October 12, 2018

FAA Plans Evaluation Of Space-Based ADS-B (Source: Aviation Week)
The FAA next year will begin an evaluation of satellite-aided surveillance of aircraft flying in the Caribbean region, including use of the Aireon space-based automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) system. The agency expects several airlines will participate in the appraisal, which eventually could lead to reduced aircraft separations in FAA-controlled oceanic airspace. (10/12)

Space Provisions in Recent FAA Authorization Bill (Source: Space News)
The bill authorizes a significant increase in spending for the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation, from the $22.6 million it received in FY-2018 to a little more than $33 million in 2019, growing to nearly $76 million in 2023. Appropriators, though, have not matched that authorized increase for 2019, with House and Senate versions of spending bills funding the FAA offering just under $25 million for AST.

The reauthorization bill includes several policy provisions associated with commercial spaceflight as well. One would require the FAA to designate an official within its air traffic organization to serve as the single point of contact for working with the head of AST on airspace issues associated with commercial launch activity.

Another provision establishes an “Office of Spaceports” within AST intended to support commercial licensing of launch sites and develop policies to promote infrastructure improvements at such facilities. It also requires AST to develop a report within one year of the bill’s enactment on spaceport policies, including recommendations on government actions to “support, encourage, promote, and facilitate greater investments in infrastructure at spaceports.” It directs the GAO to prepare a separate report on ways to provide federal support for spaceports. (9/23)

Space Support Vehicles Enabled by FAA Bill (Source: Space News)
The bill [signed by President Trump on Oct. 5] creates a category of commercial spaceflight vehicles known as “space support vehicles” that cover parts of launch vehicles systems flying for other purposes, such as training or testing. Such vehicles would include the aircraft used by air-launch systems. The bill allows commercial flights of space support vehicles without the need for a full-fledged airworthiness certificate from the FAA. (9/23)

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)

Safety Panel Fears Soyuz Failure Could Exacerbate Commercial Crew Safety Concerns (Source: Space News)
Members of an independent NASA safety panel said they were worried that the Oct. 11 Soyuz launch failure could make safety concerns with the agency’s commercial crew program even worse. The Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP), in a previously scheduled meeting at the Johnson Space Center Oct. 11 only hours after the Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft suffered a launch vehicle failure and had to make an emergency landing, said the incident only deepened concerns about the ability of Boeing and SpaceX to adhere to their schedules without jeopardizing safety.

“The panel believes that an overconstrained schedule, driven by any real or perceived gap in astronaut transport to the International Space Station and possibly exacerbated by this morning’s events, poses a danger that sound engineering design solutions could be superseded, critical program content could be delayed or deleted, and decisions of ‘good enough to proceed’ could be made on insufficient data,” she argued. (10/12)

Soyuz Failure Could Impact Arianespace Launches of Russian Rocket (Source: Space News)
The Soyuz failure could also affect the version of the rocket used by Arianespace for launching satellites. The launch provider said Thursday that it's assessing the links between the version of the Soyuz used in Thursday's failure and the one used by Arianespace for satellites. The company said preparations for its next Soyuz mission from French Guiana, scheduled for Nov. 7, remain on track. That launch will place the Metop-C weather satellite into orbit for Eumetsat. (10/12)

NASA: Impact Of Soyuz Launch Abort On ISS Unclear (Source: Aviation Week)
While endorsing the integrity of a Russian investigation into the Soyuz MS-10 launch abort that brought first-time NASA astronaut Nick Hague and veteran cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin safely back to Earth after a steep descent early Oct. 11, NASA intends to conduct its own inquiry into the incident, the impact of which on the future of the International Space Station (ISS) is unclear.

The incident leaves the ISS, normally staffed with six to seven men and women from five different space agencies, with just three—NASA’s Serena Aunon-Chancellor, Russia’s Sergey Prokopyev and the European Space Agency’s Alexander Gerst—until their scheduled return in mid-December and possibly longer.

The three-person Soyuz capsule has been the only means of transporting astronauts to and from the ISS since the retirement of NASA’s fleet of seven-person space shuttles in 2011. Cost and technical issues have slowed efforts by NASA’s Commercial Crew Program to resume U.S. crew launches through partnerships with Boeing and SpaceX from 2015 until 2019 at the earliest. (10/12)

Russia Launches Criminal Probe of ISS Rocket Failure (Source: Space Daily)
Russian investigators have launched a probe into why a Soyuz rocket failed shortly after blast-off, in a major setback for Russia's beleaguered space industry. Russian officials said they were launching a criminal investigation into the accident, the first such incident on a manned flight in the country's post-Soviet history. The Russian space industry has suffered a series of problems in recent years, including the loss of a number of satellites and spacecraft. Officials said they would suspend manned launches in light of the latest accident. (10/12)

French Space Agency Opens New Office in the UAE (Source: Space Daily)
The French Ambassador to the UAE announced that the universe being the limit for the developing partnership between the two countries, i.e. the UAE and France. This statement was made, immediately after the inauguration of an office in Abu Dhabi by the French Space Agency. The Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) became the first foreign space agency that introduced a representation office in the UAE. CNES President Jean-Yves Gall stated that this initiative marks a historic move. He made this statement while on his visit to the capital of the UAE.

The French Ambassador to the UAE, Ludovic Pouille stated that this achievement in the field of space coordination is a definite sign of the new status which was earned by the UAE on the international stage of space. He added that between France and the UAE, the sky would be the limit and now the universe would be the limit. (10/12)

China Launches New Remote Sensing Satellites (Source: Space Daily)
Two remote sensing satellites were successfully sent into space Tuesday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China. The satellites, both part of the Yaogan-32 family, were launched by a Long March-2C rocket with an attached upper stage at 10:43 a.m. Beijing time.

The satellites have entered their planned orbits and will be used for electromagnetic environment surveys and other related technology tests. This was the first flight of the upper stage named Yuanzheng-1S, or Expedition-1S. It cooperated well with the Long March-2C rocket and significantly improved the carrying capacity of the rocket, according to the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology. (10/12)

Rocket Lab’s Manifest Grows as it Preps for its 1st Fully-Commercial Flight (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
In spite of a few setbacks with its Electron launcher earlier this year, Rocket Lab has a lavish lineup planned for the rocket, beginning with a flight next month. Though the company has delivered satellites for customers before, Rocket Lab’s first fully-commercial mission, called “It’s Business Time,” is slated for early November. The mission’s original launch window, which opened in late April of this year, and its follow-up, which opened in June, both closed without a flight due to issues with a motor controller.

Though the company took what it called “corrective measures” after the issue appeared the first time, the same issue returned during the window in June, prompting a longer delay to completely handle the problem. “There’s only one measure that matters in the launch industry and that’s 100 percent mission success,” Peter Beck, founder and CEO of Rocket Lab, said at the time. “We’ll take some time to review the data and tweak whatever we need to ahead of a new launch window to make sure we achieve that.” (10/12)

Stratolaunch Plane Gets Closer to First Flight with 80 Mph Taxi Test at Mojave Spaceport (Source: GeekWire)
Stratolaunch has performed its latest, and fastest, taxi test of its giant aircraft. The company announced the test late Thursday at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California. The aircraft reached speeds of nearly 130 kilometers per hour in the test. Based on past comments, at least two more high-speed taxi tests, going as fast as 225 kilometers per hour, are expected before the company is ready for the plane to make its first flight. Stratolaunch is developing the plane as an air-launch platform for both the Pegasus XL and larger vehicles of its own design. (10/12)

Air Force Launcher Development Contracts Don't Guarantee Launches (Source: Space News)
The selection of three companies by the Air Force to develop new launch vehicles doesn't mean they'll all get future launch business. Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman and United Launch Alliance, along with SpaceX, will have to compete for later contracts to launch military payloads, with only two companies expected to win business. Despite widespread surprise that SpaceX was not among the companies that won Launch Service Agreements to fund vehicle development, some analysts said the decision was not that unexpected, since SpaceX already has the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles. (10/12)