ISS Power Glitch Could
Delay SpaceX Resupply Mission (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
A power glitch on the International Space Station may postpone
Wednesday's launch of a Dragon cargo mission. NASA reported Monday
there was a problem with a system on the station that distributes
electrical power to two of eight channels on the station. While the
issue didn't pose an immediate problem for the crew and can be
corrected by swapping out the faulty hardware, NASA is considering
delaying the Dragon cargo mission scheduled to launch at 3:59 a.m.
Eastern Wednesday to give engineers more time to troubleshoot the
problem. If the launch is postponed, the next launch opportunity will
be Friday morning. (4/30)
China Launches Two
Satellites on Long March 4B (Source: Xinhua)
China launched a pair of satellites Monday. A Long March 4B rocket
lifted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center at 6:52 p.m.
Eastern and placed two Tianhui II-01 satellites into orbit. The two
satellites, whose launch was not announced in advance, will be used for
scientific experiments and Earth observation, according to state media.
Images from local residents showed that debris from the launch fell on
a highway in the region, blocking traffic for a time. (4/30)
Space Force Could Boost
Business (Source: Space News)
The proposed Space Force could provide benefits to the space industry,
in particular startups. At a conference Monday, panelists argued that
the Space Force could serve as a much-needed nexus between the military
and industry, connecting launch and satellite startups to the armed
services and intelligence community. A Space Force could also help
better align contractors with the Pentagon's space needs. Lt. Gen.
David Thompson, vice commander of Air Force Space Command, said he
expected the military to make use of planned commercial broadband
constellations, but that it was too soon to say which systems and for
what applications. (4/30)
Lightfoot Joins Lockheed
Martin (Source: Lockheed Martin)
A former NASA acting administrator is joining Lockheed
Martin. The company announced Monday that Robert Lightfoot
will start work next week as vice president for strategy and business
development in its space unit. Lightfoot retired from NASA a year ago
as associate administrator, the highest-ranking civil service post. He
spent more than a year as acting administrator at the beginning of the
Trump administration because of delays in nominating and then
confirming Jim Bridenstine as administrator. Lightfoot had been serving
as president of LSINC Corporation in Alabama prior to joining Lockheed.
(4/30)
SpeQtral Raises Money for
Space-Based Quantum Communications (Source: Business Wire)
A startup developing space-based quantum communications has raised an
initial round of funding. SpeQtral, formerly known as S15 Space
Systems, said Space Capital led its $1.9 million seed round, with
participation from several other investors. The Singapore-based
company, spun out from the Centre for Quantum Technologies at the
National University of Singapore, is working on quantum communications
technologies that will be secure from eavesdropping. The funding will
support work on a cubesat quantum communication demonstration mission.
(4/30)
Blue Origin Expands in
Washington State (Source: GeekWire)
Blue Origin is adding to its footprint in its hometown. The company is
building a facility across the street from its current factory and
headquarters in the Seattle suburb of Kent, Washington, that will
include 236,000 square feet of warehouse space and 100,000 square feet
of offices. The company didn't disclose when it expects the new
facility to be complete. The company is also building a factory in
Alabama for producing BE-4 engines and recently proposed to expand a
just-completed factory in Florida for its New Glenn rocket. (4/30)
The Race to Develop the
Moon (Source: New Yorker)
In January, the China National Space Administration landed a spacecraft
on the far side of the moon, the side we can’t see from Earth.
Chang’e-4 was named for a goddess in Chinese mythology, who lives on
the moon for reasons connected to her husband’s problematic immortality
drink. The story has many versions. In one, Chang’e has been banished
to the moon for elixir theft and turned into an ugly toad. In another,
she has saved humanity from a tyrannical emperor by stealing the drink.
In many versions, she is a luminous beauty and has as a companion a
pure-white rabbit.
Chang’e-4 is the first vehicle to alight on the far side of the moon.
From that side, the moon blocks radio communication with Earth, which
makes landing difficult, and the surface there is craggy and rough,
with a mountain taller than anything on Earth. Older geologies are
exposed, from which billions of years of history can be deduced.
Chang’e-4 landed in a nearly four-mile-deep hole that was formed when
an ancient meteor crashed into the moon—one of the largest known impact
craters in our solar system.
You may have watched the near-operatic progress of Chang’e-4’s graceful
landing. Or the uncannily cute robotic amblings of the lander’s
companion, the Yutu-2 rover, named for the moon goddess’s white rabbit.
You may have read that, aboard the lander, seeds germinated (cotton,
rapeseed, and potato; the Chinese are also trying to grow a flowering
plant known as mouse-ear cress), and that the rover survived the
fourteen-day lunar night, when temperatures drop to negative two
hundred and seventy degrees Fahrenheit. Chang’e-4 is a step in China’s
long-term plan to build a base on the moon, a goal toward which the
country has rapidly been advancing since it first orbited the moon, in
2007. Click here.
(4/29)
Scientists Want to Probe
Atmospheres of Uranus and Neptune (Source: Space.com)
It's been decades since a spacecraft visited either Uranus or Neptune —
which means scientists are busy dreaming up instruments that could be
flown out on the next probe to these ice giants. The pair of planets
haven't had a robotic visitor since the Voyager 2 flybys in 1986 and
1989. And in the decades that have passed since NASA designed and built
that spacecraft, technology has become both much more powerful and much
smaller, and the agency has plenty more missions under its belt. (4/29)
SpaceX Wants to Unleash
Starhopper But Longer Raptor Test Fires Come First
(Source: Teslarati)
According to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, the next round of Starhopper
activity will focus on removing the spacecraft prototype’s tethers and
performing far more substantial hop tests. Longer tests demand that
SpaceX begins expanding the known performance envelope of its
full-scale Raptor engine. Towards that end, longer-duration tests would
need to be done at the company’s McGregor, TX development facilities to
reduce risk, tests that Musk confirmed are already well underway.
A recent Raptor static fire reportedly lasted no less than 40 seconds,
more than enough time for a single-engine Starhopper to significantly
expand both the maximum altitude and velocity of future hop tests. In
support of the upcoming Starhopper test campaign, significant
construction work is also ongoing at SpaceX’s Boca Chica test and
development facilities. Click here.
(4/29)
Scientists Plan to 3D
Print Muscular Tissue on the Space Station (Source:
Futurism)
The International Space Station is rapidly becoming a hotbed of
biomedical research. One example: a 3D printer that scientists have
been using to manufacture biological tissue while in orbit. Now the
printer is scheduled for upgrades that will allow it to manufacture
more complex types of tissue, including muscles and blood vessels,
according to 3D Printing Industry — pushing the cutting edge of medical
research that could make deep space exploration possible.
In September 2019, the Russian biotech lab 3D Bioprinting Solutions
will ship the raw biomaterials necessary to print out muscle tissues up
to the ISS. It’s easier to print out organs in space than on Earth,
where they’re more likely to collapse under their own weight. In this
case, 3D Printing Industry reports that the muscles, blood vessels, and
other complex tissues that the Russian scientists plan to print will
stay in space, where they will be examined over time to help reveal the
long-term effects of space travel on the human body. (4/29)
NASA KSC Restricts
Employees From Taking Photos (Sources: Ars Technica)
NASA appears to be clamping down on the public sharing of images and
videos taken by its employees at Kennedy Space Center, a location known
for its wealth of opportunities to photograph spacecraft under
construction, as well as rocket tests and launches. On Monday, a
software engineer and amateur photographer at Kennedy Space Center
named K. Scott Piel expressed his frustration with the new policy on
Twitter, saying: "From this point forward, employees are no longer
permitted to photograph or share images from *any* operations at KSC
without authorization. Regardless of source. Photographing, or sharing
images, from operations is grounds for termination. *Only* authorized
media may do so."
NASA issued a clarification statement: "To clarify, NASA does not have
a policy that restricts employees from taking and posting general
photos of the space center. However, all employees ae required to
follow federal and contractual restrictions, which prevent the sharing
of imagery that is export controlled and/or proprietary. (4/29)
Leaked Video of Failed
SpaceX Test Prompts Clampdown on Sharing Images (Source:
Orlando Sentinel)
NASA
is trying to clamp down on employees taking photos inside the gates of
Kennedy Space Center — and warning them they can be fired if they do so
— after a video leaked showing SpaceX’s astronaut capsule exploding
during a test. Workers employed under the Test and Operations Support
Contract, which NASA awarded to aerospace company Jacobs for ground
systems capabilities, flight hardware processing and launch operations,
were notified Monday of the new rules in light of the SpaceX video. The
internal memo confirms the video is authentic and the capsule did
explode — a fact that neither NASA nor SpaceX have yet confirmed
publicly.
“As most of you are aware, SpaceX conducted a test
fire of their crew capsule abort engines at [Cape Canaveral Air Force
Station], and they experienced an anomaly,” the email read.
“Subsequently, video of the failed test — which was not released by
SpaceX or NASA — appeared on the internet.”
The video surfaced
shortly after the April 20 accident, which SpaceX described as an
“anomaly” during static fire testing of the SuperDraco engines that
push the capsule away from a rocket in the case of an emergency. The
capsule, called Crew Dragon, is under development for NASA under its
Commercial Crew Program that endeavors to return astronauts to space
from U.S. soil for the first time since the space shuttle was retired
in 2011. (4/30)
The Hubble Space
Telescope Has Just Found Solid Evidence of Interstellar Buckyballs
(Source: Science Alert)
In the bewildering quagmire that is the gas between the stars, the
Hubble Space Telescope has identified evidence of ionised
buckminsterfullerene, the carbon molecule known colloquially as
"buckyballs." Containing 60 carbon atoms arranged in a soccer ball
shape, buckminsterfullerene (C60) occurs naturally here on Earth - in
soot. But in 2010, it was also detected in a nebula; in 2012, it was
found in gas orbiting a star. Now we have the strongest evidence yet
that it's also floating in the interstellar medium - the sparse,
tenuous gas between the stars. (4/29)
What's the Next
Internet-Like Investing Opportunity? Some on Wall Street Say it's
Spaceflight (Source: CNN)
New spaceflight technologies could reshape the global economy on a
level not seen since the internet. That's what some in the industry and
on Wall Street are saying, at least. And a growing number of analysts
say it's time for mainstream investors to get in on the action. We're
entering a new era in which the private sector is offering cheap and
reliable access to space. That could pave the way for wild new
businesses like in-orbit hotels or asteroid mining. New satellite and
rocket technologies could also shake up a broad range of industries,
from air travel to broadband service and data storage.
"Costs are coming down and technology is improving," said Laura Kane, a
long-term investing analyst at UBS. We're "getting beyond the realm of
science fiction fans and thinking about where returns can be had." The
space economy is following the roadmap of the internet revolution: Just
like in the early dot-com days, flashy Silicon Valley types and a
wellspring of venture capital money are pushing the envelope. The most
high profile names are billionaire-backed startups, like Elon Musk's
SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin. Click here.
(4/29)
Firefly Has Successfully
Tested the Upper Stage of its Alpha Rocket (Source: Ars
Technica)
Last Thursday, on a green expanse at the edge of the Texas Hill
Country, Firefly Aerospace prepared to test the second stage of its
Alpha rocket. After years of development, engineers bolted the rocket
stage to a vertical test stand and began to feed kerosene and liquid
oxygen into the engine. Then, for 300 seconds, the rocket's Lightning-1
engine fired, blowing white and yellow flame out of its exhaust nozzle.
The five-minute test demonstrated the performance of the engine and
upper stage over an entire cycle of flight in space, during which the
upper stage would boost a satellite and insert into orbit. (4/29)
The Moon May Have Formed
When Earth's Magma Was Blasted into Space (Source: NBC
News)
The moon may have formed after a giant Mars-size rock hit a
magma-covered newborn Earth, a new study finds. Earth came together
about 4.5 billion years ago, and previous research suggested the moon
arose a short time later. For the past three decades, the prevailing
explanation for the moon's origin was that the moon resulted from the
collision of two protoplanets, or embryonic worlds. One of those was
the newborn Earth, and the other was a Mars-size rock called Theia,
named after the mother of the moon in Greek myth. The moon then
coalesced from the debris.
This "Giant Impact Hypothesis" seemed to explain many details about
Earth and the moon, such as the large size of the moon compared with
Earth and the rotation rates of the two bodies. However, in the past 15
or so years, evidence has emerged to challenge it and suggest a
multitude of alternatives. One recent lunar formation model suggested
the moon might have formed from an impact so violent, it vaporized a
large portion of the early Earth, with the moon emerging from the
resulting doughnut-shaped mass called a synestia. Another suggested the
collision involved a fast-spinning proto-Earth. (4/29)
Trump Space Force Aimed
at Reviving Reagan-Era Star Wars Insanity (Source: Sputnik)
The Trump administration has committed considerable resources to
expanding the scope of the US' modernisation of its nuclear forces,
proposing a new 'Space Force' branch for the armed forces and
withdrawing from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), a
key arms agreement signed at the twilight of the Cold War to secure
peace in Europe. US efforts to create a global missile defence system
are aimed at reaching "strategic superiority" and neutralising the
strategic deterrents of possible US adversaries like Russia and China,
said Russian Lt. Gen. Viktor Poznikhir. (4/26)
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