October 26, 2018

SpaceX Project Making Progress at Boca Chica Beach Site (Source: KRGV)
The SpaceX project is making progress on Boca Chica Beach. Some nearby residents say project isn’t moving fast enough but SpaceX says it’s moving at a faster rate than scheduled. KRGV’s Daisy Martinez reached out to the company about the progress being made. SpaceX spokesman Sean Pitt released this statement: "The ongoing construction of our launch pad in South Texas is proceeding well. SpaceX has now received the final major ground system tank needed to support initial test flights of the Big Falcon Spaceship."

More than 300,000 cubic yards of new, locally-sourced soil was hauled in to pack the dirt mound at the site. Company officials explain soil charging is a process that can take months or years. Click here. (10/25)

SpaceX Lines Up Another Launch of its Powerful Falcon Heavy Rocket From the Space Coast (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
SpaceX has lined up another launch of its mighty Falcon Heavy rocket from the Space Coast. In what is now the sixth planned launch for the powerful rocket, SpaceX is planning to send a Viasat satellite into orbit between 2020 and 2022 from the Launch Complex 39A at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. Falcon Heavy has only launched once before, in a demo flight that sent a Tesla Roadster into space in February from Kennedy Space Center. The rocket is the most powerful U.S. rocket since the Saturn V, which took men to the moon. It can lift up to 141,000 pounds into low-Earth orbit. (10/25)

Pakistan Decides to Send Astronauts into Space with Chinese Help (Source: Ary News)
Pakistan has decided in principle to send its astronauts on a space mission with assistance of China, ARY News reported. The decision to this regard will be taken during the Federal Cabinet meeting today with Prime Minister Imran Khan in the chair. The Cabinet will also ratify the space mission proposal soon after discussion on the matter. The meeting will also approve agreement between Pakistan and China on joint anti-narcotics task force. In December last year, Air Chief Marshal Sohail Aman had announced that Pakistan will be able to send astronauts into space with the collaboration of China in the next two years. (10/25)

Schedule Pressure Helped Rocket Lab Choose Virginia Spaceport (Source: SPACErePORT)
Rocket Lab's decision to establish Virginia as its first U.S. launch site was a disappointment to Florida officials at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. They say Virginia had been further along than Florida in environmental permitting work for the types of facilities Rocket Lab would require. This gave Virginia a schedule advantage, allowing Rocket Lab to commit to a near-term launch date that Florida could not provide. This was for a particular customer requiring access to space by a certain date. Florida officials are optimistic that some Rocket Lab customers will have payloads that cannot be served by Virginia's more-limited options for orbital inclinations, which could lead to an eventual Rocket Lab site at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. (10/26)

The New Space Age Includes Canada Being an Emerging Launching State (Source: SpaceQ)
During the Fireside Chat with the CBC’s Bob McDonald and the U.S. State Department’s Kenneth Hodgkins, one of the surprising topics discussed was that of Canada becoming an emerging launching state. It was billed as a Fireside Chat with the CBC’s Bob McDonald interviewing Kenneth Hodgkins, the Director for the Office of space and Advanced Technology of the U.S. Department of State. The theme, The New Space Age. For Hodgkins this meant talking about the commercialization of space, and in particular the White House’s move to make space more commercial.

The discussion surprisingly started with the topic of emerging launching states. Hodgkins said he had been in Canada in September to talk to the four emerging “launching states”, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia. I can tell you there were surprised glances in the audience to learn that Canada was an emerging launching state, and I’m sure that included some people at ISED. He also said 2-3 American companies were wanting to use a spaceport in Nova Scotia. This might include Rocket Labs and Vector Space Systems. (10/25)

UAE's KhalifaSat Ready for Japanese Launch (Source: The National)
An Emirati satellite is ready for launch this weekend on a Japanese rocket. The KhalifaSat spacecraft is a secondary payload on the H-2A launch of Japan's GOSAT-2 Earth science satellite, scheduled for launch late Sunday night. The 330-kilogram KhalifaSat is the most advanced satellite built to date in the United Arab Emirates and will provide high-resolution imagery. (10/26)

Cygnus to Honor John Young (Source: Collect Space)
Northrop Grumman has named the next Cygnus spacecraft after legendary astronaut John Young. The spacecraft, scheduled for launch no earlier than mid-November on an Antares rocket from Virginia, will carry nearly three and a half tons to cargo to the space station on a mission formally designated NG-10. The company announced this week it named the spacecraft S.S. John Young after the astronaut who flew six space missions, including the first Gemini flight and the first shuttle mission, and walked on the moon on Apollo 16. (10/26)

Russian Air-Launch Missile Thought to be Satellite Killer (Source: CNBC)
A missile spotted underneath a Russian fighter jet is thought to be a prototype of an anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon. The missile was seen for the first time last month mounted underneath a MiG-31 jet, and analysts think it is a mockup of an ASAT under development by Russia's military. That ASAT, designed to intercept satellites in low Earth orbit, could be ready to enter service in 2022. (10/26)

SpaceX Seeks Financing for Something Big (Source: Bloomberg)
SpaceX is reportedly seeking a $500 million loan to potentially support future projects. The company is working with Goldman Sachs to secure the financing on the leveraged loan market, taking advantage of a "borrower's market" because of an increased pool of money available there. Neither SpaceX nor Goldman Sachs would comment on the report. Plans for the funding are unclear, but SpaceX is working on projects like its Starlink constellation and Big Falcon Rocket that will ultimately require billions of dollars of capital to develop. (10/26)

Kepler Enters Safe Mode as Fuel Runs Dry (Source: Space News)
NASA's Kepler spacecraft is back into safe mode as it exhausts its remaining fuel. NASA said this week that controllers found that the spacecraft had entered a "no-fuel-use sleep mode" just days after beginning a new observation campaign. Kepler's two previous observing campaigns were interrupted by spacecraft problems linked to the low levels of hydrazine remaining for use by the spacecraft's thrusters. NASA had expected Kepler to end its mission soon, once it uses up the last of its fuel. (10/26)

European Players Seek Buy-European Policy for Rocket Launches (Source: AP)
Several major European nations are backing a policy of using only European rockets for their missions. Ministers from Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Switzerland said Thursday that they fully supported development of the Ariane 6 and Vega-C rockets and believed they should be used for all European institutional missions. Some European countries have purchased launches from operators outside Europe, like SpaceX, for their missions. (10/26)

Persistent Martian Cloud Raises Speculation of Volcano Activity (Source: Space.com)
Scientists are monitoring an unusual cloud visible in the Martian atmosphere. The "plume-like" cloud was first seen by ESA's Mars Express spacecraft more than a month ago near the planet's equator. The cloud has persisted in the same location, near the volcano Arsia Mons, although scientists said the cloud is not linked to any volcanic activity. Instead, they believe the cloud is created by air flowing around the volcano. (10/26)

Europe, Japan Plan 2021 Reusable Launcher Demo (Source: Aviation Week)
French space agency CNES has released details on the reusable launcher demonstrator it plans to test from 2021 in Kourou, French Guiana, with its German (DLR) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) counterparts. The Cooperative Action Leading to Launcher Innovation in Stage Tossback Operations, or Callisto, program includes five flights. (“Toss back” refers to using the main engines for landing) The last one will involve landing on a barge located in the Atlantic Ocean, 20 km from the launch pad.

The three agencies will use CNES’ Guiana space center (CSG). There, the Diamant site originally used for France’s first satellite launcher has suitable infrastructures, says Jean-Marc Astorg, CNES’ head of launchers. The barge, to be rented or purchased, either will be floating or attached to the seabed (waters are shallow in the area). It will be equipped to automatically depressurize Callisto’s propellant tanks, as well as empty the hydrogen peroxide tank. A system will stabilize it against the swell. The launcher will be 12 m (39 ft.) high and 1 m in diameter. Its dry weight will stand at 1,300 kg (2,860 lb.), says Astorg. The throttleable engine, designed by MHI and JAXA, will provide up to 40 kN (9,000 lbf) of thrust. (10/26)