October 3, 2020

Space Station Leak Pinpointed—Sort Of (Source: TIME)
The ISS crew has finally isolated the leak's general location, somewhere in the Russian Zvezda lab module. The better news: the increased rate of the leak was not caused by the small breach in the module growing worse, but rather by a temperature change aboard the station that warmed the internal atmosphere, raising its pressure slightly and pushing more air out through the opening. The bad news: the crew still hasn't pinpointed exactly where in the school-bus-sized Zvezda the leak is, making it impossible to fix. (10/3)

Did Jupiter Murder Venus? (Source: TIME)
If our own solar system has a candidate for that imaginary Worst Planet Ever award, it's Venus, with its crushingly dense atmosphere and hellish hot surface. But Venus is a tragic world, too—it had plenty of potential to evolve into an Earth-like Eden instead of the desolate and inhospitable world it became. Indeed, Venus might have been lush and alive for the first billion or so years of its existence. The question is: what killed Venus? According to a new study in The Planetary Science Journal, Jupiter is emerging as a planet of interest in what might have been a cosmic murder.

One key to Venus's problems is the tidiness of its orbit. The shape of the path a planet inscribes around its sun is known as its "eccentricity." It's measured on a 0-1 scale, with 0 a perfect circle and 1 an orbit so egg-shaped that the planet would just fling itself into space. Venus's 0.006 eccentricity makes its orbit the most circular in our solar system—but things weren't always that way. (10/3)

SpaceX Provides Starlink Service to Firefighters (Source: Ars Technica)
SpaceX has provided seven Starlink satellite dishes free of charge to Washington State firefighters, who have used them to speed communications to emergency responders and families in the wildfire-stricken area. Starlink's big advantage is speed—the satellites orbit at a comparatively low 540 km (335 mi) compared to the 33,000 km at which geostationary satellites fly, dramatically reducing latency. (10/1)

Japan’s iQPS to Update Technology for Future Radar Satellites (Source: Space News)
Like many of its western counterparts, Japan’s Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space (iQPS) has ambitious plans for its Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) constellation. By 2025, iQPS plans to operate a 36-satellite constellation to gather data and imagery with a resolution of one meter “of almost any point in the world within 10 minutes and to conduct fixed-point observations of particular areas once every 10 minutes,” iQPS spokeswoman Yuki Ariyoshi said. (9/30)

Six-Month Mission Will Test Limits of SpaceX Dragon, Astronauts Say (Source: UPI)
Four astronauts who plan to travel into space Oct. 31 say the six-month mission will test the limits of SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft. The Crew Dragon is expected to lift off from Florida at 2:40 a.m. that day -- the first capsule in history to carry four people. The previous crewed SpaceX capsule, which returned to Earth on Aug. 2, carried two astronauts and spent two months in orbit. Flying on such a new vehicle means nobody can tell those aboard exactly what to expect, astronaut Michael Hopkins, the spacecraft commander, said.

The astronauts announced that they had chosen Resilience as the name for the spacecraft, which they said reflects the character of teams at NASA and SpaceX that continued to plan the mission through the COVID-19 pandemic. The astronauts also acknowledged they have watched very closely as modifications to the Dragon were made following the first, two-month demonstration mission. These modifications include more powerful solar arrays to power the Dragon for the longer period in space and a more durable heat shield in areas where erosion was found on the demonstration capsule. SpaceX and NASA said Tuesday the heat shield issue never represented a safety hazard for the astronauts on board, but changes were made in an abundance of caution. (9/30)

Japan Aiming to Send Hopping Spacecraft Fueled by Lunar Water to Moon (Source: Sputnik)
A would-be collaboration with the US has already driven the Japanese space agency to apply for hefty government funding - around $2.7 billion yearly for the next 15 years. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has asserted it intends to engage in a lunar exploration mission beginning in the mid-2030s, making use of hydrogen fuel that would be locally produced right on the Moon's surface from water extracted from its vast ice deposits, The Japan Times reported.

Making use of local water and water-derived fuel is expected to cost significantly less than transporting the needed amount of water from Earth. According to JAXA's estimates, 37 tonnes of water will be necessary for a trip to and from the Gateway, a lunar orbit space station that is to be built jointly with the US. Overall, five to seven such missions are planned. JAXA has projected that the fuel will be used in a reusable spacecraft tasked with carrying four astronauts to and from Gateway, and a transport vehicle that can travel up to 1,000 kilometres along the Moon's surface, which has low gravity - a feature that will make the transport vehicle be wheel-less, but rather hop across the land. (9/30)

Eighteen New Astronauts Chosen for China's Space Station Mission (Source: Space Daily)
The third batch of Chinese astronauts has been selected for the nation's coming space station mission, the China Manned Space Agency said on Thursday morning. The 18 new astronauts - 17 men and one woman - are in three groups: seven will become spacecraft pilots, another seven will turn into spaceflight engineers, and the last four will be mission payload specialists, the agency said in a statement.

Next, they will start undergoing systematic and sophisticated training before joining spaceflight missions, it said. Before them, China had 21 astronauts from two generations. Among them, 11 have taken part in spaceflight during six missions. The selection for the third-generation team began in April 2018 and involved three rounds of tests. About 2,500 applicants participated in the selection. (10/1)

NASA Safety Panel Raises Doubts About Boeing Starliner Test Flight Schedule (Source: Space News)
A NASA safety panel said that while Boeing was making good progress on implementing changes to its CST-100 Starliner commercial crew vehicle, it had doubts that work could be done in time to allow another test flight this year. At an Oct. 1 meeting of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, committee member Donald McErlean said Boeing was making “substantial progress” on preparations for Orbital Flight Test (OFT) 2, a second uncrewed test flight that the company said earlier this year it would fly after the original OFT mission last December suffered a series of problems.

He said the Starliner crew module that will fly the OFT-2 mission is about 80% complete and its service module 90% complete. Other components for the mission, including its Atlas 5 launch vehicle and a spacecraft adaptor, have either been delivered or are being completed. NASA and Boeing announced Aug. 28 that the OFT-2 mission would launch no earlier than December. It will be followed by a Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission, with three astronauts from NASA and Boeing on board, no earlier than June 2021. (10/2)

Report Backs NASA Exploration Efforts as Response to Chinese Space Program (Source: Space News)
A new report used the growth of China’s space program to argue for continued support of NASA’s own exploration ambitions as well as legislation to assist the space industry and space traffic management. The China Task Force Report, prepared by a group of Republican House members and released Sept. 30, covers a wide range of issues that group linked to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and saw as threats to the United States. Much of the report was devoted to issues of national security and the economy.

However, two pages of the 130-page report discussed space exploration. In it, the task force noted Chinese development of a space station and long-term, although as yet unscheduled, plans human lunar mission. “The U.S. should be concerned about the technological innovations and leadership role for the CCP that could come from missions crewed by [People’s Republic of China]-nationals to the Moon,” it stated,

The recommendations in that section of the report, though, addressed NASA’s space exploration programs. “As the CCP seeks to attract international partners to support its own space exploration goals and expand its influence, the U.S. must maintain its presence in low-Earth orbit, return U.S. astronauts to the Moon, chart a future path for human exploration of Mars, and maintain a steady commitment to space science missions,” it stated. (10/1)

Space Force Members Can Go to the Moon, if They’re Picked by NASA (Source: Space News)
Since the U.S. Space Force was established in December 2019, officials have had to dispel misconceptions that the service will have a human spaceflight program and deploy troops to the moon.  At least for the foreseeable future, any member of the Space Force who wants to go to space has to compete for a slot in NASA’s astronaut corps. Will there be a time when the Space Force will deploy large numbers of boots on the moon? “No idea,” Gen. David D. Thompson, vice chief of space operations of the U.S. Space Force, said Oct. 1. “Certainly not in my career.”

But the Space Force has to prepare for the possibility of more human activity on the moon and colonization of the lunar region which could require a military presence, Thompson said during an online event hosted by DefenseOne. There shouldn’t be any near-term expectations that “we’re preparing to send Space Force units into space in any way other than through the NASA astronaut program,” Thompson said. (10/1)

"Scrubtoberfest" - Musk Coming to Cape to Investigate Scrub Issues (Source: Florida Today)
Some locals are calling the unusually long streak of launch scrubs “Scrubtoberfest” but to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk it’s not a joke. After SpaceX’s GPS satellite mission for the Space Force scrubbed Friday night, Musk tweeted “We will need to make a lot of improvements to have a chance of completing 48 launches next year!”

Musk is referencing the 45th Space Wing’s “Drive to 48” campaign to be able to support nearly weekly launches in Cape Canaveral. The ultimate goal is for the Cape to run as efficiently as an airport with rockets being able to take off within hours of each other on multiple launch pads. Right now it seems like we have a long way to go. Over the past month United Launch Alliance’s Delta IV Heavy launch of a top secret military satellite has scrubbed five times due to weather, hardware and technical issues causing two SpaceX launches to reschedule multiple times. And then SpaceX has had its own trouble.

SpaceX missions have scrubbed multiple times over the last few weeks due to weather and hardware.  Musk attributed the Friday night abort to an “Unexpected pressure rise in the turbomachinery gas generator.”  Musk tweeted that his team will be problem-solving all weekend. “We’re doing a broad review of launch site, propulsion, structures, avionics, range & regulatory constraints this weekend.” Musk wrote that he would be coming to the Cape next week to review hardware in person. The next scheduled SpaceX launch is a Starlink mission set to blast off no earlier than 7:51 a.m. Monday. (10/3)

Supporting Colorado's Bid for Space Command HQ, Aerospace Corp. Breaks Ground on $100M Project (Source: Colorado Springs Business Journal)
As local business and government officials campaigned in Washington, D.C., for Colorado Springs to become the permanent home of the U.S. Space Force, The Aerospace Corporation broke ground here Sept. 23 on what it called a “state-of-the-art research and development center.” Local officials, as well as leadership from Space Command and U.S. Space Force, attended the event, according to the company’s news release.

“Aerospace’s facility will be the focal point for delivering technical expertise across the space enterprise to outpace threats to national security,” the release said. “The building’s digital engineering environment will enable high-fidelity analysis and physics-based modeling and simulations as well as development of tactics, techniques, and procedures that will provide insight into space warfighting.” Aerospace’s president and CEO Steve Isakowitz called the facility a game-changer for technical and simulation capabilities for the space warfighters. (10/2)

At Virginia Spaceport, Antares Breaks Launch Week Curse, as SpaceX Suffers Last-Second Scrub in Florida (Source: AmericaSpace)
After a frustrating week in which United Launch Alliance (ULA), SpaceX and Northrop Grumman Corp. have now endured no less than seven scrubbed launch attempts due to appalling weather and agonizing last-moment technical troubles, the rocket’s red glare returned to the eastern seaboard of the United States on Friday evening, as one planned flight—but not the other—turned night into day for spectators along the Virginia coast.

Northrop Grumman’s Antares 230+ booster sprang from Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) on Wallops Island, Va., at 9:16 p.m. EDT, carrying the NG-14 Cygnus spacecraft on a cargo mission to the International Space Station (ISS). But the “Launch Week Curse” was not quite done with Florida, as a brand-new SpaceX Falcon 9 at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport was dramatically aborted at T-2 seconds before its targeted 9:43 p.m. EDT liftoff. (10/3)

AFRL Satellite Program Preparing Future Workforce (Source: Los Alamos Daily Post)
After more than 20 years and 5,500 graduates, the Air Force Research Laboratory’s University Nanosat Program is still providing college students around the country with a hands-on education in designing, building, and launching a satellite into space. In 1999, the first year of the program, 10 universities participated. Over the years, that number has tripled, and is now being managed by one of its graduates, Jesse Olson. (10/2)

Two Space Coast Launches Aborted Within 10 Hours of Each Other (Source: WESH)
Launch teams at the Cape had a rare chance to hold two launches in about 10 hours overnight. Instead, they endured an even rarer scenario: two launch aborts back to back. The enormous, triple-barreled Delta-4 Heavy finally looked ready to go Wednesday night, but wasn’t. A launch pad system ignited to burn off gases before the rocket’s engines lit up, but the engines never did. A computer aborted the countdown because of a condition the rocket’s builder has not explained.

Around 10 hours later, computers aborted a SpaceX launch at a different launch pad. A ground sensor was blamed. An abort is different from a scrub. An abort is when computers intervene at the last second and is considered a potentially dangerous close call. The aborts, scrubs and delays are all adding up. The Delta-4 has had six delays, including two aborts, since Aug. 29. The big rocket is old-fashioned, cantankerous and rarely used. The less often you use a rocket and launch pad, the harder it is to get everything working perfectly.

The Falcon-9, on the other hand, is newer and simpler. Still, the Falcon-9 carrying 60 Starlink satellites has been scrubbed, delayed or aborted three times since Sep. 17. The biggest reason has been bad landing weather offshore because of distant hurricanes. A second Falcon-9, carrying a GPS satellite, has had three recent delays, mostly because the rockets ahead of it haven’t been able to launch. (10/1)

Third Launch Aborted Friday Night at Spaceport (Source: WESH)
SpaceX scrubbed a launch of a GPS satellite for the Air Force on Friday night with just two seconds to go in the countdown. A backup launch window has been scheduled for Saturday night at 9:39 p.m. The launch is just the latest of several from the Space Coast to be scrubbed. A Falcon-9 carrying 60 Starlink satellites has been scrubbed, delayed or aborted three times since Sep. 17. (10/3)

Boeing to Develop Next-generation Satellite System for U.S. Space Force (Source: Boeing)
Boeing has received one of three development contracts to build a satellite payload prototype and develop a new secure, resilient satellite communications architecture for the U.S. Space Force’s Evolved Strategic SATCOM (ESS) program. ESS will be a military satellite communications (MILSATCOM) system. It is a critical component of the U.S. Space Force’s strategy. The initial ESS development contract is valued at $298 million. Contracts for the full ESS system are expected to be awarded in 2025. (10/1)

China Determined to Dominate Future Mining with Origin Space (Source: Washington Times)
In November, a Chinese space mining startup, Origin Space, will launch the world’s first space mining robot into Earth orbit (designated NEO-1). Once in orbit, NEO-1 will perform a series of tests to ensure it works properly. This proof-of-concept is the first of its kind and, if successful, will pave the way for China’s budding space mining industry to take flight.

It is believed that the world’s first trillionaire will come from the space mining industry. Following the launch of NEO-1, Origin Space plans to place a small observation satellite, Yuanwang-1 (or “Little Hubble”), in Earth orbit next year to search for mineable asteroids. Beijing has identified space mining as new strategic industry that China must dominate in order to fulfill President Xi Jinping’s goal of making the People’s Republic of China the world’s hegemon by 2049.

If China is to maintain its prosperity while also becoming the center of a high-tech industrial revolution, China must possess a monopoly on Rare Earth Minerals. Rare Earths are vital for the creation of advanced technology. Without these minerals, modern computers, smartphones, batteries for electric cars and other accoutrements we’ve all become used to in our daily lives would disappear. Should Beijing gain exclusive access to the bountiful, untapped source of these Rare Earth Minerals in space, China would have unprecedented economic and, therefore, strategic advantages over the United States and its allies. (10/1)

SpaceX Has a Plan to Keep Boats Away From its Next Spaceship Landing (Source: Business Insider)
SpaceX and NASA are set to launch four astronauts on the company's Crew Dragon spaceship on October 31. When the Crew Dragon splashed down at the end of its first crewed mission, boats of onlookers surrounded the capsule. That could have endangered the astronauts inside and exposed the boaters to toxic fumes. For the next mission, SpaceX and NASA are working with the US Coast Guard to bring in more enforcement boats and hold a 10-mile "keep-out zone" around the landing site.

NASA enlisted the US Coast Guard to clear the water area ahead of the August splashdown, but it did not seem to have enough boats or enforcement power. The Coast Guard said it warned boaters multiple times with radio alerts and physical warnings, yet lacked an order to legally enforce a hazard zone.
The next time around, SpaceX and NASA plan to set up an enforceable no-boat perimeter around the spaceship's splashdown site.

"We closely coordinated between NASA and SpaceX with the US Coast Guard to establish a 10-mile keep-out zone for any boaters, to make sure that the recovery is safe and that our crew is safe, the astronauts are safe, and the public itself is safe," Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceX's vice president of build and flight reliability, told reporters in a call on Tuesday. "We're going to have more boats on the next go-around and make sure that the area's really clear of any other boats." (10/1)

Space Systems Command to Stand Up in 2021 (Source: Air Force Magazine)
The Space Force will stand up its Space Systems Command to oversee software and hardware acquisition “sooner rather than later” in 2021, the service’s second-highest uniformed official said Oct. 1. Lt. Gen. David D. Thompson said during a Defense One event that the new systems management organization is moving slower than the groups that will oversee training and operations because the Space Force is still deciding which Army and Navy assets will join the new service. Thompson serves as the Space Force’s vice commander but was confirmed Sept. 30 to formally become the four-star Vice Chief of Space Operations. (10/1)

Space Force Nears Year Mark, Acquisition Remains A Quagmire (Source: Breaking Defense)
With Space Force approaching its first birthday, DoD and the Air Force so far have done little to rationalize the byzantine space acquisition decision-making process — one of the central problems the new service was created to fix. The stakes are impressive.

While it is almost impossible to assess exactly what the US spends on space systems because much of the annual budget is classified, in 2020 the Pentagon asked for slightly more than $11 billion in unclassified R&D and procurement spending (out of a total request for space activities of $14.1 billion), according to the Congressional Research Service. In 2021, DoD asked for a total space budget (including O&M) of $18 billion — $15.4 billion for the new Space Force, and the rest for Army, Navy and Missile Defense Agency space activities. (10/2)