February 12, 2018

Russian Cargo Mission Launch Scrubbed at Last Minute (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
The launch of a Progress cargo spacecraft to the ISS was scrubbed early Sunday. The countdown for the Soyuz launch of the Progress MS-08 spacecraft was halted less than a minute before the scheduled liftoff time of 3:58 a.m. Eastern. Roscosmos had planned to use the launch to test an accelerated approach to the ISS that would have brought the Progress to the station three and a half hours after launch. The launch has been rescheduled for no earlier than Tuesday morning, using the more traditional two-day approach to the station. A similar last-minute scrub took place during a previous Progress launch attempt in October, which had also planned to test the fast approach to the station. (2/12)

China Launches More NavSats (Source: GB Times)
China launched another pair of Beidou navigation satellites early Monday. A Long March 3B rocket lifted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 12:03 a.m. Eastern and placed the two satellites into medium Earth orbits. The launch was the seventh this year for China and brings the total number of Beidou satellites launched to date to 29. (2/12)

Chinese Rocket Parts, With Deadly Hydrazine, Rain Down on Town (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
Following the successful launch of two Beidou satellites on Monday, residents downrange of the launch site suffered the fall of hazardous debris and deadly hydrazine fuel from the Long March 3B rocket. Click here. (2/12)

Cubesat Operators Intend to Honor 25-Year Deorbit Guideline (Source: Space News)
Operators of large constellations of cubesats say it's a priority for them to abide by the 25-year deorbiting guideline. Officials with Planet and Spire said at a conference last week that they ensure their satellites can reenter within 25 years of the end of the lives, a guideline established by the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee and often a requirement when obtaining FCC or other licenses. Other companies in the process of developing cubesat and other smallsat constellations said abiding by the guideline, intended to mitigate the creation of additional orbital debris, is a priority for them as well. (2/12)

NASA Scientists Gets Turkish Prison Sentence (Source: Science)
A Turkish-American NASA scientist has been sentenced to seven and a half years in prison in Turkey. Serkan Golge, who had been working as a NASA scientist studying the effects of radiation on astronauts, was arrested in Turkey in the aftermath of a 2016 coup attempt while visiting family there. Golge was accused of being a supporter of the Islamic cleric the government claims was the backer of the coup, a claim he and his family deny. A U.S. State Department spokesperson said the government was "deeply concerned" about the conviction. (2/12)

Proposed NASA Budget Avoids Giant Leap Toward the Moon (Source: Ars Technica)
The budget to be proposed for NASA on Monday will offer some preliminary support for a lunar exploration program, but has no specific timelines for when humans might return to the surface of the Moon—nor funding to make such an ambitious undertaking happen. Although Congress sets the budget for the United States, this document offers a good overview of the Trump administration's plans for NASA.

The FY 2019 budget provides a top-line number of $19.892 billion for NASA, an increase over the FY 2018 budget of $19.519 billion that is largely attributable to the recent budget agreement passed by Congress, which raises spending levels for defense and discretionary spending. The budget makes several structural changes to NASA's budget, including ending funding for a separate "Space Technology" directorate created by the Obama administration, and rolling that research into the "Deep Space Exploration Systems" account.

It also adds $150 million for a new program to speed up the commercialization of low-Earth orbit, because the White House would like to see NASA funding for the International Space Station end in 2025. Perhaps the most significant thing about this budget proposal is that, although the White House has made a big show about returning humans to the surface of the Moon, there are no giant leaps toward that goal in this plan. Rather there are incremental steps that, if followed over the next decade, may allow astronauts to eventually set foot on the lunar surface again. (2/12)

Marshall Tech Cleans Your Air, Keeps Your Beer Cold and Helps with Math (Source: Space Daily)
As rockets roar off of launch pads and spacecraft beam data back from distant planets, the technologies that enable those mighty feats are being put in your hands every day as products and technologies called spinoffs. They are the result of NASA's innovation being put in the hands of the public where new tools and goods to improve life on Earth are born. Click here. (2/12)

Falcon Heavy Finally Takes Flight (Source: Space Review)
SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket successfully launched last week after years of development delays. Jeff Foust reports on the launch and what the future prospects are for the heavy-lift rocket. Click here. (2/12)

American Signals Intelligence Satellites and the Vietnam War (Source: Space Review)
Signals intelligence satellites played a role monitoring Soviet activities during a key event late in the Vietnam War. Dwayne Day describes how that took place and how it marked the changing use of intelligence satellites. Click here. (2/12)

SLS: To Be or Not To Be, or To Be Something Else Entirely (Source: Space Review)
The Falcon Heavy launch creates additional scrutiny for NASA’s Space Launch System, which is still years away from a first launch and will cost far more to develop and operate. Dick Eagleson suggests it’s time to redesign the SLS to incorporate reusability and lower costs, or else it faces an eventual cancellation. Click here. (2/12)

Why Couldn’t NASA Do This? (Source: Space Review)
The successful test launch of the Falcon Heavy demonstrates, to some, the growing capabilities of the private sector in space compared to agencies like NASA. Mark Wessels argues that it’s time to revisit the roles, and risk acceptance, of NASA and the private sector. Click here. (2/12)

Man to Mannequin: Is This Progress? (Source: Space Review)
The images of a sports car launched into space on the test flight of a Falcon Heavy last week attracted the attention of people around the world. Ajey Lele, though, sees the event as a demonstration of the lack of progress in spaceflight in the last half-century. Click here. (2/12)

DARPA Planning Responsive Launch Competition (Source: Space News)
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which has a checkered history of supporting development of new launch vehicles, is planning to start a competition offering prizes for responsive launch systems. The DARPA Launch Challenge won’t be formally announced until April, but Fred Kennedy, director of DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office, said it is part of an effort to harness growing commercial capabilities to address threats to national security space assets.

“We want to be able to enable proliferation and disaggregation of our systems.” One approach for doing so is a prize competition DARPA is developing for responsive launch, intended to foster the development of vehicles that can launch on short notice and from a variety of locations. Kennedy said details about the competition, including the specific rules and the prize purse, are still being developed. (2/12)

The Lowdown on NASA's Proposed $19.8B Budget Request (Source: The Verge)
The Trump administration wants to allocate an additional $150 million for NASA to start a new program that will help commercial companies expand their activities in lower Earth orbit — where the space station resides. However, the specifics of that program and how the money will be used have yet to be defined. Though the administration has threatened to cut Earth Science altogether, the program still receives $1.784 billion under the request, slightly cut from the $1.907 billion it received in 2017. Once again, the administration plans to completely cut NASA’s Education program, which funds grants and scholarship programs for students.

The budget request also calls for NASA to pursue a campaign that “will establish US preeminence to, around, and on the Moon,” but it doesn’t call for any drastic changes to NASA’s programs, so those lunar ambitions may just stay ambitions for some time. The budget request calls for NASA to pursue a campaign that “will establish US preeminence to, around, and on the Moon,” but it doesn’t call for any drastic changes to NASA’s programs, so those lunar ambitions may just stay ambitions for some time. (2/12)

New SpaceX Drone Ship, A Shortfall of Gravitas, Coming to East Coast (Source: Florida Today)
A new SpaceX drone ship currently under construction will likely call the Space Coast home and help the company handle increased Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy operations, CEO Elon Musk said Monday. The company's third ship, named A Shortfall of Gravitas, will join Of Course I Still Love You for East Coast landing operations, Musk said via Twitter. The latter is based at Port Canaveral and returns Falcon 9 boosters to facilities near the port for post-launch checkouts.

Musk also confirmed that for Falcon Heavy missions, the rocket's two side boosters will not always return to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station like they did during last week's premiere launch. In some cases involving tight fuel margins and heavy satellites, having two ships based on the Space Coast will mean both sail out at the same time and play host to tandem ocean landings. (2/12)