October 11, 2018

NASA Should Expand Search for Life in the Universe (Source: Space Daily)
To advance the search for life in the universe, NASA should support research on a broader range of biosignatures and environments, and incorporate the field of astrobiology into all stages of future exploratory missions, says a new congressionally mandated report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Astrobiology, the study of the origin, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe, is a rapidly changing field, especially in the years since the publication of NASA's Astrobiology Strategy 2015. Recent scientific advances in the field now provide many opportunities to strengthen the role of astrobiology in NASA missions and to increase collaboration with other scientific fields and organizations. The report finds that these changes necessitate an updated science strategy for astrobiology. (10/11)

ULA, Blue Origin, Northrop Divide Air Force Launch Vehicle Development Contracts (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Air Force announced on Wednesday it is awarding three contracts collectively worth about $2 billion to Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems and United Launch Alliance to develop launch system prototypes. The funding is for the development of competing launch system prototypes geared toward launching national security payloads. Each company will receive an initial award of $181 million, $109 million of which are fiscal year 2018 funds.

The Launch Service Agreements are for the development of Blue Origin’s New Glenn, Northrop Grumman’s Omega and ULA’s Vulcan Centaur rockets. The awards are part of cost-sharing arrangements — known as Other Transaction Agreements — that the Air Force is signing with the three companies to ensure it has multiple competitors. The Air Force has committed through 2024 a total of $500 million in OTA funds for Blue Origin, $792 million for Northrop Grumman and $967 million for ULA. SpaceX previously received an LSA award but did not make the cut this time. (10/10)

Boeing Slammed in NASA Report for SLS Problems (Source: Space News)
A report by NASA's inspector general sharply criticized Boeing and NASA for SLS delays and cost overruns. The report released Wednesday concluded that the cost of the SLS core stage, for which Boeing is the prime contractor, has doubled, and that it is likely there will be further delays in the first flight of the SLS that is currently scheduled for mid-2020. The report also found that NASA did not do a good job in overseeing Boeing's work on SLS. Boeing said in a statement that it had already made changes in how it manages its SLS work. (10/10)

Boeing Invests in Smallsat Propulsion (Source: Space News)
Boeing is investing in smallsat propulsion company Accion Systems. Boeing's venture capital unit, HorizonX Ventures, is leading a $3 million investment in Accion to support development of Accion's tiled ionic liquid electrospray, or TILE, propulsion system. That electric propulsion system is designed to provide maneuverability for very small satellites at lower costs than traditional systems. This investment in space technology comes on the heels of Boeing’s acquisition of satellite manufacturer Millennium Space Systems and a major investment in BridgeSat, a company that is developing an optical communications network to deliver data from low Earth orbit satellites. (10/10)

Blue Origin Delays New Glenn Launch Debut (Source: Geekwire)
Blue Origin has delayed the first launch of its New Glenn orbital vehicle to 2021. Company CEO Bob Smith said at a conference Wednesday that the vehicle's first launch, previously scheduled for before the end of 2020, was now planned for 2021, but didn't go into details for the delay. Smith also said that the company's New Shepard suborbital vehicle will start carrying people in the first half of next year. (10/10)

Google Subsidiary Offers Loon Software for Satellite Constellations (Source: Space News)
A Google subsidiary is offering developers of constellations software tools to improve network operations. Loon, which is experimenting with high-altitude balloons to provide broadband services, says its software tools for managing spot beams also have applications for satellite constellations. That could be useful, a Loon official said, for systems with inter-satellite links or other attributes whose configurations change rapidly. (10/10)

Maxar 'Advancing U.S. Domestication' (Source: Maxar)
Maxar Technologies is accelerating its work to become a fully American company. Maxar, whose divisions include DigitalGlobe, SSL, MDA and Radiant Solutions, said in a statement Wednesday that it is "advancing its domestication into the United States" and expects that to be complete by January. That effort will help the company become eligible for more U.S. government work, and said the process of becoming a U.S.-based company will not have an impact on its employees, customers or suppliers. (10/10)

GMV to Provide Galileo Ground System (Source: Space News)
GMV has won a contract with 250 million euros ($290 million) to provide the ground system for the Galileo satellite navigation system. GMV, a Spanish company, primarily supplies ground control infrastructure for telecommunications satellites and European missions. The new contract covers the maintenance and upgrading of the Galileo ground control system over the next three years. (10/10)

Japan Delays Asteroid Sample Collection at Ryugu (Source: AFP)
The Japanese space agency JAXA has delayed an attempt to collect samples of the asteroid Ryugu by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft. Hayabusa2 was scheduled to perform a touch-and-go maneuver later this month to gather samples of the asteroid, but project scientists said they need more time to study the asteroid's surface, which is more rugged than expected. Officials now expect to attempt gathering samples no earlier than late January. (10/10)

When Debris Overwhelms Space (Source: Space Daily)
We see more and more reports of debris concern among satellite operators and space observers. Add to this the many recent announcements of multiple broadband satellite constellations that are being funded and developed for launch in the next few years. Just focusing on low Earth orbits (LEO), there are an estimated 10,000 satellites in the works.

SpaceX alone plans on launching over 4,000 of these multi-hundred-kilogram spacecraft that are now being built in Redmond, Washington. Add all of the broadband satellites to the hundreds of planned CubeSats and we have a new satellite population that is at least an order of magnitude larger than what is now in LEO. This explosion in population will be accompanied by an explosion in LEO debris. The implications are extremely serious. (10/11)

Soyuz Crew Makes an Emergency Landing After Rocket Fails in Kazakhstan Launch (Source: Ars Technica)
On Thursday in Kazakhstan, at 4:40 a.m. US Eastern time, a Soyuz rocket took off carrying NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksey Ovchinin toward the International Space Station. The ascent proceeded normally until the separation of one of the rocket's booster stages. Because the Soyuz spacecraft did not reach orbit at the point of this booster failure, the crew was forced to make a rapid ballistic descent likely under high g-forces.

After about 20 minutes of uncertainty, Russian officials confirmed the crew were OK, and had landed about 20km east of Dzhezkazgan, a city in central Kazakhstan. As rescue crews arrived, Hague and Ovchinin were reported in "good condition" and found out of the capsule. A Russian commission has been established to study the accident.

This failure raises serious questions about the future of the International Space Station, as since the space shuttle's retirement in 2011 the Soyuz spacecraft and rocket were the only means by which crews have had to reach it. With the failed launch, just three people remain on the station, an American astronaut, Serena Auñón-Chancellor, the German Commander Alexander Gerst, and Russian Sergey Prokopyev. (10/11)

York Space Systems Enters Memorandum of Understanding with Firefly Aerospace (Source: Firefly)
Firefly Aerospace has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with York Space Systems (York) for the development of integrated launch services and spacecraft mission solutions. “The performance of the Firefly Alpha allows for deployment of up to four York S-CLASS satellites in a single launch. Alpha’s industry leading small satellite launch vehicle performance will enable Firefly to provide York’s expanding customer base pre-configured launch solutions to greatly reduce historically long launch campaign timelines. We look forward to executing many successful missions together.” (10/10)

Georgia Spaceport Study Paused (Source: Spaceport Facts)
A Federal Permitting Dashboard website indicates that the Spaceport Camden Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) study effort is “PAUSED.” The Primary Reason for Pause Status: “Project Sponsor Factors.” The relevant factors are not described. Spaceport opponents suggest it is now impossible for the Spaceport Camden EIS to be completed by the scheduled date of December 31, 2018. (10/10)

UAE Space Law ‘Will Spur Sector Investment’ (Source: Trade Arabia)
The new UAE space law is a giant step for the country because it will inspire the next generation of lawyers, engineers, and scientists to revolutionize an as yet unexplored sector, a legal expert said. STA Law Firm said the UAE Cabinet’s recent adoption of the new space law, an unprecedented development in the Middle East region, symbolizes a monumental triumph for the nation’s space sector. (10/9)

University of Nebraska Wins NASA Grant for Space Law Program (Source: Daily Nebraskan)
New expansions in space exploration demand not only more scientists, but also more legal professionals, and the University of Nebraska Law School is ready to provide that with a $250,000 grant from NASA to create a space law network. NASA put out a call for proposals to receive the grant, and Nebraska beat out a number of other schools that applied for the grant. What set Nebraska apart is its long track record of success within the space, cyber and telecommunications field. (10/9)

SAS Expands "Human Spaceflight Safety" Services (Source: SatNews)
Special Aerospace Services (SAS) has expanded their Spaceflight Safety products and pervices to now include support for deep space and lunar missions — SAS developed the expanded line of engineering services to cover the next phase of human spaceflight that will be initiated by inaugural test launches and first human launches in the coming year.
 
Over the last 12 years, SAS has been amassing a database of system safety analysis and lessons learned from historical NASA human-certified spacecraft.  Through the SAS suite of tools and team of experienced system safety and human spaceflight system engineers, the Colorado firm is now offering the following human spaceflight services customized for deep space and lunar missions: Certification of Flight Readiness (CoFR); Informed Consent Services; Independent Launch Readiness Review; and Expanded Systems Safety Review Services. (10/10)

Scotland in Space – Spaceports and Satellite Manufacturing (Source: Holyrood)
“If you want a spaceship engineer, you better make him a Scotsman,” Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry was told when auditioning for the role of the hardest working mechanic in the universe. Fifty years after Scotty threw his ‘haggis into the fire’ to give Captain Kirk more power than the starship Enterprise could handle, Roddenberry’s future gazing has proved remarkably prescient.

Scotland now manufactures more satellites than anywhere outside of the United States and it will soon be home to Europe’s first spaceport – a project that actually involves an Enterprise leader called Kirk. Roy Kirk, spaceport project director at Highlands and Islands Enterprise, is overseeing the construction of the £17m spaceport on the A’Mhoine peninsula in Sutherland, situated between Tongue and Durness.

The abundance of engineering and science talent in Scotland – descendants of the early telecoms pioneers like Maxwell, Bell and Baird, the component manufacturers of Silicon Glen and the physicists of Dounreay – is one of the reasons the UK Space Agency selected Sutherland out of 26 bids for the first UK spaceport. Scotland also specializes in building CubeSats. (10/8)