June 6, 2018

Senate Sits on FAA Bill (Source: AIN)
Industry groups are urging the Senate leadership to bring the FAA reauthorization bill, S.1405, to the floor for a vote as soon as possible. The Senate Commerce Committee approved its version of the FAA reauthorization bill a year ago, but it had been held up by a provision regarding a measure that would alter the 1,500-hour requirements for pilots, as well as by a lack of consensus with the House over the U.S. air traffic control organization. The House, which passed its version of the comprehensive FAA bill in April, dropped the controversial ATC measure, and Senate Commerce Committee chairman John Thune (R-SD) has long indicated a willingness to drop the 1,500-hour measure.

Even so, the Senate bill has not been scheduled for a vote and the fate of it this year has remained uncertain with some fearing it could get stalled by election-year politics or by other priorities in the Senate. If it does not pass this year, Congress would need to sign off on another FAA extension and then go back to the drawing board with new FAA reauthorization bills next year.

Editor's Note: The House version of the FAA bill includes multiple space-related provisions, including language aimed at enabling Space Support Vehicles, like Virgin's WhiteKnight Two and Starfighters' fleet of F-104s, to operate under revised rules. These provisions also have the support of groups like the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. (6/6)

Russia Launches New ISS Crew (Source: CBS)
A Soyuz rocket launched three new International Space Station crewmembers this morning. The rocket, carrying the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft, lifted off on schedule from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 7:12 a.m. Eastern time. The spacecraft is carrying Serena Auñón-Chancellor, Alexander Gerst and Sergey Prokopyev to the ISS, and is scheduled to dock there Friday. Among those in attendance at the launch were the American and German ambassadors to Russia and Sigmund Jaehn, the first German in space when, representing East Germany, he flew to the Soviet Union's Salyut 6 spacecraft station 40 years ago. (6/5)

NASA Receives JWST Report (Source: SpacePolicyOnline)
NASA has received the report from an independent panel reviewing the James Webb Space Telescope. NASA established the independent review board after announcing the latest delay in the observatory's development in March. The agency said it's reviewing the report's contents and will provide new cost and schedule estimates for the program by the end of the month. NASA is also evaluating issues found with the spacecraft during recent acoustics tests. (6/5)

NASA STEM Grants Awarded to Florida, Arizona, Kansas Organizations (Source: NASA)
NASA has awarded grants to three "informal education organizations" to support space-related education projects. The Teams Engaging Affiliated Museums and Informal Institutions effort awarded grants worth a combined $2 million Tuesday to centers in Arizona, Florida and Kansas for projects that will provide "authentic mission-driven STEM experiences" for students. Among the winning projects is one that will use restored Apollo-era mission control center consoles for interactive mission simulations. (6/5)

Von Braun Colleague Dies (Source: AP)
The last of the German rocket engineers who came to America after World War II has passed away. Georg von Tiesenhausen died Sunday at his Alabama home at the age of 104. He worked on German rocket efforts during the war and, several years later, came to the United States to work with Wernher von Braun. His accomplishments include the design of the lunar rover used on the later Apollo missions. (6/6)

Trump Self-Defense Doctrine for the New Space Era (Source: Space News)
A new space era is dawning and will be upon us by the early 2020s. In the face of emerging novel threats and vulnerabilities, whether the self-defense doctrine allows us to counter the threat before the attack occurs can make the difference between peace and war. President Trump unveiled the America First National Space Strategy on March 23, but “the Trump strategy contains little that is new” according to Space Policy Online. Most of the national security provisions, which are the focus of this article, are only different in rhetoric but not in substance from those of the Obama administration and it’s predecessors.

Yet there is a critical difference in the self-defense doctrine. The new strategy declares “We will strengthen U.S. and allied options to deter potential adversaries from extending conflict into space and, if deterrence fails, to counter threats used by adversaries for hostile purposes.” Countering threats means we have the right to exercise self-defense when the threat is imminent but before the attack has occurred.

To counter the emerging space threats, the U.S. should initiate the pursuit of a space arms control treaty based on two principles. First, the country that stalks more than an agreed number of satellites is defined as the aggressor. Second, as the new self-defense doctrine explicitly includes the prerogative to counter threats, the country being stalked now has the right to negate the imminent threat and defend itself before the attack begins. However, should such a multilateral treaty go nowhere, the U.S. should promptly turn to a unilateral solution following the same two principles. (6/4)

Meet Dmitry Rogozin, the New Roscosmos Chief (Source: Space News)
Late last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin threw the U.S./Russia space partnership its biggest curveball yet with the appointment of former deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin as head of Roscosmos. The man who has spent four years trolling the U.S. for its reliance on Russian rockets to reach the International Space Station has been given the reigns of NASA’s most important partner.

The U.S.-Russian space partnership is one of technicalities, not of personalities. But Rogozin is potentially toxic to this relationship from the standpoint of technicality. In 2014, he was placed on the U.S. sanctions list, along with other officials, “to impose costs on named individuals who wield influence in the Russian government and those responsible for the deteriorating situation in Ukraine,” according to a White House statement at the time. For no other reason should Rogozin’s appointment give NASA leadership a moment of pause.

“Rogozin is not only a hawk, but a loud hawk who has threatened to kick NASA astronauts off the Soyuz and that is not in the least helpful,” says Theresa Hitchens, a former UN space official and researcher at the University of Maryland. “The sanctions issue will make it impossible for senior level meetings, although that does not rule out lower level folks from working together.” And if Rogozin’s rumored plans for Roscosmos pan out, the sanctions situation could get even harder to work around. (6/6)

NASA’s Priorities Appear to Be Out of Whack with What the Public Wants (Source: Ars Technica)
The Trump administration has vowed to make America great again in spaceflight, and the centerpiece of its space policy to date has been a re-prioritization of human spaceflight as central to NASA's activities. As part of this initiative, the White House has sought to reduce funding for satellites to observe environmental changes on Earth and eliminate NASA's office of education. However, a new survey of 2,541 Americans by Pew Research Center, which aims to represent the views of US adults, finds that these views appear to be out of step with public priorities.

The survey asked respondents about their top priorities for NASA, and the highest support came for "monitor key parts of the Earth's climate system" (63 percent) and "monitor asteroids/objects that could hit the Earth" (62 percent). Sending astronauts to Mars (18 percent), and the Moon (13 percent), lagged far behind as top priorities for respondents.

"The vast majority of the public thinks that we should have a space program that saves Earth," said Phil Larson, a former Obama White House official who now is assistant dean at the University of Colorado College of Engineering. "That means funding climate research and ensuring that we can track all threatening objects from space and have a plan for what to do with them—in essence, be smarter than the dinosaurs." By contrast, the White House and Republicans in Congress, perhaps most notably Texas Senator Ted Cruz, have sought to cut funding for Earth-science-related work at NASA. Moreover, the agency spends almost no money on finding threatening asteroids. (6/6)

Women in Space: Massive List of Journalists, Engineers, Writers, Professors, Researchers & Influencers (Source: Medium)
These are women who write, share and showcase their knowledge about astronomy and space. Traditionally the field has long been dominated by men. But these women are changing that. Fast. These are just some of the women who spend most of their day travelling across the universe. They work hard to simplify an amazingly complicated yet beautiful space so that we can look up at the stars and find a source of limitless wonder. Click here. (2/21)

NASA Releases 4K Video Of The Moon Ending The Moon Landing Conspiracy (Source: Space Academy)
NASA has just released a 4K video tour of Earth’s moon and the footage will make your jaw drop. Even though Earth’s moon can be viewed in unprecedented detail from Earth, NASA has recently released a video filmed in 4k showing off the surface of the moon in unprecedented close-up detail, and the video will definitely take your breath away.

How can we describe the video footage? Well, it’s stunning. It’s mesmerizing. It’s Fresh. It offers an entirely new way of exploring the surface of the moon, and you can see all of the most important and prominent features of the Earth’s satellite in the stunning video footage. The footage dubbed as “virtual tour of the moon” in breathtaking 4K has been collected by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft over a span of nine years.

In addition to the Tycho crater, you can fly above the Apollo 17 landing site at the Taurus-Littrow Valley, which is deeper than the Grand Canyon on Earth. So, the end of the Moon landing conspiracy…right? While exploring the Apollo 17 landing site, the video offers a few overlays that show us the path NASA astronauts took as they spent three days on the surface of the moon in 1972. You can appreciate the bottom half of the mission’s lunar lander and rover vehicle, items that have remained untouched and undisturbed for the last 46 years. Click here. (6/1)

New Zealand Invention May Save Space Explorers Millions of Dollars (Source: RNZ)
Team Mārama has won the New Zealand Act-In-Space event which is run by the French and the European Space Agency, as part of the 24-hour 'hackathon' held by the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment. They'll be heading to France in just a couple of weeks time, to present their idea of using a VR controlled robot to repair space craft, from here on Earth. One of the team leaders, Ben Tairea, said it was a much cheaper and safer option than the current space walks which take place.

"Sometimes you need a specialist in a specific field to get up there and do the repairs and that can cost somewhere up to about $81 million and that involves all of the pre-training through NASA and the launch, whereas if you had a system where you could operate that from Earth, you're potentially eliminating all of that cost," he said. (6/5)

Saalex Team Wins Air Force Range Contract (Source: Saalex)
JT4 LLC, which includes Saalex Solutions, has been awarded a contract to support the U.S. Air Force Test Center (AFTC) for the operation, maintenance and sustainment of the western test and training ranges. The $38,612,014 contract serves ranges in California, Utah, and Nevada. Saalex tasks, mainly at the California ranges, will involve engineering, telemetry, telecommunications, mission control/coordination/support, threat systems, data analysis, and computer systems support. (6/5)

NASA Spent $100 Million on Much-Anticipated Lunar Rover Before Scrapping it in April (Source: Houston Chronicle)
NASA had already invested about $100 million into a lunar rover tasked with finding water on the moon before the project was scrapped last month, officials said this week. But they argue the investment in the rover, called Resource Prospector, wasn't in vain. It's instruments will be used in future missions.

"NASA's overall Resource Prospector work toward risk reduction activities to advance instrument developments, component technologies including rover components, and innovation mission operations concepts will help inform future missions," said a NASA spokeswoman. NASA abruptly canceled the rover, which has been under development for more than four years, in April, saying it no longer suited the agency's exploration campaign. The decision stunned scientists and researchers alike, especially given the recent push by President Donald Trump's administration to return Americans to the moon as a stepping stone for a mission to Mars. (6/5)

Astronaut Twins Encourage UAE to Reach for the Stars (Source: The National)
History-making astronaut twins Scott and Mark Kelly may have been born just minutes apart - but they didn't even inhabit the same planet for a whole year. The impressive duo, who were both US Navy captains and have each flown on the Endeavour and Discovery space shuttles and spent time aboard, the International Space Station, broke new ground after agreeing to take part in the enterprising Twins Study, which investigated the effects of space travel on the human body.

While Scott jetted off into space for an entire year, his identical twin remained grounded on planet Earth. The pair agreed to the remarkable mission to help push the boundaries of scientific discovery further than ever before - and it is an ambitious spirit they see mirrored here in the UAE. The siblings among the stars shared their incredible out-of-this-world story at a lecture - called The Sky is not the Limit: Life lessons from NASA's Kelly brothers - at the Majlis Mohamed bin Zayed in Abu Dhabi’s Al Bateen Palace. (6/5)

NASA Awards Kansas Cosmosphere More Than $650,000 (Source: Hutchinson News)
The Cosmosphere will receive roughly $650,000 through a NASA program to further STEM education. NASA on Tuesday announced the Cosmosphere as one of three applicants to receive funds out of 43 submitted proposals. The combined awards total about $2 million and will also go to the Arizona Science Center in Phoenix, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Coral Gables, Florida.

Each award provides up to $750,000. The Cosmosphere’s $650,594 will cover the cost of refurbishing 12 historic Apollo-era mission control consoles to be used in traveling interactive exhibits. The classes will be offered free to Kansas students. The Cosmosphere’s program will be called the “Apollo Redux.” It’s aimed at inspiring the next generation of engineers and scientists.

Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden and Florida Students Help Astronauts Grow Mars-Bound Veggies (Source: Miami New Times)
Fairchild's space-focused "Veggie" program, funded $300,000 annually by NASA through 2019, has grown to include 150 schools in Miami-Dade and Broward, as well as a handful in Palm Beach County, seven in Ohio, and two in Puerto Rico. The partnership adds about 5,000 additional research staff to NASA's ranks. Perks for the students include a chance to speak live with astronauts in orbit, which a handful of Miami-Dade high schoolers were able to do last month.

The criteria for what makes a good crop in space are as stringent as one might expect. The plants need to thrive in a growing space no larger than 11.5 inches wide by 14.5 inches deep. They must produce a generous yield high in nutrients, particularly vitamin K, which is destroyed by the freeze-drying process that preserves most astronauts' food. Finally, the plants must have a robust flavor, because zero gravity tends to dull the taste buds, possibly subjecting astronauts to a gulag-like dining experience while careening through the void. (5/10)

Space Station, Gently Used: NASA Wants Private Companies to Take Over the International Space Hub (Source: Fortune)
NASA’s new boss, Jim Bridenstine, has been talking to private companies about taking over the operation of the International Space Station (ISS.) Bridenstine, who became NASA administrator in April, said in a Washington Post interview that he has “talked to many large corporations that are interested in getting involved in [managing the ISS] through a consortium.”

President Donald Trump’s administration is not interested in funding the orbiting lab, which is a joint operation between NASA and the space agencies of Russia (which has its own section of the satellite) and Japan, Europe and Canada (which share the American section). Back in February, a leaked NASA memo indicated that the White House would pull federal funding for the ISS in 2025.

Rather than dismantling the space station, the memo said, the plan was to “expand international and commercial partnerships over the next seven years in order to ensure continued human access to and presence in low Earth orbit.” At the moment, the U.S. spends $3-4 billion a year on the ISS. (6/6)

Heavy Astronauts Risk Eye Damage (Source: Cosmos)
China, India, Japan and the European Union all have burgeoning crewed space programs, the United States is contemplating a return to the moon, and energy entrepreneur Elon Musk harbours his own ambitions through his SpaceX venture. They all will be paying close attention to new research into a condition called spaceflight-associated neuro-ocular syndrome (SANS), which causes potentially damaging changes in the eye during spaceflight.

A recent study suggests the potential severity of the syndrome may be related to how much an astronaut weighs. Another study refers to SANS research as displaying “Interesting novel and somewhat perplexing physiologic and pathologic neuro-ocular findings”, which have been “documented in astronauts during and after long-duration space flight”.

On Earth, the weight of a person’s body tissues press against other bodily structures, such as bones, muscles, organs and veins, creating compressive forces, which can affect pressures in blood vessels and in organs. These forces increase as weight increases. In microgravity, however, body tissue is weightless, so compressive forces against the rest of the body are absent. People with more tissue – and therefore a higher weight – are proportionately more likely to experience physiological changes in a low-gravity environment because they experience a greater change in the way the forces impact, the scientists suggest. (6/6)

How to Build a Space Elevator (Source: Cosmos)
The idea of a space elevator has long been a staple of science fiction, and the subject of very real feasibility studies from NASA and others. The consensus, among the engineers if not the authors, is that it’s a damn good idea, but the enormous stresses and strains involved in building one cannot be met with the materials currently available.

Now, however, a mathematician and a mechanical engineer, both from Johns Hopkins University in the US, suggest that building an elevator in the very near future is perfectly possible – as long as its makers are prepared to learn from biology, tweak the risk assessments, and build some autonomous repair-bots.

In a paper awaiting peer review, Dan Popescu and Sean Sun model the engineering for a space elevator, basing their calculations on the ratio of maximum stress to maximum tensile strength found in biological structures such as ligaments and tendons. This is considerably higher than the stress-to-strength ratio used in engineering, in which the ability of the materials used to absorb force is at least double the destructive power of the force itself. (6/6)

Acquisition of Orbital ATK Approved, Company Renamed Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday announced it has cleared Northrop Grumman’s $7.8 billion purchase of defense and space contractor Orbital ATK. Orbital ATK will become Northrop Grumman’s fourth business sector, named Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems. The other three are Aerospace Systems, Mission Systems and Technology Services. With the addition, Northrop Grumman’s sales for 2018 should reach $30 billion.

The merger is coming to fruition as both companies move to increase their NASA and military space business. Orbital ATK in April unveiled a new intermediate to heavy lift rocket that was designed deliberately to compete for national security launches. Northrop Grumman recently secured a sole-source Air Force contract to develop next-generation missile-warning satellites. (6/5)

Northrop Grumman Must Sell Solid Rocket Motors to All Competitors for Missile Contracts (Source: LA Times)
The Federal Trade Commission will require Northrop Grumman Corp. to erect a firewall between the solid rocket motor business it gets by acquiring Orbital ATK Inc. and the rest of its operations to address concerns that the pending acquisition would be anti-competitive. That is part of a proposed settlement, released Tuesday, of an FTC complaint alleging that the acquisition would reduce competition for U.S. government missile systems contracts.

Northrop Grumman is one of four companies capable of providing missile systems, while Orbital is one of two U.S. manufacturers of the solid-rocket motors used to power missiles and rockets, according to the complaint. The other manufacturer is Aerojet Rocketdyne. The aerospace giant announced last year that it would buy Dulles, Va.-based Orbital for $7.8 billion. The European Commission approved the acquisition in February. (6/6)

NASA Has a Plan to Let Humans Soar Above the Clouds on Venus (Source: NBC)
For more than half a century, America's human space program has flip-flopped between two long-range goals: establishing a base on the moon or going deep and sending astronauts to Mars. ut a group of aerospace engineers at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia has made a persuasive pitch for an unexpected third option: Venus.

The team has sketched out plans for and conducted small-scale tests of a blimp-like airship that would ferry a crew of two on a month-long expedition above the Venusian cloudtops. Their High-Altitude Venus Operational Concept (HAVOC) would culminate in the building of what the engineers describe as an aerial colony for "long-term atmospheric habitation and colonization" of the second rock from the sun.

They point out that Venus is the closest, most accessible planet in the solar system. It's nearly identical to Earth in size and mass, making it an excellent place to learn about the prospects for life on other Earth-like worlds. And as Chris Jones, a mission analyst at NASA Langley and leader of the HAVOC team, says, "The atmosphere of Venus is one of the more hospitable locations in space." (6/6)