October 7, 2020

Aerojet Rocketdyne' Opens Large Solid Rocket Motor Facility in Arkansas (Source: Space Daily)
Aerojet Rocketdyne's new large solid rocket motor manufacturing facility is officially open for operations, highlighting the company's significant investments in the modernization and innovation of its solid rocket motor production capabilities, and continuing the company's expansion in southern Arkansas. "The Engineering, Manufacturing and Development facility is the newest, state-of-the-art large solid rocket motor manufacturing facility in the nation, and we look forward to expanding our decades-long solid rocket motor production capability in Camden," said Eileen P. Drake.

"Thanks in large part to Governor Asa Hutchinson and our partners in the great state of Arkansas, Camden is poised to become a major center of large solid rocket motor production." The ability to produce large solid rocket motors at the Engineering, Manufacturing Development (EMD) facility positions the company to deliver on some of the nation's most important next generation national security programs, including strategic deterrence, hypersonics and missile defense. (10/7)

Simulated Satellite Rendezvous at ESA (Source: Space Daily)
A camera closes in on a detailed model satellite, to simulate the extreme 'guidance navigation and control' (GNC) challenge of rendezvousing with an uncooperative target, such as a derelict satellite or distant asteroid. This scene takes place in ESA's GNC Rendezvous, Approach and Landing Simulator, or GRALS, based at the ESTEC technical centre in the Netherlands, which is used to test vision-based navigation algorithms as well as cameras in development for future space debris removal, as well as the Hera asteroid mission for planetary defence. (10/5)

Satellite Industry Association Releases Space Traffic Management Recommendations and White Paper (Source: Space Daily)
The Satellite Industry Association (SIA) has announced the release of a number of recommendations addressing the issue of space traffic management, with the goal of supporting a long-term sustainable and safe space environment for commercial satellites and spacecraft. The recommendations were included in a SIA White Paper titled "The Future of Space and Space Traffic Coordination and Management (STCM)".

The White Paper shares SIA and its members' views and recommendations regarding the creation of a modern STCM regime, capable of supporting long term space sustainability and continued innovation and U.S. space leadership. SIA projects the profile of active satellites operating in low earth orbit will change substantially in the upcoming 5-10 years with tens of thousands of satellites being proposed. Regardless of how many of the proposed large constellations are eventually flown, it is clear that that the current framework of space regulations and policies requires review and, in some cases, revision to prepare for the imminent surge in space usage.

The Framework should be established, but the specific technologies to meet requirements should not be dictated. Space companies are world-renowned for their ingenuity. Allowing innovative ways to meet the specified requirements of a modern space safety framework will encourage development and ensure the most cost-efficient and effective technologies are utilized. Governments should encourage best practices. The commercial space industry has a long track record of responsible operations in space and counts on a safe environment to undertake ongoing and future space business. (10/5)

Nanoracks Delivers Customized Space Camera to the International Space Station (Source: Space Daily)
Felix and Paul Studios, the EMMY-award winning creator of immersive entertainment experiences, TIME Studios, TIME's EMMY-award winning television and film division, and Nanoracks, the leading provider of commercial access to space, has announced the successful delivery of Felix and Paul Studios' customized 3D, 360-degree, Space Camera to the International Space Station. The Space Camera will be used to capture the first-ever spacewalk filmed in cinematic virtual reality as the culmination of Space Explorers: The ISS Experience, produced by Felix and Paul Studios and TIME Studios. (10/7)

NASA, Boeing Announce Crew Changes for Starliner Crew Flight Test (Source: NASA)
Veteran NASA astronaut Barry “Butch” Wilmore will join astronauts Mike Fincke and Nicole Mann for NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test, the inaugural crewed flight of the CST-100 Starliner launching to the International Space Station in 2021. Wilmore will take the place of Boeing astronaut Chris Ferguson on the flight test as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Ferguson decided not to fly for personal reasons.

Wilmore has been training side-by-side with the crew since being named the sole backup for all flight positions in July 2018. He now will shift his focus specifically to the spacecraft commander’s duties in preparation for the flight to the space station. The flight is designed to test the end-to-end capabilities of the new Starliner system. (10/7)

Study Foresees Tourism Boom From Georgia Spaceport (Source: Space Daily)
Camden County and the Center for Business Analytics and Economic Research (CBAER) at Georgia Southern University has released a new study on the economic impact of space tourism on coastal Georgia. The report estimates that a single launch could attract approximately 4,000-5,000 visitors to the area. CBAER estimates that 38 to 45 jobs connected to tourism and hospitality would be supported long-term by the project as well. While there would be some additional new jobs as a result, the primary impact on employment would likely be adding more hours to existing employees, shifting employees from part-time to full-time work, or increasing their income due to increased customer traffic and visitor counts.

"Building Spaceport Camden could bolster additional spending in the area's hospitality industry throughout Camden County and the southeast Georgia region," said Benjamin McKay, Assistant Director for the Center for Business Analytics and Economic Research (CBAER). "The potential per-launch benefit to total employee compensation (Labor Income) could reach $1.1 million, with sizeable increases in the total goods and services used in the region (Gross Regional Product) and total business sales (Output)." CBAER estimates that from Spaceport Camden could increase the gross regional product of southeast Georgia by as much as $1.8 million and increase total business sales by as much as $3.6 million per launch.

"Having overseen the Eastern Range for the United States Air Force and been involved with commercial space for the past decade, I can attest to the growing launch demand in the commercial space sector," said Major General Robert S. Dickman, former USAF commander of the 45th Space Wing, former Director of the Eastern Range at Cape Canaveral, and current Camden County resident. "Spaceport Camden is an ideal location for the safe launch of the small satellites and rockets that are rapidly becoming the most important segment of this new market." (10/7)

Georgia Spaceport Opponents Doubt Tourism Impact Projection (Source: Spaceport Facts)
The best spaceport examples of the methods of predictive economic behavior are for Kodiak and Spaceport America, where the performance predictions are off by 90% after decades of promises and investments. Virginia has over $250 million “invested” in its spaceport. CBAER found only one specific reference to estimated visitor participation at a space launch. The July 2013 LADEE launch from Wallops attracted some 14,000 people, including 1,400 invited guests, 70 journalists and 50 social media users chosen from hundreds who applied for media credentials. The NASA Visitor Center had 2,080 visitors that day, "more than it had in the entire month of September in recent years.”

Importantly, Wallops has six cities with populations over 200,000 each within a 2-1/2 hour drive, including Washington, DC., Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Norfolk. Spaceport Camden has Jacksonville.  Keep in mind that launches are unpredictable, with the spectacle over in less than two minutes. There’s not much bang for the buck with small rockets. Take a look at the Chincoteague and Accomack tourism pages to see how much rocket launches are emphasized. Nobody is building a hotel for them.

The CBAER study ignores the actual statistics about the lack of economic development in the Wallops (Accomack county) vicinity. Despite being home to the spaceport, Accomack County is primarily an agricultural community which has has seen a "steadily declining business presence over the last five years, and the total civilian employed population has also declined respectively. (10/6)

“Self-Eating” Rocket Wins UK Ministry of Defence Funding (Source: Parabolic Arc)
A ‘self-eating’ rocket engine which aims to put small payloads into orbit by burning its own structure as propellant has won financial support from the UK Government. The Defence & Security Accelerator (DASA), part of the Ministry of Defence, has pledged £90,000 for further development of the autophage engine, which is being built at the University of Glasgow’s James Watt School of Engineering. The development team hope that this new rocket could create launch opportunities at the spaceports emerging across the northern regions of the UK.

Autophage engines have already been test-fired by the Glasgow team using all-solid propellant. The new funding will underwrite the research required to use a more energetic hybrid propellant: a solid tube of fuel containing a liquid oxidiser. The engine will be test-fired at Kingston University in London’s new rocket laboratory in London next year. (10/7)

NRO Inserts Falcon 9 Mission Into October Launch Manifest (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
The NRO has quietly contracted with SpaceX for a launch later this month. The NRO confirmed it is flying a mission, NROL-108, on a Falcon 9 launching no earlier than Oct. 25 from Florida. The agency didn't announce the mission until after a FCC filing by SpaceX regarding a launch that didn't match any on the company's public manifest. SpaceX plans to land the Falcon 9 first stage for that launch back at Cape Canaveral, suggesting the payload is light enough the rocket has enough excess capacity to return to the Cape rather than land on a droneship downrange. (10/6)

Lawmaker Unconvinced of Artemis Plan (Source: Space News)
The chair of the House Science space subcommittee said Tuesday NASA has not convinced her it has a viable plan for returning humans to the moon by 2024. At a Wilson Center event, Rep. Kendra Horn (D-OK) said she had not seen a plan from the agency that demonstrated to her the agency could manage "multiple, simultaneous, large" development programs and carry out the various demonstrations needed in advance of the Artemis 3 mission in 2024. Horn and colleagues on the House Science Committee introduced a NASA authorization bill in January that called for such a plan, as well as making changes to NASA's Human Landing System program. That bill has not advanced out of committee, but Horn said she was hopeful Congress will take action on it after the election next month. (10/7)

DoD SDA Bulk Buy of Missile Tracking Satellites Changes Paradigm (Source: Space News)
The Defense Department's Space Development Agency (SDA) is changing the paradigm for military satellite programs, one company believes. Bill Gattle, president of space systems at L3Harris, said that recent SDA awards for communications and missile tracking satellites, at a far lower price per satellite than previous, more traditional programs, is a sign that the military space market could be headed in a different direction. L3Harris received one of two SDA awards Monday for missile tracking satellites with an average per-satellite cost of $43 million. Gattle said defense contractors competing for SDA contracts won’t win if they do business the traditional way, and that his company and others were caught off guard by the speed of SDA contracting. (10/7)

Momentus Plans IPO (Source: Business Wire)
In-space transportation company Momentus is planning to go public through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). Stable Road Capital, a fund that raised $172.5 million last year through a SPAC, will acquire Momentus in a deal that will value the company at $1.2 billion, the companies announced early Wednesday. Momentus is developing a line of tugs that can move satellites to their preferred orbit after launch. A SPAC raises money by first going public, then using the capital to acquire a privately held company, allowing that company to become publicly traded without going through a traditional IPO process. Virgin Galactic went public nearly a year ago after an acquisition by a SPAC. (10/7)

India Plans First Small Launcher Mission This Quarter (Source: IANS)
The Indian space agency ISRO hopes to launch its first Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) later this year. An ISRO official said the first SSLV likely will take place by December, after a PSLV launch scheduled for the same pad next month. The solid-fuel SSLV is designed to place up to 500 kilograms into low Earth orbit. That first launch will carry an Indian imaging satellite, Microsat-2A, and possibly additional payloads. (10/7)

In-Orbit Asset Defense To Shape France’s Space Command (Source: Aviation Week)
States are increasingly viewing satellites as strategic assets. And the French government believes that some spacecraft are under threat from emerging anti-satellite weapons on the ground as well as from in-orbit hostile spacecraft. A Russian satellite is believed to have neared a French-Italian satellite used for military communications in 2017 and attempted to intercept its signal. France now aims to have a fully fledged organization to protect its satellites by the middle of this decade. As planned, that will include an exhaustive range of sensors in orbit and on the ground, powerful data-analysis capabilities and associated operator-training schemes. (9/29)

Space Transportation Among Drivers for Evolution of Air Traffic Management (Source: Aviation Week)
The FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST) had licensed 32 commercial space launches as of mid-September and expected to authorize as many as four more during the fiscal year, setting a new record. The space office supported as many launches in August as it did in 2010-11 combined, notes Wayne Monteith, FAA associate administrator for commercial space transportation. “Even with a global health emergency, AST is still looking at our busiest year ever, and we’re gearing up to provide 50, 75, 100 operations a year in the near future,” Monteith said.

While commercial space activity has ramped up, the FAA had not activated the space data integrator (SDI), a system that feeds telemetry data from rockets as they transition through the airspace into the agency’s traffic flow management system. Years in development, the SDI will help reduce the amount of time and airspace the FAA fences off during launches. Slated to enter service in August, the system has been delayed because of restrictions imposed during the pandemic.

The lapse in traditional air traffic movements has not made AST’s job any easier, FAA Deputy Administrator Dan Elwell said: “The SDI is not up and running yet,” Elwell acknowledged. “The launches haven’t been made easier because we give out launch licenses and the work of giving out a launch license has not changed. We have been able to refine the [launch] window more dynamically and that’s been a collaborative effort between the operator and the FAA. We have gotten much better both at the airspace we protect and how long the period of time the window is open.” (9/28)

Rules for Space Warfare (Source: Aviation Week)
Space is not a target-rich environment where just about every target is strategic. It is also the most difficult theater for verifying attacks with hostile intent, for determining the responsible entity and evaluating the impact of the space battle on an outcome back on Earth. With the creation of the U.S. Space Force, it is imperative to better understand how to fight in space and important to ask the question: Does the nation have the foundational principles by which future space wars can be won?

Due to the vast distances involved in space and the ease of hiding satellites, uncertainty and confusion will dominate in any space conflict. Space domain awareness and predictive battlespace awareness of space threats and a country’s own force status will be the key to decisive space operations. Since it is very difficult to change orbits at the last minute, immediate space combat can only be fought with the current resources at hand. Space forces under immediate attack cannot redistribute or seek reinforcement (and allied nations will not likely be able to help either). Thus, preconflict positioning of space assets is one of the most important aspects of space strategies.

Having space forces that are superior in numbers and technological quality needs to be backed by the political will to fully and quickly employ them. Due to the newness of space warfare, neither we nor our adversary will fully understand the best theory, doctrine, strategies, tactics and techniques for conducting optimized space warfare. Big mistakes will be made by both sides. After the conduct of a major space war, national and international protocols, treaties, rules of conduct and alliances will be radically changed. Space strategies employed during the conflict should take these into consideration to place your nation in a favorable position, post-conflict. (9/29)

Space Communications: 7 Things You Need to Know (Source: NASA)
Movies and television shows can make communicating with space look easy. Astronauts on far off planets video chat with loved ones on Earth with crystal clear quality and no delay. Do these imagined communications capabilities match reality? Not really. Communicating to and from space is a challenging endeavor. Fortunately, NASA has the experience and expertise to get space data to the ground.

NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program enables this data exchange, whether it’s with astronauts aboard the International Space Station, rovers on Mars, or the Artemis missions to the Moon. Let’s look at some of the challenges of space communications alongside the technologies and capabilities NASA uses to overcome them. Click here. (10/6)

China’s Arctic Gambit a Concern for U.S. Air and Space Forces (Source: Space News)
The United States must work with long-time Arctic partners to increase vigilance in this increasingly vital region. China has published an Arctic strategy making clear the government’s desire to control infrastructure along Arctic routes. Geographically, the terrestrial Arctic region consists of the area north of the Arctic Circle, including the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas and the territories of eight countries — Canada, Denmark (by way of Greenland), Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States. 

Each of these nations are members of the Arctic Council by nature of their physical presence in the Arctic. China’s northernmost city is near the same latitude as Philadelphia.  But China is as always undeterred by the reality of geography. In their singular, Orwellian or doublespeak fashion, the Chinese Communist Party has declared China a “Near Arctic State” — an assertion not made by any other country and not factually supportable.

Technological advancements and climate change provide increasing access to the Arctic’s sea routes, rare earth materials, hydrocarbons, and fisheries. China’s interest in the Arctic is linked to its One Belt, One Road initiative — President Xi’s plan for a Chinese centered and dominated global trade, cyber and space network. Most of us view the Mercator map and cannot comprehend the centrality of Arctic air routes to the Northern Hemisphere and the marked advantages the physics provide, but spacefarers know better.  China’s government also understands. (10/5)

Take a Trip to the Moon — and an Artemis Launch — with the Artemis Moon Pod Essay Contest! (Source: NASA)
Take remote learning a little further — as in 250,000 miles further. NASA collaborated with Future Engineers to create the Artemis Moon Pod Essay Contest. The contest, open to U.S. students in grades K-12, launches on Tuesday, Sept. 15 and runs through Dec. 17, 2020, challenging participants to imagine leading a one-week expedition to the Moon’s South Pole.

Just imagine: You and a crew of astronauts will explore the lunar surface, making discoveries to assist future explorers. Describe your team — the number of astronauts in your crew, the skills they possess, their personality traits, and the attributes you would want in crewmates. Next, what machine, piece of technology, or robot would you leave behind on the lunar surface to help future astronauts explore the Moon?

To enter the contest, students must submit their essays by Dec 17. The essays will be divided into three groups, for judging by grade level – K-4, 5-8, and 9-12. Make sure to check out the full list of contest details, including that your essay should be no more than 100 words (grades K-4), 200 words (grades 5-8), or 300 words (grades 9-12).  Students can sign up individually at the contest site or teachers can register their entire class. Click here. (9/15)

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope Passes Crucial Launch-Simulation Tests (Source: Space.com)
NASA's next big space telescope just took another step toward its highly anticipated 2021 launch. The $9.8 billion James Webb Space Telescope has passed "environmental testing," a series of trials designed to simulate the considerable rigors of launch. "The successful completion of our observatory environmental tests represent[s] a monumental milestone in the march to launch,"  said Webb project manager Bill Ochs, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "Environmental testing demonstrates Webb’s ability to survive the rocket ride to space, which is the most violent portion of its trip to orbit approximately a million miles from Earth." (10/6)