August 24, 2017

Elon Musk Unveils SpaceX’s Spacesuit of the Future (Source: NatGeo)
In true Elon Musk fashion, the latest SpaceX creation has been revealed with dramatic flair. Posting on his Instagram account early Wednesday morning, Musk unveiled the first iteration of his SpaceX spacesuit. The design, seen only from the waist up, features a slim black-and-white aesthetic and is a far cry from the bulky, puffy spacesuits worn by NASA astronauts.

How hard was it to combine fashion and function? According to Musk's post, very, but he noted that the suits are fully functional and have "already been tested to double vacuum pressure." These slim suits won't be used for space walks, but they will protect astronauts from any potential loss of cabin pressure during flight. High-altitude pilots wear similar suits to ensure essential bodily functions aren't harmed by a drop in pressure. (8/23)

Alabama Gives Space Center $10M for Cyber Camp, New Building (Source: Al.com)
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey gave the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville a $10 million economic development grant today to fund a new U.S, Cyber Camp and help construct a new building to house it and link the rocket center's two existing exhibit halls. "Expanding cyber camp in Alabama's No. 1 tourist attraction was a logical investment for the state...," the governor said. "In order to have a workforce that is prepared for the 21st century and can fill jobs in the 21st century, we must train our students and young people in technology, and the efforts of the U.S. Cyber Camp do just that."

Ivey said the Army, FBI, Department of Homeland Security, NASA and National Security Agency "are all interested in participating in programs right here. The need to expand the U.S. Cyber Camp is real, and it is important." The space center, home of Space Camp, Space Academy and Aviation Challenge, held its first cyber camp this summer with 32 students from across Alabama chosen by their teachers. (8/23)

Campsite Owners Fear UK Spaceport Land Loss (Source: Cambrian News)
Fears are being voiced by neighboring campsite owners that developments at Llanbedr airfield could lead to them being forced to relinquish parts of their land for runway extensions – putting jobs at risk. Recently B2Space and Snowdonia Aerospace Center announced they want to create 93 specialist jobs at Llanbedr airfield by launching microsatellites from the site. (8/24)

Transparency Problems Plague Spaceport America (Source: NMPolitics.net)
The N.M. Spaceport Authority has violated the state’s transparency laws several times this year, blocking or delaying public access to information about the spaceport. Spaceport America is a publicly owned government entity, so the law requires its financial and other dealings to be open to the public, with few exceptions.

And yet in 2017 the N.M. Spaceport Authority, the state agency that runs the spaceport, has violated the state’s transparency laws several times in response to requests for documents filed by NMPolitics.net, a citizen from Truth or Consequences, and a reporter with KTSM-TV in El Paso. Those violations, in addition to other possible infractions, blocked or delayed public access to information about the spaceport. (8/23)

NASA Awards Engineering Services and Science Capability Contract to Jacobs (Source: NASA)
NASA has selected Jacobs Technology of Tullahoma, Tennessee, to provide a broad spectrum of engineering and scientific support services at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama and the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.

The Engineering Services and Science Capability Augmentation (ESSCA) contract is a cost-plus-award-fee indefinite-delivery indefinite-quantity contract that has a potential period of performance of eight years. It is a follow-on effort to the ESSSA contract and will satisfy requirements for engineers, scientists, and engineering technicians at Marshall and Michoud. The new contract begins Dec. 1, 2017, and includes a four-year base period followed by two two-year options that may be exercised at NASA's discretion. The maximum potential value of the contract, including all options, is approximately $1.1 billion. (8/23)

We May Have detected a New Kind of Gravitational Wave (Source: New Scientist)
Have we detected a new flavor of gravitational wave? Speculation is swelling that researchers have spotted the subtle warping of the fabric of space resulting from the cataclysmic collision of two neutron stars. Now optical telescopes – including the Hubble Space Telescope – are scrambling to point at the source of the possible wave: an elliptical galaxy hundreds of millions of light years away.

Gravitational waves are markers of the most violent events in our universe, generated when dense objects such as black holes or neutron stars crash together with tremendous energy. Two experiments – LIGO in the US and VIRGO in Europe – set out to detect minuscule changes in the path of laser beams caused by passing gravitational waves. Click here. (8/23)

Trump’s 'America First' Policies Won't Work in Space (Source: WIRED)
Regulating and enabling commercial space activities will likely be a top priority for the National Space Council, and the group will likely need to address issues including space debris and potentially militarized satellites. Given the risks of weaponizing space if the US, China, and Russia take their disputes beyond earth, and considering the commercial space industry’s uncertain position with respect to national and international law, the council’s first and primary goal should be to pursue space diplomacy. Click here. (8/23)

ASAP Still Has Concerns Over Commercial Crew LOC Risks (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com)
NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) still has a number of concerns over crew safety numbers for the Commercial Crew Program (CCP), notably the guideline Loss of Crew (LOC) metric, based on the threat of MicroMeteoroid and Orbital Debris (MMOD) damage and crew recovery from the ocean after an abort. The plan acknowledged both SpaceX and Boeing are actively working to improve their LOC ratings. Click here. (8/23)

Minotaur Set to Revive Florida's Decades-Old Vision for Cape Canaveral Launch Site (Source: Florida Today)
Dormant for more than 18 years, a state-run launch complex is set to roar back to life with Friday’s planned late-night blastoff by a Minotaur rocket flying from Florida for the first time. Two decades ago, officials stood up a new pad on the tip of Cape Canaveral hoping to capture some of an anticipated surge in commercial launches of small satellites. “I believe we had the vision of the future, but the timing was a little off,” said Ed O’Connor, former head of the Spaceport Florida Authority, a precursor to Space Florida.

“It showed that it didn’t all have to be controlled by the federal government,” he said. “Lunar Prospector demonstrated that a private entity could do something dramatic and at lower cost.” At the time, O’Connor projected at least four launches a year from Complex 46. Though it didn’t happen there, he said the business concept the site embodied has finally gained wider acceptance.

“I think to a large measure that established the appropriateness of the approach,” he said. “We hoped for more launches than occurred from there, but that wasn’t the goal,” said O’Connor. “The demonstration part has worked exceptionally well, and it was a very minor investment. If you look at it in that framework, 46 did its job.” (8/23)

LC-46 and the Future Small Launcher Market (Source: SPACErePORT)
LC-46 was developed by the Navy for ground-based testing of Trident submarine-launched missiles. In the 1990s, Florida struck a deal with the Navy to host commercial rockets, initially including Taurus, Athena, and a rocket proposed by Alliant TechSystems. All were solid-fueled-first-stage rockets (the launch pad has no infrastructure for liquid fuels). Another limitation of the site is the 'throat' of the flame trench, which was designed to handle the exhaust of Trident launches. Luckily, most potential small-rocket users fit within this limit, although the Alliant rocket would have used a raised launch mount and flame deflector to bypass the flame trench.

After this week's Minotaur launch, the only firm mission planned at LC-46 is a long-delayed NASA Orion abort system test in 2019, which will also use a Minotaur booster. Space Florida successfully added LC-46 to the Air Force's list of available launch sites for Minotaur, which are composed of repurposed Minuteman and Peacekeeper ICBM stages. But most Minotaur missions are conducted from Virginia, California or Alaska due to their payloads' orbital requirements. The Minotaurs currently are for Government-use only, but Orbital ATK has lobbied to broaden their availability for commercial missions, which could increase their use at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport.

Meanwhile, other commercial launchers had expressed interest in using LC-39C, a NASA-proposed small-vehicle pad within the fenceline of LC-39B. LC-39B, of course, will host NASA's huge SLS rocket and possibly also an Orbital ATK vehicle that would use a Shuttle-heritage SLS solid rocket booster as its first stage. Companies like Rocket Lab, Firefly, Rocket Crafters, and Vector have considered LC-39C, but the pad may not be available due to its interference with SLS requirements. The situation at LC-39C could make LC-46 (with some infrastructure improvements) the Cape's site of choice for the new crop of small vertical launchers...if they don't choose other spaceports in Virginia, Georgia, or overseas. (8/24)

Bizarre Dead Star May Be a Remnant of a Mini Stellar Explosion (Source: Space.com)
A strange dead star may be a remnant of what was essentially a miniature supernova, a new study finds. The properties of this bizarre star may help shed light on how the unusual supernova that created it formed, the study's researchers said. The scientists investigated white dwarfs, which are superdense, Earth-size cores of dead stars that are left behind after stars have exhausted their fuel and shed their outer layers. (8/23)

Japanese Company Plans Second Launch of Privately-Funded Suborbital Rocket This Year (Source: Space News)
A Japanese company whose first sounding rocket launch last month failed to reach space will try again by the end of the year as it continues work on a small launch vehicle.

Interstellar Technologies performed the first launch of Momo, the first privately developed sounding rocket in Japan, on July 30 from a site on the coast of Hokkaido. However, the rocket reached only a peak altitude of 20 kilometers, far short of the planned apogee of 100 kilometers, the commonly-used demarcation for space known as the Karman Line. (8/23)

Ukraine Investigation Concludes No North Korean Support (Source: Space News)
An investigation by the Ukrainian government has concluded the country did not transfer engine technology to North Korea. Oleksandr Turchynov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, informed Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in a letter Tuesday that Ukrainian technology did not assist North Korea's missile program.

The letter stated that the RD-250 engine that was the focus of a report last week by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) had not been produced in Ukraine since 1991, and that inventories of the engine have been accounted for. The letter also criticized Russia for carrying out a disinformation campaign against Ukraine and suggested the IISS report's author, Michael Elleman, "was cynically used by Russian special services" in that effort. (8/23)

China Winning Foreign Satellite Orders (Source: Space News)
China's satellite industry is gaining interest, and winning orders, from foreign operators. China Great Wall Industry Corp. (CGWIC) sold two DFH-4 communications satellites earlier this year to operators in Indonesia and Thailand, after primarily selling satellites to domestic operators and to countries with fledgling space programs. CGWIC believes that the growing maturity and reliability of its satellites is helping it win orders from from more established companies. (8/23)

SpaceX Reveals Spacesuit (Source: Elon Musk)
Elon Musk has revealed the first image of the spacesuit that astronauts flying on the crewed version of the company's Dragon spacecraft will wear. In an Instagram post early Tuesday, Musk released the image of upper part of the suit, white with black accents. Musk said the suit pictured is an actual flight model, not a mockup, and has been tested to "double vacuum pressure." He said he will release more images of the suit in the coming days. Click here. (8/23)

New Mexico Spaceport Risks Being "Overtaken" By Competitors (Source: NMPolitics.net)
Backers of New Mexico's Spaceport America are worried about competition from other states. The custom-built spaceport has been hampered by tight funding and delays in the operations of its anchor tenant, Virgin Galactic. The spaceport's supporters say that without additional support from the state, including funding for operations and additional infrastructure, New Mexico risks being "overtaken" by other states that are now spending more on commercial spaceport facilities in their states. Critics of the spaceport have complained about a lack of return on the investment the state has already made on Spaceport America. (8/23)

Russia Expects 25 Launches This Year (Source: Tass)
Russia expects to carry out 25 launches this year. The head of Roscosmos, Igor Komarov, said that, despite performing only 11 launches so far this year, current manifests call for increasing that to up to 25 by the end of the year. Komarov said Russia would also perform 25 launches in 2018 before a "surge" in launch activity in 2019. (8/23)

U.S. Army Vet, Floridian Set to Start Astronaut Training (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Taking risks is nothing new to Frank Rubio. Growing up in Los Angeles, he was the one who’d jump at new experiences, the one who’d instantly sign up for an adventure. Now, that spirit could take him into space. The 41-year-old Miami resident is among the 12 in the next group of NASA astronauts, a class selected from a record 18,353 applicants. They will start a two-year training program at Johnson Space Center in Houston this month. (8/22)

Spaceport Study Shows 'Significant Economic Impact' (Source: Brunswick News)
A spaceport in Camden County would have a “significant economic impact upon Coastal Georgia,” according to a study released this week by Georgia Southern University. The study includes the impact of a 15-month construction project for the spaceport and associated infrastructure.

“Construction impact includes $7.21 million in direct revenue which grows to $9.23 million as these direct revenues move through the economy,” according to the study. Once in operation, Spaceport Camden could generate $16.9 million in direct revenue, growing to an estimated $22.5 million, the study suggests. The estimates are based on employment figures discussed in the ongoing FAA’s environmental impact study. (8/24)

Georgia Spaceport Opponents Point to Continued Problems in Other States (Source: Spaceport Facts)
Taking issue with a county-produced Economic Assessment Summary for the proposed Georgia spaceport, opponents are pointing to the continued financial challenges and lackluster economic returns of spaceports in other states.

"As an example, Virginia’s MARS Spaceport, has been in operation since 2005 and has launched a total of 9 rockets between 2012 and 2016. MARS Spaceport generated net operating LOSSES in 2015 of $14 million and in 2016 of $17 million for a total LOSS of $31 million the past two years alone. All losses are at the expense of Virginia taxpayers. Alaska’s Kodiak Spaceport has likewise required millions of dollars in annual subsidies from taxpayers despite having Department of Defense contracts."
 
"Camden’s so-called Study assumes that its spaceport will generate $16 million a year in positive revenue from 12 launches. Since a medium-lift rocket launch at MARS costs $600,000 (documented from the Virginia Commercial Space Authority 2016 Audit), the greatest revenue that Camden could competitively produce would be $7.2 million if they launch more rockets per year than MARS and Kodiak have launched in total over the past 5 years." (8/23)

NASA, UA Partner to Test Planetary Defense Systems (Source: The Daily Wildcat)
The University of Arizona is partnering with NASA and observatories across the world to observe an asteroid named 2012 TC4. The purpose of this experiment, which is the first of its kind, is to test humanity's capabilities to defend itself from extraterrestrial  threats, such as asteroids and to assess overall strengths and weaknesses of the current tracking and detection systems, according to NASA. (8/23)

Harris Corp Captures Footage of Solar Eclipse From Space (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
A 7-second clip posted on YouTube by Harris Corporation showed the moon’s shadow crossing the U.S. during Monday’s solar eclipse. The scientific phenomenon pushed a large portion of the country into a short period of mid-day darkness. The footage was captured by Harris’ Advanced Baseline Imager, a high-powered camera embedded within the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite. Click here. (8/23)

Getting NASA to Comply With Simple FOIA Requests Is a Nightmare (Source: Motherboard)
Trying to effectively use the Freedom of Information Act can be hell. Maybe a police department will demand a ridiculous and seemingly arbitrary fee to collect records, or perhaps an agency simply won't respond to requests. Judging by Motherboard's own requests as well as those from Freedom of Information organizations, one government body in particular stands out for turning FOIA requests into a nightmare: NASA.

Freedom of Information Act requests are used by journalists, private citizens, and government watchdogs to acquire public documents from government agencies. FOIA.gov puts it simply: "FOIA is a law that gives you the right to access information from the federal government. It is often described as the law that keeps citizens in the know about their government."

FOIAing NASA, however, can be an exercise in futility. In one recent case, Motherboard requested all emails from a specific NASA email address with a specific subject line (Motherboard is not publishing this particular request because we are still pursuing these documents). Other government agencies have completed similar requests with no problems. NASA, however, said it was "unclear what specific NASA records you are requesting." Possibly the only way to be more specific is to knock on NASA's door and show them a printout of what an email is. (8/22)