May 17, 2018

Did Asteroids Bring Water to Earth? (Source: New York Times)
Water covers 70 percent of the surface of Earth. It’s the source of life and home to countless living things. But where did it come from? Scientists have come up with many ways to account for Earth’s water. It could have been here from the start. It could have arrived with dirty ice balls called comets, or as part of interplanetary dust.

And then there are asteroids, rock objects of varying sizes that have come crashing to Earth at different times in its history, sometimes in great numbers. More than four billion years ago they pummeled the planet in a period called the late bombardment.

Even though samples of asteroids, in particular the kind called carbonaceous chondrites, show that they contained water, it seemed that the water would be lost in the intense heat of the impacts. But R. Terik Daly, now a researcher at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, and Peter H. Schultz, a planetary scientist at Brown University, conducted experiments at a small scale that suggest that the water in asteroids could have been captured in Earth’s rock. (5/15)

Chinese Company OneSpace Sends OS-X Rocket to 40 km in Maiden Flight (Source: GB Times)
Chinese company OneSpace has successfully launched its first single-stage OS-X solid rocket to an altitude of around 40 km, marking a significant moment for the nascent commercial launch sector in China. Liftoff of the rocket, named 'Chongqing Liangjiang Star', took place at 07:33 Beijing time at an undisclosed site in northwest China.

According to reports, the rocket flew for 265 seconds, reaching an altitude of around 40 kilometers and surpassing Mach 5, travelling some 273 km, with the rocket then falling to Earth within a designated zone. OneSpace Technology was established in 2015 and has quickly developed its own launch capabilities, which its suborbital flights part of a research contract with an aerospace company for aerodynamic and other high-altitude tests. (5/17)

Low-Cost Operations Help Drive Smallsat Launch Market Toward $62 Billion by 2030 (Source: Parabolic Arc)
The evolution of small satellites from technology demonstrators to providers of low-cost operational services across distributed industry segments is attracting launch demand from organizations all over the world. By 2030, there will be an estimated 11,631 launch demands for new constellation installations and replacement missions, which could take the market past the $62 billion mark. As the lifespan of these satellites is between two years and five years, there will be constant launch demand and participants will look to enhance their systems and infrastructure.

The high volume of launch demand for small satellites is driving satellite operators to increase their launch capacity. The current rideshare capacity is insufficient to meet the upcoming launch demand.  Most small satellites use the rideshare capacity as a secondary payload on existing launches. This makes their project schedule and mission requirements dependent on the primary payload. Many incumbent and emerging commercial operators are preparing for the impending capacity expansion by providing dedicated services and launch flexibility to small-satellite operators. (5/15)

With Block 5, SpaceX to Increase Launch Cadence and Lower Prices (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
In 2017, SpaceX launched 18 Falcon 9 rockets – a massive increase from the eight launched in 2016. This year, SpaceX is expected to launch approximately 30 times. The majority of the launches will utilize the Falcon 9, with a couple utilizing Falcon Heavy. Thus far, SpaceX has executed nine launches in 2018 – eight on Falcon 9 and one on Falcon Heavy.

The company plans to perform approximately 300 missions using Block 5 over the next five years. To do so, SpaceX needs to reach a launch rate of 60 flights a year. Musk stated that the exact number of cores required “depends on what number of customers insist on launching a new rocket.” However, he is confident that the customer’s sentiment will change over time. Musk explained, “would you rather fly on an aircraft that has never had a test flight before, or would you rather fly on an aircraft that has flown many times successfully?”

To date, SpaceX has not reflown the same core more than once, as the Block 3 and Block 4 variants of the Falcon 9 required more extensive refurbishment between flights. Additionally, with Falcon 9 receiving multiple Block upgrades over the past few years, existing cores have quickly become outdated. Therefore, SpaceX has been expending Block 4 cores during their second flights. Editor's Note: Is there enough global demand to support 300 SpaceX launches over five years? (5/17)

New Mexico Prosecuters Drop Charges Against Arca CEO (Source: Las Cruces Sun-News)
New Mexico prosecutors have dropped charges against the CEO of small launch vehicle developer Arca Space. Prosecutors dropped 18 charges of securities fraud and embezzlement against Dumitru Popescu after a grand jury declined to indict him. Popescu was arrested in October on claims that he had defrauded an investor, Michael Persico. Arca Space is based in Las Cruces and had been working on a small launch vehicle, but moved much of that work to Europe after Popescu's arrest. Popescu said it the company hadn't decided it if would stay in New Mexico, but plans to maintain operations somewhere in the U.S. (5/16)

Billionaire Invests in British Company Planning Deep Space Communications Network (Source: Space News)
A British billionaire has invested in a company operating a ground station that has aspirations to support commercial missions beyond Earth orbit. Goonhilly Earth Station Ltd. announced May 14 that Peter Hargreaves, the co-founder of British financial firm Hargreaves Lansdown, has invested £24 million ($32 million) in the company, which operates a ground station in Cornwall, England.

Goonhilly didn’t disclose the size of the stake Hargreaves, a billionaire whose net worth was estimated by Forbes earlier this year at $3.9 billion, acquired in the company. In a statement, he said that he saw the company as a high-growth opportunity in an emerging market. (5/16)

Satellite Images Reveal Which Countries Cheat on Their Economic Statistics (Source: Quartz)
The temptation is great for government officials to manipulate economic statistics. Foremost among them is gross domestic product, the most commonly used measure of a country’s economy, which often serves as a proxy for a government’s financial stewardship. In a free society, groups like the civil service, media, businesses, and opposition leaders serve as a check on the impulse to flatter GDP figures. In autocratic regimes, there are fewer barriers.

Turns out, there is an easy way to tell if a country’s GDP is being artificially inflated. How easy? Just look at the night sky. A large body of research shows that the brightness of a country’s nighttime lights, as seen from satellites, is highly correlated with GDP growth. The more money people have, the more likely they are to have lights on at night. Businesses will also stay open later, resulting in even more light. If autocrats are goosing GDP, then the reported growth in those countries should be higher than nighttime light data would suggest. (5/17)

Funding for WFIRST Partially Restored in House Bill (Source: Space News)
A spending bill to be taken up by a House committee today partially restores funding for a NASA space telescope proposed for cancellation. The House Appropriations Committee released Wednesday the report accompanying the fiscal year 2019 commerce, justice and science spending bill, which the committee will mark up this morning. The report includes $150 million for WFIRST, a space telescope mission that the administration's budget request proposed cancelling.

While that funding is the same as what the mission received in 2018, it is only half of what NASA previously projected WFIRST would need in 2019 to remain on schedule. The report is silent on the fate of four Earth science missions also slated for cancellation in the request, but does add funding for the RESTORE-L satellite servicing mission to keep in on track for a 2021 flight demonstration. (5/17)

Skepticism That ISS Can Be Commercialized (Source: Space News)
NASA's inspector general said Wednesday his office was skeptical that commercial ventures could take over operations of the ISS. At a Senate hearing about the station, Paul Martin said that, as part of an audit of ISS operations, his office questioned if there was sufficient commercial demand to cover the costs of running the station starting in 2025. He added that NASA's cost savings from any transfer of the station to private operators would be less than expected, since NASA would likely continue to be a user of the station and thus shoulder some of its costs. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Bill Nelson (D-FL) used the hearing to reiterate their opposition to any proposal to end NASA funding of the station in the mid-2020s. (5/17)

Astronauts Replace Ammonia Pump with ISS Spacewalk (Source: Space News)
At the ISS, two astronauts successfully completed a spacewalk to maintain the station's cooling system. During the six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk, NASA astronauts Drew Feustel and Ricky Arnold moved a failed ammonia pump unit, nicknamed "Leaky," into storage and attached another pump, "Frosty," to the station's robotic arm. Controllers will later use the arm to move the pump to a location on the station's truss where is can be plugged in and tested. The astronauts carried out several other tasks during the spacewalk, including replacing a camera and an electronics box for a communications antenna. [CBS]

Aireon (Hosted Payload) Aircraft Tracker Gets UK Investment (Source: Space News)
Aireon has secured a $69 million investment to support its satellite-based aircraft tracking business. The company announced Wednesday that NATS, the United Kingdom's privatized air traffic management company, made in the investment in exchange for a 10 percent stake in Aireon. That funding will allow Aireon to begin paying hosting fees to Iridium, whose next-generation satellites carry Aireon hosted payloads. The investment will dilute the stakes of Aireon's other investors such as Nav Canada, which previously owned 51 percent of Aireon. (5/17)

Bill Could Push Pentagon to Fly More Hosted Payloads (Source: Space News)
Commercial satellite operators are hoping language in a defense authorization bill will push the Pentagon to fly more hosted payloads. A provision of the House version of the bill calls on Defense Department officials to provide "information, processes and lessons learned relating to using commercially hosted payloads." The military has made only limited use of hosted payloads on commercial satellites in recent years despite earlier interest. Operators argue that hosted payloads can provide increased resiliency for the Pentagon, while also providing companies with another source of revenue. (5/17)