August 8, 2018

Jacksonville Student Reaching for the Stars (Source: First Coast News)
The sky’s the limit for one Jacksonville college student who is one step closer to his dream of becoming an astronaut. Lee Giat is a junior at University of North Florida, double majoring in astrophysics and communications. Tuesday, he was named a finalist for a trip to Russia. Star City, Russia, to be exact.

“Where astronauts and Russian cosmonauts train,” Giat said. “[The winner will] get to take a ride on the centrifuge and experience G-forces, try astronaut food, put on a space suit and learn how to fly an actual Russian Soyuz rocket.” Giat placed second in the competition last year.

Space makes its way into most aspects of Giat’s life; when he’s not doing school work or working on his YouTube science show, he operates the planetarium at MOSH. Crowd members of all ages can feel his passion as he points out planets and teaches the audience to do the same. (7/31)

NASA Announces New Partnerships to Develop Space Exploration Technologies (Source: NASA)
NASA is partnering with six U.S. companies to develop 10 “tipping point” technologies that have the potential to significantly benefit the commercial space economy and future NASA missions, including lunar lander and deep space rocket engine technologies.

Selections are based on the agency’s third competitive Tipping Point solicitation, and have a combined total award value of approximately $44 million – a significant investment in the U.S. space industry. A technology is considered at a “tipping point” if investment in a ground or flight demonstration will result in significantly maturing the technology and improving the company’s ability to bring it to market.

This solicitation targeted three Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) strategic technology focus areas: Expand Utilization of Space, Enable Efficient and Safe Transportation Into and Through Space, and Increase Access to Planetary Surfaces. Winners include Blue Origin, SSL, ULA, Paragon, Frontier Aerospace, and Astrobotic. Click here. (8/8)

Million-Fold Increase in the Power of Waves Near Jupiter's Moon Ganymede (Source: GFZ)
Listening to electro-magnetic waves around the Earth, converted to sound, is almost like listening to singing and chirping birds at dawn with a crackling camp fire nearby. This is why such waves are called chorus waves. They cause polar lights but also high-energy 'killer' electrons that can damage spacecraft. In a recent study to be published in Nature Communications, the authors describe extraordinary chorus waves around other planets in our solar system.

The scientists led by Yuri Shprits of GFZ and the University of Potsdam report that the power of chorus waves is a million times more intense near the Jovian moon Ganymede, and 100 times more intense near the moon Europa than the average around these planets. These are the new results from a systematic study on Jupiter's wave environment taken from the Galileo Probe spacecraft.

"It's a really surprising and puzzling observation showing that a moon with a magnetic field can create such a tremendous intensification in the power of waves", says the lead author of the study Professor Yuri Shprits of GFZ/ University of Potsdam and who is also affiliated with UCLA. (8/7)

NASA Administrator Discusses NASA’s Future During Stop at KSC (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine paid his first visit to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on a two-day stop that began on Monday, Aug. 6 and concluded today (Aug. 7). The visit comes just days before one of the most important NASA missions of the year is poised to get underway.

Bridenstine reviewed various facilities at the 34 mile (55 kilometer) long and roughly six miles (9.7 kilometers) wide center. NASA is currently working to conduct the first launch of its super-heavy Space Launch System rocket and the second flight of the crew-rated Orion spacecraft (Exploration Mission 1). This mission is currently slated for 2020.

The agency has also helped private aerospace companies to revolutionize the manner in which space exploration. Under the agency’s Commercial Resupply Services Program, some 23 cargo runs made to the International Space Station via Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus and SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft (a Dragon spacecraft also conducted a test flight to the orbiting lab under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services contract). It is hoped the first crewed flights of these missions will begin in the 2019-2020 time frame. (8/8)

Aerojet Rocketdyne Successfully Tests Rocket Booster for Hypersonic Vehicle (Source: Flight Global)
Aerojet Rocketdyne successfully completed two hot-fire tests of a rocket motor designed to boost an air-launched tactical glide hypersonic vehicle during its initial phase of flight. The tests, which were done under simulated extreme cold and hot conditions, took place on an undisclosed “recent” date at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) at Edwards AFB in California, Aerojet Rocketdyne said.

The motors were tested at extreme temperatures to verify they would perform as expected across the full range of anticipated operational conditions, the company says. In a boost glide hypersonic system, a rocket accelerates its payload to high speeds; the payload then separates from the rocket and glides unpowered to its destination at hypersonic speeds up to Mach 20. (8/7)

Italy's D-Orbit to Launch 10 Cubesats on Vega Rocket (Source: Space News)
Italian company D-Orbit signed a contract Tuesday to launch 10 cubesats for Astrocast. The satellites will be launched as secondary payloads on a Vega rocket in late 2019 or early 2020. Astrocast plans to launch a constellation of 64 satellites to provide connectivity for Internet of Things applications. The contract is the second rideshare deal won by D-Orbit, who is developing an advanced free-flyer cubesat deployer system for future missions. (8/7)

Former Sierra Nevada Space Chief Joins Colorado University (Source: Space News)
The former head of Sierra Nevada Corporation's space unit has a new job at the University of Colorado. Mark Sirangelo will be an "entrepreneur-in-resident" at the university's aerospace engineering department, charged with helping create "an entrepreneurial center of gravity for industry" in Colorado. Sirangelo stepped down as head of Sierra Nevada Space Systems in June after about a decade. (8/7)

McAulliffe's 'Lost Lessons' Released (Source: New Hampshire Union Leader)
The "lost lessons" of Challenger astronaut Christa McAulliffe are being carried out on the International Space Station. Astronauts Joe Acaba and Ricky Arnold recorded lessons that McAulliffe has planned to carry out on the ill-fated Challenger mission in 1986. Those lessons are being released by the Challenger Center. The videos come with lessons plans for teachers to use in the classrooms so that students can observe differences between Earth and space. (8/7)

Government Agencies Welcome Small Rockets with Contracts, Awards and Reduced Red Tape (Source: Space News)
To prepare for a new generation of small rockets promising dedicated rides to orbit for small satellites, NASA, the U.S. Air Force, the National Reconnaissance Office and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency are setting aside money and trimming oversight.

“Everybody wants a small launch because it’s nice to have your own ride,” Randall Riddle, Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center engineer for the Launch Enterprise Small Launch and Targets Division, said at the 2018 Small Payload Rideshare Symposium last month at the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California.

To date, the vast majority of small satellites have piggybacked on large rockets. In recent years, however, dozens of companies around the world have announced plans to offer dedicated rides for spacecraft as small as cubesats, although most of the new rockets promise rides for 200- to 500-kilogram payloads, said Warren Frick. (8/7)

Financially Strapped Planetary Resources Gets Set to Auction Off Equipment (Source: GeekWire)
In a fresh sign of the financial straits facing Planetary Resources, the asteroid mining company will be auctioning off hundreds of items from its headquarters in Redmond, Washington, ranging from industrial-strength CNC machine tools and 3-D printers to laptops and folding chairs.

“We are preparing to sell some equipment that we’ve identified as not currently needed and easily replaceable,” Chris Lewicki, Planetary Resources’ president, CEO and chief asteroid miner, told GeekWire in an email. “This is a result of reducing overhead as we go forward with our smaller team.”

Planetary Resources was founded in its present form in 2012, with initial backing from billionaires including Larry Page, Eric Schmidt, Ross Perot Jr. and Charles Simonyi. Over the past six years, the venture has raised tens of millions of dollars and sent two small experimental satellites into orbit. Those missions, Arkyd-3R and Arkyd-6A, were aimed at laying the groundwork for even more ambitious efforts to scout out near-Earth asteroids for valuable resources. (8/7)

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine Meets with Aerospace Industry Leaders in Brevard County (Source: Space Florida)
The Economic Development Commission of Florida’s Space Coast (EDC) and Space Florida hosted NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine for an industry leader’s roundtable discussion. James Frederick “Jim” Bridenstine was nominated by President Donald Trump, confirmed by the U.S. Senate, and sworn in as NASA’s 13th administrator on April 23, 2018.

Representatives from aerospace companies discussed the significant role Brevard County and Kennedy Space Center hold in future aerospace programs. The roundtable consisted of an open dialogue bringing awareness to the aerospace industry on the Space Coast and outlining the support needed to remain competitive.

With the diversification of the aerospace industry over the last decade, not only can companies launch rockets from the Space Coast, now they can also perform engineering, manufacturing, assembly, testing, and landing of their spacecraft from this convenient location. (8/7)

Rocket Lab Signs Deal for 10 Dedicated Electron Launches (Source: Parabolic Arc)
US orbital launch provider Rocket Lab has signed an agreement with Circle Aerospace for ten dedicated Electron launches, with the first launch scheduled to lift off in Q4 2019.

Headquartered in Dubai, Circle Aerospace is a new turnkey launch brokerage and satellite development company serving to catalyze the growth of a commercial space and small satellite industry across the United Arab Emirates and wider Gulf Cooperation Council nations (GCC). Circle Aerospace offers full-spectrum, bespoke orbital solutions, including the design, build, and launch of payloads for customers worldwide. (8/7)

Hyten: U.S. Needs Plan to Modernize Space Launch Infrastructure (Source: Space News)
The U.S. government continues to pour money into aging launch ranges and delaying much needed modernization, Air Force Gen. John Hyten said. As commander of U.S. Strategic Command, Hyten is not responsible for launch ranges but he does have strong feelings on the matter. His comments came in response to a question about the rise of commercial space launch and the crunch faced by government agencies when they try to book ranges for test programs.

Hyten said it is a serious problem because most of the ranges where launches are conducted — Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (Eastern Range) in Florida; Vandenberg Air Force Base (Western Range) in California, and the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico — are operating inefficiently due to their outdated technology.

Many ranges are not equipped to handle modern space launch technologies like GPS metric tracking and autonomous flight termination systems. “We’re still structured in this old range construct,” said Hyten. Until they are modernized, operations at ranges will be restricted. And as commercial launch activity picks, the capacity shortage will get worse. “We have to move into a 21st century range so these new capabilities can come on,” said Hyten. Click here. (8/7)