October 23, 2017

Fired Up for the Engine Wars (Source: Space Review)
Last week, Blue Origin announced the successful first hotfire test of its BE-4 engine. Jeff Foust reports on this and other developments as several companies work on new large engines for a variety of new vehicles. Click here. (10/23)
 
Luxembourg’s Space Resources Law Rests on Contentious Relationship with International Framework (Source: Space Review)
Luxembourg recently enacted a law that, like in the United States, grants rights to space resources to the companies that obtain them. Philip De Man argues that the law, which had to be revised to win passage, might not be aligned with relevant space treaties. Click here. (10/23)
 
More Commentary About the National Space Council Meeting (Source: Space Review)
In the second part of his review of the inaugural meeting of the new National Space Council, Mike Snead examines the session’s civil and commercial space panels, with an emphasis on logistics and safety. Click here. (10/23)

NASA Joins a Host of Nations and Companies That Want to Go to Moon (Source: The Verge)
Earlier this month, Vice President Mike Pence made NASA’s new goal clear: the space agency is tasked with sending humans to the surface of the Moon again, this time to create a foundation for deep space missions. Though it’s unclear exactly how the administration plans to pull this off, the new mission is a big change for NASA, which has been focused on going to Mars without a return to the lunar surface.

But while NASA is shifting its focus, everyone else has also been looking to the Moon for some time now. Numerous international state agencies have ambitions to send either spacecraft or humans to the Moon’s surface, and various US space companies see the Moon as a way to make money. If NASA is looking for help to pull off its lunar ambitions — which it likely will need — then there are a lot of governments and companies who may be eager to pitch in. (10/22)

Report Warns NASA to Heed Lessons from Space Shuttle Columbia (Source: Florida Today)
NASA’s safety oversight of a new exploration rocket and crew capsule lacks adequate independence and “diminishes lessons learned from the Columbia accident,” congressional watchdogs warned this week.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office said some key functions have potentially conflicting roles as the agency develops the Space Launch System rocket, Orion capsule and related ground systems for a first launch from Kennedy Space Center in late 2019.

The technical authorities responsible for monitoring engineering and safety concerns simultaneously hold positions that must help keep those programs on schedule and budget. That puts them in the position of "grading their own homework," the report says, and potentially makes them less likely to flag risks that would cost time or money to resolve. (10/23)

Ride a Weather Balloon Into Near Space (Source: New York Times)
Check out this video from NYT's Daily 360 series. Click here. (10/23) 

Three Colorado-Based Projects Make it Onto Popular Science’s 2017 Top 10 Aerospace Inventions (Source: Denver Post)
As 2017 nears its end, “Best of” lists are beginning to roll out. And so far, Colorado’s aerospace industry has been flexing its muscles. Three of the top 10 “most incredible aerospace inventions” of the year, as decided by Popular Science, are projects with roots in Colorado: OSIRIS-REx, GOES-16 weather satellite and the Dream Chaser. (10/23)