April 17, 2018

Diamond From the Sky May Have Come From ‘Lost Planet,’ Study Says (Source: Daily Beast)
Scientists have found that fragments of a meteorite, which crashed to Earth a decade ago, may have come from a “lost planet” in our solar system, a new study claims. The Almahata Sitta meteorite landed in the Nubian Desert in October 2008, and diamonds on the inside were formed by a proto-planet around 4.55 billion years ago, researchers have concluded. The study was conducted jointly by authors from Switzerland, Germany, and France.

“We demonstrate that these large diamonds cannot be the result of a shock but rather of growth that has taken place within a planet,” author and planetary scientist Philippe Gillet reportedly told The Associated Press. The lost planet was possibly as big as Mercury or Mars, according to Gillet. “What we’re claiming here,” Gillet said, “is that we have in our hands a remnant of this first generation of planets that are missing today because they were destroyed or incorporated in a bigger planet.” (4/17)

This New Beer Bottle Is Designed So You Can Drink Beer in Space (Source: Travel+Leisure)
A real-life space hotel is already taking reservations, and now those contemplating space travel in the very near future are one step closer to enjoying the world’s first beer made for zero gravity. Vostok, a venture of Australia’s 4 Pines Brewing Company and Saber Astronautics, has spent the last eight years developing the space-friendly beer. The company is named after Russia's Vostok program, which put cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into Earth's orbit in 1961, and was created with the sole purpose of creating a luxurious beer-drinking experience possible once commercial space travel takes off. (4/16)

House Committee Approves Rep. Posey’s Bipartisan Commercial Space Legislation (Source: Rep. Bill Posey)
The House Science Committee approved Rep. Posey’s bipartisan commercial space legislation to streamline the FAA's licensing and permitting process of hybrid launch vehicles to allow for licensed commercial space support flights. Some companies would like to utilize space support vehicles to train crews and spaceflight participants by exposing them to the physiological effects encountered in spaceflight or conduct research in reduced gravity environments.

Recent FAA and GAO reports recommended that the FAA examine the current regulatory framework for space support vehicles. Posey said that spaceports like those in Florida would like to attract these companies to operate out of their facilities and this bill creates a regulatory foundation for more companies to engage in human space flight activities and support commercial space operations. (4/17)

Officials Owe Public Answers on Georgia Spaceport Study (Source: Savannah Morning News)
The FAA is proving frosty when it comes to the public’s concerns about a proposed spaceport on Georgia’s coast. Spaceport Camden is planned for a former industrial property near the Cumberland Island National Seashore. At issue is the potential danger to residents whose properties would be overflown by rockets blasting off from the spaceport. Inhabitants of Little Cumberland Island, located across the marsh from the site and in the projected launch path, are understandably apprehensive.

Those islanders and other members of the public were invited to meet with FAA officials last week. The agency is reviewing the project’s potential environmental impact as required prior to issuing a launch operator’s license. Yet FAA officials on Thursday closed what had been advertised as a public meeting. They excluded two journalists, claiming the session was to “have an open discussion with residents ... not a discussion on the record,” according to a spokeswoman.

The FAA didn’t limit attendance to residents, however. Several environmental advocates sat in, as did the Camden County government’s legal counsel. If the FAA were a state agency, this would be a clear violation of open meetings law. Georgia’s sunshine laws limit closure except in cases that involve personnel reviews, real estate transactions or strategic planning. The feds have more leeway. They can legally hold private sessions with specific stakeholders, as they did last Thursday – although allowing select non-residents to attend invalidates their stance. (4/17)

Deep Space Industries Raises $3.5 Million (Source: Parabolic Arc)
Deep Space Industries announced today the closing of the first tranche of its Series A funding round. The company raised just over $3.5M from private investors. The funding will be used to develop Meteor, the company’s new launch-safe bipropellant rocket engine, and continue the ongoing development of the Xplorer spacecraft, the company’s deep space exploration platform scheduled for launch in 2020. (4/17)

Spaceflight Books Launch Slots on Two Arianespace Vega Missions (Source: Space News)
Spaceflight Industries has secured rideshare opportunities on two Vega rocket missions for tiny satellites. European launch provider Arianespace on April 17 said Spaceflight will launch “a microsatellite and a significant number of cubesats” on a proof of concept flight of Europe’s Small Spacecraft Mission System (SSMS), an adapter designed for cubesats and other satellites that are smaller than what typically launch on Vega. Seattle-based Spaceflight’s contract includes “a subsequent Vega SSMS flight about one year later,” Arianespace said. (4/17)

S7 Closes Sea Launch Purchase, Ruture Rocket TBD (Source: Space News)
Some 19 months after announcing its intent to buy the assets of Sea Launch, Russian aviation group S7 has closed the purchase. The transaction gives S7 the ocean-faring mobile launch platform Odyssey, the Commander support vessel, and certain equipment and intellectual property rights. Sea Launch and S7 faced a lengthy regulatory approval process from U.S. and Russian governments — one that took 15 months instead of the initially estimated six months. The process included an analysis CFIUS, an interagency committee that assesses whether transactions that could give control of an American business to a foreign entity might harm national security.

Russian officials had previously said restoring Zenit rocket production would necessitate better Russian-Ukrainian relations. Zenit launches slowed to a near-halt after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. An alternative to the Zenit is Russia’s future Soyuz-5 rocket, which Koptev described as a Russian analog of Zenit. RSC Energia, Sea Launch’s largest shareholder prior to the S7 sale, said it will assist in adapting Soyuz-5 rockets for launches from the Sea Launch complex.

But even if S7 can launch the Soyuz-5 using Sea Launch infrastructure, it will take considerably more time than the company had hoped to revive the launch business. S7, in announcing the purchase of Sea Launch infrastructure at the 2016 International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico, hoped to begin launches roughly 18 months after obtaining government approvals. Koptev said the Soyuz-5 won’t be ready until 2022, meaning S7 would have to wait four to five years. (4/17)

Rocket Lab and York Space Systems Team to Develop Rapid Response Launch Capability (Source: Rocket Lab)
US orbital launch provider Rocket Lab and spacecraft platform developer York Space Systems have entered into an MOU to develop a universal Interface Control Document (ICD) and supporting Concepts of Operations (CONOPS) that will streamline the manifesting process for small satellite launch customers.

By removing the time spent in not only selecting a bus and follow-on launch provider, but also developing the standard products that are required to get a spacecraft program off the pad, Rocket Lab and York are setting up a framework to shorten the integration process required for York spacecraft on the Electron Launch Vehicle. By creating standard launch integration products that have already established the compatibility of a York bus on an Electron launcher, many months of mission integration can be eliminated. (4/17)

NanoRacks’ Commercial ISS Airlock Completes CDR, Moves to Fabrication (Source: Parabolic Arc)
The NanoRacks Space Station Airlock Module “Bishop” met another major milestone with completion of the Critical Design Review (CDR) on March 20 and 21, 2018 in Houston, Texas.  This milestone begins the transition from the engineering design phase to the fabrication phase.  Detailed design drawings such as those for the critical pressure shell will be signed and released to NanoRacks fabrication partner, Thales Alenia Space, in order for them to continue their fabrication efforts.

In February 2018, NanoRacks announced that Thales Alenia Space, the joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), was chosen as the latest partner in its commercial airlock program, joining with a number of key partners, including Boeing. Thales Alenia Space is set to produce and test the critical pressure shell for the NanoRacks Airlock Module and will also manufacture various secondary structures, including the Micrometeoroid Orbital Debris (MMOD) shields. (4/17)

Aviation Bill, Without Air Traffic Spinoff, Lands in House (Source: Bloomberg)
Federal aviation programs would be authorized through 2023 at $3.35 billion each year in a new House FAA bill introduced April 13. The FAA reauthorization bill (H.R. 4) replaces H.R. 2997, which was introduced in 2017. The new bill would not spin off air traffic control from the FAA, but otherwise is nearly identical to H.R. 2997. The House could take up the bill the week of April 23.

The bill would extend the FAA’s drone integration pilot program at six test ranges for six years beyond the date of enactment. The program is scheduled to expire on Sept. 30, 2019. The FAA would have to encourage testing of sense-and-avoid and “beyond line of sight” systems through the program. Editor's Note: I believe there are a couple interesting space provisions in the bill too... at least there were in the 2017 version. (4/16)

Former SECAF: Space Corps a Bad Idea (Source: Space News)
Deborah Lee James, secretary of the Air Force during the Obama administration, insists a Space Corps is a solution in search of a problem. “Any organizational construct can work. The question is do you want to through the pain? It would be years of reorganization drama. What exactly is the problem you’re trying to solve?” she said in a CNAS podcast. “When I look at the totality, I conclude that no, it’s not the time to separate out a Space Corps. It’s not going to solve problems. If the problem is that acquisition is too slow, organizational change is not necessarily the answer. We have to speed up authorities.” (4/17)

Bridenstine Nomination Process Moving Forward (Source: Space News)
The Senate is moving ahead with a confirmation vote for Jim Bridenstine's nomination to be NASA administrator later this week. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell filed a cloture motion on the nomination Monday, which could set up a vote as soon as Thursday. The motion suggests that the Senate's Republican leadership now believes they have the 50 votes needed to confirm Bridenstine, who was nominated last September to lead the space agency. Senate Democrats had opposed the nomination, and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) had previously expressed reservations about it. (4/17)

NASA's Got a Plan for a 'Galactic Positioning System' to Save Astronauts Lost in Space (Source: Space.com)
Outer space glows with a bright fog of X-ray light, coming from everywhere at once. But peer carefully into that fog, and faint, regular blips become visible. These are millisecond pulsars, city-sized neutron stars rotating incredibly quickly, and firing X-rays into the universe with more regularity than even the most precise atomic clocks. And NASA wants to use them to navigate probes and crewed ships through deep space.

A telescope mounted on the International Space Station (ISS), the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER), has been used to develop a brand new technology with near-term, practical applications: a galactic positioning system, NASA scientist Zaven Arzoumanian said.

With this technology, "You could thread a needle to get into orbit around the moon of a disant planet instead of doing a flyby," Arzoumian told Live Science. A galactic positioning system could also provide "a fallback, so that if a crewed mission loses contact with the Earth, they'd still have navigation systems on board that are autonomous." (4/17)

Kneeling Before a Sovereign (Source: Space Review)
Some space companies proposed developing orbital facilities for so-called “sovereign clients,” nations without human spaceflight programs of their own. Dwayne Day discusses how those efforts have suffered delays, just like so many other new space markets proposed over the last few decades. Click here. (4/17)

The Next Era in Exoplanet Searches (Source: Space Review)
As NASA’s Kepler mission nears its end, another exoplanet hunter is ready for launch this week. Jeff Foust reports on how the TESS mission will carry on the search for exoplanets, particularly those relatively close to Earth. Click here. (4/17)
 
Space Traffic Control: Technological Means and Governance Implications (Source: Space Review)
The growing amount of both operational satellites and space debris has created growing concerns about the risks of collisions and the need for better tracking and coordination. Nayef Al-Rodhan argues that true space traffic management will require new international accords to ensure proper collection and sharing of information. Click here. (4/17)

Russian Lawmakers Propose Aerospace Sanctions Against U.S. (Source: CNNMoney)
Russian lawmarkers have drafted a bill to impose retaliatory sanctions on the U.S. whose effects could include the space industry. The bill would block the export of titanium used by U.S. aerospace companies, notably Boeing, and could also halt the export of RD-180 engines. If passed, though, analysts expect that Russian President Vladimir Putin would implement those sanctions more selectively. (4/17)

UAE Astronaut Applicants Top 4,000 (Source: Arabian Business)
More than 4,000 people have applied to become astronauts in the United Arab Emirates. The Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre said it received more than 4,000 applications for the country's new astronaut corps, with applicants ranging in age from 17 to 67. A third of the applicants were women. The UAE Space Agency plans to select four of them to be astronauts, although when they would fly in space, and with what nation, remain unknown. (4/17)

A New President for JAXA (Source: SpaceTech Asia)
The Japanese space agency JAXA has a new president. Hiroshi Yamakawa became head of the agency earlier this month after Naoki Okumura completed a five-year term as JAXA president. Yamakawa is an aerospace engineer who has worked on missions such as BepiColombo, a joint mission with ESA to orbit Mercury, and the Martian Moons Exploration mission under development for launch in the early 2020s. (4/17)

More ITAR Reforms Sought for Space (Source: Space News)
American space companies are looking for additional export control reform. While reforms enacted in 2014 removed many commercial satellites and their components from the U.S. Munitions List, and therefore no longer subject to ITAR, changes in satellite technology merit a new look at what should be on the list, companies argue. Such reforms could include regular reviews, on five-year cycles, of items on the Munitions List and the Commerce Control List. (4/17)

Raytheon's NOAA VIIRS Suggested for Military Weather Satellites (Source: Space News)
Raytheon believes an existing instrument can meet the Defense Department's weather requirements. The company argues that its Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument, developed for NOAA's Joint Polar Satellite System satellites, can also meet the needs of the Air Force for future military weather satellites. The Air Force issued an RFI in November asking industry what it could offer for space-based monitoring of clouds and weather imagery in theaters of operation. (4/17)

Earth-i Releases First Satellite Images (Source: Space News)
Earth-i has unveiled the first color video from its VividX2 satellite. The British company released high-definition video from the satellite, also known as Carbonite-2 and launched in January, of several locations around the world. Earth-i is planning a constellation of such satellites, which can also take high-resolution images. The video, the company believes, can provide useful information that images alone cannot, such as tracking the spinning of wind turbines to measure their power output. (4/17)

Giant Asteroid Flies Through the Earth-Moon Orbit (Source: Space Daily)
With just a few hours' notice, a relatively large asteroid whipped through the Earth-moon orbit over the weekend. You may have missed it though; humanity only learned of the asteroid hours before the flyby. A "Tunguska-class" asteroid was first spotted by the Catalina Sky Survey out of the University of Arizona on April 14. The asteroid, 2018 GE3, flew by just hours later. Austrian amateur astronomer Michael Jager recorded the object as it passed through the southern constellations Serprens. (4/17)

New Reality in Space Driving Change in European Defense Policy (Source: Space Daily)
Decades of relative tranquility in space have come to an end. The possibility of state-on-state conflict has become part of military planning, making flexible and continuous connectivity more critical than ever for defence forces around the world. The cybersecurity threat to SATCOM has also increased, both from hostile governments and non-state actors.

These new realities are forcing a change to the status quo. NATO for example has recognized these threats, and has increased its budget for space capabilities and coordination with the goal for alliance members to spend at least two percent of gross domestic product on defense by 2024. (4/17)

US, Russia Likely to Go to Mars Together, Former NASA Astronaut Says (Source: Space Daily)
The United States and Russia are on a path to jointly explore deep space and will most likely fly to Mars together, former NASA astronaut Ronald M. Sega said. "I think we are on a path to work together to go on to different places in space. Mars is a logical major milestone forward," Sega said. "We may have a different path to get there. Maybe to the Moon or something like that. My sense is that we'll go to Mars, we'll eventually probably do that together." (4/17)

Strongest Atlas V Gives Air Force Rare Direct Ride to High Orbit (Source: Florida Today)
Nicknamed the “bruiser,” United Launch Alliance’s most powerful Atlas V on Saturday evening carried out a long, complex mission showcasing both force and finesse. The nearly seven-hour mission, featuring three burns by the upper stage engine, aimed to drop an Air Force communications satellite and experimental payloads directly into orbits 22,300 miles above the equator.

It’s a rare trick for a rocket to perform; satellites bound for similar orbits typically must use their own engines to reach their final destination after deploying from a rocket, a process that could take days or months. An adapter ring supporting the satellite also was deployed as an experimental spacecraft called Eagle, carrying a group of technology demonstration missions run by the Air Force Research Laboratory. (4/14)

Commerce to Take Responsibility for Space Traffic Management Under New Policy (Source: Space News)
A new space traffic management policy announced by Vice President Mike Pence would give the Commerce Department, and not the FAA, responsibility for providing space situational awareness data to satellite operators. Pence said the draft policy, developed by the National Space Council, is intended to address the growing number of satellites and space debris, and the increased burden placed on the Defense Department to provide warnings to satellite operators of potential collisions.

“The National Space Council has developed the first comprehensive space traffic management policy, which we will soon be sending to the president’s desk for his approval,” Pence said. “This new policy directs the Department of Commerce to provide a basic level of space situational awareness for public and private use, based on the space catalog compiled by the Department of Defense,” Pence said. (4/16)

Why Sierra Nevada’s Owners are Betting Big on Dream Chaser (Source: Space News)
Sierra Nevada Corp. plays a unique role in the aerospace industry. Like traditional contractors, it’s a major systems integrator with billions of dollars in annual revenue stemming from civil, commercial and military work. But it’s also a private company, like SpaceX and Blue Origin, making enormous investments in future space capabilities.

SNC’s largest investment to date is in Dream Chaser, the spaceplane NASA selected in the initial rounds of its campaign to encourage companies to build private space taxis to transport astronauts to and from the ISS. After awarding SNC more than $312 million for Dream Chaser development, NASA passed over SNC to award commercial crew contracts in 2014 to competitors Boeing and SpaceX. That loss was incredibly painful, Eren and Fatih Ozmen said, but they quickly decided to continue investing in Dream Chaser. Click here. (4/16)

Blue Origin Will Launch People into Space by the End of 2018 (Source: Seattle Business)
Ariane Cornell is head of astronaut strategy and sales and New Glenn commercial sales director for the Americas at Blue Origin. Cornell has long aspired to be an astronaut and has the extraordinary job of selling tickets for the upcoming suborbital space tours on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket, as well as finding satellite customers for the company’s far larger New Glenn rocket — the first steps in Bezos’ vision of getting millions of people living and working in space.

She says New Shepard will be flying Blue Origin employees by the end of this year, assuming our test program continues to go well. Within the next year or two, we’ll have paying customers, which is really exciting. I would go in a heartbeat, but we haven’t released anything yet about who is going or what the cost will be. (4/16)

How Reusable Rockets Could Power a Space Taxi Future (Source: Washington Post)
NASA is fostering a commercial space industry by subcontracting the work of sending humans to low-Earth orbit, technology it pioneered a half-century ago. The strategic shift started when the Obama administration in 2010 scuttled plans to build a shuttle replacement and a Bush-era program to revisit the moon. Click here. (4/13)

SpaceX May Use Balloon to Recover Spper Stages (Source: Engadget)
SpaceX ultimately wants to recover every stage of a rocket, not just the first, and it may resort to some unusual tactics to make that happen. Elon Musk has claimed that his company will try to take rocket upper stages out of orbital velocity using a "giant party balloon" -- yes, he knows it sounds "crazy." He hasn't shed more light on the subject as we write this, but we've reached out to SpaceX to see if it can elaborate.

If such a system works out, it could provide more than a few benefits to SpaceX. As of 2018, SpaceX estimates a cost of $62 million to launch a Falcon 9 rocket with a first stage landing factored in. If it can reliably recover the upper stage with a relatively low-cost method like a balloon, it can both reduce its own expenses and make launches more attractive to customers. Throw in the eco-friendliness (there's no dead stage plummeting to Earth) and it could easily be worth attempting to use a balloon, however ludicrous the idea might sound at first blush. (4/16)

Yuri's Night Rocks KSC Visitor Complex (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
Yuri’s Night is an annual global celebration of humanity’s past, present, and future in space. It was started by Loretta and George Whitesides, and Trish Garner in 2001 to celebrate human spaceflight. This includes Yuri Gagarin becoming the first human in space in 1961 and the first Space Shuttle launch in 1981—-both occurring on the same day 20 years apart, April 12. The first YN event occurred April 12, 2001, in Los Angeles.

Originally billed as a “St. Patrick’s Day or Cinco de Mayo for space people,” the event has since garnered fans around the world, within and beyond the space community. Parties have occurred under a Space Shuttle at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. as well as the California Science Center and under a Saturn V test article at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville.

It has also had participating parties as far apart as Australia, Russia, and even Antarctica. This year was the first time a party occurred at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. About 750 attendees at the KSC event included a large cadre of cosplayers from the local branch of the “501st Legion,” a group of individuals who raise money for charities and appear at events dressed in authentic-looking Star Wars Stormtrooper uniforms and other character costumes. (4/16)

Cabana: LC-39C Pad for Small Rockets 'Might Be Better Placed Elsewhere' (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
In response to a Spaceflight Insider question about the status of Launch Complex 39C, KSC Director Robert Cabana stated that the small-launcher site within the LC-39B perimeter had been built for a specific test project and that it might be better placed elsewhere in the future. (4/16)
 
Not Much Time Left to Look for Life on Mars Before Life Arrives From Earth (Source: GeekWire)
NASA has been looking for life on Mars for more than 40 years, but the quest could get a lot more complicated when earthly life arrives en masse, perhaps within the next decade. “There is a ticking clock now,” Princeton astrobiologist Chris Chyba said at last week’s Breakthrough Discuss conference, conducted at Stanford University.

The issue has the potential to pit scientists like Chyba against rocketeers like SpaceX billionaire Elon Musk, who wants to start sending settlers to Mars by the mid-2020s. When humans and all the supplies they need start arriving by the tons, there’s a risk that their biological signature could overwhelm any faint traces of ancient or modern-day life on the Red Planet. (4/15)

Stratolaunch Planning First Aircraft Flight This Summer (Source: Space News)
Stratolaunch expects to conduct the first flight of its giant aircraft this summer as it develops a broad spectrum of launch services that will make use of it, the company said. Stratolaunch has performed two taxi tests of the aircraft at Mojave so far. Three more taxi tests are planned, at progressively higher speeds. During the most recent test, the plane reached speeds of up to 74 kilometers per hour. The next test will reach speeds of nearly 130 kilometers per hour, with later tests going up to 220 kilometers per hour.

If those tests are successful, Stratolaunch expects to be ready for a first flight of the aircraft some time this summer. Officials said they are not being more precise about the date of that flight because of the uncertainties of flight testing compounded by the one-of-a-kind nature of this airplane.

Stratolaunch, after years of changes in the type of vehicle it would fly, is currently planning to initially use the Pegasus XL rocket from Orbital ATK. The company is still studying the ability to fly three rockets on a single flight, something it says is of particular interest to the national security community. However, the company is making clear it has other uses for that aircraft than launching the Pegasus. (4/16)