January 4, 2018

With Florida Meeting, FAA Spaceflight R&D Center Seeks Industry Partners to Deploy Technologies (Source: FAA COE)
The FAA's Center for Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation seeks industry partners to deploy technologies developed by FAA and partner Universities. This unique center is a partnership of academia, industry and government, developed to address challenges for commercial space transportation. A workshop will be held at the University of Central Florida in conjunction with AIAA SciTech 2018, January 8-12 in Orlando. Industry feedback is vital to the success of research programs conducted by the Center. Click here. (1/4)

China and Nigeria Reach Satellite Deal (Source: Reuters)
The Nigerian government plans to acquire two communications satellites from China. The Nigerian communications minister said Wednesday the government had agreed to a deal for the two satellites, valued at $550 million, with manufacturer China Great Wall Industry Corporation and China Exim Bank. China will get, in return, an equity stake in Nigcomsat, the Nigerian government-owned company responsible for satellite communications. An earlier version of the deal would have required Nigeria to pay 15 percent of the cost of the satellites, but under the new version, the minister said, "we are not putting anything into it in terms of financial resources." (1/4)

India Developing Small Launcher (Source: PTI)
An Indian government official confirmed the country is working on a small satellite launch vehicle. In a written response to questions to the Indian parliament, Jitendra Singh, minister of state for atomic energy and space, said that the Indian space agency ISRO "is working on the design of a Small Satellite Launch Vehicle." He did not provide additional details about the planned vehicle, which earlier reports suggested would be intended to better serve small satellites than the existing Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. (1/4)

Orbital ATK Receives Order for Second In-Orbit Satellite Servicing Vehicle (Source: SpaceRef)
Orbital ATK has been awarded a contract for a second Mission Extension Vehicle (MEV-2). The vehicle was ordered by Intelsat S.A. to provide life extension services for an Intelsat satellite. Orbital ATK is now producing MEV-1, the industry’s first commercial in-space satellite servicing system, for Intelsat with launch scheduled for late 2018. Under this new agreement, Orbital ATK will manufacture, test and launch MEV-2 and begin mission extension services in mid-2020.

The production of the second MEV is part of Orbital ATK’s longer-range plan to establish a fleet of in-orbit servicing vehicles that can address diverse space logistics needs including repair, assembly, refueling and in-space transportation. Editor's Note: Military officials will surely be watching closely as this type of satellite demonstrates the capability to potentially disable an adversary's satellite in space. (1/4)

North Korean Missile Reportedly Failed and Crashed Onto Town Last Year (Source: Business Insider)
North Korea reportedly launched a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missile in April of last year that failed a few seconds into flight and came crashing down on a North Korean city. The Diplomat's Ankit Panda and David Schmerler, of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, cited a US government source as saying the missile failed a minute into flight and never went higher than 70 kilometers.

That initial minute of boosted flight propelled the missile 39 kilometers away to Tokchon, a city of about 200,000 people in North Korea's interior, according to Panda and Schmerler's investigation. (1/4)

Alien Megastructures Around this Star Were Just Dust in the Interstellar Wind (Source: the Verge)
For the last two years, astronomers all over the world have been eagerly observing what is hailed as “the most mysterious star in the Universe,” a stellar object that wildly fluctuates in brightness with no discernible pattern — and now they may finally have an answer for its weird behavior. Scientists are fairly certain that a bunch of dust surrounding the star is to blame. And that means that the more tantalizing explanation — alien involvement — is definitely not the cause.

It’s the most solid solution yet that astronomers have come up with for this star’s odd ways. Named KIC 8462852, the star doesn’t act like any star we’ve ever seen before. Its light fluctuations are extreme, dimming by up to 20 percent at times. And its dips don’t seem to repeat in a predictable way. That means something really big and irregular is passing in front of this star, leading scientists to suggest a number of possible objects that could be blocking the star’s light — from a family of large comets to even “alien megastructures” orbiting the star. (1/3)

NASA Streamlines Management Requirements for Some Science Missions (Source: Space News)
NASA has enacted new policies intended to streamline the management of low-cost science missions with the highest tolerance for risk. The new policies for what are known as Class D missions, briefed at scientific meetings last month and a town hall meeting at NASA Headquarters Jan. 3, will reduce the number of reviews and level of documentation levied on such missions to give them more freedom to take innovative approaches. (1/3)

UrtheCast Close to Securing Funding for Earth Observation Constellation (Source: Parabolic Arc)
UrtheCast says it is close to securing financing to launch a constellation of satellites capable of acquiring daily high-quality, multispectral imagery of locations taken at the same time from the same altitude. The Company is currently working closely with the investor to finalize closing documentation as soon as practicable, with a target completion date for the financing extended to the end of January 2018. Following funding, UrtheCast will have a path to the launch and commercialization of the UrtheDaily Constellation. (1/3)

In 2017, the US Led the World in Launches for the First Time Since 2003 (Source: Ars Technica)
For the United States, last year was a watershed in the launch industry. With 29 orbital launches from US soil, America led the world in total launches in 2017 for the first time in more than a decade. And it wasn't really a close competition, as the United States was followed by Russia, with 20 launches, and China, with 19. More than one-third of successful orbital missions flew from US soil last year.

All of the 29 US launch attempts were successful, whereas Russia had one failure (a Soyuz 2.1b rocket in November), and China had one failure (a Long March 5 rocket in July) and one partial failure (ChinaSat 9A in June). In 2016, the United States tied China for 22 launch attempts. Prior to that, Russia had led the world in orbital launch attempts every year since 2003, when space shuttle Columbia burnt up during its return through Earth's atmosphere. (1/3)

Tiny Ringed Object Beyond Saturn May Reveal Secrets About Giant Planets (Source: Space.com)
Just past Saturn lies a tiny, asteroid-like object with rings of its own. New observations of the object, known as Chariklo, have revealed new insights about the unusual rings and may help solve the mystery of their formation. When it was spotted in 2013, Chariklo was the first tiny solar system object found to have rings, though now a handful of others have been discovered with these features, according to a research paper describing the new observations.

"Until 2013, rings were only known around giant planets," the authors wrote in the paper. "This discovery was thus surprising, and is key to better understanding the planetary rings, since [small-object ring systems] now appear to be more common than previously thought." (1/3)

Air Force Acquisition Nominee a Champion of Commercial Technology (Source: Space News)
President Trump announced Wednesday that he is nominating William Roper to be assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition. Since 2012 Roper has served as director of the Pentagon’s “strategic capabilities office,” an organization he created with then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter to advance efforts to inject innovative technology into the military.

If confirmed, Roper stands to bring a new perspective to Air Force big-ticket acquisitions, including space systems. As the leader of the SCO, Roper was known for contrarian views and for rejecting conventional approaches to weapons acquisitions. He criticized the Pentagon procurement bureaucracy for over-designing systems and building “exquisite” hardware instead of tapping less costly off-the-shelf commercial technology to update existing weapons. (1/3)