February 13, 2019

NASA Puts a Key Satellite in Place for its Mars 2020 Mission (Source: Engadget)
NASA is preparing for the Mars 2020 mission by bringing the MAVEN probe, which will act as its antenna and connection to Earth, closer to the red planet. Over the next few months, the spacecraft will fly closer and closer to Mars until it's only 2,800 miles above the surface, down 1,050 miles from its current orbit. That will boost the probe's communications capabilities: As MAVEN principal investigator Bruce Jakosky explained, "It's like using your cell phone. The closer you are to a cell tower, the stronger your signal."

To tighten MAVEN's orbit, NASA will fire its thrusters in the next few days to lower its altitude a bit. It will then rely on the drag provided by the red planet's upper atmosphere to slow it down every time it circles and planet and to change its trajectory in a technique known as "aerobraking." NASA says aerobraking, which can be described as something like putting your hand outside a moving car, will allow the agency to achieve its goal while using very little fuel.

In addition to providing a stronger signal for the rover, the move will also allow the spacecraft to communicate with Mars 2020 more frequently. By orbiting at a lower altitude, the probe can circle Mars 6.8 times per (Earth) day instead of just 5.3 times, giving it a way to receive more data. MAVEN, which stands for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN, was deployed to take a closer look at the Martian atmosphere and water. Since it entered the Martian orbit in 2014, it was able to help scientists determine that solar wind and radiation were responsible for stripping Mars of most of its atmosphere and that the planet has two types of auroras, among other discoveries. (2/12)

Starliner Structural Testing Complete (Source: Boeing)
At Boeing’s test facility in Huntington Beach, Calif., a team of engineering and lab test technicians completed structures testing on Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner. The two year test series was designed to prove the Starliner spacecraft will keep crews safe during repeated missions to and from the International Space Station (ISS).

Teams conducted testing on a Structural Test Article (STA) while the flight worthy spacecraft was built in parallel at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This test series was a complex and challenging endeavor for the vehicle itself and the team that had to reconfigure it over and over again for pressure testing, modal testing, loads testing, shock testing, separation performance testing and model validation.

Each test was demanding in terms of planning, setup and execution. For example, vibrational testing on the STA required specific frequencies, which meant setting up about 750 accelerometers at various points on the vehicle to measure its reaction. “Knowing how the STA reacts to those vibrations is critical, as it tells us whether it will maintain control during travel to and from space, and during docking with the ISS,” said Boeing Test & Evaluation Test Leader Robert Bauer. (2/12)

NASA Spots a Second Massive Possible Impact Crater Buried Under Greenland Ice (Source: Space.com)
Hard on the heels of discovering what could be a massive impact crater deep under the Greenland ice sheet, scientists think they may have discovered a second, unrelated such structure nearby. The new suspected impact crater is about 22 miles (36 kilometers) wide and, like the first structure, has not yet been definitively identified as an impact crater. There are many more crater-shaped features on Earth than there are actual craters formed by meteorites slamming into the planet.

"I began asking myself, 'Is this another impact crater? Do the underlying data support that idea?'" lead author Joe MacGregor, a glaciologist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., said in a statement. "Helping identify one large impact crater beneath the ice was already very exciting, but now it looked like there could be two of them."

MacGregor was also involved in identifying a slightly smaller possible impact crater, dubbed Hiawatha, which was announced in November. In addition to its strikingly circular shape and the elevation features of a rim and central mound that scientists expect in an impact crater, the Hiawatha discovery also sports minerals that appear to have been abruptly shocked by a dramatic event like a meteorite impact. (2/12)

Lockheed Martin Hiring Spree Adds 1,000 Jobs, Boosts Work for Subcontractors (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Frank St. John has a good problem on his hands at Lockheed Martin’s Orlando campus. As the defense giant quickly grows its workforce here – having added more than 1,000 workers since summer 2017 – it has had to build more space to match. The result is a $50 million, 250,000-square-foot facility set to debut this month. But even that building will be nearly at capacity when it opens.

“We can’t get that building up fast enough,” said St. John, executive vice president of the firm’s Missiles and Fire Control division. “Once it opens, it will be immediately full.” Lockheed employs more than 8,000 in Orlando, split between its Missiles and Fire Control and Rotary and Mission Systems divisions. The company’s growth has been directly tied to a series of large contracts it has won that requires a significant portion of the work to be done here. Those include a $900 million U.S. Air Force contract for tech related to the agency’s long-range missile program and work related to the U.S. military’s high-profile F-35 aircraft.

The company also landed a $3.5 billion deal for maintenance and support on 300,000 training aids, simulators and other devices. The work from that deal has trickled down to a group of about 300 Central Florida-based subcontractors, helping support the defense industry’s growth here. The effort to build its future workforce has led to Lockheed Martin partnering with local schools. In November, the company granted $300,000 to Valencia College and $1.5 million to UCF to support programs that encourage building the STEM workforce. About 2,500 UCF alum work at Lockheed Martin. (2/6)

Baby Names Inspired by Outer Space (Source: Parents)
Check out this fantastic list of baby boy and baby girl names inspired by astronauts, planets, spacecraft and more. Nearly a billion stars have names, and what beautiful names they are! Would you give your baby a name like Andromeda, Gemini or Orion? Click here. (2/13)

Hispasat Sold for $1.1 Billion (Source: Space News)
Spanish satellite operator Hispasat has been sold for $1.1 billion. Spanish power company Red Eléctrica Corporación announced an agreement Tuesday to buy the 89.7 stake in Hispasat owned by Abertis. Red Eléctrica says the acquisition will transform the power company into a leading telecommunication company in Spain, while Abertis said the sale of Hispasat was part of a divestiture strategy to allow it to focus on its primary business of operating toll roads. The sale will require approval from regulatory bodies and Spain's Council of Ministers, which the companies expect to obtain by the second quarter. (2/13)

Monteith at FAA: Shutdown Recovery Continues, Transparency for New Regulations (Source: Space News)
The new head of the FAA's commercial space office vowed to be open and transparent with industry. In a speech at the Commercial Space Transportation Conference Tuesday, Wayne Monteith said he understood some frustrations expressed by industry about the lack of insight into an ongoing rulemaking process to reform launch regulations. A draft version of those rules, whose release was delayed by the shutdown, is now expected out in late March. Monteith also explained that the FAA dropped out of co-sponsoring the conference, which it had been running annually for more than two decades, this year so that the office could devote its resources to recovering from the shutdown. (2/13)

OneWeb Launch Pushed to Feb. 26 (Source: TASS)
The launch of the first set of OneWeb satellites will slip several days. Greg Wyler tweeted Tuesday that the Soyuz launch from French Guiana has been pushed back to Feb. 26, saying the company was moving "very carefully" with this first set of six satellites. The launch was delayed last week from Feb. 19 to 22 because of work to repair the rocket's Fregat upper stage. (2/13)