June 23, 2018

Rocket Lab Commercial Launch Postponed (Source: RNZ)
Rocket Lab has again postponed the launch of its first commercial vehicle containing satellites. It had been unable to fix problems with its ground station in the Chatham Islands - and bad weather over the next few days may cause further delay, it said. The launch was initially set for April but there were problems with a pump motor. When it launches, the rocket will send five satellites into low Earth orbit. (6/23)

Space Policy Expert Says Trump's Proposed 'Space Force' Would Hurt Other Military Branches (Source: Texas Public Radio)
Roger Handberg is a space policy expert at the University of Central Florida, where he teaches political science. He says the idea of a space force is as old as the space age. But what is new about this idea is the level it’s reached.

“This is the first time it’s gotten any political resonance at the level of the president,” Handberg says. “How it would be done organizationally has not been as big a focus.”

If a space force is established, leaders of other branches of the military might not be too happy. They would have to share funding and personnel resources with the new branch. In fact, Dwight Eisenhower created NASA as a non-military organization to avoid this type of rivalry, according to Handburg. But of all the current military branches, Handburg says the air force would be hit the hardest. (6/22)

'Space Force' Could Launch a $1 Trillion Industry, Morgan Stanley Says (Source: The Street)
Critics have mocked President Donald Trump's recent call for the U.S. military to create a "space force," but Morgan Stanley says the proposal could help create what the firm thinks will become the world's next trillion-dollar industry -- the business of outer space.

"Many investors would rather think about nearer-term themes that are actionable and can impact their portfolios in 2018. However, our conversations with various actors (current and retired) in the U.S. government, military and intelligence communities overwhelmingly indicate that space is an area where we will see significant development," Morgan Stanley analysts wrote Friday in a research note. (6/22)

Will Launching Plants Into Orbit Yield New Medicines? (Source: Stat)
The test tubes didn’t look much like planet Earth. There were four of them stuck into a white, 3-D printed frame, each one home to a spindly plant sprouting from a dab of lab-made jelly. It was to a garden what Soylent is to confit de canard with fingerling potatoes and mesclun greens.

But once inserted into an aluminum metal box, propelled out of our atmosphere, and plugged into the International Space Station, this arrangement was supposed to mimic everything about our world — except for one important detail. There would be almost no gravity. A team of biologists and chemists hopes that this alien environment might prod these floral cosmonauts into producing new and improved molecules for drugs. Click here. (6/22)

Huntsville Home for Space Port? (Source: Rocket City Now)
Huntsville may be the home for space port. It will be discussed next week when the Alabama Space Authority meets next Thursday. "We're well on the way to making the opportunity to have an license a space port in Alabama," said Gerald Dial, Chairman of the Alabama Space Board. "Don't ask me where because that will be resolved later on. It's like someone said -- it makes sense that it will be close to the operations being built. Alabama is going to get a space port, and that is what this authority is all about."

Huntsville would seem the likely selection, given the proximity to Marshall Space Flight Center and United Launch Alliance in Decatur -- which is actively involved in building the SLS. There are also talks of landing the Dream Chaser in Huntsville, which would make commercial space travel an everyday thing. (6/22)

Epps Still Unsure Why NASA Pulled Her From the ISS Mission (Source: Quartz)
NASA announced in 2017 that Jeanette Epps had been chosen to go to the International Space Station (ISS) in June this year—-she was to be the first African-American woman to live on the station. Then suddenly, in December last year, Epps was pulled from Expedition 56. She said at the Tech Open Air conference in Berlin that she can’t speculate on why she was pulled—it was a management decision and she’s still waiting for an official reason.

Crew members have been taken off missions in the past, but generally for medical reasons—Epps had no health issues, had passed all the training, and was cleared to fly. She told the audience that she prefers not to speculate on media stories saying the decision was sexist or racist, as it detracts from the mission that she and her colleagues have worked so hard on. (6/22)

NASA Langley Contract Employees Get Pay Cuts Under New Contractor (Source: Daily Press)
In two decades at NASA Langley Research Center, Denise Stefula has worn many hats — management analyst, project coordinator, science writer. Over the years, Stefula has sailed through three or four changeovers from one contractor to the next with nary a hitch. Until now.

In March, NASA Langley announced it had chosen its newest contractor, Alutiiq-Fusion Joint Venture, to provide about 200 employees under Langley’s administrative, media and professional services (LAMPS II) contract. Soon after, Stefula was stunned to discover she would have to take a 37 percent pay cut to keep her job.

Several contract workers at the center say their salary reductions range from 8 percent to 37 percent, and that countless colleagues have taken similar cuts, or greater. They cite unsubstantiated accounts of a few senior staffers who had their pay slashed by 70 percent. They also say benefits are diminished and insurance premiums are steeper. Langley’s new contractor is a partnership between Alutiiq LLC, a Native American-owned business based in Anchorage, Alaska, and Media Fusion of Huntsville. (6/23)

Aldrin Sues His Son and Former Manager (Source: Ars Technica)
All is not well in the otherworldly world of the second human to walk on the Moon. Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin has sued his family, including his son Andy Aldrin, former business manager Christina Korp, and several foundations. The suit alleges that the family has taken advantage of the 88-year-old through a de facto guardianship. Filed on June 7 in Brevard County court, the lawsuit alleges that Andy Aldrin and Korp used the former astronaut’s personal credit cards, trust accounts, artifacts, and social media accounts for their own purposes.

It additionally alleges the following: that the family prevented Aldrin, who has been married three times, from marrying for a fourth time; that the family has “bullied” his romantic interests; and that the family has slandered the astronaut by saying he has dementia or Alzheimer’s. Editor's Note: Andy Aldrin operates The Aldrin Space Institute at Florida Tech in Melbourne. (6/22)

Space Tourists Could Be Struck Down by Astro-Sickness, Warns NASA Astronaut (Source: The Telegraph)
The dream of boldly going where only a few have gone before has inspired hundreds of people to sign up with space tourism companies like Virgin Galactic. But NASA astronaut Anna Fisher, who made history by becoming the first mother in space, has warned many are unprepared for the rigors of spaceflight and the toll it will take on their bodies.

Dr Fisher said she was sick for the first two days of her mission on the Discovery space shuttle in 1984 and said she was concerned that people paying hundreds of thousands of pounds did not fully appreciate what might happen. “The one thing I am concerned about with tourists in space is people thinking you can just get on a rocket and just go into space. It’s not like riding a commercial aircraft, not at all, and I can see all these problems with people up there and throwing up and messing up somebody’s flight that they paid $250,000 for." (6/23)

4 Reasons NASA Projects Miss Deadlines and Blow Budgets (Source: IEEE Spectrum)
The U.S. House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology held a hearing last week looking into NASA project costs and schedule overruns. The hearing followed on the heels of a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released in May that showed that the costs and schedules of NASA’s portfolio of major projects (meaning those with a life-cycle cost of more than US $250 million) have “deteriorated” over the past year.

The GAO reported that the agency’s current overall development cost growth for the portfolio of 17 development projects increased to 18.8 percent, up from 15.6 percent in 2017. Further, the average launch delay for the portfolio had reached 12 months, the longest the GAO has seen in the past decade of looking into NASA’s major projects. Click here. (6/22)

Mars Is Passe. Venus Is the Real Next Frontier (Source: Daily Beast)
Mars has long been heralded as the next planet Earthlings can escape to when this planet becomes uninhabitable, just a redder, colder, and darker version. But some are wondering if we shouldn't pay attention to Earth's other red—though warmer—neighbor: Venus.

It's a serious thought that is getting some serious backing in the space research community. NASA recently announced it has hatched a scheme for rocketing giant airships to Venus—and sending astronauts to live aboard the airships for up to a month at time for research purposes. A possible manned Venus mission could boost NASA’s efforts to push the boundaries of human space exploration to farther—and frankly, weirder—planets. (6/22)

Trump's New Space Force is a Powerfully Dumb Idea (Source: C/Net)
"It is not enough to merely have an American presence in space, we must have American dominance in space." And with those words, President Donald Trump's long-mooted Space Force went from Crayola fever dream to Very Real Thing. Yes, this is the timeline we have landed in, and yes, we have star soldiers now. But hold your space horses, Trump -- you don't get to own the galaxy!

International Space Law tells us all space exploration must be done with good intentions. I don't know if they ever made Space JAG (Netflix, please make this), but I feel like the Space Force would be court-martialled within three days of blasting into the sky. Our current astronauts, like noted space super-twin Mark Kelly, already say it's a dumb idea. And even if they got this new branch of the military off the ground -- quite literally -- there are other unanswered questions. (6/21)

When a Mars Simulation Goes Wrong (Source: The Atlantic)
For the last five years, small groups of people have moved into the domed habitat on Mauna Loa. Their job is to pretend that they are on Mars, and then spend months living like it. The goal, for the researchers who send them there, is to figure out how human beings would do on a mission to the real thing. In February of this year, the latest batch of pioneers, a crew of four, made the journey up the mountain. They settled in for an eight-month stay. Four days later, one of them was taken away on a stretcher and hospitalized.

The remaining crew members were evacuated by mission support. All four eventually returned to the habitat, not to continue their mission, but to pack up their stuff. Their simulation was over for good. The little white dome has remained empty since, and the University of Hawaii, which runs the program, and nasa, which funds it, are investigating the incident that derailed the mission. This was the sixth iteration of the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation, or hi-seas. On the morning of February 19, Lisa Stojanovski, a science communicator from Australia, woke up to find the power in the habitat had gone out.

Stojanovski and another crew member initiated the procedures for leaving the habitat. They would flip a switch to bring the generator to life, while the two other crew members would flip a switch on a circuit breaker from inside the habitat. This maneuver would shift the power source from the dead batteries over to the generator, Stojanovski said. When it was done, Stojanovski came back inside. One of the crew members was typing furiously at a computer. The other looked stricken, pale. They said they didn’t feel well. They said they had sustained an electric shock. Click here. (6/22)