March 10, 2018

Space-Based Sensors Needed For Missile Defense Vs. Hypersonics (Source: Breaking Defense)
The Missile Defense Agency needs sensors in orbit to track hypersonic threats, the MDA director said this week. Such satellites would use mature technology and could perform other surveillance missions to help justify their cost. “A ballistic missile is pretty well behaved,”  Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves said, but hypersonics are unpredictable, so you have to keep a closer eye on them.

IBCMs and other ballistic missiles follow a smooth ballistic path trajectory once launched — hence the name — Russia, China, and the US itself are now developing Mach 5-plus hypersonic weapons that can maneuver. (Hypersonics are actually slower than ballistic missiles but much faster than traditional cruise missiles). Since hypersonics can change course at any point, missile defenders need to keep track of them continuously from the time they’re launched.

“We have globally deployed sensors today, but — just look at the globe — there are gaps. What we are looking towards is to move the sensor architecture to space and use that advantage of space, in coordination with our ground assets, to remove the gaps.” “And why is that important?” he said. “The hypersonic threat.” (3/10)

Whoa, Ted Cruz and Bill Nelson Agree on Something (Source: Creative Loafing)
U.S. Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Bill Nelson (D-FL) seem to exist in different universes. One (Nelson) speaks forebodingly about the perils of climate change, including rising seas that threaten low-lying areas of the Sunshine State. The other thinks the concern about climate change is some broad government scheme to take control of energy production and every other aspect of our lives. (No, Ted Cruz really believes that.) Cruz thinks Obamacare is yet another scheme for the government to take over our lives; Nelson, of course, does not.

The list goes on. Yet it's always kind of nice to see that people with such different beliefs can be on the same page about something. Cruz and Nelson penned a letter this week urging the Trump Administration to ditch plans to kill federal funding for the International Space Station by 2025 — with the idea that a bunch of Elon Musks will step up with private cash. The two senators said the facility is far too important to potentially lose. (3/10)

NASA Twins Study Confirms Astronaut's DNA Actually Changed in Space (Source: Newsweek)
Astronaut Scott Kelly’s DNA was altered by a year in space, results from NASA’s Twins Study have confirmed. Seven percent of his genes did not return to normal after he landed, researchers found. Scott Kelly and his twin brother, Mark Kelly—also an astronaut—were the subjects of the study that sought to find out exactly what happens to the body after a year in space.

Scott stayed on the International Space Station from March 2015 to March 2016, while Mark remained on Earth. This was the final mission for Scott, who spent a total of 520 days in space during his career. In 2017, researchers discovered that the endcaps of Scott Kelly’s chromosomes—his telomeres—had become longer while he was in space. Further testing confirmed this change, and revealed that most of the telomeres had shortened again within just two days of his return.

After landing, 93 percent of Scott Kelly’s genes returned to normal, the researchers found. The altered 7 percent, however, could indicate long-term changes in genes connected to the immune system, DNA repair, bone formation networks, oxygen deprivation and elevated carbon dioxide levels. (3/10)

Nigeria Hopes to Expand Connectivity With Satellite (Source: Vanguard)
Nigeria's national satellite operator NigComSat says it can help the country reach its goal of connecting 30 percent of Nigerians by the end of the year. To do so, the state-owned operator is forming new offices and subsidiaries across the country. Nigeria's current broadband penetration rate is 21 percent. Sampson Osagie, NigComSat's executive director of marketing and business development, said full commercialization of NigComSat will boost efficiency. On NigComSat-1R, the operator's only satellite, "far less than 60 percent" of its capacity is in use, he said. (3/6)

Firing It Up at Both Ends? New Launch Vehicles Extend Mass Range (Source: Via Satellite)
In 2018, the space industry has — with a mélange of excitement and relief — witnessed advances in launch capabilities on both ends of the mass spectrum. Rocket Lab’s dedicated smallsat vehicle Electron and SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy conducted successful demo missions in January and February, respectively, paving the way for long-awaited commercial operations to begin this year. In an industry rapidly evolving into a new commercial paradigm, characterized by Non-Geostationary Orbit (NGSO) constellations, plummeting prices, venture capital investment, and novel applications, how significant are these advances in the broader launch market picture?

Falcon Heavy has nearly doubled the launch range from a former 14.2 tons to Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO), via Delta 4 Heavy, to a whopping 26.7 tons. It has also globalized SpaceX’s addressable market, previously limited to Falcon 9’s capability of 8.3 tons to GTO (and a much smaller 4.5 tons when Falcon Heavy was first announced). Turning to the market’s other new entrant, Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle addresses payloads with a nominal mass of 150 kg and up to 225 kg, reducing the lower limit of the orbital class market by several hundred kilograms.

The significance of a lower launch range expansion is plain. Availability of a smaller vehicle accommodates well-funded and booming demand from the niche small satellite market, to date restricted to costly dedicated launches or, most commonly, rideshares that make concessions on orbit, schedule, or both. While Rocket Lab is unlikely to deliver a lower cost per kg than rideshare solutions, the availability of another route to orbit and its flexibility offers a highly sought-after and competitive value proposition. (3/8)

Spaceport America Gets $6 Million From New Mexico Legislative Session (Source: Las Cruces Sun-News)
Spaceport America received $6 million in capital outlay funds, $5 million to perform environmental studies and plan, design, construct and equip a fuel farm, including fencing and security systems; $500,000 for a launch vehicle payload integration facility and another $500,000 for infrastructure upgrades.

Spaceport CEO Dan Hicks said the fuel farm expansion is needed to handle the increase in operations at the spaceport. “We’re looking at the upcoming flight tempo of not only Virgin Galactic but some other customers as well,” Hicks said. “This capital outlay project was critical to give us fuel capability all along the horizontal launch area, and the vertical launch area too.” (3/10)

Orbital ATK's Heavy Rocket to Propel Arizona Operation Into New Market (Source: APM)
Orbital ATK's Arizona-based Launch Vehicle Division plans to join SpaceX and ULA. Adding a heavy lifter to its stable of small and medium commercial and defense rockets will enable Orbital to compete in a new market, one that handles higher orbiting communications satellites, heavier spy satellites and, potentially, human missions to space.

Employing 200 engineers and technicians in Arizona and Utah, the $200 million (and counting) program is in the design, testing and retooling phases. When finished, Orbital's rocket will carry national security satellites for the U.S. Air Force in lieu of a red Tesla Roadster. (3/10)

Why Billionaires Keep Pouring Money Into the Space Industry (Source: Washington Post)
As the industry has started to attract high-profile attention, money has followed. Last year private investment continued to pour into the space industry, fueling its momentum. Investors sank more than $2.5 billion into start-up space ventures, the third consecutive year of significant private investment, according to a report compiled by Bryce Space and Technology, an Alexandria consulting firm.

While last year’s total was lower than the previous two years’, the earlier year totals were boosted by separate deals worth $1 billion each. By contrast, more investors put their money into space last year, the report said, and there was a 70 percent increase in the number of deals — another sign that space, once deemed too risky for the business community, has turned a corner.

“It’s becoming more of a mainstream place for more financially focused” venture capitalists, said Carissa Christensen, Bryce’s founder and chief executive. “They are in it not because space is cool, but because they think this a place to generate serious return.” (3/10)

California Startup Accused of Launching Unauthorized Satellites Into Orbit (Source: Gizmodo)
The US Federal Communications Commission says Swarm Technologies—-a communications startup run by Silicon Valley expats-—launched four tiny internet satellites into space back in January. That’s a problem because the FCC never greenlighted the project, saying the experimental satellites are dangerous. If confirmed, it would mark the first known time in history that unauthorized satellites have been placed in space.

The launch happened on what was otherwise a historic day. On January 12, 2018, the state-owned Indian Space Agency (ISRO) launched its 100th satellite, along with 30 others. But as Mark Harris reports at IEEE Spectrum, four of these 31 satellites probably shouldn’t have been packed to the cargo hold of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).

Prior to the launch, ISRO described the quartet as American owned “two way satellite communications and data relay” devices, but with no operator identified. Spectrum has since learned that the four so-called SpaceBees are the property of Swarm Technologies, a company founded two years ago by Canadian aerospace engineer Sara Spangelo, a former Google employee, and Benjamin Longmier, a developer who sold his previous company to Apple. (3/9)

Eutelsat Plans Satellite to Assess Potential for Low-Altitude Constellation (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
Joining other established commercial geostationary satellite operators looking at fleets of communications platforms in low Earth orbit, Eutelsat announced Thursday it will launch a small testbed next year as a precursor to a potential network of data relay craft flying a few hundred miles above the planet.

The decision could signal a shift in outlook for the Paris-based operator, which flies a fleet of 38 satellites in geostationary orbit more than 22,000 miles over the equator. Eutelsat’s flirtation with a potential satellite fleet in low Earth orbit — a constellation that could greatly outnumber its geostationary presence — follows moves by competitors like Intelsat and Telesat, which lead or partner on planned low-altitude communications networks. (3/9)

SpaceX Aims for 3 Launches in a Single Week, 6 Launches in 1 Month (Source: Teslarati)
Tailing an intense February that saw SpaceX successfully complete inaugural launches of both Falcon Heavy and two Starlink prototype satellites, the next three weeks of March are likely to be relatively quiet. However, by all appearances, SpaceX is preparing for a frenetic end-of-month that could include three Falcon 9 launches from three separate SpaceX launch pads, all in a single week, and as many as six launches total between March 29 and April 30.

If successful, this series of missions would smash all of SpaceX’s past launch cadence records – six launches in little more than a single month, two reused flights in four days, three launches in one week, and two East coast launches in three days, not to mention the debut of Falcon 9 Block 5. To put this level of activity in perspective, SpaceX could complete the equivalent of four months or 33% of all of their 2017 launches in a single month. (3/9)

Texas Perspectives: We Ignore Growing Space Trash Problem at Our Peril (Source: Waco Herald-Tribune)
Last February, India broke the record for launching the largest number of satellites at once: 104. All of this will only continue. Without something like environmental protection in space and some global governance for developing norms of “good stewardship” of space activities, we risk seeing whole regions of space become hard, if not impossible, to use freely and cheaply. We should take a page from our early mining days and how that activity, unregulated, was to the detriment of the environment including the loss of human lives.

To deal with this space trash issue, we should create a public-private partnership composed of government, industry, academia and international partners to focus on space traffic management. Moreover, lawmakers would be wise to create a NASA Space Situational Awareness Institute. (3/9)

China Is Building a Spaceplane of Its Own (Source: Popular Mechanics)
China is reportedly developing a reusable spaceplane capable of delivering cargo to Earth orbit. The unnamed spacecraft appears similar to the U.S. Air Force’s X-37B space plane and likely has the same missions. However, it does differ from its American cousin in some key respects—at least for now.

Chinese state television recently ran a segment describing a new spaceplane under development, comparing it to the American X-37B. Operated by the U.S. Air Force, the X-37B is something of an unmanned space truck, carrying classified payloads into low-earth orbit and staying there for up to 700 days at a time. The X-37B is lofted into orbit by a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket using Russian-supplied RD-180 liquid fuel rocket boosters. (3/9)

What Will It Take for the Air Force and Pentagon to Move Faster on Space? (Source: Defense News)
The Department of Defense is, once again, exploring possible ways to reform its space acquisition system to shrink the time it takes to deliver new capabilities to space. A DoD memo proposes several changes, such as creating a combatant command for space and restructuring the Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC). The memo was delivered to Congress March 1.

Air Force SMC and the Rapid Capabilities Office currently manage about 90 percent of the Defense Space portfolio, including early missile warning satellites, position, navigation and timing assets and space launch systems. According to the document, Pentagon officials are concerned that the current product-aligned approach to space acquisition leads to truncated and stovepiped thinking that fails to consider the space system enterprise as a whole. (3/9)

Female Astronaut Takes New Role of Legislator, Dreams of Being "Moon Goddess" (Source: Global Times)
Astronaut Wang Yaping is in the spotlight again, but this time not for space travel. Instead, she debuted in a new role -- lawmaker -- at the annual session of China's national legislature. With her signature ponytail, a neat military uniform and a wide smile, Wang, together with another nine deputies to the 13th National People's Congress (NPC), met the press for the first "passage interview" arranged for the opening day of the annual political meeting on Monday.

On the path leading toward the main hall of the Great Hall of the People, Wang described her experience of giving a televised science lesson to Chinese students in 2013 as "an unforgettable moment." Some netizens praised Wang for her devotion and perseverance. Some called her a "space heroine" and referred to a poem by Chairman Mao to depict her as a female soldier who loves "to face the powder and not to powder the face." (3/9)

Mankind's First Space Hotel Is Coming In 2021 - Probably (Source: Forbes)
So, where to for your next vacation? Somewhere exotic… far flung… remote, even? For the new few years you’ll have to be content with earthly offerings that tick these boxes, but come 2021 you should be able to look a little further afield. Or rather above, as 72-year-old billionaire hotel mogul Robert Bigelow has unveiled his plans for the first space hotel.

While that all sounds very sci-fi, Bigelow’s credentials are actually sound and with the commercial private sector space race heating up to surface-of-the-sun levels, it would be foolish to dispel such ideas as folly. Bigelow has confirmed two stations, the B330-1 and B330-2, are already ‘very far along in fabrication’.

Rather than just jumping in without looking, he plans to spend millions trying to understand what the global market is for commercial space ventures. Although the B330s are being built by Bigelow Aerospace, the space hotel will fall under the remit of his new company Bigelow Space Operations (BSO) at an estimated cost of $2.3billion. BSO will manage any modules that Bigelow Aerospace sends into orbit. (3/9)

Soyuz Rocket Launches Four O3b Broadband Satellites (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
Arianespace successfully conducted its second launch this year on Friday, lofting four O3b communications satellites to orbit. Built by Thales Alenia Space, the quartet will be operated by O3b Networks, a subsidiary of the Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES. The four new spacecraft will reside in a medium-Earth orbit (MEO) from this vantage point they should provide high-speed connectivity to people and businesses in growing mobility, fixed data and government markets. (3/9)