May 8, 2019

Federal Contractors Describe ‘Insanity and Uncertainty’ During 35-Day Government Shutdown (Source: Federal News Network)
The longest government shutdown in U.S. history prompted some lawmakers to optimistically suggest Congress should find a way to prevent such an event from ever happening again. But the prospects of eliminating government shutdowns for good are unlikely, at least at this point, leaving Congress to find piecemeal solutions to alleviate the impacts ahead of a future lapse in appropriations.

The House Oversight and Reform Government Operations Subcommittee heard stories from nearly a dozen federal contractors, who described how the 35-day government shutdown impacted their businesses and employees. Contractors largely said the most recent lapse was marked by tough decisions, confusion and a lack of communication and inconsistent guidance from the government. A few contractors used words such as “abominable, insanity and uncertainty” to describe the experience. But all of them said the impacts of the recent shutdown extended well past 35 days.

For Leidos, 893 of its employees had no or limited work to perform during the shutdown because they were on contracts for closed agencies, CEO Roger Krone said. The company lost $14 million in revenue during those 35 days and experienced a delay in payments on outstanding invoices, which totaled about $18 million. Leidos’ work on 22 programs came to a halt, which impacted about 200 of its subcontractors, Krone said. It also allowed those employees to advance paid leave hours up to a balance of negative 80 hours. Nearly 400 Leidos employees used up all of their vacation time and then some. (5/7)

NASA Astronaut Photographs Surfing Contest Sites from Space (Source: Surfline)
It’s a common thread amongst astronauts of the Apollo missions and other interstellar space escapades of the last few decades – even after leaving earth, the cosmonauts are drawn to looking back at our familiar planet, as opposed to fixating on the great unknown. Hence all the stunning photos of earth as seen from space – like from NASA astronaut Christina Koch. Her lens is pointed specifically at the locations on the World Surf League Championship Tour.
As it turns out, Koch is an interstellar badass and a fan of professional surfing. And while the rest of us are following along here on the terra firma, she’s in Low Earth Orbit. Like during the first event of the year, the Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast, Koch posted an image from the ISS looking at the backup location, Duranbah, with the caption: “Eyes on Duranbah Beach, Gold Coast, Australia–first stop of the World Surf League Championship Tour–from the @iss. Congratulations @caroline_markss on your first @wsl CT win!#SwellFromSpace”

And Koch followed it up with a post during the second event at Bells Beach, which read: “Clouds stole the view east of Adelaide to the @wsl at Bells, but I bet you could have seen the waves themselves from the @iss! Way to crush the ‘50 Year Storm,’ @courtneyconlogue! Koch began surfing while living and working in American Samoa where she met her husband, a diehard surfer. “I happened to work next to a surf break that Bob was interested in knowing more about,” she said about the early days of their courtship. (5/8)

UCF Researchers Prospecting for Mining-Outpost Site on Moon (Source: UCF)
With space set to be the site of the next “gold rush,” University of Central Florida researchers are helping prospect a spot for a major first step in the upcoming scramble – creating a lunar mining outpost. The work will be funded through a recently announced grant from NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts program.

The project entails UCF researchers working with California aerospace company TransAstra Corp. to study an economical way to mine the plentiful supply of ice known to exist in the polar regions of the moon. The principal investigator of the project is Joel Sercel, president of TransAstra. Sercel holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering from The California Institute of Technology.

TransAstra is developing the technology to mine the ice. The UCF team, comprised of Kevin Cannon, a postdoctoral scholar in UCF’s Department of Physics, and Dan Britt, a UCF physics professor, will provide expertise on site selection, lunar-terrain characteristics, and properties of lunar ice deposits. A mining post would have to balance a need to be close to a region cold enough to harbor frozen volatiles such as water but also near sunlight, a vital source of energy for solar-powered equipment doing work in space. (5/8)

Space Coast-Based Rocket Crafters Partners with Swiss Tech Giant RUAG (Source: Florida Today)
A Space Coast-based company aiming to launch rockets with 3D-printed fuel has partnered with a Swiss technology giant to develop a test vehicle, the startup announced Wednesday. Rocket Crafters, which operates a production facility in Cocoa, signed a partnership this week with RUAG Space, a company that supplies components to launch providers ranging from payload fairings to guidance systems. Some of RUAG's fairing clients include United Launch Alliance and Europe's Arianespace.

Rocket Crafters said it will collaborate with RUAG on the design, development and production of sounding rockets, or smaller launch vehicles that typically take scientific payloads to the upper atmosphere but not quite to space. The rockets can also be used to test components before flying them on larger rockets to low-Earth orbit and beyond. “With their support, we will rapidly prototype our suborbital test rocket, gaining valuable flight heritage on our motors and quickly evolving into our Intrepid-1 small satellite launch vehicle,” said Rocket Crafters President Robert Fabian.

After sub-orbital test flights with the sounding rocket, Rocket Crafters hopes to launch its Intrepid vehicle from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station no sooner than 2020 and enter the rapidly growing market for small satellites. The partnership will also lay the groundwork for future collaboration with RUAG on Intrepid, the company said. Other small satellite launch providers aiming to operate from Cape Canaveral in the coming years include Firefly Aerospace and Relativity Space, the latter of which plans on 3D-printing a majority of the components for its Terran rockets. (5/8)

Large Launchers Debut in 2021 as Market Tightens (Source: Via Satellite)
"It's going to be a busy 2021 in Florida," joked Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith at the Satellite 2019 conference in Washington DC. His New Glenn heavy launch vehicle will have its first launch that year, as will Northrop Grumman's Omega vehicle, and ULA's Vulcan. "We all need 8 to 12 — let’s say 10 — launches a year to be a viable economic entity," said ULA's Tory Bruno. "That’s room for four. There’s going to be two in Europe. That leaves us two domestically … We’ll be one of them.” [He didn't mention Asia, with Japan's H-3, India's GSLV and PSLV, and China's growing fleet.]

SpaceX's Gwen Shotwell had a similar outlook. “There’s a lot of interest in building launch vehicles to service the same markets. At the same time, the commercial [space] industry has experienced a pretty significant contraction in recent years, so I don’t think there’s actually room for all of us.” Shotwell argued that there would probably be enough launches to sustain no more than three different vehicles in each class of heavy lift launch — civil, military/national security, and commercial. (5/8)

GEO Satellite Orders in Recent Decline (Source: Via Satellite)
Over the last two years, we have seen a dramatic fall in the number of Geostationary Orbit (GEO) satellites being ordered. With video revenues on the decline, is this now becoming a more permanent trend? MHI's Ko Ogasawara says, “I predict the lack of orders of large GEO communication satellites will not last for long. It seems like satellite operators want to wait and see how these constellations go.

However, sooner or later, some of them will face the need to replace their satellites due to their satellite lifetime coming to the end. Moreover, there should be markets where it is advantageous to lower cost per bit by large satellites with high capacity, which will eventually result in a gradual increase in the number of orders. That being said, I doubt that it will recover to the number of 10 years ago.” (5/6)

SpaceX Preps For Starlink Launch at Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Space News)
SpaceX plans to launch its first set of "dozens" of Starlink broadband satellites next week, with as many as six more launches to follow this year alone. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell, speaking on a conference panel Tuesday, confirmed the May 15 launch date for the mission, which she said will place dozens of satellites into orbit, although she did not state a specific number.

Those satellites will be a "demonstration set" with broadband payloads and electric propulsion, but without intersatellite links. She said she expects the company to launch two to six more sets of Starlink satellites this year as the company works to build out a constellation that could ultimately number 12,000 satellites. (5/8)

New Space Race to Bring Satellite internet to the World (Source: Space Daily)
Anxiety has set in across the space industry ever since the world's richest man, Jeff Bezos, revealed Project Kuiper: a plan to put 3,236 satellites in orbit to provide high-speed internet across the globe. Offering broadband internet coverage to digital deserts is also the goal of the company OneWeb, which is set to start building two satellites a day this summer in Florida, for a constellation of over 600 expected to be operational by 2021

Billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX is equally active: it's just received a clearance to put 12,000 satellites in orbit at various altitudes in the Starlink constellation. Not to mention other projects in the pipeline that have less funding or are not yet as defined. Is there even enough space for three, four, five or more space-based internet providers? Professionals from the sector said they feared an expensive bloodbath -- especially if Bezos, the founder of Amazon, decides to crush the competition with ultra-low prices. (5/8)

LeoSat's Commercial Traction Accelerates to Hit $2B Milestone (Source: Space Daily)
LeoSat Enterprises today announced it has signed more than US$2B in commercial agreements ahead of launching the world's fastest, most secure and widest coverage data network delivered over a constellation of low-Earth-orbit satellites. These pre-launch agreements signal strong demand for LeoSat's business backbone in space across a wide range of fast-growing data and mobility sectors including, Enterprise, Telecoms, Government, Maritime, Healthcare and Finance.

With data volumes exploding, the increasing demand to move large quantities of data quickly and securely around the world is fast outpacing the infrastructure needed to carry it. LeoSat has developed a unique system architecture - a space-based MPLS network - providing Gigabits of secure connectivity with lower latencies than fiber, opening-up new possibilities for companies looking for scalable, flexible solutions for their expanding networks. (5/7)

Air Force Launcher Procurement Includes Larger Payloads (Source: Space News)
The Air Force is increasing the performance demands on launch providers in its new competition. Tory Bruno, CEO of ULA, said the Phase 2 Launch Service Procurement has a new set of requirements for national security launches that did not exist in the EELV program, including missions that can't be performed by existing vehicles. That includes heavier payloads and higher energy orbits, which he said reflects the Air Force's current long-term projection of its requirements. Bruno said ULA designed its next-generation Vulcan rocket to be larger than what's needed to serve the commercial market in order to accommodate those more demanding national security missions. (5/8)

5G Terrestrial Spectrum Needs Could Limit Satellite Ka-Band Access (Source: Space News)
Satellite operators are worried about losing Ka-band satellite spectrum to terrestrial 5G services. Chief executives of several major satellite operators raised concerns about access to Ka-band spectrum at 28 gigahertz in a panel discussion Tuesday, arguing that the industry has not done enough to defend that spectrum from being reallocated for 5G services. They contrasted that effort with a more successful defense of C-band spectrum in 2015. Cellular operators and their allied national regulators are expected to make a push for the 28-gigahertz spectrum band at the WRC-19 conference this fall. (5/8)

Apollo Fusion Secures Electric Propulsion Tech From JPL (Source: Space News)
A satellite electric propulsion startup has secured a licensing agreement for advanced Hall thruster technology from JPL. The agreement gives Apollo Fusion an exclusive worldwide commercial license for that technology, which uses magnetic shielding to keep the plasma from eroding the interior of the thruster, extending its life. The company will also produce three of those thrusters for JPL, one of which may be used on a future spacecraft mission. Apollo Fusion said it will commercialize the technology as the Apollo Xenon Engine, complementing its existing lower-thrust Apollo Constellation Engine. (5/8)

Northrop Grumman's DARPA Experiment Deemed Success After Electron Launch (Source: Breaking Defense)
Northrop Grumman announced that a technology demonstration satellite it built for DARPA has been a success. The Radio Frequency Risk Reduction Deployment Demonstration (R3D2) satellite launched in March on a Rocket Lab Electron rocket to demonstrate the ability to deploy a large antenna from a small satellite. In-orbit tests of that spacecraft have worked well, the company said Tuesday. The $25 million satellite was built and launched in 20 months. (5/8)

Bridenstine: NASA May Assist Israel's Next Moonshot (Source: JNS)
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said the agency is studying ways it can participate in Israel's next lunar lander mission. In an interview, Bridenstine said NASA was looking at what scientific payloads it could fly on the Beresheet 2 lander, which will be based on the available mass, volume and power on that spacecraft. NASA flew a small laser retroreflector on the original Beresheet spacecraft, which crashed during its attempted lunar landing last month. Separately, the South Korean government said it reached an agreement with NASA to fly Korean instruments on lunar lander missions, likely commercial spacecraft on which NASA will purchase payload space. (5/8)

Russia to Launch Five Glonass NavSats This Year (Source: TASS)
Russia plans to launch five Glonass navigation satellites this year. Those launches will feature three of the older Glonass-M satellites as well as one Glonass-K satellite and one next-generation Glonass-K2 satellite. Russian officials said the last Glonass-M satellite will be launched next year, with only Glonass-K2 satellites launched after 2023. (5/8)

Air Force Shoots Down Missiles with Laser (Source: Space Daily)
The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Self-Protect High Energy Laser Demonstrator (SHiELD) Advanced Technology Demonstration (ATD) Program successfully completed a major program milestone April 23, 2019 with the successful surrogate laser weapon system shoot down of multiple air launched missiles in flight. The SHiELD program is developing a directed energy laser system on an aircraft pod that will serve to demonstrate self-defense of aircraft against surface-to-air (SAM) and air-to-air (AAM) missiles. (5/5)

Getting Back to the Moon Is the Easy Part (Source: Bloomberg)
In 1961, U.S. President John F. Kennedy set a goal of placing Americans on the moon by the end of the decade. Eight years later, on July 20, 1969, his ambition was fulfilled. For the next three years, American astronauts made regular, albeit brief, visits to the lunar surface. The journeys ended in December 1972, when Apollo 17 departed a lunar highland for the trip home. No human, much less an American, has ventured past low Earth orbit since then.

The Trump administration says it wants to change that. In late March, Vice President Mike Pence announced it was the “stated policy” of the White House to return U.S. astronauts to the lunar surface within the next five years. The short deadline is smart, if ambitious. But any new U.S. moonshot can’t claim to be a success if it only leaves behind another set of lunar boot prints. The mission must instead focus on establishing the technologies, infrastructure and commercial motives to ensure that such visits become more than a twice-a-century occurrence.

Kennedy, whose support for budget-wrecking lunar exploration was driven by fear that the Soviets would get to the moon first, had very different motivations. To achieve his goal, NASA consumed around 5 percent of the federal budget during the 1960s. As soon as the mission was accomplished, funding declined. Today, NASA receives only around 0.5 percent of the federal budget. (5/4)

A Space Force That Would Make A Difference (Source: Forbes)
Within the upcoming weeks, Congress will decide whether to support a proposed new armed service for military operations in space. To fully deliberate that choice, they must first define the problem.

Our national security space architecture faces many challenges: a poor track record of space system acquisition; inadequate funding; a lack of focus on developing and managing space personnel; appropriate integration of National Guard and Reserve personnel; and insufficient warfighting attention on the space domain. These issues are framed by the greater operational challenge endangering overall U.S. military capability—our military, intelligence, and commercial space assets are all highly vulnerable to demonstrated and growing threats.

Our national response to this challenge must include two priority objectives: First, the entire national security space community must transition from viewing space as a sanctuary to space as a warfighting domain; and second, the current cadre of space operators must transition from providing support for warfighters inside the atmosphere to also fighting in, from and through space as warfighters themselves. To do this, they must be organized, trained, and equipped specifically for this new purpose. It is one thing to build and operate a support system as a service provider, and quite another to engage as a formidable, effective combatant. (5/5)

Dust Storms May Have Stolen all of Mars' Water (Source: Engadget)
In May 2018, Opportunity had been doing science on Mars since 2004, and there was no reason to think that the plucky rover wouldn't carry on. Then, a dust storm hit that completely obscured the planet from view. After fine dust coated Opportunity's solar panels, the rover apparently lost power and was declared dead by NASA in February 2019. Now, scientists think similar storms may have also delivered a coup de grace to water on Mars, stripping it from its surface for good.

At one point, Mars had a thick atmosphere and up to 20 percent of its surface was covered by liquid water, scientists figure. Around 4 billion years ago, however, Mars lost its magnetic field and with little to protect it from destructive solar winds, the red planet lost much of its atmosphere.

That left water on the surface vulnerable, and according to new observations from the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), dust storms may have helped finish off the oceans and lakes. While water particles in the atmosphere normally linger at around 12 miles (20 km) in altitude, TGO noticed that the dust storms that killed Opportunity lifted H20 molecules up to 50 miles (80 km) above the ground. (5/6)

Gateway to the Solar System (Source: Space Daily)
It seems like everyone wants to go someplace in the Solar System. President Trump wants to go to the Moon. Elon Musk wants to go to Mars. Others want to go to an asteroid. So, what is the easiest way to go anywhere in the Solar System? Well, most people don't know this, but the answer is to do it in stages. One approach that NASA is considering is the Lunar Gateway, a large spacecraft in orbit around the Moon. This would be modular and be able to support human missions to the lunar surface with reusable lander elements.

For the first time NASA and its international partners would have access to more of the lunar surface than ever before. The Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft would form the backbone of the Gateway and would transport astronauts and supplies to and from Earth. The Gateway could become the waystation for solar system exploration. Planetary passengers and cargo could be transferred from the Gateway to an interplanetary transporter.

Another approach is to establish a LEO Gateway in low-Earth orbit. Such a gateway would be only a few hundred kilometers above Earth, permitting easy servicing and, if necessary, easy rescue. This gateway has several advantages for planetary passengers. A two-stage dedicated launch system could have a very large payload capacity, be at least partially reusable and more affordable. Remember that the energy to achieve low Earth orbit is about half the total energy to go any place on the solar system, while the energy to go the lunar orbit is almost enough to escape Earth's gravity well. Click here. (5/3)

RUAG Proves Microsat Separation System on Electron Launch (Source: Space Daily)
RUAG Space provided the microsatellite separation system to Rocket Lab's Electron Launch Vehicle. The 15" system serves as an adapter between satellite and rocket, and ensures a smooth separation in orbit. The first Electron launch with this particular separation system is planned in the time period between Saturday, 4 May and Friday, 17 May, 2019 from the Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand.

The Electron launcher will carry three small satellites into orbit through the U.S. Air Force's Rapid Agile Launch Initiative on the STP-27RD mission. One of these is the S-CLASS small spacecraft platform built by York Space Systems, which will demonstrate four different payload technologies. "Our separation system product range meets the needs of all launchers-big and small," said Peter Guggenbach, CEO RUAG Space. "We are proud that the result of our partnership with Rocket Lab and York Space Systems will now be taking its first flight, and we look forward to further collaborations." (5/5)