August 2, 2020

SpaceX Says Starlink Internet has ‘Extraordinary Demand,’ with Nearly 700,000 Interested in Service (Source: CNBC)
SpaceX said its nascent satellite internet service called Starlink has already seen “extraordinary demand” from potential customers. Elon Musk’s space company said in a filing Friday that “nearly 700,000 individuals” across the U.S. indicated interest in the company’s coming service. SpaceX asked regulators if it could increase the number of authorized user terminals — the devices that consumers would use to connect to the company’s satellite internet network — to 5 million from 1 million. (8/1)

Dragon Capsule Safely Splashes Down Off Pensacola Coast Carrying NASA Astronauts (Source: Weather Channel)
Despite a tropical storm on the other side of Florida, the SpaceX crew capsule made a successful splashdown Sunday afternoon in the Gulf of Mexico. Astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken returned to Earth from the International Space Station inside the Dragon capsule, named Endeavour by its crew, at 2:48 p.m. The capsule landed in the Gulf off Pensacola in Florida's Panhandle and was greeted by a recovery ship and two smaller boats. Hurley and Behnken remained inside the spacecraft as the two smaller boats moved toward them. The splashdown was the first in 45 years for NASA. The last one was on July 24, 1975, when a joint U.S.-Soviet Apollo-Soyuz mission ended. (8/2)

SpaceWorks to Offer Reentry Device (RED) System in Space Catalog (Source: Orbital Transports)
SpaceWorks Enterprises, Inc announced that they have joined the Orbital Transports partner network and will offer their Reentry Device (RED) product line in the Space Catalog. The RED-50, RED-25 and RED-4U products are on-demand payload return capsules providing low-cost, autonomous downmass capabilities from Earth orbit. The RED systems accommodate flexible payload configurations, precision reentry, and thermal management requirements to provide rapid return for low Earth orbit manufacturing and experimentation. The capsule-shaped systems are nominally capable of returning 6-50 kg of payload from space to anywhere within the contiguous United States. (8/2)

Air Force Vetting Vandeberg AFB for Space Command Headquarters (Source: Edhat)
The U.S. Air Force will begin formally evaluating Vandenberg Air Force Base as the future permanent headquarters for the U.S. Space Command. The base has met the screening criteria required to move into the next phase, Air Force leadership informed base officials this week. Vandenberg’s candidacy has garnered broad support by local and state officials — a central factor in the decision — with about a dozen letters of support from Central Coast cities and counties, Gov. Newsom, U.S. Congressman Salud Carbajal, Assemblyman Jordan Cunningham, and a regional coalition of education and business groups organized by REACH. (7/31)

Branson Splits Up $1.7 Billion Stake in Virgin Galactic (Source: Bloomberg)
Richard Branson has broken out assets of the firm that held his stake in Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc., giving the British billionaire greater control of his most valuable listed holding. Shares in the space-travel company worth about $1.7 billion were distributed to a firm Branson controls and to Aabar Space, an Abu Dhabi investment company, according to a regulatory filing. Branson previously held his stake in Virgin Galactic through a company called Vieco 10, with his Virgin Group controlling 81% of the firm and the balance held by Aabar Space.

The distribution follows Branson selling part of his Virgin Galactic stake to support his broader business empire amid the coronavirus pandemic. Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. -- the company most responsible for building Branson’s global brand -- was rescued on the brink of collapse this month with a 1.2 billion-pound ($1.6 billion) package. Part of that deal included about 200 million pounds that Branson got from diluting his stake in Virgin Galactic. (8/1)

Thin Cloud Returns on Mars – Not Linked to Volcanic Activity (Source: SciTech Daily)
A mysteriously long, thin cloud has again appeared over the 20-km (~12 miles / 65,000 feet) high Arsia Mons volcano on Mars. A recurrent feature, the cloud is made up of water ice, but despite appearances, it is not a plume linked to volcanic activity. Instead, the curious stream forms as airflow is influenced by the volcano’s ‘leeward’ slope − the side that does not face the wind. “We have been investigating this intriguing phenomenon and were expecting to see such a cloud form around now,” explains Jorge Hernandez-Bernal. (8/1)

FAA Approves Rocket Lab to Resume Launches (Source: CNBC)
Rocket Lab is going back to the launchpad in August, as the company said it diagnosed the cause of its recent launch failure and received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to resumes launches. Alongside FAA investigators, RocketLab reviewed over 25,000 channels of data from the launch to identify the cause of the accident. “This disconnection was incredibly unusual because it was able to evade all of the pre-flight acceptance testing,” Beck said. The company made a “slight change” to its production process and will be screening for the issue in the rockets its built. “Anybody who flies on Electron now is going to be flying on a more reliable vehicle than they did before,” Beck said. (7/31)

New SpaceX Dragon Spaceship Almost Ready for Next NASA Astronaut Launch (Source: Teslarati)
The next Crew Dragon spacecraft assigned to launch NASA astronauts is almost ready to ship to Florida. Deep inside SpaceX’s Hawthorne, California rocket factory, the Crew Dragon capsule – believed to be C207 – assigned to the company’s operational astronaut launch debut (Crew-1) is in the late stages of final integration. A photo provided alongside the news confirms that the Crew Dragon is nearly complete. Aside from the installation of body panels and several other tasks that will be completed once the ship arrives in Florida, capsule C207 is already fully outfitted with a heatshield, windows, Draco maneuvering thrusters, SuperDraco abort thrusters, parachute deployment hardware, and much more. (7/30)

House Passes Appropriations Bill for NASA, NOAA, and FAA (Source: Space Policy Online)
The House passed the FY2021 funding bill that includes NASA, NOAA and the FAA today. Overall, there were only minor changes to the recommendations of the House Appropriations Committee. Efforts to add $2.6 billion to NASA’s budget and to elevate the Office of Space Commerce to the Secretary of Commerce’s office failed.  The next step is action by the Senate, which has not marked up any of its FY2021 appropriations bills yet.

The bill that passed, H.R. 7617, is a “minibus” combining six appropriations bills including Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS), which funds NASA and NOAA, and Transportation-HUD, which funds the FAA and its Office of Commercial Space Transportation. It also includes the Defense, Energy-Water, Financial Services, and Labor-HHS-Education bills.  The Homeland Security bill originally was included, but was removed because of ongoing disagreements. (7/31)

Trump's 2024 Moon Goal Faces 'Challenge' in Senate, GOP Chair Predicts (Source: Politico)
It will be a “challenge” to provide NASA the money it needs to follow through on President Donald Trump’s goal of returning astronauts on the moon in 2024, given competing priorities for the space agency, the top Senate appropriator for NASA says. Sen. Jerry Moran, chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, is a staunch supporter of the administration’s effort to return to the moon four years ahead of the previous schedule.

But the Kansas Republican acknowledged the moon program, which has already suffered a funding setback in the House, is competing with other needs such as education programs that must not be cut to pay for Project Artemis. “In order to prioritize the lunar landing, things would have to be reduced that also are a priority,” Moran, who also sits on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said. “We will try to provide all the necessary funding to keep Artemis on track for a lunar landing on schedule, but it is and will remain a challenge.” (7/31)

East Texas Facility to Play Key Role in NASA Balloon Mission to Study Stars (Source: KLTV)
One of NASA’s next missions to study the origins of stars will feature a record-breaking telescope hoisted by a football stadium-sized balloon and the space agency is relying on an East Texas facility to make sure it gets off the ground. The Astrophysics Stratospheric Telescope for High Spectral Resolution Observations at Submillimeter-wavelengths, or ASTHROS, is slated to be launched from Antarctica in December 2023. The radio telescope, managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is designed to make the first 3D maps of the gas around newborn stars.

Project manager Jose Siles says this understanding of the cosmos will be valuable in understanding the origins of life on Earth. “Every atom in our bodies comes from a star. It was formed in a star millions of years ago.” The engineer says the heart of the ASTHROS mission is ta the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in East Texas. NASA’s team in Palestine is responsible for assembling the technology, then managing the launch, flight, and recovery. (7/31)

Ispace Reveals the Final Design of its Lunar Lander Ahead of its First Mission to the Moon in 2022 (Source: Tech Crunch)
Japanese new space startup ispace has revealed the final design of its HAKUTO-R lunar lander, a spacecraft set to make its first touchdown on the moon in 2022 if all goes to the updated plan (it had been set to fly in October 2021 until today). Ispace is part of a team led by Draper selected by NASA for its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program to deliver various payloads to the moon ahead of a NASA planned human mission to the lunar surface in 2024.

The lander is just a bit taller than a person, at around seven and a half feet tall (it’s basically that wide and long as well). The design includes a 4K color camera that will beam back images throughout the mission, as well as fuel tanks for holding its propellant, solar panels for power generation, landing gear, thrusters and payload compartments for holding up to 66 lbs of experiments and other materials. (7/30)

Astronomers Puzzle About Luminous Energy Circles in Space (Source: Medium)
Astronomers have discovered several strange circles in space that are only visible in the radio range. They made the observation using one of the most sensitive observatories in the world. The mysterious rings “do not appear to correspond to any known class of objects,” and have been dubbed Odd Radio Circle, or ORC for short, according to a new study conducted by Western Sydney University astrophysicist Ray Norris.

“To the best of our knowledge, we have discovered a new class of radio astronomical objects. They consist of a circular disk, which in some cases has luminous edges. Sometimes there is a galaxy at its center,” Norris and his colleagues write in the study, which was published on the pre-print server arXiv at the end of June. A peer review, i.e. evaluation by other researchers, is still pending. (7/23)

FAA Striving For Balance in Supersonic Regs (Source: AIN Online)
The FAA is placing a priority on supporting the emergence of supersonic technologies, but the agency must apply appropriate regulatory and environmental safeguards, said a key agency official. “Our focus…has been how we can support the reemergence of supersonic aircraft from a regulatory perspective to ensure that, as technology advances, the FAA is putting in place the necessary regulatory changes,” said Kevin Welsch, executive director of the FAA’s Office of Environment and Energy during a recent American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Aviation Forum.

For years, certification projects remained steady and “looked similar,” he said. But in the last few years, “all of a sudden that space has exploded in terms of the types of regulations we are doing… It is a lot of work for government agencies to catch up with innovation. That’s one of our major focuses,” Welsch said. Welsch pointed to the two primary regulatory activities underway on supersonic, one involved with enabling certification fight testing and another establishing certification noise landing and takeoff standards. The agency is now sorting through comments on both proposals as it shapes a final rule. (7/29)