December 4, 2018

Astronomers Discover Over 100 New Exoplanets (Source: Gadgets 360)
An international team of astronomers have discovered more than 100 extrasolar planets (exoplanets) - that revolve around stars other than the Sun - in only three months, using a combination of ground- and space-based telescopes. These planets are quite diverse and expected to play a large role in developing the research field of exoplanets and life in the Universe.

The team involving researchers at the University of Tokyo and Astrobiology Center of the National Institutes of Natural Sciences investigated 227 exoplanet candidates based on data from second mission of NASA's Kepler Space Telescope (K2 mission), as well as using other space telescopes and ground-based telescopes. They confirmed that 104 of them are really exoplanets. Seven of the confirmed exoplanets have ultra-short orbital periods less than 24 hours. (12/4)

SpaceX Launches 64 Satellites on One Rocket From California (Source: Space News)
SpaceX successfully launched 64 satellites on a Falcon 9 Monday. The rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 1:34 p.m., a launch delayed two weeks by technical issues and poor weather. The 64 satellites on the rocket, from a variety of government and commercial customers, were released over the course of the next several hours. The launch was the first time a Falcon 9 first stage had performed three launches, and the stage made another successful landing on a droneship offshore. (12/4)

Falcon-9 Launch Delayed a Day Due to Spoiled Rat Food (Source: Space News)
A Falcon 9 ISS resupply mission was delayed a day because of an unusual problem: contaminated rodent food. NASA announced late Monday that the launch of a Dragon cargo spacecraft on a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral will slip a day, from Tuesday to Wednesday, in order to replace contaminated food in a rodent experiment that was to be part of "late load" cargo added to the Dragon less than 24 hours before launch. The one-day delay will also allow for improved weather conditions, with a 90 percent chance of acceptable weather for the 1:16 p.m. Eastern Wednesday launch. (12/4)

Crewed Soyuz Arrives at ISS (Source: NASA)
A Soyuz spacecraft carrying three people arrived at the International Space Station Monday, six hours after launch. The Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft docked with the station's Poisk module at 12:33 p.m. Eastern, with hatches between the Soyuz and station opening about two hours later. The Soyuz, which lifted off Monday morning from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, brought to the station Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, American astronaut Anne McClain and Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques, where they will stay for six and a half months. They join Serena Auñón-Chancellor, Alexander Gerst and Sergey Prokopyev, who will depart the station Dec. 20. (12/4)

NASA Astronaut Nick Hague Gets New Space Assignment After Scary Launch Abort (Source: Space News)
The crew of the previously, aborted Soyuz flight to the ISS have a new mission assignment. NASA announced Monday that NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin will fly to the station on the Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft, scheduled to launch Feb. 28. They will be joined by NASA astronaut Christina Hammock Koch, who had been previously assigned to the flight. Hague and Ovchinin were on the Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft that suffered a booster malfunction two minutes after liftoff Oct. 11, triggering the Soyuz's abort system. The spacecraft landed safely downrange from the launch site and the two were unhurt. Hague and Ovchinin replace Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka and an astronaut from the United Arab Emirates. (12/4)

Maxar Slows Capital Spending (Source: Space News)
Maxar Technologies plans to cut capital expenditures after the deployment of the constellation of WorldView Legion satellites. Maxar CEO Howard Lance said that the $600 million WorldView Legion Earth-imaging system should be completed in 2020, after which the company is planning to sharply cut capital expenditures, increasing its free cash flow and allowing it to reduce debt. Lance said that plans to sell its SSL geostationary satellite business will also help it reduce debt. (12/4)

OSIRIS-REx Arrives at Bennu (Source: Washington Post)
NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft officially arrived at the asteroid Bennu Monday. The spacecraft fired its thrusters Monday to slow its approach to the asteroid, formally beginning operations in the vicinity of the asteroid. OSIRIS-REx will enter orbit around Bennu Dec. 31 and survey the asteroid, eventually collecting a sample from the asteroid's surface that it will return to Earth in 2023. (12/4)

New Gravitational Wave Events Discovered (Source: BBC)
Astronomers have discovered several more gravitational wave events. One of the events, announced Monday but observed in July 2017, involved the merger of two black holes, one 50 times the mass of the sun and the other 34 times the of the sun. Three other gravitational wave events were also found in a reanalysis of earlier data, bring the total number of such events found to date to 11. The gravitational waves were discovered through a collaboration of the twin LIGO observatories in the United States and the VIRGO observatory in Europe. (12/4)

Philippines Plans Space Agency (Source: Rappler)
The Philippines could be the next country with a national space agency. The House of Representatives unanimously approved Tuesday a bill to establish the Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA). A version of the bill is pending in the Senate there. PhilSA would be responsible for the country's space activities, including "scientific principles and their applications to space science, engineering, and other allied fields." The bill also established a framework for a national space policy involving issues ranging from national security to space education and awareness. (12/4)

Spooky Apollo: Apollo 8 and the CIA (Source: Space Review)
This month marks the 50th anniversary of the historic Apollo 8 mission to the Moon. Dwayne Day explores what we know about the role, if any, intelligence about Soviet plans played in NASA’s decision to carry out the mission. Click here. (12/3) 
 
Three Ways to the Moon (Source: Space Review)
Last week NASA announced the companies that will be part of its program to offer commercial rides to the lunar surface. Jeff Foust reports on that development as well as agency studies of heavier landers, including those designed to transport people to the Moon. Click here. (12/3)
 
A Civilian Space “Guard” is Not a Military Space “Force” (Source: Space Review)
The debate about how to organize military space activities in the United States continues as the administration crafts its plans for a Space Force. Alfred Anzaldúa argues that a military Space Force may not be as effective for some needs as a more civil Space Guard. Click here. (12/3)
 
Of Flags on the Moon (Source: Space Review)
As the United States and other countries send spacecraft to the Moon in the next several years, they’ll carry with their national flags. Mark Whittington discusses if multinational cooperative missions should fly under a single flag instead. Click here. (12/3)

CU Boulder Turns Focus to Mars (Source: Daily Camera)
Just over a week after the arrival of the InSight lander on the surface of Mars, the University of Colorado is hosting an evening event focused on exploration of the red planet. The Tuesday night presentation will include an advance screening of Season 2, Episode 5 of National Geographic's "MARS," a hybrid series that blends real interviews with a fictional story of a group of astronauts as they land on and colonize Mars.

The series, which is based on the 2015 book "How We'll Live on Mars" by Stephen Petranek, premiered in November 2016, with the second season making its debut Nov. 12. The evening will also feature a panel with a host of experts and guests, including Dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science and former NASA chief technologist Bobby Braun; several actors from the show, as well as other experts. Braun also served as a technical consultant for the show. (12/2)

Astronaut Says a Neglected Telescope is NASA's Best Chance of Defending Earth from 'City Killer' Asteroids — 'for God's Sake, Fund It' (Source: Business Insider)
A former NASA astronaut says the agency he used to work for has a duty to protect civilians from killer asteroids, but that it isn't meeting that obligation. The threat of asteroid strikes might seem as abstract as outer space itself. But the risk, while infrequent, is real — and potentially more deadly than the threat posed by some of the most powerful nuclear weapons ever detonated. NASA is poignantly aware of such risks — and so are lawmakers.

In 2005 Congress made one of the agency's seven core goals to track down 90% of asteroids 460 feet (140 meters) and larger, which could lead to a worse-than-Tunguska-level event. The deadline for this legally mandated goal is 2020. So far, however, telescopes on Earth and in space have found less than one third of these near-Earth objects (NEOs) and NASA will almost certainly fail to hit its deadline. Russell "Rusty" Schweickart, an aerospace engineer retired astronaut who flew on the Apollo 9 mission, says there is a solution in waiting for this problem.

NASA can launch the Near-Earth Object Camera (NEOCam), which is a small infrared observatory, into space. "It's a critical discovery telescope to protect life on Earth, and it's ready to go," said Schweickart. NEOCam's designers have pitched the mission to NASA multiple times. The mission has received several million dollars here and there to continue its development in response to those proposals, but the agency has denied full funding in every instance. (12/3)

SpaceX Launch From Florida Will Have 36,000 Worms On Board — to Study Muscle Loss (Source: Florida Today)
When SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket blasts off from Cape Canaveral on Tuesday for the International Space Station, it will be carrying an unusual passenger — actually, 36,000 of them. Worms. Wriggling, slimy worms in plastic bags. If you're curious why NASA – let alone the three astronauts on board the station – would want to fly bags of worms into orbit, it turns out worms are more like people than you might think.

How they react in space could be key to figuring out ways to keep humans healthy on long space trips to Mars and beyond. Spaceflight poses many hazards to people, one of the most prevalent being muscle weakening. In fact, astronauts in space for six months or longer can lose up to 40 percent of their muscle mass.

Worms too have muscles and scientists from around the world want to see what happens to them on orbit. Scientists from Exeter, Nottingham and Lancaster universities partnered with the United Kingdom Space Agency and other teams around the world to work on the Molecular Muscle Experiment. Countries represented by other teams  include the U.S., Japan, South Korea and Greece. (12/3)

Southern Road to Spaceport a Gift to Public in 2018 (Source: Las Cruces Sun-News)
Holiday gifts come in all shapes and sizes. They are given from the heart to be enjoyed by those who receive them. This past year, public land users and residents of Doña Ana and Sierra counties received a 24-mile gift called southern road. Several years in the making, the southern road was engineered and paved completely this summer, enhancing public access to some amazing scenic vistas, outstanding cultural resources and traditional working landscapes.

The southern road project was initiated by Doña Ana and Sierra counties through rights-of-way applications on public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management Las Cruces District. During the length of the project and once the rights-of-way were granted on May 30, 2017, the BLM worked with the counties to complete the environmental assessment and compliance, and to deliver a well-designed road. (12/3)

How One Rocket Company Overhauls its Business to Compete in Today's Space Race (Source: Houston Chronicle)
The U.S. has more rocket companies than ever before, with longtime players and billionaire newcomers both working to make accessing space more affordable. Among those with a longer history is United Launch Alliance, most recently heralded for launching the NASA InSight lander into space. This joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin was created in 2006, but the predecessors to its rockets date back to the 1950s.

Now, the company must evolve. President and CEO Tory Bruno was tapped to lead this transition in 2014, a topic he discussed at the Space Commerce Conference and Exposition held this week in Houston. "My job was to carry our company from the company our nation needed 10 years ago, a decade ago, to the company that it needs today and into the future," he told the audience. (12/3)

To the Moon and Back: Apollo 11 Lunar Checklist Sold at Auction (Source: Fox News)
A checklist that traveled to the surface of the Moon with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin has been sold at auction in New York for $62,500. The incredible Lunar Surface Checklist Sheet accompanied the Apollo 11 astronauts in the Lunar Module Eagle. “It records the steps that they were to follow before they stepped out on the lunar surface," explained Cassandra Hatton, vice president and senior vice president for books and manuscripts at auction house Sotheby’s, in an interview with Fox News.

The Checklist Sheet was sold to an unnamed private American collector. The document, which is signed by Buzz Aldrin, had a pre-sale estimate of $40,000 to $60,000. An Apollo 11 Flight Plan sheet used by Neil Armstrong was sold to a private American collector for $75,000. The document, described by Aldrin as “one of Neil Armstrong’s most extensive set of notes made in the entire flight plan,” had a pre-sale estimate of $40,000 to $60,000. (12/3)

Leonardo DRS Expands on Space Coast (Source: Florida Today)
Leonardo DRS Inc. is undergoing a major expansion on the Space Coast, adding 40,000 square feet and hiring at least 100 workers, many of them engineers, over the next year. The defense contractor's expansion at its Babcock Street location in Melbourne is  further evidence of U.S. and global military and aerospace spending fueling the Space Coast economy. The expansion work at Leonardo DRS, which has three business units in Brevard County, is scheduled for completion next summer. (12/3)