December 3, 2020

NASA Building Core Stages for Second, Third Artemis Flights (Source: Space Daily)
Technicians are simultaneously manufacturing NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) core stages for the Artemis II and Artemis III lunar missions at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The core stage for the deep space rocket consists of two huge propellant tanks, four RS-25 engines, and miles of cabling for the avionics systems and flight computers.

All the main core stage structures for Artemis II, the first mission with astronauts, have been built and are being outfitted with electronics, feedlines, propulsion systems, and other components. Technicians are currently wiring and performing functional tests on the avionics inside both the forward skirt and intertank sections. The engine section - the most complicated part of the stage - is in production assembly. (12/3)

Food Security and Space Farming (Source: SpaceQ)
Even before the current COVID-19 pandemic food, security was an issue that many nations were contending with. Research and development on-orbit to address this issue has happened, but it’s been limited. Now, a new commercial effort is looking to bring meaningful solutions to agricultural issues on Earth. Click here. (11/30)

New Florida Bridge to Give Better Access to Kennedy Space Center (Source: Construction Equipment Guide)
A coalition of organizations continues to push forward with the replacement of the aging drawbridge at Kennedy Space Center (KSC), a project that offers a glimpse into a possible future when NASA and the Space Force merge their Florida Space Coast facilities to focus more on their core missions. According to permitting documents recently filed by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) and NASA, construction of a new bridge that extends State Road 405 in south Titusville to the spaceport is still slated to begin in early 2022.

The existing structure is referred to as NASA Causeway West or the Indian River Bridge. An FDOT spokesperson confirmed the replacement will span 4,025 ft. and have a minimum clearance of 65 ft., eliminating the need for a drawbridge that often backs up traffic when tall boats need to pass underneath. The current bridge runs 3,000 ft. and only has a 28-ft. vertical clearance. The project, FDOT's Jessica Ottaviano said, "will replace the aging infrastructure and provide a safer and more efficient way to move people, transport space freight and launch materials." (12/2)

As Voyager 2 Gets Farther From the Sun, Space Gets Less Empty (Source: Air & Space)
Forty-three years after their launch, the venerable Voyager spacecraft continue to transmit data back to Earth, including their latest observation: The density of space is increasing as they move outward. Both probes have departed the heliosphere, the vast magnetic bubble created by the sun and surrounding our solar system. They are now just outside the heliopause, the boundary marking the end of the sun’s influence and the beginning of the interstellar medium, sometimes called “empty space” but suffused with gas, dust, and cosmic rays.

The latest data comes courtesy of the Plasma Wave Science instrument aboard Voyager 2, now 11 billion miles away. The measurements illustrate that even “beyond the heliopause the sun can still modify the interstellar medium—it’s not a brick wall,” says William Kurth who, along with fellow University of Iowa scientist Donald Gurnett, recently published a paper on the probe’s findings. These measurements indicate that the electron density of the interstellar medium is currently increasing as the spacecraft travels away from the sun. (12/2)

White House Asks Congress to Remove Europa Clipper SLS Requirement (Source: Space News)
The White House is asking Congress to remove language from an appropriations bill that would direct NASA to launch the Europa Clipper mission on the Space Launch System as a long-running dispute on how to launch the mission nears its conclusion. In a Nov. 30 letter to Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Russell Vought, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), discussed issues his office had with a series of fiscal year 2021 spending bills Shelby’s committee released Nov. 10.

Those Senate bills included a commerce, justice and science spending bill that provides NASA with $23.5 billion in 2021. The bill included language found in previous years’ bills, but not the House version for 2021, that NASA “shall use the Space Launch System as the launch vehicle for the Jupiter Europa Clipper mission.”

“The Administration is disappointed that the bill would require NASA to use the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket to launch the Europa Clipper mission,” Vought wrote in his letter to Shelby. “This would increase costs for the Clipper mission and deprive the lunar exploration effort of a rocket NASA needs for human exploration of the Moon.” (12/3)

Aevum Unveils Smallsat-Launching Drone Aircraft, Plans Florida Operations (Source: Space News)
Small launch startup Aevum on Dec. 3 unveiled its Ravn X vehicle, a reusable drone aircraft and rocket combination designed to launch small payloads to orbit. Ravn X has been years in development. Aevum, based in Huntsville, Alabama, is positioning Ravn X to compete in the increasingly crowded small launch market, promising fast-response service enabled by an autonomous aircraft that can take off from any mile-long runway. “This is the first time we’re showing the full vehicle, all three stages,” Aevum founder and CEO Jay Skylus told SpaceNews.

“Now we will start doing vehicle level testing that’s required for air-worthiness certification and launch licensing,” Skylus said. The 55,000-pound unpiloted aircraft is 80 feet long with a 60-foot wingspan. While in flight it will release a two-stage rocket that can launch 100 kilograms to 500 kilograms of payload to low orbits. Skylus said Ravn X will be ready for operations within the next 18 months after it clears regulatory hurdles.

The next step will be to seek air-worthiness certification for the drone from the Federal Aviation Administration. The vehicle later will go to Cecil Spaceport in Jacksonville, Florida, for orbital launch testing. Getting through the regulatory challenges to fly an unmanned air vehicle that launches rockets will be tough, said Skylus. “But it’s necessary for the market we’re after.” The goal is to provide reliable service with minimal logistics footprint, he said. The vehicle uses jet fuel and the same equipment as airplanes. (12/3)

Blue Origin COO Departs (Source: CNBC)
Blue Origin COO Terry Benedict is leaving, the company. “Terry Benedict has decided to pursue opportunities outside of Blue Origin and we wish him well in his future endeavors,” the company said. Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith told the company that Benedict’s last day will be Friday, Dec. 3, people familiar with the matter told CNBC, and did not elaborate on why beyond saying the COO will pursue other opportunities. Benedict was named as COO in July 2018, after a nearly four decade career for the U.S. Navy.

Benedict was named as COO in July 2018, after a more than four decade career for the U.S. Navy. Before Blue Origin, he most recently served from May 2010 to May 2018 as the director of the Navy’s Strategic Systems Programs – which focuses on sea-based deterrent systems such as missiles.

His departure comes with the company behind schedule on several pieces of its ambitious portfolio of rockets and engines. Blue Origin is seeking to compete against the likes of Virgin Galactic and Elon Musk’s SpaceX in the sectors of sub-orbital space tourism and heavy lift rockets, respectively. Bezos’ company is also leading a consortium with Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper to win further NASA contracts to build an astronaut lunar lander, competing against SpaceX and Leidos’ subsidiary Dynetics. (12/3)

NASA Agrees to Purchase Moon Rocks for $1 in a Deal That May Involve Blue Origin (Source: GeekWire)
NASA has selected four companies to collect material on the moon and store it up as the space agency’s property, for a total price of $25,001. And one deal stands out: a $1 purchase that may rely on Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture. Although this sounds like the sort of deal Amazon might have offered on Cyber Monday, neither Seattle-based Amazon nor Kent, Wash.-based Blue Origin is directly involved in the purchase.

Instead, NASA accepted a $1 offer from Colorado-based Lunar Outpost, based on the expectation that the venture can set aside a sample for NASA when Blue Origin sends a robotic Blue Moon lander to the moon’s south polar region in 2023. Lunar Outpost CEO Justin Cyrus told GeekWire that his company’s collection system could fly on any lander heading to the moon, and not necessarily on the Blue Moon lander. But in order to have the $1 deal accepted, Lunar Outpost had to give NASA adequate assurances that it could fly with Blue Origin.

In response to an email from GeekWire, Blue Origin sent a statement casting some doubt on those assurances. “We don’t have a contract with Lunar Resources,” Blue Origin said. “We would recommend that you check with NASA, as this is inaccurate.” During a teleconference with reporters, Phil McAllister, NASA’s director of commercial spaceflight development, said the risk to NASA will be minimal even if Lunar Outpost can’t follow through. (12/3)

Tony Robbins Puts Money Behind Cape Canaveral Space Balloon Business (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
A start-up business that wants to send people into space on board balloons from Kennedy Space Center has a famous investor in the form of motivational speaker Tony Robbins. The company called Space Perspective, which aims to carry up to eight passengers 100,000 feet above the Earth on tourism flights, received $7 million in investment from a group that includes Robbins, according to a press release.

The flights would take off from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch and Landing Facility and splash down in either the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic Ocean. Co-founders Jane Poynter and Taber MacCallum, known for living for two years isolated from the world in the Biosphere 2 habitat in the 1990s, said they expect tickets to run about $125,000, which will go on sale in early 2021. (12/3)

New AI-Based Navigation Helps Loon’s Balloons Hover in Place (Source: WIRED)
High flying balloons are bringing broadband connectivity to remote nations and post-disaster zones where cell towers have been knocked out. These “super-pressure” helium-filled polyethylene bags float 65,000 feet up in the stratosphere, above commercial planes, hurricanes, and pretty much anything else. But keeping a fleet of tennis-court-sized, internet-blasting balloons hovering over one spot has been a tricky engineering problem, just like keeping a boat floating in one place on a fast-moving river.

Now researchers at Google spinoff Loon have figured out how to use a form of artificial intelligence to allow the balloon’s onboard controller to predict wind speed and direction at various heights, then use that information to raise and lower the balloon accordingly. The new AI-powered navigation system opens the possibility of using stationary balloons to monitor animal migrations, the effects of climate change, or illegal cross-border wildlife or human trafficking from a relatively inexpensive platform for months at a time.

“It’s super hard to have the [balloon] network over the people who need connection to the internet and not drifting far away,” says Sal Candido, chief technology officer at Loon. The high-tech balloons were tested last year over Peru and managed to stay on target without a human controller. Because winds blow in various directions at each altitude, the AI-based controller was programmed to use reinforcement learning, or RL, to search a database of historic records and current weather reports to predict the best elevation to keep the balloon in one place. It also checked how much electricity the balloon’s solar panels were generating to operate the device’s instruments. (12/2)

Chinese Probe Completes Moon Sampling (Source: Space Daily)
A Chinese space probe sent to gather material from a previously unexplored part of the moon has completed its mission and is preparing to send back the world's first lunar samples in four decades. China has poured billions into its military-run space programme, with hopes of having a crewed space station by 2022 and eventually sending humans to the Moon. The Chang'e-5 spacecraft, named after the mythical Chinese moon goddess, landed on the moon Tuesday and has now completed its gathering of lunar rocks and soil, the China National Space Administration said. (12/3)

Starship Launch Debut Receives FAA Approval (Source: Teslarati)
SpaceX has received FAA approval to attempt Starship’s high-altitude launch debut as early as Friday according to a Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) filed on December 2nd. SpaceX’s first high-altitude Starship TFR revealed that the crucial flight test is now scheduled sometime between 8 am and 5 pm CST (14:00-23:00 UTC) on Friday, December 4th, with identical backup windows available (and cleared with the FAA) on Saturday and Sunday.

Originally scheduled as early as November 30th, the delays are less than surprising given the complexity and unprecedented nature of the flight test facing SpaceX. Starship serial/ship number 8 (SN8) – the first functional full-height prototype – is tasked with launching from Boca Chica, Texas to an apogee of 15 kilometers (~9.5 miles) and dropping back to Earth to test an unproven approach to rocket recovery. (12/3)

Could an On-Orbit Gas Station Extend the Lives of Military Satellites? (Source: C4ISRnet)
An on-orbit gas station could be the latest addition to the growing portfolio of satellite life-extension services, with the first so-called gas station in space anticipated to be launched by Orbit Fab in June 2021. “In-orbit servicing companies are rapidly proliferating with a five-fold increase since we founded Orbit Fab in 2018,” CEO Daniel Faber said in a statement. “Our gas stations in space are an essential resource to fuel this industry and support the infrastructure in space that enables projected commerce, exploration and national security.”

Launched in 2018, the San Francisco, California-based Orbit Fab announced Nov. 18 it signed a deal with Spaceflight Inc. to launch its first operational fuel depot into orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9. Once on orbit, Tanker 001 Tenzing will be a potential source of fuel for compatible space vehicles with depleted fuel stores. Space vehicles can connect with the fuel depot through the Rapidly Attachable Fluid Transfer Interface, a technology for transferring liquids that has been adopted by a number of companies. (12/1)

ESA Signs Contract for First Space Debris Removal Mission (Source: Space News)
The European Space Agency (ESA) has finalized an 86 million euro ($104 million) contract with Swiss start-up ClearSpace SA to complete the world’s first space debris removal mission. ClearSpace-1 represents the first space debris removal that is not a demonstration mission, ESA Director General, Jan Wörner, said during a Dec. 1 media briefing. The payload adapter ClearSpace-1 intends to retrieve is an active piece of space debris, something that is far more challenging to retrieve than a stable target, he added. (12/2)

Solid Rocket Stages and How They Perform Mmission-Precise Orbit Insertions (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
Most rocket launches culminate with liquid-fueled upper stage engines turning off at exactly the precise millisecond a host of parameters — such as flight path angle, orbital inclination, apogee, and perigee — are all met simultaneously. So then how do solid propellant upper stages like those used on the Antares, Pegasus, and Minotaur fleets from Northrop Grumman perform those same types of mission-precise orbital insertions when solid propellant stages cannot be turned off once ignited? In short, there are three issues that must be addressed. Click here. (12/3)

Science Fiction Author Ben Bova Dies at 88 From COVID-19 Complications (Source: Naples Daily News)
A science fiction writer who for decades wrote a column in the Naples Daily News has died. Ben Bova, 88, died Sunday, his niece Kathryn Brusco announced on Twitter. "My Uncle Ben...by marriage...science fiction icon, author, adventure lover, story teller, futurist, and my son's namesake, Ben Bova, has passed away this morning from COVID-19 related pneumonia and a stroke," she wrote. "Needless to say, he will be missed terribly by us and the world."

A prolific writer, Bova authored more than 200 works of science fact and fiction, including short stories, essays, newspaper articles, non-fiction works and novels. Ben Bova received numerous honors through the years. He was a lifetime achievement recipient from the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation, won six Hugo Awards (highest honor for science fiction writing) and served as president of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and the National Space Society. (12/3)

Rolling the Dice on Apollo: Prospects for US-Soviet Cooperation in the Moon Program (Source: Space Review)
President Kennedy surprised many in 1963 when, in a UN speech, he proposed cooperating with the Soviet Union on sending humans to the Moon. Dwayne Day examines a report written not long after that speech for insights into that sudden, but short-lived, shift from competition to cooperation. Click here. (12/1)
 
The Case for Apophis (Source: Space Review)
In April 2029, the asteroid Apophis will pass close to the Earth, posing no threat of impact but instead offering an opportunity for scientists. Jeff Foust reports on discussions at a recent workshop on the potential missions that could be flown during the flyby and the rationales for them. Click here. (12/1)
 
A 4G Network on the Moon is Bad News for Radio Astronomy (Source: Space Review)
NASA recently awarded a contract to Nokia to study the development of a 4G wireless network on the Moon. Emma Alexander warns that such a network might benefit exploration but could harm radio astronomy. Click here. (12/1)
 
Chesley Bonestell and His Vision of the Future (Source: Space Review)
Chesley Bonestell is widely known in the space community for his spaceflight art at the dawn of the Space Age, but for much of his career he was known for other kinds of artwork. A biography of Bonestell now streaming, Jeff Foust notes, offers an overview of his life and the artwork that inspired many. Click here. (12/1)

STARCOM: Training Troops To Fight Space Wars, Boldly (Source: Breaking Defense)
Space Force’s new training and readiness unit, called STARCOM, is working from the ground up to figure out what doctrine, skills and tech space professionals will need for orbital warfare. “What we are really bringing to the fight is focus. Focus on space,” Col. Peter Flores, commander of the Space Training and Readiness (STAR) Delta Provisional at Space Operations Command, said in an interview today. (STAR Delta is the predecessor to a brand new training and readiness field command, that will be called STARCOM. It will be led by a two-star and is expected to be up and running sometime next year.)

Currently, Flores is overseeing 900 personnel, shifted over from a mishmash of former Air Force units, mostly in Colorado. But, because it will be a new command, a basing decision will be required to determine where STARCOM’s HQ will stand. And, Flores said, he expects STARCOM will reorganize, and grow, as the Space Force turns its gaze from legacy missions to new ones.

STARCOM will facilitate inclusion of space-unique content for Military Intelligence, Cyber Operations, and Engineering and Acquisition career fields for individuals intending to join or support Space Force units.” Flores said that his team already is looking to establish training in the first three areas, but has yet to really figure out what should be in the broader category of Space Access and Sustainment. Further, he explained, the weapons school course that formerly concentrated on “space superiority” now has been split into the three more specific subjects of “orbital warfare, electronic warfare and space battle management.” (11/30)

Turning Moon Dust Into Oxygen (Source: Space Daily)
British engineers are fine-tuning a process that will be used to extract oxygen from lunar dust, leaving behind metal powders that could be 3D printed into construction materials for a Moon base. It could be an early step to establishing an extra-terrestrial oxygen extraction plant. This would help to enable exploration and sustain life on the Moon while avoiding the enormous cost of sending materials from Earth. The oxygen generated would mostly be used to make rocket fuel, but could also provide air for lunar settlers. (11/30)

Scientists Invent Technology to Extract Oxygen and Fuel from Mars’ Salty Water in Huge Step Torward to Colonizing Red Planet (Source: Independent)
Humankind’s quest to set up base on Mars has received a boost as scientists have now claimed to have discovered a way that can help extract oxygen and fuel from the salty water found on the red planet. The water which is salty due to the Martian soil can't be used for drinking purposes. Even electrolysis, the usual method of using electricity to break it down into oxygen (to breathe) and hydrogen (for fuel) requires removing the salt – a cumbersome method that can be a costly endeavour in a harsh environment like Mars.

But now researchers at Washington University in St Louis have developed an electrolysis system that can directly separate oxygen and hydrogen from briny water – in a less complicated and expensive manner. They examined their system in a simulated Martian atmosphere where the temperature was about -36C, in addition to testing it under typical terrestrial conditions. (12/2)

New NASA Hubble Space Telescope Data Explains Missing Dark Matter (Source: Space Coast Daily)
In 2018 an international team of researchers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and several other observatories uncovered, for the first time, a galaxy in our cosmic neighborhood that is missing most of its dark matter. This discovery of the galaxy NGC 1052-DF2 was a surprise to astronomers, as it was understood that dark matter is a key constituent in current models of galaxy formation and evolution.

In fact, without the presence of dark matter, the primordial gas would lack enough gravitational pull to start collapsing and forming new galaxies. A year later, another galaxy that misses dark matter was discovered, NGC 1052-DF4, which further triggered intense debates among astronomers about the nature of these objects. Click here. (11/30)

China, the Moon, Mars, and Beyond — an Opportunity for Human Cooperation (Source: Space News)
As we already know, there is no national security advantage to human spaceflight in Earth orbit, so China's space station is not for that. National security comes from automated spacecraft with communications, remote sensing and other robotic capabilities. It seems to me that China is heading to the moon, Mars and beyond because they want to be a great country — leading the world not just in one or two areas but in all areas of science and technology — part of their long-term effort for economic growth.

The change of U.S. presidential administrations in January, U.S. and Chinese robotic Mars landings in February, and the dawning recognition that the U.S. Artemis lunar landing goal is unrealistic creates an opportunity for rethinking America’s human space goals — perhaps redirecting them to serve American national goals instead of merely those of the space industry.

We have only done that twice in all of the space age — once with Apollo to demonstrate American Cold War technological superiority, and then with bringing the Russians into the International Space Station to forestall them selling post-Soviet arms to rogue states. With the incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Joe Biden wanting to bring American foreign policy back from isolation and confrontation, the space program could play a role by engaging China on the creation of an international lunar station, boosting our space program and giving us a benign foreign policy initiative. (12/2)

Soyuz Launches Three Commsats From Plesetsk (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
A Soyuz rocket launched a trio of communications satellites Wednesday night. The Soyuz-2.1b lifted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia at 8:14 p.m. Eastern, placing three Gonets-M satellites into a 1,400-kilometer near-polar orbit. The satellites are part of a constellation that provides store-and-forward communications services. (12/3)

Space Command Finalizing Acquisition Organization (Source: Space News)
The head of the Space Force said Wednesday he is finalizing the structure of the service's new acquisition command. Gen. John Raymond said the Space Systems Command will include a mix of legacy and nontraditional procurement offices. The future acquisitions command will be run by a three-star general and will include the Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles Air Force Base as well as parts of several other offices. Raymond said he is pushing the service to become more creative, innovative and less fearful of taking risks with new technology. (12/3)

Senate Confirms NASA CFO, a Potential Lame-Duck Position (Source: Space News)
The Senate Commerce Committee advanced the nomination of Greg Autry to be NASA's chief financial officer. The committee voted on party lines to send Autry's nomination to the full Senate during a brief executive session Wednesday. It's not clear when, or even if, the Senate will take up the nomination, or if the incoming Biden administration would retain him if confirmed. (12/3)

Orbiting Object Confirmed to be Old Centaur Upper Stage (Source: New York Times)
Astronomers have been tracking a new object that emerged in the solar system in 2020—or have they? Researchers now believe the object is in fact part of a rocket that launched a failed NASA moon mission in 1966. Ever since, it’s been orbiting the sun, and now it is returning for a close path around earth. Scientists hope observations taken as it passes near the planet this week will confirm their theory of the rocket’s return. (12/2)

China Developing Reconnaissance Constellation (Source: Quartz)
China’s military has completed the build-out of a remote-sensing satellite constellation called Yaogan-30. According to one independent analysis, the 21 satellite network appears to provide China with the ability to fly sensors over Taiwan and nearby areas of the Pacific every thirty minutes, if not more often, the highest revisit rate of any known satellite system. China isn’t stopping there; according to an interview with a Chinese researcher cited in the analysis, the next steps are even larger constellations to watch territories along China’s Belt and Road network, and eventually the world. The surveillance space race, at least, is in full effect. (12/3)