April 4, 2018

Bad Soldering Blamed for Russian Engine Problems (Source: Space News)
Engineers have completed reviews of engines built at a Russian factory that may have used the wrong solder. The Russian state space corporation Roscosmos said Monday that workers at the Voronezh Mechanical Plant verified 58 Proton engines and 16 Soyuz engines that had been manufactured there. The discovery of the use of the wrong solder in upper stage engines halted Proton launches for six months last year. (4/4)

NOAA's Cutoff of SpaceX Video Feed Explained (Source: Space News)
The cutoff of video from a SpaceX launch last week is linked to new enforcement of commercial remote-sensing laws some in the industry believe are outdated. SpaceX ended live streaming of a Falcon 9 launch Friday shortly before the rocket reached orbit, citing NOAA restrictions. At an advisory committee meeting Tuesday, NOAA officials said SpaceX applied for a commercial remote-sensing license for the cameras just days before the launch, and NOAA placed restrictions on the expedited license that limited the company's ability to do livestreaming. NOAA said it was not aware of past launches, by SpaceX or other companies, that included video from upper stages in space. A SpaceX source said that NOAA only recently claimed that the upper stage cameras constituted a remote-sensing system under current law that requires a license. (4/4)

New Military GPS Terminals Cost Much More (Source: Space News)
Costs for GPS 3 terminals and ground systems have increased considerably, according to a new report. The latest Selected Acquisition Reports provided to Congress by the Defense Department noted increases of 12.3 percent for the OCX control system for the GPS 3 satellites and 22.7 percent for military GPS user equipment. The cost increases are not a surprise, particularly given past problems with OCX in particular, but the GPS 3 terminal increases could delay future orders. (4/3)

Astra Space Plans Suborbital Test Launch at Alaska Spaceport (Source: Space News)
A startup company in planning a suborbital test flight of a small launch vehicle as soon as Thursday. A notice published by the FAA Tuesday restricts airspace in the vicinity of the Pacific Spaceport Complex-Alaska on Kodiak Island for six hours Thursday due to a rocket launch. The FAA recently awarded a commercial launch license to Astra Space to conduct a suborbital test launch from the spaceport. The company is developing a small launch vehicle, but has released few details about its plans. (4/3)

Rocket Lab Plans April Launch at New Zealand Spaceport (Source: Space News)
Rocket Lab has scheduled its first commercial mission for later this month. The company, based in the U.S. but with launch operations in New Zealand, said it plans to carry out an Electron launch in a window that opens April 19 (U.S. time) and runs for two weeks. The rocket's payload will include two satellites for Spire and one built by Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems for GeoOptics. The launch will be the third for the Electron after two test flights, most recently in January. (4/3)

FCC's Pai Attends SpaceX Launch, Wants to Streamline Constellation Licensing (Source: WMFE)
The head of the FCC wants to streamline the licensing process for satellite constellations. In an interview, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said he wanted to speed up the regulatory process, including giving blanket approvals to identical satellites in a system. Pai made those comments in Florida Monday, where he attended a SpaceX launch. The company received approval by the FCC last week for its proposed broadband constellation. (4/4)

Trump Tariffs Against China Include Space Items No One Buys (Source: LA Times)
New tariffs on Chinese products announced by the White House Tuesday include aerospace systems, despite the lack of sales for them. Included in the list of goods that will be assessed a 25 percent tariff, part of a growing trade war between the countries, are communications satellites, other spacecraft, launch vehicles and components. U.S. companies, though, have not been buying Chinese satellites or rockets, and export restrictions prevent U.S. space systems and components from being exported to China. (4/4)

DSI to Develop 20 Thrusters for BlackSky Satellite Constellation (Source: GeekWire)
Deep Space Industries has won a contract to provide thrusters for a satellite constellation. DSI said it will provide 20 of its Comet propulsion systems for the BlackSky remote-sensing satellite system. The thrusters use superheated water vapor as propellant. BlaskSky's satellites will be built under a joint venture between Thales Alenia Space and Spaceflight Industries, called LeoStella, announced last month. (4/3)

A Boost For Military Spaceplanes (Source: Aerospace America)
The U.S. Air Force has long wanted the ability to project conventional weapons and surveillance equipment anywhere in the world in minutes. Despite spending billions on various concepts, the capability has remained elusive. Military space expert Jess Sponable says its time for the service to take a fresh look at the feasibility of spaceplanes for this role. The launch of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy in February and the recovery of two of the massive vehicle’s three boost stages should cause a tectonic shift in the U.S. Air Force’s thinking about the feasibility of building a small fleet of spaceplanes to project eyes, ears and presence globally.

In short, the SpaceX feat suggests that it is now economically viable to construct and operate a new class of vehicle: Global reach military spaceplanes able reach anywhere in the world in under an hour. Extrapolating into the future is always risky, but the impressive mass properties and public plans of SpaceX, including the planned Big Falcon Rocket or BFR, provide a highly credible roadmap that the Air Force could follow for its own endeavors with contractors.

Military spaceplanes will likely not need the massive payloads of the Falcon Heavy and BFR, instead far smaller vehicles with one or two stages can operate from distributed bases inside the United States. In lieu of SpaceX’s launch on schedule, the military spaceplanes would be launched on demand, be fully reusable, turn around in hours and routinely fly to space or overfly any location on Earth. (4/3)