August 17, 2019

NASA Marshall to Lead Artemis Program’s Human Lunar Lander Development (Source: NASA)
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine was joined Friday by U.S. Representatives Mo Brooks and Robert Aderholt of Alabama and Scott DesJarlais of Tennessee at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, to announce the center’s new role leading the agency’s Human Landing System Program for its return to the Moon by 2024.

“Marshall Space Flight Center is the birthplace of America’s space program. It was Marshall scientists and engineers who designed, built, tested, and helped launch the giant Saturn V rocket that carried astronauts on the Apollo missions to the Moon,” Brooks said. “Marshall has unique capabilities and expertise not found at other NASA centers. I’m pleased NASA has chosen Marshall to spearhead a key component of America’s return to the Moon and usher in the Artemis era. Thanks to Administrator Bridenstine for travelling here to share the great news in person.” (8/16)

Northrop Grumman Becomes First Commercial Partner to Use VAB (Source: NASA)
After spending more than 50 years supporting NASA’s human spaceflight programs, the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), a landmark at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is getting its first commercial tenant. Northrop Grumman will assemble and test its new OmegA rocket inside the massive facility’s High Bay 2, one of four high bays in the building. Officials with NASA, Northrop Grumman and the U.S. Air Force gathered in High Bay 2 on Aug. 16 to celebrate the partnership with a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by legislative representatives and spaceport employees. (8/16)

SpaceX’s First Super-Heavy Hardware is Already Being Built at Florida Starship Campus (Source: Teslarati)
Based on some basic analysis of recent photos of SpaceX’s East Coast Starship facility, situated in Cocoa, Florida, SpaceX has almost certainly begun fabricating and staging hardware that will eventually become part of the company’s first Super Heavy booster prototype. This is by no means surprising but it does confirm the reasonable assumption that SpaceX is already working hard to ensure that the first Super Heavy booster(s) can be assembled as quickly as possible.

Additionally, SpaceX appears to have started clearing brush in the process of preparing to transport the Florida orbital Starship prototype (“Mk2”) to SpaceX’s Pad 39A launch facilities, dozens of miles away. In August alone, Cocoa has effectively doubled the height of the barrel section of its Mk2 orbital Starship prototype, jumping from 7-8 to 15 steel rings. The barrel section is now ~28m (90 ft) tall and Starship Mk2’s pointed nose section is still approximately 20-22m (65-70 ft) tall, adding up to a stacked height of 48-50m, approximately 10% shy of its final 55m (180 ft) height.

Assuming that SpaceX hasn’t stretched Starship further since CEO Elon Musk’s September 2018 update, this leaves Starship Mk2 around 2-4 rings and a small nose cap shy of its full height (excluding legs). Musk says Super Heavy will likely perform its first flight tests with approximately 20 Raptor engines, eventually arriving at a full 31-37 engines depending on the configuration. Musk also believes that Starship could be ready for its first orbital flight tests as early as December 2019. (8/16)

Why Stowaway Creatures on the Moon Confound International Space Law (Source: The Verge)
The recent Israeli moonship crash that left tardigrades on the lunar surface raises many questions about the protocols surrounding how space-bound payloads are approved. Technically, international guidelines on interplanetary contamination don’t prohibit sending biological matter and organisms to the lunar surface, since most living creatures can’t survive there. But no governing body had a say in the tardigrade matter at all. The tardigrades were added to the lander by a US nonprofit called the Arch Mission Foundation, whose goal is to create a digital and biological “backup of planet Earth” out in space.

The team had approval to add a digital library on the lander, but they didn’t inform Israel or the United States about the added water bears. “We didn’t tell them we were putting life in this thing,” Nova Spivack, co-founder of the Arch Mission Foundation, tells Mashable. “Space agencies don’t like last-minute changes. So we just decided to take the risk.” Spivack did not want to give further comment to The Verge.

Now, some are wondering if new international guidelines should be put in place to prevent copycat missions in the future. “It sets a dangerous precedent that it’s in some way acceptable to do this without a broader scientific consultation,” Christopher Newman, a professor of space law and policy at Northumbria University in the United Kingdom, tells The Verge. While the Arch Mission Foundation didn’t violate any official international regulations for space contamination, the nonprofit may have put Israel and the US in a vulnerable position by not explicitly asking for permission first. (8/16)

NASA Chief Alienates Senators Needed to Fund the Moon Program (Source: Ars Technica)
By handing Alabama's Marshall Space Flight Center leadership of the lander program as well as oversight of its "transfer" and "descent" elements. Houston-based Johnson Space Center, which managed the lunar lander during the Apollo Program and historically has designed human spacecraft for NASA, would lead development of the "ascent" part of the lander and report to Marshall. It appears that neither Bridenstine nor his staff bothered to tell the US Senators from Texas—Republicans John Cornyn and Ted Cruz—about this decision.

Although the Texas lawmakers asked Bridenstine to delay his announcement, the administrator pressed on Friday regardless. During an event at Marshall, Bridenstine announced the division of work between the Marshall and Johnson centers. "This is not a decision that was made lightly," he said. According to NASA's news release, Babin had been scheduled to appear at the event alongside several Alabama lawmakers. However, Babin decided not to attend. “I am disappointed by the decision from NASA to not place the lunar lander program management at the Johnson Space Center," he later said in a statement. (8/16)