June 4, 2018

Florida Awards Grant to Space Coast Area Colleges for Aerospace Workforce Training (Source: Florida Today)
Eastern Florida State College in Brevard County received a $2.6 million grant on Wednesday as part of Gov. Rick Scott's initiative to expand jobs in the aerospace and manufacturing industries. Eastern Florida officials said the college will use the money to purchase advanced technology and computers and develop its robotics lab on the Palm Bay campus and a new mechatronics lab on the Cocoa campus in order to train students for aerospace, manufacturing and other high-tech jobs.

Eastern Florida President Jim Richey, whose tenure has seen the rise of new programs and facilities to meet Brevard County's high-tech job demands, said local businesses will benefit from this latest grant. At Eastern Florida, programs in aerospace, engineering, computer information, aviation, robotics, drafting and design, machinery, welding and mechatronics are available at the college's four campuses and at its new Advanced Manufacturing Center on the Cocoa Campus and Aviation Center at the Melbourne International Airport. (6/4)

With a Simple and Cheap Rocket, Virgin Orbit Aims for the Extraordinary (Source: Ars Technica)
The black outline of a rocket painted on a concrete factory floor measures a little more than 20 meters in length. As Will Pomerantz strides along it, he admits that the depicted LauncherOne vehicle won’t exactly amaze aerospace enthusiasts. In designing the rocket, Virgin Orbit opted for a workhorse rather than a show pony.

“As awesome a goal as it is to put humans on Mars—or SUVs on Mars, or send robots past Pluto—that’s not what we’re trying to do,” says Pomerantz, a vice president at Virgin Orbit and the company’s first employee. “We’re trying to do the simplest, cheapest vehicle that we think is commercially viable in the long run.”

LauncherOne’s most distinctive feature is that it does not blast off from the surface of the Earth. Rather, it detaches from a 747 aircraft at 11km (~6.8 miles) and ascends to space from there. The fuel it burns—a highly refined form of kerosene known as RP-1—has launched rockets for more than half a century. And the engines are as simple as they practically can be. (6/4)

Arizona's 'Can-Do Attitude' Brings Space System Company To Mesa (Source: KJZZ)
It’s not a move Arnaldo Soto, Jr. had planned. He and his partners thought they’d grow AQST Space Systems in Puerto Rico. But after Hurricane Maria destroyed the island’s infrastructure and devastated the economy, they considered five states: Florida, Georgia, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.

"Arizona’s can-do attitude, inclusive universities, and overall 'no company is too small' mantra is what attracted us to move AQST Headquarters to Arizona," Soto said during a news conference. Mesa’s Falcon Field will host the company’s headquarters while Soto looks for space to build small rockets and satellite constellations.

"We plan to create no less than 125 jobs over the next three years with 30 percent of our workforce comprised of veterans," he said. If the company meets hiring goals, it could be eligible for more than $1 million in state tax credits. A job training grant is also available. (6/4)

How Microbes Survive Clean Rooms and Contaminate Spacecraft (Source: Space Daily)
Spacecraft assembly facilities harbor a low but persistent amount of biological contamination despite the use of clean rooms. In the clean room facilities, NASA implements a variety of planetary protection measures to minimize biological contamination of spacecraft. These steps are important because contamination by Earth-based microorganisms could compromise life-detection missions by providing false positive results.

Despite extensive cleaning procedures, however, molecular genetic analyses show that the clean rooms harbor a diverse collection of microorganisms, or a spacecraft microbiome, that includes bacteria, archaea and fungi, explained Mogul. The Acinetobacter, a genus of bacteria, are among the dominant members of the spacecraft microbiome.

To figure out how the spacecraft microbiome survives in the cleanroom facilities, the research team analyzed several Acinetobacter strains that were originally isolated from the Mars Odyssey and Phoenix spacecraft facilities. They found that under very nutrient-restricted conditions, most of the tested strains grew on and biodegraded the cleaning agents used during spacecraft assembly. The work showed that cultures grew on ethyl alcohol as a sole carbon source while displaying reasonable tolerances towards oxidative stress. (6/3)

NASA Selects US Companies to Advance Space Resource Collection (Source: Space Daily)
NASA has selected 10 companies to conduct studies and advance technologies to collect, process and use space-based resources for missions to the Moon and Mars. NASA placed a special emphasis on encouraging the responders to find new applications for existing, terrestrial capabilities that could result in future space exploration capabilities at lower costs.

The practice of in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) could increase safety and affordability of future human spaceflight missions by limiting the need to launch supplies, such as oxygen and water from Earth. NASA sought three areas of work focused on producing propellant and other exploration mission consumables using water from extraterrestrial soils and carbon dioxide from the Martian atmosphere. Click here. (6/1) http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/NASA_selects_US_companies_to_advance_space_resource_collection_999.html

Mars 2020 Engineer Got A Job In Tech Later In Life (Source: Refinery 29)
When Melony Mahaarachchi interviewed at SpaceX in 2010, she was asked a question that would make most candidates go into panic mode: “We hire rock stars at SpaceX. You just presented a failed project. How do you expect us to think you’re a rock star?” Mahaarachchi answered, “Two reasons: Number one, rock stars are rock stars because they failed at the beginning and learned from their mistakes. Number two, be happy I failed before joining SpaceX so that failure is not at your cost.”

That searing reply was a bit unusual, but it was carefully crafted well before the presentation. Mahaarachchi, then applying for her first job, was different from many of her fellow applicants. The recent UCLA engineering grad was at least 10 years older, with two young children, and no summer internship experience. (“I was busy doing summertime with my kids.”) Click here. (3/20)

SpaceX Delays Plans for First Space Tourists to Circle Moon (Source: Wall Street Journal)
SpaceX has indicated it won’t launch a pair of space tourists to loop around the moon this year as previously announced, the latest sign that technical and production challenges are disrupting founder Elon Musk’s plans for human exploration of the solar system. A new timetable for the flight—now postponed until at least mid-2019 and likely longer—hasn’t been released by SpaceX.

Over the weekend, company spokesman James Gleeson confirmed the private moon launch has been postponed, without indicating when it might occur. “SpaceX is still planning to fly private individuals around the moon and there is growing interest from many customers,” Mr. Gleeson said in an email.

The delay comes amid SpaceX’s own projections of a nearly 40% drop in launches next year from as many as 28 anticipated for 2018. The decline primarily reflects a global slump in manufacturing orders and launch contracts for large commercial satellites. (6/4)

Bezos and Humanity’s Future Beyond Earth (Source: Space Review)
At the International Space Development Conference last month, Jeff Bezos accepted an award, saved a TV series, and also discussed his vision of humanity living and working in space. Jeff Foust describes the scene that linked the richest man in the world with one of the legendary space visionaries of the 20th century. Click here. (6/4) 
 
Space Station Prestige (Source: Space Review)
Last week China announced it was working with the UN to open its space station to researchers around the world, even as NASA is looking for ways to end its support for the ISS in the mid-2020s; a sign of China’s ascendence at the expense of the US, some claimed. A.J. Mackenzie argues that, in fact, these developments show how relatively unimportant space stations are. Click here. (6/4)
 
Gateway Versus Tollbooth (Source: Space Review)
At the recent International Space Development Conference, NASA officials talked up plans to develop the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway as the next step in human space exploration. Jeff Foust reports that another conference attendee offered an alternative approach to human lunar exploration that has no need for the Gateway. Click here. (6/4)
 
Surrey Satellite Technology Limited Awards Launch Services Agreement to Firefly Aerospace (Source: Firefly)
Firefly Aerospace, a developer of orbital launch vehicles for the small to medium satellite market, announced today the execution of a Launch Services Agreement (LSA) with Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) for use of the Firefly Alpha launch vehicle. "Firefly is pleased to enter into an LSA with SSTL to provide up to six Alpha launches from 2020 through 2022," said Firefly CEO Dr. Tom Markusic. "The Alpha launch vehicle allows for deployment of SSTL satellites as a primary payload to their preferred orbit, rather than flying as a secondary payload on a larger launch vehicle." (6/4)

China's Private Space Race Begins. Should SpaceX Be Nervous? (Source: Motley Fool)
SpaceX, meet "Link Space." Rocket Lab, meet "OneSpace." In space as here on Earth, success inspires imitation, so it was probably only a matter of time before we began seeing Chinese companies spring up to imitate the success of American "new space" companies like SpaceX and Rocket Lab.

Ever since SpaceX roared onto the space scene with its successful launch of a single-engine Falcon 1 rocket in 2009, global space companies (and even entire spacefaring nations) have been wondering how they're going to be able to compete against a company that launches satellites into orbit for prices as low as $62 million a pop. The solution China hit upon in 2014 was to jump-start its own private space industry by authorizing private investment in spaceflight.

China's new space regime began bearing fruit almost immediately, with tiny Link Space Aerospace Technology Inc. conducting a "hover" test on a prototype reusable rocket (designed to launch, then land back on Earth) in 2016. Last year, Link Space gained widespread publicity when it published a presentation outlining plans to evolve into a manufacturer of both satellites and rockets to carry them. However, with Link Space targeting payloads of no more than 200 kilograms -- and its first commercial launch not expected to take place before 2021 -- it poses no immediate threat to SpaceX. (6/3)

Raytheon Expands Mississippi Operations Hub (Source: Area Development)
Raytheon is expanding the footprint of its manufacturing center in Forest, Mississippi. A new building on the campus will be a hub for test, integration and production of s-band radars, including the U.S. Navy's next generation SPY-6, Air and Missile Defense Radar program. (6/1)

SpaceX Launches SES Satellite From Florida (Source: Space News)
SpaceX successfully launched a communications satellite late last night. The Falcon 9 lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 12:45 a.m. Eastern Monday and placed the SES-12 satellite into geostationary transfer orbit. The Falcon 9 was a "hybrid" version of the rocket, using a previously flown Block 4 first stage and a new Block 5 upper stage. SpaceX did not attempt to land the first stage. The Airbus-built satellite will operate at 95 degrees east in GEO, providing services from the Asia-Pacific region to the Middle East. (6/4)

First Commercial Falcon Heavy Could Lift Arabsat in December (Source: Space News)
The first Falcon Heavy launch with a commercial satellite payload is now scheduled for around the end of the year. Arabsat says its Arabsat 6A satellite will launch on the rocket in December or January. That will be the third flight of the rocket, after its debut in February and a Space Test Program 2 mission for the Air Force now scheduled for October. The vehicle's manifest after that is unclear, as Intelsat, Viasat and Inmarsat, who all have Falcon Heavy contracts, have yet to assign satellites for those launches. (6/3)

Three ISS Astronauts Return to Earth (Source: CBS)
A Soyuz spacecraft carrying three International Space Station crewmembers returned to Earth Sunday. The Soyuz MS-07 spacecraft landed in Kazakhstan at 8:39 a.m. Eastern, about three and a half hours after undocking from the station. Onboard the Soyuz were Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, American astronaut Scott Tingle and Japanese astronaut Norishige Kanai, who returned from 168 days in space. Three new ISS crewmembers will launch on a Soyuz rocket on Wednesday. (6/3)

China Launches Earth Observation Satellites (Source: Spaceflight Now)
China launched two Earth observation spacecraft Saturday. The Long March 2D rocket launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 12:13 a.m. Eastern and placed into orbit the Gaofen-6 and Luojia-1 spacecraft. Gaofen-6 is the latest in a series of civilian Earth observation satellites, while Luojia-1 is a smaller experimental spacecraft. (6/3)

NASA Seeks Narrower Scope, Capped Costs for Astrophysics Missions (Source: Space News)
NASA has asked teams working on concepts for future flagship-class astrophysics missions to fit them into new cost caps. NASA last week instructed the four teams working on mission concepts for the 2020 decadal survey to "narrow the scope" of their designs to fit into a cost cap of between $3 billion and $5 billion.

There were previously no cost caps on the missions being studied. The agency said that changes in the "programmatic landscape" since the start of the studies in 2016, including issues with JWST and WFIRST, led to the change. The missions are being studied to support the 2020 decadal survey, which may recommend one of them as the highest priority large mission for development and launch in the 2030s. (6/4)

India Concerned About Space Glitches (Source: Hindustan Times)
A series of problems has created concerns about the activities of the Indian space agency ISRO. A launch failure last year and the loss of a communications satellite after launch in March have cast a shadow on the agency and played a role in the decision to recall another satellite, GSAT-11, for tests, delaying its launch last month. "ISRO works on a shoestring budget, it cannot afford failures," said one analyst. The next big test for ISRO will be later this year, with the launch of the Chandrayaan-2 lunar mission. (6/3)

Maxar Staffing Up for Government Growth (Source: Space News)
Maxar is planning to hire hundreds of additional analysts and software developers to handle growing government demand for its services. Radiant Solutions says it plans to add 300 people to its current workforce of 1,100 because of demand from the Defense Department and intelligence community for its analysis of satellite imagery and other geospatial data. Ninety percent of Radiant's annual revenue of $300 million comes from government contracts. (6/4)

NASA Prepping for Gateway Solicitation (Source: Space News)
NASA now plans to release a draft call for proposals for the first element of the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway in the next two months. In a procurement update last week, NASA said it would release the draft solicitation for the Power and Propulsion Element of the Gateway in June or July, and expected that bids would be due to the agency by November. The element will provide power for the Gateway and also maneuver it using electric propulsion. (6/4)

Should We Really Be Mining in Space? (Source: Popular Mechanics)
Imagine an asteroid that contains as many platinum-group metals as all reserves on Earth. Businesses will compete for the precious resource, and the competing may soon turn into battle by armed satellites, which can lead back to conflicts on Earth. The act of mining itself could also be dangerous: if space-mining break up asteroids, it could harm other satellites, spacecrafts and astronauts.

Commerical space mining could lead to conflicts between profitability and public interest. "Once you’re on board with the commercial space industry, then you as a researcher must accept, if not support, everything that comes with it," Skibba writes. "To succeed, these businesses will seek profitable missions, while science, exploration, and discovery—goals that stimulate public interest—will inevitably have lower priority,"

The solution, according to Ramin Skibba, is to treat outer space as we do Antarctica: a place to encourage scientific investigation and discourage territorial claims. It's a commendable idea, but is it likely? Last week, President Trump has already suggested the idea of adding a "Space Force" to the military. According to The Independent, "experts have warned that space will be increasingly contested in years to come, as increasingly complex weapons are built and more opportunities are opened up for exploring the area outside the Earth." (5/5)

Another Long March 3B Rrocket Booster Crashes to Earth Near Chinese Town (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
One of the Long March 3B rocket’s four liquid boosters crashed to Earth near houses in Heba Town in southwest China’s Guizhou Province after successfully sending the ApStar-6C communications satellite into space.

The booster that hit the ground originated from a Long March 3B/E rocket launched last week, on May 3, 2018, from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China’s Sichuan Province. The wreckage is part of the “E” variant of the launch vehicle, which features elongated boosters—almost three feet taller than those in standard version—each fitted with a YF-25 engine. (5/13)