July 27, 2018

After $800M Cost Overrun on JWST, Northrop Grumman Seeks to Tie Future Fees to Mission Success (Source: Space News)
The CEO of Northrop Grumman offered to make all the profit the company could make on the James Webb Space Telescope contingent on mission success. Testifying before the House Science Committee Thursday, Wes Bush said his company has been discussing with NASA to make both upcoming award fees, as well as those already earned, "based on successful activation and demonstration" of JWST after its launch. Bush, though, said the company would not cover the $800 million cost overrun announced last month that prompted this hearing. Bush faced tough questions from a couple members of the committee, but others at the hearing said they had no desire to "berate" the company about the mission's cost and schedule problems. (7/26)

Space Council Plans Microgravity Strategy (Source: Space News)
The National Space Council plans to develop a national microgravity strategy to support government research and commercial activities. The strategy, according to the council's deputy executive secretary, Jared Stout, will involve a series of roundtable discussions with industry to explore what the federal government can do to encourage access to and utilization of the microgravity environment. Stout said there will be a particular focus on expanding demand for making use of microgravity capabilities in low Earth orbit, rather than expanding the supply of facilities to host such work. (7/26)

Sen. Nelson Joins Cruz & Markey on Regulation-Streamlining Space Frontier Act (Source: Space News)
Three senators have introduced a bill to streamline commercial launch and remote sensing regulations. The Space Frontier Act, introduced by Sens. Ted Cruz, Ed Markey and Bill Nelson, includes provisions to reform licensing of commercial launches as well as commercial remote sensing systems. It also authorizes an extension of the International Space Station until 2030. One provision of the bill would allow the FAA to use its launch licensing payload review process to authorize "non-traditional" commercial space activities, which conflicts with a bill the House passed in April that would give that authority to the Commerce Department. The Senate Commerce Committee is scheduled to mark up the bill next Wednesday. (7/26)

Korea's KT Sat Seeks Big Revenue Spike (Source: Space News)
South Korean satellite operator KT Sat seeks to triple its revenue by 2025. Won-Sic Hahn, CEO of KT Sat, said the company is pursuing a multipronged strategy to grow from a small regional operator to one of the largest in the world over the next seven years. That strategy includes international and government business as well as "inorganic growth" opportunities, but he declined to go into details about its plans. The company generated about $120 million in revenue in 2017. (7/26)

Spaceport America Violated Open Government Law, New Mexico AG’s Office Says (Source: NM Politics)
New Mexico's Spaceport America ran afoul of the state's open records laws, the state attorney general's office concluded. In a determination letter Thursday, the office found that the New Mexico Spaceport Authority violated the state's Inspection of Public Records Act in four areas, from failing to respond to records requests in time to charging unauthorized fees. The letter is nonbinding, and there are no criminal penalties for violating the law. The state legislature passed earlier this year a law that restricts some access to spaceport records from the public. (7/26)

Canadian Astronaut Prepares to Launch After a 9-Year Wait (Source: Space.com)
Soyuz is Saint-Jacques' ticket to space after nine years of waiting on the ground, giving presentations all over the country. Canada is a minor partner in the International Space Station program, which assigns "space time" according to how much money or in-kind contributions each partner gives. Its small contribution means astronauts fly rarely; the last one was Chris Hadfield, who commanded the station during Expedition 35 in 2013. (7/26)

At 60, NASA Shoots for Revival of Moon Glory Days (Source: Space Daily)
Sixty years ago, spurred by competition with the Soviet Union, the United States created NASA, launching a journey that would take Americans to the moon within a decade. Since then, the US space agency has seen glorious achievements and crushing failures in its drive to push the frontiers of space exploration, including a fatal launch pad fire in 1967 that killed three and two deadly shuttle explosions in 1986 and 2003 that took 14 lives.

Now, NASA is struggling to redefine itself in an increasingly crowded field of international space agencies and commercial interests, with its sights set on returning to deep space. These bold goals make for soaring rhetoric, but experts worry the cash just isn't there to meet the timelines of reaching the moon in the next decade and Mars by the 2030s. A total of five percent of the national budget went to NASA in the Apollo era. Now, NASA gets about $18 billion a year, less than a half percent of the federal budget, "and it is no longer the same instrument of national policy," John Logsdon said. (7/27)