October 20, 2020

Tape Used to Temporarily Patch 1-Inch ISS Crack (Source: Sputnik)
"The analysis of the photos suggests that the tear in the Zvezda Service Module is between two and four centimeters long. Cosmonaut [Sergey] Ryzhikov taped it with Kapton [a special tape]," a source told Sputnik). Earlier in the day, one of the crew members, cosmonaut Ivan Vagner reported to the ground force that the crew had found a makeshift solution for the leak which would be to tape it with Kapton, an adhesive film developed by DuPont in the late Sixties which can exist between -269 and 400 degrees centigrade. (10/19)

China's CASIC Has Ambitious Plans for Small Rockets, Spaceplanes, and Satellite Constellations (Source: Space News)
A Chinese state-owned aerospace company laid out ambitious plans for space projects over the next five years at a conference Monday. The China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp. (CASIC) says it plans to double the number of launches of its Kuaizhou series of small solid-fuel rockets by 2023, despite two recent failures of those vehicles. CASIC said it is working on a reusable two-stage spaceplane, Tengyun, that it plans to demonstrate by 2025, as well as the 80-satellite Xingyun constellation for internet-connected devices. (10/20)

JWST Launch Planned for October 2021 (Source: Space News)
NASA says the James Webb Space Telescope remains on schedule for a launch in a little more than a year. A program official said Monday that JWST had adequate schedule reserve for a launch at the end of October 2021. The telescope recently completed a final set of environmental tests and is now going through a series of deployment tests before it is packaged for shipment. The mission is still dealing with some technical issues, such as ongoing concerns that residual air inside the Ariane 5's payload fairing during launch could overstress parts of JWST's sunshield. (10/20)

Space Ops Command Seeks Industry Aid To ‘Scale Up’ Innovation (Source: Breaking Defense)
Figuring out how to scale up the use of secure digital design and innovative ideas from small firms will be one of the first orders of business for the Space Force command responsible for overseeing all military satellite programs following its official start-up on Wednesday, says Maj. Gen. DeAnna Burt.

“Any ideas there from industry of how you guys organized to take grassroots-level ideas from parts of your divisions and then scale them across the enterprise, those would be interesting thoughts,” Burt, who directs operations and communications at Space Force headquarters. told the virtual SpaceCom event today. “I’d love to take those, because we’re looking at how do we organize headquarters Space Operations Command here after we stand up this week.” (10/19)

Mandalorian Team Helping Simulate Space for Space Force (Source: Task & Purpose)
Science fiction fans rejoice: the studio who helped bring a helmeted mercenary and his frog-like companion to life is now helping develop a simulator for Space Force members to learn how to maneuver spacecraft around the Earth. The problem is, the U.S. military does not have the best tools for teaching astrodynamics — the mechanics of how man-made objects move in space — to service members. Right now the military’s space learning tools are either video lectures or super-detailed mission analysis simulators, and it’s been that way for years.

What they found was that students wanted to learn the basics of astrodynamics in a more hands-on, interactive way. The more students can play around with astrodynamics, the better they understand its effects on spacecraft and execute their missions, Stricklan explained. Unlike their current toolsets, students also wanted a simulator that wouldn’t take 20 minutes to configure, and which they could use at home on their tablets or smartphones.

Enter Slingshot Orbital Laboratory, the simulator which Slingshot Aerospace received $1 million from Space Force to develop, along with another $1 million from venture capital. Still, the company wanted the simulator to represent space physics accurately, look good, and feel easy to use, and that’s where The Third Floor, the studio which helped make ‘The Mandalorian’ look so cool, comes in. (10/20)

Space Force Grappling With How to Define Readiness (Source: Air Force Magazine)
The U.S. Space Force is trying to figure out what “readiness” means for space operations, seeking to sever itself from the Air Force’s aircraft- and deployment-centric model. The Air Force’s Air and Space Expeditionary Force model doesn’t work as a measure of Space Force readiness, said Lt. Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, deputy chief of space operations. Mission capable rates and other traditional measures of readiness don’t translate to Space Force, Saltzman said.

“Readiness is that term of art to express: Can you do your mission or not?” he observed. He said he was about to take a briefing on readiness and expected to be “underwhelmed,” because “quite frankly, we took a system that was primarily designed to show how Air Force expeditionary units made themselves ready for deployment or a high-end fight, and we tried to make that system work for Space Force,” which usually operates from garrison and is doing its mission every day.

Readiness assessments “never had the same flavor, because we never had to pick up and go somewhere and join in a fight,” he said. Today, it boils down to, “do you have enough people to man your consoles 24 hours a day? That is one small but important piece of what readiness is” for Space Force. The new service is trying to determine what will decide if its organizations are ready, in the form of the advanced training, exercises, and “experiences they need to be ready … on-orbit, against a near-peer competitor.” (10/18)

Falcon 9 Investigation Ongoing as SpaceX Continues Starlink Launches (Source: Space News)
A SpaceX Falcon 9 launched another set of Starlink satellites Oct. 18 as the investigation into another Falcon 9 launch abort more than two weeks ago continues. That scrub led NASA to postpone a Falcon 9 launch of the Crew-1 commercial crew mission, which had been scheduled for Oct. 31. NASA announced Oct. 10 it was postponing the launch to the first half of November while the investigation into the scrub continues.

NASA's Tim Dunn said that there has been a “tremendous amount of testing” since the GPS 3 launch scrub, including taking the Merlin engines from that rocket back to SpaceX’s McGregor, Texas, test site for further study. That investigation has involved NASA and Space Force personnel working with SpaceX. He did not elaborate, though, on the specific problem with the engines or when either the GPS 3 or Crew-1 missions might launch. “We’ve learned a lot. There’s going to be some hardware implications as we move forward, depending on the engines installed on various rockets,” he said. (10/18)

SpaceX Lights Up Texas Site with Static Fire of Three-Engine Starship Stage (Source: Teslarati)
On Oct. 20, Starship SN8 ignited all three of its Raptors’ preburners, producing a spectacular fireball noticeably larger than the one produced during the rocket’s first October 19th preburner test. A mere two hours later, with no break in between, the steel rocket prototype fully ignited all three Raptor engines for the first time ever, likely producing thrust equivalent to ~90% of a nine engine Falcon 9 booster for a brief moment.

Crucially, aside from physically demonstrating Raptor’s multi-engine capabilities, Starship SN8 – already a first-of-a-kind prototype – completed and survived a static fire seemingly unscathed on its first attempt. If the data SpaceX gathers from the milestone is as good as the test appeared to be, the company could be just a few days away from installing Starship SN8’s recently-stacked nosecone, followed by a second triple-Raptor static fire test. If that second static fire goes well, SN8’s next task will be the first high-altitude Starship flight test. (10/20)

The Next Environmental Crisis Could Be in Space (Source: Axios)
An unexpected frontier is facing calls for new environmental regulations and cleanup: outer space. Space junk clutters up orbits and poses an urgent threat to weather, security, communications and other satellites. Long-term, you can’t live or work in space if trash is literally slamming into you. While there are recommendations in place to help govern when and how satellites are de-orbited once their operational lives are over, it's not enough, according to experts.

Experts are working to come up with new models to understand exactly how different types of spacecraft and materials move in orbit in order to make tracking more effective. A team at the University of Texas is trying to quantify the "carrying capacity" of certain orbits in order to know exactly how many satellites can and should launch to various parts of space at any time, potentially allowing that to govern when and if certain constellations can launch.
They are calling for better international collaboration on the space junk problem, with the U.S. lagging behind others like Europe in addressing the issue in innovative ways. (10/20)

Astronaut Requirements Changing Rapidly with Private Spaceflyers, Long-Duration Missions (Source: Space.com)
Being an astronaut of the 2020s will be completely different than it was for any astronaut that came before. The spaceflight environment is rapidly changing due to several different factors. The International Space Station (ISS) is pushing harder into commercialization and will soon be welcoming more and larger space agency crews on commercial crew vehicles while bringing in a few private astronauts.

Meanwhile, NASA and its international partners are preparing for the next phase of human spaceflight missions after the ISS, which they hope will include moon landings in 2024 and eventual astronaut excursions to Mars. Also in the next few years, private companies such as Virgin Galactic hope to send paying astronauts on suborbital flights, in a bid to open up space to more people besides professional astronauts.

This is all quite a different environment from when the ISS housed the first long-duration crew in October 2000, which was 20 years ago this month. The demands of astronauts are quickly changing and evolving as the science progresses, even between missions, former NASA astronaut Cady Coleman said. The newer shift in astronaut training, he added, is getting ready for the proliferation of new spacecraft — including SpaceX's Crew Dragon, Boeing's Starliner and NASA's Orion spacecraft. This will add on to the Russian Soyuz spacecraft that currently ferries astronauts to space. (10/18)

Ultra Safe Nuclear Technologies Delivers Advanced Nuclear Thermal Propulsion Design To NASA (Source: USNC-Tech)
Ultra Safe Nuclear Technologies (USNC-Tech) has delivered a design concept to NASA as part of a study on nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) flight demonstration. NTP technology provides unprecedented high-impulse thrust performance for deep space missions such as crewed missions to the moon and Mars. The NASA-sponsored study, managed by Analytical Mechanics Associates (AMA), explored NTP concepts and designs enabling deep space travel.

"Key to USNC-Tech's design is a conscious overlap between terrestrial and space reactor technologies," explained Dr. Paolo Venneri, CEO of USNC-Tech. "This allows us to leverage the advancements in nuclear technology and infrastructure from terrestrial systems and apply them to our space reactors." A prime example of this is the nuclear fuel at the core of the USNC-Tech NTP concept.

The USNC-Tech NTP concept uses a specialized variation of USNC's FCM™ fuel, featuring high-assay low-enriched Uranium (HALEU) ZrC-encapsulated fuel particles. This variation enables high-temperature operation while maintaining the integrity of the fuel. FCM fuel is extremely rugged, enabling a new family of inherently safe space-optimized reactor designs that ensure astronaut safety and environmental protection. (10/19)

Blue Origin Takes One Small Step Toward Being a Competitor to SpaceX (Source: The Hill)
Besides New Shepard, Blue Origin has two projects that, when brought to fruition, may make it a competitor to SpaceX, currently the most famous and likely most profitable entrepreneurial space launch company. New Glenn is a planned two-stage launch vehicle, said to have capabilities that are comparable to the Falcon Heavy and the Delta IV Heavy. Development of the heavy lift launch vehicle has been funded by Blue Origin CEO Jeff Bezos, as well as the US Air Force and the US Space Force.

The first stage will be reusable, so it will have to operate much like the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy first stage, in that it will return to Earth and land vertically. New Glenn is aimed at commercial, military and NASA markets. Currently, the first flight is scheduled for 2021. The Blue Moon lunar lander has a cargo and a crew variant, the latter of which is Blue Origin’s entree into the Human Landing System competition. The lunar lander is a three-stage vehicle, consisting of a transfer stage, a descent stage and an ascent stage that could put both cargo and astronauts on the lunar surface.

Blue Moon has received some NASA funding and, if it makes the further cut, will receive more. The lunar lander may become the vehicle that astronauts use to land on the moon as early as 2024. Blue Origin is also considering getting into the commercial space station business. NASA has suggested that when the International Space Station (ISS) reaches the end of its useful life, it would like to be a customer of commercial space stations, creating a new industry in low Earth orbit. (10/18)

Blue Origin Trying to Convince the Air Force to Continue to Invest in New Glenn (Source: Space News)
Blue Origin is seeking Air Force support for its New Glenn launch vehicle despite losing a recent competition. The company received a $500 million Launch Service Agreement (LSA) in 2018 to support work on its New Glenn vehicle, but the company was not selected for one of two National Security Space Launch Phase 2 launch contracts in August.

The Air Force originally said the LSAs would be terminated with those companies that did not win a launch services contract, but the company says it's in discussions with the Air Force to retain funding to support efforts to certify the vehicle for national security missions. Doing so, the company argues, would provide the Defense Department with a third option for launching national security payloads in an emergency. (10/20)

Russian Private Firm to Create Constellations of 510 Satellites (Source: TASS)
The new Russian private space firm Success Rockets is planning to create three satellite constellations of various designation, with one of them to comprise over 500 satellites. Two out of three clusters will comprise 24 satellites each (the same number of satellites is operational in Russia’s Glonass orbital navigation grouping). One of them will provide the global Internet of things, monitor the state of infrastructure and its particular components, track mobile objects (ships, auto convoys and railway trains) and serve other goals.

 The other cluster will be designated for the Earth’s remote sensing. Finally, the orbital cluster for global Internet access will consist of 510 satellites to provide unlimited access to the World Wide Web in any point on the Earth and in any weather upon the availability of a subscriber terminal, according to the presentation. (10/19)

Rogue Rocky Planet Found Adrift in the Milky Way (Source: Scientific American)
Of the approximately 100 worlds found to date by microlensing, only four have been identified as free-floating. All the rest are planets that spin around their stars on orbits that are stretched out so long that they typically elude detection through other standard planet-hunting techniques. It is possible that the newfound wee world, known as OGLE-2016-BLG-1928, could be attached to a star. But if so, its orbit would place it at least eight times as far from its stellar host as the Earth is from the sun. Confirming the planet’s likely free-floating status will require a few more years—time enough for any potential parent star, should it exist, to shift its position so that its light can be separated from that of the background star. (10/19)