February 14, 2018

NASA Budget Proposal Includes Full Funding for Supersonic Plane Program (Source: Space.com)
The Trump administration's fiscal year 2019 budget proposal for NASA includes full funding for an experimental supersonic airplane that could one day transport commercial-airline passengers faster than the speed of sound. Known as the Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator (LBFD), this X-plane is scheduled to make its first test flight as early as 2021 and "would open a new market for U.S. companies to build faster commercial airliners, creating jobs and cutting cross-country flight times in half," the White House budget request states. The goal of supersonic aircraft like LBFD is to make commercial airplanes that can fly faster than the speed of sound without generating a loud and obnoxious sonic boom. (2/14)

Why the Market is Ready for On-Orbit Satellite Servicing (Source: Via Satellite)
Although the technology driving in-orbit satellite servicing has existed for decades, only now has the market evolved to a point where it is economically feasible as a business. According to a panel of experts at a Washington Space Business Roundtable (WSBR) discussion on Feb. 12, the convergence of lower launch costs and shifting priorities for Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellite operators has made the idea of in-orbit servicing more commercially viable than in past years.

Tim Deaver, vice president of development for SES Government Solutions, pointed to the dropping cost of satellite capacity as a critical element of the shift. As the industry experiences a downturn in the price of bandwidth (and thus, the revenue any one satellite generates), operators are brainstorming new ways to make the most out of their aging assets, he said.

The panelists agreed this is particularly true for operators that own a limited number of satellites critical to their businesses. Company leaders are seeking new, more creative paths to extend their growth trajectories and, in the process, are softening their traditionally risk-averse postures, said Joe Anderson, director of mission extension vehicle services at Orbital ATK. (2/13)

Commercial Space Ventures Hail NASA Opportunities in Orbit and on the Moon (Source: GeekWire)
The Trump administration’s proposed shift to commercial partners for space operations in low Earth orbit as well as on and around the moon is getting a predictably positive reception from those potential partners. “This moment here, with the shift to the moon, is what we’ve waited 10 years for,” John Thornton, CEO of Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic, told Geekwire. Astrobotic has been working on a series of private-sector lunar landing missions and is now looking forward to heightened interest from NASA.

Over the next few years, hundreds of millions of dollars would be set aside for private-sector moon missions and for commercial ventures in low Earth orbit — either by putting private ventures in charge of the U.S. segment of the International Space Station, or by establishing new orbital platforms. Robert Bigelow, founder of Nevada-based Bigelow Aerospace, said the shift toward commercialization is “Earth-shattering news.”

Two other private ventures, Axiom Space and NanoRacks, have their own plans for orbital space platforms. Axiom Space would consider incorporating some elements of the International Space Station into its own commercial station if they became available sometime after 2024. “We would continue on the work that was already begun on the ISS without throwing it all away,” Axiom Space CEO Michael Suffredini told CNBC. (2/12)

Crypto-Currency Craze 'Hinders Search for Alien Life' (Source: BBC)
Scientists listening out for broadcasts by extra-terrestrials are struggling to get the computer hardware they need, thanks to the crypto-currency mining craze, a radio-astronomer has said. SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) researchers want to expand operations at two observatories. However, they have found that key computer chips are in short supply.

"We'd like to use the latest GPUs [graphics processing units]... and we can't get 'em," said Dan Werthimer. Demand for GPUs has soared recently thanks to crypto-currency mining. "That's limiting our search for extra-terrestrials," Dr. Werthimer told the BBC. "This is a new problem, it's only happened on orders we've been trying to make in the last couple of months."

Other radio-astronomers have been affected. A group looking for evidence of the earliest stars in the universe was recently shocked to see that the cost of the GPUs it wanted had doubled. "We're in the process of expanding our telescope - we got a grant from the National Science Foundation here in the United States to do so," said Aaron Parsons at the University of California at Berkeley. (2/14)

Elon Musk Explains Why SpaceX's Falcon Heavy Core Booster Crashed (Source: Space.com)
That core booster, which was expected to land offshore on SpaceX's drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You," crashed when two of three engines did not fire during a final landing burn, Musk told reporters after the launch. The booster missed the landing ship by about 328 feet (100 meters) and hit the water at 300 mph (484 km/h), damaging thrusters on the nearby droneship, Musk has said.

On Monday, we learned a bit more in Musk's Twitter posts. The two engines did not fire because they ran out of ignition fluid, Musk said. "Not enough ignition fluid to light the outer two engines after several three engine relights," Musk wrote. "Fix is pretty obvious." That suggests a fix might involve simply adding more ignition fluid, though Musk did not elaborate. (2/14)

5 Things to Know About the International Space Station (Source: AJC)
Frank Slazer, the vice president of space systems for the Aerospace Industries Association, told the Washington Post, "It will be very hard to turn ISS into a truly commercial outpost because of the international agreements that the United States is involved in. It's inherently always going to be an international construct that requires U.S. government involvement and multinational cooperation." Click here. (2/14)

Microsoft Edge Boosts SpaceShipTwo Into Virtual Space (Source: GeekWire)
Virgin Galactic hasn’t yet started taking tourists into space on its SpaceShipTwo rocket plane, but the company now offers a virtual SpaceShipTwo tour on its website, with a big assist from Microsoft Edge Web Showcase. The upgraded website is a lot clickier — and continues to provide basic information about Virgin Galactic as well as videos, stills and online updates. But the centerpiece is a 3-D, VR-enhanced digital model of VSS Unity, the SpaceShipTwo plane that’s undergoing tests at California’s Mojave Air and Space Port. (2/13)

The Falcon Heavy is an Absurdly Low-Cost Heavy Lift Rocket (Source: Ars Technica)
Now that SpaceX's new rocket is finally flying, we can directly compare costs between this new booster and an existing rocket in its class, the Delta IV Heavy, as well as NASA's upcoming heavy lift booster, the Space Launch System. And upon direct comparison, the cost disparities are sobering, proving that commercial development of large rockets likely represents the future of the industry. The Falcon Heavy rocket, with reusable side boosters, costs $90 million. For a fully expendable variant of the rocket, which can lift a theoretical maximum of 64 tons to low-Earth orbit, the price is $150 million.

Only ULA's Delta IV Heavy rocket has this capability today. It is more expensive, but how much more is a matter of some debate. Tory Bruno this week said the Delta IV Heavy costs about $350 million per flight, which is strikingly lower than he cited during a congressional hearing in 2015: "A Delta IV, depending on the configuration, costs between $400 and $600 million." Moreover, the costs referenced by Bruno exclude a "launch capability contract" worth about $1 billion annually, and ULA will make the last flight of a Delta IV Medium rocket in 2019, shifting all of the Delta's fixed costs to the Heavy variant. This will push the per-flight cost above $600 million, and perhaps considerably higher, in the early 2020s.

NASA's Space Launch System will have 6 tons more lift capacity than the Falcon Heavy, and a bigger fairing to carry wider payloads. However, NASA annually spends about $2.6 billion to develop the SLS rocket and ground systems at Kennedy Space Center. Its debut has slipped from 2017 to 2020, costing $7.8 billion more. This $7.8 billion alone could buy 86 reusable Falcon Heavy launches, or 3000 tons of lift for a heck of a moonbase. (2/14)

In Oman Desert, European Venture Sets Sights on Mars (Source: Space Daily)
Would-be astronauts in aluminium-coated suits venture out in rovers from a sprawling camp in Oman's barren desert: a simulation by a European venture aiming to one day help humans survive on Mars. Behind a barbed wire fence protected by soldiers from the Gulf sultanate, researchers in prefab facilities work away on experiments that include trying to grow vegetables in inhospitable terrain chosen for its resemblance to the red planet. Run by the Austrian Space Forum, a mainly volunteer collective, with the backing of the Omani government, the AMADEE-18 Mars Analog Mission has brought together researchers, inventors, space professionals and enthusiasts. (2/13)

Some Space Startups See Advantages in Canada (Source: Financial Post)
Some satellite startups see advantages to operating from Canada. Kepler Communications, a Toronto company planning a constellation of 50 small satellites to provide communications for Internet of Things applications, launched its first satellite last month on a Chinese rocket. As a Canadian company, it faces fewer restrictions on its choice of launch vehicles than U.S. companies, one Canadian entrepreneur noted, allowing it to take advantage of low-cost Chinese launches. (2/14)

Planet Could Leave Canada Over Ground Station License Delays (Source: Space News)
Planet says it will remove a ground station it set up in northern Canada unless it receives a long-delayed license from the government by June. Planet built the ground station in Canada's Northwest Territories to serve its constellation of Earth-imaging satellites, but is awaiting a remote-sensing license from Global Affairs Canada. A company official speaking Tuesday at the Canadian SmallSat Symposium said that if the company doesn't receive the license by June 1, the two-year anniversary of its application, it will remove the dishes and seek an alternate location, such as Norway. Planet said it has received little in the way of explanation from the government for the delay in processing its application. (2/14)

China Launching Toward Record-Breaking Year (Source: Xinhua)
China, meanwhile, is well on its way to a record-breaking year of launch activity in 2018. The country has performed seven launches so far this year, with 35 Long March launches planned for all of 2018. Of those, eight will carry pairs of Beidou navigation satellites as China works to complete a system designed to be on par with GPS and Glonass. The country's largest current rocket, the Long March 5, is expected to return to flight in the latter half of the year after a failed launch last July. (2/14)

Air Force Procuring Improved GPS Satellites (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Air Force is kicking off a "full and open competition" for a new set of GPS satellites. The service issued a solicitation for bids Tuesday for 22 GPS 3 satellites, with production anticipated to start in 2019. The Air Force has a contract for 10 GPS 3 satellites with Lockheed Martin, but is seeking improved designs that are more resistant to jamming. The contract could be worth up to $10 billion, and Boeing and Northrop Grumman are expected to compete against Lockheed for the award. (2/14)

NOAA Budget Proposal Restores Satellite Funding (Source: Space News)
NOAA's fiscal year 2019 budget request would restore an earlier schedule for two future weather satellites. The proposal increases funding for the Polar Follow On program for the third and fourth JPSS polar-orbiting satellites, folding it into the existing JPSS-2 program. The proposal restores launch readiness dates of 2024 and 2026 for JPSS-3 and 4, respectively, after the 2018 budget request suggested those spacecraft could be delayed. The budget proposal also increases funding for the office within NOAA that licenses commercial remote-sensing satellite systems to address its growing workload, and for the Office of Space Commerce to help it serve as a "single point of entry" for companies seeking to sell satellite data to federal agencies. (2/14)

NASA Budget Proposal Eliminates Jupiter Lander (Source: Space.com)
NASA's 2019 budget proposal includes no funding for a mission to land on Jupiter's moon Europa. The budget, while supporting the continued development of the Europa Clipper multiple-flyby mission, does not include money for the follow-on lander mission. The agency's 2018 request also included no funding for the lander, although a House spending bill did add it. The final 2018 appropriations have yet to be finalized. Despite the lack of funding for the Europa lander in the request, NASA Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot noted in a speech this week that the agency is "well on our way to landing a probe there" to determine if the moon is habitable. (2/14)

Danish Architect Envisions Life on Mars with UAE-Based Mars Science City (Source: Mars Daily)
Could humans ever live on Mars? Award-winning architect gave a positive answer and even a timescale to this question: in 100 years. Bjarke Ingels, named by Time magazine in 2016 as among the "100 Most Influential People in the World," said he had already been working at the first step of human's occupation of the planet - a project called Mars Science City.

The $140 million research city is a "viable and realistic model to simulate living on the surface of Mars," according to the government of United Arab Emirates (UAE), which launched the project last year. "We want to create a prototype where you can experience how it's going to feel like living in Mars, and for education, research and exhibitions," said Ingels, who is also the designer of the project, at the World Government Summit 2018 held in Dubai Monday. (2/14)

Capture the Flag: NASA's Continued Focus on Commercial Crew (Source: Space Daily)
Both Boeing and SpaceX plan to fly test missions without crew to the space station prior to test flights with a crew onboard this year. After each company's test flights, NASA will work to certify the systems and begin post-certification crew rotation missions. The current flight schedules for commercial crew systems provide about six months of margin to begin regular, post-certification crew rotation missions to the International Space Station before contracted flights on Soyuz flights end in fall 2019.

As part of the agency's normal contingency planning, NASA is exploring multiple scenarios as the agency protects for potential schedule adjustments to ensure continued U.S. access to the space station. One option under consideration would extend the duration of upcoming flight tests with crew targeted for the end of 2018 on the Boeing CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX Crew Dragon. The flights could be extended longer than the current two weeks planned for test flights, and likely less than a six-month full-duration mission. The agency also is assessing whether there is a need to add another NASA crew member on the flight tests. (2/14)

China’s Reckless Attitude to Space Debris Needs to Change (Source: New Scientist)
Residents of Xiangdu in southern China pointed their smartphones skyward at an object tumbling from the heavens last month. In online footage, the object explodes in fields on a hillside outside town. It turned out to be a strap-on booster from a rocket that had launched two navigation satellites from a site 700 kilometers away. To reinforce the suspicion that this was no accident, the same thing happened again in the same region this week, with similar images of exploding debris near buildings. It was sheer luck no one was killed. The re-entry of China's space station is another looming drama. (2/14)

Vector Announces Five Orbital Launch Reservation with Open Cosmos (Source: Vector Space)
Vector and Open Cosmos announced an agreement to reserve five orbital launches between 2019 and 2023 on the Vector-R launch vehicle. The announcement comes in advance of Vector's first orbital launch in July. Open Cosmos provides end-to-end mission services enabling its clients to focus on in-orbit data. This one-stop-shop to orbit allows companies to have dedicated nanosatellite missions for remote sensing payloads, IoT/telecommunication services, scientific research, or space technology in-orbit demonstrations. Editor's Note: No word on the location of these launches. (2/14)