October 27, 2018

NASA Audit Urges Wiser Use Of Renovated Facilities (Source: Aviation Week)
NASA could make better use of funds invested in the renovation of its historic facilities by ensuring revenues generated from future tenants are directed toward the agency’s mission objectives, according to NASA’s inspector general. (10/22)

NASA Seeks Input On Lunar Gateway Resupply (Source: Aviation Week)
NASA is soliciting input from U.S. companies on requirements for commercially re-supplying the human-tended, lunar-orbiting Gateway it plans to begin assembling in 2022 as a waypoint for human and robotic excursions to the surface of the Moon and eventually to Mars. (10/24)

Who Will Get to Mars First? Oddsmakers Favor SpaceX and Blue Origin Over NASA (Source: GeekWire)
If sending humans to Mars is a race, which team is favored to win? Bookies give the nod to Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin venture, but it’ll be years before any bet pays off. David Strauss, an analyst and oddsmaker at MyBookie, says NASA is the underdog and Musk is the favorite.

“Bezos may have the discipline, but Musk has the infrastructure and just the right amount of craziness to make a successful mission happen,” he said today in a news release. “The days of government organizations staging trips to another planet are behind us. I would be surprised if NASA truly makes it back to the moon.”

MyBookie’s betting line gives SpaceX a 75 percent chance of sending humans to Mars first. Technically speaking, the odds are -300, which means bettors would have to lay down $300 to get their money back with an additional $100 if the bet pays off. Blue Origin is the runner-up with a 20 percent chance: The stated odds are +400, which means a $100 bet will pay your money back plus another $400 if the proposition comes true. (10/26)

SpaceX Nears Big US Govt. Missions as ULA Handwaves About Risks of Competition (Source: Teslarati)
ULA COO John Elbon expressed worries that the US National Security Space (NSS) apparatus could be put at significant risk if it comes to rely too heavily on the commercial launch industry to assure access to space. Given that the US military’s launch capabilities rest solely on SpaceX and ULA and will remain that way for at least three more years, Elbon’s comment was effectively an odd barb tossed in the direction of SpaceX and – to a lesser extent – Blue Origin, two disruptive and commercially-oriented launch providers. Click here. (10/25) 

SpaceX’s Six-Hour Coast Boosted Falcon Heavy's Popularity (Source: Ars Technica)
When the Falcon Heavy rocket launched for the first time in February, some critics of the company wondered what exactly the rocket's purpose was. After all, the company's Falcon 9 rocket had become powerful enough that it could satisfy the needs of most commercial customers. One such critic even told me, "The Falcon Heavy is just a vanity project for Elon Musk." However, since that time SpaceX has seen the rocket certified for national security missions by the US military and has signed several additional launch contracts.

On the day before launch, SpaceX founder Elon Musk explained that the rocket would demonstrate the capability to send payloads directly to geostationary orbit by firing its second stage after a prolonged shutdown during which the rocket would coast. “The six-hour coast is needed for a lot of the big Air Force intel missions for direct injections to GEO,” Musk said. This six-hour period was about twice as long as the longest coasts the Falcon 9 rocket had made.

This turns out to have been a shrewd move. The demonstration flight of the Falcon Heavy apparently convinced not only the military of the rocket's direct-to-geo capability but satellite fleet operators as well. The Falcon Heavy rocket now seems nicely positioned to offer satellite companies relatively low-cost access to orbits they desire, with a minimum of time spent getting there in space. (10/25)

Funding Cuts Threaten Future Virginia NASA Missions (Source: Daily Press)
A fully funded NASA is vital to keeping Virginia at the leading edge of space research and exploration
In a few short weeks, a rocket carrying close to 8,000 pounds of needed supplies will blast off from Virginia soil, en route to the International Space Station. The launches that take place at NASA Wallops Flight Facility are perhaps the most captivating symbol of the work done within the commonwealth to reach beyond the limits of Earth’s atmosphere.

Pair those rocket launches with the day-to-day work performed at NASA Langley Research Center, and you get a better understanding of Virginia’s role in our nation’s push into space. Perhaps the largest threat to the work taking place at NASA is the tightening purse strings being pulled by the White House.

President Donald Trump has asked Cabinet agencies to cut 5 percent from their proposed budgets next year. For NASA, that would mean losing almost $1 billion in fiscal 2020 out of the estimated $19.6 billion it plans to seek for the next fiscal year. That’s troubling for both Virginia and the country as a whole. (10/25)

NASA Announces Free JSC Open House to Celebrate 60th Anniversary (Source: Click 2 Houston)
On Saturday, Oct. 27, NASA’s Johnson Space Center will open its doors to celebrate NASA’s 60th anniversary and the International Space Station’s 20th anniversary. You get a behind-the-scenes look at some of what NASA has already accomplished. You will also get a look at what the space agency is doing to get ready to return to the moon and go on to Mars. (10/24)

Space Community Comes Together in Huntsville for the Future of Space Exploration (Source: WHNT)
We are in a new age of space exploration. Whether it is a mission back to the Moon, or to Mars, or into deep space, the only way to get there is through collaboration. The Wernher von Braun Memorial Symposium is designed to create just that. "Government, commercial, academia, and the broader public, to talk about space flight, exploration," said Jim Way, the American Astronautical Society Executive Director. "To talk about where we are now, where we want to go next, and how we're gonna get there." (10/24)

NASA's Chandra Space Telescope Is Back in Action After Gyroscope Fix (Source: Space.com)
NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has bounced back from the glitch that knocked it offline two weeks ago. That glitch was caused by an orientation-maintaining gyroscope, whose misbehavior caused the venerable space telescope to go into a protective "safe mode" on Oct. 10. But mission team members were able to establish a new gyroscope configuration, and Chandra resumed science operations on Sunday evening (Oct. 21), NASA officials said. (10/24)

How to Observe Judaism in Outer Space? (Source: Chabad)
Space travel presents its own unique challenges to the Jewish astronaut: How can one procure kosher space food, as well as all the other necessities of Jewish life? How does one face Jerusalem when praying in orbit? However, the greatest challenge of all is determining the Jewish date and time. This is crucial since many mitzvahs are performed on a specific day of the week or year (e.g., Shabbat and holidays). There are also mitzvahs that can only be done during specific times of the day (the daily prayers,tefillin, etc.).

So what is a Jew to do in outer space, where there is no sunrise and sunset? Some have suggested that if a space vessel is orbiting the earth, its passengers should count each “observable” sunrise as a new day. The problem is that each orbit is about 90 minutes long, so that makes for 16 days in the span of only 24 hours. Due to its impracticality (imagine putting on and taking off tefillin and praying the three daily prayers every 90 minutes, and celebrating Shabbat twice in 24 hours!) and other reasons, this view has been mostly rejected. (10/24)

ULA Awarded Delta IV Heavy Hardware Contract for NRO (Source: ULA)
“We are honored the NRO selected ULA’s Delta IV Heavy rocket for this important national security mission. ULA remains the only launch vehicle provider capable of launching to all the current reference missions to meet the needs of the national security market. We look forward to continuing to provide reliable, on-time launch services as we transform our company to make access to space more affordable,” said Tory Bruno, ULA president and CEO. (10/24)

How to Build a Moon Base (Source: Nature)
Next year, astronaut Matthias Maurer expects to walk on the surface of the Moon — but without the hassles of a rocket flight, zero-gravity nausea and a risky landing. Instead he’ll stroll close to home in a leafy meadow near Cologne, Germany, which is set to host the largest Moon mock-up ever made. On a pit of artificial lunar dust covering more than 1,000 square meters, Maurer and other scientists will be attached to crane-and-pulley systems that allow them to leap as if experiencing the Moon’s weaker gravity, and work under adjustable lamps that simulate lighting at different lunar sites.

It’s an exciting playground for testing lunar technology, says Maurer, who is a project manager for the multimillion-euro facility. Called LUNA, the mock-up is taking shape outside the European Astronaut Center in Cologne, with funding from the European Space Agency (ESA) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR). But at 48 years old, Maurer doesn’t know whether he will ever put his skills to use on the genuine article. “Hopefully I will make it before retirement. Technically, I believe it’s feasible that I will still walk on the Moon,” he says. Click here. (10/24)

Comets and Asteroids May Be Spreading Life Across the Galaxy (Source: NBC)
Are we truly earthlings? Is terra firma unequivocally the birthplace of humanity? Maybe not. A new paper by a trio of Harvard University researchers argues that we all might be immigrants from deep space, brought to Earth via a mechanism called panspermia. While the conventional wisdom from biologists has long been that life on Earth began on Earth, science fiction isn’t so fuddy-duddy.

“Prometheus,” Ridley Scott’s 2012 prequel to the blockbuster “Alien” franchise, is one of many films positing that our planet was seeded by extraterrestrial life. In the movies, aliens use some sort of engineered transportation system to get here — rockets or wormholes, for example. Panspermia makes no such technical demands. Here’s the basic idea: A meteor slams into a planet where life exists, and the collision lofts into space a microbe-containing dirt clod. The clod eventually slams into another world and infects it with life.

Many space scientists think panspermia could work within a solar system. For example, it’s possible that life arose on Mars more than 4 billion years ago and — thanks to panspermia — sent microbial emissaries to Earth, where they evolved into the flora and fauna you enjoy today. Oumuamua changed things. When this cosmic visitor (scientists aren’t sure if the 700-foot-long object is a comet or an asteroid) sailed through our solar system last year, the Harvard scientists realized that large objects might be able to seed life over light-years of distance — even across the galaxy. (3/20)

Chinese Commercial Provider LandSpace Launches Weilai-1 on a Zhuque-1 Rockets – Fails to Make Orbit (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
Chinese private company LandSpace launched the solid-fuelled Zhuque-1 orbital launch vehicle on its maiden flight with the small Weilai-1 satellite on October 27, 2018. Launch took place at 08:00 UTC from a mobile platform located on the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. However, the launch failed to deploy the spacecraft in the correct orbit.

This was the first time that a private Chinese company had attempted to orbit a satellite, which is aimed at opening another door on the future of China in space. It comes during a year where China is aiming to break records, with the latest launch making it 30 for the year so far, with more launches yet to come. Weilai-1 launch was originally scheduled to take place from the Wenchang Space Launch Center but was deferred to Jiuquan due to the bad weather conditions expected for the launch day time frame. (10/27)

China Set for Busy Finish to Record-Breaking Year for Space Launches (Source: GB Times)
China's space programme has accelerated in 2018, having in August already smashed its record for missions in a calendar year. Yet there are no signs of a slowdown, with a range of government and commercial launches and a lunar exploration mission scheduled before the close of 2018.

The main contractor for the Chinese space programme, CASC, stated at the start of the year that it was targeting around 35 launches—well above the national record of 22 launches set in 2016—with private companies possibly swelling numbers to close to 40 orbital missions.

Achieving this could put China top of the pile in terms of global launches, above the United States and Russia, for the first time, though still far from troubling the launch rates of the Americans and Soviets during the Cold War. China had aimed for around 30 launches in 2017, but ended launching just 18 after a partial failure of a Long March 3B was followed by the failure of the Long March 5 to reach orbit in July, halting launches and delaying Chinese Space Station and lunar sample return plans. (10/26)

Texas-Based Companies Take Center Stage At NASA Event (Source: TPR)
Lazarus 3D, Analytical Space and One Milo were the top three winners of the NASA iTech Forum, a pitch competition designed to engage entrepreneurs in developing the next generation of space exploration technologies. Analytical Space is a satellite networking company, while One Milo is a compact medical testing company. The winners were announced Friday at the NASA iTech Forum in Hartford, Connecticut. Winners receive six months of additional mentorship from NASA to help bring their ideas to the market. (10/26)

Spaceport America Gets Lawyer, Responds to NMPolitics.net’s Lawsuit (Source: NMPolitics.net)
The N.M. Spaceport Authority has finally hired an attorney and responded to NMPolitics.net’s lawsuit alleging violations of the state’s Inspection of Public Records Act. Las Cruces attorney Blaine Mynatt entered his appearance in court as the state agency’s attorney on Oct. 18. That was two days after NMPolitics.net published a commentary in which I shared that our attorney had filed a motion asking a judge to rule in our favor because the Spaceport Authority had failed, for more than 60 days, to respond to our lawsuit despite being required to do so.

And on Oct. 19, the Spaceport Authority finally responded in court to our lawsuit, denying the allegations that it had improperly withheld documents in violation of state law. The dispute about what documents the public is entitled to see stems from records requests NMPolitics.net filed during our 2017 investigation of Spaceport America’s status. The Spaceport Authority redacted portions of lease agreements with four of the spaceport’s tenants in early 2017, blocking the disclosure of rent and fee information, among other things. (10/26)

NASA Boss Defends Alabama-Led Rocket (Source: AL.com)
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine defended the Space Launch System program in Alabama today after an audit that found the big new rocket program plagued by cost overruns and delays. “It’s without question we’re behind schedule and over cost,” Bridenstine told reporters after touring the United Launch Alliance rocket plant in Decatur. “It’s also without question that NASA has already put in place a lot of the things necessary to get us back on track.”

Bridenstine was asked about the audit released Oct. 10 by NASA’s Office of the Inspector General. The audit said the rocket being managed at Huntsville’s Marshall Space Flight Center will cost taxpayers $8.9 billion by the end of 2021 - double the amount originally planned. “I can’t emphasize enough that what NASA does are things that have never been done before…,” Bridenstine said. “It’s sometimes difficult to assess what the cost is going to be and how long it is going to take. And we have to invent things along the way.” (10/25)

Spaceflight Might Expand Your Mind, But It Shrinks Your Brain (Source: Space.com)
Going to space does more than change the way you look at the world — it also changes your brain. In a new small study, a team of researchers from Germany, Belgium and Russia detailed changes in the brains of 10 cosmonauts before and after long-term missions to space, finding "extensive" changes to the brain's white and gray matter. What these changes mean for the cosmonauts is still an open question.

"However, whether or not the extensive alterations shown in the gray and the white matter lead to any changes in cognition remains unclear at present," study co-author Dr. Peter zu Eulenburg, a neurologist and professor of neuroimaging at Ludwig-Maximilians-Univeristat München in Germany, said in a statement. What's more, the researchers found that the circulation of cerebrospinal fluid — the clear liquid that cushions the brain and spinal cord — remained altered long after spaceflight. (10/27)

Revised Remote Sensing Regulatory Rule Nears Release (Source: Space News)
The Commerce Department plans to soon release a new rule designed to streamline licensing of commercial remote sensing systems with what one official called a “fundamentally different” approach for licensing. During a presentation at the National Space Council meeting in Washington Oct. 23, Karen Dunn Kelley, the acting deputy secretary of commerce, said that the department submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a day earlier a draft rule on revising commercial remote sensing licensing processes.

That proposal “will revolutionize the way we regulate the use of cameras in space,” she said. “This will replace outdated regulation that are slowing down industry achievements.” That includes, she said, creating categories that “exempt certain pre-approved activities” from a lengthy license application and review process so that regulators can devote their time to “truly warranted national security” concerns with such systems. (10/26)

As If Space Elevators Aren't Cool Enough, They Might Fix Themselves, Too (Source: Space.com)
Space elevators to ferry passengers and cargo to and from orbit could be built using existing materials, if the technology takes inspiration from biology to fix itself when needed, a new study finds. In theory, a space elevator consists of a cable or bundle of cables that extend thousands of miles to a counterweight in space. The rotation of the Earth would keep the cable taut, and climber vehicles would zip up and down the cable at the speed of a train. (10/26)

Delving Deeper Into the KSC Processing Flow for SLS and Orion Ahead of EM-1 (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
The processing teams within NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) Program are focusing their plans for how they’ll put together the first integrated Orion and Space Launch System (SLS) vehicle to launch Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1). After the spacecraft and launch vehicle components have individually completed all of their first-time and acceptance testing, they will be transported to the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and turned over to EGS to be assembled, checked out together, and launched.

Each of the components have their own paths through ground processing at KSC before they all converge in the Vehicle Assembly Building at Launch Complex 39. EGS provided an overview of some of the preparations for stacking, how the pieces fit together, and all extra testing they’ll do before they get to the countdown for their first launch. Click here. (10/26)

NASA Renews Satellite Services Contract with Alaska University (Source: AKPM)
NASA has renewed a nearly $50 million contract with the University of Alaska Fairbanks for satellite services. A release from UAF says the $48.6 million dollar, five-year award is for operation of the Geophysical Institute Alaska Satellite Facility Synthetic Aperture Radar Data Center.

Synthetic aperture radar penetrate through clouds, and applications include seeing the effect of hurricane winds on the ocean to predict storm landfall, helping vessels navigate sea ice and surveying earthquake damage to facilitate emergency response. The Alaska Satellite facility employs 55 people involved in the 24-7 downlink, storage and processing of satellite data. (10/26)

Atlanta: A Launchpad for Dreams (Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
A young Eric Boe, not even 5 years old, was awestruck while watching grainy images of two American astronauts in bulky spacesuits bounce around on another celestial body. The footage was blurry. But no matter — it was captivating for Boe and millions of others gathering around their black-and-white televisions on July 20, 1969.

As the years went by in school, college and the Air Force, Boe’s affinity for and connection to space strengthened. And then, in 2000, Boe was selected by NASA to be an astronaut. Since then, he has piloted two space shuttles. And now, Boe, 54, is one of the astronauts chosen to fly on commercial spacecraft and be among the first American astronauts to launch from U.S. soil since 2011. (10/26)

Cosmosphere’s Tomme Takes CEO Job in Ohio (Source: Hutchinson News)
Tracey Tomme, the number two executive at the Cosmosphere, will become president and chief executive officer of the Dayton Society of Natural History in Ohio. Tomme said she and husband Ed Tomme love Hutchinson - and “the Cosmosphere is very dear to me,” but this is a growth opportunity. Her background is in animal science, and she has interests in aviation and space exploration. The Dayton, Ohio, museum covers both those fields. “I just think it’s an excellent fit,” she said. (10/26)

Captive Carry Beckons After LauncherOne Mated To Virgin Orbit 747-400 (Source: Aviation Week)
Three years after refining its low-cost space launch system around a larger, more capable air-dropped rocket vehicle, Virgin Orbit is poised to begin captive carry tests of the LauncherOne on the company’s modified Boeing 747-400 carrier aircraft, “Cosmic Girl.” The 70-ft.-long, two-stage rocket was gently lifted into place and connected for the first time to the specially designed pylon under the 747’s left wing at the company’s Long Beach, California, site. Likely upcoming is a captive-carry test flight. (10/26)