April 8, 2019

Chunks of Satellite Destroyed by India Orbiting Above Space Station (Source: Sputnik)
Around 60 fragments of India's Microsat-R military satellite are currently flying in orbit, 46 of which are located above the apogee of the International Space Station (ISS), according to a US Air Force's catalog. The catalog currently includes 57 Microsat-R fragments flying in orbits at altitudes from 159 kilometers to 2,248 kilometers (99-1,397 miles). The ISS orbit apogee is around 400 kilometers. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine slammed the test, saying that it created at least 400 pieces of debris, increasing the risk of the ISS colliding with debris by 44 percent. (5/8)

Science, Commerce, and the Moon (Source: Space Review)
This week SpaceIL’s Beresheet spacecraft will attempt a landing on the Moon, a precursor of sorts for future commercial missions whose payloads will include NASA-selected scientific instruments. Jeff Foust reports that, as scientists and lander developers get to know each other, there’s still some work to do to match up expectations with capabilities. Click here. (4/8)
 
Astronauts vs. Mortals: Space Workers, Jain Ascetics, and NASA’s Transcendent Few (Source: Space Review)
NASA astronauts are almost universally considered to be exceptional people, physically and mentally. Deana L. Weibel discusses this elevation of astronauts above ordinary people, which can even have religious overtones. Click here. (4/8)
 
India’s ASAT Test and Changing Perceptions of Space Warfare (Source: Space Review)
India’s recent test of an anti-satellite weapon got a muted reaction from many other governments. Taylor Dinerman argues that the test demonstrates that space warfare may be something that space powers will have to learn to live with. Click here. (4/8)

Two Rockets Dropped Tracers Into the Northern Lights and the Result was Glorious (Source: Ars Technica)
Two sounding rockets launched from a small spaceport in northern Norway. The two skinny rockets soared to an altitude of 320km, and along the way each released a visible gas intended to disperse through and illuminate conditions inside the aurora borealis. This NASA-funded AZURE mission, which stands for Auroral Zone Upwelling Rocket Experiment, is one of a series of sounding rocket missions launching over the next two years as part of an international collaboration known as The Grand Challenge Initiative – Cusp.

The goal of these flights is to study the region where Earth's magnetic field lines bend down into the atmosphere, and particles from space mix with those from the planet. Friday night's mission involved two Black Brant XI-A rockets, a three-stage sounding booster with a long heritage dating back to Canadian military research in the 1950s. The Black Brant rockets launched within two minutes of one another from the picturesque Andøya Space Center in Norway. Click here. (4/7)

A New Age Of Space Exploration And Business Opportunities (Source: International Business Times)
We might call this new era space 2.0, successor to space 1.0, the first space age that lasted roughly from 1957 through 2000. The differentiating factor between the two is business. The first space age was born of competition between the United States and the erstwhile Soviet Union for geopolitical influence, and while some of that lingers still in the United States’ competition with China, this new space age is increasingly about commercial interest — and that’s a good thing.

Then, the singular focus was putting humans on the moon. Today, we have a vast orbiting network of research, telecommunication and weather satellites, planetary probes, and the International Space Station, all competing for limited funding. Though these programs return vast benefits in terms of government spending in the private sector and stimulus to STEM-related education and more, they are not inherently profitable. Space 2.0, however, will be.

We are already seeing the extended commercial benefits of space 1.0. GPS satellites efficiently guide cars, trucks and seagoing vessels to destinations all over the globe every minute of the day, resulting in increased efficiency and profits. Other satellites provide visual information critical to vehicle fleet tracking, resource identification for mining, and the optimization of farming and agriculture. Weather prediction and climate change dynamics are all created from orbital data. (4/1)

ISS Teeming with Bacteria and Fungi That Can Corrode Spacecraft (Source: Independent)
The International Space Station is brimming with bacteria and fungi that can cause diseases and form biofilms that promote antibiotic resistance, and can even corrode the spacecraft, a new study has found. The station, built in 1998 and orbiting around 250 miles above the Earth, has been visited by more than 222 astronauts and up to six resupply missions a year up until August 2017.

NASA scientists discovered microbes mainly came from humans and were similar to those found in public buildings and offices here on Earth. The study is the first to provide a comprehensive catalogue of the bacteria and fungi lurking on interior surfaces in closed space systems. Microbes are known to survive and even thrive in extreme environments. The microbes that are present on the International Space Station could have been in existence since the station’s inception, he added, while others may be introduced every time new astronauts or payloads arrive. (4/8)

Hypersonic Flight Technology Just Passed a 'Hugely Significant' Milestone at Colorado Spaceport (Source: CNBC)
It has been decades in the making but finally, on March 25, Reaction Engines achieved what could prove to be a pivotal moment in the advancement of air-breathing, high-speed propulsion when its pre-cooler technology was successfully tested at conditions representative of over Mach 3. The breakthrough test—conducted at the Colorado Air and Space Port—comes 30 years after Reaction Engines was quietly formed in the UK around an innovative engine cycle concept to enable access to space and hypersonic air-breathing flight from a standing start. (4/8)

USAF Contract Promotes AI for Space Situational Awareness (Source: Space News)
The Air Force has awarded a contract to a company that says it can use artificial intelligence to improve space surveillance. The $6 million award to Slingshot Aerospace covers customization of the company's Orbital Atlas predictive space situational awareness software for possible military use. The company says its tool will allow the Air Force to shift from routine catalog maintenance of objects in orbit to "a more tactical, predictive solution." The decision to try out a commercial system like Orbital Atlas for space control activities comes as the Air Force seeks to augment government-developed technology to detect and characterize space threats. (4/8)

Buchli and Kavandi Inducted to Astronaut Hall of Fame in Florida (Source: CollectSpace)
Two shuttle-era astronauts were formally inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame Saturday. Jim Buchli and Janet Kavandi became the 98th and 99th members of the hall during a ceremony at the Kennedy Space Center. Buchli flew on four shuttle missions between 1985 and 1991, while Kavandi flew three shuttle missions from 1998 to 2001 and now serves as director of NASA's Glenn Research Center. (4/8)

Astronauts Conduct Spacewalk for ISS Maintenance (Source: NASA)
American and Canadian astronauts have started a spacewalk this morning outside the International Space Station to carry out maintenance of the station. NASA's Anne McClain and the Canadian Space Agency's David Saint-Jacques started a spacewalk at 7:31 a.m. Eastern that is scheduled to last six and a half hours. The two will install a redundant power path for the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm and cables for wireless communications outside the station. The spacewalk is the third and final EVA in a series that started last month, with the first two focused primarily on replacing batteries in the station's power system. (4/8)

SpaceX Drops Protest Against ULA for NASA Launch Contract (Source: Space News)
SpaceX has dropped a protest it filed in February of a NASA launch contract awarded to ULA. SpaceX said in February it filed the protest with the GAO because it believed it could carry out the launch of NASA's Lucy asteroid mission for a "dramatically lower" price than the $148 million contract awarded to ULA for an Atlas 5 launch. SpaceX, though, dropped its protest Thursday, according to GAO's online protest database, but the company declined to comment on why it did so. ULA had argued that it could provide the schedule assurance needed for the mission, which has a one-time 20-day launch window in October 2021. (4/8)

Navy Museum Features Apollo 11 VR Attraction in Pensacola (Source: Destin Log)
The National Naval Aviation Museum has a new Apollo 11 virtual reality (VR) attraction designed to let visitors walk in the footsteps of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. The 5-minute, $10 experience includes climbing aboard the rocket — a row of 12 chairs facing a replica Houston Mission Control — where seats shake, pitch and roll to simulate the feeling of being hurled into space. After launch, riders get a 360 degree view of earth and space while heading to the moon. Animation of the historic 1969 landing allows guests to see what the astronauts might have witnessed and felt while on the moon’s surface. This year is the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. (4/5)

Rocket Fuel That's Cleaner, Safer and Still Full of Energy (Source: Space Daily)
It may be possible to create rocket fuel that is much cleaner and safer than the hypergolic fuels that are commonly used today. And still just as effective. The new fuels use simple chemical "triggers" to unlock the energy of one of the hottest new materials, a class of porous solids known as metal-organic frameworks, or MOFs. MOFs are made up of clusters of metal ions and an organic molecule called a linker.

Satellites and space stations that remain in orbit for a considerable amount of time rely on hypergols, fuels that are so energetic they will immediately ignite in the presence of an oxidizer (since there is no oxygen to support combustion beyond the Earth's atmosphere). The hypergolic fuels that are currently mainly in use depend on hydrazine, a highly toxic and dangerously unstable chemical compound made up of a combination of nitrogen and hydrogen atoms. Despite precautions, around 12,000 tons of hydrazine fuels end up being released into the atmosphere every year by the aerospace industry.

"This is a new, cleaner approach to making highly combustible fuels, that are not only significantly safer than those currently in use, but they also respond or combust very quickly, which is an essential quality in rocket fuel," says Tomislav Frisci. "Although we are still in the early stages of working with these materials in the lab, these results open up the possibility of developing a class of new, clean and highly tunable hypergolic fuels for the aerospace industry," says Hatem Titi, a post-doctoral fellow who works in Frisci's lab. (4/8)

NASA's $17-Billion Moon Rocket May Be Doomed Before it Ever Gets to the Launch Pad (Source: NBC)
NASA has been toiling away on a monster rocket for the past eight years — but how much action the skyscraper-size Space Launch System will see once it’s completed is now anybody’s guess. SLS will be bigger and more powerful than any rocket since the Saturn V behemoth that took the Apollo astronauts to the moon 50 years ago. NASA has said the rocket will send Americans back to the lunar surface as early as 2024, with an uncrewed test flight tentatively scheduled for 2020.

But the orange-and-white rocket has fallen three years behind schedule — and is way over budget. Almost $17 billion has been spent so far on the space vehicle, which was projected to cost $10.6 billion when its construction was approved in 2011. Experts say each SLS flight will cost at least $1 billion, or about 11 times more than SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket. Laura Seward Forczyk of Astralytical blames so-called cost-plus contracts, in which NASA pays SLS contractors for all project expenses plus a fee that allows them to earn a profit even if there are cost overruns or delays.

Given the problems, has the time come to scrap the SLS and rely on commercial rockets to put astronauts back on the moon? Some key stakeholders seem to be wondering just that. Ditching the SLS may be difficult, given the political clout of the members of Congress representing districts in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi where the rocket components are being built and tested. (4/8)

Florida Lt. Gov. Nuñez Pushes for Florida as Headquarters for U.S. Space Force (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez said Florida is “uniquely positioned” to become the headquarters of the proposed U.S. Space Force following a tour of public and private space facilities Friday. Nuñez, who oversees the state’s Space Florida partnership, said in an interview with the Sentinel on Friday that Florida has both the readiness and the capacity to compete with Colorado, Alabama, and other bidders to become the headquarters of the U.S. Air Force-affiliated military branch.

“Really the onus is on us as a state,” Nuñez said. “The governor is going to make a really hard and strong pitch and has already sent a formal request and continues to talk with everyone in the [Trump] administration.” The space industry, she said, has a “mutually symbiotic” relationship with Florida that has only increased as private space companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin have started launching rockets from Kennedy Space Center. The spillover effect from the industry also helps out much of the rest of the state, she added. (4/5)

Two Veteran Space Shuttle Astronauts Inducted Into Hall of Fame (Source: Florida Today)
Both were from small towns in middle America destined for great things. Janet Kavandi remembers looking up at the night sky from rural Missouri where the Milky Way would be on full display. James Buchli came home from a 13-month tour of Vietnam to a below-freezing North Dakota winter.

Together, they would uproot and go on to fly more than a combined 20 million miles in orbit, circling the earth hundreds of time each. Buchli flew four shuttle missions between 1985 and 1991. Kavandi flew three between 1998 and 2001. The two longtime Space Shuttle astronauts were inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame on Saturday as part of the 18th class of space explorers to be recognized. Only 99 astronauts ever have been inducted. (4/6)

Amazon Hired Former SpaceX Management for Bezos' Satellite Internet (Source: CNBC)
Amazon’s satellite internet plan is increasingly looking like the one Elon Musk has at SpaceX, with thousands of spacecraft that are compact in size. Among the reasons for the similarities, people tell CNBC, is that Jeff Bezos has hired some of Musk’s previous senior management. Former SpaceX vice president of satellites Rajeev Badyal and a couple members of his team are now leading Amazon’s Project Kuiper, people familiar with the situation told CNBC.

Project Kuiper represents Bezos’ plan to launch 3,236 small satellites into space to provide high-speed internet to anywhere in the world. The plan puts Amazon in the middle of a race among at least five other companies aiming to launch next-generation satellite networks with global broadband coverage.

Badyal previously ran the “Starlink” division at SpaceX, which launched its first two test satellites last year.  SpaceX initially planned for the network to consist of a similar constellation of 4,425 satellites in low Earth orbit. Late last year, the FCC approved an addition of 7,518 satellites to the constellation, bringing Starlink’s planned total to 11,943 satellites in orbit. (4/7)

National Security: An Industry Where Fair Markets Just Don't Cut It (Source: The Hill)
Everyone loves the feeling of sipping their fair-market coffee while having a breakfast of sustainably-grown toast, free-range chicken eggs and locally-sourced greens. We love that feeling because we know that somewhere, someone is having a better life because we are helping local businesses around the world become more competitive in the increasingly cutthroat global market.

This is the epitome of free trade supporting fair trade. We assist the small business owners because that is where we choose to spend our hard-earned money. But when the government begins to use this purchasing model, especially in the national defense industry, problems in the market start to arise. When it comes to protecting America’s homeland, we expect the highest standards and best quality services available — bar none. In the case of national security, “fair” markets just don’t cut it. Click here. (4/5)

Trump's Space Revolution (Source: American Thinker)
Prior to his inauguration, President Trump promised America plenty of winning, and when it comes to the space industry, that is exactly what he’s delivered. America is once again leading the free world. Whether it be the scientific discoveries, technological innovations, or military capabilities needed to expand America’s influence into the final frontier, the Trump administration is fostering those processes. As a result, the United States is on the cusp of a space revolution. Click here. (4/7) https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/04/trumps_space_revolution.html

NASA Resumes Cooperation with ISRO After ASAT Test (Source: Space News)
NASA suspended cooperation with its Indian counterpart in one area in the immediate aftermath of India’s March 27 anti-satellite test, only to reinstate it less than a week later. In a letter to K. Sivan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Al Condes, NASA associate administrator for international and interagency relations, said that NASA was suspending its participation in a working group between the two agencies related to human spaceflight issues, two days after India announced it had intercepted one of its satellites with a ground-launched missile. (4/7)