July 6, 2018

Musk Sends SpaceX, Boring Co to Help Rescue Trapped Thai Soccer Team (Source: ABC.net)
The desperate effort to rescue 12 boys and their soccer coach trapped in a cave in Thailand has drawn hundreds of people, including Elon Musk, to lend their expertise, labour and hope to the task. In a series of tweets, the technology mogul and Tesla chief executive said his Boring Company — which digs tunnels for advanced transport systems — had advanced ground-penetrating radar, and brainstormed that an air tunnel constructed with soft tubing like a bouncy castle could provide flexible passage out.

He said engineers from The Boring Company and SpaceX companies needed to be on site to appreciate the complexities of evacuation. Tragically, one diver has lost his life in the rescue effort so far, and concern is also mounting that the air inside the cave may not be fit to sustain life for much longer. Editor's Note: There's also discussion of using NASA-developed Personal Rescue Enclosures, which were intended for Space Shuttle rescue operations. (7/7)

Bridenstine Discusses NASA's Future (Source: Aviation Week)
After a prolonged, partisan debate to confirm President Trump’s choice to head NASA, Jim Bridenstine, former Republican congressman from Oklahoma, says congressional tug-of-war over agency programs stems from a false premise. “There’s always an effort politically to draw a line in the sand and make people pick sides. The architectures feed into each other," Bridenstine, 43, tells Aviation Week’s Irene Klotz. That’s true even for NASA's controversial Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion capsule, especially in light of new mega-launchers under development. Click here. (6/28)

Japanese Minirocket Venture Sets 4-Year Countdown to Satellite Launch (Source: Nikkei)
Japanese minirocket venture Space One plans to begin commercial launches of satellites in the fiscal year ending March 2022, as the increasingly crowded field of private-sector space development focuses on smaller vehicles to cut costs. Monday's announcement comes just a few days after a domestic rival suffered a fiery failure in a test launch, highlighting how Japanese companies are light-years behind international peers in this field.

Canon Electronics, IHI Aerospace, Shimizu and Development Bank of Japan established New Generation Small Rocket Development Planning in August 2017. The four partners marked their updated mission Monday by rebranding the unit as Space One. The quartet sent Space One's capitalization soaring to 1.4 billion yen ($12.6 million) from just 100 million yen through private placements of new shares. (7/3)

A Chinese Company Plans to Launch a Rocket Into Orbit This Year (Source: The Economist)
OneSpace is trying to build on China's historical tradition of rocketry, though not for military purposes. The charred and twisted remnants of OS-X, the firm’s first launch, are strewn across the floor of its laboratory in Beijing. The launch took place in May, from an undisclosed location in the north-west. OS-X, nine metres tall, climbed to an altitude of 40km and traveled 287km downrange. It remained airborne for five minutes before crashing into desert sands.

But OS-M, the next generation, will be built in a factory now nearing completion in Chongqing. These solid-fuelled rockets will be 20 metres tall and are destined for orbit. They will be able to launch payloads of up to 205kg—a load the firm hopes eventually to increase to 750kg by adding four booster rockets to the main one. (7/6)

Russia, China Consider Joint Space Station (Source: Space Daily)
Russia's Roscosmos space corporation and its Chinese counterparts signed a number of agreements on space cooperation last month during a summit between Presidents Putin and Xi. The agreements followed a deal signed in March on Russian-Chinese cooperation in the exploration of the moon and outer space, and the creation of joint orbital groups.

A delegation from China's National Space Administration is set to hold talks with Roscosmos on the possibility of creating a jointly-run orbital station. The Chinese government is interested in Russia's experience with long space flights and the construction of large space projects as it prepares to start construction of a large, multi-module space station within the next few years. In addition, the source said, China lacks access to key technology and is ready to partner with Roscosmos in exchange for Russian know-how. (6/1)

The Toxic Side of the Moon (Source: Space Daily)
When the Apollo astronauts returned from the Moon, the dust that clung to their spacesuits made their throats sore and their eyes water. Lunar dust is made of sharp, abrasive and nasty particles, but how toxic is it for humans? The "lunar hay fever", as NASA astronaut Harrison Schmitt described it during the Apollo 17 mission created symptoms in all 12 people who have stepped on the Moon. From sneezing to nasal congestion, in some cases it took days for the reactions to fade. Inside the spacecraft, the dust smelt like burnt gunpowder.

The Moon missions left an unanswered question of lunar exploration - one that could affect humanity's next steps in the Solar System: can lunar dust jeopardise human health? Lunar dust has silicate in it, a material commonly found on planetary bodies with volcanic activity. Miners on Earth suffer from inflamed and scarred lungs from inhaling silicate. On the Moon, the dust is so abrasive that it ate away layers of spacesuit boots and destroyed the vacuum seals of Apollo sample containers. (7/5)

Many Asteroids Might Be Remnants of Five Destroyed Worlds (Source: Washington Post)
In the beginning, the solar system was little more than a cloud of dust and gas. Then cold temperatures caused the center of the cloud to collapse, forming the sun. The newborn star lit up with nuclear fusion, sending light and heat out into the spinning circumstellar disk. Soon that material coalesced into gas planets, ice giants and rocky worlds, creating the solar system we know today.

For years, asteroids were thought of as the leftovers of planet formation — chunks of material that never quite made it to planet size and that were drawn into the crowded belt of rocky remnants that circles the sun between Mars and Jupiter.

But according to a study published Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy, these were once pieces of worlds, too. A vast majority of the half-million bodies in the inner asteroid belt may in fact be shrapnel from as few as five parent bodies called "planetesimals," scientists say. But the tangled orbits of those lost worlds meant they were doomed to collide, producing fragments that also collided, producing still more fragments in a cataclysmic cascade that's been going on for more than 4 billion years. (7/3)

Inmarsat Rejects Second EchoStar Merger Proposal (Source: Space News)
U.S. fleet operator EchoStar on July 6 abandoned a $4.25 billion effort to buy Inmarsat after the British satellite operator rejected EchoStar’s second merger offer in less than a month. Colorado-based EchoStar informed Inmarsat July 6 that it would not make another offer for the company, having revealed interest June 8 and again with another bid July 3, only to be rejected both times. (7/6)

SpaceX’s Pad 39A Undergoing Upgrades for Dragon 2 Crew Launches (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center is preparing for a return to crew launches, with modifications taking place to prepare the Fixed Service Structure (FSS) for the installation of the Crew Access Arm (CAA) and associated crew support equipment. The gantry – that astronauts will use to ingress Dragon 2 spacecraft – is at KSC undergoing final assembly inside a large tent. The historic Pad 39A is no stranger to crew launches, having been part of the Apollo and Shuttle Programs. (7/5)

Telescope Array Will Spy on Spy Satellites, Star Surfaces, and Black Holes (Source: Science)
At a time when astronomers are building billion-dollar telescopes with mirrors 30 meters across, the 1.4-meter instrument being installed this month atop South Baldy Mountain in New Mexico may seem like a bit player. But over the next few years, nine more identical telescopes will join it on the grassy, 3200-meter summit, forming a Y-shaped array that will surpass any other optical telescope in its eye for detail.

When it's complete around 2025, the $200 million Magdalena Ridge Observatory Interferometer (MROI) will have the equivalent resolution of a gigantic telescope 347 meters across. MROI's small telescopes can't match the light-gathering power of its giant cousins, so it will be limited to bright targets. But by combining light from the spread-out telescopes, it is expected to make out small structures on stellar surfaces, image dust around newborn stars, and peer at supermassive black holes at the center of some galaxies.

It will even be able to make out details as small as a centimeter across on satellites in geosynchronous orbit, 36,000 kilometers above Earth, enabling it to spy on spy satellites. That's one reason why the U.S. Air Force, which wants to monitor its own orbital assets and presumably those of others, is funding MROI. (7/3)

SpaceX's New Ultra-Reusable Rocket Could Shape the Future of Humanity (Source: TechRadar)
When Elon Musk's SpaceX first launched its Falcon 9 rocket back in 2010 it was thought of as a novelty venture by a tech entrepreneur that would be little more than a tech demonstration. No one thought it would become the de facto rocket for getting satellites, and even people, into orbit.

Exactly 54 launches later, SpaceX has become famous the world over for its reusable rockets, with their discarded boosters landing dramatically back on their launch pad, or on drone-ships offshore. So far about 20 first-stage boosters, complete with engines and fuel tanks, have been recovered.

SpaceX is scheduled to send a crewed test flight into orbit in December 2018 in a Dragon capsule atop a Falcon 9 Block 5. Its rival for the NASA contract is Boeing, which will perform a similar test flight in January 2019 using its CST-100 Starliner space capsule and an Atlas V rocket from ULA. However, both companies – and NASA – appear to be dragging their feet. (7/4)

SpaceX is Closing the Gap on America’s Lost Dominance in Space (Source: Observer)
With the uptick in SpaceX launches, the U.S. achieved something it hasn’t been able to since 2003—be the world’s leader in launches. Last year, the U.S. logged 29 successful flights (18 of them from SpaceX alone). This year, the company plans to launch 26 times, including its commercial crew endeavors. In August of this year, SpaceX plans to demo its new Crew Dragon, the ship that will soon ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

During the mission, dubbed Demo-1, the unoccupied Dragon will launch from Florida to the ISS, where it will dock with the station and remain on orbit for a few weeks to test how it performs before a second launch—this time with people on board—in December. Thanks to Musk’s prowess, rocket companies across the globe have had to up their game. Newcomer Blue Origin boasts that its rocket (currently in development) will be capable of flying 25 times before refurbishments are needed. China has even taken some notes from Musk’s playbook and is working on developing reusable rockets that will one day be able to compete with SpaceX’s.

But some rocket providers have faulted under the pressure. Russia’s Proton rocket has fallen on hard times and after 53 years in service, the rocket is running out of customers. This is in part due to failures that have plagued the vehicle over the years. For nearly half of its life, the Proton was the go-to rocket for commercial satellite operators. Now, the Proton is being replaced by more reliable launch vehicles, like the Falcon 9. (7/4)

NASA Likely to Relocate Delayed Pegasus Launch to Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
NASA and Northrop Grumman are expected to base the launch of an air-dropped Pegasus rocket with a NASA science satellite from Cape Canaveral later this year, after originally trying to get the mission into space from a remote island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

The space agency has not announced the move, but three officials involved in the mission said the launch of NASA’s Ionospheric Connection Explorer — ICON — a small satellite instrumented to study the link between weather on Earth and conditions at the edge of space, is expected to shift from Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean to Cape Canaveral.

The air-launched rocket was supposed to send the ICON satellite into orbit June 14. The Pegasus XL rocket was to take off from a U.S. military airfield on Kwajalein Atoll, located in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean around 2,400 miles (3,900 kilometers) southwest of Honolulu, under an L-1011 carrier jet, then drop from the belly of the aircraft and fire into orbit. (7/5)

Space Station Is Shifting to Commercial Crew Vehicles. Where Does That Leave Russia? (Source: Space.com)
All people going to the International Space Station must do so through Kazakhstan today. Since the space shuttle retired in 2011, there's no other ship capable of carrying people up there besides Soyuz, the Russian workhorse of many decades. NASA purchases seats for its astronauts; each mission is worth tens of millions of dollars. But the situation is going to change soon with commercial crew transport. NASA hasn't committed to buying any seats from Russia past 2019.

Of course, Russia has its own interests to support onboard the ISS, and will still need to launch its cosmonauts to the station until it decides it no longer wants to engage in operations there. "If the number of launches they need to make remains stable compared to current schedules, they could see a sizable increase in costs of operation, as they would be launching the spacecraft without paid-U.S. seats. On the other hand, they would be able to increase the number of cosmonauts." (7/2)

Weird Bright Spots on Ceres Get a Close-Up from Dawn As Mission Nears End (Source: Space.com)
NASA's Dawn spacecraft has gotten its best-ever looks at the weird bright spots that speckle the dwarf planet Ceres. Early last month, Dawn maneuvered its way to a new orbit around Ceres, an elliptical path that takes the probe within a mere 21 miles of the dwarf planet on nearest approach. That's more than 10 times closer than Dawn had gotten previously during its three-plus years at Ceres. Dawn is low on hydrazine, the fuel that powers the probe's smaller, orientation-controlling thrusters. When the hydrazine runs out in September or thereabouts, Dawn will be done; it won't be able to point its scientific instruments at Ceres or its antenna toward Earth to communicate. (7/3)

Inmarsat Rejects EchoStar Takeover Bid (Source: Reuters)
Inmarsat has rejected a second takeover proposal from EchoStar hours before a deadline. EchoStar proposed a deal that valued Inmarsat's equity at $3.2 billion, or $4.2 billion when including convertible bonds. Inmarsat said the proposal "very significantly undervalued" the company. EchoStar has until noon Eastern today to make a firm offer or be required to wait six months under British regulations. Eutelsat had also shown an interest in Inmarsat last month, but decided at the time not to pursue a bid. (7/5)

NASA Readies Procurement of Second SLS Launch Platform at Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Space News)
NASA is seeking proposals from industry to build a second SLS mobile launch platform. NASA is performing a two-phase procurement process for Mobile Launcher 2, first seeking requests for qualifications due at the end of this month, then inviting up to five companies to later submit full proposals. The second mobile launcher would be designed for the Block 1B version of the SLS, and also be able to support the later Block 2 version. A second launcher would allow NASA to keep using the first platform for additional SLS Block 1 missions. Congress gave NASA $350 million in fiscal year 2018 to start work on the second platform, and a Senate version of a 2019 spending bill would provide an additional $255 million to complete it. (7/5)

NASA Likely to Move Pacific Pegasus Mission to Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Spaceflight Now)
NASA is expected to move a delayed Pegasus launch from a Pacific island to Florida. The Pegasus XL was to launch the agency's ICON space science mission last month from Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific, but a technical problem with the rocket discovered during a ferry flight en route to Kwajalein forced NASA to postpone the launch. With Kwajalein busy with military activities, NASA is now planning to instead carry out the flight from Cape Canaveral once the problem is corrected in the coming weeks. NASA selected Kwajalein for the launch originally because the spacecraft was too heavy to reach its planned orbit from the higher latitude of Cape Canaveral, but spacecraft mass reductions during its development now make a Florida launch feasible. (7/5)

Canadian Constellation Fund Could Fund MDA and Telesat Projects (Source: Space News)
MDA and Telesat are planning to request money from a new Canadian fund set up to support low Earth orbit constellations. Telesat plans to request a fifth of the CA$100 million (US$76 million) fund announced earlier this year for constellations that can provide internet access to underserved parts of Canada. MDA, the Canadian division of Maxar, said it's interested in the funding to support research and development for several such constellations, including the one Telesat is developing as well as OneWeb. (7/5)

Chinese Heavy Lift Could Exceed SLS Capacity (Source: Space News)
A Chinese designer has provided new details about launch vehicles under development in the country. Long Lehao, a chief designer with the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, said in a recent university talk that the planned Long March 9 vehicle would be able to place up to 140 metric tons into low Earth orbit, more than even the Block 2 version of SLS. The debut of the Long March 9 isn't expected until 2030, however. The smaller Long March 8, set to make its inaugural launch in 2021, will be the first Chinese vehicle to incorporate reusability through vertical landings of its first stage and boosters. (7/5)

Paper Opposes Space Force (Source: SpaceNews, Wall Street Journal)
A major newspaper has gone on the record against the Trump administration's proposed Space Force. In an editorial, the Wall Street Journal said that while space systems are essential to national defense and face new threats, creating a Space Force as a separate military branch, or even as part of the Air Force, could swell the Pentagon bureaucracy and create new inefficiencies. "This plan is not ready for the launchpad, even if Mr. Trump is right about the threat," the editorial argued. Trump has continued to advocate for the Space Force since his comments at last month's National Space Council meeting, including in speeches this week. (7/5)

China Seeks to Avoid Space Arms Race (Source: GB Times)
China, meanwhile, is advocating for efforts to prevent an "arms race" in space. Zhang Hanhui, China's assistant foreign minister, said the international community should seek to stop any arms race in space to "ensure lasting peace and stability." Zhang spoke at a workshop in Beijing on the topic convened by China, Russia and the United Nations. China and Russia have long pushed for a treaty to prevent the placement of weapons in space, one that has been opposed by the United States since it does not address other threats to space assets. (7/5)

New Markets and Applications Needed to Grow Space Economy (Source: Space News)
New space markets will be needed if forecasts of a trillion-dollar space economy are to come true. A conference panel last week noted several forecasts in the last year by investment banks projecting that space would become a trillion-dollar market by the 2040s, something that can be achieved with historical growth rates. However, the space economy has been growing at much slower rates in recent years, and panelists said that applications beyond government activities and communications will be needed to sustain higher growth in the future. (7/5)

ISS Commercialization a Long-Term Proposition (Source: Space News)
Any transition of the International Space Station to commercial companies will be a long-term process. In an interview, Sam Scimemi, ISS director at NASA Headquarters, said any transition would be a gradual effort as commercial providers demonstrate their capabilities. "This transition is going to take place over many years. We are not going to throw one big switch and all the sudden NASA civil servants aren't working and it's all private industry," he said. He also emphasized the importance of developing demand for commercial facilities rather than the supply of them. (7/5)

Lufthansa Menu Includes Space Food (Source: collectSPACE / TASS)
Space food could be on the menu of your next Lufthansa flight. The German airline has added a dish its caterers developed for European astronaut Alexander Gerst to enjoy while on the ISS. That dish, chicken ragout with mushrooms, is one of several included as "bonus" foods for Gerst and his crewmates. In Russia, Glavkosmos has announced it will promote Russian-made space food on the global market, although it wasn't clear if it was planning to offer the food to other space agencies or to the general public. (7/5)