October 13, 2018

Virgin's Branson Halts Talks on $1 Billion Saudi Investment in Space Ventures (Source: Reuters)
Sir Richard Branson said his Virgin Group would suspend its discussions with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund over a planned $1 billion investment in the group’s space ventures, in light of the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. “What has reportedly happened in Turkey around the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, if proved true, would clearly change the ability of any of us in the West to do business with the Saudi government,” Branson said.

Branson also said he would suspend his directorship in two Saudi tourism projects around the Red Sea, citing Khashoggi’s disappearance. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Pressure has mounted on Saudi Arabia since Oct. 2 when Khashoggi, a prominent critic of Saudi policies and a Washington Post journalist, went missing. He was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. (10/11)

Failures Continue to Haunt the Russian Space Program (Source: Parabolic Arc)
The Soviet & Russian space programs have traditionally had a high launch rate, which also resulted in a fair number of partial and complete failures. For the past 30 years, the program has experienced 61 incidents or an average of about two per year. The current string of annual failures stretches back to 2004.

This chart bechronicles the partial and complete failures experienced over the last three decades. (Note: Some of the incidents involve Zenit boosters produced by former Soviet factories in Ukraine. These rockets usually fly with Russian-produced upper stages. Dnepr was also a joint program with Ukraine.) (10/11)

ULA Atlas Set to Launch Air Force Satellite at Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: ULA)
A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket is in final preparations to launch the fourth Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) communications satellite for the U.S. Air Force. The launch is planned for Oct. 17 from Space Launch Complex-41 at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. The two-hour launch window opens at 12:15 a.m. EDT. To date ULA has a track record of 100% mission success with 130 successful launches. (10/12)

Nuclear Thermal Space Propulsion Update (Source: Next Big Future)
Jim Reuter, NASA’s acting associate administrator of STMD, toured BWXT’s Advanced Technology Lab in Lynchburg, Virginia to learn more about BWXT’s progress on the program that could support a future crewed mission to Mars. Reuter watched demonstrations of three key technologies that BWXT has been developing to support the Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) program. Click here. (10/12)

A Mission for the Resurrected (Source: Air & Space)
To fly through the apex of a storm, NASA needed to raid the boneyard. The airplane is the last version of the B-57 bomber, with the ability to carry a heavier payload to higher altitudes than any other available research aircraft. “And it’s really hardy, so you can fly near convection—these big thunderstorms—which is a turbulent environment,” Jensen says. With the WB-57s, scientists can send instruments to directly sample the clouds. Click here. (10/12)

How Will Private Space Travel Transform NASA's Next 60 Years? (Source: Space.com)
NASA's next 60 years will probably be very different than its first six decades. When the agency opened for business in 1958, private spaceflight was just a sci-fi dream. But companies such as Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin are working to make that dream a reality and open the space frontier to huge numbers of people for the first time.

What role will NASA play in the private sector's liftoff? Space.com recently talked to three commercial-spaceflight experts to get some ideas. First, people should understand that about 75 percent of the worldwide space enterprise is already commercial, said Scott Hubbard. Click here. (10/12)

Another NASA Space Telescope - Chandra - Sidelined by Glitch (Source: Space.com)
Another NASA space telescope is out of commission, at least for the time being. The Chandra X-ray Observatory, which has been observing the universe in high-energy light since 1999, entered a protective "safe mode" on Oct. 10. "All systems functioned as expected and the scientific instruments are safe," agency officials wrote in an update today (Oct. 12). "The cause of the safe mode transition (possibly involving a gyroscope) is under investigation, and we will post more information when it becomes available." (10/12)

Is Space Sensor Layer the Pentagon’s Next Major Space Program? (Source: Space News)
Defense officials have been sounding alarms about what they describe as a glaring national security vulnerability — a new class of ultrafast weapons being developed by China and Russia that would overpower U.S. missile defenses.

Detecting and tracking hypersonic missiles is a tough problem the Pentagon is trying to figure out how to tackle. A network of ground radars, satellites and interceptors defends the United States and allies from ballistic missiles from countries such as North Korea. But the system would be ineffective against non-ballistic weapons like hypersonic vehicles that fly at several times the speed of sound and maneuver in unpredictable directions.

The Missile Defense Agency believes the solution is a constellation of missile-tracking satellites in low and medium Earth orbits that would add a new set of eyes to the existing shield. MDA says sensors in space could track hypersonic threats from “birth to death” whereas ground-based radars could only detect such a threat once it comes over the horizon. (10/12)

China to Launch Unmanned Test Flight of Next-Generation Crewed Spacecraft in 2019 (Source: Space News)
China will perform a first test flight of a full-scale 20-metric ton model of a successor to its Shenzhou spacecraft for human spaceflight next year, a senior official at the craft’s designer said last week. The next-generation crewed spacecraft will be the payload for the first flight of the Long March 5B launch vehicle, a variant of the Long March 5 and designed for lofting large modules of the planned Chinese Space Station (CSS) into low Earth orbit. In 2016, China use the first flight of the Long March 7 medium-lift rocket to launch a scale model of a new return module to test re-entry and landing profile for new spacecraft. (10/11)

LeoSat and Partners Hope to Shrink Satellites (Source: Space News)
With partners Hispasat of Spain and Sky Perfect Jsat of Japan, LeoSat Enterprises will look for ways to make its satellites “better, faster, cheaper and lighter,” said Mark Rigolle. Since Luxembourg-based LeoSat designed satellites for its planned low Earth orbit constellation two to three years ago, spacecraft technology has improved. In many cases, the cost of component technology has decreased, as well.

The price of laser optical heads, for example, which LeoSat needs for its inter-satellite links, have fallen dramatically, said Michael Abad-Santos, LeoSat senior vice president Americas. LeoSat’s plans to launch 78 operational satellites and six in-orbit spares to create a high-speed, secure data network linking sites of multinational corporations and government agencies. Under the current design, LeoSat can fit eight satellites on a SpaceX Falcon 9 or Arianespace Ariane 6 rocket. The goal is to reduce satellite mass to fit more satellites on each launch vehicle. (10/11)