October 15, 2018

OneWeb Loses Another Senior Executive (Source: Space News)
Eric Béranger, former chief executive of satellite constellation venture OneWeb, has left the company entirely. Béranger, who was named OneWeb’s CEO in July 2016, was demoted last month to president and chief operating officer. Béranger was to split those responsibilities with the company’s new CEO Adrian Steckel, who joined from Uphold, a digital currency company he co-founded. Steckel is OneWeb’s fourth CEO in as many years.

During a September conference, Béranger avoided questions about the exact cost of the OneWeb constellation for which 900 satellites are under construction. OneWeb raised $1.7 billion from investors, of which $1 billion came from Japanese conglomerate Softbank, and has said it plans to meet the rest of its financing needs through borrowing. It has been almost two years since OneWeb announced any new capital, however. Editor's Note: OneWeb intends to manufacture most of its satellites (including additional ones for other customers) at its highly automated factory at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. The first satellites were expected to be produced there by the end of 2018. (10/15)

Speculations on a Neutron Star (Source: Air & Space)
Researchers reported an unexplained heat signature around the neutron star RXJ0806.4–4123. The infrared (heat) emissions detected near RXJ0806.4–4123 with the Hubble Space Telescope are puzzling, because they are much stronger than what we’d expect based on the observed optical and ultraviolet emissions from neutron stars.

Neutron stars are the collapsed cores of massive stars. Only 10 to 20 kilometers in diameter, they have enormous gravitational and magnetic fields— so strong, in fact, that electrons are ripped from their nuclei, and protons and neutrons come in close proximity. In such a bizarre environment, the strong nuclear force is dominant, not the electromagnetic force that predominates in our own part of the universe. The infrared excess could be due to particles accelerated by the neutron star’s huge magnetic field (“a pulsar wind,” so to speak). Or we could be observing a supernova fallback disk— remnant dust from the neutron star’s formation that is heating up the star and slowing its rotation. (10/10)

Bezos Wants Us All to Leave Earth -- For Good (Source: WIRED)
Bezos tends toward discretion when it comes to his businesses, but earlier this year he offered to usher me into Blue Origin’s sanctums, with one stipulation: I had to promise that, before I interviewed him about his long-term plans, I would watch a newly unearthed 1975 PBS program. So one afternoon, I opened my laptop and clicked on the link Bezos had sent me. Suddenly I was thrust back into the predigital world, where viewers had more fingers than channels and remote shopping hadn’t advanced past the Sears catalog. In lo-res monochrome, a host in suit and tie interviews the writer Isaac Asimov and physicist Gerard O’Neill, wearing a cool, wide-lapelled blazer and white turtleneck.

To the amusement of the host, O’Neill describes a future where some 90 percent of humans live in space stations in distant orbits of the blue planet. For most of us, Earth would be our homeland but not our home. We’d use it for R&R, visiting it as we would a national park. Then we’d return to the cosmos, where humanity would be thriving like never before. Asimov, agreeing entirely, called resistance to the concept “planetary chauvinism.” Click here. (10/15)

China Launches More Beidou NavSats, Rains Rocket Debris Downrange (Source: GB Times)
China launched another pair of Beidou navigation satellites overnight. The Long March 3B rocket lifted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 12:23 a.m. Eastern and placed the two Beidou satellites into medium Earth orbits. The launch brings the total number of Beidou satellites launched to date to 40. The launch also included equipment on the rocket to collect telemetry for use in future efforts to recover portions of the rocket by parachute. Editor's Note: Here are some photos of the rocket debris that landed in a populated region downrange. (10/15)

SpaceX's Starlink Satellites Working Well, Says Board Member (Source: Teslarati)
A SpaceX board member said last week that the company's first two Starlink demonstration satellites are working well despite rumors to the contrary. Steve Jurvetson, speaking at a conference last week, said the Tintin A and B satellites, launched as secondary payloads on a Falcon 9 in February, are "working wonderfully" in orbit. There had been industry rumors in recent weeks that the satellites suffered problems after launch. (10/14)

Next Soyuz Launch Could be Moved Up to Nov. 28 (Source: Reuters)
That next Soyuz launch could be moved up, pending the outcome of the ongoing investigation. A Russian space industry source said the launch of the next crewed Soyuz mission to the ISS could take place Nov. 28. A report on the investigation into last week's accident and planned corrective actions is scheduled for no earlier than the end of this week. (10/15)

UFO Project $37 Million in Debt (Source: Ars Technica)
All of these enigmas of ancient culture, we are told, provide evidence of something the authors dub "The Phenomenon." And what is this? Well, that's not really clear. This much we know: It's something hidden. something alien, and something just waiting for scholars to unlock. And DeLonge and his gang suggest they've found the key: "Our goal is nothing less than a revolution in the hard sciences as well as the social sciences: a reevaluation of what we know about our function, our purpose in the cosmos, and the potential opportunities and possible threats that exist."

In other words, the evil government is covering all kinds of mysterious alien stuff up for its own nefarious purposes. And interested personages were invited to help the good guys. For a few hundred bucks, people could get a piece of an  "A+ investment offering" from To the Stars, to assist its efforts to pull back the veil from the government cover-up and bring brilliant new technologies—such as beamed energy propulsion—into public view. But according to a recent SEC filing: "The Company has incurred losses from operations and has an accumulated deficit at June 30, 2018 of $37,432,000. These factors raise doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern."

The financial filing states that To the Stars intends to remain in business over the next 12 months by selling additional stock. Their website says they accept credit cards, if you're so inclined to help keep the effort afloat. Bear in mind that any financial returns may be beyond the reach of even The Phenomenon, given the company's existing debt. (10/15)

Harris L3 Merger Creates "Sixth Prime," With HQ on Florida's Space Coast (Source: Aviation Week)
The announcement that L3 Technologies and Harris will merge to form a giant defense electronics, civil aviation services and space systems provider could herald the advent of a new, “sixth” prime contractor in the government realm. Indeed, the CEOs of both companies—which already are leading midtier aerospace and defense providers—say they plan to keep up their relatively robust investment efforts while also boosting shareholder returns through greater cost savings.

“This industry is all about scale, and this gives us scale to compete,” said Chris Kubasik, head of L3. The new company will invest 4% of sales into independent research and development (IRAD), separate from government-funded efforts. Assuming the deal closes, which is seen by the middle of 2019, the combined company would be named L3 Harris Technologies and would be the sixth largest defense company in the U.S. and a top 10 defense company globally. Headquarters are slated for Melbourne, Florida, where Harris' roots go back 123 years to a printing press business.

Editor's Note: Accelerated Space Coast aerospace industry growth (Embraer, L3 Harris, Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, OneWeb, Moon Express, SpaceX, etc.) puts intense pressure on Florida's government, colleges and universities, and K-12 schools to fill a big pipeline with qualified workers. Pay attention to the workforce training platforms of Florida's gubernatorial candidates! (10/15)