April 26, 2019

Progress Continues on Dream Chaser Spaceplane (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
Over the last several weeks, Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) released a number of updates regarding its progress on the Dream Chaser space plane ranging from the completion of a NASA development milestone to an updated color scheme. Dream Chaser is one of three vehicles planned to resupply the International Space Station in NASA’s second phase for the agency’s Commercial Resupply Services contract, also called CRS2. The other two are SpaceX’s Dragon capsule and Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft.

However, Dream Chaser is still in development. Possibly the most visible aspect of SNC’s updates over the last month or so is that the body assembly, or pressure vessel, for the first flight vehicle is in the final stages of fabrication. It is being built by Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, among other subcontractors. More recently, SNC announced changes to the vehicles look. On April 7, 2019, the company said it was adding more white tiles in between the black tiles in order to reflect heat. The goal is to maintain a temperature between 65 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit during re-entry. (4/26)

NASA Committee to Reconsider Planetary Protection Policies (Source: Space News)
NASA will set up an independent committee to study potential changes to its planetary protection policies. The committee, chaired by Alan Stern, will spend about three months studying how existing policies to prevent biological contamination should be updated to reflect scientific developments and proposed human and commercial space exploration missions. The NASA Advisory Council recommended such a review at its last meeting in December, and a report by a National Academies committee last year also concluded that NASA should update its rules. (4/25)

Universe Expanding Faster Than Expected (Source: Space.com)
A new study concludes that the universe is currently expanding faster than expected. Measurements of the Hubble constant, a measure of that expansion, show that it is 10 percent higher in the present-day universe than the value derived from measurements of the cosmic microwave background from the early universe. Adam Reiss, an astrophysicist who won the Nobel Prize for earlier studies of the accelerating expansion of the universe, said the difference in the two Hubble constant values can't be dismissed as measurement error. Instead, "there becomes a very strong likelihood that we're missing something in the cosmological model that connects the two eras." (4/26)

NASA Safety Panel Recommends SLS 4 Engine Test (Source: Space News)
The safety panel also called on NASA to retain a key test of the Space Launch System. NASA had discussed skipping the so-called "green run" test of the SLS core stage, an eight-minute static-fire test of the stage's four engines, a move agency leadership said could cut six months from the SLS development schedule. However, ASAP said that test was one of several key milestones the vehicle needed to complete in order to demonstrate it could safely carry people, and that there is no alternative way to test the core stage. In a separate discussion, the panel recommended that NASA immediately begin development of next-generation spacesuits, saying the ones currently used for space station spacewalks are aging and pose a safety risk. (4/25)

Commission Urges Civil Space Engagement as China's Military Space Capabilities Increase (Source: Space News)
While China is a rising military space power, witnesses at a hearing Thursday said that doesn't mean a conflict with the U.S. in space is inevitable. The hearing of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission on China's space capabilities noted that the country has developed and tested a number of anti-satellite weapons. Witnesses raised concerns about those developments, and urged the U.S. take steps like increasing its presence in cislunar space. However, they also called for steps like engagement in civil space activities, including space exploration, as a way of keeping tensions between the countries in space from escalating. (4/25)

The Hunt for Rocket Boosters in Russia's Far North (Source: WIRED)
It crashed among the birches and pines in 1989 after blasting off from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Mirny some 200 miles south. Constructed in the late 1950s as the world's first intercontinental missile base, the military facility performed more than 1,500 spacecraft launches between 1966 and 2005—more than 60 in each year of the 1970s. Much of the launch refuse—boosters, fuel tanks, and fuselage—tumbled into the uninhabited forests and swamps of the Mezensky district, where hunters eventually would find it.

They never dared scavenge the junk for scrap until the late 1980s, when the Soviet Union began to fall. At first, they told Tereshin, they hacked the metal with axes. Then someone got the bright idea to use a circular saw. Still, it could take more than a week to dismantle a single booster, sometimes sleeping inside for warmth. They sold the metal—aluminum, gold, silver, copper, and titanium—for cash in the capital Arkhangelsk and also hammered it into whatever they happened to need: flat-bottomed boats, hunting sleds, fencing, gutters, and even saunas—infusing a region otherwise known for its traditional Russian culture and folklore with a touch of space punk.

These objects still litter yards and houses in the Mezensky district, though metal scavenging has dwindled in popularity, according to Tereshin. In the 1990s, the number of launches at Plesetsk Cosmodrome dramatically decreased, and fewer stages fell. By 2013, those that did mostly landed in the neighboring Komi Republic and Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. Locals had also grown concerned about the environmental and physiological effects of the rocket fuel heptyl, which researchers say is likely carcinogenic. Plus, the scavengers got old. "People who started to collect metal in the early 1990s are now retired and have pensions," Tereshin says. "They are not really interested in adventures." (4/18)

NASA Pushes Orion Escape System Test Launch to July at Space Florida Launch Pad (Source: Houston Chronicle)
NASA has delayed a test of Orion's launch escape system by several weeks. The agency said Thursday that the Ascent Abort 2 test, which had been scheduled for early June, is now set for July 2. The agency said the delay allows additional time to complete work on the abort system and also takes into account availability of the range at Cape Canaveral. In the test, a booster will launch a boilerplate Orion capsule to an altitude of nearly 10,000 meters, at which point the abort system will pull the capsule away to splash down in the ocean. (4/26)

Indian Moon Lander/Rover Mission Launches in July (Source: PTI)
India is now planning to launch its Chandrayaan-2 lunar mission in July. The Indian space agency ISRO said that it delayed the launch in the wake of the failed landing by Israel's Beresheet lander earlier this month, but did not comment on earlier reports that its spacecraft was damaged in recent tests. Chandrayaan-2 includes both an orbiter and a lander, the latter carrying a rover. Chandrayaan-2 has suffered a series of delays dating back more than a year. (4/25)

Canada Takes Another Step Towards Sending a Rover to the Moon (Source: SpaceQ)
The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) awarded another four contracts valued at $700,000 under the Flights and Fieldwork for the Advancement of Science and Technology (FAST) program, this time for research related to a possible future moon rover. Last week the CSA in a separate announcement said it had awarded 31 grants totaling $6.2M as part of the FAST program. This new FAST award is part of the CSA’s Lunar Exploration Analogue Deployment (LEAD) announcement of opportunity. The recipients of the four contracts are Western University, the University of Winnipeg and Canadensys Aerospace Corporation. (4/23)

What Would Earth Look Like if All the Ice Melted? (Source: MNN)
We've learned over the past few years that global sea levels are rising at a rapid pace as global warming melts Earth's ice. The consequence of this much ice melting so quickly is demonstrated in the video above from Business Insider. The eye-opening animation shows major cities all over the globe disappearing into the ocean.

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and NASA warned a couple of years ago that many impacts of climate change are already irreversible and that sea levels will rise at least 90 centimeters in the coming decades. The video shows coastal U.S. cities like New York, Houston, New Orleans, Miami, San Diego, San Francisco and many more all covered in water. Many more international cities would face the same fate. Click here. (4/25) https://youtu.be/VbiRNT_gWUQ

UK Export Finance Loans $325 Million for Turksat Satellites Airbus is Building (Source: Space News)
U.K. Export Finance, an agency with a long-standing interest in supporting satellite projects but with little to show for it until now, has signed a $325 million loan with Turkey to support two satellites Airbus is building under a 2017 contract. The loan, provided to the Turkish Ministry of Treasury and Finance, helps fund the Turksat-5A and -5B communications satellites that Airbus Defence and Space is building in the U.K. and in France. (4/25)

National Space Society Endorses the Space Resources Institute Act (H.R. 1029) (Source: NSS)
The National Space Society (NSS) enthusiastically supports the Space Resources Institute Act (H.R. 1029), a bi-partisan bill submitted by Representatives Scott Tipton and Ed Perlmutter. H.R. 1029 directs NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine to submit to Congress “a report on the merits of, and options for, establishing an institute relating to space resources, and for other purposes.” NSS looks forward to seeing a similar bill submitted to the Senate.

NSS has long called for the utilization of space resources to ensure that space exploration, development, and settlement become cost-effective and sustainable. Chair of the NSS Executive Committee Dale Skran stated, “Establishing a space resources institute to investigate potential technologies and techniques for finding, extracting, and utilizing space resources, including water, minerals, and solar energy, would be a rational next step on the way to enabling sustainable space settlement.”

H.R. 1029 outlines various resource-related roles for the Institute, such as promoting foundational science and technology; reducing technological risks; and enabling architectures, programs, and missions that otherwise would not be possible. (4/25)

A Reluctant No. 2: Buzz Aldrin Among First to Walk on the Moon (Source: Houston Chronicle)
Buzz Aldrin is nearly impossible to miss when he walks into a room. That’s partly because he was the second man to walk on the moon — an achievement that not only landed him in the history books but resulted in guest appearances on popular shows including “The Big Bang Theory,” “The Simpsons,” “Futurama” and a spot on “Dancing With the Stars” in 2010. He even inspired the character of Buzz Lightyear in Pixar’s blockbuster “Toy Story.”

But he’s also, well, eccentric: the moon-boot-print lapel pin, the solar system rings, the alien-face bracelet, the watch on each wrist. His outfit of choice appears to be a space-themed shirt tucked tightly into his jeans, often held up by American flag suspenders. During the Explorers Club Annual Dinner in March, the other living Apollo astronauts wore black tuxedos. Aldrin showed up in a silver tuxedo, tiny black rockets splashed across nearly every inch of the shiny fabric. (4/25)

Colorado Officials Hopeful for Basing US Space Command in Their State (Source: Sentinel Colorado)
Colorado officials are pitching the state’s existing aerospace industry as the foundation for why U.S. Space Command should be based in the state, and local business leaders say siting the headquarters in Aurora would likely be the biggest economic development venture the city has ever seen. Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora is one of six bases that are rumored to be finalists for getting the command center. Aurora Chamber of Commerce president Kevin Hougen said the command center would first bring close to 1,500 jobs and then eventually grow to around 15,000 employees over a number of years if it were to be located in Aurora. (4/25)

NASA Chief Criticized for Mentioning Christianity in Speech (Source: Daily Signal)
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand the First Amendment. Or maybe, after the spat over a speech by NASA’s Jim Bridenstine, it does. Thanks to the double standards of secularism, public officials can’t even talk about faith without making headlines. It’s no wonder, then, that when the head of America’s space program gave remarks at a Christian ministry, even he had trouble finding signs of intelligence in the criticism that followed.

Capitol Ministries, the organization that Bridenstine has supported for years, is hardly controversial. Nine of the president’s 15 Cabinet officials are sponsors of the ministry—whose aim is simple: influencing government with biblical teachings. During his talk, Bridenstine even talked about the importance of that goal and what it means in the context of these times. “I love what Ralph said earlier: We’re not trying to Christianize the U.S. government. We believe in an institutional separation, but we also believe in influence. And that’s a big distinction and an important distinction, and that’s why I love this ministry.” (4/24)