January 14, 2021

Summit on Space Coast Aerospace Workforce Planned Feb. 4 (Source: Career Source Brevard)
Aerospace industry representatives, education and training partners, elected officials, and community stakeholders - you're invited to "keep the momentum going" at the upcoming virtual Aerospace Workforce Development Strategy Summit on Thursday, February 4th, 9:00 am to 12:00 pm. Click here. (1/14)

Russian Council Seeks Plan for Russian Cosmonaut Lunar Landing (Source: TASS)
A Russian committee is calling for a proposal to land cosmonauts on the moon by 2030. The Council for Space of the Russian Academy of Sciences said it's seeking a plan in six months on how to carry out such a mission. A lunar landing, it stated, could be achieved through several launches of a version of the Angara-5 rocket, rather than by developing a new heavy-lift vehicle. (1/14)

Virgin Orbit Reschedules Launch to Sunday (Source: Space.com)
Virgin Orbit has rescheduled its next LauncherOne launch attempt for Sunday. The company said this week it had rescheduled the launch, previously set for Wednesday, to allow more time to complete final actions identified in a launch readiness review last Friday. The launch, carrying 10 NASA-sponsored cubesats, will take place between 1 and 5 p.m. Eastern. (1/14)

Dragon Capsule Splashes Down Off Florida Coast (Source: Space News)
A Dragon cargo spacecraft splashed down off the Florida coast Wednesday night. The CRS-21 Dragon capsule splashed down west of Tampa at 8:27 p.m. Eastern, a day and a half after undocking from the International Space Station. The spacecraft returned about 2,000 kilograms of experiments and other equipment, completing the first mission of the new version of the cargo spacecraft. (1/14)

SpaceX Wins Launch Contracts for Lunar Lander, MethaneSAT (Source: Space News)
SpaceX won contracts Wednesday for launches of a lunar lander and an environmental satellite. Intuitive Machines said it will launch its IM-2 lunar lander mission on a Falcon 9 as soon as 2022. That lander will carry several NASA payloads to the south polar regions of the moon as part of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. MethaneSAT, a subsidiary of the Environmental Defense Fund, said Wednesday it will launch its satellite on a Falcon 9 rideshare mission in October 2022. The 350-kilogram spacecraft will track methane emissions from the oil and gas industry. (1/14)

SpaceX Tests Starship Engines With Triple Static Fire (Source: Ars Technica)
SpaceX tested the engines on a Starship prototype three times in one day Wednesday. The company performed three brief static-fire tests of the Raptor engines on the SN9 vehicle at Boca Chica, Texas. "Today at SpaceX is about practicing Starship engine starts," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted about the tests. The tests suggest SpaceX is ready to attempt a high-altitude test flight of the vehicle as soon as Friday. (1/14)

OneWeb Downsizes Next-Gen Constellation Plan (Source: Space News)
OneWeb has slashed the size of a proposed next-generation satellite constellation. In a filing with the FCC this week, OneWeb said it's requesting a modification to an application it filed in May, reducing the number of satellites in that "Phase Two" system from 47,844 to 6,372. The slimmed-down constellation, the company said, shows its commitment "to support the long-term use of space for all by preserving the orbital environment." While it was unclear how serious OneWeb was about that original proposal, larger than any other proposed constellation, the application raised concerns about orbital debris creation and impacts on astronomy. The proposal does not affect the company's original constellation of about 650 satellites it is currently launching. (1/14)

Ark Investment Plans Stock Fund (Source: CNBC)
A new space-related fund is coming to Wall Street. Ark Invest said in a regulatory filing Wednesday that it plans to offer a "Space Exploration" exchange-traded fund, or ETF, which holds shares in companies but can be traded on a stock exchange. The fund will include companies involved with or benefiting from products and services "that occur beyond the surface of the Earth." The fund hasn't disclosed what companies will be included, but after the filing shares in Maxar Technologies and Virgin Galactic, two of the handful of publicly traded space companies, rose by 8%. (1/14)

Virginia Spaceport Chief Plans Retirement (Source: Virginia Business)
The longtime head of Virginia's spaceport announced his intent to retire. Dale Nash, CEO of Virginia Space, said this week he plans to retire as soon as this fall. He had led the organization, which runs the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, since 2012. The spaceport hosts launches of Antares and Minotaur rockets and will begin supporting Electron launches later this year. (1/14)

NASA Scientist Pleads Guilty to Lying About China Ties (Source: Reuters)
A senior NASA scientist pleaded guilty on Wednesday to lying about his ties to a program that encourages researchers to develop relationships with China in exchange for grants, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Wednesday. Prosecutors said Meyyappan participated in the Thousand Talents Program, a Chinese government program to recruit people familiar with foreign technology and intellectual property, and held professorships at universities in China, South Korea and Japan.

Meyyappan concealed this work from NASA and the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, and falsely told investigators in an Oct. 27 interview he was not a member of the Thousand Talents Program and did not hold the professorship in China, prosecutors said. A lawyer for Meyyappan did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The defendant faces up to six months in prison under recommended federal guidelines at his scheduled June 16 sentencing, according to his plea agreement. (1/13)

Blue Origin Tests Passenger Accommodations on Suborbital Launch (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
Blue Origin tested a new upgraded capsule on a suborbital spaceflight Thursday over West Texas, demonstrating new environmental control systems, in-cabin displays, and passenger communication systems before Jeff Bezos’s space company begins flying people. The company’s New Shepard rocket and crew capsule took off Thursday from Blue Origin’s private launch site north of Van Horn, Texas, east of El Paso. The launch was delayed 20 minutes as officials monitored mid-level winds over the test site. Blue Origin streamed the launch live on YouTube.

Powered by a hydrogen-fueled BE-3 engine, the single-stage New Shepard booster soared through the atmosphere to reach an apogee, or maximum altitude, of 350,827 feet, or 106.9 kilometers. That’s above the internationally-recognized boundary of space. The capsule separated from the rocket after engine shutdown, then began their descents back to Earth. The reusable New Shepard rocket deployed air brakes and reignited its engine for a vertical landing back at Blue Origin’s commercial spaceport about seven minutes after liftoff.

The autonomous rocket self-corrected its path toward its target in the final seconds, and the booster ended up just off the center of the landing pad. Meanwhile, the capsule unfurled parachutes and briefly fired its own braking rockets to cushion its touchdown on the desert landscape nearby. The entire mission lasted around 10 minutes, 15 seconds, from liftoff until landing of the capsule. It was the 14th flight of a suborbital New Shepard rocket and capsule since 2015, but the test mission Thursday debuted a new spacecraft and rocket with the accoutrements needed to carry people. (1/14)

Impeachment Politics Alleged in Space Command HQ Decision (Source: @AndyMackReports)
Sources confirm that the decision to move Space Command to Alabama was an override by President Trump and is linked to his current impeachment. The source told us Trump wants Alabama's Sens/Reps on his side after the US Capitol riot. Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers, who has been an ardent supporter of the push for Space Command, is calling on the USAF to release "full details," including publicizing "the role President Trump played in this decision."

The mayor and Colorado Springs Chamber CEO Dirk Draper say the next step is coordinating with state/federal leaders to ask Biden's administration "to at least suspend" the Space Command decision. The mayor says the city will FOIA request documents to explain the process. He repeated his call for knowing the president's role in the decision. He also said based on what sources are saying, he "absolutely" believes the motive is a personal one for the president. (1/13)

UK Space Agency CEO to Step Down (Source: Gov.UK)
Graham Turnock, Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency, has announced he will leave his role in 2021. Following a 4-year term leading the Agency, which delivers the UK’s civil space program, Graham will step down from his position this year. Recruitment for his successor will begin soon, and an announcement will be made in due course. (1/13)

Orbital Space Tourism Before Suborbital and Balloon Tourism (Source: Astralytical)
If it seems like the space tourism industry is maturing at a snail's pace, it is, and with good reason. When it comes to human spaceflight, companies aren't about to take risks. Especially when their clientele are wealthy individuals with high profiles on early commercial flights.

Counter-intuitively, some of the more technically challenging private spaceflight options are maturing faster: commercial orbital spaceflight is operational, commercial suborbital spaceflight may become operational in the next couple of years, and “near space” high-altitude balloons are at least four years from becoming operational. Highly ambitious human commercial spaceflight options such as commercial space stations and cislunar tourism are likely at least seven years from becoming a reality. Space tourism to the Moon, Mars, and beyond are still the destinations of dreams but are at least a decade or two in the future, perhaps longer. Click here. (1/13)

US Space Command Headquarters Coming to Huntsville, Alabama (Source: AL.com)
The Air Force has recommended the Army’s Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala., as its preferred location for the headquarters of its new Space Command, at least four sources tell AL.com. An announcement has been scheduled at 2 p.m., sources in local and national government confirmed. Winning the base would mean at least 1,600 new jobs for the area and more as the command and its missions grow. None of this will happen soon, however, because the headquarters is set to stay at its current location in Colorado Springs for at least six years. The Air Force studied sites in numerous states including Alabama and Colorado, and sources say one of those states – Nebraska – was Alabama’s main competition at the end. (1/13)

Defense Firms Join Wall Street, Tech Giants & Shut Hill Money Spigot (Source: Breaking Defense)
Three major defense contractors joined a growing list of corporate giants in halting all political contributions in the wake of last week’s riot at the Capitol by supporters of President Trump, seeking to distance themselves from the controversy. Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, and Leidos are temporarily pausing all donations to members of Congress across the board.

Leidos Chairman and CEO Roger Krone said in a statement Tuesday: “We are shocked and appalled by the behavior that took place on Capitol Hill last week. Democracy thrives on passionate debate and different opinions but dies in anarchy and violence.” Leidos’ Political Action Committee has decided to temporarily pause all political donations. (1/12)

Astronomers Observe the Death of a Distant Galaxy for the First Time (Source: CBS)
Astronomers have, for the first time, witnessed the death of a distant galaxy, which they describe as a "truly extreme event." When all of the stars in a galaxy die, and new ones are no longer forming, the galaxy itself ceases to exist. This occurs when all of the galaxy's gas is ejected, making it impossible for new stars to form. Scientists were "thrilled" to be able to capture this rare phenomenon recently using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submilimeter Array of telescopes in Chile.

It has taken about nine billion years for the light from the starburst galaxy ID2299 to reach Earth. So, when astronomers happened to observe it by chance, they witnessed the universe as it appeared at just 4.5 billion years old. Astronomers say that ID2299 is losing 10,000 suns worth of gas each year — rapidly depleting fuel needed to form new stars. This startling release of gas appears to be the result of two galaxies violently colliding and merging together to create ID2299. (1/12)