June 17, 2018

State Set to Support SpaceX, Blue Origin Facilities at KSC (Source: Florida Today)
The state is proposing to chip in nearly $18 million to help SpaceX and Blue Origin build new facilities at Kennedy Space Center that are expected to add at least 140 jobs. Next Wednesday in Tampa, Space Florida's board of directors will consider two proposals worth $14.5 million supporting SpaceX’s proposed spaceport expansion, including a hangar for Falcon rocket refurbishment and a control tower.

Another $3.4 million would support Blue Origin’s rocket manufacturing site in Exploration Park, a state-run complex on NASA property at the south end of KSC. If the agreements are approved, the Florida Department of Transportation would reimburse the companies for some or all of eligible expenses up to those amounts. The department budgeted about $31 million for improvements to spaceport infrastructure this year, and more than $100 million for the budget year that starts July 1, 2018.

Most of the work is described as “common infrastructure improvements,” such as access roads and utilities that could benefit multiple tenants or guests around a site, not just the two private, billionaire-led companies. SpaceX and Blue Origin have committed to investing $15 million and $30 million, respectively, of their own money in those improvements, and much more on the overall projects. (6/15)

Defense Budget Bill Creates Path for Future Network of Military, Commercial Communications Satellites (Source: Space News)
The Pentagon has to explain how it will buy communications services from the private sector to supplement military satellites, congressional appropriators said in a report last week. The language from the House Appropriations defense subcommittee picks up where it left off in March when it inserted $600 million in the 2018 Air Force budget for the procurement of two new military communications satellites.

In a report accompanying the 2019 defense spending bill, the subcommittee directs the Pentagon to look further into the future of its space-based communications. The Pentagon must submit a “wideband and narrowband communications architecture and acquisition strategy” that includes both government and commercial space systems, appropriators wrote. (6/16)

Trump to Host Space-Policy Council Promoting Commercial Ventures (Source: Wall Street Journal)
President Trump on Monday is scheduled to attend for the first time a public meeting of the White House’s top space-policy council, underscoring a personal commitment to human exploration of the moon, and eventually Mars. Mr. Trump’s participation, according to people familiar with the details, is intended to highlight, and help boost momentum for, joint industry-government exploration concepts.

But the move comes as former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and retired Air Force Gen. Simon “Pete” Worden —two outspoken supporters of commercial ventures in space—have been sidelined from serving on an advisory panel to the senior-level Nationwide Area Council. (6/16)

China's Beidou System Helps Livestock Water Supply in Remote Pastoral Areas (Source: Xinhua)
A water supply system for livestock in remote pastoral areas has been trialled in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, local researchers confirmed Sunday. The trial of the new system, based on the Beidou Navigation Satellite System, was launched in the Kubuqi desert. "The system can provide water for livestock after receiving a short message sent by users through the Beidou system," said Chulu, who is in charge of the research and development of the system.

"Using the Beidou system, users can not only send short messages, but also know their own exact position, even in situations where no communication networks are available, such as ocean, desert or other wilderness," he added. "I am able to deliver water to my sheep and cattle wherever and whenever I want via this system," said Dalintai, a herder from Hanggin Banner who took part in the trial. Dalintai said that previously he had to ride a motorcycle to provide water for his livestock grazing miles away everyday in summer or every second day in winter. The new system can save him a lot of time and reduce fuel costs. (6/17)

Mauritius Wants India's Help to Become Civilian Satellite Launch Center (Source: Business Standard)
Mauritius has sought India’s help on satellite technology in a bid to emerge as a civilian satellite launch center. The island nation’s proposal has caught New Delhi by surprise. “Countries hardly ever share proprietary technologies like space and India is no exception,” a government official said.

The proposal is unusual for India, which is negotiating two unconnected but high stake cooperation agreements with Port Louis. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) currently has a framework agreement with Mauritius, as it has with almost 40 other countries and space agencies. But those are meant to only share the knowledge from space research.

But sharing technology for space launch vehicles is quite different, sources said. Mauritius has long seen itself as a force multiplier for the African continent, lying about 2,000 km from the nearest beachhead. A space launch capability can signal a renewed interest among the African countries to do business with the nation that had long established itself as a tax haven. (6/17)

Swarm Seeks Fresh FCC Satellite Launch Clearance While Still in Penalty Box (Source: IEEE Spectrum)
Swarm Technologies, the stealthy Internet of Things startup that launched four satellites illegally in January, is asking the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for permission to launch three more, even before the FCC has decided on a punishment for its first offence.

Its new application says that Swarm “urgently needs to demonstrate the viability of its proposed satellite-based communications network to technical and business partners, potential investors, and potential customers.” It is proposing to launch three Cubesats on a SpaceX rocket due to take off from Vandenberg Air Force in California later this year.

The application comes as the FCC continues to mull whether or how to punish Swarm for the unauthorized launch of four tiny SpaceBee satellites on an Indian rocket in January. The FCC denied Swarm’s original application for the SpaceBees last year, citing concerns about their trackability from the surface and thus the possibility of collisions on orbit. (6/13)

How We Can Prevent Outer Space from Becoming the Wild West (Source: CBC)
In January, an Indian rocket arced across the sky over the island of Sriharikota as it soared into space. On board were several satellites, including an Indian mapping satellite, one from Canada and one from an asteroid mining company. The rocket also contained four satellites that were actually denied permission to launch in the first place.

The rogue satellites belonged to Swarm Technologies, a private artificial intelligence company headed by Canadian-born Sara Spangelo and based in Silicon Valley. The satellites — called SpaceBees — are only about 10 centimetres across. And therein lies the problem: The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) denied the company permission to launch from the U.S. precisely because the satellites were too small to accurately track, and posed a potential danger to other satellites.

But if you're not allowed to launch from the U.S., why not launch from another country that's willing to take your money? So, that's exactly what Swarm did. The unapproved launch incident highlights a regulatory challenge in the era of "new space," with the arrival of commercial companies on the space stage. Observers say the challenge is how to regulate a burgeoning industry, and prevent Earth's orbit from becoming the new Wild West. Click here. (6/17)

Ikea Set to Launch collection Inspired by Space Travel (Source: Sunday Times)
I don’t know about you, but after about 45 minutes in Ikea, I usually feel as though I’m suffering from a lack of oxygen and gravity. Perhaps, then, it is appropriate that the Swedish furniture and lifestyle brand — and home-wrecker — should be launching a range of modular products inspired by space travel. It is due in stores by 2020, by which time humanity may have given up on the ridiculous notion of looking for a new planet to live on and decided to get on with the much less dangerous and expensive business of cleaning up the one we have. (6/17)

Astronaut Peggy Whitson Retires from NASA (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
Peggy Whitson retired from NASA on June 15, 2018, after 32 years with the space agency—22 as an astronaut. Between 2002 and 2017, she participated in three long-duration International Space Station expeditions, accumulating 665 days orbit—a record for any U.S. space flyer.

Whitson, now 58, concluded her most recent mission in September 2017. Her nine-month stay aboard the ISS as part of Expedition 50, 51 and 52 was the longest for any woman and included multiple spacewalks. In fact, according to NASA, she carries the title for the most spacewalks by a woman—10 totaling 60 hours, 21 minutes. (6/16)

NASA’s Unnecessary $504 Million Lunar Orbit Project Doesn’t Help Us Get Back to the Moon (Source: The Hill)
NASA is planning to build a human-tended space station in lunar orbit dubbed the Lunar Orbiting Platform-Gateway (LOP-G.) The lunar space station would accommodate crews of four for 60 to 90 days. The LOP-G crew “will also participate in a variety of deep-space exploration and commercial activities in the vicinity of the Moon, including possible missions to the lunar surface. NASA also wants to leverage the gateway for scientific investigations near and on the Moon.”

The LOP-G started life as the Deep Space Gateway during the Obama administration. NASA tried to sell the DSG as a laboratory to test technologies that would be useful for the Journey to Mars program announced on April 15, 2010. The other thing that the Deep Space Gateway would do was to allow astronauts to control uncrewed rovers on the lunar surface in real time.

The Deep Space Gateway got some traction when it was repurposed to serve as a base for the Asteroid Redirect Mission. The ARM’s goal was to divert an asteroid and move it to lunar orbit. A crew of astronauts would travel to the DSG and study the asteroid during a two-to-three-month mission. Later, the ARM morphed to grabbing a boulder from an asteroid rather than moving the asteroid itself. The ARM subsequently died from lack of interest. Click here. (6/16)

NASA Reaching Out On Lunar Gateway Concept (Source: Aviation Week)
NASA’s directorates are striving by September to reach a consensus on preliminary requirements for the human-tended Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (LOP-G) that would establish a permanent, U.S.-led human foothold in deep space with commercial as well as international partners. (6/14)

National Space Council User Advisory Group Is Purging Innovation From Its Ranks (Source: NASA Watch)
Newt Gingrich and Pete Worden have been removed from the UAG for reasons that sources say have to do with issues that arouse while vetting Gingrich and Worden to serve on the UAG. That's the official excuse. Vetting is good thing to do especially for advisory groups.

Oddly this "User" Advisory Group is more like a "Customer" Advisory Group with a majority of its members representing companies who already receive (and seek) huge amounts of money from NASA, DOD, DOC, etc. and have a vested interest in maintaining one or another aspect of the status quo. Actual potential users of space from the perspective of the U.S. government are virtually absent from this panel. This panel is all about serving the interests of Big Aerospace. (6/17)

Axiom Space Offers Vacation Aboard the International Space Station (Source: Robb Report)
According to mid-century science fiction, humans should be taking regular vacations to outer space by now. And while these visions certainty haven’t come to pass at a Jetsons-style level, if you can wait two more years, Axiom Space promises to make that a reality—for travelers with deep enough pockets, of course. This week, the Houston-based company announced that beginning in 2020, it will offer 10-day missions aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and, ultimately, aboard a separate, Philippe Starck–designed Axiom commercial space station.

Adventurous travelers with $55 million to spare (and who are over 21 and have also passed a medical fitness exam) will enjoy 15 weeks of training to prep them for launch, then ten days of “living” in space, complete with custom-crafted meals, daily activities, a private designer sleeping pod, and Wi-Fi—a must for posting photos and videos that only one in 13 million people alive today have had the opportunity to take. The launches will be able to take place all year-round, and voyagers yearning for more can upgrade to a 60-day mission (for an extra $25 million).

The race to launch earthlings into the great unknown has been heating up in the last several years, with commercial space travel in development by well-known names like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Richard Branson, as well as companies like Orion Span already taking reservations for a space hotel set to launch in 2021. But while many of the other ventures will take passengers to the edge of space, Axiom will be the first to actually take them into orbit. That, and an agreement with NASA to access the ISS, are just some of what Axiom co-founder, CEO, and President, Michael Suffredini, says differentiates his company from others in the space race—and what allows them to open up a whole galaxy of possibilities. (6/15)

Send a Rocket Into Space and Win $1M in Base 11 Space Challenge (Source: GeekWire)
Students from colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada are being recruited for the Base 11 Space Challenge, a $1 million competition to encourage the development of a liquid-fueled, single-stage rocket powerful enough to reach 100 kilometers (62 miles) in altitude. That height marks the internationally accepted boundary of space.

Deadline for winning the $1 million grand prize is Dec. 30, 2021, and there’ll be smaller incentive prizes awarded along the way. The program aims to boost participation by women and minorities in aerospace. For details and instructions on how to enter, check out the Space Challenge website. Click here. (6/15)

Spaceport America Cup Welcomes Back Rocket Teams from Around the World (Source: Las Cruces Sun-News)
The Spaceport America Cup welcomes back teams representing universities from around the world next week for the largest international intercollegiate rocket engineering competition. Cheers and excitement will fill the air at Spaceport America’s Vertical Launch Area for the second annual Spaceport America Cup. On June 19 -23, Spaceport America will host more than 1,500 college students from around the world, along with participating aerospace companies, recruiters, media and spectators.

The university rocket teams are composed of students from many backgrounds and disciplines. It takes more than rocket scientists to make the project come to life. For the past year, Spaceport America officials, along with rocket competition experts at the Experimental Sounding Rocket Association, have spent countless hours to facilitate this event. Student teams are from Canada, Egypt, Great Britain, India, Mexico, Poland, Turkey, Switzerland, as well as 31 of the 50 U.S. states, and the District of Columbia. (6/15)

To Improve Space Clothing, German Astronaut Will Work Up a Sweat (Source: Space.com)
Alexander Gerst, a German astronaut for the European Space Agency, is about to sweat for science. Gerst, who arrived at the International Space Station as part of the European Space Agency's Horizons mission on June 6, will help conduct the first experiments to explore how the human body, clothing and climate interact, in relation to comfort, under zero-gravity conditions.

Central to the study, known as SpaceTex2, will be the examination of three shirts, each with a different cooling performance, that were developed following the original SpaceTex experiments on the space station in 2014. Gerst will have to perform six training sessions on the ergometer (space bicycle) or the treadmill while wearing the functional shirts. These sessions will happen outside of the 2 hours of exercise space station astronauts undergo daily to prevent bone and muscle loss. (6/16)

How Tidally Locked Planets Could Avoid a 'Snowball Earth' Fate (Source: Space.com)
Tidally-locked planets in the habitable zone of stars may be able to avoid global ice ages, according to a study that models the interplay of where ice forms and how it reflects sunlight. Meanwhile, a second study has found that planets that are strongly tilted are more likely to experience sudden ice ages.

The "habitable zone" around stars, where it's warm enough for liquid water to exist on an Earth-like world's surface, has long been the gold standard in assessing the potential for life on other worlds, but as our understanding of astrobiology deepens, scientists are looking for other clues to habitability. The kind of days, nights and seasons that shape conditions on alien worlds can differ radically from Earth's.

One qualifier is a planet's axial tilt, also known as its obliquity. The Earth spins at an angle of 23.5 degrees relative to the sun, meaning most sunlight hits the equator, while the poles are so cold they form ice caps. However, a planet tilted over by more than 55 degrees could potentially form an equatorial ice belt, as well as poles that would be incredibly hot during the summer and extraordinarily cold during the winter, and so life living in polar regions would have to adapt to both extreme heat and cold. (6/17)

Culberson: ‘My Goal is to Revolutionize the Space Program and Keep America at the Cutting-Edge' (Source: Rep. Culberson)
Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science (CJS), Congressman John Culberson (R-TX) spoke to the Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC) to underscore his commitment to their work. “As a native Houstonian, I grew up fascinated by the mysteries of outer space. I received my first telescope when I was about 12 years old and developed a great passion for astronomy. Now, as CJS Chairman, I proudly represent Houston’s Johnson Space Center, and I am laser focused on ensuring that the United States’ space program is the best on earth.

“I’m convinced that the commercial sector will unlock horizons in the space program that we cannot even imagine today. As human beings, there is something in our DNA that spurs us to want to know what’s over the next horizon and to unlock secrets of life and the universe. NASA is the only agency that can do that. As CJS Chairman, I’ve directed NASA to launch humanity’s first interstellar mission to that nearest earth-like planet on the 100th anniversary of Neil Armstrong setting foot on the moon. The commercial sector will be a vital part that effort.

“I remain committed to ensuring that both NASA and the commercial sector have the funding they need to succeed, and that politics – from neither the left nor the right - is kept out of their work. My goal is to revolutionize the space program and keep America at the forefront so that NASA will be lifted above and beyond the glory days of Apollo.” (6/15)

Schmitt: The Right Rocket for the Moon and Mars (Source: Politico)
Establishing a continuous human presence on the Moon and Mars will be among humanity’s greatest achievements, but there is only one modern rocket specifically designed for such complex missions. Although many companies are developing launchers that may be adapted for human use later, NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) was developed from the start to push human presence beyond low Earth orbit. This is the first launch system with that purpose since the development of the Saturn Moon rocket began in early 1960.

Since the test flight of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy launch vehicle a few short months ago, many have questioned why we need SLS when commercial vehicles boast “bargain” prices. Their arguments center on the price-per-pound to orbit of commercial vehicles compared to SLS. However a price-per-pound comparison is practically meaningless in the context of real deep space mission requirements. We need to launch crew along with the systems and supplies needed to support human life for longer than a couple of days in order to begin building our next “home away from home” in deep space.

Depending upon location we will also need to launch a lot of infrastructure. For example, if lunar resources are to be used to support terrestrial fusion power, lunar settlement, and Mars exploration, large scale production and refining equipment and habitat and power facilities will be required. SLS is designed to evolve to meet these needs. For purposes of comparison, let’s assess just the current capabilities of SLS and SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy in the context of each of deep space mission requirements. (6/15)

SpaceX’s Ultimate Ace in the Hole is its Starlink Satellite Internet Business (Source: Teslatrati)
In a 2018 report on the current state of the satellite industry, the rationale behind SpaceX’s decision to expand its business into the construction and operation of a large satellite network – known as Starlink – was brought into sharp contrast, demonstrating just how tiny the market for orbital launches is compared with the markets those same launches create.

If a sought-after good is somehow sold for less, one would expect that more people would be able and willing to buy it. The launch market is similar, but also very different in the sense that simply reaching orbit has almost no inherent value on its own – what makes it valuable are the payloads. For there to be more demand for cheaper launches, the cost of the satellites that predominately fuel the launch market also needs to decrease.

Enter Starlink, SpaceX’s internal effort to develop – nearly from scratch – its own highly reliable, cheap, and mass-producible satellite bus, as well as the vast majority of all the hardware and software required to build and operate a vast, orbiting broadband network. Add in comparable companies like OneWeb and an exploding landscape of companies focused on creating a new generation of miniaturized satellites, and the stage has truly begun to be set for a future where the cost of orbital payloads themselves wind up dropping just as dramatically as the cost of launching them. (6/15)

Kazakhstan Appoints Vice Minister of Defense and Aerospace Industry (Source: KazInform)
Amaniyaz Yerzhanov has been appointed as Vice Minister of Defense and Aerospace Industry of Kazakhstan by the Government Decree, primeminister.kz reports.  Yerzhanov was born in 1960 in West Kazakhstan region. In 1982 he graduated from the Dzhambul irrigation and drainage construction institute, in 2001 the Kazakh State Management Academy. He holds PhD in Economics. (6/15)