael, a white male scientist who is also a member of the Event Horizon Telescope team behind the black hole project.

In memes that have quickly gone viral on the platforms, trolls said Chael was actually the one responsible for “850,000 of the 900,000 lines of code that were written in the historic black-hole image algorithm” and had done all of the actual work in the project. But Chael was quick to correct that narrative, arguing it was sexist, with a thread of his own. “So apparently some (I hope very few) people online are using the fact that I am the primary developer of the eht-imaging software library ... to launch awful and sexist attacks on my colleague and friend Katie Bouman. Stop,” he began in the Twitter thread. (4/13)

Florida Governor Not Giving Up on Luring Space Force HQ to Cape Canaveral (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state officials aren’t aborting pursuit of the operational command of President Donald Trump’s Space Force, despite a report Florida isn’t on the U.S. Air Force’s short list of potential bases. DeSantis wrote on Twitter he’s certain the window remains open for Florida, even as he linked to a report by CNN that an Air Force memorandum identified six military bases for the new command and that none are in Florida.

“USSPACECOM belongs in Florida,” DeSantis tweeted Thursday. He also wrote that Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nunez “and I remain confident of Florida's unique qualifications. Our commercial space industry is flourishing and no other state hosts more Combatant Commands.” Editor's Note: There seems to be some confusion between the Space Force and US Space Command. Not sure whether the confusion is among the media reporting on this or the politicians. (4/12)

Russian Cargo Ship Reaches ISS in Record Time (Source: Space Daily)
Russia's Progress MS-11 cargo spacecraft reached the International Space Station (ISS) in record three hours and 22 minutes after launch from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on Thursday, a Sputnik correspondent reported from the Mission Control Center outside Moscow. The resupply mission was carried out on a two-orbit, super fast-track rendezvous profile with the orbital outpost. Usually, the Russian space freighters use a standard two-day or short six-hour rendezvous profiles to reach the ISS. (4/5)

Can Jeff Bezos Make Money in Space? (Source: Wall Street Journal)
After spending the past decade eclipsed by the exploits of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space company is over being small and done with being quiet. Ten years ago the company consisted of the Amazon magnate himself, a few researchers and an experimental lander that fit on a flatbed truck. There was no sign outside its industrial park headquarters in a Seattle suburb, and the boss didn’t talk to the media, period. Click here. (4/12)

NASA Selects Two New Research Institutes for Smart Habitats (Source: Space Daily)
As exploration missions venture beyond low-Earth orbit and to the Moon - and eventually Mars - NASA must consider automated technologies to keep habitats operational even when they are not occupied by astronauts. To help achieve this, NASA has selected two new Space Technology Research Institutes (STRIs) to advance space habitat designs using resilient and autonomous systems.

The selected proposals create two multi-disciplinary, university-led research institutes to develop technologies critical to a sustainable human presence on the Moon and Mars. The smart habitat, or SmartHab, research will complement other NASA projects to help mature the mission architecture needed to meet challenging exploration goals. Each STRI will receive as much as $15 million over a five-year period. Click here. (4/9) 

Three Prototypes in Space Settlement Challenge Receive UAE Support (Source: Space Daily)
Three proposals to build settlements in space have been chosen to receive support from the Mohammed bin Rashid Centre for Accelerated Research, MBR CAR. The initiative, sponsored by the Dubai Future Foundation, has completed 35 scientific studies as part of the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Settlement Challenge, in collaboration with Guaana, a new scientific research funding platform. Click here. (4/8)

Counting the Many Ways the International Space Station Benefits Humanity (Source: Space Daily)
The third edition of NASA's "International Space Station Benefits for Humanity" book now is available. The new edition fills more than 200 pages with the many benefits of conducting research on the orbiting microgravity laboratory and includes new assessments of the economic value - as well as greater detail about the scientific value - of the International Space Station.

The station has maintained a continuous human presence in space since Nov. 2, 2000, and is the only laboratory that allows scientists to manipulate every variable - including gravity. In the more than 18 years of crewed operation, thousands of researchers on the ground in more than 100 countries have conducted more than 2,500 experiments in microgravity, and that number continues to grow. Click here. (4/8)

ESA Boosts Startup to the Moon (Source: Space Daily)
European Space Agency operations specialists are helping flight planners at new European space startup PTScientists, headquartered in Berlin, pilot their way to the Moon. PTScientists are planning to launch lunar landers and rovers as a regular service in the future, with an inaugural flight expected in 2020. Specialists from ESA's European Space Operations Center in Darmstadt, Germany, are providing consultancy on flight dynamics and flight operations as well as preparing for driving two lunar rovers. (4/8)

Update on Investment in Commercial Space Ventures (Source: Bryce)
Since 2000, start-up space ventures have attracted around $21.8 billion of investment, including $8.4 billion in early and late stage venture capital, $3.1 billion in seed financing, and $4.7 billion in debt financing. More than 220 angel- and venture-backed space companies have been founded and funded since 2000. Twenty-four of these companies have been acquired, at a total value of about $3.7 billion. Most investment activity has occurred recently, and since 2015, annual investment has consistently reached at least $2 billion. In 2018, investment reached $3.2 billion, a record amount. Click here. (4/9)

Grapes on Mars? Georgia Winemakers Aiming High (Source: Space Daily)
The nation of Georgia is immensely proud of its ancient wine-making tradition, claiming to have been the first nation to make wine. Now it wants to be the first to grow grapes on Mars. Nestling between the Great Caucasus Mountains and the Black Sea, Georgia has a mild climate that is perfect for vineyards and has developed a thriving wine tourism industry. Now Nikoloz Doborjginidze has co-founded a project to develop grape varieties that can be grown on Mars. (4/9)