August 22, 2020

SpaceChain Executes First Multisignature Blockchain Transaction in Space (Source: SpaceChain)
SpaceChain UK Limited (SpaceChain) today announced the successful execution of the first multisignature blockchain transaction in space, marking the completion of a significant milestone supported by the European Space Agency (ESA) Space Solutions as a Kick-start Activity. The transaction was performed by SpaceChain co-founder and CTO Jeff Garzik. The transaction slip has been made available for public viewing. In December 2019, SpaceChain launched a testbed for blockchain multisignature authentication service to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket via Nanoracks. (8/18)

Former Republican Space Leaders Among National Security Officials Condemning Trump (Sources: Space News, SPACErePORT)
Former NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe and former Air Force Secretary Mike Donley are among the more than 70 senior national security officials who say they’ll cross party lines to vote for Joe Biden. They posted their statements in a full-page Wall Street Journal ad, and online. "For the following reasons, we have concluded that Donald Trump has failed our country and that Vice President Joe Biden should be elected the next President of the United States." Click here. (8/21)

The stance caused debate on Twitter and elsewhere about the legacy of President Trump on space issues. None of the reasons cited by the group for opposing Trump were directly space related, and it seems clear that the Trump administration has paid more attention to space than prior administrations. The questions become: is this president's support for space issues more important to voters than his performance on other issues raised by the group, and would a Biden presidency continue the civil, defense, and commercial space policies initiated by Trump (which are much liked by the space industry, space workers, and space states). (8/22)

3 Rockets May Launch in 3 Days Next Week from Florida - That's Never Happened Before (Source: Spectrum News 13)
Early Wednesday on August 26 at 2:16 a.m., a ULA Delta IV-Heavy rocket will send up a classified spy satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office. Turn the page to the next night, a Space X Falcon 9 is set to launch the SAOCOM satellite for Argentina's space agency. And if SpaceX's next Starlink mission meets a targeted August 28 date, that will be three launches in three days. That's never happened. "When you know the level of effort and take the range, and turn it from one rocket to another in three days, it speaks to the capability of this team," said Space Florida's Mark Bontrager. "What we call the Cape Canaveral Spaceport." (8/21)

Arabsat Orders All-Electric Airbus Satellite (Source: Space News)
Fleet operator Arabsat of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, announced Aug. 18 it ordered a geostationary communications satellite from Airbus Defence and Space. Arabsat said it plans to spend $300 million on the manufacture, launch, insurance and ground infrastructure for the satellite, called Badr-8. The satellite is expected to launch in 2023 to provide C- and Ku-band coverage over Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia. Arabsat operates a fleet of seven satellites. (8/20)

New Ground Station Brings Laser Communications Closer To Reality (Source: NASA)
Optical communications, transmitting data using infrared lasers, has the potential to help NASA return more data to Earth than ever. The benefits of this technology to exploration and Earth science missions are huge. In support of a mission to demonstrate this technology, NASA recently completed installing its newest optical ground station in Hawaii. The state-of-the-art ground station, called Optical Ground Station 2 (OGS-2), is the second of two optical ground stations to be built that will collect data transmitted to Earth by NASA’s Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD).

Launching in early 2021, this trailblazing mission will be the linchpin in NASA’s first operational optical communications relay system. While other NASA efforts have used optical communications, this will be NASA’s first relay system using optical entirely, giving NASA the opportunity to test this method of communications and learn valuable lessons from its implementation. Relay satellites create critical communications links between science and exploration missions and Earth, enabling these missions to transmit important data to scientists and mission managers back home. (8/20)

Deep Learning Will Help Future Mars Rovers Go Farther, Faster, and Do More Science (Source: Space Daily)
Future Mars missions would potentially use new high-performance, multi-core radiation hardened processors designed through the High Performance Spaceflight Computing (HPSC) project. (Qualcomm's Snapdragon processor is also being tested for missions.) These chips will provide about one hundred times the computational capacity of current flight processors using the same amount of power.

"All of the autonomy that you see on our latest Mars rover is largely human-in-the-loop" - meaning it requires human interaction to operate, according to Chris Mattmann, the deputy chief technology and innovation officer at JPL. "Part of the reason for that is the limits of the processors that are running on them. One of the core missions for these new chips is to do deep learning and machine learning, like we do terrestrially, on board. What are the killer apps given that new computing environment?"

The Machine Learning-based Analytics for Autonomous Rover Systems (MAARS) program encompasses a range of areas where artificial intelligence could be useful. The project was a finalist for the NASA Software Award. "Terrestrial high performance computing has enabled incredible breakthroughs in autonomous vehicle navigation, machine learning, and data analysis for Earth-based applications," the team wrote in their IEEE paper. "The main roadblock to a Mars exploration rollout of such advances is that the best computers are on Earth, while the most valuable data is located on Mars." (8/20)

NASA's Irene Long Remembered as Trailblazer at KSC (Source: NASA)
There were many firsts in the life of Dr. Irene Duhart Long, a pioneer and accomplished physician who left a lasting impression on NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Long died Aug. 4, 2020, at age 69. “She was very inspiring,” said Kennedy Office of Communication and Public Engagement Director Hortense Diggs. “She was Kennedy’s first ‘Hidden Figure.’” Long was the first African-American female to serve in the Senior Executive Service (SES) at Kennedy. As chief medical officer at the Florida spaceport, she was the first female and the first minority to hold that position. Her NASA career spanned 31 years. (8/20)

ULA Readies Vulcan for Certification (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
Development and flight qualification for United Launch Alliance’s new rocket, Vulcan, remains on track and on schedule (with margin) to make its debut flights next year, as do all ground support facilities and flight software elements for the heavy-lift vehicle. Vulcan’s first two flights, certification missions to clear the rocket to fly category A/B national security payloads for the U.S. Space Force, will loft Astrobotic’s Peregrine Lander outward to the Moon and then Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser spacecraft on its demonstration mission for NASA to become the third U.S. cargo vehicle for Station operations. (8/21)

Details on ULA's Big DoD Launcher Contract Win (Source: Denver Business Journal)
What surprised Bruno was that the first three missions awarded under the new Space Force contract revealed Aug. 6 — three similar, but classified, national security launches Bruno can’t speak about — came with $337 million for ULA to launch two satellites in 2022 and $316 million for rival SpaceX to launch one that year. “I was able to sell them two missions for the price of SpaceX selling one,” Bruno said. “That’s pretty remarkable.”

Winning the Space Force’s phase-two contract for the majority of the agency's near-term missions caps six years of business transformation at ULA. ULA, a joint venture founded in in 2006 by combining the rocket businesses of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, has been the premier rocket vendor to the U.S. military. It employs nearly 2,600 people. ULA notched its 140th consecutive successful mission this month.

In response to SpaceX competition, ULA became a smaller business, shedding nearly 1,200 jobs, and hitched its future to a new rocket that will replace two lines of rockets that ULA has historically flown. The Vulcan Centaur rocket has cost hundreds of millions of dollars to develop and is designed to compete on cost with SpaceX’s reusable Falcon 9 while being able to lift more and place payloads in the hardest-to-reach destinations the military seeks. (8/21)

Pentagon Nears Decision on Transferring Army, Navy Systems to Space Force (Source: Air Force Magazine)
The Space Force is nearing an agreement with the Army and Navy about which of their technologies and organizations will transfer into the new space service, a top Space Force official said Aug. 20. It’s a critical decision that could make or break how well the Space Force can manage the military’s space-based communication, missile warning, surveillance, and more. The service was created as part of a Pentagon-wide push to streamline and better wield space policies and capabilities.

Those Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines that manage space assets like satellites, ground control systems, and radars will join the Space Force’s Space Systems Command. The new command will oversee development, purchase, maintenance, and upgrades of space hardware and software. The military has a few more details to work out about a couple of units, Thompson said. Service leadership will discuss those last transfer decisions in a meeting with OSD later this month. (8/20)

US Army Space and Missile Defense Command Firms Up Role with New Space Organization (Source: Defense News)
The U.S. Army and Space Command unfurled a flag Aug. 21, making the Army Space and Missile Defense Command the official service component command to the new organization focused on the final frontier. ASMDC will retain its responsibilities as the service component command to U.S. Strategic Command and will follow similar organizational and reporting guidelines with Space Command. (8/20)

114th Space Control Squadron gets new home at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (Source: Fox35 Orlando)
Florida's governor joined members of the 114th Space Control Squadron on Friday to cut the ribbon on their new, permanent home at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. “Having the new facility is going to allow us to be in one location. We're kind of spread out right now, so having one location and equipping our folks to serve when needed,” said Lt.Col. Scott McGuire, the squadron’s commander. It's a big white building and that's pretty much all they'd say about it. The equipment inside is classified, so there's little that officials would reveal about what happens inside. (8/22)

Space Force 'Pitch Day' Set for Next Year (Source: USSF)
The United States Space Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) is hosting the Space Force Pitch Day (SPD) event in the spring of 2021. The event is tentatively scheduled to be held in Los Angeles, however, SMC is also considering a virtual environment because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Space Force Pitch Day is designed to showcase the Space Force’s ability to partner and develop modern business practices that enable the development of a small business ecosystem of dual-use cutting edge technologies that support the defense industrial base to enable the fielding of fast, relevant and affordable solutions. (8/20)

Continuing Resolution Could Hit Space Force Hard (Source: National Defense)
A potential continuing resolution for fiscal year 2021 could have an outsized effect on the Pentagon’s newest armed service, said the vice commander of the Space Force Aug. 20. “The risks and the impacts of a long-term continuing resolution for us will likely be greater than it will be in the rest of the Department of Defense,” said Lt. Gen. David D. Thompson. Analysts and experts are expecting fiscal year 2021 — which starts on Oct. 1 — to begin with a continuing resolution unless Congress can pass an appropriations bill before the start of the new fiscal year. A CR would freeze funding at previous fiscal year levels and prevent new-start programs. (8/20)

Congress, Free the Space Force (Source: The Hill)
In the near future, a Space Force admiral may interrupt a young ensign’s briefing and channel Curtis LeMay by reminding him, “The Chinese are our adversaries, the Air Force is our enemy.”  The latest assault is a recent op-ed by retired Lt . Gen. Dave Deptula, who works for the Air Force Association’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. The association presumes to speak for the Space Force, even as its website, as of this writing, still opposes the service’s very existence.

Deptula opposes the bipartisan, House-passed Crenshaw Amendment that would imbue the Space Force with the Navy’s rank structure, and accuses Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), a Navy veteran, of “service parochialism.” Deptula warns that if “Congress can dictate service rank and grades, the implication is they also could dictate service doctrine, ethos, leadership style, military customs and courtesies, and perhaps even target selection.” That a general, even if retired, could write such a sentence should give serious pause.

Disregarding the fact that congressional legislation has directed ranks for centuries, the sterner truth is that in the United States, civilians control the military. But if Deptula were really worried about the Space Force, he would be writing about the Air Force’s decision to keep the X-37B spaceplane for itself. Instead, he warns that the Crenshaw Amendment will break the Air Force’s cultural stranglehold of the Space Force. (8/21)

Managing Space Traffic in an Increasingly Congested Orbit (Source: Government Executive)
After a recent SpaceX Dragon launch scrub, the next available date was determined by two key factors: the physics of efficiently reaching the ISS from Florida and, importantly, an analysis to ensure there were no conjunctions–a close approach of two or more space objects that might result in a collision­–for the Crew Dragon on its ascent to dock with the space station. Space may appear endless, but opportunities to safely place and maintain an object in Earth’s orbit are not. The risk of collisions between objects in space is very real, and major collisions have already occurred.

Understanding where objects are (and will be) in space, sharing that information so that satellite operators can avoid collisions and establishing the “rules of the road” among the community of space users is called space traffic management, and it is a critical domain for government action. After a lengthy interagency process, the Trump administration issued Space Policy Directive 3, transferring responsibility for improving space situational awareness and coordinating space traffic management activities to the Commerce Department.

While the Commerce Department ultimately scored highest in our analysis, the “which agency” question ought not obscure two more urgent issues.  There is an imperative to act now, and the concept for exercising the federal government’s space situational awareness and traffic management responsibilities must not only be effective, but also should stimulate innovation, both in situational awareness/traffic management and in space-based commerce. The method selected for financing the government’s activities will also contribute to its effectiveness. There are opportunities where fees could be employed to support much of the cost of the government’s activities. (8/20)

Arab Rocket Scientist Looking to Inspire Future Generations (Source: Arab News)
An Arab rocket engineer is using her experience to inspire younger generations of scientists from the Middle East. Iraqi Diana Alsindy, who designs propulsion pressurant systems for rockets at the private space agency Virgin Orbit, said she arrived in the US unable to speak English but did not let that or her background stop her achieving her goals. “My nationality was a bit of an obstacle at the beginning of my career,” Alsindy told Arab News. “I think it is very important as a young Iraqi woman to showcase that success and set an example for other women who are facing similar challenges.”

As the Arab world takes steps towards space exploration with projects such as the UAE’s Mars mission, Alsindy said she is seeing more and more young Arabs entering and being welcomed into the space industry, both in the West and in the Middle East. To inspire others to follow in her footsteps, Alsindy has founded “The Arabian Stargazer” — an Arab-language online presence for science communicators to share the importance of and excitement surrounding scientific fields. (8/22)

Russia to Continue Bilateral Dialogue with US on All Space Issues (Source: TASS)
Russia is ready to continue to discuss the space issue with the US within the framework of a bilateral expert group, Spokeswoman for Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Thursday commenting on the publication of the US Space Force doctrine by the Pentagon. "The document confirms the aggressive direction of Washington in the sphere of space, the determination to achieve military superiority up to the total dominance in space. The outer space is considered by the American side exclusively as the arena to conduct warfare," she said. (8/20)

Rogue Planets Could Outnumber the Stars (Source: OSU)
An upcoming NASA mission could find that there are more rogue planets – planets that float in space without orbiting a sun – than there are stars in the Milky Way, a new study theorizes. “This gives us a window into these worlds that we would otherwise not have,” said Samson Johnson, an astronomy graduate student at The Ohio State University and lead author of the study. “Imagine our little rocky planet just floating freely in space – that’s what this mission will help us find.”

The study calculated that NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope could find hundreds of rogue planets in the Milky Way. Identifying those planets, Johnson said, will help scientists infer the total number of rogue planets in our galaxy. Rogue, or free-floating, planets are isolated objects that have masses similar to that of planets. The origin of such objects is unknown, but one possibility is they were previously bound to a host star. (8/21)