June 13, 2018

In a First, NASA’s Predator Drone Flew Solo in Commercial Airspace (Source: Fast Company)
NASA says its unmanned aircraft, which it uses to support Earth science missions and aeronautical technology development, has edged drones one step closer to flying in the same airspace as commercial and private planes. The space agency said its remotely piloted Ikhana aircraft was able today to complete its first-ever mission without an accompanying chase plane. The technology it carried could open the door to a sky where large unmanned systems safely mingle with other air traffic in order to monitor and fight forest fires or conduct emergency search and rescue operations, NASA says. (6/12)

Japan Launches Reconnaissance Satellite (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
An H-2A rocket launched a Japanese reconnaissance satellite overnight. The H-2A lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center at 12:20 a.m. Eastern and placed the Information Gathering Satellite (IGS) Radar 6 spacecraft for the Japanese armed forces into orbit. The spacecraft carries a synthetic aperture radar system. The launch comes a few months after the launch of the IGS Optical 6 satellite. (6/12)

House Considers Space Traffic Management Bill (Source: Space News)
A House committee is considering space traffic management legislation. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), chairman of the House Science Committee, said at a panel discussion Monday that a bill addressing the topic was under development, but provided no details about what it might include. Committee staff later said they are talking with various stakeholders to find out their priorities, with the hope of passing a bill incorporating those issues later this year. The administration has been working on a space traffic management policy announced by Vice President Pence in April, but not yet formally approved. (6/12)

Marshall Director Todd May Leaving NASA (Source: Huntsville Times)
The director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center announced Monday his plans to leave the agency. Todd May said that he will step down as center director at the end of July to "begin a new chapter in life" but didn't disclose details about his plans. May, the former manager of the Space Launch System program, became acting center director in November 2015 upon the retirement of former director Patrick Scheuermann, and took the job on a permanent basis in February 2016. (6/11)

Pegasus Launch On Hold for Launch Vehicle Problem (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
The launch of a NASA space science satellite is on hold because of an issue with its launch vehicle. The L-1011 aircraft carrying the Pegasus XL rocket for NASA's ICON spacecraft returned to California after detecting "off-nominal data" with the rocket during a ferry flight to Hawaii. Neither NASA nor Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems (formerly Orbital ATK) disclosed details about the vehicle problem. The launch was scheduled to take place this month out of Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific, and the narrow window available for the launch from there suggests a lengthy delay for the launch. (6/11)

Air Force ULTRA Seeks Improved Lightning Criteria for Increased Launch Tempo (Source: SPACErePORT)
The goal of ULTRA is to create a System-of-Systems that will enhance and can eventually replace the ground electric field mills, and will significantly improve Lightning Launch Commit Criteria (LLCC) evaluation capabilities. This improved capability will provide relief from existing LLCC and significantly increase launch availability and reduce the adverse effects of launch delays on the aggressive launch tempo expected in the near future. Also, ascent imagery will be improved by the addition of new views, covering aspects of launch vehicles that are currently unobserved during ascent. Click here. (6/12)

Alpha Centauri Stars Not Hostile to Life (Source: Space.com)
The star system closest to the sun is not hostile to life. Astronomers studying Alpha Centauri A and B using the Chandra X-Ray Observatory found that the two stars have X-ray emissions comparable to those seen from the sun. Life on any planets orbiting the stars "should have a fighting chance" in that radiation environment, astronomers said. That's in contrast to Proxima Centauri, a dwarf star that distantly orbits Alpha Centauri that produces powerful flares, rendering the planet found orbiting it uninhabitable. (6/13)

Senator Warns of Challenge From China in Space (Source: Space News)
A member of the Senate Armed Services Committee warns that the U.S. needs to take the challenge from China in military space activities more seriously. Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) said Tuesday that he's long followed China's rise and argues that the country has viewed space as a "military effort" for three decades. China's 2007 anti-satellite weapons test should have been seen as a "Sputnik moment," he said, but the U.S. has been slow to recognize that challenge, underinvesting in space and other key technologies. (6/13)

Bridenstine Considers Kavadni for Deputy Post (Source: Space News)
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said Tuesday he'd like to see a current center director and former astronaut be nominated as his deputy. Bridenstine said he's been advocating for Janet Kavandi to be nominated for the position of deputy administrator. Kavandi is currently director of the Glenn Research Center and is a former astronaut who flew on three shuttle missions and later served in management positions at the Johnson Space Center. Bridenstine said that given the major development programs in progress at NASA, the deputy administrator needs to be someone with extensive technical and managerial experience. (6/13)

New NASA Position to Focus on Exploration of Moon, Mars and Worlds Beyond (Source: Space Daily)
NASA's Science Mission Directorate (SMD) is taking a giant leap focusing the agency's exploration of the Moon, Mars and our Solar System. Effective immediately, Steve Clarke is SMD's Deputy Associate Administrator for Exploration. He will serve as the agency's interface between the NASA mission directorates, the scientific community, and other external stakeholders in developing a strategy to enable an integrated approach for robotic and human exploration within NASA's Exploration Campaign. (6/13)

Harris Corp. Marks Four Decades with HQ on Space Coast (Source: Florida Today)
Harris Corp. is celebrating its 40th year anniversary of the company headquarters relocating to Melbourne from Cleveland, Ohio. That’s big in itself. It’s also the three-year anniversary of the company’s acquisition of Exelis Inc., a deal which many feared could have led to Harris moving its headquarters to McLean, Virginia, where Exelis had been based.

But it all worked out, both 40 years ago, and three years ago. Harris is solidified here on the Space Coast and its hard to overstate the company's importance. Harris has 17,000 workers globally and 6,600 in Florida. In the Sunshine State, all but 200 of Harris’ Florida workforce is concentrated in Brevard. (6/8)

DiBello: Booming Spaceport Will Drive Growth by 2030 (Source: Florida Today)
More than 100 rocket launches a year. Thousands of new high-tech jobs. Bustling downtown corridors developed to support the young workers drawn to a booming spaceport. It’s a bullish vision the Space Coast region could realize as soon as 2030 — if it begins planning now, Space Florida CEO Frank DiBello said Tuesday.

“This is not far-fetched and it is near-term,” DiBello told the National Space Club Florida Committee. “The growth of the industry is inevitable, and we can either let happen or we can manage it well.” DiBello invited local leaders, NASA and the Air Force to participate in meetings that will map out the new spaceport infrastructure as well as the roads, housing and amenities that will be needed to handle the projected growth.

The rosy forecast comes seven years after a low point in the area’s history, when NASA’s retirement of the 30-year space shuttle program resulted in roughly 8,000 layoffs of shuttle contractors and other indirect job losses. Those jobs and more have been recovered, DiBello said, through a more diverse industry portfolio based at Orlando-Melbourne International Airport as well as Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Click here. (6/12)

NASA Continues Mars Sample Return Mission Studies (Source: Space News)
NASA doesn’t expect to make decisions on how it will carry out a Mars sample return effort until late next year despite recent discoveries that have offered additional evidence that the planet was once, and may still be, habitable.

In results published in the journal Science last week, scientists working on data from the Curiosity Mars rover announced the discovery of organic molecules in ancient Martian rocks, as well as seasonal variations of methane concentrations in the Martian atmosphere.

While both discoveries are consistent with the existence of past or present life, they are alone not proof since both the organic molecules and methane gas production can be explained by alternative, non-biological processes. However, they have excited scientists who are seeking more data to determine the habitability of Mars. (6/12)

Embry-Riddle Team Selected to Construct New Space Tool (Source: ERAU)
Using 3D printing, fiberglass and stainless steel, a team from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University developed a tool that could help NASA explore underneath ice-covered surfaces in space. Embry-Riddle was one of 25 teams across the U.S. selected to participate in a simulated microgravity challenge at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

As part of the Micro-g Neutral Buoyancy Experiment Design Teams (Micro-g NExT) challenge, undergraduate students designed, built and tested various tools that address an authentic, current space exploration challenge. The space tools were tested this week at Johnson's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL), which includes a 6.2-million-gallon indoor pool used to train NASA astronauts for spacewalks.

Micro-g NExT, which is sponsored by NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, is designed to encourage research and development in new technologies and engage students in real-world engineering and problem-solving concepts that may be needed on future exploration missions. (6/11)

NASA Will Visit an Undersea Volcano in Hawaii to Figure Out How to Hunt for Aliens (Source: Mashable)
NASA will soon visit Hawaii's Lo'ihi volcano, which sits more than 3,000 feet beneath the Pacific Ocean, all in the name of one day hunting for life out in the solar system. The NASA expedition, called SUBSEA, endeavors to visit underwater volcanoes — which are often rich in colorful mats of microbial life — to better grasp how life might exist in deep, harsh, lightless places in our solar system.

Lo'ihi is an active volcano sitting about 50 miles off the coast of the Big Island. NASA — which will launch the mission in August — will use the rocks and bacteria it collects from the volcano to plan ambitious robotic explorations of these water worlds, should the agency get funding. (6/11)

'Reusable' SpaceX Rockets a Gamble That Taxpayers Shouldn't Finance (Source: NewsMax)
Last Monday was a notable day in the space industry — one that featured lavish flamboyance but just a modicum of practicality. In the wee hours of the morning, SpaceX launched a rocket for its brow-raising broadband internet project that featured some reused parts — a carrot that CEO Elon Musk often dangles in the faces of conservative policymakers to win more government contracts.

They should not take his refurbished bait. Why not, you ask? Hasn't Musk said that the use of reused parts can potentially suppress space launch costs by a factor greater than 100? Am I merely a creature of the past? Do I hate cost savings and innovation? The truth is that Musk's promises many times don't meet up with reality. The investment world is finally learning this the hard way with Tesla, which still isn't making a profit and is now Wall Street's top short position, and SpaceX is also having difficulty delivering on promises.

For example, after already giving one set of prices to the federal government, the aerospace company will now hike its average price per kilogram by a staggering 50 percent for NASA and other government space flight missions. This is while other commercial space flight companies’ prices are going down. If the federal government lets SpaceX's reusable ambitions continue to fly (no pun intended) off the public's back, further cost increases will likely ensue. (6/11)

India’s Space Odyssey (Source: The Hindu)
The Indian Space Research Organization launched the first indigenously made satellite, Aryabhata, into space in 1975. Though not a complete success, the project opened new possibilities for ISRO. April 19 is a special day in Indian satellite history. On this day in 1975, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) launched the first Indian-made satellite into space. It was named after the ancient Indian mathematician and astronomer, Aryabhata. In 1975, India built the satellite, but did not have the capability to launch it into space.

So ISRO used the Soviet Union's Kosmos-3M launch vehicle. In 2018, India has reached a record of launching over 100 satellites at the same time. ISRO has also sent spacecraft missions to the Moon and Mars. Today, ISRO is praised for its exceptional work and India is thought of as one of the best in the world in space exploration. It is interesting to see how the story began 43 years ago. (6/12)