January 3, 2021

FAA Limits Evaluation of Spaceport Infrastructure Funding Options (Source: Parabolic Arc)
The FAA has rejected GAO's recommendation that it conduct detailed analysis of a broad range of financing tools for funding infrastructure projects at the nation’s spaceports. GAO wanted FAA to analyze the trade-offs of using direct loans, loan guarantees, tax incentives and other tools to increase investment in spaceport infrastructure. The analysis would be part of a report on spaceport infrastructure funding that legislators ordered the FAA to provide Congress under the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018. The draft report was under internal FAA review as of November.

 The FAA said it is considering including the options in the final report to Congress. However, the agency told GAO that it doesn’t have the time or resources to conduct an in-depth analysis of them. Instead, the FAA’s draft report focused on using the existing Airport Improvement Program (AIP) and reviving the Space Transportation Infrastructure Matching (STIM) program, which provided grants to spaceports during the 2010-12 fiscal years. Airports that hold spaceport launch site operator licenses are able to tap AIP funding for infrastructure upgrades.

Under law, AIP matching grants are limited to aviation infrastructure projects. Expanding the program to fund projects that specifically support space operations would require action by Congress, the GAO report said. The move would prove controversial, however. “Many aviation stakeholders have publicly described the use of AIP for space operations as diverting funds from its intended use—aviation-related activities,” the GAO report said. While AIP grants can run into the millions of dollars, the STIM grants awarded during FY 2010-12 topped out at $250,000. GAO found the small amount and STIM’s rules created challenges for grant seekers. (1/2)

The Milky Way is Probably Full of Dead Civilizations (Source: Space.com)
Most of the alien civilizations that ever dotted our galaxy have probably killed themselves off already. That's the takeaway of a new study, published Dec. 14 to the arXiv database, which used modern astronomy and statistical modeling to map the emergence and death of intelligent life in time and space across the Milky Way. Their results amount to a more precise 2020 update of a famous equation that Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence founder Frank Drake wrote in 1961.

The authors looked at a range of factors presumed to influence the development of intelligent life, such as the prevalence of sunlike stars harboring Earth-like planets; the frequency of deadly, radiation-blasting supernovas; the probability of and time necessary for intelligent life to evolve if conditions are right; and the possible tendency of advanced civilizations to destroy themselves. Modeling the evolution of the Milky Way over time with those factors in mind, they found that the probability of life emerging based on known factors peaked about 13,000 light-years from the galactic center and 8 billion years after the galaxy formed.

Earth, by comparison, is about 25,000 light-years from the galactic center, and human civilization arose on the planet's surface about 13.5 billion years after the Milky Way formed (though simple life emerged soon after the planet formed.) In other words, we're likely a frontier civilization in terms of galactic geography and relative latecomers to the self-aware Milky Way inhabitant scene. But, assuming life does arise reasonably often and eventually becomes intelligent, there are probably other civilizations out there — mostly clustered around that 13,000-light-year band, mostly due to the prevalence of sunlike stars there. (1/2)

Roscosmos, Gazprom Enhance Cooperation in Satellite Systems Creation and Usage (Source: Parabolic Arc)
Roscosmos First Deputy Director General Yuri Urlichich and PJSC Gazprom Chairman of the Board held a meeting to discuss the spacecraft assembly production construction process in Moscow region currently lead by Gazprom, as well as the issue of Roscosmos entering LLC Gazprom SPKA share capital (project operator company).

The plant will manufacture civil spacecraft for Gazprom and other customers. These include Yamal communication satellites and SMOTR system Earth remote sensing optical satellites. Moreover, the plant will be capable of assembly and testing mass-produced smaller satellites to be used for the perspective Sfera program implemented by Roscosmos. (1/2)

Chinese Mission Returned Nearly 4 Pounds of Lunar Samples (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
Chinese officials say they plan to share a portion of the nearly 4 pounds of lunar material returned by the Chang’e 5 mission with other countries, but an allocation for U.S. scientists will hinge on a change in U.S. policy restricting cooperation between NASA and China’s space program. The Chang’e 5 sample return capsule landed in China’s Inner Mongolia region Dec. 16, ending a 23-day robotic mission that brought back the first lunar rocks since 1976. The mission made China the third country, after the United States and Russia, to successfully return samples from the Moon. (1/1)