April 5, 2019

Relativity Contracts with Telesat to Provide Launch Services for Telesat’s Satellite Constellation (Source: Parabolic Arc)
Relativity, the world’s first autonomous rocket factory and launch services leader, today announced a contract with Telesat, the renowned global satellite operator, that allows Relativity to play a role in Telesat’s innovative LEO satellite constellation. Telesat will now have access to faster, more frequent and more flexible launches at the lowest cost using Relativity’s Terran 1, the world’s first fully 3D printed rocket designed and built using Relativity’s groundbreaking proprietary 3D printing technology platform.

This is the first time Telesat, or any major global satellite operator, has selected a completely venture-backed aerospace startup for launch services. This contract further solidifies Relativity’s leadership in the emerging NewSpace launch services market. With its reinvention of the rocket-building process, Relativity is positioned to become a valued launch partner for Telesat’s LEO program.

Traditional aerospace manufacturing relies on fixed tooling, a complex supply chain, and extensive human labor. Traditional rockets are comprised of more than 100,000 parts, resulting in expensive, complex rockets that take 18 months or more to build and launch. Relativity is building the first and only aerospace platform to integrate machine learning, software, and robotics with metal 3D printing technology to optimize every aspect of the rocket manufacturing process, disrupting 60 years of aerospace technology. The company’s Terran 1 rocket is built from raw material to launch-ready in less than 60 days, and has 100 times fewer parts than traditional rockets. (4/5)

Falcon Heavy Launch Delay Likely (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
SpaceX’s first commercial launch of its powerful Falcon Heavy rocket will not happen on Sunday evening, according to a report from NASA Spaceflight. The authoritative website reported that the static fire test necessary before liftoff has been delayed until Friday, which means the flight that had been tentatively set for Sunday night cannot happen at that time. SpaceX has not commented and is not expected to do so until the test is completed. The window for the static fire test is from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday, NASA Spaceflight reported. (4/5)

Scottish Satellite Firm Plans Second PocketQube Launch Mission (Source: The National)
A Scottish satellite hub has announced seven customers for its second PocketQube satellite mission later this year. The Alba Cluster 2 mission from Alba Orbital will go into orbit on Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle, with seven PocketQubes integrated into their satellite deployer, the AlbaPod. It comes after the company sold out its first launch, which will also launch in the third quarter of this year. PocketQubes comprise 5cm cubes, which can be stacked to make larger variants and clients from Hungary, Germany, Spain and the US have confirmed their place in the second mission. (4/5)

Revealed: The Doughnut Around a Black Hole (Source: Cosmos)
The blue-to-green approximate oval in the center of this image is a phenomenon long theorized but never before directly seen. It is a thick, dusty “doughnut” surrounding a rotating disk of material that is itself falling into the maw of a supermassive black hole that lies at the center of Cygnus A, a galaxy some 760 million light-years from Earth. In the so-called “unified model” for black holes, the existence of the torus, which is positioned approximately at right angles to the titanic jets extending fore and aft, is deployed to explain why the structures can look to different to observers, despite being pretty much identical. (4/5)

Astronomers Find a Chunk of Planet Around a Distant, Dead Star (Source: New York Times)
In a shard of galactic archaeology that offers a less-than-inviting hint at our own future, astronomers have discovered a chunk of a former planet orbiting the remains of its former star, now a smoldering cinder known as a white dwarf.

The fragment, made mostly of iron, nickel and other metals, lies 410 light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo. It could be a mile, or hundreds of miles, in diameter, but to be dense enough to have survived the explosive demise and subsequent evolution of its host star, it likely was part of a large planet with a wider more distant orbit. Now it circles the white dwarf so closely that it completes an orbit every 123 minutes. (4/4)

NASA Awards Safety, Mission Assurance Engineering Contract to SAIC (Source: NASA)
NASA has awarded the Safety and Mission Assurance Engineering Contract (SMAEC) II to Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) in Reston, Virginia. SMAEC II includes safety engineering, reliability engineering, quality engineering, quality assurance, and software assurance in support of NASA programs at JSC and White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico. These programs and projects include the International Space Station, Orion and Commercial Crew Programs, and the Extravehicular Activity Project Office. (4/4)

Here’s Why NASA’s Audacious Return to the Moon Just Might Work (Source: Ars Technica)
Many rocket builders, spaceship designers, flight controllers, and space buffs have seen this movie before. Both in 1989 and 2004, Republican administrations have announced ambitious Moon-then-Mars deep space plans only to see them die for lack of funding and White House backing. And yet, this new proposal holds some promise. Pence, as well as NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, have adopted a clear goal for the agency and promised enduring political support.

Moreover, they have said the “end” matters more than the “means.” This suggests that whatever rockets and spacecraft NASA uses to reach the Moon, the plan should be based on the best-available, most cost-effective technology. They want to foster a healthy, open competition to help NASA and America reach its goals. The agency’s leadership will try to move fast. Bridenstine has directed William Gerstenmaier to refine a plan of missions and vehicles that could meet the 2024 deadline. Meanwhile, Bridenstine is working with the White House and Office of Management to determine the costs.

The president already submitted his fiscal-year 2020 budget request to Congress more than three weeks ago, so the administration will have to amend the request with respect to NASA’s budget and then submit that to Congress. During a hearing on Tuesday, Bridenstine said he was hoping to get this amendment to Congress by April 15. This will provide the first outline of the new Moon program’s cost, although early estimates suggest it may require $2 to $4 billion annually on top of NASA’s present budget of $21 billion a year. Click here. (4/5)

Japan Drops Explosive on Asteroid (Source: Asahi Shimbun)
Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft dropped an explosive on the asteroid Ryugu last night, but it may be weeks before scientists know what kind of crater it created. A device called the Small Carry-on Impactor (SCI) separated from Hayabusa2 at an altitude of 500 meters and descended toward the surface. A separate camera detached from the spacecraft returned images of rocks being thrown up from the surface at the expected time, suggesting SCI worked as planned. Hayabusa2 moved to the other side of the asteroid at the impact time to avoid any debris, and will revisit the impact site in the coming weeks. The spacecraft could touch down in the crater in May to collect samples for later return to Earth. (4/4)

Florida Tech's New Graduate Program Trains Next Generation Space Entrepreneurs (Source: WMFE)
There’s a lack of business leaders in the space industry. Florida Tech’s Andy Aldrin said the education system does a great job training new scientist and engineers — but there’s also a need for managers and innovators. A new graduate program at Florida Tech aims to fill that gap. The University teamed up with the International Space University to offer a 7-week, intensive training in finance, policy and management. The courses are held at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Click here. (4/4)

UCF Researchers Develop Way to Control Speed of Light, Send it Backward (Source: Phys.org)
University of Central Florida researchers have developed a way to control the speed of light. Not only can they speed up a pulse of light and slow it down, they can also make it travel backward. This achievement is a major step in research that could one day lead to more efficient optical communication, as the technique could be used to alleviate data congestion and prevent information loss.

And with more and more devices coming online and data transfer rates becoming higher, this sort of control will be necessary. Previous attempts at controlling the speed of light have included passing light through various materials to adjust its speed. The new technique, however, allows the speed to be adjusted for the first time in the open, without using any pass-through material to speed it up or slow it down.

The researchers were able to develop the technique by using a special device known as a spatial light modulator to mix the space and time properties of light, thereby allowing them to control the velocity of the pulse of light. The mixing of the two properties was key to the technique's success. "We're able to control the speed of the pulse by going into the pulse itself and reorganizing its energy such that its space and time degrees of freedom are mixed in with each other," Abouraddy said. (4/4)

NASA Test-Fires Megarocket Engine That May Take Astronauts to the Moon (Source: Space.com)
Water vapor poured across the Mississippi landscape as NASA ground-tested an engine type that may bring astronauts to the moon in the next three years. The agency fired up its RS-25 engine at Stennis Space Center, near the Mississippi-Louisiana border. The test is part of a larger effort to get the massive Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket ready to bring astronauts to the moon in the 2020s for the Lunar Gateway space station, culminating in a possible landing on the moon in 2024 if the Trump administration's wishes are carried out in time. (4/4)

Scientists Find Origin of Powerful ‘Gamma Ray Burst’ With As Much Energy as the Sun Will Release in a Lifetime (Source: Yahoo)
Astronomers have worked out the origin of ‘long gamma ray bursts’, the most powerful electomagnetic phenomena in the universe. The bursts release as much energy in a second or so as the Sun will release over its entire lifetime. Scientists used simulations to work out that the photons emitted by the bursts come from the visible surface of high-speed jets, emitted as massive stars tear themselves apart.

Researchers used supercomputers to simulate how the gamma rays were released – and if it made sense that they came from the surface of jets released from the dying star. It’s known as ‘photospheric’ emission, where the rays come from the surface of the jets as they expand. (4/4)

Four New Satellites Ride Into Space To Join Growing SES Constellation (Source: Space.com)
An Arianespace Soyuz rocket delivered four communications satellites into space. The four new satellites, which operate in the Ka-band, will soon join the rest of the O3b constellation at an orbit of about 8,000 kilometers above Earth, or roughly 20 times the height of the orbit of the International Space Station. Arianespace said that these satellites will serve customers in almost 50 countries. (4/4)

Australia Hopes to Kick Start Space Industry with New Strategy (Source: ZDnet)
The federal government has published its plan to transform and grow Australia's space industry over the next 10 years, starting with forging international partnerships and developing roadmaps for areas highlighted as priority for launching the local scene. The Advancing Space: Australian Civil Space Strategy 2019-2028 is built on four so-called Strategic Space Pillars: Open the door internationally; develop national capability in areas of competitive advantage; ensure safety and national interest are addressed; and inspire and improve the lives of all Australians. Click here. (4/3)

This New Barbie Doll Launches Real-Life Astronaut's Face Into a Toy World (Source: Space.com)
Space enthusiasts may recognize the face of a new Barbie doll touring at special events around the world; she looks just like European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti. The agency and Mattel, the company that makes Barbie, partnered to create two Cristoforetti-look-alike dolls in honor of Barbie's 60th "birthday" this year, according to a statement from the ESA. One of the dolls wears a stylized reproduction of NASA's Extravehicular Mobility Unit, the suit that astronauts wear on spacewalks, and the other Barbie wears a blue ESA flight suit complete with patches from the agency.

Mattel Italia debuted these two unique Barbies at a special event on the International Day of the Girl, Oct. 11, 2018. Last month, the Barbies appeared at the International Women's Day Gala of Professional Women International Brussels and at the Elle magazine Power Girl event in Paris. (4/2)

NASA ‘Aims to Put People on Mars by 2033’ After Dash to Moon (Source: Yahoo)
NASA hopes to accelerate its efforts to explore space – with an aim to send astronauts to Mars by 2033, said Jim Bridenstine. The new goal could be made possible by NASA’s new mission to explore the Moon by 2024 – giving the space agency an opportunity to test new technologies. NASA’s budget includes a new ‘Lunar Gateway’ space station which will orbit the Moon by the mid-2020s. NASA initially planned to put people on the moon by 2028, but the Trump administration suggested a new deadline of 2024. Editor's Note: This seems unlikely if NASA intends to establish a sustained presence on the Moon, including the Gateway. (4/4)

Amazon Joins SpaceX, OneWeb and Facebook in Race to Create Space-Based Internet Services (Source: Tech Crunch)
Amazon is officially joining the race to create a network of satellites in low Earth orbit that will provide high-speed terrestrial internet services. The company has filed its first papers with the U.S. government for approval to launch a network of 3,236 satellites through a subsidiary called Kuiper Systems LLC. “Project Kuiper is a new initiative to launch a constellation of Low Earth Orbit satellites that will provide low-latency, high-speed broadband connectivity to unserved and underserved communities around the world.” (4/4)