December 17, 2018

1000+ Space Coast Workers to Lose Jobs by 2019 - But There's an Upside (Source: Orlando Business Journal)
AECOM plans to cut 629 jobs at Kennedy Space Center by the end of January, but there's a good chance all those workers won't have to leave Florida's Space Coast. The layoffs were due to AECOM's 10-year, $1.4 billion contract ending on Jan. 31 at the spaceport. Meanwhile, AECOM subcontractor Yang Enterprises is letting go of 141 workers. In all, six companies have announced a combined 1,091 layoffs so far this year on the Space Coast.

Many of the workers from AECOM and its subcontractors may be picked up by PAE-SGT, the partnership that won NASA's $608.7 million institutional services contract at the spaceport. However, since the new contractor may have bid a lower price to win the work, they may pay the workers a lower wage. Keeping a qualified workforce in the area is key for Space Coast businesses. Those affected workers, including engineers, IT experts and more, are part of a shared talent pool for other local businesses. This areas workforce is a big reason that Central Florida is seen as a top market for aerospace activity. (12/14)

Scientists Spot Solar System’s Farthest Known Object (Source: AP)
Astronomers have spotted the farthest known object in our solar system — and they’ve nicknamed the pink cosmic body “Farout.” The International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center announced the discovery Monday. “Farout” (pronounced far-out) is about 120 astronomical units away — that’s 120 times the distance between Earth and the sun, or 11 billion miles. The previous record-holder was the dwarf planet Eris at 96 astronomical units.

The Carnegie Institution’s Scott Sheppard says the object is so far away and moving so slowly it will take a few years to determine its orbit. At that distance, it could take more than 1,000 years to orbit the sun. The astronomers spied the dwarf planet in November using a telescope in Hawaii. It’s an estimated 500 kilometers (310 miles) across. (12/17)

Falcon Heavy Customer Ovzon Orders GEO Satellite from SSL (Source: Space News)
Swedish startup Ovzon, which in October bought a Falcon Heavy launch from SpaceX, has now purchased a satellite for that mission from Maxar Technologies’ Space Systems Loral division. The manufacturing contract, announced Dec. 17, is for a geostationary communications satellite designed for mobile broadband services. In a press release, Ovzon said the satellite is expected to be complete in 2021, and that the date of the Falcon Heavy launch, originally set for no earlier than the fourth quarter of 2020, has “been adjusted accordingly.” (12/17)

Scaled Back OneWeb Constellation Not to Affect Number of Soyuz Boosters (Source: Space Daily)
The decision of UK OneWeb company to scale back the constellation of its communications satellites will not affect the number of Russia's Soyuz carrier rockets contracted by the company for the launches. According to a source, each carrier rocket was expected to bring to the orbit from 32 to 36 satellites at a time, and engineers have developed a special adapter where the satellites will be fixed. However, the adapter can be reassembled, meaning that the number of satellites carried by each rocket can be changed. (12/17)

US Air Force Releases RFI for SRP-O ASLON-45 Small Launch Effort (Source: Jane's Defence Weekly)
The US Air Force seeks industry feedback on draft mission requirements for a small launch effort called Small Rocket Program-Orbital (SRP-O) Agile Small Launch Operational Normalizer (ASLON)-45. One goal of ASLON-45 is to launch an orbital demonstration mission delivering a 39 kg spacecraft to a 550 km orbit, according to a 14 December request for information (RFI) posted on Federal Business Opportunities (FBO). The launch will be conducted from an east coast site.

The ASLON-45 space vehicle (SV) manifest will consist of multiple 3U and larger Pentagon CubeSats to low Earth orbit (LEO) at a 45° inclination. This mission requires a dedicated launch solution, and a rideshare proposal is not acceptable due to customer requirements. (12/14)

What Chance Has NASA of Finding Life on Mars? (Source: BBC)
It could be easier to detect the signs of ancient life on Mars than it is on Earth, say scientists connected with Nasa's next rover mission. The six-wheeled robot is due to touch down on the Red Planet in 2021 with the specific aim of trying to identify evidence of past biology. It will be searching for clues in rocks that are perhaps 3.9 billion years old.

Confirming life on Earth at that age is tough enough, but Mars may have better preservation, say the researchers. It comes down to the dynamic processes on our home world that constantly churn and recycle rocks - processes that can erase life's traces but which shut down on the Red Planet early in its history. "Most of Earth's rock record has been destroyed by subduction under the ocean crust. But even the rock left at the surface is heated and squeezed in ways it might not have been on Mars." (12/14)

NASA's IceSat Space Laser Makes Height Maps of Earth (Source: BBC)
One of the most powerful Earth observation tools ever put in orbit is now gathering data about the planet. IceSat-2 was launched just under three months ago to measure the shape of the ice sheets to a precision of 2cm. But the NASA spacecraft's laser instrument is also now returning a whole raft of other information. It is mapping the height of the land, of rivers, lakes, forests; and in a remarkable demonstration of capability --even the depth of the seafloor. "We can see down to 30m in really clear waters," said Lori Magruder, the science team leader on the IceSat mission. "We saw one IceSat track just recently that covers 300km in the Caribbean and you see the ocean floor the entire way." (12/11)

US Mint Reveals Coin Honoring American Indians in Space Program (Source: CollectSpace)
The United States Mint has revealed the design for its 2019 coin celebrating the roles of Native Americans in space exploration. The "American Indians in the Space Program" 2019 Native American $1 coin, to be released on Feb. 13, highlights individuals and achievements spanning the decades between NASA's Gemini program and the International Space Station.

"Native Americans have been on the modern frontier of space flight since the beginning of NASA," described the U.S. Mint on its website. The 2019 Native American dollar, which is the 11th release in an annual series that began in 2009, retains the "Sacagawea" heads-side (or obverse) design — depicting the Shoshone interpreter who assisted the Lewis and Clark Expedition — first introduced by the Mint in 2000. (12/17)

Super-Fast 3-Hour Manned Flights to ISS to Begin in 18 Months (Source: Sputnik)
Manned flights to the International Space Station (ISS) under an ultra-fast three-hour scheme involving circling the Earth twice, will begin in a year and a half, Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russian state space corporation Roscosmos, said. "We are planning to repeat the launch of the Progress cargo spacecraft in an ultra-short two-rotation scheme next March. The flight time is three hours. In a year and a half, we will deliver cosmonauts and space tourists to the ISS faster than a flight from Moscow to Brussels," Rogozin wrote. (12/17)

A Bright Green ‘Christmas Comet’ Will Fly the Closest to Earth in Centuries (Source: New York Times)
Look into the night sky on Sunday and you just might see a bright, fuzzy ball with a greenish-gray tint. That’s because a comet that orbits between Jupiter and the sun will make its closest approach to Earth in centuries, right on the heels of this year’s most stunning meteor shower. The comet glows green because the gases emit light in green wavelengths.

“The fuzziness is just because it’s a ball of gas basically,” Tony Farnham, a research scientist in the astronomy department at the University of Maryland, said on Saturday morning after a long night studying the comet at the Discovery Channel Telescope, about 40 miles southeast of Flagstaff, Ariz. “You’ve got a one-kilometer solid nucleus in the middle, and gas is going out hundreds of thousands of miles.” (12/15)

SLS RS-25 Engine Test Aborted After Engine Bursts Into Flame (Source: USA Really)
On 12 December, a test of NASA's RS-25 engine for the superheavy launch SLS designed for manned missions to Mars ended in failure: Approximately 35 seconds after switching on, the base of the engine burst into flame and was shut down. The engine was shaking violently shortly before the shutdown. The RS-25 engine test was being conducted on the A-1 Test Stand at Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, where the agency is testing engines to help power its new Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.

Typical tests run 8 minutes and 20 seconds, the amount of time the engine must fire to power the rocket from launch into space. Three RS-25 engines would have to fire for 10 minutes and 50 seconds to burn up propellant and power the rocket into orbit, if the fourth shut down early during an SLS launch. The longer time also allows operators to schedule and meet more performance objectives during a test. (12/14)

SLS Rocket Support Center Comes to Life (Source: NASA)
A historic facility at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, has been updated to support missions of the agency's Space Launch System, the world’s most powerful rocket. As an American rocket sends people to the Moon on bold new missions, the room once used to support missions for the Saturn V rocket and the space shuttle will begin operations with the first flight of SLS and Orion on Exploration Mission-1. Teams in the new SLS Engineering Support Center will provide critical support from the ground to monitor data and help solve challenges during the launch countdown and flight. (12/14)

SLS Tank Huntsville-Bound (Source: WDRB)
NASA is moving a massive liquid hydrogen tank to Huntsville for testing as part of its plans to eventually return to the moon. The 149-foot-long tank, which weighs more than 100,000 pounds and is the largest ever built here, is part of the Space Launch System. The tank moved Friday from NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans is a test model that won't actually be launched. It was moved out of the factory to the barge Pegasus. It will travel up river to the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, where it will undergo tests designed to mimic the conditions of traveling into space.The tank holds 537,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen that along with liquid oxygen will help propel the rocket and its cargo into space. (12/14)

UAE Hopes to Host Virgin Galactic Flights (Source: Khaleej Times)
The government of the United Arab Emirates hopes to soon host SpaceShipTwo flights. Mohammed Al Ahbabi, head of the UAE Space Agency, said the government was in "advanced talks" with Virgin Galactic about flying the suborbital vehicle from the country. Aabar Investments, based in the UAE, is a major shareholder in Virgin Galactic. (12/17)

Former Astronaut: Virgin Galactic Not Proper Spaceflight (Source: Australian Broadcasting Corp.)
In Australia, former astronaut Andy Thomas was critical of the Virgin Galactic venture, suggesting SpaceShipTwo was not a real space vehicle: "It's really just a high altitude aeroplane flight and a dangerous one at that." The government of the state of South Australia has expressed interest in hosting SpaceShipTwo flights, but Thomas said that company founder Richard Branson "would probably ask for huge tax incentives to do that." (12/17)

Iceye Gets Euros from Finland (Source: Space News)
Iceye, a company developing a constellation of radar satellites, has received 10 million euros from a Finnish agency. Business Finland, a Finnish trade and economic development agency, awarded the funding to Iceye last week to support the company's work on its satellite constellation. The company launched its second satellite earlier this month and plans to launch between five and eight satellites in 2019. Iceye has raised more than $65 million to date. (12/17)

Christmastime Govt. Shutdown Looming for NASA (Source: New York Times)
A partial government shutdown, including NASA, is looming at the end of this week. The continuing resolution funding government agencies that don't already have fiscal year 2019 appropriations bills enacted expires Friday night, and there's no clear plan for either passing the remaining spending bills or approving another stopgap funding bill because of a dispute between the White House and Democratic members of Congress on border wall funding. If a deal isn't reached, those parts of the government would shut down.

No immediate progress is expected on a deal since the House isn't scheduled to reconvene until late Wednesday. Another challenge for any deal is that a number of lame duck Republican House members have been skipping votes in their final weeks of office, raising questions about whether Republican leaders can muster enough votes to approve any deal. (12/17)

Transition Ongoing for Space Situational Awareness From USAF to Commerce (Source: Space News)
As the Commerce and Defense Departments discuss transition plans for space situational awareness services, the Air Force is proving orbital information on more objects. Satellite observers recently noticed that the Space Track service, operated by Strategic Command, now included the orbits of some U.S. military satellites previously excluded from the system. Strategic Command confirmed that they are now providing orbital data for those satellites "in order to enhance all nations ability to safely operate in space," according to a spokesman.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross met with Air Force officials in late November to discuss how to implement Space Policy Directive 3, which gives the Commerce Department responsibility for providing civil space situational awareness data. (12/17)

Rocket Lab Launches NASA Cubesats (Source: Space News)
Rocket Lab launched a group of cubesats Sunday on a mission for NASA. The Electron rocket lifted off from the company's New Zealand launch site at 1:33 a.m. Eastern Sunday, a launch delayed three days by weather. The rocket deployed 13 cubesats into a circular 500-kilometer polar orbit less than an hour later. Most of the satellites were provided by NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative, including satellites built by NASA centers, universities and a charter school. NASA purchased the launch through its Venture Class Launch Services program in 2015. The launch was the third this year for the Electron and the second in a little more than one month as Rocket Lab seeks to increase its launch rate in 2019. (12/15)

Air Force Wants More Data Before Committing to Re-Flown SpaceX Boosters (Source: Space News)
The Air Force says its needs more time before it's willing to launch payloads on previously flown Falcon 9 rockets. The Falcon 9 that will launch the first GPS 3 satellite Tuesday is a new rocket, and SpaceX will not attempt to land the first stage in order to meet the Air Force's "mission performance requirements," an Air Force official said.

The Air Force wants to analyze data from this upcoming launch before allowing SpaceX to reserve performance on future missions to land the booster, or to allow a previously flown booster to launch an Air Force satellite. The Air Force added that it did not have concerns about the safety processes at SpaceX in light of plans by NASA to review the safety cultures at SpaceX and the other commercial crew company, Boeing. (12/17)

Two Contract Employees Die in Antarctica (Source: NSF)
Two fire technicians at the National Science Foundation's McMurdo Station in Antarctica have been pronounced dead following an incident at a generator building that powers a radio transmitter near the station. The incident, which still is under investigation, occurred on Dec. 12 local time (McMurdo Station keeps New Zealand time). The workers were performing preventative maintenance on the building's fire suppression system. They were found unconscious on the building's floor by a helicopter pilot.

The pilot was on the ground and the helicopter was shut down, waiting for technicians to complete their work. When they did not return to the helicopter at the agreed-upon time, the pilot hiked up to the hut to check on them. They were removed from the building and CPR was administered. One person was pronounced dead at the scene by medical personnel who arrived from the McMurdo clinic. The other was flown to the McMurdo clinic and pronounced dead there a short time later. The workers were employed by PAE, a Virginia-based subcontractor to Leidos, the Colorado-based logistics contractor to the NSF-managed U.S. Antarctic Program. (12/12)

Photos from Japan Space Rovers Show Rocky Asteroid Surface (Source: CTV)
Japan's space agency says more than 200 photos taken by two small rovers on an asteroid show no signs of a smooth area for the planned touchdown of a spacecraft early next year. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said Thursday the two solar-powered rovers have become inactive and are probably in the shade, but are still responding to signals after three months, exceeding their projected life of several days.

The Minerva II-1 rovers, which resemble circular cookie tins, were dropped by the unmanned Hayabusa2 spacecraft onto asteroid Ryugu, about 280 million kilometers from Earth, in September to collect data and surface information. Many of the photos show a rocky surface on the asteroid, presenting challenges for Hayabusa2's planned touchdown, which has already been postponed from late October after initial images showed the surface was rockier than expected. (12/13)