September 1, 2017

UCF Making a Name for Itself in the World of Planetary Science (Source: UCF)
UCF has diligently and methodically been making a name for itself in the world of planetary exploration, and it’s beginning to pay off in big ways. Not only are two UCF professors part of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission to collect asteroid samples – a first for the United States, but scientists are playing critical roles as NASA and private space companies race to get people back into space.

NASA recognized UCF’s expertise in 2013 when it made the university the base for the Center for Lunar and Asteroid Surface Science (CLASS), one of nine virtual institutes NASA funds to focus on questions concerning space science and human space exploration. CLASS finds itself in a unique position because its experts happen to be in hot demand as NASA and private space companies prepare to send people to other planets. (9/1)

Hubble Looks for Hints of Water in Potentially Livable TRAPPIST-1 Planets (Source: GeekWire)
Do some of the Earth-sized planets around a dwarf star called TRAPPIST-1, just 40 light-years away, have liquid water? Newly reported findings from the Hubble Space Telescope give astrobiologists continued cause for hope.

The seven TRAPPIST-1 planets created a sensation in February because they’re the biggest assemblage of Earth-scale worlds known to exist in a single planetary system. What’s more, three of the planets – known by the letters e, f and g – are in an orbital region where scientists say water could exist in liquid form. (9/1)

Pentagon’s DIUx Unit Looks for Persistent IImagery, Small Rockets and Broadband Networks (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx), a group charged with finding cutting-edge technologies to solve national security problems, is looking for space companies to provide persistent Earth observation, responsive launch capabilities and something like an Internet in space.

Since the commercial sector brings technologies to the marketplace more quickly and less expensively than the Defense Department, “the takeaway is we should leverage these capabilities to help keep the U.S. at the forefront of space,” Butow said. DIUx does that by dispensing with traditional Defense Department contracting rules. Instead of publishing lengthy requirements, DIUx identifies a problem and asks companies to explain how their commercial technologies could address it. Then, DIUx often pays companies to build prototypes of their technological solutions. (9/1)

1 Year After Falcon 9 Explosion, SpaceX Makes 2017 its Banner Year (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
One year ago, on Sept. 1, 2016, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded at Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) in Florida during a seemingly routine static fire test. The fireball destroyed not only the rocket and a large portion of the launch pad, but also a satellite belonging to the Israeli company Spacecom, which was scheduled to launch just three days later. The company has come a long way since then.

The explosion was later deemed to have been caused by a buckled liner in one of the carbon overwrapped pressure vessels that allowed super-cooled liquid oxygen to accumulate, which was ignited by friction. The investigation was competed by January of 2017. Because the explosion damaged a large portion of SLC-40, SpaceX accelerated its work to complete modifications to Launch Complex 39A in order to resume launching Falcon 9 rockets sooner. Once work was completed and the first rocket launched, repair work on SLC-40 began. Click here. (9/1)

2017 Seeing a Higher Accident Rate (Source: Ars Technica)
India's PSLV failure was the fifth orbital rocket failure of 2017 according to data kept by Space Launch Report. Whereas the traditional rocket powerhouses of Russia, the United States and Europe have enjoyed success, some of the relative newcomers have faltered. Of this year's 54 orbital launch attempts, the five failures have been the Indian rocket, a Chinese Long March 5 rocket, a Chinese CZ-3B rocket, Rocket Lab's first attempt of its Electron launch vehicle, and an experimental Japanese orbital rocket, the SS-520-4.

Given that four months remain in 2017, this could be a relatively bad year for orbital rocket success, although some of this may be attributable to the experimentation of Rocket Lab and others. During this decade, about one in 20 orbital launches have failed, with an average of 4.4 launch failures per year. The last time six or more rockets failed in a given year was 2011. (9/1)

China Plans to Launch 156 Low Earth Orbit Satellites by 2025 (Source: People's Daily)
China plans to launch 156 small satellites by 2025 to provide Internet services in low signal areas and places with adverse natural environment, according to an announcement by China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC). Due to environmental conditions of deserts, mountains and seas, half of the world's population has no access to the Internet, and the information deficiency hampers local development, according CASIC.

It will be China's first broadband Internet access system with small satellites hovering in low orbit, which will also help meet the needs of commercial space development, it said. The project, named Hongyun, plans to send the first satellite by 2018, and launch four more to gain preliminary experience by 2020. By the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), CASIC plans to have all of the 156 satellites in operation. (9/1)

Plans Unveiled for Multiple Chinese Solid Rocket Launches and Reusable Spacecraft (Source: GB Times)
The developer and producer of new Chinese solid-fuelled rockets has unveiled plans to launch four Kuaizhou-1A rockets within one week next year, while the maiden flight of the heavier Kuaizhou-11 launch vehicle will carry six satellites. China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp (CASIC), a major space contractor, revealed the plans at the Third China International Commercial Aerospace Forum held in the city of Wuhan this week.

The flurry of Kuaizhou-1A launches in 2018 will each carry a remote-sensing satellite into orbit according to Zha Xiongquan, a senior rocket designer at CASIC and vice-president of Expace, a CASIC subsidiary that provides commercial launch services. (9/1)

One Small Step for Lunar Commerce (Source: Air & Space Magazine)
Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic, once considered a frontrunner for Google’s $20 million Lunar XPRIZE until it withdrew from competition last December citing unrealistic deadlines, announced recently that it has chosen United Launch Alliance as its partner for a planned moon landing in 2019—the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11.

While the selection of a ULA Atlas V rocket as Astrobotic’s taxi service to geosynchronous Earth orbit is new, the remainder of the plan has been in place for some time: Astrobotic’s Peregrine landing craft will take three to six months to ride the gravitational fields of Earth, the moon, and sun, then make its final fall to the lunar surface. To go faster costs a lot more. (Peregrine will not be the only passenger aboard that Atlas V, by the way, but Astrobotic spokesperson Carolyn Pace said that the rocket’s “primary” passenger has not been announced.) Click here. (8/31)

Spaceport America Officials to Seek More New Mexico Funding, But it Could be Hard Sell (Source: Santa Fe New Mexican)
Managers of Spaceport America, the state-owned launch facility opened six years ago in the Southern New Mexico desert, will ask to more than double its share of the state’s general fund next year. While a $1 million appropriation, up from $375,900 this year, would still amount to a small portion of state spending, agency officials, who for years have talked about working toward financial self-sufficiency, acknowledge the budget request could be a big ask from legislators who expected the facility would be sending people into space by now. And it comes after the state has made painful budgets cuts across government and nearly emptied reserves.

At a cost of nearly $220 million, the taxpayer-financed Spaceport America opened in 2011 near White Sands Missile Range with plans to serve as the launch site for Virgin Galactic spaceflights. So far, no one has flown into space from the facility, and critics have come to regard it as a boondoggle. But Spaceport America has been the launch site for commercial rockets, and Virgin Galactic is ramping up operations in anticipation of starting regular flights in coming years.

Hicks said additional money from the state’s general fund would help the spaceport catch up on two years’ worth of maintenance that was delayed amid budget cuts. And he said the extra money would allow Spaceport America to hire staff to draw more business. The agency would still cover most of its own budget with revenue from aerospace companies, according to spaceport staff. (9/1)

Additional Cubesats on July 14 Soyuz Flight are Unresponsive (Source: Space News)
At least eight of the nine cubesats sent by the Russian Soyuz 2.1a rocket into a 600-kilometer orbit July 14 alongside a larger spacecraft, the Kanopus-V-IK Russian Earth-imaging satellite, are not responding to commands from their operators.

Three GeoOptics Cicero GPS radio-occultation satellites sent into that orbit are not functioning, according to a source who insisted on anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the program. GeoOptics declined to comment based on a company policy not to confirm the status of individual satellites or launches. In addition, the UTE-UESOR cubesat built cooperatively by Ecuador’s Equinoctial Technological University and the State University of Southwest Russia (UESOR) is not responding, Fausto Rodrigo Freire Carrera, UESOR representative in Ecuador, said by email. (9/1)

Russian Company Denies Launcher is Responsible for Satellite Failures (Source: Space News)
The company that provided launch services for more than 70 satellites on a Soyuz in July denied that a vehicle problem caused the failure of several of those spacecraft. An executive with Glavkosmos said Thursday that an investigation into the July 14 launch concluded that the rocket and its Fregat upper stage worked as planned. At least four satellites carried on that launch failed to make contact with ground stations after deployment, leading some of those satellite operators to wonder if there was some issue with the vehicle. Glavkosmos is continuing to investigate why a Spire cubesat was deployed into the wrong orbit and a Planet cubesat failed to make contact after deployment. (9/1)

Russia Considers Faster Track to ISS Docking (Source: Tass)
Russia is considering having Soyuz spacecraft dock with the International Space Station just three hours after launch. That proposal would allow the Soyuz to dock with the station after just two orbits, half the number of the current "fast track" approach to the station. Before that, it took two days for Soyuz spacecraft to arrive at the ISS after launch. The two-orbit trajectory will be tested on a Progress cargo mission scheduled for launch in October. (9/1)

The First Quantum-Cryptographic Satellite Network Will be Chinese (Source: Economist)
In the never-ending arms race between encryptors and eavesdroppers, many of those on the side that is trying to keep messages secret are betting on quantum mechanics, a description of how subatomic particles behave, to come to their aid. In particular, they think a phenomenon called quantum entanglement may provide an unsubvertable way of determining whether or not a message has been intercepted by a third party. Such interception, quantum theory suggests, will necessarily alter the intercepted message in a recognizable way, meaning that the receiver will know it is insecure.

This phenomenon depends on the fact, surprising but true, that particles with identical properties which are created simultaneously are entangled in a way that means one cannot have its properties altered without also altering the other, no matter how far apart they are. Researchers in several countries have experimented with the idea of quantum encryption, with some success. Their approach, though, suffers from the fact that the signal is absorbed by the medium through which it is passing. The farthest that a quantum signal can be sent through an optical fiber, for example, is about 100km. Sending one farther than that would require the invention of quantum repeaters, devices that could receive, store and re-transmit quantum information securely.

Such repeaters are theoretically possible, but so technologically complex that they remain impossible in practice. But new tests have been made possible by China's launch, in August 2016, of Micius, the world’s first quantum-communication satellite. Micius (named after a Chinese philosopher of the 5th century BC, who studied optics) now orbits Earth at an altitude of 500km. Using it, Dr Pan and his colleagues have been testing the protocols that a global quantum-communications network will need to work. Click here. (9/1)

India Loses NavSat Spare in Launch Failure (Source: Indian Express)
ISRO officials on Thursday put up a brave face and said this failure will not deter them and affect NavIC services in any way. They maintained that four satellites are enough to deliver robust navigation services. Even if IRNSS-1A is taken-off from the NavIC constellation, six will be operational. “As per the original plan, we have two spares ready for contingency measures. So, what we flew was one of the spares,” a senior official said. (9/1)

How NASA Kept the ISS Flying While Harvey Hit Mission Control (Source: The Verge)
In the days before Harvey hit Texas, flight controllers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center outside of Houston had a decision to make: should they evacuate or ride out the storm at the agency’s Mission Control Center? The dilemma wasn’t just about the safety of the flight controllers. These personnel are tasked with flying the International Space Station — a round-the-clock job that can’t be done just anywhere. If there’s a gap in ground communication, it could put the astronauts in danger.

When it comes to sending commands to the orbiting lab, that has to be done on site at JSC. Flight controllers have to be in the Mission Control Center and logged in to do so, primarily for safety reasons. In any given month, somewhere around 50,000 commands are sent to the ISS — including things like orbit correction maneuvers to keep the vehicle in a stable position around Earth or to put the station out of harm’s way from space debris.

Of course, JSC is no stranger to storms and NASA does have its backup plans for disaster scenarios on the ground. There’s the option of moving Mission Control temporarily to a hotel in Round Rock, Texas, before transitioning control more permanently to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. This facility has a lot of spaceflight infrastructure and could potentially support operations for weeks. (9/1)

Decatur [Alabama] Aerospace Lifts Off (Source: Decatur Daily)
Morgan County’s aerospace industry has felt precarious in the past couple years. A recent resurgence is welcome news for Decatur and the county. When Boeing Co. announced in 1997 it would build a rocket plant in Morgan County, everyone recognized the significance. The $450 million plant was to employ up to 3,000 workers in a 2.4 million-square-foot building. It had every appearance of being transformative for the Decatur area, and it was.

Since then, the plant has taken some hits. The commercial satellite business, originally expected to be a constant source of business for Boeing rockets and especially its smaller Delta II, never took off as expected. Production of the Delta II since has ended. Intense budget pressure from the U.S. Department of Defense and NASA contributed to a decision to create United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin Corp. Those same federal financial restraints also cut away at the plant’s massive workforce. More recently, intense competition from SpaceX and other rocket companies has led to more layoffs. The plant now employs 620 workers, a fraction of its original size. (8/31)

North Korean Missiles Test a Stressed U.S. Defense Net (Source: Space News)
The latest North Korean missile tests come at time when the U.S. defensive shield is weakened, missile-defense analysts say, by this summer’s loss of a pair of warships specially outfitted for ballistic-missile defense (BMD). Those two guided-missile destroyers — the USS John S. McCain and USS Fitzgerald — collided with commercial ships, cutting down immediate regional U.S. maritime BMD capability by at least 14 percent.

The chinks in the ocean-going parts of the shield and the subsequent tests, the analysts say, show a need to develop and deploy more space-based sensors to guarantee full and continuous missile-defense coverage. A more robust space-based layer would also provide a more encompassing picture of threats than ship- or land-based radars.

The U.S. does possess a constellation of satellites to warn of missile launches, but what it lacks is enough satellites to provide adequate tracking and target discrimination for a missile traveling through space. And the U.S. is going to need as many viewpoints as possible to monitor North Korea’s increasingly provocative and probing missile tests. (8/31)

PSLV Launch of Indian Navigation Satellite Fails (Source: Space News)
An Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) failed to place a navigation satellite into its planned orbit Aug. 31 when the rocket’s payload fairing failed to deploy. The PSLV lifted off from the Satish Dhawan spaceport. Initial phases of the launch appeared to go as planned, but observers noted that, as the flight progressed, the vehicle appeared to deviate from its planned trajectory according to telemetry displays shown during the webcast.

A launch controller later confirmed that the rocket’s payload fairing, scheduled to separate 3 minutes and 23 seconds after liftoff during the operation of the rocket’s upper stage, had failed to do so. The additional mass of the payload fairing may account for the apparent underperformance of the PSLV’s upper stages, and would also prevent the satellite’s deployment regardless of orbit.

Launch controllers later confirmed that vehicle’s upper stage and payload, the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) 1H satellite, had reached a lower orbit than planned. PSLV has become a popular choice for small satellite developers, who take advantage of frequent launches to sun-synchronous orbits and excess capacity on those missions to fly as secondary payloads. A PSLV launch in February set a record for the most satellites on a single flight, with 104 payloads; all but three were cubesats provided by international customers. (8/31)

NASA’s Centennial Challenges Awards $400K in 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
Phase 1 of the competition took place on Sep. 27, 2015, at the 2015 World Maker Faire in New York. This initial $50,000 design competition required participants to develop state-of-the-art architectural concepts using three-dimensional 3-D printing. In the just-completed Phase 2, participants create recycling systems capable of building structural components using terrestrial and space-based materials and recyclables (e.g., plastics).

Teams developed 3-D printing technologies capable of producing a structurally sound habitat, including the printer itself and the construction materials. The competitors then printed beams, cylinders, and domes, which were analyzed and compressed to failure. Judges scored and awarded the participants based on how well their structures survived these tests.

Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, served as NASA’s primary partner for the competition. Other partners included Caterpillar, Bechtel, and Brick & Mortar Ventures, which helped run the competition. The Challenge occurred, appropriately enough, at the earth-moving company Caterpillar’s Edwards Demonstration and Learning Center in Edwards, Illinois, August 23–26. (8/30)

Multi-Domain Command and Control a Priority for Air Force Space Command (Source: Space Daily)
The Commander of Air Force Space Command emphasized that the ability to effectively operate across multiple warfighting domains simultaneously is paramount to the success of current and future joint operations. "In fact, there is nothing we do as a joint force that isn't enabled by space or cyberspace, and that has significantly increased our lethality."

However, evolving threats have necessitated a shift in how global operations are conducted. Multi-domain command and control will enable America and our allies to address the ever-changing nature of warfare in the twenty-first century. Potential adversaries have witnessed firsthand the advantages space and cyberspace assets provide and are actively seeking the ability to deny access to these systems and the advantages they provide. (8/30)

China's New Kuaizhou-11 Rocket to Send Six Satellites Into Space (Source: Space News)
China's Kuaizhou-11 solid-fuelled carrier rocket will send six satellites into space in its first mission, according to the rocket's developer and producer China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp (CASIC). The company announced the news Wednesday at the Third China (International) Commercial Aerospace Forum in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province. The Kuaizhou-11 rocket will be launched via a mobile launch vehicle. With a lift-off mass of 78 tonnes, the rocket was designed to launch low-Earth and Sun- synchronous orbit satellites. (8/31)

A Look at the New $350M Lockheed Facility Coming to Colorado (Source: KUSA)
Colorado is known for many things, but being the No. 2 aerospace state in the country may come as a shock. Lockheed Martin Space Systems broke ground Thursday on a $350 million Gateway Center that may take Colorado to No. 1. This will be on the company’s campus in Waterton Canyon.

This will be the home to some of the most innovative satellites and spacecraft of the future, and it will also be the last place for assembly and tests before they are launched into space. “We are going to be able to have the capability of producing five to seven satellites simultaneously,” said Derek Johnson, vice president of facilities management at Lockheed. (8/31)

Spire, 40 Cubesats in Orbit, Competing More Directly in Space-Based Ship-Tracking Market (Source: Space News)
Spire is wading deeper into the ship-tracking business, challenging established competitors operating fleets of much bigger satellites. The startup has come a long way since the crowdfunded launch of its first cubesat four years ago. Today, Spire’s constellation numbers 40 cubesats — with more on the way. As its fleet grows, so does its ambition.

The San Francisco-based company debuted two maritime products Aug. 29, a ship-tracking analytics platform called Sense Vessels, and a vessel-location forecaster called Predict, while making thinly veiled jabs at competitors Orbcomm, whose newly launched second-generation constellation has lost six out of 18 satellites, and exactEarth, which lost a satellite in April. (8/31)

National Space Council to Offer Cohesive Strategy, Former Insider Says (Source: Space News)
The Trump administration has identified representatives of the various government agencies who will serve on the National Space Council, which is likely to hold its first meeting “very, very shortly,” Greg Autry, the administration’s former NASA liaison, said. Led by Vice President Mike Pence and Executive Director Scott Pace, the Council will focus on defense and economic policy rather than science and exploration, Autry said. The administration will use the Council to offer a cohesive U.S. government strategy and prevent NASA, DOD, the National Reconnaissance Office and Congress from moving in different directions.

“We all want to achieve a viable space economy and that’s where we should all be moving,” Autry said. Although some people have expressed concern that the National Space Council could become a bottleneck and “things can’t get approved until they go through a contentious space council,” that is unlikely to happen, Autry said. With Pence and Pace at the helm, “I feel confident that this will be a decisive body that will get things done.”

The president and vice president are personally enthusiastic about space, Autry said, adding that Pence is particularly eager to support public-private partnerships. In terms of space exploration, the White House is likely to make “bold, aggressive moves” and to emphasize a return to the moon through a commercial program, Autry said. For example, the administration is likely to support a moon initiative that includes big and small landers, he said. (8/31)