July 13, 2019

European Space Agency Teams With BARBIE to Encourage Girls to Become Astronauts (Source: Mirror)
In the hopes of encouraging more girls to become the next generation of astronauts, engineers and space scientists, the European Space Agency has joined forces with Barbie. The rather unexpected collaboration will highlight the achievements of Samantha Cristoforetti, who is the only active female astronaut in Europe. Isabel Ferrer, European Director of Marketing for Barbie, said: “We are proud to launch this collaboration with the ESA with a clear goal: to inspire girls to become the next generation of astronauts, engineers and space scientists. (7/12)

Space Force is More Important Than Space Command (Source: War On The Rocks)
The conventional wisdom is that resurrecting a separate unified combatant command for space, namely the U.S. Space Command that previously existed from 1985 to 2001, is a sensible decision, but splitting off current Air Force, Army, and Navy service-level efforts into a separate space force might cause more problems than it solves. Establishing a Space Force with the right culture is likely to yield more benefits and avoid creating more overhead and complications, while bringing back U.S. Space Command may make things worse.

Combatant commands are mostly divided up into geographic regions along with a few domain-specific commands (Strategic Command, Special Operations Command, Cyber Command, and Transportation Command). The combatant commands are responsible for planning, preparing, and conducting military operations and warfighting in their area of responsibility. They decide which tanks, fighters, bombers, ships and other capabilities are necessary to carry out their operations and task the services to provide those capabilities. When deployed into a theater, those military units are transferred or “chopped” from the services over to a combatant command and fall under its operational command.

Establishing U.S. Space Command to take over space planning and warfighting functions could introduce more complications and overhead for future military operations. Normally, the four-star commander of a combatant command is the ultimate authority for planning and military operations in his or her geographic area of responsibility. Adding a four-star U.S. Space Command commander into a regional warfare situation would make it more complex as she might assume to have operational command over the situation because jamming is an attack in the space domain. U.S. Space Command would have its own war plans and doctrine for how to respond to the situation, which might conflict with those of the regional Command, and the space commander might feel that regional Command should be supporting U.S. Space Command instead of the other way around. Click here. (7/8)

Boeing Starliner Test Flight in September, Crewed Flight by End of Year (Source: Click Orlando)
The first test flight of Boeing's astronaut capsule CST-100 Starliner from Cape Canaveral will happen in September, Boeing test pilot and former shuttle astronaut Chris Ferguson said. Ferguson will pilot the first crewed flight of the Starliner, which he said could happen in the next several months, but first, Boeing and its partner United Launch Alliance must launch the spacecraft without crew in its first test flight to the International Space Station. (7/13)

Russia Launches Major New Telescope Into Space After Delays (Source: AP)
A Russian Proton-M rocket successfully delivered a cutting-edge space telescope into orbit Saturday after days of launch delays, Russia’s space agency said. Roscosmos said the telescope, named Spektr-RG, was delivered into a parking orbit before a final burn Saturday that kicked the spacecraft out of Earth’s orbit and on to its final destination: the L2 Lagrange point.

Lagrange points are unique positions in the solar system where objects can maintain their position relative to the sun and the planets that orbit it. Located 1.5 million kilometers (0.93 million miles) from Earth, L2 is particularly ideal for telescopes such as Spektr-RG. If all goes well, the telescope will arrive at its designated position in three months, becoming the first Russian spacecraft to operate beyond Earth’s orbit since the Soviet era. The telescope aims to conduct a complete x-ray survey of the sky by 2025, the first space telescope to do so. (7/13)

Virginia Spaceport Gets New Payload Processing Facility (Source: WVEC)
A new payload processing facility at a Virginia spaceport officially opened Thursday. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam and others formally dedicated the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Payload Processing Facility at Wallops Island. The new facility is designed to be able to accommodate multiple customers simultaneously with separate integration bays, eliminating bottlenecks in the preparation of payloads for launch. (7/11)

Senate Developing 'Bold' New NASA Authorization Bill (Source: Space News)
The chair of the Senate's space subcommittee said he and his colleagues are working on a "bold" new NASA authorization bill. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said at a hearing this week that he's working with senators of both parties on a bill that would provide a "bold, visionary agenda for NASA and manned space exploration." Among those working with Cruz on the bill is Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee, who said she's seeking to ensure adequate funding is authorized for NASA's programs and "continued harmonization" between NASA and the commercial sector. (7/12)

DoD Honcho Favors Incremental Space Force Approach (Source: Space News)
The general nominated to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said he backs language in a Senate bill to create a Space Force incrementally. Army Gen. Mark Milley, in a Senate confirmation hearing Thursday, said the Senate's proposal – in its version of a defense authorization bill – to gradually stand up the Space Force is "appropriate" to provide a better transition. The Senate bill directed a one-year transition during which the Space Force would be run by Gen. John Raymond, who would be dual-hatted as commander of the Space Force and of U.S. Space Command. Milley added he saw a Space Force as "a complementary effort, not a duplicative effort." (7/12)

Hyten Faces Opposition for Strategic Command Post (Source: Breaking Defense)
The nomination of Air Force Gen. John Hyten, head of Strategic Command, to be vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is facing opposition. Three senators said they oppose his nomination because of allegations of sexual misconduct against him. The Air Force Office of Special Investigations concluded there was insufficient evidence of any misconduct by Hyten. Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, says he supports Hyten's nomination and plans to move ahead with efforts to confirm him. (7/12)

The Women of NASA are Looking to the Lunar Horizon (Source: CNN)
Growing up, Holly Ridings, Anne McClain and Nujoud Merancy dreamed of space. But they didn't let those dreams rest to become flights of childhood fancy. Now, all three women work at NASA. McClain is an astronaut who just returned from a six-month stint on the International Space Station. Merancy is the Exploration Mission Planning and Analysis lead for the Orion spacecraft that will be part of the Artemis mission in 2024. And Ridings is the first female chief flight director. And they're all working toward the goal of landing the first woman on the moon by 2024. (7/11)

Meet Abby, the 22-Year-Old Who Wants to Be the First Astronaut on Mars (Source: CNN)
When Abigal Harrison was 5 years old, she remembers standing in her backyard on a cold winter Minnesota night when the air was clear, looking up at the night sky with an overwhelming sense of awe and wonder. Her mind swam with questions, she recalls. She wanted to know what the stars were made of and how many there were. She wanted to go to space.

In that moment, she decided she wanted to be a part of not only learning all those things but walking in space and making discoveries to add to those who had come before her. For the next six years, she told everyone who would listen that she was going to space. To most people she told, astronaut was lumped in with the same group of unattainable dreams that contained superheroes and princesses as occupations. Click here. (7/13)

A Simplified Look At Chandrayaan-2, India's Most Ambitious Space Mission Yet (Source: NDTV)
India heads to the moon on a robotic mission like never before. ISRO calls it the most complex mission ever to be undertaken by the Indian space agency. India's most powerful rocket, the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark-3, will lift off from Sriharikota on a three-in-one mission, carrying an orbitter, a lander named Vikram and a rover called Pragyaan, in an effort to unravel the several mysteries of the moon and put India's flag to the moon surface. NDTV's Science Editor uses an ISRO animation to explain the complexities of the mission. Click here. (7/11) 

China Plans to Launch 100 Satellites by 2025 (Source: Economic Times)
China plans to launch about 100 satellites into space by 2025 adding to the more than 200 that are already in orbit, an official at the China National Space Administration said. China, which is investing heavily in space technology with plans to build its own space station by 2022, reported to have about 280 satellites currently in space against India's 54 until November last, according to World Economic Forum Data.

With 830 satellites in space, US leads the satellite race. China had developed the fundamental and proper environment to accelerate the space economy with breakthroughs in space technologies, Yu Qi, an official at the China National Space Administration, was quoted as saying by state-run Global Times. China broke a record in 2018 by conducting 39 launch missions, ranking the first in the world and accounting for one-third of all launches worldwide, it said. (7/11)

The 6 Biggest Questions About Space Tourism, Answered (Source: Washington Post)
Space suddenly seems a little more reachable — at least, for those who have cash to burn. So will we all be jetting around space with our cameras, orbital passports and zero-gravity fanny packs in a decade? Not so fast. Here’s what potential space explorers need to know. Click here. (7/11) 

NASA Reveals Map Of 4,000 Planets Discovered Beyond The Solar System (Source: Design Taxi)
NASA has created a map showing as many as 4,000 planets from outside the solar system as you know it. This is a breakthrough, as it was only awhile ago that there was no concrete evidence of any planet existing beyond the region. The first confirmed discovery of this kind of planet, known as an “exoplanet,” was made in 1992. In the last decade, with the aid of the Kepler Space Telescope, more and more exoplanets have been spotted. After the telescope became defunct in 2018, observatories like the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite took over and discovered many more celestial bodies. The 4,000th one was discovered in June this year. (7/11)

Nikita Khrushchev’s Son Watched his Father Lose the Space Race. 50 Years After the Moon Landing, He Holds No Grudge (Source: TIME)
“I was with my father at the time of Sputnik, in Kiev,” Khrushchev recalls. “He had attended some military exercises and was working with local officials. It was a routine visit, but of course he knew there would be a launch and I knew too.” The word of that launch did not come until the evening, when father and son were having dinner with the officials at the Mariyinsky Palace, the residence of the leader of the Ukrainian Republic. An aide left the room and came back smiling, then delivered the news to Nikita, who announced it to the dinner guests.

American strength, though, was demonstrated in space over the next ten years—first with the flights of the one-man Mercury spacecraft, then the two-man Geminis, then the three-man Apollos that led the step-wise progression to the first moon landing, to five more that followed, and to nine crewed lunar missions overall. Khrushchev blames the Russians’ defeat in the Space Race as much on the long-range planning and smart engineering of the American program as on the infighting and competition within the Soviet space sector. (7/2)

Amazon Lays Out Constellation Service Goals, Deployment and Deorbit Plans to FCC (Source: Space News)
Amazon released more details on its plan to deploy 3,236 broadband satellites, telling U.S. telecom regulators the constellation can start service in limited areas with less than a fifth of the total constellation. Amazon’s Kuiper System satellites will have a design life seven years — less than half that of a traditional geostationary communications satellite — and will be launched in five waves, according to a July 4 filing with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.

The first wave consists of 578 satellites that would provide internet service in two horizontal coverage bands, one between 39 degrees north and 56 degrees north (roughly from Philadelphia north to Moscow) and another from 39 degrees south down to 56 degrees south (roughly from Hastings, New Zealand, to the top of Great Britain’s South Sandwich Islands in the Atlantic Ocean). The subsequent four waves would fill in coverage to the equator.

If a Kuiper System satellite fails, it would naturally deorbit within a maximum of 10 years, according to Amazon’s projections. The Kuiper System calls for three “shells” of satellites all at the lower range of low Earth orbits — 590 kilometers, 610 kilometers and 630 kilometers. Due to their proximity to Earth, Amazon predicts dead satellites would naturally deorbit on average between five to seven years. (7/9)

China Set to Carry Out Controlled Deorbiting of Tiangong-2 Space Lab (Source: Space News)
China appears set to deorbit its Tiangong-2 space lab in the near future, according to a social media release from the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO). CMSEO announced a quiz competition (Chinese) Friday through its WeChat social media platform account, testing knowledge of launch times and mission details, to mark the ‘return of Tiangong-2’.

No date for the planned re-entry was stated by CMSEO, which manages China’s human spaceflight endeavors. Following the loss of contact with Tiangong-1 and subsequent uncontrolled re-entry of the 8.2-metric-ton spacecraft in April 2018, China announced in September last year that Tiangong-2 would be deliberately deorbited in 2019. (7/12)

Airbus to Build Four Imaging Satellites for French Space Agency, Mulls 20-Plus Constellation (Source: Space News)
Airbus and the French Space Agency CNES have agreed to cofinance a constellation of four Earth observation satellites while leaving the door open for Airbus to finance additional satellites with other partners. The four satellites, referred to as the CO3D system, are expected to launch in 2022 aboard a Vega C rocket, with each satellite capable of imaging the Earth at a resolution of 50 centimeters.

In an interview, Philippe Pham, Airbus Space Systems’ head of Earth observation, navigation and science, said CNES is investing just under 100 million euros ($112 million) into the four satellites. Airbus is supplying “a bit more than the equivalent,” he said. (7/12)

A Glacier the Size of Florida Is Becoming Unstable. It Has Dire Implications for Global Sea Levels (Source: TIME)
Melting ice sheets in the Antarctic, particularly one of the largest and unstable glaciers in the region, could significantly accelerate global sea level rise, according to a new report. The climate scientists who measured likely outcomes of glacial melting at the bottom of the world focused the study on the Thwaites glacier, an area as large as Florida in western Antarctica that is considered the most unstable in the continent.

The study found that even if no further climate change happens in the future, more Antarctic ice sheets are likely to become unstable. It also states that as destabilization of glaciers in Antarctica continues, it’s increasingly likely that sea levels will rise more rapidly. (7/11)

Tennessee's Rocket Man: Meet the 103-Year-Old Scientist Who Helped Put Man on the Moon (Source: Tennesean)
Balding and with neatly trimmed white hair and thick glasses, J. Cary Nettles brightened last month when welcoming visitors to his quaint brick home. Nettles, in a soft, hoarse voice, chattered on and on to two journalists and a friend. Turns out he has a lot to be excited about. At 103, Nettles works on rebuilding steamer train engines in his basement. He spends an hour or two on ham radio each day. He watches his beloved Atlanta Braves, makes himself lunch and gets around the house just fine, often without using a walker.

Impressive yes, but that ain’t nothin’. Nettles, believed to be the nation’s oldest living rocket scientist, helped save the U.S. space program that put a man on the moon 50 years ago. President Kennedy announced in 1961 the U.S. would be the first to land astronauts on the moon, but several test rockets blew up on the launch pad or exploded shortly after liftoff. Nettles and his team came up with the solution — put an exhaust pipe on the bottom of the rocket like the ones on the back of cars. Turns out after the rockets were launched, hot exhaust was turning back into the rocket and destroying them. (7/11)

NASA Has a Need for Speed (Source: TIME)
Shake ups happen in federal agencies all the time, but when the shake up in question is at NASA on the cusp of the Apollo 11 anniversary and at the moment the US has recommitted itself to returning to the moon, it gets attention. That’s what happened when NASA Chief Jim Bridenstine announced that he was reassigning director of human spaceflight William Gerstenmaier and replacing him with former astronaut and Gerstenmaier's now-former deputy, Len Bowersox. A key point of dispute between the two: testing the Space Launch System, the massive rocket intended for lunar journeys. Gerstenmaier is a go-slow guy, Bowersox favors more speed. The Gerst-Sox (as they’re known inside NASA) clash may signal more internal debates to come. (7/12)

Russia Stumbles—Again (Source: TIME)
The U.S.S.R. built its original space center in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, then part of the great Soviet empire. With Baikonur showing its age and Kazakhstan an independent nation that now charges for the lease of its land, Russia has spent years building what was meant to be a glittery new space port in the far east of its own territory. But cost overruns and rampant corruption have meant delays, launch failures and potentially lethal danger to future crews. (7/12)

India Set to Score—Again (Source: TIME)
After successfully sending its Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter and impactor to the moon in 2008 and dispatching another orbiter to Mars in 2013 (for less than it cost to make the movie Gravity), the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is poised to fly again, this time with Chandrayaan-2. The new moon ship will launch as early as July 15 and arrive as early as September 6 and will be landing in a hot new spot (actually a very cold spot): the south lunar pole, where water ice is preserved in huge deposits in permanently shadowed craters. (7/12)

“Deadly Dust” – Mars’ Mission-Killing Global Storms (Source: Daily Galaxy)
One of the biggest Martian dust storms on record cleared up after nearly three months, at the time raising hope that NASA’s stranded, solar-powered robotic vehicle, Opportunity, would come back to life. Alas, the US space agency’s 15-year-old rover was least heard from on June 10, when it went into “sleep” mode as dust blocked out the Sun and darkness enveloped the Red Planet.

Fast forward to today, ESA’s Mars Express has been keeping an eye on local and regional dust storms brewing at the north pole of the Red Planet over the last month, watching as they disperse towards the equator. Local and regional storms lasting for a few days or weeks and confined to a small area are common place on Mars, but at their most severe can engulf the entire planet, as experienced last year in a global storm that circled the planet for many months.

It is currently spring in the northern hemisphere of Mars, and water-ice clouds and small dust-lifting events are frequently observed along the edge of the seasonally retreating ice cap. Many of the spacecraft at Mars return daily weather reports from orbit or from the surface, providing global and local impressions of the changing atmospheric conditions. ESA’s Mars Express observed at least eight different storms at the edge of the ice cap between 22 May and 10 June, which formed and dissipated very quickly, between one and three days. (7/12)

Apollo 11 Had 3 Men Aboard, But Only 2 Walked on the Moon. Here’s What it Was Like to Be the Third (Source: TIME)
Michael Collins was the man who got history’s middle seat — literally aboard the Apollo 11 spacecraft, but in more lasting ways too. He was, technically, the second-ranking member of the three-man crew that achieved the historic moon landing of July 20, 1969. As command module pilot, Collins was answerable to commander Neil Armstrong, but outranked lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin. In the protocol-minded world of NASA, the crew was thus known as Armstrong, Collins and Aldrin, always in that order. But the world has ever flipped that sequence to Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins.

Before the crew left Earth, Deke Slayton, who made the crew assignments, promised Collins that as soon as Apollo 11 made it home, he would slot him back into the flight rotation so he could command his own mission and get his boots dirty too. Collins declined. As long as Apollo 11 succeeded, he said, he would have done his bit for history. Half a century later, the world still wonders about the contemplative man who played a crucial and too-often overlooked role in one of the species’ greatest achievements. Click here. (7/11)

What Will Life on Mars Be Like? (Source: Slate)
Once you have this Mars base, which perhaps is supported by the U.S. and its European-Japanese allies, it’s developing all these technologies for creating resources on Mars, and the interplanetary transportation is becoming cheaper. At this point, it becomes possible to envision not only other countries, including small ones, creating their own base on Mars, but private groups. Whether you’re talking about an entrepreneurial colony, which makes its income off of the inventions that its personnel create to meet the challenges of Mars, or even private groups, there’s always going to be people who have new ideas on how human beings should live together. Click here. (7/12)