May 14, 2019

Cost of Delta 4 Heavy Launches is Down But the Real Price is a Secret (Source: Space News)
The Air Force announced May 9 it awarded ULA a $149 million contract modification for a Delta 4 Heavy launch of the National Reconnaissance Office mission NROL-68, the second of three missions awarded to ULA under the Launch Vehicle Production Services contract. Under the $449.8 million LVPS contract, ULA in October 2018 was awarded three NRO missions — NROL-91, NROL-68, and NROL-70 — projected to launch in fiscal years 2022, 2023 and 2024 respectively.

The announcement drew some reaction on social media, mostly from space industry watchers who know that Delta 4 Heavy launches in recent years have commanded a price tag of about $350 million. To observers, the $149 million price for one mission or $449.8 million for three Delta 4 Heavy missions did not make any sense. For perspective, the Air Force in June awarded SpaceX a $130 million contract for a Falcon Heavy launch in 2020 of the Air Force AFSPC-52 payload. The explanation is that there is more to the story.

The Air Force’s $449.8 million contract for three Delta 4 Heavy launches is one portion of what the government would actually pay to launch the NRO missions — launches that are funded through multiple contracting vehicles. Although the Air Force says the cost of Delta 4 Heavy launches has come down, it certainly has not dropped by half. (5/14)

Florida Panel Increases Sea Rise Projection (Source: Tampa Bay Times)
A group of local scientists has been working on and off for months to come up with Tampa Bay-area projections for sea level rise. Their verdict: the problem is getting worse. The Tampa Bay Climate Science Advisory Panel, a group of climate scientists that formed in 2014, presented its findings to a Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council committee Monday. They found that the region is likely to face between 1.9 and 8.5 feet of sea level rise by the year 2100. The projections are the group's second round of local sea level rise predictions. The current forecasts are 12 to 18 inches higher than their 2015 estimates on average. (5/14)

Amazon’s Boss Reckons That Humanity Needs an HQ2 (Source: The Economist)
Jeff Bezos wants humans to live in space. On May 9th the founder and boss of Amazon, who also runs Blue Origin, a private rocketry firm, unveiled plans for a lunar lander. “Blue Moon”, as it is called, is just one phase of a bold plan to establish large off-world settlements. It is a vision ripped directly from 20th-century science fiction. Having persuaded people to take other leaps of faith, from shopping online to placing his firm’s always-on listening posts in their homes, he could be just the person to convince millions to leave Earth. But it will take a unique economic pitch.

Unless Mr Bezos obtains the state-like power to order masses of people around, his plans will require emigré Earthlings to leave voluntarily. Their motives need not be entirely economic. The Puritans left Britain for America in search of freedom from religious persecution. Mr Bezos might well find recruits among unhappy minorities—or deeply devoted believers in his vision for humanity. He is not an entirely implausible cult figure. (5/14)

Accelerated NASA Moon Landing Plan Doesn’t Need Canadian Robotic System (Source: SpaceQ)
During the teleconference Bridenstine and other NASA officials taking part in the call including Bill Gerstenmaier, the Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations, emphasized that the international community was wanted, needed and would be an important part of the plan. The new plan with respect to the Lunar Gateway has been modified. In the documents provided to media, it was made clear that changes to the Gateway were coming.

In its summary NASA said “focusing Gateway development on capabilities needed to support a lunar landing of 2024 allowed a scope reduction of $321 million. This budget amendment shifts potential development of additional Gateway capabilities into the future.”

So with NASA deferring elements of the Gateway not needed for the new plan, comes the question of whether Canada’s robotic system is needed to as part of the revised 2024 plan. In a follow-up email with Gerstenmaier, SpaceQ asked, with the updated moon plan and the revised architecture, is the expected Canadian contributed robotic arm (Canadarm 3) one of the capabilities needed to support a lunar landing in 2024? Gerstenmaier replied that “at this point in our planning the robotic arm is not required for the 2024 landing.” (5/14)

Trump Targets Pell Grant Money for NASA’s Budget Boost (Source: AP)
The Trump administration wants to shift money for Pell Grants for college education to fund new spending, including a $1.6 billion bump for NASA to return American astronauts to the moon by 2024. Under a budget amendment sent to Congress Monday evening, the administration would use an additional $1.9 billion in surplus Pell Grant money to fund other budget priorities, including an infusion of new cash for NASA “so that we can return to Space in a BIG WAY!” President Donald Trump tweeted.

A series of proposed changes reverses some of the most controversial cuts Trump’s administration had proposed, including slashing funding for the Special Olympics. The White House can send such requests, called “rescissions,” to Congress to clawback unspent money the administration views as wasteful or unnecessary. Congress, however, must approve. Officials insisted the re-allocation of the Pell Grant money would have no impact on those currently receiving grants, which help low-income students pay for college.

“This does not cut any spending for Pell Grant programs as the budget continues to ensure all students will get their full Pell Grant and keeps the program on sound fiscal footing,” Office of Management and Budget spokesman Wesley Denton said in a statement. With declines in enrollment, the program has a surplus of nearly $9 billion, according to the budget office. The administration proposed a similar cancellation of unobligated Pell grant money for 2019, but later backed off the idea. (5/13)

Air Force Space Launch Funds Reprogrammed to Pay for Trump's Border Wall (Source: Space News)
The Air Force space budget is taking a hit as a result of the Pentagon reprogramming $1.5 billion from fiscal 2019 funds to pay for President Trump’s wall along the U. S-Mexico border. Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan approved the transfer. The Pentagon announced on Friday that the reprogramming was needed to handle the “crisis along our southwest border” and a need to “deny drug smuggling activities.”

The $1.5 billion was pulled from multiple accounts — $681.5 million from two Overseas Contingency Operations funds appropriated for war efforts and $818.5 million from DoD’s fiscal year 2019 appropriations. Shanahan’s move has infuriated Democrats on the appropriations committees who see this action as an end run around Congress’ power of the purse.

Funds are being reprogrammed from personnel and procurement accounts, including $209.7 million from the Air Force’s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program (recently renamed National Security Space Launch) that funds satellite launches. DoD says the funds are available because of the cancellation of the Space Test Program (STP-4) mission. The transfer includes $44.9 million from the EELV Launch Capability accounts (funds paid directly to ULA to support Air Force requirements) and $164.8 million from the account designated for EELV launch services. (5/14)

Parachute Issues for Both SpaceX and Boeing (Source: Space News)
Developing parachutes for commercial crew vehicles has been a major challenge, and so has figuring out what constitutes an anomaly during testing. On Friday, Boeing released a video of the latest parachute test of its Starliner spacecraft, two days after NASA revealed at a congressional hearing that there had been a problem during a tests of SpaceX's Crew Dragon parachutes during a test last month. Boeing said its test, in February, was a success, as had been all previous tests. However, issues with Boeing's tests had been raised at earlier meetings of an independent safety advisory panel. Boeing said that while there had been minor problems during some prior tests, they had not prevented the tests from being successfully completed. (5/13)

Inmarsat Takeover Approved by Shareholders (Source: Space News)
Shareholders have approved a private-equity takeover of Inmarsat. More than three quarters of shareholders voted on Friday in favor of the proposed acquisition by private equity firms Apax and Warburg Pincus and Canadian pension firms CPPIB and OTPP, which valued the company at $3.3 billion. The deal comes after Inmarsat twice rejected offers from U.S. satellite operator EchoStar, saying the offers of up to $4.25 billion undervalued the company. Analysts said that this deal won favor because of a higher per-share price and the all-cash nature of the offer. Inmarsat expects the deal to close in the fourth quarter of 2019. (5/13)

FAA Approves Inmarsat's SwiftBroadband-Safety for Aviation Safety (Source: Aviation Week)
Inmarsat’s SwiftBroadband-Safety (SB-S) satellite communications (satcom) service has received final FAA approval for use in air traffic services applications, the company announced May 7. The approval validates SB-S for controller-pilot data link communications (CPDLC) and follows evaluation of the internet protocol (IP)-based satellite communications service by Hawaiian Airlines and United Airlines on 25,000 flights between June 2015 and July 2018. (5/7)

Aeolus: Wind-Mapping Space Laser is Losing Power (Source: BBC)
Europe's Aeolus satellite was launched last year to gather data to improve weather forecasts, and its observations have unquestionably proved their worth. However, the laser is now degrading and has already lost half its power. Engineers plan to switch Aeolus to its back-up light source in June to see what difference this could make. If the same issues arise, the UK-assembled spacecraft may not be able to complete the minimum three years expected of the mission. "That's the bad news; the good news is that despite the degrading laser, the quality of the wind data is fantastic." (5/13)

New Water Cycle on Mars Discovered (Source: Space Daily)
Approximately every two Earth years, when it is summer in the southern hemisphere of Mars, a window opens: only there and only in this season can water vapor efficiently rise from the lower into the upper atmosphere. There, winds carry the rare gas to the north pole. While part of the water vapor decays and escapes into space, the rest sinks back down near the poles.

Researchers from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany describe this unusual Martian water cycle in a current issue of the Geophysical Research Letters. Their computer simulations show how water vapor overcomes the barrier of cold air in the middle atmosphere of Mars and reaches higher air layers. This could help to understand why Mars - unlike Earth - has lost most of its water.

Billions of years ago, Mars was a planet rich in water with rivers and even an ocean. Since then, our neighboring planet has changed dramatically: today, only small amounts of frozen water exist in the ground; in the atmosphere, water vapor occurs only in traces. All in all, the planet may have lost at least 80 percent of its original water. In the upper atmosphere of Mars, ultraviolet radiation from the Sun split water molecules into hydrogen (H) and hydroxyl radicals (OH). The hydrogen escaped from there irretrievably into space. (5/10)

ESA Commits to Vega Procurement (Source: Space News)
The European Space Agency has committed to buying several Vega launches during the transition to the Vega C vehicle. Giulio Ranzo, CEO of Avio, manufacturer of the small launch vehicle, said the same ESA meeting last month that provided the guarantees needed to start mass production of the Ariane 6 also provided a similar guarantee for the Vega. That guarantee covers eight launches from 2020 through 2023 of ESA, European Commission and other national European spacecraft. However, production of the Vega C, to be introduced next year, was not at risk because commercial demand was sufficient for Avio to confidently move forward with launcher production. (5/13)

ULA to Carry Inflatable Heat Shield for NASA as Secondary Atlas Payload (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
NASA has found a ride for a demonstration of an inflatable heat shield. NASA and United Launch Alliance said recently they're now planning to fly the LOFTID technology demonstrator as a secondary payload on the Atlas 5 launch of NOAA's JPSS-2 weather satellite in late 2021 or early 2022. NOAA agreed to allow LOFTID on its launch after concluding it posed no significant risk to the mission. LOFTID will deploy an aeroshell six meters in diameter, testing a technology that could be used on future Mars missions. ULA is also interested in the technology for recovering engines from future launches of its Vulcan rocket. (5/14)

Our Shrinking Moon (Source: Scientific American)
The moon is shrinking, causing moonquakes in the process. Scientists reanalyzed data collected by Apollo-era seismometers, and found that a number of quakes were located in the vicinity of faults seen on the surface in images from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Those quakes, scientists said, are likely caused as the moon's interior cools and shrinks, causing the crust to break. (5/13)

An FCC Role in Orbital Debris Mitigation? (Source: Breaking Defense)
The FCC's approval of an Earth observation constellation has triggered new debate about its role in mitigating space debris. The FCC announced last week that it approved a license for a constellation of 120 synthetic aperture radar satellites proposed by Theia, a stealthy startup, contingent on the company providing a more detailed orbital debris mitigation plan.

The approval comes as the FCC is weighing changes to its existing regulations on orbital debris, and questioning if the agency has the appropriate expertise to handle the topic. One commissioner, Jessica Rosenworcel, issued a statement wondering why, if the FCC was weighing its role in orbital debris mitigation, it nonetheless was moving to "rubber stamp" constellations that could place thousands of satellites into orbit. (5/13)

NOAA Envisions Distributed Sourcing for Weather Data (Source: Space News)
NOAA is planning for a future where a variety of satellites may contribute data for weather forecasting. NOAA says it's studying concepts for future systems that look far different from the current ones, particularly in low Earth orbit where small satellites of various sizes could gather targeted observations. In geostationary orbit, replacements for the GOES-R series of satellites, needed starting around 2030, could include a number of satellites that provide imagery and other data, rather than just a few big spacecraft. (5/14)

Protect Solar System From Mining 'Gold Rush', Say Scientists (Source: The Guardian)
Great swathes of the solar system should be preserved as official “space wilderness” to protect planets, moons and other heavenly bodies from rampant mining and other forms of industrial exploitation, scientists say. The proposal calls for more than 85% of the solar system to be placed off-limits to human development, leaving little more than an eighth for space firms to mine for precious metals, minerals and other valuable materials.

While the limit would protect pristine worlds from the worst excesses of human activity, its primary goal is to ensure that humanity avoids a catastrophic future in which all of the resources within its reach are permanently used up. “If we don’t think about this now, we will go ahead as we always have, and in a few hundred years we will face an extreme crisis, much worse than we have on Earth now,” said Martin Elvis, a senior astrophysicist at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “Once you’ve exploited the solar system, there’s nowhere left to go.”

Fledgling space mining companies have set their sights on trillions of pounds worth of iron and precious metals locked up in asteroids, along with valuable minerals and trillions of tonnes of water on the moon. In Britain, the Asteroid Mining Corporation hopes to send a satellite into orbit in the coming years to prospect for nearby asteroids. Precious metals such as platinum and gold could be ferried back to Earth, but much of the mined material would be used in space to build habitats on the moon and make rocket fuel. (5/12)

NASA Would Like You to Record Your Memories of the First Moon Landing (Source: The Verge)
If you remember where you were when astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped onto the Moon’s surface for the first time — or you know someone whose memory stretches back to the summer of ‘69 — NASA needs your help. The space agency is getting ready for the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 on July 20th, and as part of its preparations, it’s asking the public to record their memories of that historical moment. NASA plans to use some of the recordings on its social media accounts and as part of a planned “audio series” relating to Moon exploration and the Apollo missions. (5/13)

Trump Adds $1.6 Billion to NASA Budget Request to Kick Start ‘Artemis’ Moon Mission (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
The Trump administration is adding an additional $1.6 billion to NASA’s $21 billion 2020 budget request to kick start plans to return American astronauts to the moon in 2024, four years earlier than previously planned, NASA announced. In a surprise announcement, agency Administrator Jim Bridenstine said the revitalized moon program will be named Artemis after the Greek goddess of the moon.

“The first time humanity went to the moon it was under the name Apollo,” he said. “The Apollo program forever changed history. … It turns out that Apollo had a twin sister, Artemis. She happens to be the goddess of the moon. Our astronaut office is very diverse and highly qualified. I think it is very beautiful that 50 years after Apollo, the Artemis program will carry the next man — and the first woman — to the moon.” President Trump announced the administration’s supplemental budget request in an afternoon tweet, saying “we are restoring @NASA to greatness and we are going back to the Moon, then Mars. I am updating my budget to include an additional $1.6 billion so that we can return to Space in a BIG WAY!”

NASA, of course, is already in space in a big way with ongoing operations aboard the International Space Station, development of new crew ferry ships to carry U.S. astronauts to and from Earth orbit and ongoing work to develop a new super rocket — the Space Launch System — and Orion crew capsules to carry astronauts back to the moon. (5/13)

Federal Spending Sets Record Through April (Source: CNS)
The federal government spent $2,573,708,000,000 in the first seven months of fiscal 2019 (October-April), setting an all-time record for real federal spending in the first seven months of a fiscal year. Prior to this fiscal year, the most that the federal government had ever spent in the first seven months of a fiscal year was in fiscal 2011, when it spent $2,476,257,690,000 in constant April 2019 dollars (adjusted using the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator).

But even with the April boost in tax revenue, this fiscal year's real total tax revenues, real individual income tax revenues, and real corporation income tax revenues have lagged behind last year's numbers. In the first seven months of this fiscal year, the Treasury collected $2,042,838,000,000 in total taxes. In the first seven months of last year, it collected $2,047, 528,550,000 (in constant April 2019 dollars).

Editor's Note: How much has our recent economic growth been fueled by record deficit spending coupled with tax cuts for corporations and wealthy individuals? The aerospace/defense industry has been in an economic boom period with billions and billions budgeted for federal space programs and military spending, while tax revenues have failed to keep pace. (5/13)

Amid the Talk About Moon Missions, Mars Fans Push for a Share of the Space Spotlight (Source: GeekWire)
As NASA shifts the focus of its space exploration effort to the moon, the advocates of Mars exploration and settlement have a message for future lunar explorers: Don’t get too comfortable. “I do think the moon should be included in the plan for human expansion into space,” Robert Zubrin, president of the Mars Society and author of a new book titled “The Case for Space,” told GeekWire. “But we don’t want it to become an obstacle for further human expansion into space.” Chris Carberry, executive director of Explore Mars, takes a similar stance. “If we spend years and years and years getting there, and then we decide we’re going to stay there for a long time, it could delay Mars by decades,” he said. (5/13)

A Bizarre Form of Water May Exist All Over the Universe (Source: WIRED)
one of the world’s most powerful lasers blasted a droplet of water, creating a shock wave that raised the water’s pressure to millions of atmospheres and its temperature to thousands of degrees. X-rays that beamed through the droplet in the same fraction of a second offered humanity’s first glimpse of water under those extreme conditions. The x-rays revealed that the water inside the shock wave didn’t become a superheated liquid or gas. Paradoxically—but just as physicists squinting at screens in an adjacent room had expected—the atoms froze solid, forming crystalline ice. Click here. (5/12)

Blockchain and Space: the Companies (Source: SpaceQ)
The most prominent player in space-based blockchain and cryptocurrency is Singapore-based SpaceChain. SpaceChain was created in 2017 by Zheng Zuo, Jeff Garzik and funder Tim Draper as a way to “bring blockchain technology to outer space”. Draper has previously invested in SpaceX and Tesla. SpaceChain aims to resolve a perceived issue with space commercialization: that “space technology is traditionally closed off and highly guarded behind government doors”. While progress is being made, the fact remains that access to space-based infrastructure is incredibly expensive. SpaceChain’s founders believe that this is impeding innovative ideas for space-based networking and computing applications and software, and that it may even detrimental to space exploration.

Blockchain can help. Due to the decentralization of blockchain tech, SpaceChain believes that they can help resolve this issue. They are launching a series of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites which will serve as blockchain nodes, creating a reliable spaceborne platform that (in theory) cannot be disrupted, censored, hacked or controlled. And, instead of simply handling transactions, the network will be focused on exploiting the blockchain for a variety of purpose: data processing, transmission, application development and even space-based data storage. The SpaceChain satellite network provides these capabilities using its own open-source operating system (SpaceChain OS) — allowing for application development, testing, and deployment — built on top of Ethereum’s Smart Contract platform. Click here. (5/13)

Musk to Receive 2019 Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication (Source: Teslarati)
Elon Musk has been selected as one of the recipients of the 2019 Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication, an award created in honor of the legendary theoretical physicist for individuals who promote the public awareness of science. The SpaceX and Tesla CEO will be receiving the Stephen Hawking medal at the Starmus Festival this coming June in Zurich, Switzerland.

The Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication is a prestigious award in the scientific community, having been introduced back in 2015 at the Royal Society in London by a panel including the theoretical physicist himself. The medal honors individuals from three communities: the scientific community, the artistic community, and the film community. When he personally presented the medals at the Starmus Festival in June 2016, Hawking noted that the award “matters to me, to you, to the world as a whole.”

Elon Musk will be receiving the Stephen Hawking medal for the scientific community for his “astounding accomplishments in space travel and for humanity,” according to Starmus in a press release. Starmus founding member and PhD astrophysicist Brian May will be personally presenting the medal to Musk, who has been described by noted evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins as a “hero for our times.” (5/13)

Hermeus Announces Plan to Build the Fastest Aircraft in the World (Source: Ars Technica)
A new aerospace company has entered the race to provide supersonic commercial air travel. On Monday, a US-based company named Hermeus announced plans to develop an aircraft that will travel at speeds of up to Mach 5. Such an aircraft would cut travel time from New York to Paris from more than 7 hours to 1.5 hours. Hermeus said it has raised an initial round of funding led by Khosla Ventures, but it declined to specify the amount. This funding will allow Hermeus to develop a propulsion demonstrator and other initial technologies needed to make its supersonic aircraft a reality, said Skyler Shuford.

The announcement follows three years after another company, Boom Supersonic, declared its own intentions to develop faster-than-sound aircraft. As of January 2019, Boom had raised more than $140 million toward development of its Overture airliner, envisioned to travel at Mach 2.2, which is about 10 percent faster than the Concorde traveled. Officials with Boom Supersonic have said its planes could be ready for commercial service in the mid-2020s, and they added that Virgin Group and Japan Airlines have preordered a combined 30 airplanes.

The type of vehicle Hermeus seeks to develop will travel considerably faster, but Shuford said it will rely mostly on existing technology and materials. "We aren't getting into anything too miraculous," Shuford said. "We want to do engineering, not science." Primary materials will include titanium, and the propulsion system will be powered by a turbine-based, combined-cycle engine. Over the next five years, the company plans to work toward a demonstrator vehicle that travels at Mach 5, before developing aircraft for commercial service eight to 10 years from now, Shuford said. (5/13)

Blue Origin Upgrading NASA Test Stand (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
Blue Origin and NASA announced an agreement that would allow the company to test two of its new rocket engines in Alabama. On April 17, 2019, the U.S. space agency announced that Blue Origin is planning to upgrade and refurbish Test Stand 4670 at the Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Blue Origin is expected to use the stand to evaluate its BE-4 and BE-3U engines.

“This test stand once helped power NASA’s first launches to the Moon, which eventually led to the emergence of an entirely new economic sector—commercial space,” said NASA Deputy Administrator Jim Morhard in a news release. “Now, it will have a role in our ongoing commitment to facilitate growth in this sector.” Blue Origin is currently building a rocket engine factory in Huntsville. The use of the test stand would allow Blue to test its engines without having to truck them to its existing test facility in West Texas, near the town of Van Horn. (5/13)

LightSail 2 Set to Launch Next Month Aboard SpaceX Falcon Heavy Rocket (Source: Planetary Society)
The Planetary Society's LightSail 2 spacecraft is ready to embark on a challenging mission to demonstrate the power of sunlight for propulsion. Weighing just 5 kilograms, the loaf-of-bread-sized spacecraft, known as a CubeSat, is scheduled to lift off on 22 June 2019 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. Once in space, LightSail 2 will deploy a boxing ring-sized solar sail and attempt to raise its orbit using the gentle push from solar photons. (5/13)

DARPA Hosts Rocket Contest for Speedy Space Deliveries (Source: Cheddar)
Three space launch firms, Vector Launch, Virgin Orbit, and one anonymous company, will soon race to launch parcels into space faster than ever. The competition is hosted by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Department of Defense's research arm, and signals that the military has its eye on commercial space launch startups.

The rules are simple. The competing teams will learn the location of the launch, to be somewhere in the U.S., a few weeks before it’s scheduled, but what they’re launching ー and where it’s headed ー they’ll only know with a few days notice. The three companies then will each launch the small payloads into a low orbit of Earth. The goal is to make the launch of relatively light parcels, such as small satellites, more flexible, resilient, and mobile. Each team will attempt two launches, which are anticipated to happen in early 2020. The top prize is $10 million. (5/13)

Apollo Rocks Showed How the Moon was Made, and Now They’re About to Solve More Mysteries (Source: Washington Post)
With less than 10 minutes to go before the end of his moonwalk, Armstrong used tongs to pile about 20 rocks into a specialized collection box. Deciding it wasn’t full enough, he scooped an additional 13 pounds of lunar soil into the container. Today, a tablespoon of that soil sits in a sealed dish in a locked and windowless lab at Johnson Space Center in Houston. It is a prized piece of the Apollo program’s greatest scientific legacy: nearly 850 pounds of moon rocks.

For 50 years, research on these rocks has transformed our understanding of the moon, revealing the circumstances of its birth and the reasons for its mottled face. Now, NASA has decided to release three new samples for analysis — samples that no scientist has touched. The upcoming experiments, on vacuum-sealed cores and a long-frozen rock, can be performed only once, at the precise moment the samples are opened. That’s why the materials have been held back since they were retrieved from the moon, said Ryan Zeigler, who curates the Apollo rocks collection. NASA was waiting for the right scientists, with the right technologies, at the right time. (5/13)

Axiom Space Tests Acrylic Sample on ISS in Alpha Space's MISSE Facility (Source: Axiom)
A pair of private American companies brought a key material sample for an upcoming space station from simple concept to testing in space in only six months, in a sign of the burgeoning commercial space industry's responsiveness and agility. Axiom Space and Alpha Space Test & Research Alliance (Alpha Space), both based in Houston, released photos on Wednesday of a specially formulated acrylic sample belonging to Axiom flying on the exterior of the International Space Station (ISS) in Alpha Space's MISSE Flight Facility. It was one of more than 400 samples contained in seven MISSE carriers launched Nov. 17 on the Northrop Grumman NG-10 ISS resupply mission.

Axiom is developing a privately-owned space station that will succeed the ISS. When complete, Axiom Station will serve as the primary platform in low Earth orbit for astronauts, in-space research and manufacturing, and deep space exploration systems demonstration. Alpha Space's commercial, turn-key services give customers like Axiom the opportunity to test materials and equipment in the space environment through the privately-owned MISSE facility. MISSE allows experimenters to expose samples to the extreme cold, heat, and vacuum of space, plus unfiltered sunlight, atomic oxygen, radiation, and potentially micrometeoroid strikes. (5/13)

Blue Moon and the Infrastructure of Space Settlement (Source: Space Review)
Blue Origin held an event last week in Washington where founder Jeff Bezos discussed the company’s Blue Moon lunar lander. Jeff Foust reports on the literal unveiling of the lander and Bezos’ vision of humanity’s future in space. Click here. (5/13)

Apollo’s Shadow: the CIA and the Soviet Space Program During the Moon Race (Source: Space Review)
Throughout the 1960s, the CIA closely followed the Soviet space program to determine its capabilities and intent. Dwayne Day describes how one report from the late 1960s encapsulated what the CIA knew, and didn’t know, about Soviet efforts to go to the Moon. Click here. (5/13)

Should India Pursue a Space Force? (Source: Space Review)
As the United States weighs developing a Space Force, the March test of an anti-satellite weapon by India has some there thinking about its military space plans. Ajey Lele discusses why India should develop its own space force to give military space capabilities the attention they need. Click here. (5/13)