August 3, 2018

Ceramics Aren’t Enough. Bring on the Spaceships, Italian Town Says (Source: New York Times)
Grottaglie, a medieval town known primarily for its handmade ceramics, is getting ready for liftoff. In July, Italian aerospace companies signed an agreement with Virgin Galactic to take space tourists with about $250,000 to burn on suborbital flights offering vistas of the curvature of the Earth and about five minutes of minimum gravity.

Forty-six sites around the country were considered for the honor of serving as the project’s new launchpad. In May Italy’s transportation ministry decided that Grottaglie, population 35,000 — with its long runway, uneventful weather and record as a test bed for remotely piloted helicopters and other unmanned aircraft — had the right stuff. (7/30)

Canada’s New Radio Telescope Just Picked Up a Strange Signal from Deep Space (Source: BGR)
Canada’s shiny new radio telescope is up and running, and it just heard something very, very odd coming from deep space. The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME for short) is located in British Columbia, and it spends its time listening intently for signals beaming through the vacuum of space. Most of the time, radio telescopes like this don’t hear anything out of the ordinary, but every so often an unexplained signal finds its way through the noise, and that’s exactly what happened on July 25th.

A new bulletin from The Astronomer’s Telegram reveals that the new telescope detected what is known as a Fast Radio Burst, or FRB. FRBs aren’t uncommon, but they are quite special in that their origins are completely unknown. FRBs detected by astronomers here on Earth come from incredibly long distances, located so far off in space that we can’t even see what might be creating them. The FRB detected in this case, called FRB 180725A, is particularly unique because it had a frequency as low as 580 Mhz. No FRB has ever been detected below a frequency of 700 Mhz before.

One FRB in particular, FRB 121102, has been heard multiple times over the course of several years. Astronomers know it’s the same radio burst because it originates from the exact same point in space every time. Its origin is thought to be a galaxy situated some 3 billion light-years from Earth, and the power it would take for a radio signal to make it that far is absolutely unimaginable. (8/2)

Minuteman III Test Launch Fails (Source: Ars Technica)
Minuteman III missile test launch ends in failure. Range control officers at Vandenberg Air Force Base terminated the flight of an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile after it launched on Tuesday, according to Noozhawk, a publication covering Santa Barbara, California. The three-stage weapon launches from an underground silo on North Base en route to a predetermined target in the central Pacific Ocean near the Kwajalein Atoll.

So what happened? ... Officials aren't saying, other than to note that the anomaly was "unexpected." Vandenberg conducts several test launches each year to gather information about the weapon system's performance. The test launch program helps the command evaluate the Minuteman III and gather data to keep the system effective. The United States has about 400 Minuteman III missiles on alert at Air Force bases around the country. (8/3)

Chinese Company Plans Quick-Reaction Small Launcher (Source: Ars Technica)
Chinese company targets "rapid" launch of micro rocket. A company created by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation has unveiled a micro rocket known as the Lightning Dragon No.1 with a capacity of 150kg to a Sun-synchronous orbit, a Chinese news site says. "The Lightning Dragon series micro-rocket is named after the Chinese word for dragon, as they are both fast, agile, and flexible," said Tang Yagang, president of Chinarocket.

Reportedly, the rocket will be capable of launching within 24 hours after arriving at the launch site. It can be delivered to the customer six months after a contract is signed. We have seen Western companies struggle (so far) to reach this level of efficiency. Perhaps the Lightning Dragon will live up to its name. And perhaps not. There were no details on when the rocket might debut. (8/3)

Japan Chasing SpaceX (Source: Ars Technica)
JAXA feels a "strong sense of crisis" with regard to launch. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency plans to test a "reusable rocket" next year, and the agency feels as though it is in a race to catch up to its US and European rivals, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper reports. "We feel a strong sense of crisis," said Koichi Okita, who heads JAXA's research unit for the project. "Japan also needs to acquire the technology to enhance its international competitiveness."

This is the kind of thing SpaceX was doing back in 2012. JAXA plans a test launch in March 2019 that will send a two-ton rocket up to about 100m in altitude before it lands vertically back on Earth. A test to 5km is planned later in the year. This technology would reportedly be incorporated into the next generation of rockets after the H-3 booster, which may make its debut in 2020. (8/3)

Commercial Space Technologies a Key Theme in Air Force Intelligence and Data Strategy (Source: Space News)
Growing commercial space capabilities are prompting the Air Force to examine how to make more use of them. Lt. Gen. Veralinn "Dash" Jamieson, Air Force deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, said Thursday that commercial satellite constellations offer the potential for "ubiquitous coverage" not possible before. She said those capabilities did influence a classified Air Force strategy and investment plan for the collection, processing and distribution of intelligence. Another Air Force official, though, said that machine intelligence capabilities offer even more disruptive potential than commercial satellites. (8/2)

Griffin Brings Shank Into DOD (Source: Defense News)
A former NASA official has been picked by former NASA administrator Mike Griffin to lead the Pentagon's Strategic Capabilities Office. Griffin, now the undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, named Chris Shank to lead the office that examines how to apply existing technologies in new ways. Shank was director of strategic investments at NASA when Griffin was administrator, and he also served on the NASA transition team for the incoming Trump administration. (8/2)

Laser Comm and Proximity Ops Demonstrated with Cubesats (Source: Aerospace Corp.)
The Aerospace Corporation has successfully demonstrated laser communications using cubesats for the first time. The AeroCube-7B and Aerocube-7C cubesats, launched late last year, used laser communications to transmit data at 100 megabits per second, 50 times the data rate possible with spacecraft of this size using typical radio systems. The spacecraft also tested proximity operations, maneuvering to within about six meters of each other. Aerospace said that while the mission has achieved several of its goals, testing of the spacecraft will continue in the coming weeks. (8/3)

Bridenstine Questions Feasibility of ISS Retirement Plan (Source: Houston Chronicle)
NASA Admninistrator Jim Bridenstine said Thursday that plans to end direct federal funding of the ISS after 2024 may not be feasible. Meeting with reporters at the Johnson Space Center, Bridenstine said that there's "still a lot to be determined" about the future of the station. The administration's 2019 budget request called for ending funding of the station in 2025 in favor of commercial operators in low Earth orbit, but that proposal has faced opposition in Congress. Bridenstine said he's seen considerable support for the plan by companies, but "that doesn't mean it can be done and it doesn't mean it can be done in seven years." (8/3)

NASA’s Plans to End the ISS Could Put its Mars Missions in Danger (Source: New Scientist)
The International Space Station (ISS) is barrelling towards its expiry date, and NASA isn’t ready. Federal funding of the ISS might be cut off at the end of 2024, but without it NASA won’t be able to study the health risks of spaceflight or test technology that will enable deep-space exploration. A report from NASA’s Office of the Inspector General predicts that many of NASA’s research goals will not be complete by 2025.

Of 20 main human health risks under investigation, studies on at least 6 won’t be done by then. Of 40 technology gaps being addressed, at least 4 won’t be solved. Any delay or slip in scheduling could also thwart the 19 projects scheduled for completion during 2024. The studies that will not be finished in time include research into how vision and motor functions degrade in zero gravity, risks of cognitive and behavioural problems, long-term life support in space, and space suits for longer missions, like a flight to Mars.

NASA is working on contingency plans in case these studies cannot be completed on the ISS, including figuring out how some of them might be testable on the ground. But an earlier report found that most of the highest-priority research requires at least some portion to be tested in space. Part of the reason to get rid of the ISS is to free up funds for NASA to go to Mars, but without this essential research, such a trip won’t be possible. (7/31)

U.S. Military Interested in Commercial Point-to-Point Space Transport (Source: Space News)
The head of Air Mobility Command says he's interested in using commercial launch vehicles for point-to-point cargo transportation. Air Force Gen. Carlton Everhart said Thursday he's visited companies like Virgin Orbit and SpaceX and said wants to study how such vehicles could be used to rapidly move critical cargo around the world. One executive said that the use of those vehicles for military cargo is feasible, but will require investments in the reentry and landing systems required to deliver the cargo after launch. (8/3)

Another Chinese Commercial Launcher (Source: Space News)
A commercial Chinese launch company is planning its first satellite launch late this year. Landspace says its Zhuque-1 rocket will launch a small satellite for China Central Television in the fourth quarter of this year. The three-stage, solid-fuel rocket is designed to place up to 300 kilograms into low Earth orbit. The company did not disclose a launch site for the mission, but previously stated it planned to operate from the new Wenchang Satellite Launch Centre on the island of Hainan. (8/3)

Japan's Asteroid Probe Finds Dryness Ahead of Landing (Source: Asahi Shimbun)
A Japanese spacecraft has found no evidence of water on a near Earth asteroid. Observations of Ryugu taken by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft have failed to find evidence of water on its surface. Scientists said they don't know if that means the asteroid never had water, or lost it over time, but added water ice might exist below the surface. Hayabusa2 will touch down on the asteroid's surface this fall and fire a projectile to collect samples for later return to Earth. (8/3)

Energomash Agrees to Sell Six More RD-180 Engines in 2020 (Source: Ars Technica)
Russia's Energomash will sell six rocket engines to United Launch Alliance, allowing for six additional flights of the Atlas V rocket, the Moscow Times reports. With the first flight of Vulcan looming in 2020 or 2021, these may be the last RD-180 engines that ULA buys as it seeks to move off the reliable Russian engine.

Why not troll the customer? ... After Russian publications announced the sale, the Russian Embassy in Washington, DC, decided the best response it could make would be to troll on Twitter. "Russian rocket engines to continue launching America into space," the embassy tweeted, highlighting the RD-180 engine's qualities of being "cheaper and more reliable." It was a curious tweet for a country that clearly faces a challenging future in the launch business. (8/3)

Why the Private Spaceflight Industry Needs More Lawyers (Source: Space.com)
If private companies are going to start exploring and settling the final frontier — building human outposts on the moon and Mars, launching tourists into space or even building luxury space hotels in orbit — the world will need clearer laws to govern the commercial use of space and more specialized attorneys to understand and interpret those laws.

The world already has several treaties that govern what government entities can and cannot do in space, like the United Nations' Outer Space Treaty. However, private companies don't necessarily have to abide by the same rules.

We need law schools to prepare students for this infinite realm of property law regarding physical property, like the construction and use of spacecraft, space stations and even to attempts to colonize the moon and Mars. That preparation also extends to the vast universe of intellectual property. Law students also need to learn the mechanics of laws governing aviation and space travel, as well as personal liability and insurance. And existing lawyers need to expand their knowledge of these subjects, lest the commercial quest for space have nowhere to go because too many questions go unanswered. (7/30)

Harris Corp. Ends Fiscal Year on a 'High Note' (Source: Florida Today)
Melbourne-based Harris Corp. on Tuesday reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings of $217 million. The company said it had net income of $1.79 per share. Earnings, adjusted to account for discontinued operations, came to $1.78 per share. The results topped Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of five analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.76 per share.

Harris posted revenue of $1.67 billion in the period, also exceeding forecasts. For the year, the company reported profit of $718 million, or $5.92 per share. Revenue was reported as $6.18 billion. Harris expects full-year earnings to be $7.65 to $7.85 per share, with revenue in the range of $6.53 billion to $6.65 billion. (7/31)

Mars Dust Storm May Have Peaked (Source: Mars Daily)
The planet-encircling dust storm on Mars is showing indications of peaking and perhaps decaying. Dust lifting sites have decreased in extent and some surface features are starting to become visible. The storm has sustained high atmospheric opacity conditions over the Opportunity site, although there are some preliminary indications that the opacity might be decreasing there. Since the last contact with the rover on Sol 5111 (June 10, 2018), Opportunity has likely experienced a low-power fault and perhaps, a mission clock fault and now an up-loss fault. (8/3)

Space-X Forced to Push Back Test Launch Dates (Source: Space Daily)
Boeing and Space-X, NASA's Commercial Crew program partners, have pushed back the target launch dates for the first major test flights of their respective passenger spacecraft. Earlier this year, NASA said the two companies would conduct unmanned tests flight in August. Now, SpaceX is targeting November for its inaugural Crew Dragon test flight. Boeing won't launch its passenger spacecraft Starliner until "late 2018/early 2019." According to the updated timeline, SpaceX will conduct a manned Crew Dragon flight in April 2019. Boeing will conduct a manned Starliner flight in mid-2019. (8/1)

Growing US Unease with China's New Deep Space Facility in Argentina (Source: Sputnik)
China is expanding its presence in Latin America filling the gap left by the US, Argentinian foreign studies analyst Gustavo Cardozo told Sputnik. Besides solidifying its positions on the continent, China is seeking to become a major space power, according to the analyst. China's space base in Argentina's Patagonia is making Washington feel unease amid Beijing's consistent expansion in Latin America, once considered the US' backyard. (8/1)

Bezos Throws Cash, Engineers at Rocket Program as Space Race Accelerates (Source: Reuters)
Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos is racing to pull his private space company out of start-up mode and move into production amid signals that his firm’s heavy rocket set for lift-off in 2020 may slip behind schedule, according to people familiar with the project. Blue Origin has added hundreds of engineers over the past three years and continues to ramp up in an expansion that one employee described as “hyperbolic.” The Kent, Washington-based company is looking to double its current workforce to around 3,000 employees over the next two to three years.

The urgency centers on a rocket dubbed New Glenn. The heavy-launch vehicle, which Bezos promises will be able to haul satellites and, eventually, people into orbit, is central to the company’s hopes of winning lucrative military and commercial contracts. New Glenn’s first-stage booster will be reusable, a key piece of Bezos’ strategy to lower costs and increase the frequency of launches. Blue Origin executives have stated publicly that test flights will begin within two years. But whether Blue Origin can hit that mark remains to be seen. (8/3)

Understanding Venus: New Facility to Simulate Conditions on Earth’s Twin Planet (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
The German Space Agency (DLR) has opened a new simulation facility at its Planetary Spectroscopy Laboratory (PSL) in Berlin. The facility could help scientists better understand the surface of Venus hidden behind the planet’s dense atmosphere. As part of PSL, the newly-opened facility is located in a temperature-controlled room at the Institute for Planetary Research in Berlin. It allows planetary researchers to analyze rock samples similar to those on the hot surface of Venus at temperatures up to 1,830 degrees Fahrenheit (1,000 degrees Celsius).

Studying the surface of Venus is a challenge for space- and ground-based observatories due to a thick atmosphere of mainly carbon dioxide and clouds of sulphuric acid surrounding the planet. To avoid this obstacle, scientists are making use of the so-called “spectral windows” in the atmosphere that are transparent to certain wavelengths of infrared light to gather data on the surface remotely. (8/3)

JWST’s Costs Have Been Underestimated From the Start (Source: The Verge)
For more than two decades, NASA has been developing what is being hailed as the most powerful space telescope ever created, a technological masterpiece that will live 1 million miles from Earth and unlock the mysteries of the distant Universe. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will have a 25-foot golden mirror that will be able to collect light from the first stars and galaxies that sprung to life just after the Big Bang. But the space agency just can’t seem to get the telescope off the ground.

Since 2011, NASA had hoped to launch the JWST sometime this October. But in June, the space agency announced that the project would not launch until March 2021, and it will require millions of dollars more than NASA currently has budgeted. It’s another nasty sting to the program, which has become defined by its history of schedule delays and cost overruns. JWST was originally conceived in 1996 as a $1 billion telescope, with an expected launch sometime around 2007. Since then, the scope of the project has ballooned: its total lifetime cost will be more than nine times that much, around $9.66 billion, with a launch more than a decade later than planned. Now, many are looking for someone to blame for the project’s woes.

Northrop Grumman is an easy scapegoat, but many experts argue that the blame for JWST’s woes started in the planning phase. Because JWST is so unique and complex, NASA never really had realistic estimates from the start about how much it was going to cost or how long it was going to take to build. “There was no one on the planet who knew how to build JWST when they started. That information didn’t exist,” said Jim Muncy. “They tried coming up with a good faith estimate for cost, but you really don’t know how much it’s going to cost because you haven’t done it before.” (8/1)

Landspace of China to Launch First Rocket in Q4 2018 (Source: Space News)
Emerging private Chinese company Landspace is set to launch its first rocket into orbit in the final quarter of 2018, carrying a small satellite for a state television company. Landspace announced Aug. 2 that­­­ the three-stage solid-propellant LandSpace rocket, named Zhuque-1, will carry the China Central Television (CCTV) satellite for space science experiments and remote sensing before the end of the year.

It is expected to be China’s first private orbital launch with the privately developed satellite to operate for two years in a Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO). Measuring 320 by 295 by 248 millimeters, the satellite is roughly the size of a three-unit cubesat. (8/2)

Firefly's Comeback (Source: Space News)
Two years ago, Firefly Space Systems appeared to be flying high. The Texas company had more than 150 employees and was making progress on a small launch vehicle called Alpha. The company was one of three that won NASA contracts for smallsat launches, with plans to carry out that launch in early 2018. Then the bottom fell out of the company. In late September 2016 the company announced it was furloughing its entire staff, citing financial problems when an unnamed investor backed out.

The company limped along using loans until last spring, when Noosphere Ventures, a fund that was one of Firefly’s creditors, acquired the company’s assets in an auction. With new ownership, but some of the same management, the new Firefly Aerospace quietly started operations. Firefly isn’t quiet any more, though. The company is actively developing a new version of its Alpha launch vehicle slated to make a first launch next fall from California and actively marketing that vehicle, with strong financial backing from its new owners.

“Firefly is back in full force,” Tom Markusic, chief executive of Firefly, said in a recent interview. “We’re not a company that’s struggling to get back on its feet.” That “full force” has include extensive development work of a new, larger version of the Alpha launch vehicle. “We’re transitioning right now into that full vehicle integration stage,” he said, with testing of the vehicle’s upper stage set to begin soon. Click here. (7/30)

Firefly Considers East Coast Launch and Manufacturing Options (Source: Space News)
He said the company is in “very active discussions” for a second launch site on the East Coast to handle missions to lower inclination orbits. The three currently under consideration are Cape Canaveral, the proposed Spaceport Camden in Georgia and Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Tom Markusic expects to choose one of those three soon, a decision that could be tied to selecting a site for a factory for largescale production of Alpha. “We’re going to make a decision this quarter,” he said.

The company’s Texas facilities have about 140 employees now, close to the size of the original Firefly when it ran into financial problems two years ago, and the company is actively hiring. The company recently opened an office in Ukraine with about 30 people that will do some engineering and design work as well. (7/30)