May 10, 2019

Work Begins on New Aerojet Rocketdyne Facility in Arkansas (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
On April 25, Aerojet Rocketdyne broke ground on a 17,000-square-foot engineering, manufacturing and development facility for its solid rocket motors. The new facility, located in Camden, Arkansas, has a proposed opening date sometime in the spring of 2020, and is set to serve as the company’s development facility for future solid rocket motor designs. According to company President and CEO Eileen Drake, the new facility is planned to be the most modern and sophisticated rocket development facility in the country.

Aerojet Rocketdyne is no stranger to Arkansas, having had a presence in the state since 1979. The new facility is set to boost the south Arkansas economy by expanding its 800-person workforce to 900 employees in the state over the next three years, thanks in part to the new facility. Best known for producing the RS-25 engines, which were used on the Space Shuttles and will get continued use as engines powering NASA’s Space Launch System into orbit, Aerojet Rocketdyne was formed in 2013 when Aerojet and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne merged.

The Sacramento, California-headquartered company currently produces several engines for United Launch Alliance’s Delta IV and solid rocket motors for Atlas V rockets. Aerojet Rocketdyne is also producing the solid rocket motor for Blue Origin, known as the CCE SRM, which is used on the New Shepard crew capsule as a launch escape system. (5/10)

Which LEO Constellations Will Survive? (Source: Aviation Week)
Some 80,000 satellites are proposed to begin flying in low Earth orbit, but the talk at the Satellite 2019 was about which companies have the strongest leg up and which launch providers will take them to space. Click here for the podcast. (5/9)

North Korea Tested Multiple Ballistic Missiles in Latest Launch (Source: NBC)
The Pentagon said Thursday that North Korea “flight-tested multiple ballistic missiles” in the second launch of weapons in less than a week. The missiles were launched from northwestern North Korea Thursday evening local time, and "the missiles flew east" for more than 186 miles "before impacting in the ocean," according to the Pentagon. (5/10)

India's Subdued Private Space Industry in ISRO's Shadow (Source: First Post)
India's private space startups seem to be stuck between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand is India’s national space agency ISRO, a behemoth whose contract doles provide vital sustenance to many startups. On the other is the increasingly commercialized side of this very same agency, which has now taken up a new and swanky commercial avatar as NewSpace India Ltd (NSIL), a somewhat indirect competitor-cum-contractor to the same startups.

Over the past few years, ISRO’s been involved in just about everything related to space in the country, from launching its heaviest satellite to building its smallest launch vehicle. However, this jack-of-all-trades act from the agency has left India’s space startups wondering where exactly they belong in the industry, particularly since the launch of NSIL in early March. It was no wonder then that there was some amount of palpable tension at last week’s ORF Kalpana Chawla Space Policy Dialogue as government representatives and space-entrepreneurs gathered under the same roof. (5/8)

Range Rover Astronaut Edition Offered to Virgin Galactic Space Tourists (Source: Auto Week)
What kinds of cars do space travelers get? Yuri Gagarin got a Matra Djet, of all things, even though he daily drove a GAZ-21 sedan. And astronauts in the Apollo program tended to drive Corvettes, courtesy of a special lease program from a dealership on Florida's Space Coast. "Future Astronauts" on Virgin Galactic's flights to low Earth orbit, meanwhile, will be offered an exclusive Range Rover Astronaut Edition built by the automaker's Special Vehicle Operations, before they even go into sub-orbital space.

How will you be able to spot members of the Virgin Galactic Future Astronaut community in traffic? This Range Rover will wear an exclusive Zero Gravity Blue paint, inspired by the color of the night sky. The interior of each SUV, meanwhile, will feature a piece of the front landing skid that actually flew to space in December 2018, during the Virgin Spaceship Unity’s first space flight. A part of that skid has cut into two metal discs, which will now serve as cupholders in the Rangie. (Yes, really).

One of these discs will feature details from the space flight, while the other will reference Richard Branson's "See you up there" quote. Once a passenger has flown on the space flight (flights are expected to start in June 2020), these will be swapped out for parts of the wooden skid from the passenger's own space flight. "The Astronaut Edition Range Rover is the next step on this journey and the chance for the Future Astronaut Community to celebrate our two brands’ shared values of pioneering spirit and true sense of adventure." (5/10)

Bezos: Blue Origin Lander Can Meet NASA's Timeline for Crewed Lunar Landing (Source: Space News)
The lander is capable of carrying 3.6 tons of cargo to the lunar surface, and 6.5 tons in a stretched version. The lander is powered by a new engine, BE-7, that the company has developed and plans to start testing this summer. Bezos said he endorsed the administration's new goal of landing astronauts on the moon by 2024, and that the company can meet that timeline with its lander. (5/10)

Pentagon Disputes High Space Force Cost Estimates (Source: Space News)
The Pentagon is disputing Space Force cost estimates by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) that are much higher than its own. A CBO report Wednesday concluded establishing the Space Force, U.S. Space Command and Space Development Agency would cost up to $1.9 billion a year, as well as one-time costs of up to $4.7 billion. A Pentagon spokesman said the CBO used different assumptions in its report from those in the Defense Department's proposal, and that the Pentagon "proposed a lean organizational structure" intended to reduce bureaucratic growth and costs. (5/10)

Bezos: Moon Beats Mars for Earth Linkage (Source: Space News)
"You're far enough away that you're not going to be able to do realtime communications with Earth. You're going to be limited by speed of light lag. You're certainly — the kids that are here, probably some of the adults, too — don't even think about playing Fortnite with somebody on Earth." (5/10)

ITU Seeks to Speed Spectrum Assignments (Source: Space News)
The international organization that assigns spectrum rights to satellite systems wants to speed up the timeline for deploying constellations. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) aims to introduce more stringent rules this fall to prevent would-be constellation operators from using a single satellite to hoard radio frequency spectrum intended for hundreds or thousands of spacecraft.

The ITU is preparing to adopt milestones requiring constellation operators to launch multiple satellites within explicit time frames to preserve their spectrum rights, an approach similar to that used by the FCC, which requires constellation operators to launch half their approved number of satellites within six years of receiving U.S. market access, and the full constellation within nine years. (5/10)

Vega Mission Dedicated to Multi-Satellite Rideshare (Source: Space News)
Arianespace has completed the manifest of satellites that will go on a dedicated rideshare Vega mission later this year. Arianespace announced Thursday the final contract for its initial Small Spacecraft Mission Service (SSMS) launch, a smallsat called ESAIL for Canadian company exactEarth. ESAIL will join 41 other satellites on that Vega launch, scheduled for September. Arianespace says that first SSMS mission is now full, and a second mission in 2020 is also almost fully booked. The company would like to fly such dedicated rideshare missions on a regular basis, but hasn't established a specific flight rate. (5/10)

Rocket Lab Mission Dedicated to Multi-Satellite Rideshare (Source: Space News)
Rocket Lab says its next Electron launch will be a dedicated rideshare mission for Spaceflight. That launch, scheduled for June, will carry multiple spacecraft for Spaceflight, including BlackSky's Global-4 satellite and two smallsats for the U.S. Special Operations Command. Rocket Lab signed a contract with Spaceflight last year for three rideshare missions. (5/10)

Telesat Seeks 20-25/Month Production Rate for New Satellites (Source: Space News)
Telesat expects the company selected to build its broadband satellite constellation to produce 20 to 25 satellites a month. Erwin Hudson, vice president of Telesat LEO, said Thursday the Canadian satellite operator wants that production rate in order to support a monthly launch cadence, with a goal of 200 satellites in orbit by the end of 2022, when the company expects to start service, and 300 satellites in 2023.

Airbus Defence and Space and a team comprising Maxar Technologies and Thales Alenia Space completed study contracts this month and are expected to submit bids to Telesat this summer for a manufacturing contract estimated at $3 billion to be awarded later this year. Editor's Note: Looks like another opportunity for Airbus to bring business to the OneWeb satellite mass-production plant at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. (5/10)

Maxar Revenues Drop with GEO Satellite Demand (Source: Space News)
Maxar reported a drop in revenues in the first quarter, due in part to decreased demand for GEO satellites. The company revenues of $504 million for the quarter ended March 31, compared with $557.7 million for the first quarter of 2018. The company said the drop in GEO orders, along with completion of a radar satellite constellation and the loss of the WorldView-4 high-resolution imaging satellite, contributed to the decline. Maxar CEO Dan Jablonsky said the company will focus more on "higher value aspects of this continuum" of business, such as data products from satellite imagery. (5/10)

ULA Wins Air Force Contract for Delta-4 Heavy Launch From Florida Spaceport (Source: Space News)
United Launch Alliance has won a contract for a Delta 4 Heavy launch of a National Reconnaissance Office payload. The Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center awarded ULA a $149 million contract modification for a Delta 4 Heavy launch of the NROL-68 mission in fiscal year 2023, from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport.

The contract is the second of a batch of three NRO missions assigned to the Delta 4 Heavy because it is the only vehicle that currently meets the mission requirements for NRO assets, including unique handling at the launch site and mission-unique hardware. SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy is expected to be certified in the coming months, and Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman are developing new rockets, as is ULA. Although ULA is retiring the Delta 4 Medium this year, the Air Force wants to keep the Heavy in service until the mid-2020s to ensure it has a heavy lift capability until other vehicles are ready. (5/10)

NASA Using the Same Space Suits Astronauts Wore 30 Years Ago (Source: Florida Today)
When astronauts Story Musgrave and Donald Peterson conducted the space shuttle program’s first spacewalk in 1983, they probably wouldn’t have imagined their spacesuits would still be in use on the International Space Station some 36 years later. Not only are they still in use but the suits, intended to last 15 years, are currently the only ones available for astronauts whizzing around Earth at thousands of miles per hour.

Now, as NASA prepares to head back to the moon, the agency must scramble to develop a next-generation suit or the next American astronauts will be forced to don some hand-me-down, 1980s equipment. Sure, the suits get updated after six years in orbit or 25 spacewalks, but with outdated technology and only a limited quantity available, the fact of the matter is the nearly 40-year-old suits NASA employs will not serve the needs of future moonwalkers.  

On the local front, Florida Tech researchers have ideas on how to upgrade NASA's spacesuits. In 2016, Ondrej Doule, director of the university's Human Spaceflight Laboratory, along with students and team members, won the grand prize for their design of the interior of a single-person spacecraft in the Genesis Engineering Solutions competition. Editor's Note. Embry-Riddle in Daytona Beach also has a program focused on space suit design. Click here. (5/10)

Old Falcon Rocket Ready to Ignite Imaginations (Source: Ars Technica)
Ten days before Christmas 2017, a Falcon 9 rocket blasted a Dragon spacecraft into orbit. The first stage then performed a series of engine burns and landed safely along the Florida coastline. The core has remained in storage since then. Absent a costly, time-consuming renovation, this "full-thrust" Falcon 9 rocket will never fly into space again. SpaceX prefers to re-fly its newer "Block 5" version of the Falcon 9, which incorporated reuse lessons learned from earlier flights like the ones this rocket core had made. This rocket's job, therefore, was seemingly done.

But William Harris, the president and chief executive of Space Center Houston, thought he knew of a way rockets like this one could still serve the aerospace enterprise, albeit in a different way. Although such a Falcon 9 rocket would no longer fire its engines, it could still inflame the enthusiasm of young people. SpaceX said they would be happy to donate the rocket that flew both the 11th and 13th supply missions to the International Space Station. This particular core also has some historical heft, as it is the first Falcon 9 rocket NASA agreed to fly a second time. (5/10)

Satellite Servicing Industry Wants New Rules (Source: Breaking Defense)
The US needs to create a new regulatory regime that both streamlines licensing and forces the satellite industry to take more responsibility for on-orbit safety, prospective on-orbit servicing operators say. The current network of patchy and complicated regulatory processes is “not good for the space industry,” said Jen Hindin. What many firms see as an overly restrictive regulatory environment for new space activities may lead to “a situation where some companies gravitate to less restrictive regimes,” she said. “It would be good if we had some international harmony and consistency.”

On-orbit servicing – including re-fueling, repair, disposal and even space debris removal – is an emerging market a growing number of companies are preparing to enter. Companies like Space Logistics, the unit formed within Northrop Grumman after the acquisition of Orbital ATK in June 2018; Japanese start-up Astroscale that a month ago stood up a US subsidiary; and UK-based but Israeli-originated start-up Effective Space are all betting serious money that their capabilities will be attractive to both US government (DoD included) and commercial firms, as well as to customers outside the US. (5/9)

Luxembourg Aims for the Stars with US Space Deal (Source: Luxembourg Times)
Luxembourg's efforts to be seen as a serious contender in space exploration received an important boost on Friday, with US secretary of commerce Wilbur Ross and his Luxembourg counterpart signing a deal for the two countries to join forces. There is massive symbolic power in the fact that Luxembourg - with only barely more inhabitants than Wyoming, America's least populous state - has made it to the table with a global superpower that has dominated space travel since the moon landing in 1969. (5/10)

Maritime Microsatellite Inks Launch Contract (Source: ESA)
The first commercial microsatellite developed under ESA’s SAT‐AIS programme for tracking ships, called ESAIL, has passed another milestone. On 9 May its Canadian operator exactEarth signed the launch service agreement with Arianespace. ESAIL is part of ESA’s Partnership Projects and has been developed to enhance the next generation of space‐based services for the maritime sector. The spacecraft will track ship movements over the entire globe as it orbits the planet. (5/10)

Lunar Tunnel Engineers Excited by Boring Moon Colonies (Source: Phys.org)
As space agencies prepare to return humans to the Moon, top engineers are racing to design a tunnel boring machine capable of digging underground colonies for the first lunar inhabitants. "Space is becoming a passion for a lot of people again. There are discussions about going back to the moon, this time to stay," US-Iranian expert Jamal Rostami told AFP at this year's World Tunnel Congress in Naples.

But the harsh conditions on the surface of the Moon mean that, once up there, humans need to be shielded from radiation and freezing temperatures in structures which maintain atmospheric pressure in a vacuum. They also need protection from meteorite strikes. "So every plan for having a habitat on the moon involves making a trench, creating a structure and covering it with some sort of regolith, which is the soil on the moon. Our idea is to actually start underground, using a mechanism we already use on the earth, a tunnel boring machine, to make a continuous opening to create habitats or connect the colonies together." (5/10)

Florida Budget Finalized for Space Florida and Other Agencies (Source: SPACErePORT)
Florida lawmakers last week approved a $91.1 billion budget that includes substantial funding for Space Florida and other aerospace programs despite efforts to reduce such spending by some key legislators. Space Florida receives $12.5 million for operations, from which $1 million is reserved for a recurring Florida/Israel technology grant program. Another $6 million goes to Space Florida for financing aerospace expansion and economic development projects, from which $2 million may be used for operating the Shuttle Landing Facility.

Enterprise Florida, a partner with Space Florida on many aerospace expansion projects, receives $16 million for its statewide, multi-sector economic development efforts. $1 million is provided for "military base protection" grants. Visit Florida survived another contentious legislative session with $50 million to promote statewide tourism...including the increasing number of visitors to the KSC Visitor Complex and tourists coming to see space launches.

Also, $3 million is provided to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University for an Aerospace Academy program, along with $1 million for an Embry-Riddle Hydrogen Propulsion Test Cell. All of these items are subject to line-item veto by Governor DeSantis, who is expected to release a list of veto items soon. Meanwhile, additional annual millions for spaceport infrastructure will flow through a separate five-year planning process coordinated by the Florida Department of Transportation. (5/10)

Bezos Unveils Blue Origin Moon Plans, and Beyond (Source: Space Daily)
Blue Origin's "Blue Moon" lander has been under development for the past three years. It will be capable of carrying scientific instruments and also rovers for humans. The goal is to land on the Moon's south pole, where ice deposits were confirmed in 2018. Water can be exploited to produce hydrogen, which in turn could fuel future exploration of the solar system. Fully loaded with fuel, Blue Origin will weigh some 33,000 pounds (15,000 kilograms), which will decrease to about 7,000 pounds when it is about to land, he said.

Bezos didn't announce a specific date for the project's first launch, but said the lander would be in ready in time to make President Donald Trump's announced timeline to return people to the Moon by 2024. "We can help meet that timeline, but only because we started three years ago," he said. "It's time to go back to the Moon, this time to stay."

The announcement came as Bezos outlined his broader vision to build an infrastructure that would sustain the colonization of space by future generations of humans and shift polluting industries off the Earth. This would involve the construction in space of artificial worlds inspired by designs first proposed by the late physicist Gerard K. O'Neill, one of Bezos' heroes. (5/9)

Blue Origin Plans Tourist Flights on New Shepard This Year (Source: Space Daily)
Blue Origin is working on two other major projects: New Shepard, a suborbital rocket to fly tourists into space; and New Glenn, a heavy lift, partly reusable launch rocket. Bezos confirmed his commitment to fly the first people in New Shepard this year. The New Shepard rocket first reached space last year, achieving a height of 66 miles in April 2018. (5/9)

Vector Aims To Be One of Two DoD Small Launch Firms (Source: Breaking Defense)
The Defense Department’s national security launch needs likely will support only two of the some 150 companies now seeking to enter the small launch vehicle market, competitors say. It seems like a new company enters the small launch vehicle race everyday, but industry officials agree only a few — perhaps as many as eight but quite possibly only four — will survive the general competition, let alone meet the more demanding requirements of the Pentagon.

Rather than the US government being the ‘anchor client’ as has been traditional in space launch, commercial sales are driving the market now, a panel of small launch vehicle industry officials at Satellite 2019 agreed today. As for the national security market, it is likely to follow the model already set by DoD for heavy launch: two prime contractors to provide a modicum of competition and assured space access.

Robert Cleave of Vector Launch Inc. fully expects his company to be one of the winners in the national security market. He says Vector “will be at the right price point for the risk.” Vector was one of the three companies chosen by DARPA in its Launch Challenge to rapidly launch small satellites to Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The other two winners in the first round of the competition for an ultimate prize of $10 million were Virgin Orbit, and a “stealth” company. (5/9)

Google is Also All In to Win the Satellite Space Race (Source: Business Insider)
Jeff Bezos just unveiled Project Kuiper, his ambitious plan to launch 3,236 satellites into space in order to provide the whole world with high speed internet connectivity. But, he’s not alone in this endeavour. According to the Satellite Industry Association, the global market for satellite-based broadband and television services is an $127.7 billion opportunity and the satellite launch services market is estimated to be around $5.5 billion. And, the potential is huge will nearly 4 billion people around the world with underserved access to the internet according to the United Nations.

Google is one of the fiercest advocates of universal accessibility to the internet — something they’re already trying to accomplish by providing free Wi-Fi at railway stations across India. Even though its plans to build a satellite constellation are considerably smaller with only 1,000 satellite actually going up in space. The rest of the broadband network will be managed using ground stations. The satellites will be arranged in two layers — covering 75% of the Earth — so that even if one satellite is temporarily inactive, another can pull the load. (5/9)

Congress Members Slam NASA for Lack of Moon Plans, Say the Agency is 'Scrambling' (Source: Houston Chronicle)
NASA officials still have not provided Congress a plan or budget proposal that would allow for a return to the moon four years early -- even though the Trump administration directed the agency to do so in March. Congressional leaders are getting anxious. "We're flying blind," U.S. Rep. Kendra Horn, an Oklahoma Democrat, said during a hearing of a subcommittee of the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. "The lack of planning evident so far is no way to run a human exploration program."

She added that the new target date "left NASA scrambling to develop a plan and hastening to pull together a budget amendment that still hasn't been delivered." But the answer from NASA still is the same: The proposal isn't ready. And it won't be for "several weeks," said Bill Gerstenmaier, the agency's associate administrator for human exploration and operations. (5/8)

Blue Origin Unveils Blue Moon Lunar Lander Program (Source: Blue Origin)
Blue Moon is a flexible lander delivering a wide variety of small, medium and large payloads to the lunar surface. Its capability to provide precise and soft landings will enable a sustained human presence on the Moon. Click here for a video. (5/9)

President Trump to Nominate Patrick Shanahan to Lead the Defense Department (Source: New York Times)
President Trump will nominate Patrick Shanahan as his second defense secretary on Thursday, trying to cement the acting Pentagon chief against an expected uphill battle with lawmakers and Defense Department officials skeptical of him, White House officials said. The announcement, in a tweet from Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, followed a monthlong Pentagon ethics investigation that found that Mr. Shanahan, a former Boeing executive, had not acted improperly in official meetings when discussing military contractors. (5/9)

Florida Officials to Hold Summit on Luring Military's U.S. Space Command (Source: UPI)
Government officials in Florida organized a summit in Orlando to launch a campaign aimed at attracting the new U.S. Space Command military branch to the state. Titled "Why Florida," the summit's purpose is "to assure we incorporate all of Florida's extensive capabilities, talent and resources to best respond to the requirement soon to be generated," according Space Florida, the state's economic development agency for space.

The event featured over 100 registrants, including federal, state and local elected officials, economic development agencies, and industry representatives. A team of consultants and advisors has been assembled to develop a state-sanctioned response to an anticipated Air Force-led base location effort for the unified command organization. (5/9)

Airbus Launches Training Programs for US Workers (Source: GCAC)
Facing a need for a lot more workers in the coming years, Airbus is launching two new programs designed to employ applicants with little-to-no previous aerospace experience. The programs, FlightPath9 and Fast Track, are intended to train candidates to become workers on the company's A320 and A220 jetliner assembly lines in Mobile Alabama. FlightPath9 is a nine-month program for high school seniors.

It will be run by Flight Works Alabama, which has partnered with Airbus, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Cintas, Snap-On Tools, Southwest Alabama Partnership for Training and Employment, and the National Coalition of Certification Centers. Students will attend training after school during their senior year. Upon graduation, students who complete the program can start their career with Airbus through the second program, Fast Track. Fast Track is a 12 to 15-week program for people with no aviation experience. (5/8)

Fast Radio Bursts: We're Finally Decoding Messages From Deep Space (Source: New Scientist)
"A minor point of interest regarding the Spitler Burst.” The subject line Paul Scholz had chosen for his email was deliberately dry, but the recipients knew instantly what its contents meant. He was sitting on a revelation that would blow open the biggest mystery in astronomy. It was 2015 and Scholz, then a graduate student at McGill University, had spent years scouring radio telescope data. Staring back from his screen was the usual parade of curving lines, each a potential flash in the night sky.

Suddenly, Scholz realized one of them looked familiar. A millisecond pulse of radio waves was blasting from a faraway galaxy with the intensity of 500 million suns – and not for the first time. “It was immediately clear this was something staggeringly important,” says Shami Chatterjee. For a decade after the first discovery of these signals, known as fast radio bursts (FRBs), we had no idea what could be producing them. Suggestions ranged from colliding neutron stars to black holes turning themselves inside out to lasers from alien spacecraft.

Until a few months ago, we had more ideas than detections. Since Scholz’s email, however, the hunt for the source of FRBs has been moving briskly along, with new clues pointing the finger at an unusual suspect and the latest radio telescopes promising fresh leads. Even if the exact cause isn’t identified soon, these mysterious blasts can still help illuminate the universe. (5/8)

Even Astronauts Binge-Watch TV While in Space (Source: The Atlantic)
This time last year, Drew Feustel was weightless, floating from room to room on the International Space Station. When he looked out a window, the view was stunning. There was Earth, resplendent and gleaming against the inky darkness of space. There, beneath silky tufts of white clouds, was the rest of humanity.

But even in this rarefied environment, Feustel sometimes turned his attention to a pastime familiar to us earthbound workers—plowing through every single season of a hit television show. When Feustel and I sat down for a recent interview, the disposable cup of coffee I had set down on the conference-room table in front of us caught his eye. He laughed. The cup, he said, reminded him of something that happened on Game of Thrones. (5/9)