October 25, 2018

The Growing Space Industry is Scrambling to Find Workers — Except if They’re Foreigners (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
A year and a half from graduation, despite good grades and a job Florida Tech's Aldrin Space Institute, run by second-man-on-the-moon Buzz Aldrin’s son Andy Aldrin, Shirshekar has no job prospects. “I was trying to follow my passion and look where that’s led me,” said Shirshekar, 30. “My parents ask me time and time again, ‘When are you going to get a job?’ It’s that unfortunate pressure where you have dedicated all this time and I’ve traveled around the states in hopes of building something and no opportunity has arisen.”

Since the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR) was enacted in 1976, classifying spacecraft and rockets as military technology, international students have been hamstrung from getting jobs in the field. Only “U.S. persons,” or in other words, citizens or permanent residents, can work for NASA or major private space companies under ITAR. The problem, though not new, is perhaps more acute now that the space industry in the U.S. — and particularly Florida’s Space Coast — is flourishing. Companies are scrambling to find qualified employees to temper a national shortage in the science, technology, engineering and math fields, the kind of careers that feed the space industry.

Ironically, many of those qualified students are already here at schools such as the University of Central Florida, Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University and the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, where Shirshekar is a doctoral candidate. “It’s really frustrating,” said Laura Seward Forczyk, owner of space consulting firm Astrolytical and a Florida Tech grad. “These were students who came to the U.S., were trained here. So we spend the resources, the time to train people in highly educated, high in-demand fields, and then they take that and leave.” (10/25)

Russia Launches Soyuz Rocket with Military Satellite (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
Russia launched a military satellite Wednesday night on the first flight of a Soyuz rocket since the aborted mission to the space station two weeks ago. The Soyuz-2.1b rocket lifted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia at 8:15 p.m. Eastern time and placed a Lotos signals intelligence satellite into orbit. The launch was reportedly a success, although the Russian military provided few details about the mission. Russian officials had indicated that they planned at least three uncrewed Soyuz launches, including this military mission as well as a Progress cargo vehicle and a European satellite launch from French Guiana, before the vehicle would be used to launch a crewed Soyuz spacecraft again. (10/25)

China Launches Marine Observation Satellite (Source: GB Times)
China launched a marine observation satellite Wednesday night. A Long March 4B rocket launched from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center at 6:57 p.m. Eastern time and placed the Haiyang-2B into a sun-synchronous orbit. The satellite carries instruments for scientific monitoring of the ocean, as well as an AIS payload for ship tracking. The launch is the 29th this year for China. (10/25)

ULA Pushes Vulcan Debut to 2021 (Source: Space News)
ULA says the first launch of its Vulcan rocket has slipped to 2021. A company executive said at a conference Wednesday that the first flight of the next-generaiton rocket is now scheduled for April 2021, after the company said as recently as last month that it was on track for mid-2020. ULA says that the timeline set in the Launch Service Agreement award it won from the Air Force earlier this month, and additional requirements set by the program, led to the revised schedule. (10/25)

Infighting Among Services in Lead-Up to Space Force (Source: Space News)
Creation of a Space Force as a separate military branch could lead to infighting among the other services. One analyst warned in an interview that if the Space Force is created, "its first goal is going to be protect its own existence. A secondary goal will be to justify its existence." Creation of the Air Force resulted in decades of inter-service fights, and the same would likely be true for the Space Force. "This will provoke more inter-service rivalries and distract from rather than contribute to future military success." (10/25)

Wishful Thinking for Satellite Flat Panel Antennas? (Source: Space News)
Satellite antenna developers are split regarding whether low-cost flat panel antennas are feasible in the near future. Antenna makers say so much enthusiasm exists for such antennas that sorting fact from wishful thinking among buyer expectations and seller claims has become difficult, with some expecting such panels to cost unrealistically low, such as $50–100. Some companies, though, say that antenna prices will have to come down significantly from current prices of as much as $40,000 per antenna in order to address the mass markets sought by those developing broadband satellite constellations. (10/25)

FCC to Vote on Galileo Access (Source: Reuters)
The FCC will vote next month on access to the Galileo satellite navigation system and licensing of broadband constellations. The commission said Wednesday that at its next meeting, scheduled for Nov. 15, it will vote on a proposal to allow U.S. devices to use Europe's Galileo navigation system by waiving licensing requirements for access to its signals. The FCC is also slated to vote on a proposal to allow broadband satellite systems to expand the frequencies available for their use and to review the FCC's orbital debris mitigation rules. (10/25)

Virgin Orbit Fits Rocket to 747 Carrier Aircraft (Source: GeekWire)
Virgin Orbit took another step closer to the first launch of its LauncherOne rocket with fit tests. The company said Wednesday that, for the first time, it brought together a LauncherOne rocket with its Cosmic Girl carrier aircraft for a series of tests to confirm that the rocket connects properly to the pylon on the rocket's left wing. The fit tests makes it likely that the company will soon be able to start captive carry flights of the aircraft with the rocket attached, a key test before the rocket's first launch. (10/25)

Blue Origin Landing Ship Docks in Pensacola for Modifications (Source: Pensacola News Journal)
A cargo ship has arrived at a Florida port for modifications to support Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket. Stena Freighter, a 60,000-ton cargo ship 180 meters long, arrived last week at the port in Pensacola, Florida, where it will undergo modifications for "upwards of two years," according to an official with a company working on the project. The ship was purchased by Blue Origin and will be modified to serve as a landing ship for first stages of the New Glenn rocket Blue Origin is developing. (10/25)

New Fund Focuses on Space and Deep Sea Investing (Source: Bloomberg)
A new exchange traded fund (ETF) will allow investors to take stakes in space-related companies. State Street Corp. said its SPDR Kensho Final Frontiers ETF will invest in companies in both spaceflight and in deep sea exploration. Funds by two other firms are currently seeking permission from the Securities and Exchange Commission to offer "space-focused strategies." (10/25)

How Southern California’s Aerospace Industry Helped Revolutionize Surfing (Source: KCET)
Ask someone who’s never been to Southern California what the place is all about, and you’ll likely hear tales of Hollywood, palm trees, gangs, skateboarding and, yes, surfing. Pose that same question to residents of Palmdale, El Segundo or Downey, and you’ll get a decidedly different answer: aerospace. Southern California has been an aerospace hub since the 1920s, when more than two dozen aircraft firms, lured by soft weather, cheap land and loose capital, set up shop in the region.

The population of Los Angeles County more than doubled between 1920 and 1940, then doubled again between 1940 and 1960, and aerospace companies were a big part of that. Los Angeles had become a decentralized metropolis, a sublime sprawl that befuddled outsiders. Those aerospace companies were also a big part of the surfing boom.

To fully understand the impact aerospace had on surfing, you have to go back to 1928, to the Pacific Coast Surf Board Championship in Corona del Mar. This event is legendary among surf historians because it was there that renowned waterman Tom Blake won the paddling race by drilling hundreds of holes into his redwood board and covering them up with a thin veneer. Before then, surfboards had been solid wood and could weigh up to 200 pounds. Click here. (10/24)

SpaceX Official Says Company About to Launch a Falcon 9 for the Third Time (Source: Ars Technica)
SpaceX has re-used its Falcon 9 rocket 16 times, but the company has never flown a single first stage more than twice. However, in May of this year the company debuted a newer version of its Falcon 9 rocket, dubbed Block 5, that is specifically optimized for reusability across multiple flights. At present SpaceX intends to reuse a Falcon 9 rocket for the third time to launch a rideshare mission of dozens of small satellites for Spaceflight. This Spaceflight SSO-A mission currently has a launch date of November 19. (10/24)

NASA Fixed Hubble the Same Way You Fix Your Computer (Source: Popular Mechanics)
In early October, NASA announced there was a serious problem with the Hubble Telescope. One of the telescope’s gyroscopes had failed, leaving the satellite with only two working gyros for moving and stabilizing. On Monday, however, NASA announced it had fixed the problem, using space-based versions of the same strategies that you might use to fix your computer. A swift kick is all it took to get Hubble working again.

Hubble's troublesome gyroscopes are several small spinning cylinders that rotate and stabilize the telescope. Without them, Hubble and similar telescopes wouldn’t be able to control what they’re looking at. They’re essential for the telescope’s operations, but because they’re moving parts they have a pretty short lifetime. Malfunctioning gyroscopes will kill all of NASA’s space telescopes, given enough time. (10/23)

Space Commerce Growth Launches Industry Opportunities in Hunstville (Source: Rocket City Now)
Business in space may sound like a futuristic idea, but it's here and it's growing. Experts from around the country came to UAH Tuesday to discuss how the Rocket City is playing a role in bringing the moon, stars, and business together. It's an industry many didn't think had real job prospects before, but experts say space commercialization is growing and with that so are the opportunities. Click here. (10/24)