March 28, 2019

NASA Explains Reason Behind Canceled All-Female Spacewalk (Source: Washington Post)
NASA has aborted its first all-female spacewalk outside the International Space Station because there are not enough spacesuits of the best size to fit both female astronauts, the agency said. Astronauts Anne McClain and Christina Koch had planned to conclude Women’s History Month with a spacewalk Friday to continue work outside the space station.

NASA was roundly criticized by politicians, pundits and comedians, blaming the agency for a lack of planning, tone-deaf decision making, and even gender discrimination. In response, NASA tweeted this explanation: "We’ve seen your tweets about spacesuit availability for Friday’s spacewalk. To clarify, we have more than 1 medium size spacesuit torso aboard, but to stay on schedule with @Space_Station upgrades, it’s safer & faster to change spacewalker assignments than reconfigure spacesuits."

“Astronauts typically describe spacewalks as the most physically challenging thing they do,” Stephanie Schierholz said. “Working in a pressurized spacesuit requires physical strength and endurance, and it is essential that the spacesuit fits as well as possible.” Both women need a medium-size hard upper torso — the shirt of the spacesuit — and there is only one medium-size suit on the space station that is ready for use. (3/26)

Space Flight Laboratory to Build HawkEye 360 Next-Gen Satellite Cluster (Source: Space Daily)
Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) has been awarded the prime contract to develop the next generation cluster of formation-flying microsatellites for HawkEye 360 Inc. of Herndon, Va. The HawkEye Constellation, comprised of multiple clusters of three satellites each, is the first of its kind to detect and geolocate radio frequency (RF) signals for maritime, emergency response, and spectrum analysis applications.

SFL built the platforms and integrated the HawkEye 360 Pathfinder cluster which was launched into low-Earth orbit in December 2018 and commissioned early this year. The three formation-flying Pathfinder microsatellites have successfully demonstrated geolocation of VHF, emergency position-indicating radio beacon (EPIRB), automatic identification system (AIS) and marine radar signals. (3/28)

Rivers Raged on Mars Late Into its History (Source: Space Daily)
Long ago on Mars, water carved deep riverbeds into the planet's surface - but we still don't know what kind of weather fed them. Scientists aren't sure, because their understanding of the Martian climate billions of years ago remains incomplete. A new study catalogued these rivers to conclude that significant river runoff persisted on Mars later into its history than previously thought. According to the study, the runoff was intense - rivers on Mars were wider than those on Earth today - and occurred at hundreds of locations on the red planet. (3/28)

Satellites Key to Addressing Earth's Water Scarcity (Source: Space Daily)
Today is World Water Day, but with millions of people in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe struggling to cope in the aftermath of Cyclone Idai, the notion of water shortages may not be at the forefront of our minds right now. Even so, floods, like we see here, lead to real problems accessing clean water. Whether the problem is inundation or water scarcity, satellites can help monitor this precious resource.

The UN World Water Day underscores the importance of freshwater and promotes sustainable management. This year, the focus is on the UN Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6), which aims to ensure the availability and sustainable management of water for all by 2030. With more than two billion people living without safe water and around four billion people suffering severe water scarcity for a least one month a year, achieving water for all is a huge challenge. And, coupled with a growing global population and climate change, it's likely to become even more challenging. (3/26)

Mission to Europa Gets New Instrument to Look for Signs of Habitability (Source: Scientific American)
NASA is changing one of the key scientific instruments on Europa Clipper, its next major mission to the outer planets of the solar system, and has brought in a scientific luminary to lead it, project leaders announced today. Clipper is set to orbit Jupiter and study Europa, the icy Jovian moon, across multiple flybys. Earlier this month, NASA headquarters terminated the mission’s ICEMAG magnetometer instrument, citing overruns in its estimated budget. The move left the spacecraft without an essential tool to study Europa’s interior ocean, where astrobiologists hope extraterrestrial organisms might be found.

Margaret Kivelson, a professor emerita at the University of California, Los Angeles, will lead the effort to develop a simplified magnetometer to replace ICEMAG. The instrument will measure Europa’s magnetic field and gather data on the ocean’s depth and salinity. Kivelson previously led the magnetometer team on the spacecraft Galileo, which orbited Jupiter in the 1990s. She is credited with discovering the ocean beneath Europa’s ice shell. (3/27)

Musk Says Starship Can Support NASA Moonshot (Source: Inverse)
SpaceX could send humans to the surface of the moon in just five years’ time, founder Elon Musk declared Tuesday. The company’s upcoming Starship, under development at the firm’s Boca Chica test facility in Texas, is designed to send the first humans to the surface of Mars. Musk believes it’s possible the same ship could host a return to Earth’s nearest neighbor.

“I think so,” Musk wrote on Twitter in response to a question from an account called “Everyday Astronaut.” “For sure worth giving it our best shot! Would be great to have a competitive, commercial program to build a moon base that is outcome-oriented (not cost-plus), so you only get paid for safe delivery of cargo.” (6/27)

NASA Cuts to Europa Mission Anger Planetary Scientists (Source: Nature)
Planetary scientists are angry about NASA’s decision to jettison a key instrument from its upcoming mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa. The magnetometer, known as ICEMAG, was intended to collect data that could help to determine whether Europa’s ice-covered ocean is capable of hosting life, in part by measuring the water’s salt content. But on 5 March, NASA said that it had cancelled plans to build ICEMAG, citing increased costs. (3/19)

PBS Salutes NASA with Summer of Space (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
From “Antiques Roadshow” to “The Planets,” PBS will unfurl its Summer of Space this July to mark the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11. The centerpiece will be “Chasing the Moon,” a six-hour epic about NASA, the space race and the first lunar landing in 1969. In a screening Monday at the Orlando Science Center, PBS presented a segment on the building boom in Cocoa Beach in the space program’s early days. (3/28)

US Air Force Detected Indian ASAT Launch (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Air Force said it was immediately aware of Wednesday's anti-satellite test by India. Testifying at a Senate hearing Wednesday afternoon, Lt. Gen. David D. Thompson, vice commander of Air Force Space Command, said the military's early warning and surveillance network detected the ASAT missile launch at 1:39 a.m. Eastern Wednesday. Thompson declined to disclose the altitude of the satellite struck by the ASAT, saying it might be classified, but noted that the International Space Station was not at risk. The target of the ASAT is believed to be India's Microsat-R satellite, orbiting at an altitude of 260 to 280 kilometers. Thompson later said ASAT tests are "always concerning" because of the debris they create and potential long-term, cascading effects. (3/28)

Indian ASAT Test Condemned by Commercial Launch Customer (Source: Space News)
One company that has flown satellites on Indian rockets criticized the ASAT test. In a statement, Planet said "we categorically condemn" the test because the threat debris created by ASATs pose to the space environment. Some observers had suggested that companies consider boycotting Indian launch services as a form of "corporate social responsibility" in response to the test. This particular test is unlikely to create much long-lived debris because of the low altitude of the satellite, but the test raises the risk of future conflicts involving the use of such weapons. (3/28)

Trump NOAA Budget Slashes Satellite Programs (Source: Space News)
The White House's budget request for NOAA would slash spending on its satellite programs. The budget request seeks $1.47 billion funding for the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS), compared with nearly $1.77 billion in the omnibus spending legislation for 2019 enacted in February. The proposal does include $12.3 million to test "innovative space-based solutions and partnerships" for weather data from polar and geostationary orbit. Neil Jacobs, acting administrator of NOAA, told House appropriators Wednesday he wants to start work now "to design a more affordable and more effective data acquisition strategy" to avoid future gaps. NOAA has yet to release its detailed budget request, which Jacobs said should be released "soon." (3/28)

China's OneSpace Launch Failure Confirmed (Source: Space News)
The first orbital launch by Chinese company OneSpace has been confirmed to be a failure. The launch of the OS-M1 rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, carrying a cubesat from Chinese company ZeroG Lab, failed when the second stage appeared to lose control after stage separation, according to video from the launch site. OneSpace is still investigating the cause of the failure. Had the launch been successful, OneSpace would have been the first private company in China to place a payload in orbit. Beijing-based Interstellar Glory, also known as iSpace, is currently preparing for its first orbital launch attempt, which could come as soon as next month from Jiuquan. (3/28)

Air Force Delays Launcher Procurement to April, But No Further (Source: Space News)
The Air Force says it opposes any proposal to delay its upcoming National Security Space Launch procurement. In testimony Wednesday before the Senate Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee, Lt. Gen. John F. Thompson, commander of the Air Force Space And Missile Systems Center, was insistent that the Launch Service Procurement competition must proceed as planned despite concerns voiced by launch providers that the schedule is too aggressive. That procurement was expected to be released Friday but has now slipped to April. Thompson, though, said it will not be pushed out any further as some have recommended in order to give competitors more time to develop their vehicles. (3/28)

Why a Rocket Company Wants to Locate in Nashville (Source: Nashville Business Journal)
An unidentified launch vehicle supplier is seeking to built a factory in an unexpected location: Nashville. A real estate company that says it's representing a company that makes structures for rockets and "other spacecraft-like probes" who wants to build a 140,000-square-foot facility next to Tennessee State University in Nashville, creating 150 jobs. The proposal requires rezoning land from residential to industrial use, and some local residents said they're concerned about the lack of notice they received about the proposal and how it could change the neighborhood. (3/28)

An Alabama Representative Just Let the Cat Out of the Bag with the SLS Rocket (Source: Ars Technica)
On Wednesday, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine appeared before Congress to talk about the president's budget request for FY-2020. There, Bridenstine faced a slew of questions about the Space Launch System rocket, particularly from representatives whose states have a large number of jobs tied to the program. The questions came a day after Vice President Mike Pence put the SLS rocket program on notice in regard to his desire to send humans to the lunar surface by 2024.

"If our current contractors can't meet this objective, then we'll find ones that will," Pence said. During the House appropriations hearing, legislators from SLS states wanted to make sure NASA still plans to use the rocket for the agency's heavy-lift needs. For example, Alabama Rep. Martha Roby asked for Bridenstine's assurance that the SLS rocket was truly a great rocket the agency couldn't live without: "Can you highlight for us the key reasons SLS is the best approach for these missions and what capabilities it provides that other alternatives cannot?" she asked.

A Florida representative wanted to make sure that his state, home of the Kennedy Space Center, continued to receive lucrative contracts to build ground launch systems. A Mississippi representative was concerned that NASA's plan to accelerate development of the SLS rocket would take work away from southern Mississippi's Stennis Space Center, which is slated to perform key test firings. No one, aside from Bridenstine, seemed particularly concerned about the president's goal of a 2024 human landing on the Moon. (3/27)