December 12, 2018

Researchers Consider Whether Supernovae Killed Off Large Ocean Animals at Dawn of Pleistocene (Source: Phys.org)
About 2.6 million years ago, an oddly bright light arrived in the prehistoric sky and lingered there for weeks or months. It was a supernova some 150 light years away from Earth. Within a few hundred years, long after the strange light in the sky had dwindled, a tsunami of cosmic energy from that same shattering star explosion could have reached our planet and pummeled the atmosphere, touching off climate change and triggering mass extinctions of large ocean animals, including a shark species that was the size of a school bus.

The effects of such a supernova—and possibly more than one—on large ocean life are detailed in a paper just published in Astrobiology. "I've been doing research like this for about 15 years, and always in the past it's been based on what we know generally about the universe—that these supernovae should have affected Earth at some time or another," said lead author Adrian Melott. "This time, it's different. We have evidence of nearby events at a specific time. We know about how far away they were, so we can actually compute how that would have affected the Earth and compare it to what we know about what happened at that time—it's much more specific." (12/11)

Virgin Galactic on the Cusp of Human Spaceflight, But is it Really Spaceflight? (Source: Washington Post)
As soon as Thursday, Virgin Galactic plans to fire the rocket motor of its spacecraft and fly to an altitude of more than 50 miles. If it accomplishes that goal, it would proclaim it has reached the edge of space, and that its pilots are the first astronauts to launch from United States soil since the last space shuttle mission in 2011. But the test flight would also crystallize a long-simmering debate over where space begins.

The Air Force and Federal Aviation Administration have awarded astronaut wings for pilots who have made it to 50 miles or above. But to many, the edge of space begins not at 50 miles, but at 62 miles, or 100 km, at the so-called Karman line, named for Theodore von Karman, one of the founders of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The Karman line was the measuring stick in the $10 million Ansari X Prize competition in 2004. As a result, it widely became accepted as the boundary of space.

As Virgin Galactic prepares to eventually fly its first customers, the question remains: Where does space begin? Blue Origin also plans to fly its customers 62 miles or more. Alan Shepard, the first American to reach space, hit an altitude of 116 miles during his 15-minute suborbital flight in 1961. But 50 miles is the definition used by the Air Force, which in the 1960s awarded astronaut wings to the pilots in the X-15 program who flew the jet 50 miles or higher. Virgin would welcome that. If 50 miles was good enough for the Air Force, it is good enough for the company. (12/11)

Las Cruces News Editors to Branson: Get it Up or Shut Up! (Source: Parabolic Arc)
After more than a decade of listening to Richard Branson’s false promises about spaceflight, the editors of the Las Cruces Sun-News have a message for the aspiring space mogul: get it up, or shut up:  "We appreciate Branson’s positive outlook. But his overly optimistic predictions created heightened expectations that inevitably dissolved into disappointment and distrust when the predicted date would pass without the promised launches, and the economic development opportunities they were expected to bring to southern New Mexico."

"Now, he’s at it again. Branson told CNN last week that he is “'pretty confident that before Christmas, Virgin Galactic will be the first to have people, in the form of astronauts, in space.' By 'first,' he is apparently referring to efforts by SpaceX and Blue Origin, who are also preparing commercial space ventures. Frankly, we don’t care which billionaire launches first. And, we greet this Branson prediction as we have so many others, with a healthy dose of skepticism." (12/10)

How L3 Lost Its Magic (Source: Aviation Week)
L3 became synonymous with a new independent, merchant supplier model which consisted, in Lanza’s words, in “building and developing ‘boxes’ [or functional modules] as opposed to airplanes, tanks and ships” and offering them to multiple bidders on prime contract bids. Thus by 2008, L3 had grown from $800 million to $15 billion of revenues and from 8,000 to 65,000 employees. L3’s portfolio became the “Sears catalog” of the U.S. defense industry, with thousands of products on offer.

The model that worked so well for a while reached its limits. Once such a company reaches a certain size, the cost of complexity overrides whatever economies of scope it may achieve in theory. Instead of critical mass, it ends up with a critical mess, and the only way to make it work is to go after fewer but larger contracts, which means moving up the value chain, which in turn means losing what made it unique and valuable compared to the “gorillas” (as Lanza used to call the big players at the top of the pyramid). This is exactly what L3 did, and it was the beginning of the end. (12/11)

Aerospace Corp. to Lay Out Modernization Strategy for Military Space (Source: Space News)
Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan earlier this year asked the Aerospace Corporation to recommend a plan to “outpace the threat in space." After several months of studies and analysis, the company is preparing to host a series of meetings with space industry executives and government officials to discuss the “enterprise” approach to make space systems more resilient and take advantage of fast-moving commercial space innovation.

“Since I joined Aerospace more than two years ago we’ve seen a need for change,” Aerospace CEO Steve Isakowitz told SpaceNews. The Trump administration’s push to establish a Space Force has consumed much of the oxygen in the conversation about the military’s future in space. “We can support decision makers with ‘technical truths,'” he said, regardless if they are in the Air Force, the Space Force or the forthcoming Space Development Agency.

A central piece in the acquisition strategy is to ensure there’s warm production lines in the defense and space sectors so contractors can more quickly respond if there is a conflict where space systems might come under attack. Isakowitz said this idea of “continuous production agility” is a major departure from the way things are done in DoD today. Agile production methods are standard in the commercial space industry, “but the question is whether the government is capable of taking advantage of it." (12/11)

OSIRIS-REx Finds Water on Asteroid Bennu (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
In its first major scientific find, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has found water on asteroid Bennu.  The discovery was made via observations during OSIRIS-REx’s approach to the Near Earth Asteroid between mid-August and early-December 2018 and confirms previous thoughts that Bennu might be a place harboring water in the inner solar system. The discovery also holds significant potential in terms of the material from Bennu OSIRIS-REx hopes to return to Earth early next decade.  

The return of such water-bearing material could help solidify or distance scientists from a theory that asteroids seeded Earth billions of years ago with the water that now dominates our planet’s surface. During the 3.5 month approach phase of OSIRIS-REx to Bennu, mission scientists aimed three of the spacecraft’s instruments toward the asteroid and began making the mission’s first scientific observations.

Of those three instruments, two of OSIRIS-REx’s spectrometers, the OSIRIS-REx Visible and Infrared Spectrometer (OVIRS) and the OSIRIS-REx Thermal Emission Spectrometer (OTES), revealed the presence of molecules containing bonded oxygen and hydrogen atoms, known as hydroxyls – revealing a global distribution of water-bearing clay minerals on Bennu. (12/10)

Space Travel Does Not Damage a Major Part of the Human Immune System, New Study Says (Source: Independent)
Space flight does not have a detrimental effect on a major part of the human immune system, according to new research which may alter how astronauts approach future missions. Scientists tested blood samples taken from 23 crew members who spent six months at the International Space Station (ISS), taken before, during and after their trips.

Researchers examining the samples discovered that time in space caused no changes to levels of B-cell immunity – the white blood cells that produce antibodies to fight off infections. It had previously been thought that spending time in space negatively affected this. The new data could decide whether astronauts making longer trips into space, including those one day travelling to Mars,should receive vaccines while in flight. (12/10)

Nelson Pushes ISS Extension in Final Weeks of Service (Source: Space News)
In his final weeks in Congress, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) says he's still seeking to extend operations of the ISS. In a speech on the Senate floor Monday, Nelson said he's working with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to win passage of legislation containing language extending the authorization of the ISS through 2030. Cruz and Nelson introduced a bill this summer that included such a provision that is awaiting action by the full Senate. Nelson, who lost his bid for a fourth term last month, said his remarks would be his final Senate floor speech on space, and he used them to reflect on the accomplishments of NASA and the commercial space industry during his time in Congress. (12/11)

ArianeGroup's Sodern Ramps Up Commsat Production (Source: Space News)
Despite a downturn in demand for large communications satellites, one supplier is ramping up production. Sodern, a subsidiary of ArianeGroup that builds star trackers, plans to double its production rate from 60 units a year in 2018 to 120 units a year in 2020. The company said demand for its star trackers from developers of small satellites is more than compensating for decreased demand from manufacturers of large geostationary communications satellites. (12/11)

China Maneuvers Toward Lunar Farside (Source: GB Times)
China's Chang'e-4 spacecraft has performed a trajectory correction maneuver en route to the moon. The planned maneuver on Sunday kept the spacecraft on course to enter lunar orbit Wednesday, after another planned trajectory correction maneuver scheduled for today. The spacecraft is expected to attempt a landing on the far side of the moon near the south pole in early January. (12/11)

Voyager 2 Confirmed in Interstellar Space (Source: Space News)
Voyager 2 has joined its twin spacecraft in interstellar space. NASA announced Monday that the 41-year-old spacecraft passed the heliopause, the boundary between the bubble of space dominated by the solar wind and the surrounding interstellar medium, last month. Voyager 1, on a different trajectory out of the solar system, crossed the heliopause in 2012. Voyager's project manager said at a briefing Monday that the two spacecraft remain in good health but face dwindling power as their nuclear power sources decay. The spacecraft may be able to continue operating for as long as a decade. (12/11)

New Horizons Maneuvers Toward Ultima Thule (Source: Space.com)
The New Horizons spacecraft is zeroing in on the Kuiper Belt object it will fly by at the end of the month. The spacecraft corrected its trajectory last week to put it on course to fly within 3,500 kilometers of the object 2014 MU69, aka Ultima Thule, just after midnight Eastern time on New Year's Day. The object is clearly visible in images taken by the spacecraft. As the spacecraft approaches Ultima Thule, the project is offering people the opportunity to beam a message in the direction of the spacecraft on Jan. 1, after its closest approach to the object. (12/11)

Adelaide Picked to Host Aussie Space Agency (Source: AAP)
The Australian Space Agency will establish its headquarters in Adelaide. The agency said Tuesday that it selected the South Australia city because of its strong existing space industry, including a number of space startups. The headquarters is scheduled to be open there by mid-2019. The agency, which formally started operations in July, has a goal of tripling the size of the country's space industry by 2030. (11/12)

Cosmonauts Cut Away Insulation to Find Leak Spot on Soyuz (Source: CBS)
Russian cosmonauts identified the site of a leak on a Soyuz spacecraft during a long and, at times, dramatic spacewalk Tuesday. Oleg Kononenko and Sergey Prokopyev spent 7 hours and 45 minutes outside the station, spending the first few hours moving over to the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft. Cosmonauts then cut through the insulation surrounding part of the spacecraft's orbital module, including using a knife that scattered flakes of the material all around them.

They did find the site of the hole, which caused an air leak briefly in August until cosmonauts patched it with epoxy. The spacewalkers collected materials for analysis back on Earth before wrapping up the EVA. The Soyuz spacecraft will depart the station Dec. 20 to return three crew members to Earth, but the orbital module where the hole is located will be jettisoned before re-entry. (11/12)

Chinese Lander  Enters Lunar Orbit (Source: Space News)
China's Chang'e-4 spacecraft has entered lunar orbit. The China Lunar Exploration Project announced that the spacecraft performed an orbital insertion burn this morning, going into orbit around the moon at about 3:45 a.m. Eastern. Controllers will later adjust that orbit, an elliptical one with a low point about 100 kilometers above the surface, in the coming days, as well as test communications with the Queqiao satellite that serve as a relay when Chang'e-4 is on the far side of the moon. Chane'e-4 is expected to attempt a landing on the lunar farside, likely within the 186-kilometer-diameter Von Kármán crater, early next month. (11/12)

Scrubbed Delta 4 Mission Awaits New Launch Date (Source: Noozhawk)
A new date for a Delta 4 Heavy launch scrubbed over the weekend has yet to be announced. The launch, of a classified National Reconnaissance Satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base, was scrubbed Saturday night 7.5 seconds before liftoff because of an unspecified technical issue. The NRO said Tuesday that the launch team is still working "through the steps necessary to establish a new launch date" but did not mention how long that would take. A launch attempt this week is considered unlikely, though. (11/12)

Russia Willing to Work with China if NASA Collaboration Falters (Source: New York Times)
The head of Roscosmos says he's willing to work with China if existing cooperation with the United States can't be continued. In an interview, Dmitry Rogozin said he would like to continue working with NASA despite geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and Russia. He added, though, if that's not possible he would turn to China: "China is offering many initiatives for cooperation," he said, including a "joint station" of some kind. (12/11)

CASIS Pays Big Bucks For Leadership With No Space Experience (Source: NASA Watch)
CASIS, the non-profit created to run the ISS National Laboratory, has been on a hiring spree of late. Three high level executives have been hired at $300K+ annual salaries recently. Meanwhile, existing CASIS staff are not getting cost of living increases and having their vacation benefits cut. It would seem that no one is going to fix the big, lingering problems at CASIS.

Joseph Vockley was recently hired as the new Executive Director of CASIS. He has zero experience with space but he's pulling in a salary close to $400k a year. In addition to Vockley CASIS has hired CASIS Chief Strategy Officer, Richard Leach (an old buddy of Vockley's) and Vice President Christine Kretz. Neither of the positions filled by Leach or Kretz were advertised. Neither Kretz or Leach have any space experience. (12/11)