July 20, 2019

How a Typeface Helped Launch Apollo (Source: TED)
In 1969, when humanity first landed on the surface of the moon, the typeface Futura was right there with them. In this fascinating history of typography, designer Douglas Thomas shares Futura's role in launching the Apollo 11 spacecraft -- and how it became one of the most used fonts in the world. Click here. (7/19)

Astronaut Ice Cream is a Lie (Source: Vox)
Any space-enthused kid has endured the crumbly, chalky agglomeration of flavors known as "astronaut ice cream." We deal with it because of the supposed connection to the lives of real space explorers. The only problem is that astronaut ice cream is a lie. This legendary children's treat has a surprisingly murky history.

Walt Cunningham, the sole surviving member of the crew, about it, he said, "We never had that stuff." Jennifer Levasseur, museum curator at the National Air and Space museum, said it's likely Cunningham remembers correctly. "I think it’s very likely it never flew," she wrote me. "It probably got made, tested on the ground, and rejected. They do always get to try things in advance, and they probably thought it was as horrible as it actually is when you buy it in the gift shop." (7/19)

This Inflatable Space Habitat Could Help NASA Return To The Moon (Source: CNBC)
Sierra Nevada Corporation is one of the private sector companies trying to help NASA get us to the moon. The company is developing what it calls the ‘Large Inflatable Fabric Environment” at Johnson Space Center. Sierra Nevada hopes NASA will use the habitat in its new Artemis program, which will lead the U.S. back to the moon and, eventually, Mars. Sierra Nevada’s habitat is competing with prototypes from Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Bigelow Aerospace and NanoRacks. Each company has proposed its own habitation prototypes. NASA began testing the prototypes on the ground in March. The space agency says those tests should last several months. Click here. (7/19) 

Europe’s Galileo Satellite Outage Serves as a Warning (Source: WIRED)
Europe’s Galileo Satellite navigation system largely regained service Thursday, a full week after a mass outage began on July 11. The European Global Navigation Satellite Systems Agency, known as GSA, said that commercial users would start to see coverage returning, but that there might be "fluctuations" in the system. What remains unclear is what exactly caused the downtime—and why it persisted for so long.

The incident took down all of the GPS-like system's timing and navigation features other than "Search and Rescue," which helps locate people in remote areas. As the days dragged on, what might have simply been an inconvenient blip ballooned into a major incident. And while European systems and services can still fall back to other timing and navigation options, like GPS, the prolonged outage serves as a chilling reminder of the modern world's intrinsic reliance on fallible global positioning systems.

GSA has so far still provided only a rough sketch of what caused the outage. "The technical incident originated by an equipment malfunction in the Galileo control centers that calculate time and orbit predictions, and which are used to compute the navigation message," the GSA wrote on Thursday in its most specific statement yet. "The malfunction affected different elements on both centers." That generally confirms what researchers who use the Galileo system had noticed independently. Click here. (7/18)

Virgin Orbit Signs Agreement to Launch Small Satellites for the UK’s Royal Air Force (Source: TechCrunch)
Virgin Orbit,  the small satellite launch company backed by billionaire Richard Branson, has signed an initial agreement to develop small satellite launch capabilities for the U.K.’s Royal Air Force (RAF). The deal, which is part of the RAF’s Artemis project, will see Virgin Orbit aim to launch hardware provided by Guildford, U.K.-based Surrey Satellites in a demo mission.

This is in keeping with Virgin Orbit’s stated hope to bring spacecraft launch capabilities to the U.K. The closest the U.K. has come is when it launched a British satellite aboard a British rocket in 1971 — but that took off from a launchpad in Australia. Virgin Orbit announced a deal to build a new Spaceport in Cornwall, from which its modified 747 launch aircraft will take off, with a target open date of early next decade. (7/19)

Virgin Has a Space Torpedo -- and Northrop Grumman Should Be Worried (Source: Motley Fool)
When will that first operational Virgin Orbit test flight take place? Virgin won't say, exactly. There are still "a rigorous series of checks and rehearsals leading up [to LauncherOne's] first launches to space later this year," according to the company. On the other hand, Virgin did say "later this year." And it did say "launches" -- plural. This suggests that, assuming Virgin follows standard operating procedure for new space companies -- which means conducting one completely successful test and then shifting immediately into commercial operations -- Virgin Orbit could test fire its rocket within the next few months.
If all goes well, Virgin might even put its first paying customer(s) in orbit before the year is out. This could pose a problem for investors in Northrop Grumman, however. With the recent bankruptcy of Stratolaunch, Northrop Grumman is now the only other company in the world routinely launching satellites from airplanes in flight. This niche area of the space-launch market looked safe for the Northrop division then known as Orbital ATK. But Virgin Orbit has advanced by leaps and bounds and now looks well-placed to challenge Northrop in this market -- and perhaps even win it away. Virgin, however, has been advertising launch costs as low as $10 million for similar-sized payloads.

Editor's Note: Northrop Grumman also happens to own Scaled Composites, the company that built the Stratolaunch aircraft and the spacecraft and carrier aircraft operated by Virgin Galactic. (7/19)

Air Force to Begin Transferring Space Situational Awareness Data to Commerce Department (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Commerce Department is “imminently” close to receiving a repository of satellite and space debris tracking data from the Air Force, a Commerce official said. Kevin O’Connell, director of the Commerce Department’s Office of Space Commerce, said the repository, called the Unified Data Library, is the first step in the transfer of some space situational awareness responsibilities as requested by the White House last year.

President Donald Trump, in signing Space Policy Directive 3 in June 2018, directed the Defense Department to give the publicly releasable portion of its space situational awareness data to the Commerce Department. O’Connell said there is a growing urgency for the Commerce Department to begin handling that responsibility, driven particularly by the deployment of megaconstellations that could add thousands of new satellites in low Earth orbit. (7/19)

NASA Bets on Spacecraft That Can 3D Print and Self-Assemble in Orbit (Source: Astronomy)
Putting a satellite in space is news of the past, but launching a spacecraft that can 3-D print and self-assemble is a story of the future. NASA is now betting on the technology being ready for prime time as early as 2022. Last week, the space agency announced that they had awarded a $73.7 million contract to a startup company called Made In Space, Inc. The money will fund a test of the concept using a small spacecraft, called Archinaut One, in low-Earth orbit.

Space made history by 3-D printing the first object ever produced in space. And since 2016, they have been running a permanent manufacturing unit inside the International Space Station, dubbed the Additive Manufacturing Facility (AMF). Now the goal is to build large spacecraft parts. That will require leaving the confines — and protection — of the ISS and moving their 3-D printing operation into the vacuum of space. The undertaking will require the machine to print parts larger than itself and then assemble them. Made In Space claims to have developed a system capable of integrating 3-D printing and robotics to do just that. (7/16)

ESA Identifies Demand for Satellites Around the Moon (Source: Space Daily)
Dozens of very different commercial and institutional missions to the Moon are planned for the coming decades. These encompass everything from NASA's manned Lunar Gateway research station and cubesats from start-ups and universities to commercial landers carrying rovers. The heightened interest in going to the Moon shows that there could be a market in providing satellite communications beyond Earth. All the proposed missions share similar communications and navigation needs that could be satisfied by a commercial service provider.

A supporting lunar communications and navigation infrastructure would enable these missions to be designed more cost-effectively. Furthermore, such an infrastructure would have an enabling role as it would stimulate more research and commercial private ventures on the Moon. ESA is assessing a related commercial partnership and running several studies together with industrial partners to evaluate how such a lunar communications and navigation infrastructure could be setup and benefit lunar exploration and exploitation. The agency is also planning to contribute communication capabilities to the Lunar Gateway, which is due to be deployed in the 2020s. (7/17)

Europe Plus Japan Equals Mercury (Source: TIME)
Think it’s hard to get to Mars? Try Mercury, a sizzling world so deep within the gravity well of our sun that it’s hard even to see except at just the right moments, when it’s in just the right spot. There’s a reason so few spacecraft have visited the solar system’s innermost world. The most recent was NASA’s Messenger spacecraft, launched in 2004. Before that, the U.S. hadn’t gone to Mercury since Mariner 10’s three flybys in 1974 and 1975. But the little planet will have company soon, as BepiColombo—a joint mission of the European Space Agency and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency—begins the six-year cruise phase of its mission , putting it in Mercury’s neighborhood in 2025. (7/19)

Europe Plus Russia Equals Mars (Source: TIME)
Maybe. Russia has had rotten luck with Mars, failing to get its spacecraft there vastly more often than it has succeeded. Europe has taken its shot much less frequently, but has a spotty track record too, with Britain’s 2003 Beagle 2 lander going silent shortly after it touched Martian ground and the ESA’s Schiaparelli spacecraft crashing into Mars in 2016. Now the ESA and Roscosmos (Russia’s NASA) are partnering, hoping to launch a spacecraft named ExoMars in 2020. The name of the craft reveals its tantalizing purpose: to look for exobiology—or life—on Mars . A recent failed parachute test did not inspire confidence, but the project is continuing, with mission planners mindful of one eternal maxim: Mars is hard. (7/19)

China is Setting the Stage for Next Space Race (Source: CNN)
As China just makes history by landing a probe on the far side of the moon, CNN's Matt Rivers looks at the future of the country's quickly-growing space program. Click here. (7/19) 

From Satellites to the Moon and Mars, China Is Quickly Becoming a Space Superpower (Source: TIME)
Nestled among the crimson dunes of China's Gobi Desert, a warren of domes and squat white buildings rises from the parched earth. Inside is a research and educational facility for budding astronauts — and the latest manifestation of Beijing's bid to position itself as a leading space power. "Mars Base 1," built by private Chinese company C-Space, is like a space station on Earth, boasting an airlock, greenhouse, gymnasium, living quarters and control room. Solar-powered buggies and lunar probes scour the red dust landscape of northeastern Gansu province, whose barren expanses bear an eerie resemblance to the Red Planet, which China is planning to visit next year.

Visitors experience what life is like on a real space mission, from rearing crops under an ultraviolet glow in soilless science labs to clambering around in bulky space suits. Barley worms are even grown for protein in lieu of rearing animals. "I’m very excited to see this place," says student Zhang Huan, 12, who's touring the facility. “If China can be the first to land humans on Mars, it will inspire everyone throughout the country.”

Satellite launches are a priority, too. China had 38 launches last year, more than any other country, as it attempts to catch up with the West's satellite infrastructure. And last month, China launched a rocket from a mobile platform in the Yellow Sea for the first time, sending five commercial satellites and two others containing experimental technology into orbit. The feat meant China is only the third country after the U.S. and Russia to master sea launches. (7/19)

Can We Really Get A Universe From Nothing? (Source: Forbes)
The biggest question that we're even capable of asking, with our present knowledge and understanding of the Universe, is where did everything we can observe come from? If it came from some sort of pre-existing state, we'll want to know exactly what that state was like and how our Universe came from it. If it emerged out of nothingness, we'd want to know how we went from nothing to the entire Universe, and what  if anything  caused it. Click here. (7/19)

Astronauts Will Fix Ailing Dark Matter Experiment on Space Station (Source: Space.com)
The secrets of the universe are so important that NASA plans spacewalk work to fix a dark matter experiment on the space station, U.S. astronaut Jessica Meir said. Meir, who will launch to the International Space Station on Sept. 25 as a part of Expedition 61, said her crew will likely participate in several spacewalks during her half-year mission. The spacewalkers will address some issues with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), a particle detector outside the orbiting laboratory that is scanning the cosmos for evidence of dark matter.

One of the AMS pumps is degrading, and NASA has had to implement some new procedures and tools to fix the issue. That's because the pump wasn't originally designed to be repaired by astronauts, Meir said in the televised news conference from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. AMS has been operating since 2011, after the second-to-last space shuttle flight brought the instrument to the International Space Station (ISS). The experiment is meant to help scientists better understand dark matter.

"It will be a complex and challenging spacewalk," said Meir, who compared the outing to the series of excursions five astronaut crews completed to repair and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope over two decades. (7/19)

Alphabet-Backed Space Launch Company Wins Pentagon Contract (Source: Yahoo Finance)
Is there anything Google can't do? From internet advertising to search to finding you a good deal on a plane ticket to Jamaica, Google -- and its parent company Alphabet -- have remade the internet in their image. Google's ventures even extend into the high-tech physical world, testing driverless cars, laying fiber to make gigabit internet a reality on the ground, and operating satellites in orbit around the Earth. One thing Alphabet can't do, though -- at least not yet -- is launch those satellites into orbit on its own. For that, Alphabet invests in other companies.

For instance, Google won itself a lot of headlines when, in early 2015, the company teamed up with Fidelity to invest $1 billion in Elon Musk's SpaceX -- a 10% stake that's more than tripled in value since. But even that may not be enough to satisfy Alphabet -- which is where SpinLaunch comes in. How exactly does SpinLaunch differ from other space launch companies?

In contrast to traditional launchers such as SpaceX and United Launch Alliance, which load a satellite aboard a rocket, "light that candle," and blast into orbit -- and to companies like Northrop Grumman and Virgin Orbit, which fly airplanes to high altitude and launch rockets from there -- SpinLaunch emphasizes a "ground-based kinetic energy" approach. Specifically, it proposes to use a centrifuge-like device to spin a rocket round and round like a slingshot, building up momentum, and then hurtling it into the sky at hypersonic speed. Once at altitude, a chemical rocket then ignites, boosting the rocket the rest of the way into orbit. (7/20)

How HoloLens is Helping Advance the Science of Spaceflight (Source: Engadget)
AR headsets haven't exactly caught on with the general public -- especially after the Google Glass debacle. Mixed reality technology has garnered a sizable amount of interest in a variety of professional industries, though, from medicine and education to design and engineering. Since 2015, the technology has even made its way into aerospace where NASA and its partners have leveraged Microsoft's HoloLens platform to revolutionize how spacecraft are constructed and astronauts perform their duties while in orbit.

Microsoft and NASA's partnership began on June 28th, 2015 as part of Project Sidekick when a SpaceX supply rocket docked with the ISS and delivered the headsets to the waiting astronauts. "HoloLens and other virtual and mixed reality devices are cutting edge technologies that could help drive future exploration and provide new capabilities to the men and women conducting critical science on the International Space Station," Sam Scimemi, director of the ISS program at NASA said in a 2015 press release. "This new technology could also empower future explorers requiring greater autonomy on the journey to Mars." (7/20)

Space Force or Space Corps? (Source: CSIS)
The most obvious difference between the SASC and HASC legislation is the name of the new service. SASC supports the name championed by President Donald Trump, the U.S. Space Force, while the HASC calls it the U.S. Space Corps. However, both envision the organization as a corps-like structure within the Department of the Air Force and a co-equal service to the U.S. Air Force. Neither supports elevating the organization to an independent military department, which is what President Trump originally suggested in June 2018. Click here. (6/27)

Spacesuits Have Been Bulky Since Before Apollo 11. A Skintight Design May Change That (Source: USA Today)
For 50 years the spacesuit used by American astronauts hasn't changed drastically from the ones used by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on Apollo 11. But futuristic spacesuit designs may soon change that. The Apollo 11 spacesuit, called the A7-L, was a marvel of engineering: It sustained human life outside of Earth, but it also allowed for astronauts to walk around, bend over, move their arms in space and navigate space nearly as well as they did when they were earthbound.

The future of spacesuits will theoretically allow even more motion by using a skintight design, according to MIT researcher and aerospace engineer Dava Newman. Newman's proposed BioSuit designs use elastic and polymers for stretch and nickel-titanium coils that pressurize the suit when heated. The big breakthrough, she explained at an event in Washington, D.C., is nucleated boron minitubes spun into thread and sewn into these stretchy suits — effectively protecting the human body from space radiation.

As a result, these skintight suits will also allow for humans to walk on the moon — and possibly elsewhere. An added bonus, Newman pointed out: Since these suits are custom-made, there will be no risk of running out of space suits, as was the case with the all-woman spacewalk that was planned and scrapped in March. "Astronauts frequently suffer from shoulder and elbow injuries from fighting pressurized suits," said Lewis. "Astronauts, by and large, are middle aged people who have been athletic all of their lives. That is what has motivated Dr. Newman's work — so that they don't have to be subject to these injuries." (7/19)

Technical Issue Sidelines Atlas V, Delta IV Boosters (Source: Aviation Week)
United Launch Alliance (ULA) is delaying a pair of upcoming U.S. military space launch missions to address a potential problem with an undisclosed component in the boosters’ upper stages. The company, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, said July 17 that the upcoming launch of a Delta IV rocket with a GPS III satellite will be retargeted for no earlier than Aug. 22 to allow time for technicians to replace and retest a faulty component. (7/17)

FAA to Extend Comment Period Again for Revised Launch Liicensing Rules (Source: Space News)
The FAA plans to further extend the public comment period for a proposed revision of commercial launch and reentry regulations that’s faced significant industry criticism. Kelvin Coleman, deputy associate administrator for commercial space transportation at the FAA, said the agency would soon announce it was extending the deadline for submitting comments on the proposed regulations by 20 days.

That extension would push back the deadline for responding to the proposed rule from July 30 to Aug. 19. That extension comes after the FAA announced in May it was extending the deadline from June 14 to July 30 in response to industry requests for more time to review and comment on the regulations. With this latest extension, Coleman noted that the FAA will have provided about four months for industry to formally comment on the proposed rules, which were published in the Federal Register April 15. The FAA released a draft version of the rules in late March. (7/17)