April 2, 2018

Space Adventures Email Allowed in Space Tourist's Lawsuit Over Lunar Orbit Trip (Sources: Leagle, Law 360)
In March 2013, Harald McPike, a wealthy Austrian adventurer, entered into a contract with Space Adventures for a spaceflight around the moon and to the International Space Station, with the aid of the Russian national space agency, Roscosmos. McPike contracted to pay a non-refundable $30 million deposit over the course of three installments and thereafter to make additional payments of $120 million, for a grand total of $150 million.

During the summer of 2014, McPike effectively terminated the agreement by not making the second payment toward the $30 million deposit. He instead sought a refund of $7 million already paid, based on his belief that Space Adventures did not have the capacity to complete the spaceflight. Space Adventures refused and the matter went to court. Space Adventures on Friday lost its bid to strike from the case business information that showed the company did not have a contract with Russia’s space agency. A judge decided most of an email by Space Adventures' general counsel — acquired post-discovery by McPike's lawyers — is not privileged. Click here for an earlier synopsis of the case. (4/2)

Tiangong-1 Falls Into Pacific (Source: Space News)
China's Tiangong-1 module reentered Sunday night over the South Pacific. The module reentered at 8:16 p.m. Eastern while over the South Pacific, according to a statement by the U.S. Air Force's Joint Force Space Component Command, approximately the same time as reported by the China Manned Space Engineering Office. There were no reports of anyone observing the reentry, which took place not far from a remote region of the South Pacific used for deliberate spacecraft reentries. The uncontrolled reentry of Tiangong-1 was met with some concern as pieces of the 8.5-ton spacecraft were expected to survive reentry and reach the surface. (4/2)

India Loses Contact with Satellite After Launch (Source: Daily News and Analysis)
India's space agency ISRO says it has lost contact with a newly launched communications satellite. ISRO said Sunday it lost contact with the GSAT-6A satellite between the second and third in a series of maneuvers to move the spacecraft into geostationary orbit. ISRO says they don't believe the spacecraft is out of control and are making efforts to restore contact with it. The 2,140-kilogram GSAT-6A launched without incident Thursday on a GSLV Mark 2 rocket. (4/2)

SpaceX Fairing Recovered Despite Missing the Boat (Source: Telsarati)
SpaceX failed to catch a payload fairing segment from the launch, but later recovered it. SpaceX positioned a ship called "Mr. Steven" downrange from the launch in its latest attempt to recover and reuse payload fairings. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, though, said parafoil cords twisted in the descent, causing the fairing half to instead hit the water at "high speed." However, the ship later returned to port with the fairing half, which appeared to be intact. Musk later tweeted a photo of the fairing floating in the ocean: "forgot to mention it actually landed fine, just not on Mr Steven." (4/1)

NASA Prepares Cislunar Solicitation (Source: Space News)
As NASA prepares to solicit proposals for the first element of its cislunar gateway, it says it's open to acquiring more than one such module. NASA plans to release a draft solicitation this month for what is known as the Power and Propulsion Element of the gateway, with final proposals due to NASA in late July. The element will be the first for the gateway, but at a committee meeting last week agency officials said they would consider acquiring more than one depending on the proposals they received. Additional elements could be used elsewhere in cislunar space, including serving as communications relays in lunar orbit. (4/2)

Saudi Royal Investor Visits Virgin Galactic at Mojave Spaceport (Source: Al Arabiya)
The Saudi crown prince visited Virgin Galactic's facilities this weekend in Mojave, California. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visited the company's facilities and was hosted by Richard Branson and other company executives. Last October, The Virgin Group announced a memorandum of understanding for a $1 billion investment in Virgin's space ventures by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia. (4/1)

Harris Hopes to Salvage Radiation Space Instrument (Source: Fort Wayne Journal Gazette)
Harris Corporation is shelving work on a cancelled NASA instrument but hopes it can be revived in some way. The omnibus appropriations bill for fiscal year 2018 last month provided no funding to the Radiation Budget Instrument (RBI), which NASA cancelled earlier in the year because of technical issues. RBI was one of five Earth science missions targeted for cancellation by the Trump administration in its 2018 budget request, but the only one not funded.

Company officials said its work on RBI will end by the end of this month, and the instrument will be placed in storage. The omnibus bill directed NASA to "preserve the significant investment made to date when closing out the program and to retain appropriate options to utilize the instrument in the future." (4/1)

Lunar X Prize Officially Goes Unclaimed (Source: The Verge)
The Google Lunar X Prize officially ended Saturday without a winner, but teams are still working on lunar missions. The prize expired March 31, more than two months after the X Prize Foundation acknowledged that no teams would be ready to launch a mission to land on the moon by the deadline. Teams that were finalists for the prize competition say they will continue their efforts, although many are still working to raise significant amounts of money needed to complete and launch their spacecraft. (4/2)

A Tangled Webb of Delays (Source: Space Review)
NASA announced last week it was delaying the launch of its James Webb Space Telescope by another year, to May 2020. Jeff Foust reports on the causes of this latest delay and its implications not just on the program but on astrophysics research in general and on other large NASA programs. Click here. (4/2)

Unlicensed Swarms in Space (Source: Space Review)
Earlier this year an American company launched several small satellites despite lacking an authorization from the FCC. Ian Christensen discusses what steps industry can take to prevent such events from happening in the future and to avoid restrictive new regulations that could result. Click here. (4/2)

Why Use Lunar Propellant? (Source: Space Review)
As NASA contemplates roles for its proposed Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway, some argue it should serve as a propellant depot to support future Mars missions. John Strickland examines how much benefit such a depot, using propellant derived from lunar ice, could provide over launching propellant from Earth. Click here. (4/2)