March 12, 2021

American Rescue Plan Supports Aerospace Sector (Source: AIA)
The Aerospace Industries Association is joining other leading groups in praising the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act and its support of aviation. "For our highly skilled workforce, this legislation will help protect and restore tens of thousands of jobs in aircraft manufacturing, maintenance and repair. For businesses of all sizes in our shared supply chain, it will provide critical financial support and help our industry recall workers previously laid off because of the pandemic," AIA CEO Eric Fanning said. (3/12)

Who Would Kidnap a Space Telescope? Pirates! (Source: The Atlantic)
NASA’s new space telescope has had a rough go. Name a problem, and this telescope—meant to be the most powerful of its kind, a worthy successor to the famous Hubble—has faced it: poor management, technical errors, budget overruns, schedule delays, and a pandemic. So, naturally, the people responsible for the telescope’s safety are now thinking about pirates. Yes, pirates.

The topic came up at a recent meeting about NASA’s James Webb space telescope, named for a former administrator of the space agency. Later this year, the telescope will travel by ship to a launch site in South America, passing through the Panama Canal to reach French Guiana. Webb, with a mirror as tall as a two-story building and a protective shield the size of a tennis court, is too large for a plane. Its departure date will be kept secret, someone said at the meeting, to protect against pirates who might want to capture the precious cargo and hold it for ransom.

There are many more realistic circumstances that could derail the mission than marauders at sea, but for a project that has been through so much—for a telescope that was initially supposed to launch in 2007, the year the first iPhone was released—pirates might as well happen too. A NASA spokesperson told me Webb will sail sometime in late July or mid-August, but did not respond to questions about specific measures, such as whether the U.S. military will escort the vessel. (3/12)

Volcanoes Could Have Breathed New Life Into a Super-Earth’s Atmosphere (Source: Astronomy)
Once upon a time, GJ 1132 b was a smallish gas giant planet. Then powerful radiation from its parent star burned off its massive envelope of gas, leaving behind only a desiccated rocky core — a super-Earth, about 1.6 times the mass of our planet. Now, a group led by researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena has analyzed Hubble Space Telescope observations of GJ 1132 b and found something very peculiar: the planet seems to have reestablished an atmosphere. Furthermore, the composition of the gases suggests a volcanic origin.

Based on what we know of our own solar system, full atmospheric makeovers on rocky planets are not uncommon. Earth’s atmosphere has been completely remade twice — first by volcanic activity and meteorite impacts, and then by the emergence of life. Mars is on its second or third atmosphere. But this is the first time that a secondary atmosphere has been reported on an exoplanet. If it stands, it could have wider implications for theories of planetary formation — and demonstrate that studying exoplanet atmospheres can also offer insight into what happens below the surface. (3/11)

NASA is Naming Mars Features in the Navajo Language (Source: CNN)
NASA is naming landmarks and geological features on Mars in the Navajo language. The Perseverance rover's team, in collaboration with the Navajo Nation, has been naming features of scientific interest with words in the language, according to NASA. And it includes a rock named "Máaz," the Navajo word for "Mars."

It is common for NASA missions to assign informal names to landmarks to provide the mission's members a way to refer to various features of interest. And Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez and Vice President Myron Lizer made a list of words in the Navajo language available to the rover's team to do so, according to a NASA press release. (3/12)

NASA Preparing to Fly Ingenuity Mars Drone (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
As NASA’s newest Mars rover, Perseverance, continues its own checkouts and tests, work is starting for a new phase of the mission – the Ingenuity helicopter. This first-of-its-kind piece of hardware will demonstrate (non-rocket) powered flight on a world other than Earth for the first time. Data from these flights – expected to begin in 30-60 days – will help to develop future programs for missions to Mars and beyond.

Ingenuity is an experimental addition to the Mars 2020 mission. No matter the results of its test campaign, it will not have a significant effect on the primary mission. Teams are planning for a 30 day flight window for the helicopter. They currently aim for a minimum of one flight, but that has the possibility of being extended. The first flight will feature a relatively simple 20-30 second low altitude hover test before landing. Afterwards, flights will last longer and travel farther. (3/10)

Houston Company Helps NASA Secure Seat on Russian Spacecraft (Source: Houston Chronicle)
NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei has a seat on the Soyuz spacecraft scheduled to launch April 9, thanks to a deal between NASA and Houston-based Axiom Space. Axiom Space, which facilitates rides into space for private astronauts and professional astronauts from other countries, previously purchased a seat on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. It then traded this seat with NASA in exchange for a seat in 2023 on a Commercial Crew Program spacecraft developed by SpaceX or Boeing.

On the most recent Soyuz launch carrying people, NASA paid $90.3 million to send one American astronaut to the International Space Station. NASA previously spent nine years relying on the Soyuz spacecraft to carry its astronauts to the space station. The agency retired the space shuttle in 2011, and it was waiting for SpaceX and Boeing to complete their capsules that would replace the shuttle. Roscosmos said the contract is based on its existing liabilities in the agreement with Axiom Space. (3/10)

China Launches Long March 7A (Source: Space News)
China launched a Long March 7A rocket Thursday, nearly a year after its first launch failed. The rocket lifted off from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center at 12:51 p.m. Eastern. It deployed Shiyan-9, described by Chinese officials as a technology validation satellite. The launch took place nearly a year after the first Long March 7A launch in March 2020 ended in failure because of an engine malfunction after first stage separation. The Long March 7A is a variant of the standard Long March 7 that includes a third stage for launching missions to geostationary transfer orbit. (3/12)

Hubble Resumes Operations After Software Glitch (Source: Space News)
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope resumed science operations Thursday night after a software glitch several days earlier put it into a safe mode. NASA said Hubble went into safe mode early Sunday when a problem with a software "enhancement" recently uploaded to the telescope caused a problem with its main computer. That enhancement has been disabled for now, allowing normal operations to resume, but NASA said engineers are still working on a problem with one of the telescope's instruments that took place during the recovery from safe mode, as well as a problem that kept the telescope's aperture door from closing as planned during the safe mode. Hubble was launched in April 1990 and last serviced by the shuttle in May 2009. (3/12)

Argentina's Satellogic Expanding US Presence (Source: Space News)
Earth observation company Satellogic is expanding its presence in the United States to compete in the government market. The company, headquartered in Argentina, is standing up a U.S. subsidiary specifically to work with national security agencies. The company said defense and intelligence applications are the biggest markets for the high-resolution imagery the company's satellites produce. Satellogic wants to start conversations with the NRO and NASA about acquiring its imagery. (3/12)

Workforce Availability a Chronic Challenge for Aerospace (Source: Space News)
Space companies face a range of challenges when hiring employees. Companies say one of their biggest obstacles to growth is filling positions, particularly engineering jobs where they have to compete with larger aerospace companies as well as firms in related markets. Those challenges can be magnified when those companies are still operating in stealth mode, or are privately held and can't made similar offers as publicly traded ones. (3/12)

ESA Awards Euros for Future Space Transport Concepts (Source: ESA)
The European Space Agency has awarded contracts to three companies to study future space transportation concepts. The awards, valued at 500,000 euros each to ArianeGroup, Avio and Rocket Factory Augsburg, will support research on "preliminary elements for future space transportation solutions" for the period between 2030 and 2050. The studies will be completed by this summer and feed into planning for the next ESA ministerial meeting in 2022. (3/12)

EU May Limit Non-Member Participation in Space Projects (Source: Science)
The European Union is considering blocking countries outside the union from participating in its space research projects. Under the proposal, several European countries not part of the EU, such as Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, would not be allowed to participate in Horizon Europe projects associated with space or, in some cases, quantum computing. Those countries have previously been able to compete for funding through Horizon Europe, and would remain eligible in other areas. The EU's plans, which have yet to be approved by its member nations, took many by surprise, and may be linked to a greater EU desire for "strategic autonomy" in key technologies. (3/12)

Indian Launch Manifest Includes Seven More Missions in 2021 (Source: Times of India)
India has seven launches scheduled for the reminder of 2021. That manifest, provided by the Indian space agency ISRO, includes an uncrewed test flight of the spacecraft developed for the Gaganyaan human spaceflight program in December as well as the first launch of the new Small Satellite Launch Vehicle, scheduled for April. A solar science satellite, Aditya-L1, was scheduled for this year but has been delayed to next year because a suitable launch window is not available this year. (3/12)

Astronauts do Microbial Census on ISS (Source: Scientific American)
Astronauts are performing a "microbial census" of the ISS. In February, astronaut Kate Rubins swabbed 1,000 locations across the station, collecting samples that will be returned to Earth later this year for study. Past studies have suggested there may be a greater diversity of microbial life on the station than previously thought, including microbes that have been altered by exposure to the space environment. Scientists say the study will help them understand how future spacecraft, like long-duration missions to Mars, can be kept clean and their crews healthy. (3/12)

DoD Weather Satellite will Fly With Navigation Receiver from RUAG Space (Source: Parabolic Arc)
RUAG Space has been awarded a contract from Ball Aerospace to provide a navigation receiver for Weather System Follow-on—Microwave (WSF-M), a next-generation Department of Defense (DoD) operational environmental satellite system. Ball is the prime contractor for WSF-M, which will address critical space-based environmental monitoring (SBEM) requirements. (3/12)

NASA, Boeing Approaching First Major Join of Second SLS Core Stage (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
Operations for the first major join of the main elements of the second Space Launch System (SLS) Core Stage are expected to begin later in March as NASA and prime contractor Boeing work to deliver the stage in 2022 for the Artemis 2 launch. The three elements that compose the top half of the rocket, the forward skirt, the liquid oxygen tank, and the intertank, are finishing up standalone integration and testing at the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New Orleans in preparation for being stacked in the factory’s Vertical Assembly Building.

While the top half of the rocket stage is being put together in the Spring, production and assembly also continues on the bottom two elements. Major hydraulic and pneumatic parts of the Main Propulsion System are being installed inside the engine section ,and Boeing completed spraying primer on the outside of the liquid hydrogen tank after issues during initial attempts. (3/12)

Airbus Is Gearing Up To Manufacture Satellites In Space (Source: Simple Flying)
Airbus has revealed it has been selected by the European Commission to study the manufacture of antennas and satellites in space. Through the Horizon 2020 Program, Airbus will lead the PERASPERA In-Orbit Demonstration, or PERIOD project, focusing on building spacecraft while orbiting the Earth. Airbus has been awarded a $3.6 million contract to study a revolutionary concept in space technology. The European manufacturer will work on the PERASPERA In-Orbit Demonstration project, coined ‘PERIOD’ for ease of explanation.

This initial contract will last for two years and will see Airbus developing a demonstrator in orbit to assemble and manufacture satellites. This ‘orbital factory’ will also seek to pioneer the construction of other spacecraft components, including antenna reflectors. It’s an ambitious and groundbreaking project, but Airbus believes it is the right partner to bring it to life. (3/11)