February 14, 2021

Bankrupt Intelsat Files Restructuring Plan to Halve Debt (Source: Bloomberg)
Intelsat SA, the bankrupt satellite company, reached an agreement with some of its creditors on a plan that would hand ownership to unsecured bondholders and halve its debt load. The Virginia-based company filed a plan to cut its debt to $7 billion. The proposal has the support of creditors holding about $3.8 billion of its obligations, according to a statement, suggesting holders of about 25% of debt have agreed to the plan. The Intelsat Jackson unit’s unsecured bondholders would take control of the new company by converting their holdings to new shares, according to court papers. (2/12)

First ULA Vulcan Rocket Arrives at Cape Canaveral Spaceport for Pathfinder Ops (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
Progress continues to advance for United Launch Alliance’s newest rocket, as the pathfinder for the Vulcan rocket arrived by the company’s cargo ship and was unloaded at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport on Feb. 13. A nearly flight capable booster, the Pathfinder Tanking Test (PTT) booster will be used for checkouts of the new rocket’s Ground Support Equipment, as well as launch and integration hardware. While visiting the pad, the PTT will also undergo a full cryogenic tanking test to verify the booster’s flight pressure integrity. While the booster is currently fitted with static fired test engines that are no longer flight capable, the PTT Booster itself will eventually fly next year, following a refit to flight engines. (2/13)

Virginia Congressman to Chair House Space Subcommittee (Source: Space News)
Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) is the new chair of the House Science Committee’s space subcommittee. Other Democratic members of the subcommittee: Lofgren (CA), Bera (CA), Sherman (CA), Perlmutter (CO), Crist (FL) and Norcross (NJ). (2/12)

OSIRIS-REx Plans Last Survey of Bennu Asteroid (Source: TIME)
OSIRIS-REx has been station-keeping with Bennu since October, drifting away but continuing to survey its surface. OSIRIS-REx is now planning one more valedictory sweep over the asteroid, coming as close as 250 km in March to observe the asteroid's poles and equatorial region throughout its 4.3-hour rotation. The spacecraft will finally bid farewell on May 10, firing its engine for a two-plus year journey back to Earth that will culminate in a touchdown on the flatlands of the Utah Test and Training Range on Sept. 24, 2023. Only then will scientists get their hands on the precious samples that were the mission's greatest purpose. (2/13)

Space Weather Threat Needs Funding (Source: TIME)
In 1989, a solar storm caused a temporary loss of power across Quebec, for instance, and in 2012, a solar eruption that could have caused 20 times more disruption than Hurricane Katrina flew just wide of Earth. The good news is that the Promoting Research and Observations of Space Weather to Improve the Forecasting of Tomorrow (PROSWIFT) Act was signed into law in October, mustering NASA, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense and NOAA to join forces and assets to mount an intensive solar monitoring program. The bad news is that the funding is not yet in place for the program. (2/13)

Mars Shows the Best of Humanity (Source: TIME)
We go to other worlds not to find food or minerals or cures for diseases. We go to find knowledge—about how those worlds formed, how their chemistry unfolds, what kind of evolutionary arc they're on. Yes, that can teach us something about our own world, and that may help us down the road as we battle challenges like climate change. (Take a look at Venus if you want to see what a runaway greenhouse effect looks like.)

But mostly we go simply because we want to go—we choose to go, as President John F. Kennedy put it. And when we want something, when we choose something, we often succeed at doing it. Witness the breakneck speed with which we invented vaccines this year simply because the need and the will was there. Witness how we've mustered our front line workers to care for our sick, because it would be a moral crime not to do so.

Yes, we're fractious. Yes, we're foolish. Yes, we're greedy. Yes, we're warlike. But we're wise and brilliant and inventive too. You can see it in our hospitals; you can see it in our pharmaceutical labs; you can see it everywhere on this planet where we're rising to the occasion to care for one another. (2/13)

Local Spaceport Taxes Were Not Properly Spent, Attorney General's Office Says (Source: Las Cruces Sun-News)
Elected officials who have argued for years that excess revenues generated from local gross receipts taxes for Spaceport America got some backup this week from the New Mexico Attorney General's Office.  In December, the board of directors governing Spaceport America agreed to ask the state Attorney General's office to review proposed changes to its bylaws, as well as the tax controversy, following the termination of the spaceport's director last fall.

Without providing a formal legal opinion, the office on Wednesday offered some advice to the Economic Development Department, which oversees the New Mexico Spaceport Authority. Chief Counsel Matt Baca addressed the letter to Economic Development Secretary Alicia Keyes, who also chairs the Spaceport Authority. The letter affirms that procurement of goods and services falls under the authority of the NMSA — rather than the executive director — whose duties under New Mexico's Spaceport Development Act are "limited to the hiring of staff and day to day operation" of the spaceport.

That includes managing the procurement process and reporting to the board as the decision-making authority, Baca wrote. An investigative audit report in November concluded that former director Dan Hicks had exceeded his authority, evading internal controls and expending his budget as he pleased. Hicks was terminated by the board in October. Baca wrote, that 75 percent of local GRT (currently collected by Sierra and Doña Ana counties) must be used for "the financing, planning, designing, engineering and construction of a regional spaceport," while the other 25 percent may be retained by the local government for its use. (2/13)

Appointment of ISRO Chief's Son Raises Eyebrows (Source: Free Press Journal)
A complaint has been filed with the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) over allegations of irregularities in recruiting Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) chairman and secretary, Dept of Space (DoS), Dr K Sivan Sivan’s son S Sidharth in ISRO’s Liquid Propulsion Systems Center (LPSC) in Valiamala, Thiruvananthapuram. The CVC subsequently registered the complaint, setting into motion a preliminary process, according to media reports.

The complaint alleges Sidharth’s recruitment was not just a case of conflict of interest, but also a case of “favoritism and conspiracy to benefit the secretary DoS and Chairman ISRO (Sivan) and his son”. The complainant has named LPSC director Dr V Narayanan who allegedly showed haste in the appointment anticipating a transfer to Vikram Sarabhai Space Center. Dr Narayanan is a rocket propulsion expert who joined ISRO in 1984 and has been LPSC director since January 2018. The petition also states Dr Narayanan was in a hurry to fill the post as Dr Sivan was then supposed to retire on January 14 (his tenure was subsequently extended). (2/14)