November 21, 2018

SpaceX Finalizes $250M Loan (Source: Wall Street Journal)
SpaceX has raised $250 million in a new loan. The company completed the loan sale Tuesday after decreasing the size of the deal from $750 million. The decreased size of the deal was blamed on concerns potential investors had regarding SpaceX's business as well as worsening conditions on the credit market. However, Bank of America, which arranged the loan, reportedly received enough orders to be able to fund the loan at the original, larger amount, but SpaceX decided to go with the smaller amount in part to make it easier to revise the loan conditions in the future if the credit market improves. (11/20)

Vostochny Spaceport a Bonanza for Embezzlers (Source: Moscow Times)
Russian prosecutors said that companies embezzled more than $150 million during the construction of the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia's Far East. Prosecutors said Tuesday they found evidence for more than 17,000 violations of Russian law since construction of the $5 billion facility started in 2015. While that has resulted in a number of criminal cases against individuals and companies, the government has so far recouped only a small fraction of that money. (11/20)

NASA Scores Mad Hits on YouTube (Source: Florida Today)
Congratulations, NASA, you're the latest YouTube star. A promotional video released by the agency Friday about its human exploration plans has already racked up more than one million views on YouTube. The video offered an overview, but no new details, about its plans to return humans to the moon and then go on to Mars. "NASA released a hype video for their new projects? Faith in humanity restored," said one YouTube commenter. Click here. (11/20)

Vega Launches Moroccan Surveillance Satellite (Source: Space News)
A Vega rocket launched an Earth imaging satellite for the Moroccan government Tuesday night. The Vega lifted off from Kourou, French Guiana, at 8:42 p.m. Eastern and deployed the Mohammad 6-B satellite into a sun-synchronous orbit nearly an hour later. The 1,100-kilogram satellite, built by Airbus Defence and Space with an imaging payload provided by Thales Alenia Space, will join an existing satellite to provide land mapping, natural-disaster prevention and management, environmental monitoring and border surveillance for the government of Morocco. The launch was the 13th for the Vega, with the next flight of the small launch vehicle expected in early 2019. (11/20)

China's Landspace Raises $43M for Rocket Development (Source: GB Times)
Chinese company Landspace has raised $43 million for launch vehicle development. The company, which has raised $115 million to date, will use the funds from the "B+ round" to support development of its Zhuque-2 rocket, powered by new methane-liquid oxygen engines. The company plans to have that rocket, capable of placing up to 4,000 kilograms into orbit, ready by 2020. Landspace launched its first orbital rocket, the solid-fueled Zhuque-1, last month, but an upper stage malfunction prevented it from placing its payload into orbit. (11/20)

Maryland Senator Pushes for NASA Funding (Source: Space News)
One senator is seeking assurances from his colleagues about funding for two major NASA astrophysics missions. In a letter to the chairman and ranking member of the Senate appropriations subcommittee that funds NASA, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) asked them to raise the cost cap for the James Webb Space Telescope as they finalize a fiscal year 2019 spending bill. JWST will break that cost cap because of delays that pushed back its launch to 2021, although the additional funding for the program won't be needed until 2020. Van Hollen also recommended that Congress fund the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) mission at the level in the Senate's bill, $352 million, to keep it on track for a launch in 2025. A House version of the bill offers less than half that amount for WFIRST, while the administration proposed canceling the mission entirely. (11/20)

NASA Advisory Committee Recommends More Ways to Support Commercial Space (Source: Space News)
A new NASA advisory committee has offered the agency a number of recommendations to enhance space commercialization efforts. The Regulatory and Policy Committee of the NASA Advisory Council, meeting for the first time last week, approved a series of recommendations on issues from export control to advertising and endorsements. Those recommendations included several to support commercial use of the ISS, although contrary to some reports it did not recommend that NASA get into the space tourism business. The committee also took up the issue of planetary protection, recommending that NASA seek a balance between the requirements of science and of human exploration for worlds like Mars. (11/20)