September 1, 2018

NASA Selects 15 New Potential Space Technologies for Flight Tests (Source: NASA)
NASA’s Flight Opportunities program has selected 15 promising space technologies to be tested on commercial low-gravity simulating aircraft, high-altitude balloons and suborbital rockets. These flights will help advance technologies for future spaceflight, taking them from the laboratory to a relevant flight environment.

During an Aug. 28 visit to NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, where the Flight Opportunities program is managed, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said the agency will focus on funding more of these payload flights in the future.

“Flight Opportunities gives researchers and universities the opportunity to get involved with NASA,” said Bridenstine. “By increasing funding for payload integration and flights, we will continue to support and advance the commercial suborbital flight market.” The latest selections will demonstrate technologies of interest to NASA that are capable of supporting future exploration and science missions. Click here. (8/29)

Spaceport Colorado Sells the Future (Source: Sentinel Colorado)
There was a time we would have marveled at flying to 380,000 feet to experience the curvature of the Earth, weightlessness, and the darkness of space. In the next few decades, space travel may become so ordinary that we don’t even bat an eye. In Colorado that will be a reality thanks to Dave Ruppel, CEO of the newly-dubbed Spaceport Colorado. “Our goal is to make this more commonplace,” Ruppel said from the Spaceport headquarters. Outside, planes from Denver International Airport, about five miles away, thundered overhead. “That is reality in the future.” Click here. (8/31)

Arizona High Court Affirms Legality of Pima County's No-Bid Deal with World View (Source: Tucson.com)
Pima County did nothing wrong when it did not seek bids for a site that ultimately became the World View high-altitude balloon launching site, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled Wednesday. The justices declined to consider arguments by the Goldwater Institute that state laws specifically require governments to seek the best offer when selling off property.

Instead, they left standing, without comment, the Court of Appeals ruling that competitive bidding laws do not apply when counties are trying to lure a specific company. Wednesday’s ruling is more than a victory for Pima County. It buttresses the power of all Arizona counties to make special lease deals with desired companies, regardless of whether others may be willing to offer more for the property.

But the order does not end the legal fight. The Goldwater Institute, which represents three taxpayers, still has the right to pursue a separate claim that the another part of the deal — constructing a headquarters and launching paid for World View — violated the “gift clause” of the Arizona Constitution. No date has been set to hear legal arguments on that. (8/31)

Questions, Hope Surround Proposed Camden County Spaceport (Source: WABE)
Camden County, Georgia, right on the border with Florida, has a big idea for its future. Its leaders have spent millions trying to get a license from the FAA to launch rockets from a spaceport they don’t yet have. County officials are confident this will be an economic boon, but not everybody’s convinced.

Jim Renner is one of about 80 Little Cumberland Island landowners. On a Little Cumberland beach looking across the marsh, Renner could imagine the scene with a spaceport. “So we’ve got people who have their houses here facing west,” he said. “And there’s the spaceport right there. I mean it’s right there. All the lights, all the noise, all the exhaust gases, everything would be visible, and audible and smell-able from here.”

Rebecca Lang, a second-generation Little Cumberland landowner, said it feels like an unprecedented threat. "Nothing’s ever popped up like this,” she said. “There’s never been a greater threat to this place than the spaceport.” But it’s not that simple to everyone. To some, the project means jobs. Georgia’s entire Congressional delegation has come out in support of the project for that reason. Click here. (8/31)

NASA Launching Mars Lander Parachute Test from Wallops Sep. 7 (Source: NASA)
NASA will conduct the third in a series of parachute tests for possible future missions to Mars during the flight of a Terrier-Black Brant IX suborbital sounding rocket in the morning on Sep. 7, 2018, from the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

The launch window for the 58-foot tall rocket is from 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. EDT. The backup launch days are Sep. 8 – 15. The rocket will carry the Advanced Supersonic Parachute Inflation Research Experiment (ASPIRE) from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. (8/31)

NASA Just Gave the Opportunity Rover a Survival Deadline on Mars—Here's What That Means (Source: Space.com)
NASA announced a deadline for its recovery of the Mars rover Opportunity, which has been silent for months while battling a dust storm, and some scientists intimately familiar with the project say that new timeline doesn’t do the grizzled robot justice. The rover, which launched in 2003 and landed on Mars in January 2004, has been giving its humans the cold shoulder since June 10, when a fierce dust storm enveloped the Red Planet and blocked the sun from the robot's solar panels.

The storm has started to die down, so the team hopes that with enough time, the rover should be able to power on again and get back to work after its long hibernation. Here's NASA's plan: First, the team will wait until the tau — a measurement of how much dust clouds the air — lowers to 1.5. (At the peak of the storm, the tau was likely around 10, a level one rover expert called "terrifying.") Then, the team will begin a 45-day active-listening period, during which they will send commands up to the rover that should force it to respond. (8/31)

Russia to End U.S. Space Station Rides in April, Pressuring NASA (Source: Bloomberg)
Russia’s contract to supply Soyuz ferry rides for NASA astronauts to the International Space Station ends in April, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov said. The expiration piles additional pressure on NASA to restore its own capability to shuttle U.S. crew members back and forth to the orbiting lab. The space agency is contracting with Boeing and SpaceX to develop new vehicles to transport astronauts, but the work has been plagued by delays.

NASA has relied on Russia since retirement of the space shuttle in 2011 ended U.S.-controlled access to the space station. Congress and President Donald Trump’s administration have touted the commercial program’s importance to ending that reliance, especially as diplomatic relations between the nations have deteriorated.

Russia charges NASA about $81 million per seat on the Soyuz to fly astronauts to and from the station. NASA signed an agreement in early 2017 to acquire additional Soyuz seats into 2019, although no further contracts involving the Russian craft have been announced. NASA officials have declined to say whether the agency has discussed procuring additional Soyuz spots with Russian officials. (8/31)

Stennis Will Bring More Than Flags and Footprints to the Moon (Source: Sun Herald)
The future of NASA and space exploration begins in Mississippi, officials say, and with NASA’s goal to return to the moon in 2019, Stennis Space Center is at the heart of the program. “Man may go to the moon (again) one day, but they’re going to have to pass through Hancock County to get there,” Gov. Phil Bryant said. Bryant was one of about 100 people who attended a RS-25 engine test Aug. 14 at Stennis, the first of 10 test fires for the first SLS project. (8/31)

Lift-Off for China’s Controversial Corporate Colossus (Source: Asia Times)
Sitting on top of the pyramid with one eye on the stars, this corporate colossus casts a huge shadow in the land of the giants. But like the majority of state-owned enterprises in the country, the monolithic China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation is shrouded in an aura of secrecy. With 170,000 employees and annual revenue hovering around the US$34 billion-mark, CASC is one of the ‘big beasts’ of the SOE sector.

Ranked in the Fortune Global 500 list, its core business revolves around the nation’s space program and missile development. Yet its tentacles extend beyond that through a labyrinth of affiliates, which are at the heart of President Xi Jinping’s “Made in China 2025” policy. Behind the scenes, the group is involved in an array of projects from devastating ‘wave-riders’ to nuclear-powered space shuttles and micro rockets. Apart for its heavenly pursuits, China Aerospace is also grounded in strategic and tactical missile systems. (9/1)

Japanese Startup Aims for Commercial Space Travel in 2023 (Source: Kyodo News)
Japanese startup PD AeroSpace Ltd. is developing a reusable spacecraft shaped like an airplane to carry ticket-buying customers into space by 2023. The Nagoya-based company plans space flights to an altitude of 110 kilometers by the spacecraft, capable of carrying six passengers and two pilots, at a price of 17 million yen ($153,000) per person.

Currently, 11 workers at a plant in Hekinan, Aichi Prefecture, are working to fly an unmanned test vehicle to an altitude of 100 km. "We would like to open a new space era (with the spacecraft)," said Shuji Ogawa, the 48-year-old president of PD AeroSpace. Last summer, the company successfully carried out a combustion experiment of the spacecraft's pulse detonation engine, which is switchable from an air-breathing mode to rocket mode. (9/1)

NASA Reorganization On Hold, FFRDC Report Heading to OMB (Source: Space Policy Online)
NASA’s FY2019 budget request proposed eliminating the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) and refocusing technology efforts on the Moon/Mars program. A recommendation on a new structure was expected this summer, but the NASA Advisory Council (NAC) was told yesterday that it is on hold because NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine wants more time.

Separately NASA was directed to look at turning its nine civil service field centers into federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs). That report was being sent to the White House today. NASA Associate Administrator (AA) Steve Jurczyk briefed NAC on the status of these actions yesterday. Prior to becoming AA, he was the head of STMD and before that the Director of Langley Research Center, so he has unique expertise on both topics.

The proposal to eliminate STMD is controversial. It was created during the Obama Administration to focus resources on developing new crosscutting technologies that could be used for a wide range of space and aeronautics programs instead of being developed for a specific mission. The other Mission Directorates have their own funding to advance technologies for their specific needs. (8/31)