January 23, 2019

SoftBank and Virgin-Backed OneWeb Finally Nears Take Off (Source: Financial Times)
OneWeb, the ambitious satellite start-up that has raised more than $2 billion from the likes of SoftBank and Virgin Group, is finally preparing for take-off. Six years after it was founded by tech entrepreneur Greg Wyler with the vision of blanketing the globe in wireless broadband, OneWeb’s first satellites have rolled off their production line in France, and are set for launch next month. The “F6” launch from French Guiana on an Arianespace rocket is scheduled for February 19 and will put six satellites into low-earth orbit.

They are the first components of a planned 650-satellite “constellation”, said Adrián Steckel, who was appointed OneWeb’s chief executive last September. It is a moment that has been anxiously awaited both inside and outside the company — the launch is a year later than OneWeb had planned. “We believe that we have operated in stealth mode for too long,” said Mr Steckel in his first interview since taking the new role. OneWeb is also racing to close a large new round of funding after exhausting almost all of its more than $2 billion from earlier financings.

Negotiations are continuing to raise an unspecified sum, likely to run into hundreds of millions of dollars. Mr Steckel said investors including SoftBank “are committing to a lot more capital” and he expects to close the round in March. “The shareholder base we have are people who believe in the company and have the wherewithal to make those big bold bets.” Mr Wyler, now OneWeb’s executive chairman, promised in 2015 that the “dream of fully bridging the digital divide” would become “a reality in 2019”, thanks to lowering the cost of each satellite to about $500,000.
(1/23)

Commercial Crew Astronauts Reassigned by NASA (Source: Space News)
NASA is reassigning one of the astronauts who was to fly on a commercial crew mission later this year. NASA said Tuesday that Eric Boe was being removed from the crew of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner crewed test flight because of an unspecified medical issue. He will be replaced by fellow NASA astronaut Mike Fincke, who has been working as the assistant to the chief of the astronaut office for commercial crew, a role that Boe will now take over. The other two people on that mission, NASA astronaut Nicole Mann and Boeing pilot Chris Ferguson, will remain on the flight. That test flight is currently scheduled for no earlier than August. (1/23)

Rocket Lab Plans DARPA Payload Launch in February (Source: Space News)
Rocket Lab's first launch of 2019 will carry a technology demonstration satellite for DARPA. The company said Tuesday that the launch, scheduled for late February from New Zealand, will carry DARPA's Radio Frequency Risk Reduction Deployment Demonstration, which will test the ability to deploy a large antenna from a 150-kilogram smallsat. The launch is the first of 12 that the company plans for this year, including the first launch from a new site at Wallops Island, Virginia, scheduled for September. (1/23)

Arianespace Cuts Ariane 5 Price (Source: Reuters)
Arianespace is cutting the price of Ariane 5 launches to remain competitive with SpaceX. A company executive said Wednesday that it is offering launches on Ariane 5 rockets for the same reduced price it plans to offer on the future Ariane 6, which will be up to 40 percent cheaper. "When we do that, the result is very positive," said Vivian Quenet, head of sales in the Asia-Pacific region for Arianespace. (1/23)

EU Should Consider a Space Force (Source: EU Observer)
A European Union official says that the EU should consider establishing its own version of a Space Force. Elzbieta Bienkowska, the EU commissioner responsible for space policy, said at a conference Tuesday that as individual member states develop their military space capabilities, that the EU should discuss in the medium to long term a European Space Force. Others at the conference, though, were skeptical about any kind of Space Force-like entity, noting that individual EU countries have no plans to do so at a national level. "To my knowledge, no member state has so far put forward that idea and the agency is not working on it," said Jorge Domecq, head of the European Defence Agency. (1/23)

European Companies Win ESA Study Money for Lunar Landers (Source: Space News)
Three European companies have won a study contract from the European Space Agency to study a lunar lander mission. The study, announced this week, will be led by ArianeGroup, along with PTScientists and Space Applications Services, and be competed within a year. The study will examine the feasibility of a lunar lander mission, launching by 2025, to mine lunar regolith to extract resources like oxygen from it. ArianeGroup would be responsible for the launch and PTScientists, a former Google Lunar X Prize team, the lander, while Space Applications Services would handle ground control and communications. (1/23)

SpaceX Reportedly Tried to Boost Ratings on Glassdoor (Source: Wall Street Journal)
SpaceX is among the companies that reportedly tried to manipulate its rating in Glassdoor, a website that offers reviews of companies by current and former employees. A SpaceX recruiter asked employees to post reviews to boost its rating in the service and make it eligible for Glassdoor's "Best Places to Work" list, offering mugs for those who did so. A company executive said that it encourages employees to "share honest, candid and accurate feedback" about working at SpaceX and didn't approve of plans to offer gifts to employees who did post reviews. Other companies cited in the report who tried to raise their Glassdoor ratings include Bain and Company, SAP and Slack. (1/23)

Lunar Impact Observed During Eclipse (Source: Space.com)
Astronomers observing Sunday night's lunar eclipse got a bonus: an impact on the moon. Video of the eclipse from several locations shows a bright flash shortly after totality began. The flash was likely caused by an object impacting the moon, and scientists are using the imagery to try to pinpoint the location and size of the impact. (1/23)

Woman Claims NASA Damaged Lunar Sample Bag (Source: Kansas City Star)
A woman who sued NASA to retain possession of an Apollo 11 lunar sample bag is back in court. In a new lawsuit, Nancy Lee Carlson claims that NASA damaged the bag when it tested it and removed some of the traces of lunar dust it contained, reducing its value. Carlson bought the bag at an auction in 2015 for $995 and asked NASA to determine if it was authentic. The agency then retained possession of the bag, arguing that the bag was improperly sold at a government auction, but Carlson sued and a federal judge ruled in her favor. She sold the bag at auction last year for $1.8 million, but claims in the suit that the damage she said NASA did to the bag reduced its market value. (1/23)

Trump Offered NASA 'All The Money You Could Ever Need' to Land Human on Mars During His Presidency (Source: Business Insider)
President Donald Trump reportedly offered the NASA "all the money you could ever need" to land on Mars by the first term of his presidency, according to a report from New York Magazine that cited an upcoming memoir by the former White House communications official Cliff Sims. The story said Trump appeared "distracted" at times during the discussion and asked a NASA official: "What if we sent NASA's budget through the roof, but focused entirely on that instead of whatever else you're doing now. Could it work then?" (1/23)

In Greenland and Antarctica, Supposedly “Safe” Ice is Melting Alarmingly Fast (Source: Quartz)
It’s been a bad week for ice. Last Tuesday, researchers announced that the Eastern Antarctic Ice Shelf—previously thought to be stable or even growing—is actually melting alarmingly fast. And yesterday (Jan. 21), a new study found that southwest Greenland—another area where ice was supposed to be safe—is dumping more meltwater into the ocean than any other region of the icy island.

Both of these developments spell trouble for coastal communities threatened by rising tides. “We’re going to see faster and faster sea-level rise for the foreseeable future,” Michael Bevis, lead author of the Greenland study, said in a statement. “Once you hit that tipping point, the only question is: How severe does it get?”

It’s not clear exactly how much meltwater from unexpected areas like southwest Greenland should alter our predictions for sea level rise. But researchers aren’t optimistic. “Sea-level rise is an area of climate-change research where there are a lot of unknowns,” Keegan says. “But if you take ice mass off of Greenland and put it directly into the sea at a faster rate than anyone is modeling, that would imply that sea-level projections are maybe a little conservative.” (1/22_)

National Intelligence Strategy Touches on Space (Source: Washington Post)
Every four years, the National Intelligence Strategy attempts to do something that official Washington seems increasingly incapable of: long-term thinking. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats released a chilling report on Tuesday that outlines what the 17 federal agencies that make up the intelligence community see as the gravest threats facing the United States. Among them is this statement on the "democratization of space"...

“No longer a solely U.S. domain, the democratization of space poses significant challenges for the United States. Adversaries are increasing their presence in this domain with plans to reach or exceed parity in some areas. For example, Russia and China will continue to pursue a full range of anti-satellite weapons as a means to reduce U.S. military effectiveness and overall security. Increasing commercialization of space now provides capabilities that were once limited to global powers to anyone that can afford to buy them. Many aspects of modern society—to include our ability to conduct military operations—rely on our access to and equipment in space.” (1/23)