January 16, 2018

Islamic State Viewed from Space (Source: Space News)
Satellite imagery and other space data provided RAND researchers an unprecedented look at life inside the Islamic State, according to a new report. What these images revealed mostly was “economic destruction.” In city after city, “the arrival of the Islamic State meant a plunge into darkness.” By the time Ramadi fell in mid-2015, the Islamic State controlled an area of Iraq and Syria approaching the size of Great Britain. Its advance had been ruthless. RAND researchers wanted to know: What happened to cities and local economies when the Islamic State tried to govern? Satellite observations provides some answers.

Analysts have used satellite data to measure poverty in Kenya and black markets in North Koreas. The same kind of satellite analysis, RAND researchers realized, could provide a remarkably detailed look inside one of the most dangerous places in the world. The researchers collected data on more than 150 cities in Iraq and Syria, month by month. They estimated that as much as a third of the population had fled areas under ISIS control. Factories closed; fields dried up. In Syria, more than 60 percent of the lights went out as ISIS struggled to restore electricity or fuel generators. In Iraq, it was more like 80 percent. (1/16)

Air Force Plans Upgrades to Missile Warning Software (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Air Force is talking to potential vendors this week for an upgrade to software used to control the SBIRS satellites. The "future operationally resilient ground evolution," or FORGE, program seeks to replace the closed, proprietary system with an open system that the Air Force would own and be able to upgrade as new technology becomes available. FORGE is part of a broader SBIRS modernization effort estimated to cost $173.5 million. (1/16)

Japan's Epsilon Rocket to Launch Radar Imaging Satellite (Source: NHK)
Japan's space agency plans to launch a small radar-imaging satellite late Wednesday. JAXA said it is scheduled to launch an Epsilon rocket carrying the ANSARO-2 satellite at 4:06 p.m. Eastern Wednesday (6:06 a.m. local time Thursday), one day later than previously planned because of weather. The launch will be the third for the Epsilon, a rocket developed for small satellites weighing up to several hundred kilograms. ANSARO-2 is a synthetic aperture radar mission developed by NEC Corporation and supported by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. (1/16)

Former Bigelow Official Running for Congress (Source: Frederick News-Post)
A former Bigelow Aerospace employee is running for Congress in Maryland. Chris Hearsey, previously director of legislative affairs for Bigelow, is running as a Democrat for the sixth district in Maryland, which extends from the Washington suburbs to the western panhandle. Hearsey, who holds degrees in space studies and space law, said his background in science and technology is important to address some of the key issues facing the country, from improving rural broadband access to preparing people for jobs in a future, more technological economy. The primary election for the seat is in late June. (1/16)

Chinese Investor Boosts Sri Lankan Satellite Venture (Source: Daily Mirror)
A Chinese billionaire plans to invest in Sri Lanka's satellite operator. Xiaoru Cai, through his company Tatwah Smartech, signed an agreement with SupremeSAT to invest $30 million into the satellite operator to enable its growth. SupremeSAT has a payload on the ChinaSat 12 satellite, marketed as SupremeSAT 1. (1/16)

UK's May Supports Space Bill But Hasn't Appointed Space Minister (Source: Daily Mail)
Theresa May launched her parliamentary bid to allow Britain's first commercial flights into the cosmos - but was blasted after it emerged she has not yet appointed a new Space Minister. MPs debated the Government's new Space Bill today which if passed will allow the creation of a network of 'spaceports' to be built across the UK. This will allow private companies to launch rockets which carry normal people out of the Earth's atmosphere and into galaxy beyond.

Ministers say the Bill will put rocket boosters on the Government's plans to ensure Britain stays at the forefront of the space industry. But the PM was today accused of having a 'black hole' in the heart of her plans after it emerged she has not yet appointed a new Space Minister after her Cabinet reshuffle last week. (1/16)

“Rocket” Madsen Formally Charged with Murder of Kim Wall Aboard Sub (Source: Ars Technica)
Peter Madsen—-the inventor, engineer, and owner of the world's largest amateur-built submarine and head of the eponymous "Rocket Madsen Space Lab" in Denmark-—was formally charged with murdering Kim Wall, a Swedish freelance journalist who had been writing an article about Madsen. Copenhagen Prosecutor Jakob Buch-Jepsen says that Wall's killing was premeditated and called the case “very unusual and extremely disturbing.” (1/16)

NASA Tests X-Ray-Based "Space-GPS" Navigation System (Source: New Atlas)
With GPS it's harder than ever to get lost here on Earth, but deep space is a different story. Mind-boggling distances, three-dimensional travel and a lack of obvious landmarks all complicate spacecraft navigation. Pulsars have been proposed as a solution in the past, and now a NASA team has demonstrated the viability of the idea with an experiment showing that a spacecraft can constantly and automatically calculate its position by tracking the perfectly-predictable X-ray signals from an array of pulsars.

When stars die, they collapse in on themselves, often becoming black holes. But not all stars follow the same fate. Those with a mass between 10 and 29 times that of our Sun tend to turn into a small, dense objects known as neutron stars. With very strong magnetic fields and very fast rotations, some neutron stars blast beams of electromagnetic radiation from their poles, and if Earth is in the path of those beams we can detect the signals as regular "pulses" – hence the name pulsars. (1/15)

Russia Fears U.S. is Planning for Space War (Source: Newsweek)
Russia has accused the U.S. of harboring dangerous hopes to develop and place weapons in space, which Moscow fears could make the state of the world even more fraught. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov made the accusation during his year-in-review press conference on Monday, after claiming that the U.S. had rebuffed a joint attempt by Russia and China to strike a wider agreement on the “militarization of space.”

The idea of using outer space in military strategic planning became increasingly significant during the Cold War, as military and space exploration technology developed. In 1967, Washington, Moscow and most other governments in the world agreed a set of provisions meant to ensure that the use of space should be free of weapons of mass destruction.

Today, the U.S., Russia and other nations with advanced space programs have space-based military capability, at least in so far as using navigation satellites. How much further space can and should be incorporated into military strategy, is a contentious issue. Lavrov accused the U.S. of harboring hopes to place arms in space one day and reissued a reminder of a draft treaty he once personally submitted to the United Nations in 2008, seeking to agree new and heavy limitations on the use of weapons in space. (1/16)

Florida Space Leaders to Visit Capitol on February 14 (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
Promoting the economic impact of the space industry, Florida’s aerospace leaders will visit Tallahassee on February 14, 2018, for Florida Space Day, sharing with legislators the opportunities the industry brings to Florida and the nation. "Thanks to the support from the Florida legislature, the State continues to be at the forefront of space exploration, even with active competition from spaceports in other states and countries," said Pedro Medelius. "And as we experienced in 2017, Florida will once again have a very robust launch manifest in 2018.”

This year’s Florida Space Day participants include AECOM, Abacus Technology, A-C-T Environmental & Infrastructure, AECOM, Aerojet Rocketdyne, ASRC Federal,  Astronaut Scholarship Foundations, Blue Origin, The Boeing Company, CSS Dynamac, Delaware North Companies, Embraer, Energy Florida, Harris Corporation, Jacobs, Lockheed Martin, Millennium Engineering & Integration Company, Northrop Grumman Corporation, Orbital ATK, Space Coast Launch Services, Space Florida, SpaceX, TIP Technologies and United Launch Alliance (ULA). (1/16)

Doubts About SpaceX Reliability Persist As Astronaut Missions Approach (Source: Forbes)
With regard to Falcon 9 reliability, the jury is still out and the evidence is ambiguous. Although SpaceX was quick to assert last week that its Falcon 9 performed as advertised, the secret "Zuma" satellite is the third payload sitting on a Falcon 9 that has been lost in four years. By way of comparison, ULA, SpaceX's sole competitor in the military launch business, hasn't lost a single payload in 12 years and 124 missions.

ULA once again demonstrated its reliability on Jan. 12, lifting a different spy satellite into orbit for the National Reconnaissance Office. ULA is jointly owned by Boeing and Lockheed Martin, two companies with whom I have long relationships, so you might say I'm biased. But the statistics speak for themselves. The launch alliance hasn't seen a single major failure since it was created a dozen years ago; SpaceX has lately been averaging a major setback every year. (1/15)

Virgin Galactic Is Months Away From Bringing Tourists to Space (Source: Travel + Leisure)
Virgin Galactic’s spacecraft the VSS Unity completed a successful glide test last week, keeping the company on track to operate the first space tourist expeditions later this year. The test pushed “Unity’s atmospheric capabilities hard, touching top-end glide speeds as pilots Mark ‘Forger’ Stucky and Michael ‘Sooch’ Masucci completed a busy test card,” the company said in an update.

On Thursday, the Unity was released from its mothership over the Mojave Desert at an altitude of 50,000 feet and began a steep descent. The spacecraft accelerated to Mach 0.9 to test its flight performance, stability and control before safely landing. Over the next few months, the team will add elements to each test flight to closer replicate space exploration. The company is on-time to reach founder Richard Branson’s goal of being on a suborbital test flight by April. Commercial flights are expected to begin by the end of the year. (1/15)