October 16, 2020

Lockheed Martin Team Wins Cryogenic Fluid Management (Source: Lockheed Martin)
On Oct. 14, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced a $370 million investment with 14 U.S. partners that will demonstrate and mature space technologies to help forge a path to sustainable Artemis operations on the Moon. As a recipient of an $89.7 million contract from this Tipping Point solicitation, Lockheed Martin will complete an in-space demonstration mission using liquid hydrogen — the most challenging of the cryogenic propellants. This allows us and our partners to test more than one dozen cryogenic fluid management technologies over the next five years.

Our teammates in this trailblazing cryogenic fluid management demo mission include Momentus, which will support the cryogenic payload on its Vigoride orbital transfer vehicle, and Relativity Space, which will launch the mission on its Terran 1 launch vehicle in October 2023. We’ll also work with Yeti Space and KT Engineering to complete this important mission. (10/15)

USAF Funds Orbital Sidekick Project (Source: Space News)
Orbital Sidekick won a U.S. Air Force award it says will allow it to accelerate development of its satellite system. The $16 million from the Air Force commercial investment group AFVentures's Strategic Financing program, with support from the U.S. Space Force Space and Missile Systems Center and the Air Force Research Laboratory, will enable Orbital Sidekick to speed up its campaign to build and launch a constellation of six hyperspectral imaging satellites. The company deployed one hyperspectral sensor on the International Space Station in 2018 and has a second set to launch in December on a Loft Orbital satellite. (10/17)

Mid-November Targeted for Artemis SLS Green Run Hotfire (Source: Space News)
NASA is targeting the middle of November for a hotfire test of the Space Launch System core stage. That full-duration firing of the core stage's four RS-25 engines, at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, is the culmination of the monthslong Green Run test program. Prime contractor Boeing said they hope to perform that hotfire test Nov. 14, after a wet dress rehearsal Oct. 30 where the stage is loaded with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants. NASA says there's 20-25 days of margin in the current schedule, with the core stage to be delivered to Kennedy Space Center in mid-January for launch next November on the Artemis 1 mission. (10/17)

Tea Bag Deployed to Find ISS Leak (Source: TASS)
Cosmonauts on the ISS say they've found the source of an air leak, thanks to a tea bag. The station's crew used the drifting tag bag to locate the leak, a small fracture in the Zvezda module. Earlier efforts had narrowed down the leak to the module. Ground controllers told cosmonauts to use a small piece of polyurethane foam and tape to seal the crack. (10/17)

Fire Burns Rocket Tower at Vandenberg AFB’s Space Launch Complex-2 (Source: Noozhawk)
A fire broke out Thursday on a launch tower being torn down at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Images on social media showed a large column of smoke rising from the structure at Space Launch Complex 2, which previously supported Delta 2 missions. That tower is being torn down as the site is being converted for use by Firefly Aerospace's Alpha rocket. Neither base officials nor Firefly commented on how the incident would affect plans to dismantle the tower and prepare the site for Alpha. (10/16)

Canadian Startup Plans Static Engine Testing at Spaceport America (Source: Albuquerque Journal)
A Canadian launch startup has signed an agreement to perform testing at Spaceport America. The New Mexico spaceport announced this week that it will host static-fire tests of engines being developed by C6 Launch Systems early next year. C6 is working on a small launch vehicle that will be ready for suborbital flights in 2022 and orbital missions, carrying up to 30 kilograms of cubesats, by 2023. The company is building a test stand at the spaceport for the engine tests, and that stand will be left there after the tests are completed for other companies to use. (10/16)

Streamlined Launch/Landing Regulations Published by FAA (Source: Space News)
The FAA published long-awaited streamlined commercial launch regulations Thursday. The new regulations are designed to modernize decades-old rules that many in industry argued had not kept up with both the pace of launch activity and innovations like reusability. The updates include allowing the use of a single license for multiple launches of the same vehicle from different sites. Industry officials said that while they welcomed the new regulations, they still needed to review the details of the final rule, published in a 785-page document, to see if specific concerns raised about a draft version released last year had been addressed. The FAA also plans to publish more than two dozen advisory circulars outlining ways companies can meet the performance-based standards in the final rule. (10/16)

ESA Contracts to Thales Alenia and and Airbus Advance Artemis (Source: Space News)
The European Space Agency announced a series of contracts Wednesday to support its moon and Mars exploration efforts. The contracts include two to Thales Alenia Space to build the I-Hab and ESPRIT modules for the lunar Gateway, and one to Airbus Defence and Space for the Earth Return Orbiter that is part of the NASA/ESA Mars Sample Return effort. Both companies also received study contracts for the European Large Logistic Lander, a proposed robotic lunar lander. ESA says it's awarded 1.3 billion euros ($1.5 billion) in contracts for exploration programs since last November's ministerial meeting, a figure that it expects to grow to 2.9 billion euros by the end of next year. ESA hopes those and future contributions will allow it to fly astronauts to the moon on later missions in NASA's Artemis program. (10/16)

European Moon-Lander Project Pits Airbus Against Thales (Source: Bloomberg)
Airbus SE will vie with Thales Alenia Space to develop a moon lander as part of Europe’s contribution to a new wave of manned missions to Earth’s satellite. The planemaker and the Franco-Italian venture have been selected by the European Space Agency to compete in the definition phase of the European Large Logistic Lander or EL3, according to statements Wednesday.

Airbus plans to devise a lander able to carry 1.7 tons of cargo, with flights starting late this decade. While that’s not soon enough for a role in NASA’s Artemis mission to put people back on the moon in 2024, the craft could help provision a future base there with air, food, water and vital equipment. Airbus has already been commissioned to develop a service module for Artemis’s Orion spacecraft, providing power and support to a crew module that’s being built by Lockheed Martin Corp.

The EL3 will also give Europe an independent capability to travel to the lunar surface, with the lander launched using an upgraded version of the Ariane 6 rocket. France’s ArianeGroup is owned by Airbus and Safran SA. ESA aims to fly as many as five EL3 missions over 10 years, according to Airbus, whose space hub in Bremen, Germany, will lead the development work. Projects could include the return of rock samples and the deployment of scientific gear and rovers. Thales Alenia Space confirmed that it has also been appointed by ESA for an engineering and feasibility study on the EL3, in partnership with space-technology firm OHB SE. It sees the lander as a “versatile system that can support a variety of cargo delivery and science missions on the lunar surface.” (10/16)

Relief After Potential Orbital Collision Doesn't Happen (Source: Space.com)
Satellite trackers kept their eyes on two objects that posed a relatively high risk of collision on Thursday evening. The collision didn't happen. LeoLabs announced that the defunct Cosmos 2004 satellite would pass within 12 meters of a Long March 4C upper stage at 8:56 p.m. EDT, nearly 1,000 kilometers above Antarctica. LeoLabs, which operates a network of radars to track objects in low Earth orbit, estimated there is more than a 10% chance of a collision. Analyses by other companies and organizations, though, predicted the two objects wouldn't pass nearly as close as that. Nonetheless, the close approach illustrated the growing concerns about the threat posed by orbital debris. (10/16)

NASA Selects SwRI and Stern for Human-Tended Commercial Suborbital Experiment (Source: Space News)
NASA has selected the first human-tended payload to fly on a commercial suborbital vehicle. Among the 31 payloads the agency announced Wednesday it selected for the Flight Opportunities program is one from the Southwest Research Institute, where Alan Stern will fly on Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo to test operation of a camera and a biomedical sensor suite. Stern is a longtime advocate for suborbital research in general, and human-tended suborbital research in particular. NASA allowed researchers to propose human-tended payloads for the Flight Opportunities program for the first time earlier this year. A date for Stern's flight has not been set. Virgin Galactic separately announced it is moving ahead with plans for the first powered suborbital flight of SpaceShipTwo from Spaceport America in New Mexico "later this fall," but without announcing a specific date. (10/15)

UK Spent $80 Million Studying NavSat Alternatives (Source: iNews)
The British government spent more than $80 million studying a navigation satellite before shutting the project down. Government documents stated that the U.K. Global Navigation Satellite Programme spent 64 million pounds ($83 million) studying the feasibility of developing its own navigation satellite system after losing access to elements of the E.U.'s Galileo system. The British government announced last month it was ending that effort and turning its attention to alternative means of providing space-based navigation services, possibly using the OneWeb constellation that the government, along with Bharti Global, is buying out of bankruptcy. (10/15)

How a 2nd-Grade Class Sent a Science Experiment to Space (Source: New York Times)
Back in 2015, students in Maggie Samudio’s second-grade class at Cumberland Elementary School in West Lafayette, Ind., were contemplating an offbeat science question: If a firefly went to space, would it still be able to light up as it floated in zero gravity? Ms. Samudio said she would ask a friend of hers, Steven Collicott, an aerospace professor at nearby Purdue University, for the answer.

“He teaches a class on zero gravity, and he would be the perfect person to answer the question,” Ms. Samudio recalled in an email. A day later, Dr. Collicott replied, and Ms. Samudio was surprised by his answer: Instead of guessing, why not actually build the experiment and send it to space? Blue Origin was planning to offer the ability for schools to fly small experiments on its New Shepard suborbital spacecraft for as little as $8,000. "That is a game changer,” said Erika Wagner, the payload sales director at Blue Origin. “Kids as young as elementary school are flying things to space.” (10/13)

China's Moon Mission Robots Wake Up for a 23rd Lunar Day as Team Snags Major Award (Source: Space.com)
China's Chang'e 4 spacecraft have awoken for another lunar day on the far side of the moon, while on Earth the mission received a prestigious international award for its accomplishments. The Chang'e 4 mission, which consists of a lander and a rover, made the first-ever touchdown on the far side of the moon on Jan. 3, 2019.

Since then, the two robots have lasted 648 days, returning reams of science data and images from Von Kármán Crater during the local day; the rover and lander hibernate during the roughly 14-Earth-day-long lunar nights. In recognition of the mission's exploration and science achievements, the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) chose to present the World Space Award to three of Chang'e 4's leaders. The award recognizes outstanding contributions to space science, space technology, space medicine, space law or space management. (10/16)

Florida Provides ~$2 Million for Military Programs (Source: Capital Soup)
Florida announced that the Department of Economic Opportunity has awarded more than $2 million in funding for military-related programs through the Defense Reinvestment Grant Program and the Defense Infrastructure Grant Program. These grants provide funding to defense-dependent communities to support economic diversification efforts and military community relations. The Defense Reinvestment Grant Program provides support to community-based activities that protect existing military installations. These grants are awarded to applicants that represent a local government with a military installation that could be adversely affected by federal actions.

Among the grants is $85,000 for the Economic Development Commission of Florida’s Space Coast "to build upon existing programs that enhance strong relationships and partnerships impacting mission expansion from the US Space Force, the 45th Space Wing, Patrick Air Force Base, and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station." (10/8)

When Asteroid Impacts Are a Good Thing (Source: Air & Space)
In a recent paper published in the journal Astrobiology, Gordon Osinski from the University of Western Ontario and colleagues lay out the case for why asteroid and cometary impacts are not always harbingers of death. In fact, they often create temporarily habitable conditions on a planet otherwise challenging for life. They may even have been instrumental in the origin of life on Earth. Impacts can create potential niches for life by generating hydrothermal vents and liquid water bodies, consistent with the two leading hypotheses for the rise of life on Earth: that it began at submarine hydrothermal vents or in “Darwin’s little pond,” possibly heated from the aftereffects of the impact.

Impacts also generate potential living space in the subsurface by fracturing the planetary crust and producing clays that can act as catalyzers for chemical reactions. Given that impacts were much more common in the first half-billion years of our planet’s history, it is likely they played a critical role in getting life going. Comets in particular would have provided a rich suite of organic compounds that would have served as the building blocks of life. (10/14)

NASA Detects Lattice Confinement Fusion (Source: NASA)
A team of NASA researchers seeking a new energy source for deep-space exploration missions, recently revealed a method for triggering nuclear fusion in the space between the atoms of a metal solid. Their research focused on “Nuclear fusion reactions in deuterated metals” and “Novel nuclear reactions observed in bremsstrahlung-irradiated deuterated metals.”

Nuclear fusion is a process that produces energy when two nuclei join to form a heavier nucleus. “Scientists are interested in fusion, because it could generate enormous amounts of energy without creating long-lasting radioactive byproducts,” said Theresa Benyo, Ph.D., of NASA’s Glenn Research Center. “However, conventional fusion reactions are difficult to achieve and sustain because they rely on temperatures so extreme to overcome the strong electrostatic repulsion between positively charged nuclei that the process has been impractical.” (8/17)

NASA Readies for Asteroid Collection Attempt (Source: Politico)
NASA will try for the first time to collect a sample of an asteroid on Tuesday afternoon in a mission engineers hope will spur officials in Washington to support future sample return missions from other objects, including Mars. The mission is targeting the asteroid Bennu, a carbon-rich asteroid within our solar system that comes close to Earth about every six years.

The Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security - Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx, spacecraft will touch down on the surface for between five and 15 seconds to collect a sample of the carbon-rich space rock that could hold answers to how the solar system formed, Sandra Freund, the program’s mission operations manager at Lockheed Martin, which built the spacecraft, tells us. It will take a couple days to know if the collection attempt was successful. If not, the spacecraft can try twice more before it’s scheduled to depart the area in March. The mission, which launched in 2016, is expected to get back to Earth in 2023. (10/16)

Why Scooping an Asteroid Sample Is Harder Than It Looks (Source: Space Daily)
When OSIRIS-REx descends to the surface of Bennu on Oct. 20, it will be the first time that a U.S.-led mission attempts to pick up a sample of pristine material from an asteroid. Bennu is likely an accumulation of the original leftovers from the formation of our solar system. The mission to sample an asteroid many millions of miles from Earth is anything but a walk on the beach. Bennu "is not nearly the sandy beach we hoped and were expecting," said Thomas Zurbuchen. Detailed images of Bennu's surface revealed a rocky surface littered with house-sized boulders.

Just prior to touching the surface, the spacecraft will compare images from one of its cameras with the hazard map stored in the spacecraft's memory. If the descent path would result in the spacecraft touching down in a potentially unsafe spot, the system would automatically trigger the spacecraft to back away, a scenario that has a probability of less than 6% based on simulations. If everything goes well, the spacecraft will extend its Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism, or TAGSAM, which is suspended at the tip of an 11-feet-long arm.

Reminiscent of an air filter used in an older car, it is designed to collect fine grained material, but is capable of ingesting material up to about three quarters of an inch. As a backup, the sampling head features a series of small discs designed to pick up dust like sticky pads, in case something were to go wrong with the gas-powered sampling process. The team will examine footage taken by the spacecraft's sampling camera, or SamCam, of the sampling head as it makes contact with the surface. SamCam is one of three cameras aboard the spacecraft that were built at UArizona. (10/16)

Arianespace Offers New Shared Smallsat Payload Opportunities on its Vega Launcher (Source: Space Daily)
Arianespace has announced that new shared payload opportunities to low Earth orbit (LEO) have been opened with its Vega launcher's Small Spacecraft Mission Service (SSMS). For the next launch opportunity - Vega Flight VV18, targeted for the first quarter of 2021 - five companies already have signed contracts for payload slots, thereby fully booking the capacity on this mission.

The initial SSMS launch with Vega - Flight VV16 - was performed last month, fully proving the viability of Arianespace's latest capability for orbiting small satellites. This inaugural SSMS launch was supported by the European Space Agency and the European Union, deploying 50-plus satellites for 21 commercial and institutional customers. (10/14)

Swedish Space Corporation to Launch Satellites From Esrange Space Center (Source: Space Daily)
The Swedish government will establish capability to launch small satellites from Esrange Space Center in northern Sweden. The announcement is the third step in an extensive modernization of the infrastructure at Esrange to meet the growing demand of testing and launching capability in the space sector and was made by the Swedish Space Minister Matilda Ernkrans during the inauguration of a new testbed facility for next generation rocket technology at Esrange.

Esrange Space center is already one of the most active and versatile launch sites in the world and the latest decision allows SSC to proceed with its goal to be able to launch small satellites into orbit by 2022. (10/15)

NASA Funds Nokia Plan to Provide Cellular Service on Moon (Source: Space Daily)
NASA will fund a project by Nokia to build a 4G cellular communication network on the moon with $14.1 million, the space agency announced. That project was part of $370 million in new contracts for lunar surface research missions NASA announced Wednesday. Most of the money went to large space companies like SpaceX and United Launch Alliance to perfect techniques to make and handle rocket propellant in space. The space agency must quickly develop new technologies for living and working on the moon if it wants to realize its goal to have astronauts working at a lunar base by 2028, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a live broadcast. (10/15)

A New Italian Space Research Incubator (Source: Space Daily)
Serco Europe, a leading provider of services to the space sector, has just launched a research incubator at its Italian Head Office near Rome. The Red Lab is a research hub which aims to strengthen Serco's relationships with universities and research institutes and encourage cooperation in space research and innovation. Through the Red Lab, Serco will provide research opportunities in the field of Earth Observation and will host students and young scientists conducting their research at Serco's sites. Two partnerships between Serco and Sapienza University and Tor Vergata University Space Science and Technology Master in Rome have recently been announced and more agreements will be concluded over the next few months. (10/13)

Asteroid Sampling Technology Tested on Blue Origin's Ssuborbital Rocket (Source: Space Daily)
Two Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) experiments were aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard suborbital rocket Tuesday from Van Horn, Texas. The Box of Rocks Experiment II (BORE II) tested a new technology for magnetically attaching to and sampling asteroids. The second experiment evaluated a tapered liquid acquisition device (LAD) designed to safely deliver liquid propellant to a rocket engine from fuel tanks.

BORE II continued a 2016 experiment that involved observations of meteorite-like materials inside a container on board a suborbital space flight, with the aim of understanding the materials' behavior in low gravity. BORE II significantly expands on this project, using materials that are much closer in composition and texture to actual meteorites, as well as testing new technology, the Clockwork Starfish sampling device. (10/14)

Airbus to Bring First Mars Samples to Earth (Source: Space Daily)
Airbus has been selected by the European Space Agency (ESA) as prime contractor for the Mars Sample Return's Earth Return Orbiter (ERO) - the first ever spacecraft to bring samples back to Earth from Mars. Mars Sample Return (MSR) is a joint ESA-NASA campaign and the next step in the exploration of Mars. ERO and the Sample Fetch Rover (SFR) are the two main European elements of MSR, both are set to be designed and built by Airbus.

A manipulating arm, referred to as the Sample Transfer Arm (STA), that will transfer the samples from the SFR to the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV), is the third European contribution to the MSR program. The value of the ERO contract is 491 million euro. The five year mission will see the spacecraft head to Mars, act as a communication relay with the surface missions, perform a rendezvous with the orbiting samples and bring them safely back to Earth. Prior to launch from the Mars surface onboard the MAV, the Martian samples will be stored in sample tubes and collected by the SFR, for which Airbus has already commenced the study phase. (10/14)

U.S. Space Mining Policies May Trigger Regulatory 'Race to the Bottom' (Source: Space Daily)
A pair of Canadian scientists warn that the United States is angling to establish itself as the de facto gatekeeper of the moon and other celestial bodies. Aaron Boler and Michael Byers argue that the Artemis Accords are part of a concerted effort by the U.S. and NASA to set a legal precedent for space-based resource extraction. "It's the ongoing and concerted U.S. diplomatic effort to promote national regulation of space mining and to proceed with resource extraction before a multilateral agreement has been negotiated."

In 2015, Congress passed the Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act, which allowed U.S. citizens and companies to "engage in the commercial exploration and exploitation of space resources." Last month, NASA said it plans to buy lunar soil from a commercial company. According to Byers, "the current U.S. approach to space mining emphasizes national regulation and rejects space as being a 'global commons.' ...The result could be inconsistent national laws, a regulatory 'race to the bottom' and even 'flags of convenience' as nations compete to attract space mining companies."

Without international standards and an independent system of monitoring, Byers and Boler argue, bad behavior by one nation begets bad behavior by another. Bilateral agreements like the Artemis Accords could imperil efforts to forge future international space agreements. "A better alternative would be to negotiate a multilateral agreement, and to do so now, rather than seeking to set precedents through unilateral and bilateral actions," Byers said. (10/8)

Ariane 6 Engines are Ready (Source: Ariane Group)
The three engines for Europe’s new Ariane 6 launcher have now completed their qualification tests, following the successful qualification testing of the P120C solid propulsion engine on October 7 at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. The qualification test campaigns for the Vinci and Vulcain 2.1 liquid propulsion engines were held in 2018 and 2019, respectively. The Vulcain 2.1 and Vinci engines, which will be powering the first Ariane 6, are ready to be mounted on the core stage in Les Mureaux and on the upper stage in Bremen. (10/15)

Gay Astronauts: A Final Frontier (Source: Medium)
A 1963 paper titled “Aeromedical Evaluation for Space Pilots” from the USAF School of Aerospace Medicine spends almost three hundred pages detailing all the possible physical and psychological requirements for future space pilots. Amid all the detailed requirements is a literal heterosexuality scale, with attempts to tie a preferred heterosexuality score to positive dominance and achievement scores. Reading it now, it seems medieval.

The first spacefarer to publicly come out as gay did so in a remarkable way — the day she died. Already one of the most famous astronauts in the world, Sally Ride had become America’s first woman in space, flying her first shuttle mission in 1983. Retiring from NASA in 2006, it appears Wendy Lawrence only publicly chose to come out in December 2018, while accepting a very prestigious honor at a public ceremony. What was perhaps the final threshold had yet to be crossed — could a current NASA astronaut be openly gay?

Astronaut Anne McClain was in space at the time, and had no real control over the news. Chosen by NASA in 2013, the youngest person in her selection group, McClain was a distinguished military helicopter pilot. In December 2018, the same month Wendy Lawrence gave her speech, McClain launched into space, spending over 200 days in orbit working on the ISS. McClain had married in 2014, a same-sex marriage that did not become public knowledge until she was in space. (10/14)

Virgin Galactic's Next Spaceflight Test Remains On Track to Launch in the Coming Weeks (Source: CNBC)
Space tourism venture Virgin Galactic on Wednesday said it remains on track to conduct its next test spaceflight in the coming weeks. "We expect our first spaceflight from Spaceport America to occur later this fall and we are pleased to confirm that we are still on track to meet this timeframe," the company said in a blog post.

Virgin Galactic last month said in an FCC filing that the window for the next spaceflight was planned to open on Oct. 22, with test flights of the spacecraft's carrier aircraft scheduled for Oct. 1 and Oct. 7. The company clarified on Wednesday that, "although preparations are going well, we are not quite at the stage where we can confirm specific planned flight dates for either" the test flights or spaceflight. (10/14)

Oxygen Supply Fails on Russian Module of ISS, Crew Not in Danger (Source: AFP)
The oxygen supply system has failed in a module on the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS) but the crew is in no danger, Russian space agency Roscosmos said Thursday. The oxygen supply system on the Zvezda module on the orbital lab failed late on Wednesday but a second system on the American segment is operating normally, a Roscosmos spokesperson said. (10/15)

D-Orbit Announces Launch Service Contract with AAC Clyde Space (Source: Space Daily)
Italian in-orbit transportation company D-Orbit has announced a launch service agreement with Swedish-British small satellite manufacturer AAC Clyde Space. The contract covers launch and deployment of two Eutelsat LEO for Objects (ELO) 6U CubeSats in 2021 developed and built by AAC Clyde Space. Eutelsat's ELO is a constellation that aims at providing global Internet of things (IoT) coverage from low Earth orbit to support sectors like transport, oil and gas, and agriculture.

According to the agreement, D-Orbit will launch and deploy the two AAC Clyde Space' satellites on two separate missions. D-Orbit is currently testing its first ION Satellite Carrier in orbit; the mission has already validated the company's approach to satellite deployment. (10/15)

US Remains Hopeful Russia Will Join Artemis Space Coalition to Moon (Source: Sputnik)
The United States remains hopeful that Russia will join its Artemis program to return humans to the surface of the Moon by 2024, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said. Seven states participating in US lunar exploration efforts have joined the US in signing the "Artemis Accords", Bridenstine said at an event featuring representatives of space agencies in Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.

"I remain very hopeful that Russia will join the Artemis Accords", Bridenstine said. "We will welcome what Russia might be willing to contribute to the program. We do value them as a partner and we hope they value us as a partner. ... All we are doing is operationalising what we have agreed to in the Outer Space Treaty." (10/14)

China's Xichang Spaceport to Launch 10 Missions Before April 2021 (Source: Space Daily)
Southwest China's Xichang Satellite Launch Center will carry out 10 space launches including the Chang'e 5 lunar probe by the end of March next year, a center official said. The center will carry out launch missions twice a month on average, with a minimum interval of five days, said Zhang Xueyu, director of the launch center. The country on Monday sent its new optical remote-sensing satellite, the Gaofen 13, into orbit from the center, marking the center's first launch since its ground system was upgraded. (10/13)

Is Blue Origin Making Money? (Source: Quartz)
Blue Origin’s reusable New Shepard rocket completed its thirteenth mission on Oct. 14, soaring 65 miles (105 km) to the edge of space and returning to earth safely, CEO Bob Smith characterized the program as profitable. “We make money on every flight,” he said. Erika Wagner, Blue Origin’s payload sales director, said the company decided in 2019 to dedicate the vehicle that launched this week to cargo flights. “We’ve had 10 consecutive flights with payloads on board, have flown over 100 payloads total, and have had paying customer payloads on every flight,” Wagner said.

The company didn’t want to talk specifically about the economics, but we can make an educated guess. Scientists are willing to pay handsomely to loft research payloads into a microgravity environment. For this flight, NASA paid Blue Origin about $700,000 to test moon landing technology, alongside eleven other research payloads. In the past, the company said one of its full-size research payload lockers costs between $50,000 and $120,000, although it has smaller spaces available for as little as $8,000. Not knowing all the details, let’s put the revenue for this launch in the ballpark of $1 million.

It’s believable that the New Shepard made a profit on this individual flight, maybe even a large one. But much of the revenue came from the government. And more importantly, given the hundreds of millions spent developing the New Shepard, the vehicle likely only makes accounting sense as a pilot project for the company’s forthcoming New Glenn rocket and more lucrative engine-building work. Or, perhaps, if it starts flying people. Blue Origin hasn’t said how much passenger tickets for New Shepard will cost, but Virgin Galactic is charging $250,000 a seat. At that rate, a New Shepard launch could bring in $1.5 million a flight. “We have customers booked on flights for the next couple of years and are rapidly filling those manifests,” Wagner said. (10/15)