January 2, 2021

Space Coast Congressman Among Election Outcome Opponents (Source: SPACErePORT)
Space Coast Congressman Bill Posey has been among the Republican of members of the House of Representatives claiming the November election of President-elect Joe Biden was beset by fraud. He is among the 125 members who filed a brief on their claims to the Supreme Court, and has sent several letters to various agency officials seeking investigations. President Trump has urged such actions. Trump sought pre-election to raise doubts about the outcome. Polls had indicated he would lose and the COVID-19 pandemic increased access to mail-in voting, boosting turnout among Democrats. (1/2)

UFO Reported to FAA in Hawaii (Source: Hawaii News Now)
An unidentified flying object spotted in the evening sky over Leeward Oahu prompted witnesses to call 911 on Tuesday. The sighting happened about 8:30 p.m. There are multiple videos of what appears to be a glowing‚ oblong mass — both in the sky and in the water. Officials from the Federal Aviation Administration say there were no aircraft incidents or accidents in this area at the time. But multiple witnesses reported seeing a large blue object fall out of the sky and into the ocean. (12/31)

2021: Florida's Rapid Rocket Launch Cadence is Likely Here to Stay (Source: Florida Today)
If 2020 was any indication, this year's Florida launch cadence will likely follow a similar spate of missions – crewed and uncrewed – flying from Space Coast pads. Last year's record-setting pace of 30 successful orbital launches, which bested 1966's 29, will flow into January as teams prepare to kick off 2021 with at least three missions. Beyond that, the cadence is expected to maintain its speed as SpaceX continues building its Starlink internet constellation and ULA eyes 10 launches for the year.

Barring additional setbacks, Florida could also host three brand new rockets this year, though the schedules remain in flux. Though years behind schedule, NASA says it's still targeting by the end of 2021 for the first flight of its massive Space Launch System rocket, the linchpin in the Artemis program's lunar ambitions. Even if SLS is unable to take flight by the end of 2021, KSC is still expected to see a flurry of activity as more and more components arrive for integration in the historic Vehicle Assembly Building. Blue Origin, meanwhile, is still targeting late this year for the debut of its heavy-lift New Glenn rocket built just a few miles away from its pad at Launch Complex 36. (1/1)

Reusable Satellite Launch Vehicle In ISRO’s 10-Year Plan (Source: NewsGram)
Stepping into 2021, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has chalked out its decadal plan which includes the development of a heavy-lift rocket, reusable satellite launch vehicle, semi-cryogenic engine, and others said a top official. “In this decade, the VSSC (Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre), the lead center for space transportation systems, will carry forward its competence in launch vehicle development towards heavy lift capabilities, achieving partial & full reusability and achieving progress in scramjet engine research.” (1/2)

Former NASA Chiefs Plan Hotel in Space That’s Fit for the Stars (Source: The Times)
Plans are under way to build the first commercial space station, led by former Nasa managers and astronauts. Axiom Space, a company co-founded by the former program chief of the International Space Station, said that it would set up its headquarters in Houston, from where it would begin production and train private astronauts for “humanity’s next step off the planet.” Mike Suffredini, the company’s chief executive, who retired from NASA in 2015, said: “Axiom was founded with the vision of a thriving home in space that benefits every human everywhere. We often hear that that is a very bold statement. It is.” (1/2)

President Signs Law Protecting Lunar Heritage Sites (Source: Space Policy Online)
Last night as many were celebrating New Year’s Eve, President Trump was busy signing legislation into law including a bill to protect heritage sites on the Moon like the Apollo 11 landing site. As enacted, the bill applies only to NASA’s partnership agreements with companies to conduct lunar activities, not to companies licensed to conduct lunar activities, the focus of the original version.

As passed by the Senate in July 2019, the bill would have required agencies issuing licenses to conduct lunar activities to require applicants to agree to abide by recommendations in the 2011 report “NASA’s Recommendations to Space-Faring Entities: How to Protect and Preserve the Historic and Scientific Value of U.S. Government Lunar Artifacts” and any successor reports. The bill, One Small Step to Protect Human Heritage in Space Act (S. 1694), suddenly appeared on the House’s suspension calendar two weeks ago and passed by voice vote on December 16. (1/1)

Exolaunch Integrates 30 Small Satellites for SpaceX First Dedicated Rideshare Launch (Source: ExoLaunch)
Exolaunch, the leading rideshare launch and deployment services provider for the NewSpace industry, begins its launch campaign to integrate 30 small satellites from the U.S. and Europe aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rideshare mission scheduled for no earlier than January 2021. This is the first dedicated rideshare mission of SpaceX’s SmallSat Rideshare Program and the first of several rideshares Exolaunch is manifesting on Falcon 9 as part of a multi-launch agreement the company signed with SpaceX earlier this year.

For each Falcon 9 launch, Exolaunch will provide comprehensive rideshare mission management, deployment, and satellite integration services for its customers. This launch will be one of the largest and most diverse rideshare missions of the company, which also announced it will open a U.S. office to better serve its U.S. customers. Most of the nanosatellites have been integrated into their launch deployers in the company’s Berlin facilities, at the moment the team of Exolaunch is performing the final integration of the diverse small satellite cluster with Falcon 9 at SpaceX’s facilities in Cape Canaveral, Florida. (12/17)

Roscosmos Head Reveals Likely Cause of Crack in ISS Hull (Source: Sputnik)
While the crack has already been located and patched up by the space station's crew, a more permanent solution is expected once special repair equipment reaches the ISS in February. The crack discovered in the hull of the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS) in October might have been caused by a micrometeorite impact, head of Russia's space agency Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin said. During an interview on Rossiya 24 TV channel, he suggested that the damage may also be “technological” in nature, though he did not elaborate on this. (1/1)

Korean Tech Conglomerate Will Invest $30M in Gates-Backed Kymeta Antenna Venture (Source: GeekWire)
Hanwha Systems, a smart-technology company headquartered in South Korea, has agreed to make an $30 million investment in Kymeta Corp. — with an eye toward getting a foothold in the market for antennas capable of linking up with satellite constellations in low Earth orbit. The equity investment deal follows up on an $85 million funding round led by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates in August. Gates has backed Kymeta since its launch as a next-generation antenna venture in 2012. (12/29)

Space Coast-Based Tech Giant L3Harris Added 450 Jobs in Brevard in 2020, Despite Pandemic (Source: Florida Today)
L3Harris Technologies Inc. has been a bright star in the local economy, adding 450 people to its local staff during 2020. The aerospace and defense technology giant now has 7,750 employees in Brevard County, up from 7,300 a year ago. It's part of a strong year for the company overall. That includes estimated gains of 7% for its space and airborne systems; 6% for integrated mission systems for maritime and aviation uses; and 4% for communications systems. The only decease will be an estimated decline of 3% in aviation systems, resulting largely from a decline in commercial aviation because of the pandemic. (12/31)

Florida Was at the Center of a Triumphant Year in Space (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
In all, Florida saw 31 successful launches — SpaceX missions deploying batches of Starlink satellites for Elon Musk’s growing internet constellation; satellite missions for the military, for SiriusXM and for the South Korean and Argentinian governments; as well cargo resupply missions for the International Space Station carrying dozens of science experiments.

Dale Ketcham, vice president of Space Florida, said he was impressed “we were able to accomplish the number of launches that we did successfully from the Cape. The space program, whether it was commercial exploration or national security, kept working. We kept launching even through the pandemic.” There haven’t been that many launches in a single year since 1966, when there were 29, Ketcham said. There were 203 in 1963, but not all of those were trying to reach orbit as they do today. Click here. (12/31)

The Year of the Four Spaceships (Source: Parabolic Arc)
Back in February, I went out on a limb and predicted that 2020 could be the Year of the Four Spaceships, with SpaceX, Boeing, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic and reaching major milestones in human spaceflight. With the disruption and deaths caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it wasn’t the easiest year to get things done. Keeping that in mind, let’s see how the companies did in 2020. (Spoiler Alert: they came up a little short.) Click here. (12/31)

Is the UK About to Have Liftoff in the Global Space Industry? (Source: The Guardian)
In 1969, a British engineer was invited to the White House to meet President Nixon. His name was Francis Thomas Bacon and he had developed the fuel cells used on Apollo 11. Known now as Bacon fuel cells, these power sources consume hydrogen and oxygen to produce water, heat and, in theory, a continuous supply of electricity. His invention was considered so integral to the success of the Apollo mission that Nixon told him, “Without you Tom, we wouldn’t have gotten to the moon.”

Bacon is one of many heroes in the history of Britain in space. The UK was the world’s third ever space-faring nation, after the USSR and US. And in the years after Apollo, several UK space companies, including Inmarsat and Surrey Satellite Technology, were created, building on the work of these early British space engineers. Over the last 50 years, however, few would describe Britain as a truly global space superpower. While the UK has much expertise in developing and producing satellites, it has less experience launching them.

Yet over the last decade, space has proved to be one of the UK’s fastest growing sectors. It has trebled in size since 2010. Today the UK space industry employs almost 42,000 people and generates an income of £15bn every year. More than £300bn of wider UK GDP is supported by satellite services, including telecoms, metrology, earth observation and navigation. The UK’s ongoing membership of the European Space Agency (Esa) will not be affected by Brexit. (12/31)

Roscosmos Creates Special Directorate for Lunar Missions (Source: TASS)
A special directorate in charge of future lunar missions has been created at the Russian space corporation Roscosmos, the corporation’s CEO, Dmitry Rogozin, said in a special message of New Year greetings to Russia’s cosmonauts. "Roscosmos has created a special directorate, of which I am in charge myself, to be well up on all the nuances and elements of preparations for lunar missions. This sets new tasks to and opens up new prospects in front of crewed space flights," Rogozin said in a video message uploaded to the Roscosmos website on Thursday.

Rogozin recalled that Russia’s automatic space probe Luna-25 would leave the Vostochny spaceport for the Moon in 2021. In the last days of the outgoing year a decision was made to create a special unified program for lunar research, Rogozin stressed. He said that preparations for deep space missions were being made by foreign partners, too. (12/30)

Roscosmos Chief: NASA Evasive on Sanctions (Source: TASS)
Earlier, Rogozin said he had asked the US Ministry of Commerce for an explanation of why Roscosmos affiliates - TsNIIMash and the space rocket center Progress - had come under the latest US sanctions, introduced against a number of Russian and Chinese enterprises. Washington argues that the enterprises in question worked for the armed forces of their respective countries.

"Generally speaking, I should say this: I have an impression that our US counterparts have set the course towards curtailing international space programs. Before, we hoped that space might remain outside politics, but it has turned out that it cannot remain outside politics. Space is the essence of politics. Everything is reflected there," Rogozin said. (12/30)

Record Year for FAA Commercial Space Activity (Source: Space Daily)
A record number of launches, new streamlined launch and reentry licensing regulations, and a historic licensed crewed mission are some of the noteworthy commercial space transportation achievements of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 2020. The FAA will build on these accomplishments in the coming year.

"This record-setting year in launches, and the new streamlined launch and reentry licensing regulations, bode well for continued rapid growth of America's commercial space sector," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao. In 2020, the FAA licensed 41 commercial space operations (launches and reentries), the most in the agency's history. Those operations included a record 39 FAA-licensed launches, including the first-ever NASA crewed mission to be licensed by the FAA. For 2021, the FAA is forecasting the number of licensed operations could reach 50 or more. (1/1)

Space, the Final Smuggling Frontier (Source: Reason)
On Christmas day, we learned that the ashes of James Doohan, the actor who played Scotty in the original Star Trek series and several movies, were surreptitiously brought to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2008. For fans of the classic science fiction franchise, it was a fitting extraterrestrial resting place for the man who played a beloved character. For those with dreams of a free life beyond Earth's gravity, though, it was also a hint that the roguish spirit of Han Solo and Malcolm Reynolds has already taken root in humanity's ventures into space.

Garriott, who stashed a laminated card containing some of Doohan's ashes in the ISS's Columbus module at the request of the actor's son, Chris, makes another appearance in space smuggling lore. The video game entrepreneur, who paid a reported $30 million to fly in a Soyuz capsule to the ISS, passed along gossip he'd picked up about cosmonauts transporting unapproved items into space.

"One of the historically common methods of taking a few extra personal items on board was on Soyuz, when you would be driving out to the launch pad where—starting with Gagarin—he stopped to unzip his space suit to urinate on the back tire of the bus," said Garriott. "As it turns out, it was also an opportunity to push something inside your spacesuit at the last minute." We're talking about Russian cosmonauts here but, surprisingly, the illicit orbital beverage of choice wasn't vodka. "Cognac became the preferred drink for cosmonauts," noted Carberry in his book. "And they devised clever and elaborate methods for smuggling this contraband on board space missions." (1/1)

SpaceX Wins US Military Satellite Constellation Launch Contract to Close Out 2020 (Source: Teslarati)
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 workhorse rocket has secured a new US military launch contract worth $150 million, closing out a spectacularly successful year. Announced by the Department of Defence’s (DoD) Space Development Agency (SDA) on December 31st, the contract stipulates that SpaceX will launch as many as 28 Transport and Tracking Layer (TTL) satellites on two Falcon 9 rockets in the seven months between September 2022 and March 2023.

If things go according to plan, those two launches will orbit an entire “Tranche 0” satellite constellation hoped by the SDA to demonstrate the exceedingly rare ability for a US military agency to move quickly and field solutions that are both affordable and effective. If successful, Tranche 0 will provide the US military with a globally-networked satellite constellation of communications satellites and missile detection satellites capable of delivering “warning, tracking, and targeting” data anywhere on Earth. (1/1)

2020 Marks Year of Accomplishments for Central Florida Spaceports (Source: WESH)
2020 has been a record year for Central Florida’s spaceports, with more orbital launches than ever and big milestones passed, like the first commercial astronaut launches. It was such a big year that the name change to the world’s most famous launch site seems like a footnote. In all, the Cape and Kennedy Space Center saw 31 launches, the most since 1966. We named 18 astronauts who’ll be trained to land on the moon.

However, the five-year moon plan is falling behind schedule, and whether President-elect Biden will keep it on track is an open question, which is why Election Day was another important space landmark in 2020. Meanwhile, another commercial astronaut ship built by Boeing spent the year under repair after a botched test-launch. It’s now set to fly in March and will be another test of whether 2021 will be a year of progress or a year of stepping back. (12/31)

Lunar Gold Rush Could Create Conflict on the Ground if we Don't Act Now (Source: Space Daily)
When it comes to the Moon, everyone wants the same things. Not in the sense of having shared goals, but in the sense that all players target the same strategic sites - state agencies and the private sector alike. That's because, whether you want to do science or make money, you will need things such as water and light.

Many countries and private companies have ambitious plans to explore or mine the Moon. This won't be at some remote point in time but soon - even in this decade. As Martin Elvis, Alanna Krolikowski and I set out in a recent paper, published in the Transactions of the Royal Society, this will spark tension on the ground unless we find ways to manage the situation imminently.

So far, much of the debate around exploring and mining the Moon has focused on tensions in space between state agencies and the private sector. But as we see it, the pressing challenge arises from limited strategic resources. Important sites for science are also important for infrastructure construction by state agencies or commercial users. (1/1)

Humanity's Colonization of Space is About to Enter Warp Speed (Source: The Telegraph)
So long, 2020. You’ve been an utterly terrible year for most. But, as huge tranches of the global population turned inwards as they self-isolated at home, humanity’s quest to reach out to the distant reaches of the solar system took a significant step forward. In 2021, this is likely to accelerate – with more giant leaps for mankind’s progress towards new discoveries in outer space. However, it’s not just the rate of scientific achievement that has been turbo charged of late. There has been a tectonic shift in the official tone away from a ‘quest for knowledge’ towards the commercial exploitation of the solar system’s substantial assets – especially in the US.

This profit motive will continue to drive scientific achievements. Two weeks ago, as his presidency entered its final weeks, Donald Trump issued an update on the country’s National Space Policy (NSP) directive for all US space activities. The NSP diverges significantly from Nasa’s official mission statement. “As explorers, pioneers, and innovators, we boldly expand frontiers in air and space to inspire and serve America and to benefit the quality of life on Earth,” the space agency’s vision statement says” – but the policy in the Trump administration document makes it clear that US space policy now means business.

“The National Space Policy recognises that a robust, innovative, and competitive commercial space sector is foundational to economic development, continued progress, and sustained American leadership in space,” the directive said. “It commits the United States to facilitating growth of an American commercial space sector that supports the nation’s interests, is globally competitive, and advances American leadership in the generation of new markets and innovation-driven entrepreneurship.” (1/1)

Congress Overrides Trump Veto With Senate Vote on Defense Bill (Source: Washington Post)
The Senate on Friday voted to turn a $741 billion defense authorization bill into law over President Trump’s objections, delivering the first successful veto override of his presidency in the waning days of his administration. The 81-13 vote in the Senate came just days after the House also voted in overwhelming numbers to back the legislation, despite Trump’s repeated protests. It takes two-thirds of each chamber to override a presidential veto.

The strong bipartisan majorities supporting the defense bill in both chambers represent a significant rebuke of the president, as it contains several repudiations of his policies as commander in chief. The bill contains new restrictions on how much of the military’s construction budget the president may move by emergency order — a direct response to Trump’s efforts to divert billions of the Pentagon’s dollars toward the border wall. It also limits the president’s ability to draw down troop levels in Germany, South Korea and Afghanistan — a move Trump had planned over the objections of members of his own party.

In his veto statement last month, Trump included the measure’s restrictions on troop deployments high on his list of grievances with the legislation. He also objected to the bill’s mandate to the Pentagon to change the names of installations honoring members of the Confederacy. And he complained that the legislation did not include a repeal of a completely unrelated law — Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. (1/1)