April 17, 2019

CubeSats Prove Their Worth for Scientific Missions (Source: Space Daily)
Only a few years ago, the astronomy and heliophysics communities were skeptical about whether CubeSats could reliably obtain scientific data. But these breadloaf-size satellites have proven their ability to return useful data. Christopher S. Moore, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in the Solar and Stellar X-ray Group, contributed to the twin Miniature X-ray Solar Spectometer (MinXSS) mission using CubeSats to measure soft X-rays from the Sun. These were the first solar science-oriented CubeSat missions flown for the NASA Science Mission Directorate.

MinXSS-1 was launched in December 2015 on the Atlas-V Cygnus OA-4 Launch, Orbital ATK resupply mission to the International Space Station, where it was deployed for an approximately 12-month orbit around Earth. The second version, MinXXS-2, was launched on the SpaceX Falcon 9 as part of the Spaceflight SSO-A: SmallSat Express in December 2018 and deployed for a four- to five-year orbit and operation. Science-oriented CubeSats are low-cost, short-lifespan satellites built to take specific scientific observations and measurements. MinXSS, for example, features cost-saving components such as an extendable tape measure that serves as a radio antenna. (4/17)

Extending North Korea's Satellite Ban (Source: Space Daily)
When will North Korea launch its next satellite? There hasn't been a launch since early 2016. Recently, boffins became interested in some new construction at North Korea's satellite launch complex, which suggested a launch could be ready soon. The failure of the recent US-North Korean summit in Hanoi to produce a positive result for North Korea could have also prompted a launch. And so we waited. This analyst expected that a launch could take place in time for North Korea's recent parliamentary meeting and birthday celebrations for North Korea's founding father, Kim Il-Sung. But nothing happened.

This analyst also suggested that holding back on a launch could also be an effort to appease US President Donald Trump, and boost future chances of loosening economic sanctions against the country. Such considerations remain valid, and recent statements from North Korea suggest that international politics could be the driving force in keeping North Korea's launch vehicles grounded. If North Korea plans to give more time for negotiations to take place, then it also seems reasonable to assume that they will avoid provocations.

North Korea has cited its recent moratorium on nuclear and missile tests as acts of good faith, hoping that such actions would improve its chances of scoring a deal. A breaking of this moratorium would weaken North Korea's case in any future negotiations. While satellite launches are not as bellicose as weapons tests, they could be seen as tests of missile components. So a moratorium on satellite launches seems to be bundled in this overall strategy. Thus, it seems most unlikely that North Korea will stage a satellite launch this year. Exactly when the next North Korean satellite launch will be attempted is hard to estimate. But events can change rapidly in this strategically perilous part of the world. (4/16)

Sea Launch Venture May Be Moved From US to Russia's Far East (Source: Space Daily)
The redeployment of the Sea Launch space launch venture from the US State of California to Russia's Far East may be discussed soon, a Russian space industry source said. "The possibility of relocating the Sea Launch platform to the Far East, specifically to the Sovetskaya Harbor, for launching the Soyuz-5 Light rocket is being considered," the source said.

According to the source, if the Sea Launch continues to be located in the United States, it is almost impossible to launch a new Russian rocket from it, since the intergovernmental agreement between Russia and the United States provides for the launch of the Russian-Ukrainian Zenit rocket, which was discontinued in 2014.

Even if a new intergovernmental agreement is signed in the future, the Russian side will have to disclose to the US regulatory authorities the technical documentation on the new rocket in order to receive a launch license, a condition that Russia will not accept, the source stressed. "The only way out is to relocate the Sea Launch to Russia," he concluded. Russia's S7 Group is the owner of the Sea Launch venture, which includes the Sea launch Commander vessel and the Odyssey launch platform. (4/17)

NASA Plans to Send Humans to an Icy Part of the Moon for the First Time (Source: C/Net)
NASA's ambitious plan to return astronauts to the moon within five years has a target: the lunar South Pole. The Apollo missions of the '60s and '70s all landed around the moon's equator, but the pole has something very special those sites don't: ice, ice baby. "We know the South Pole region contains ice and may be rich in other resources based on our observations from orbit, but, otherwise, it's a completely unexplored world," NASA's Steven Clarke said.

While no one has bopped around the pole, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft has been scrutinizing the area, so we have detailed maps of the region to work with. Scientists published a paper in 2018 showing the existence of surface ice at the lunar poles, especially in the south's shadowy spots inside craters. These areas get down to a frigid -414 degrees Fahrenheit (-248 Celsius), plenty chilly enough to keep water solidified as ice in cold storage. (4/17)

Fingernail-Sized Spacecraft Could Soon Scour the Solar System for Aliens (Source: Inverse)
Big rockets tend to capture a lot of space enthusiasts’ attention, from NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) to SpaceX’s Starship and Falcon Heavy. And to be sure, to get people to the Moon, Mars, and beyond, rocket engineers are going to have to think big. But it’s important not to discount the role that small — and even tiny — space craft will have in democratizing access to space and unleashing benefits for those of us who are unfortunately still stuck on Earth.

This is according to Peter Beck, the founder and CEO of Rocket Lab. Beck says Rocket Lab is cleared to launch rockets every 72 hours for the next 30 years from New Zealand, thanks to a mix of regulatory and technological innovation. Beck is a proponent of tiny spacecraft which are at the foreground of efforts to democratize access to space and its benefits. “It’s not a revolution of the big, it’s a revolution of the small,” Beck says in the video. “The key here is not the size of the rocket, the key here is frequency … Launch frequency is the absolute most important thing out of all of this.”

RocketLab plans to launch thousands in the next year to begin exploring the solar system. These craft will be launched using RocketLab’ Electron Rocket, a 17 meter rocket with a maximum payload of just 225 kilograms, less than about 500 pounds. That’s pretty tiny, especially when compared to 140,600-pound capacity on the Falcon Heavy, but Beck explained that thanks to advancements in computing power, you can now pack a lot of tech into 500 pounds. (4/17)

Air Force Leaders on Space Deterrence: ‘At Some Point, We’ve Got to Hit Back’ (Source: Defense News)
Deterrence was the watchword among U.S. Air Force leadership during last week’s Space Symposium, and officials stated in strong terms that the United States is prepared to enact a show of force to prove its ability to respond to threats in space. “There may come a point where we demonstrate some capabilities so that our adversaries understand that they will not be able to deny us the use of space without consequences,” Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said.

“That capability needs to be one that’s understood by your adversary. They need to know that there are certain things we can do, at least at some broad level,” she said, adding that uncertainty was also a key component to deterrence. “How confident are they that they know everything we can do?” Adversaries must understand that the U.S. military can — and will — react if its space assets are threatened during conflict, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Dave Goldfein said. (4/16)

Sky and Space Global Selling Stock to Keep Constellation Plans On Track (Source: Space News)
Smallsat constellation company Sky and Space Global says it needs to raise several million dollars in the next two months to stay on schedule. The company, which plans to deploy a constellation of more than 200 cubesats for low-data-rate services, said two companies intending to underwrite part of a previous round backed away from those plans. The company is seeking to raise $5.2 million through stock sales by May to avoid additional delays. The company already said the first launch of its cubesat constellation had been pushed back from the middle of this year to early 2020, but didn't disclose the reasons for that delay. (4/17)

Russia Developing National Space Policy (Source: TASS)
The Russian government is working on an updated national space policy to be completed by this summer. Officials said at a meeting of Russia's Security Council that they will complete an update of "basic principles of national space exploration" and a strategy for the state corporation Roscosmos by July 15. The update will build upon a 2013 space policy, with a greater emphasis on developing national capabilities versus international cooperation. (4/17)

Faulty IMU Blamed for Israeli Lunar Crash (Source: Jerusalem Post)
Efforts to correct a faulty inertial measurement unit (IMU) may have led to the crash of the Beresheet lander. The IMU malfunctioned during the lander's descent to the surface, the first time that device suffered problems since the spacecraft's launch in February. Ido Anteby, CEO of SpaceIL, said a command to reactive the IMU caused a "chain of events" that shut down the lander's main engine. Anteby said they could not restart the main engine in time to salvage the landing attempt. Meeting have already started to plan a second lander mission, including setting objectives and a budget. (4/17)

India's Skyroot Enters Small Launcher Market (Source: Economic Times)
An Indian startup is the latest to get into the small launch vehicle market. Skyroot Aerospace, founded by three scientists formerly with the Indian space agency ISRO, plans to develop a series of vehicles named at Vikram Sarabhai, the founder of India's space program. They plan to start with a small rocket they claim can be assembled and launched in a day, with a first launch in 2021. One challenge is that Indian law currently restricts private space companies, although proposed legislation would enable companies like Skyroot. (4/17)

Rocket Lab Gets Five-Year License for New Zealand Launch Site (Source: Gisbourne Herald)
The New Zealand government has granted a five-year license for Rocket Lab's launch site. The license is the first under the country's commercial space law, enacted in 2017, allowing the company to perform Electron launches from its private launch site on Mahia Peninsula. The company also have launch licenses from the New Zealand government and from the FAA in the United States. The company is currently performing rehearsals for its next launch, now scheduled for early May. (4/17)

Bezos Versus Musk 2.0 (Source: Axios)
Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk's space age rivalry may not play out as a war of the rockets, but as a war for your internet.  The two billionaire founders of Amazon and SpaceX plan to blanket low-Earth orbit with thousands of satellites that will beam broadband internet to the planet, potentially transforming how the developing world in particular accesses the web. Both Bezos' Blue Origin rocket company and Musk's SpaceX have been working in parallel for years to get their rockets flying to space, but with their internet ambitions, Musk and Bezos are now on a collision course. Click here. (4/17)

Aerojet Rocketdyne Proposes Using AR1 for Medium-Class Launch Vehicle (Source: Space News)
Aerojet Rocketdyne says it’s committed to completing development of the AR1 rocket engine and is seeking potential partners for a new medium-class launch vehicle that could use the engine. Aerojet Rocketdyne received an award from the U.S. Air Force in 2016 to support development of the AR1, one of the engines ULA considered for use on its next-generation Vulcan rocket. The original value of the Air Force’s other transaction agreement, or OTA, was $804 million, with the Air Force providing two-thirds the funding and the rest coming from Aerojet and, to a lesser extent, ULA.

Aerojet renegotiated that agreement with the Air Force in June 2018, decreasing the total value of the award to $353.8 million with the Air Force now providing five-sixths the total cost. Aerojet has said in subsequent regulatory filings that its own contributions to the award are now complete. ULA announced in September 2018 that it had selected Blue Origin’s BE-4 engine over the AR1 for Vulcan, a decision long anticipated by the space industry. Despite losing out on the Vulcan deal, Aerojet says it’s committed to completing development of the engine.

“An AR1-based booster, with an RL10 upper stage, is a very nice rocket,” said Jim Maser, senior vice president of the space business unit at the company. Maser joined Aerojet last August after a career that included leadership roles at Pratt and Whitney, Sea Launch and SpaceX. “I think it could fill the gap left by the retirement of Delta 2.” Maser said the company is looking at what demand there would be for a medium-class vehicle like the Delta 2, given that the supply of launch vehicles is moving either towards very large vehicles or much smaller ones. (4/16)

Air Force Not Moved by Blue Origin's Launch Procurement Concerns (Source: Space News)
Col. Robert Bongiovi, director of the Launch Systems Enterprise Directorate at the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, does not buy Blue Origin’s argument that the Phase 2 Launch Service Procurement program schedule favors some providers over others. The final request for proposals for the LSP will go out as early as this month, Bongiovi said.

The Air Force needs to select two providers in 2020 to split national security launches 60/40 between 2022 and 2026, so any delays in the release of the RFP would jeopardize the Air Force’s ability to get both providers ready to launch payloads by 2022. That is the deadline when Congress decided the Air Force must stop flying the United Launch Alliances Atlas 5 vehicle because it is powered by the Russian RD-180 engine.

Bongiovi said the Air Force has listened to all potential bidders’ concerns and is ready to move forward. “We just did two rounds of draft RFPs. We got 1,500 comments. We met with providers one-on-one to really understand their concerns.” (4/16)

The First Known Interstellar Meteor May Have Hit Earth in 2014 (Source: Space.com)
The first meteor to hit Earth from interstellar space — and the second known interstellar visitor overall — may have just been discovered, a new study finds. Interstellar meteors may be common, and could potentially help life travel from star to star, researchers added. Scientists analyzed the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies' catalog of meteor events detected by U.S. government sensors.

They focused on the fastest meteors, because a high speed suggests a meteor is potentially not gravitationally bound to the sun and thus may originate from outside the solar system. The researchers identified a meteor about 3 feet (0.9 meters) wide that was detected on Jan. 8, 2014, at an altitude of 11.6 miles (18.7 kilometers) over a point near Papua New Guinea's Manus Island in the South Pacific. Its high speed of about 134,200 mph (216,000 km/h) and its trajectory suggested it came from outside the solar system, the scientists said. (4/16)

PLD Drop-Tests Reusable Microsatellite Launcher (Source: Space Daily)
Spain's PLD Space, supported by ESA, has demonstrated the technologies for a reusable first stage of their orbital microlauncher, Miura 5. Miura 5 (formerly Arion 2) is aimed to provide dedicated launches for small satellites of up to 300 kg to low Earth orbit, in 2021. It weighs 14 tonnes at liftoff, and is powered by liquid oxygen-kerosene engines. The drop test was carried out at El Arenosillo Experimentation Center in Spain.

A Chinook CH-47 helicopter lifted the 15 m long 1.4 m diameter Miura 5 demonstration first stage to an altitude of 5 km then dropped it over a controlled area of the Atlantic Ocean, 6 km off the coast of Huelva in southern Spain. During the descent, electronic systems inside the demonstrator controlled a carefully timed release of three parachutes to slow it down until its splashdown at a speed of about 10 m/s. A team of divers recovered the demonstrator and hoisted it onto a tugboat. The demonstrator looks to be in good shape and is awaiting further inspection and analysis. (4/15)

First 2019 Proton-M Rocket Launch From Baikonur Slated for May (Source: Space Daily)
The first 2019 launch of the Russian-built Proton-M carrier rocket with the Blagovest telecommunications satellite from the Baikonur Cosmodrome will take place on 23 May. Last week, another source said that the first 2019 launch of the Proton-M carrier rocket from Baikonur had been postponed from May 17 to 24-25 May.

"The launch of the Proton-M carrier rocket with the Briz-M upper stage and the Blagovest satellite from the Baikonur Cosmodrome is going to take place on 23 May", the source said. A source in the aerospace industry said in March that the military planned to complete the constellation of four Blagovest satellites with this launch. The first three satellites of the group were brought to the orbit in August 2017, April 2018 and December 2018. (4/3)

Budweiser Brews Limited Lager for Apollo 11 Anniversary (Source: CollectSpace)
Budweiser has brewed a new limited edition beer in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing. Discovery Reserve American Red Lager draws its recipe from a Budweiser blend that dates back to the time of the Apollo moon missions. "This Bud's for those who challenged the odds and made the impossible, possible. Budweiser Discovery Reserve is our tribute to this epic moment in history, one that will certainly continue to inspire generations of present and future explorers," said Ricardo Marques.

Discovery Reserve is brewed with medium-roast Voyager barley malt and features a "light hoppy aroma, a toasted barley malt taste with a hint of toffee and a sharp finish," says Budweiser. The lager's reddish color is meant to be reminiscent of the next frontier for humans, Mars. The Discovery Reserve bottle and packaging was inspired by both the history and future of space exploration.

The Anheuser-Busch "A" and Eagle logo has also been updated to reflect Mars with Earth in the background, evoking the design of the Apollo 11 mission patch. And each bottle of Budweiser Discovery Reserve features wings and stars based on vintage Budweiser cans. For every case of Discovery Reserve sold, Budweiser will donate $1 to the Folds of Honor Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides educational scholarships to the families of military men and women who have fallen or been disabled while on active duty in the United States armed forces. (4/16)