January 21, 2019

The (Netflix) Space Force is Coming — and the First Recruits are Elite (Source: Gazette.com)
The premise, of course, is grounded in reality: Last year, the Trump administration directed the Pentagon to form a Space Command aimed at the creation of a Space Force branch. It seems probable that viewership will be high in Colorado Springs, the likely eventual home of Space Command. The command operated in the Springs through 2003 but was shut down to make way for the U.S. Northern Command, which focused on protecting the U.S. from 9/11-style attacks.

"The location of that new space command hasn’t been released, but several Colorado lawmakers have said it likely will land back in Colorado Springs, home to most military space work, including the Air Force Space Command and the new Joint Forces Space Component Command," The Gazette's Tom Roeder reported last fall. "The command is a step toward establishing the Space Force that Trump has long touted, but it remains unclear whether that separate service will pass congressional muster," he added. (1/18)

Future SpaceX & Blue Origin Rocket Recoveries May Use Largest Mobile Crane in the US (Source: Teslarati)
Florida’s Canaveral Port Authority took delivery of what is now the largest mobile crane on U.S. soil, originally purchased in order to support both extremely large cargo ships (known as New-Panamax-class) and the unique needs of orbital-class rocket recovery operations for SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy and Blue Origin’s prospective New Glenn launch vehicle.

While there’s a good chance that SpaceX will avoid changing their current Port Canaveral recovery operations and the complement of cranes they already lease or own, Blue Origin will almost certainly take advantage of Port Canaveral’s vast new crane, capable of lifting more than 200 metric tons (~450,000 lbs) at heights greater than 50 meters (160 ft). (1/21)

SpaceX Plans Create Many Texas Opportunities (Source: The Monitor)
Original plans were to develop and build the rockets in California, then launch them here. But the latest announcement states that the rocket’s size “makes them very difficult to transport.” This development obviously creates new opportunities for the Valley. An assembly plant would be welcome in a region where unemployment exceeds the state and national average. It also would bring the area more skilled jobs, which are in short supply here.

Musk already has reached out to local educational institutions, including area high schools, about creating programs that will give students the kinds of skills that could help them secure jobs with SpaceX. An assembly plant would further expand such job opportunities.

Such opportunities already are growing; SpaceX originally suggested that the Boca Chica site might be a secondary facility, specializing in unmanned launches to deploy satellites or send supplies to the International Space Station. In recent years, however, announced plans have grown to include the launch of the company’s largest rockets, raising hopes that eventually, the Rio Grande Valley might provide a springboard for manned missions to Mars, one of Musk’s long-term goals. (1/20)

Blue Origin Sets New Launch Date with UCF, UF Experiments (Source: Click Orlando)
Blue Origin is targeting Monday morning for the next launch of its New Shepard rocket in Texas with NASA-selected experiments on board, including one from the University of Central Florida. New Shepard's 10th mission was delayed from Dec. 18, 2018, due to a ground infrastructure issue, according to Blue Origin. The company led by Amazon founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos, said the next attempt will be Monday at 10 a.m. ET from its West Texas launch site.

Blue Origin will launch payloads that are part of NASA’s Flight Opportunities program. Two of those experiments are from Florida universities. UCF’s Collisions Into Dust Experiment, or COLLIDE, is a microgravity test examining how particles react in space. The University of Florida’s experiment will test a biological fluorescent imaging device developed for the International Space Station. The principal investigators want to adapt the instrument for experiments lower than the edge of space, known as the suborbital zone. (1/19)

Can Ted Cruz Save The Space Program? (Source: The Daily Caller)
Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz finds himself in an interesting position in the new Congress. He has been a champion of NASA and commercial space since he first entered the Senate six years ago. The last midterms, however, saw the exit of a number of space enthusiasts from Congress. Democrat and Republican Reps. Lamar Smith, John Culberson, Dana Rohrabacher and Sen. Bill Nelson have retired or been retired to private life.

Cruz virtually stands alone as a supporter of NASA’s mission and of the commercial space sector’s growth. Since he is the chairman of the Senate Aviation and Space Subcommittee, he has some power to save American space efforts from the tide of politics over the next two years. (1/19)

Jeff Bezos on Going to Space vs. Fixing Earth: ‘It Shouldn’t Be Either-Or’ (Source: GeekWire)
Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest person and the founder of Amazon as well as the Blue Origin space venture, defended his billion-dollar-a-year expense on space travel here on Friday night in front of a receptive, star-studded crowd. The occasion was the 16th annual Living Legends of Aviation awards. At one point, Bezos was asked why he should spend money on space exploration rather than on earthly issues that need fixing.

The question addressed the controversy that Bezos faced last year after telling an interviewer that Blue Origin, which he’s supporting to the tune of a billion dollars a year, ranked as “the most important work that I’m doing.” Since then, Bezos created a $2 billion Day One Fund to focus on helping homeless families and improving preschool education. At the Beverly Hills ceremony, the billionaire gave a nuanced summary of his spending philosophy.

“If you take the big picture, you should spend money here on Earth,” he said. “There are a lot of important objectives here on Earth we need to do here and now. The real question is, it shouldn’t be framed as an either-or choice. You also have to spend some money on things that are 10 years out, 20 years out, 50 years out, 100 years out.” (1/19)

NASA Contractor Pays Furloughed Kennedy Space Center Custodians (Source: Brevard Times)
Most of the 95 custodians who clean the facilities at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida have not worked at their job in almost a month. But according to their government contractor, none of the workers have missed a paycheck. “It’s the right thing to do,” said Rosalind Weiss, community relations manager for Brevard Achievement Center, or BAC. “And we can do it because we are fiscally sound.”

Weiss says the BAC, a non-profit government contractor employing mostly disabled people, is dipping into its reserves to keep paying its custodial workers  at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. According to the BAC spokesperson, the Rockledge, Florida-based 501(c)(3) employs roughly 772 people in Florida, Puerto Rico, Virginia, and North Carolina. Four weeks ago, NASA sent 78 BAC custodians home along with most of the center’s 2,000 civil servants and roughly 6,000 government contractors. (1/19)

Unpaid NASA Workers Protect Critical Missions During Government Shutdown (Source: CBS News)
NASA managers and engineers working on the agency's high-priority commercial crew program are still on the job, without pay, during the ongoing government shutdown, continuing preparations for the first unpiloted launch of SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft on a long-awaited test flight in February, officials say.

Whether senior NASA managers would actually press ahead with the Demo-1, or DM-1, launch if the shutdown lasts that long is not yet clear. But multiple agency officials confirm unpaid government personnel are in place to carry out final safety assessments, a flight readiness review and other required pre-flight activities if it comes to that.

In the meantime, NASA sources say SpaceX is expected to test fire the first stage engines of the Falcon 9 rocket slated for use in the test flight next week at historic launch complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. The unpiloted test flight is tentatively targeted for launch Feb. 9, although sources say additional delay is expected. (1/18)

Even Giant Federal Contractors Feeling Shutdown's Bite (Source: Politico)
Boeing has halted testing for a multibillion-dollar rocket program designed to return astronauts to the moon. The Rand Corp. is bracing for work stoppages. Booz Allen Hamilton is transferring employees to projects with agencies whose funding hasn’t run out. Federal government contractors and consultants have furloughed tens of thousands of employees, and the numbers will only grow as the nearly monthlong shutdown drags on — even at some of the biggest, most powerful companies that carry out much of the government’s work.

Plenty of smaller contractors are already suffering. One 70-person technology company, Tethers Unlimited, has had to lay off 20 percent of its workforce because it hasn't been paid. But now the historic length of the political impasse is reverberating at the Fortune 500 level, making it one of the most economically damaging shutdowns in history. "The big guys have deeper pockets, but at the same time, it is costing them. It comes right off their bottom line. The anxiety factor goes up by the day."

At Booz Allen, the company has covered pay for employees whose work has dried up, but it’s not clear how long the company can sustain that. Government-funded research centers that provide expertise to a host of agencies are bracing for impacts as well. Others institutions that rely on federal funding say they are also feeling the pinch, such as the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which builds and operates robotic spacecraft for NASA and is run by Caltech. (1/20)

The Quiet Rocket Startup That Doesn't Want To Be The New SpaceX (Source: Forbes)
You’ve probably never heard of Orbex, but if all goes to plan, this company might just make history. They want to launch the UK's first rocket in more than four decades, and they’re steadily making progress towards doing just that. But despite those lofty ambitions, they're keeping their feet firmly on the ground.

“People often tout little companies like Orbex as being the new SpaceX,” Chris Larmour, the company’s CEO, tells me in an interview. “I don’t personally see that. We don’t have those ambitions. And I’m certainly not Elon Musk.” Orbex is a UK-based rocket launch company that quietly came out of stealth mode in July 2018. “Quiet” is most certainly the word here, because while Orbex hopes to start launching rockets by 2021 at the earliest, it’s doing so on its own terms and at its own pace.

Headquartered in the UK, the company builds and tests its rocket engines at a site near Copenhagen in Denmark with plans for another in Scotland. It has barely a couple of dozen employees, but the company has managed to raise plenty of money towards its goals. In July 2018, it revealed it had raised about $39 million from government and private sources. The company is one of several, including US company Rocket Lab and UK company Skyrora, hoping to launch from a new launchpad that the UK government plans to build in Sutherland, Scotland. (1/21)

Making Smallsat Rockets at Vector (Source: Behind the Black)
The first two Vector launches occurred as promised, first in Mojave on May 3, 2017 and then in Georgia on August 3, 2017. An announcement in October 2017 set the launch of the third test first for January 2018 but that launch did not happen. In March 2018 Vector announced it planned to launch two cubesats into orbit from Alaska by the end of 2018, but this did not happen either. Because of the delays, with no explanation, I was beginning to harbor doubts about the company’s status.

Jim Cantrell filled me in on the details, and generously offered a personal tour of Vector’s facilities, which had grown significantly since my 2017 tour. Then, Vector employed only thirty people and was based in a small warehouse. Now it employs more than 150, and has two much larger facilities in Tucson as well as one in California (where its mission control is based).

The third suborbital test that had been originally announced for January 2018 launch not surprisingly had been repeatedly delayed due to technical issues until the summer of 2018, when the company decided to completely stand down that rocket and use it instead for testing. Subsequently they have conducted a number of different tests with it, including about a dozen vertical static fire tests as well as countdown dress rehearsals designed to work out the details for fueling and unfueling their rockets during launches as well as training their launch teams at the launch site and at mission control. “We realized that this rocket would be much more useful to use as a testbed that can be used repeatedly in many different ways than as in a single one time test flight,” Cantrell explained. (1/21)

The Military is Looking at Ways to Intercept Nukes From Space - But Experts Say It's Not Feasible (Source: The Verge)
Satellites designed to knock out a missile just as it launches have been proposed and studied many times in the past. The idea can be traced back to the Reagan administration’s Strategic Defense Initiative — nicknamed “Star Wars” by its critics — which called for creating a large swath of space-based technologies to prevent nukes from reaching US soil. But the general consensus on these assets has long been the same: such interceptors would be too costly and too complex to be feasible.

For one, we’d need a lot of them — many hundreds or thousands, to provide global coverage. And they would have to perform a very advanced set of technical tasks in a very short amount of time to be effective. “Physically, it’s certainly possible to get a satellite in space at the right time to intercept an ICBM,” Laura Grego, a senior scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists who focuses on missile defense and space security, tells The Verge. “That’s an engineering problem. The real problem is the sheer size of what would be necessary.”

Though space-based interceptors are not actively being pursued by the Pentagon at the moment, President Trump insinuated that he wants the kind of coverage these satellites might provide. “Our goal is simple — to ensure that we can detect and destroy any missile launched against the US anywhere, any time, any place,” Trump said. For now, our missile defense is mostly tethered to the Earth. The largest intercepting system at our disposal is the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense system, or GMD, which relies on a network of sensors, personnel, and missiles. (1/20)

Russia Conducted Another Successful Test of an Anti-Satellite Missile (Source: CNBC)
Russia conducted another successful flight test of its new anti-satellite missile system last month, according to two people with direct knowledge of a classified U.S. intelligence report. The anti-satellite missile flew for 17 minutes and 1,864 miles before successfully splashing down in its target area. The latest revelation comes on the heels of the Pentagon’s 108-page missile defense review, which marks the first overhaul of America’s missile defense doctrine in nearly a decade.

“Russia is developing a diverse suite of anti-satellite capabilities, including ground-launched missiles and directed-energy weapons, and continues to launch ‘experimental’ satellites that conduct sophisticated on-orbit activities to advance counterspace capabilities.”

Russia’s PL-19 Nudol, a system U.S. military intelligence assesses will be focused primarily on anti-satellite missions, was successfully tested twice in 2018. The weapon, which was fired from a mobile launcher, was last tested on Dec. 23 and marked the seventh overall test of the system, according to one of the people who spoke on the condition of anonymity. (1/18)

UAE Astronauts Challenged to Survive for Days Alone in Russian Winter Wilderness (Source: The National)
The UAE’s first astronauts are to be sent on a gruelling mission in sub-zero Russian winter temperatures as part of the next phase of their preparation for space. Hazza Al Mansouri, 34, and Sultan Al Neyadi, 37, who were chosen last year from more than 4,000 applicants to be the first Emiratis to undergo astronaut training, are currently taking part in a rigorous programme at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, north-east of Moscow, Russia.

The next phase of that training will involve learning winter survival skills, which will be a key component of preparations for one of them to board the Soyuz rocket to the International Space Station in April. The outdoor training will simulate what could happen if the capsule has to come back to Earth in an emergency and crash-land in a remote location. (1/20)

Mojave Air and Space Port Debates Photo Policy (Source: Antelope Valley Press)
Officials at the Mojave Air and Space Port are debating a proposed policy that would govern the ability of people to take photographs or film at the public facility. The policy was brought up during the governing board meeting Tuesday as part of an update to the administrative code regarding airport use.

It states that the airport district “strictly prohibits unauthorized filming and photography on airport property,” and that such activity is only allowed with a license or special permit. “It sounds like nobody’s ever going to be able to use a camera legally on this airport,” Director Bill Deaver said, asking that it be clarified to qualify the restriction to photography or filming for commercial use.

Home to a number of innovative aerospace firms, some with sensitive projects, airport officials frequently face concerns from tenants re­gard­ing public photography of their products on the flightline, General Manager and CEO Karina Drees said. During the work week, visitors will leave the public Voyager res­taurant by the exit to the flightline, then take photos of objects of their interest down the flightline from the restaurant. Airport security is tasked to handle the issue and ask them not to take pictures. (1/20)

China Launches Two Satellites for Multispectral Imaging (Source: Xinhua)
China launched two satellites for multispectral imaging on a Long March-11 rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China at 1:42 pm on Monday. The satellites have successfully entered their preset orbit, according to the center. The two satellites, part of the Jilin-1 satellite family, were independently developed by Chang Guang Satellite Technology Co. Ltd. (1/21)

Mystery Orbits in Outermost Reaches of Solar System Not Caused by ‘Planet Nine’, say Researchers (University of Cambridge)
The strange orbits of some objects in the farthest reaches of our solar system, hypothesised by some astronomers to be shaped by an unknown ninth planet, can instead be explained by the combined gravitational force of small objects orbiting the Sun beyond Neptune, say researchers.

The alternative explanation to the so-called ‘Planet Nine’ hypothesis, put forward by researchers at the University of Cambridge and the American University of Beirut, proposes a disc made up of small icy bodies with a combined mass as much as ten times that of Earth. When combined with a simplified model of the solar system, the gravitational forces of the hypothesised disc can account for the unusual orbital architecture exhibited by some objects at the outer reaches of the solar system. (1/21)

Women in Space: Roscosmos Sets Sights on Creating Female Crew of Cosmonauts, Says Source (Source: TASS)
Russia’s state-run space corporation, Roscosmos, is putting together a team of female cosmonauts to conduct flights into outer space, and a search for candidates will be launched among space experts, a source in the rocket and space industry told TASS on Monday. "A full-fledged cosmonaut team consisting of young women who are specialists in the rocket and space field will be formed," the source said. The state corporation will take on the initiative to search for candidates itself rather than wait for them to sign up. (1/21)

Battlefield Moon: How China Plans to Win the Lunar Space Race (Source: The Guardian)
As Apollo 11 sailed above the moon, mission control in Houston suggested the astronauts should keep an eye out for a “beautiful Chinese girl called Chang-o”, who, according to legend, had ascended to the moon thousands of years previously, taking along a large rabbit as a companion. “I’ll look out for the bunny girl then,” Buzz Aldrin joked in reply, shortly ahead of his and Neil Armstrong’s historic touchdown at the lunar surface. Nearly 50 years on, an astronaut gazing down from orbit might glimpse a hi-tech homage to the ancient folk tale. China’s Chang’e 4 probe this month became the first to land on the lunar far side, and nearby, hibernating during the lunar night, the Jade Rabbit rover is exploring this uncharted territory.

Possibly spurred on by China’s plans, other space agencies are showing a renewed interest in the moon, and landers from the US, India, Japan and Russia are planned over the next decade. So what is driving the renaissance of lunar exploration? James Carpenter, a project scientist on the European Space Agency’s lunar exploration team, believes that the latest interest goes beyond purely scientific goals. “There is a long-term motivation which is about sustained human presence in space,” he said. “If we ever want to live and work in a permanent, economically sustainable way off Earth, this requires that we learn to use the resources we find there.”

The motivations for heading into space for longer periods include extracting valuable resources from the moon or asteroids, as well as a preparing for a “lifeboat scenario” where the world becomes uninhabitable. At a press conference, officials said there would be three more missions after Chang’e 5, a mission to return samples from the moon. By Chang’e 8, China hopes to lay the foundation for a research base, including possibly building houses on lunar soil using 3D printing. (1/21)

JAXA Launches its First Startup-Built Satellite RAPIS-1 & 6 Other Satellites (Source: SpaceTech)
“RAPIS-1” (RAPid Innovative payload demonstration Satellite 1), a small satellite commissioned by Japan’s space agency JAXA and designed and operated by newspace startup Axelspace was successfully launched from the Uchinoura Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan at 9:50 AM of January 18th, 2019. The 200-kg satellite was launched by JAXA’s light launch vehicle, Epsilon-4, along with six other microsatellites and cubesats. The successful separation of RAPIS-1 was confirmed about 50 minutes after launch.

RAPIS-1 is part of JAXA’s Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration Program, an initiative to provide in-orbit validation opportunities to external entities, with the objective of strengthening the technologies behind core satellite components. The Japanese Government’s space program has scheduled four demonstration launch opportunities, one every two years. This launch represents the first of these four and is termed “Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration-1”, and carries seven demonstration experiments. (1/21)

Arianespace Says Full Ariane 6 Production Held Up by Missing Government Contracts (Source: Space News)
European launch provider Arianespace says that in order to sign a manufacturing contract for the first 14 next-generation Ariane 6 rockets, it first needs European governmental organizations to buy at least four more Ariane 6 missions for the 2020 to 2023 time frame. With the maiden flight of the Ariane 6 now 18 months away (in July 2020), Arianespace CEO Stéphane Israël said the company had anticipated signing a manufacturing contract with ArianeGroup in the second part of last year to begin production beyond the first rocket.

So far, European public entities have purchased three Ariane 6 missions — two from the European Commission for launching Galileo navigation satellites, and one from France for the CSO-3 military imaging satellite — but have not committed to the number envisioned at the start of the Ariane 6 program in 2014.

“We are confident it will happen,” Israël said of the remaining government missions. “But it is not done yet. We are working in this direction. It is now quite urgent because industry has anticipated the manufacturing of these first launchers, but now we need these institutional contracts to fully contractualize the first Ariane 6s.”