October 4, 2018

Shadowy Op-Ed Campaign is Now Smearing SpaceX in Space Cities (Source: Ars Technica)
In early August, half a dozen newspapers across the country—-several in key space markets-—began publishing an op-ed that criticized the process by which Boeing competitor SpaceX fuels its Falcon 9 rocket. The first op-ed appeared in a Memphis newspaper a week before the commercial crew announcement. In recent weeks, copies of the op-ed have also appeared in the Houston Chronicle, various Alabama newspapers, Albuquerque Journal, Florida Today, and The Washington Times.

All of these op-eds were bylined by "retired spacecraft operator" Richard Hagar, who worked for NASA during the Apollo program and now lives in Tennessee. (Based upon his limited social media postings, Hagar appears to be more interested in conservative politics than in space these days). The pieces argue that SpaceX's load-and-go fueling process—=in which the crew will board the Dragon spacecraft on top of the Falcon 9 rocket before it is fueled—ignores the lessons that Hagar's generation learned during Apollo.

We attempted to reach Hagar in September and learned that he did not actually submit many of these op-eds. At least four of the six we located were submitted by two people with gmail.com addresses. Their names were Josh Brevik and Casey Murray and they appear to be "associates" at a Washington, DC-based PR firm named Law Media Group. SourceWatch website calls LMG a "secretive" PR firm with a history of placing op-eds, and it seeks to mask the op-eds' financial sponsors. Boeing is one of LMG's clients. Click here. (10/4)

Blue Origin is Building a Second Facility on the Space Coast (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Blue Origin has entered into an agreement to build a new testing and refurbishment center on the Space Coast. According to Space Florida, the state’s spaceport authority, the company is moving ahead with a $60 million facility in Exploration Park, the state-run complex where Blue Origin has already built a more than $200 million rocket factory, set to open early next year.

The new testing and refurbishment complex will create about 50 jobs with estimated annual wages of $70,000, plus benefits, according to Space Florida’s board of director meeting agenda. The board approved Space Florida to enter into an agreement with Blue Origin regarding the facility last month. As part of the pact, the state will use tax dollars to reimburse Blue Origin up to $4 million in common infrastructure costs, such as roads and utilities.

Blue Origin’s investment in a second Space Coast facility is separate from its original commitment to the Cape, when it announced it would build a 750,000-square-foot factory and invest in Launch Complexes 36 and 11 at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. The company is building its New Glenn rocket on the Space Coast, with plans for a 2020 launch. (10/3)

Thanks to New Funding, Moon Express Plans to Add Dozens of New Jobs on the Space Coast (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Lunar lander company Moon Express has secured a major round of funding, and that means one thing for the Space Coast: New jobs. Moon Express, which plans to send spacecraft ultimately to mine the moon, scored $12.5 million in funding this week, thanks in part to an investment from Miami-based Minerva Capital Group. That will allow Moon Express to build out its facilities at launch complexes 17 and 18 at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport.

“We are beginning renovations to re-purpose these facilities into a commercial space complex supporting our lunar lander engineering, manufacturing and [testing],” wrote founder and CEO Bob Richards. Those renovations to the former United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket pads will likely create about 50 new jobs, increasing to about 100 or more “as we ramp up our lunar mission activities over the coming years,” Richards said.

Space Florida, the state’s spaceport authority, and the Florida Department of Transportation allotted about $2 million in incentives for Moon Express’ relocation to its 72-acre campus on the Space Coast from California and Alabama in 2016. (10/3)

Astronomers Find First Evidence of Possible Moon Outside Our Solar System (Source: NASA)
Using NASA’s Hubble and Kepler space telescopes, astronomers have uncovered tantalizing evidence of what could be the first discovery of a moon orbiting a planet outside our solar system. This moon candidate, which is 8,000 light-years from Earth in the Cygnus constellation, orbits a gas-giant planet that, in turn, orbits a star called Kepler-1625. Researchers caution that the moon hypothesis is tentative and must be confirmed by follow-up Hubble observations. (10/3)

Air Force Designates GO1 Hypersonic Flight Research Vehicle as X-60A (Source: Generation Orbit)
The Air Force has designated the GOLauncher1 (GO1) hypersonic flight research vehicle as X-60A. The vehicle is being developed by Generation Orbit Launch Services under contract to the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Aerospace Systems Directorate, High Speed Systems Division. It is an air-dropped liquid rocket, specifically designed for hypersonic flight research to mature technologies including scramjet propulsion, high temperature materials and autonomous control. (10/4)

Raytheon Converts Missile Production to Smallsat Production in Arizona (Source: Space News)
Raytheon has turned a missile production line into a smallsat assembly line. The company used its missile factory in Tucson, Arizona, to create a small satellite for DARPA called SeeMe that will launch on a Falcon 9 in November. The company notes that both missiles and satellites require small electronics and related components, and hopes the launch of SeeMe will open up opportunities for similar satellites that could be built there.  (10/4)

NASA to Support Israeli Lunar Mission (Source: JTA)
NASA has signed an agreement with the Israel Space Agency to support an upcoming commercial lunar lander mission. Under the agreement, announced Wednesday at IAC, NASA will provide a laser retroreflector to be installed on the SpaceIL lunar lander to aid in tracking. Israel will in turn share data from the lander with NASA. That lander, originally developed for the former Google Lunar X Prize mission, is scheduled to launch late this year and land on the moon in February. (10/4)

Canadian Space Agency Opens Door for Canadian Support to Moon Express (Source: CSA)
The Canadian Space Agency has signed an agreement with another company developing lunar landers, Moon Express. The agreement will enable Canadian companies and researchers to provide expertise to the U.S.-based company. CSA plans to include Moon Express in its upcoming Fall Industry Days event, where the agency promotes Canadian space industry capabilities. (10/4)

Blue Origin Designing a Lunar Lander (Source: Reuters)
Jeff Bezos’ space company is in the conceptual design phase of a large lunar lander that it says will provide reusable access to the moon’s surface and its resources, Blue Origin said on Wednesday. The lander is part of Blue Origin’s broader mission of enabling a future in which millions of people live and work in space, the company said. "The next logical step in this path is a return to the Moon,” Blue Origin said in a statement. “To do this we need reusable access to the lunar surface and its resources.” (10/3)

Lockheed Martin Unveils Lunar Lander Concept (Source: Space News)
Lockheed Martin unveiled a concept Wednesday for a large reusable lander for carrying astronauts to the lunar surface. The proposed lander, discussed at the IAC Wednesday, is a single-stage vehicle capable of sending four astronauts and a metric ton of cargo to the surface of the moon for stays of up to one week. The lander would operate from the Gateway, and take advantage of orbital propellant depots that provide liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen propellants. The design is still in the "conceptual" phase, company officials said, and they're interested in pursuing it through future NASA programs. (10/4)

Russian Soyuz Capsule Returns Three from ISS (Source: NASA)
A Soyuz spacecraft carrying three International Space Station crewmembers successfully landed in Kazakhstan this morning. The Soyuz MS-08 spacecraft landed at 7:45 a.m. Eastern, nearly four hours after undocking from the station. The spacecraft returned to Earth NASA astronauts Drew Feustel and Ricky Arnold and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev after 197 days in space. A new Soyuz spacecraft carrying NASA's Nick Hague and Roscosmos' Alexey Ovchinin is scheduled to launch to the station Oct. 11. (10/4)

Russia Says Soyuz Leak Hole was Deliberate -- NASA Relieved (Source: Space News)
NASA issued a statement Wednesday in an effort to play down any controversy regarding the investigation into the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft leak. The statement was prompted by Russian media reports quoting Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin, who said that the hole was not a manufacturing defect and was made deliberately. NASA noted in its statement that the fact that it is not a manufacturing defect is reassuring, since other spacecraft are unlikely to be affected, and that it doesn't necessarily mean the hole was made "with mal-intent." (10/4)

SpaceX Warns of Potential Commercial Crew Slip Into 2019 (Source: Space News)
A SpaceX executive said Wednesday the company's first commercial crew test flight might not take place before the end of this year. Company vice president Hans Koenigsmann, speaking at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) Wednesday, said launching the uncrewed test flight this year will be a "close call" primarily because of certification paperwork. NASA announced in August that it expected to carry out that flight in November, but company CEO Elon Musk said in passing last month it was scheduled for December. (10/4)