June 21, 2019

Trump's Aversion to Senate Confirmations Limits Esper's Acting SecDef Role (Sources: @ArnoldLPunaro, New York Times)
With Patrick Shanahan departing as President Trump's Acting SecDef, Trump has settled on Army Secretary Mark Esper as his new SecDef nominee. Shanahan's departure leaves the U.S. without a Senate-confirmed defense secretary for the longest stretch in U.S. history...at a time of conspicuous need amid various global threats. The Federal Vacancies Reform Act allows that an acting officer may serve in a vacant position for no longer than 210 days under most circumstances. The 210-day clock for SecDef started when SecDef Mattis stepped down on Jan. 1, giving Esper until July 30 to serve in an acting capacity.

If/when Esper is officially nominated, he will have to step down as Acting SecDef during the confirmation process. And because he was appointed in an Acting role using a different process (not Title 10, Section 132(b), like Shanahan), Esper may not be able to perform some non-delegable DoD duties that Shanahan was empowered to perform. (6/20)

'Moon Rock Hunter' on Quest to Track Down Apollo Gifts (Source: Space Daily)
After Neil Armstrong took a "giant leap for mankind" on the Moon nearly 50 years ago and collected rocks and soil along the way, Richard Nixon presented lunar souvenirs to every nation -- 135 at the time. Dozens of the "goodwill" moon rocks -- some only the size of a grain of rice, others as big as a marble -- have since gone missing, and Joseph Gutheinz Jr is on a mission to find them. The 63-year-old retired NASA special agent is the "Moon Rock Hunter."

Gutheinz's quixotic quest to track down missing moon fragments intersects with the coups, wars, assassinations and other political turmoil of the past half-century. "The Libyan moon rocks? Gone," Gutheinz said. "Afghanistan's? Gone." The journey features a colorful cast of characters -- from a Texas billionaire and a Honduran army colonel to a Las Vegas casino mogul, not to mention the late Spanish dictator Francisco Franco and the Ceausescus of Romania.

Gutheinz, who teaches college courses in addition to practicing law, retrieved one moon rock himself through an undercover sting operation. His criminal justice students have located 78 others as class assignments. (6/19)

Japan Wants to Launch the First Ever rover to Visit a Martian Moon (Source: New Scientist)
Mars’s twin moons may soon get a visitor. We’ve never landed anything on Phobos and Deimos, but we have taken pictures of their surfaces from orbiters around Mars. Now, a mission headed by JAXA, the Japanese space agency, is set to launch a rover to one of these small moons in 2024 – the final destination is yet to be decided.

The Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission is a spacecraft intended to orbit both moons. The plan is to enter Mars orbit in 2025 and return samples of the moons to Earth in 2029. JAXA is also partnering with the German and French space agencies to building a rover to explore one of them. It will be the first rover to ever land on a minor body in the solar system. (6/20)

Kennedy Out as Head of the Space Development Agency (Source: Space News)
Less than five months into his tenure as director of the Space Development Agency, Fred Kennedy is stepping down from the post and will be returning to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. “Dr. Fred Kennedy has been serving on a detail from DARPA as the director of the Space Development Agency. He has stepped down from that role and is returning to DARPA. An acting director of SDA will be announced soon,” Defense Department spokeswoman Heather Babb told SpaceNews in a statement.

According to multiple industry and DoD sources, Kennedy on Wednesday submitted his resignation to Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Mike Griffin, who oversees the SDA. The news came as a shock as Kennedy had been hand-picked by Griffin to run the new agency. (6/21)

GAO Recommends NASA Develop Contingency Plan for ISS Access Amid Commercial Crew Delays (Source: Space News)
A new Government Accountability Office report called on NASA to develop a contingency plan to maintain access to the station after next September should commercial crew vehicles suffer additional delays. The June 20 report by the GAO noted that both Boeing and SpaceX are making progress on the development of their commercial crew vehicles, including an uncrewed test flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft in March.

But a number of technical issues, coupled with a history of delays, didn’t give the organization confidence the companies would be able to maintain their current schedules. “Both contractors have made progress building and testing hardware, including SpaceX’s uncrewed test flight,” the report stated. “But continued schedule delays and remaining work for the contractors and the program create continued uncertainty about when either contractor will be certified to begin conducting operational missions to the ISS.” (6/21)

Ariane 5 Launches Two Satellites (Source: Space News)
An Ariane 5 successfully launched a pair of communications satellites Thursday. The rocket lifted off from Kourou, French Guiana, at 5:43 p.m. Eastern and deployed the T-16 and Eutelsat-7C satellites into geostationary transfer orbit about a half-hour later. AT&T says its T-16 satellite will replace several existing DirecTV satellites, with no future satellites planned. Eutelsat plans to co-locate Eutelsat-7C with the Eutelsat-7B satellite at the 7 degrees east orbital slot, providing additional capacity to Africa, Europe and the Middle East for a mix of television broadcast and internet connectivity services. (6/20)

France Signs-On to Artemis (Source: Bloomberg)
The French space agency CNES signed an agreement with NASA this week on cooperation on the Artemis program. The agreement, signed during the Paris Air Show, does not specify what roles CNES would play in Artemis. Jean-Yves Le Gall, president of CNES, said there is a "certain enthusiasm" about NASA's plans to return humans to the moon. Firm decisions about Europe's role in the program won't come until a meeting of ministers from member nations of the European Space Agency in November. (6/20)

Parsons Seeks More Space-Focused Acquisitions (Source: Space News)
Parsons is searching for more companies to buy that would further expand its presence in space. The company acquired geospatial intelligence firm OGSystems in January for $292 million, a sign of the company's growing interest in space. Parsons received a contract worth roughly $100 million from the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center in the company's fiscal first quarter, further expanding the company’s newfound space presence. (6/20)

Hawaii Approves Commencement of TMT Construction on Mauna Kea (Source: Honolulu Star-Advertiser)
State officials have given approval for construction to start of a controversial observatory on a Hawaiian mountain. The state's Department of Land and Natural Resources gave a "notice to proceed" for construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) atop Mauna Kea, a project stalled for years by legal disputes and protests by native Hawaiians who oppose construction of the observatory. Hawaii Gov. David Ige said Thursday he expected construction of the TMT to begin later this summer. (6/20)

Harris Corp, L3 Technologies Win U.S. Antitrust Approval for Merger (Source: Reuters)
Military communication equipment providers Harris Corp and L3 Technologies Inc have won U.S. antitrust approval for their merger, the Justice Department said on Thursday. Increased defense spending under U.S. President Donald Trump and the Republican-led Congress is driving contractors to pursue mergers so they have more scale to bid on bigger projects, spanning everything from upgrading computer systems to space exploration.

The all-stock merger will create the sixth-largest U.S. defense contractor, with a market value of $34 billion at the time it was announced in October 2018. The government required that the companies sell Harris’ night vision business to win approval for the proposed transaction. (6/20)

Acting Air Force Secretary: I’ve Always Supported the Space Force (Source: Defense News)
ow that Heather Wilson is no longer secretary of the U.S. Air Force, expect service leadership to hew much closer to the Defense Department’s perspective on the overhaul of military space organizations that includes the launch of a Space Force. “I can tell you one thing: I’ve always supported the necessity of an independent Space Force,” said acting Air Force Secretary Matt Donovan, who before this month held the undersecretary position. “In fact, I wrote papers over 20 years ago advocating for an independent Space Force.” (6/20)

Sunshine State Grows Up, Emerges As Player On World Stage (Source: Forbes)
New York and New Jersey watched a combined 200,000 residents move away in the last two full years. When folks relocate from those two states, the most popular destination for them is Florida. Not coincidentally, Florida recently displaced New York as the nation’s third most populous state. The Florida Chamber of Commerce has noted the state’s gross domestic product has surpassed $1 trillion. That would put Florida in 17th place among the world’s largest economies, were the state an independent nation.

Once highly prone to boom-and-bust cycles, the Florida economy is now far more diverse and robust.  That is directly benefiting the state’s real estate market. While the state economy once rested disproportionately on tourism dollars, Florida GDP today is based as well upon international trade, agriculture, aerospace and aviation. The Kauffman Foundation 2017 Index of Startup Activity reported South Florida occupies the number one spot in terms of new start-up activity. This year, the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area ranks first in business creation among the 40 largest U.S. metros. (6/20)

China’s Moon, Mars and Space Station Missions May Be Facing Delays (Source: Space News)
China’s major space missions including a lunar sample return, Mars orbiter and rover and a modular space station could be facing delays due to an apparent issue affecting rockets required for launches. The Long March 5 heavy-lift rocket is China’s most powerful launch vehicle and was designed to launch large spacecraft to geosynchronous orbits and planetary bodies.

It was being prepared for a third flight in July. The mission would come two years after the failure of the second launch. However that schedule appears to have slipped as the launch vehicle has yet to be delivered to the launch site, with knock-on effects possible for China’s major space plans. (6/21)

NASA Contractors Support Artemis Cost Estimate (Source: Space News)
Companies involved in NASA’s exploration program agree with a recent estimate by the head of NASA that landing humans on the moon by 2024 will require an additional $20 billion to $30 billion for the agency. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine gave that cost estimate in a June 13 interview, saying that spending would take place over the next five years on top of existing NASA budget projections. He didn’t elaborate on what that cost estimate covered or how it was developed. NASA has not provided additional details about that cost estimate or answered media inquiries about it.

Executives with several companies involved in various aspects of what NASA now calls the Artemis program said that overall cost estimate appeared to be reasonable. Frank Slazer, vice president for strategy and business development at Aerojet Rocketdyne, noted that many major elements of Artemis, including the Space Launch System, Orion and the lunar Gateway, are already included in those earlier projections. “One element that has not been in the budget so far was the lunar lander,” he said.

Development of the lander, he said, would likely require most of that additional funding Bridenstine estimated was needed. “The lunar lander, if you go back to the Apollo era, was about $30 billion” in president-day dollars, he said. “So that’s probably about right if you want to think about developing a lander capability.” (6/21)

US Postal Service Celebrates Apollo 11 Moon Landing with 'Forever' Stamps (Source: Space.com)
The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) will issue some very special stamps to celebrate the first moon landing 50 years ago. On July 19, 2019 — the day before that historic anniversary — USPS will issue two new "forever stamps" to honor the Apollo 11 landing, which saw astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descend safely to the surface.

Forever stamps are a USPS concept created in 2007. The service calls them "non-denominational" postage for first-class service, meaning that if the first-class postal rate increases after the customer purchases the stamps, the buyer can still use the same stamps. Each of the two new stamp designs shows an image representing the Apollo 11 landing. The first is based on Armstrong's iconic photograph of Aldrin — and his own reflection — during one of their moon walks. (6/21)

NATO Aims to Make Space New Frontier in Defense (Source: Reuters)
NATO aims to recognise space as a domain of warfare this year, four senior diplomats said, partly to show U.S. President Donald Trump that the alliance is relevant and adapting to new threats after he signed off on the creation of a U.S. Space Force. The decision, set to be taken at a Dec. 3-4 leaders summit in London that Trump is due to attend, would formally acknowledge that battles can be waged not only on land, in the air, at sea and on computer networks, but also in space. (6/21)

Boeing’s Space HQ Move, "Only a Small Number of Executives" Will Relocate to Florida (Source: Washington Business Journal)
Don’t expect Boeing’s plan to relocate its space and launch division to Titusville, Florida, to mean that the aviation giant will be vacating big swaths of office space at its Crystal City campus. Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg called it a major transition for the business as it continues to ramp up space projects like its role as the prime contractor on NASA’s Space Launch System program.

But while Boeing is making a bigger presence in the Florida space community, it won’t translate into a major drain of personnel here. A Boeing spokesman told me that while the company is not releasing specifics, “only a small number of executives” would be making the move to Florida. The move is not expected to make any significant changes to the company’s 453,000-square-foot Crystal City campus, which also houses its Defense, Space & Security business segment and approximately 500 employees.

Company executives also said in a statement Wednesday that the move wouldn’t affect its ongoing space operations in California, Texas, Alabama, Colorado and Louisiana either. (6/20)

Indoctrinate the Children with Climate Science (Source: Quartz)
Environmental activists investigating a semi-secret White House climate science task force uncovered some troubling correspondence: E-mails from a National Security Council official criticizing NASA head Jim Bridenstine’s new belief that climate change is real and connected to human activity. Another missive showed the official, William Happer, encouraging the deputy NASA administrator to take down a children’s educational website about climate change. The NASA boys didn’t respond, at least via e-mail, and the websites didn’t change. But the leadership of one of the top science institutions in the world also didn’t defend their scientists’ work, either. (6/20)

First Space, Then Auto—Now Elon Musk Quietly Tinkers with Education (Source: Ars Technica)
In a corner of SpaceX’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California, a small, secretive group called Ad Astra is hard at work. These are not the company’s usual rocket scientists. At the direction of Elon Musk, they are tackling ambitious projects involving flamethrowers, robots, nuclear politics, and defeating evil AIs. Those at Ad Astra still find time for a quick game of dodgeball at lunch, however, because the average age within this group is just 10 years old.

Ad Astra encompasses students, not employees. For the past four years, this experimental non-profit school has been quietly educating Musk’s sons, the children of select SpaceX employees, and a few high-achievers from nearby Los Angeles. It started back in 2014, when Musk pulled his five young sons out of one of Los Angeles’ most prestigious private schools for gifted children. Hiring one of his sons’ teachers, the CEO founded Ad Astra to “exceed traditional school metrics on all relevant subject matter through unique project-based learning experiences,” according to a previously unreported document filed with the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

In an atmosphere closer to a venture capital incubator than a traditional school, today’s Ad Astra students undertake challenging technical projects, trade using their own currency, and can opt out of subjects they don’t enjoy. Children from 7 to 14 years old work together in teams, with few formal assessments and no grades handed out. Ad Astra’s principal hopes that the school will revolutionize education in the same way Tesla has disrupted transportation, and SpaceX the rocket industry. But as Musk’s sons near graduation age, the future of Ad Astra is unclear. Will Musk maintain interest in the school once his children move on? (6/20)

Ireland Approves Space Strategy (Source: Irish Examiner)
Ireland has published the country's first space strategy. The Irish government's National Space Strategy, released Wednesday, seeks to support the development of "an economically sustainable and expanding space-active industry" in the country in areas from investment to development of talent. Among the goals of the strategy is to double the revenue and employment in space-related companies in the country by 2025 while increasing the number of Irish companies that have European Space Agency contracts from 67 to 100. (6/20)

Peraton Wins NASA SENSE Contract (Source: Peraton)
Peraton has won a NASA contract to provide space networking services. The Space Exploration Network Services and Evolution (SENSE) contract, valued at up to $1.8 billion over five years, covers "full lifecycle communications and tracking services" for the Goddard Space Flight Center. The contract is a follow-on to the Space Communications Network Services contract that Peraton held since 2011. (6/20)

More Public Support for Asteroid Tracking Than Human Spaceflight (Source: AP)
The public believes tracking hazardous asteroids and comets is more important than human spaceflight. A poll by the Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that the public rated asteroid and comet tracking as the number one priority for NASA, followed by scientific research and robotic exploration. Sending astronauts to the moon and Mars, and establishing a permanent human presence on other planets, ranked near the bottom. "It would cost a lot of money to send somebody to Mars," one poll respondent said, "and we have roads and bridges that need repaired here." (6/20)

Blue Origin Performs First Test of BE-7 Lunar Lander Engine (Source: Space News)
Blue Origin has performed the first hotfire test of the engine it plans to use on its Blue Moon lunar lander. Company founder Jeff Bezos tweeted June 19 that the test of the BE-7 engine took place the previous day at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. The 35-second test went as expected, he said. “Data looks great and hardware is in perfect condition,” he wrote in the post, which included a video of the test. (6/20)

Station Mission Planning Reveals New Target Commercial Crew Launch Dates (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
As part of standard planning among the international partners, NASA has revised its Visiting Vehicle plan for all upcoming and long-range missions to the International Space Station. The update includes new planning dates for the first Commercial Crew launches on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and Boeing’s Starliner vehicles, when U.S. crew rotation flights are slated to begin, when Japan’s newest version of the HTV cargo craft will take flight, and when Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser cargo resupply vehicle will make its first trip to the outpost.

The dates presented are found on the most recent Flight Planning Integration Panel (FPIP) document from NASA and are planning only dates. They are not approved, target launch dates, but do give insight into the earliest possible time frames for the remaining Commercial Crew demonstration flights. Of particular note, the FPIP shows Boeing’s uncrewed Starliner Orbital Flight Test (OFT) moving to a launch planning date of Sept. 17.

While SpaceX and NASA continue to investigate the cause of the Crew Dragon’s anomaly suffered on Apr. 20 during a static fire test of the SuperDraco thruster system, the revised FPIP now shows a new planning date target for SpaceX’s crewed DM-2 mission. DM-2 is now tentatively planned for Nov. 15. (6/20)

SpaceX's Rocket Fairing Catcher Has a New Name; Here's Why (Source: Click Orlando)
SpaceX's boat with a giant net designed to catch the company's rocket nose cones has been renamed and its name is a bit of mystery. The vessel formerly known as Mr. Steven is now called Ms. Tree, according to maritime tracking and the Canaveral Port Authority. Ms. Tree is currently docked at Port Canaveral ahead of a Falcon Heavy launch next week with payloads for NASA, NOAA and the Department of Defense.

The giant net on the boat was designed to catch the rocket's fairings, or nose cone, where the payloads are encased. After the fairings fall away, the net will catch the hardware to be reflown. A pair of fairings cost about $6 million and are another way SpaceX can reduce the cost of each launch by recovering and reusing rocket hardware. Theories behind the name change? Gavin Cornwell believes that the ship has been sold to Guice Offshore, which owns and operates nine vessels, three of which are used by SpaceX (Searcher, Navigator, and Quest). Mr. Steven is/was owned by Sea-Tran Marine, which has filed for bankruptcy. (6/20)

Rocket Lab: The Small Firm That Launched the 3D-Printed Space Revolution (Source: MIT Technology Review)
3D printing continues to creep its way into the rocket industry. SpaceX launched its first 3D-printed part, the body of a main oxidizer valve, back in 2014, for example. And Blue Origin is incorporating 3D-printed components into its powerful BE-4 engine. But one of the organizations with the most experience flying 3D-printed parts is Rocket Lab, based in New Zealand and the US.

Founded by engineer Peter Beck in 2006, Rocket Lab is now leading the pack among small-satellite launch companies, thanks to its Electron rocket. Six of the rockets have launched successfully so far—each equipped with nine Rutherford engines that are created primarily using metal 3D printing, as are a number of other elements on board. Traditional subtractive manufacturing methods carve a finished product from a block of material. 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, builds up a shape layer by layer. That makes it possible to create lightweight objects with intricate internal structures that can’t be made any other way.

Beck, now the CEO and CTO of Rocket Lab, sat down with us to discuss his company’s choice to invest heavily in 3D printing and how it’s being used in rocketry today. "We’re in a very unique position, as we’re the only people flying right now. So we’re seeing a huge amount of demanifesting of other paper rocket companies [companies that have yet to fly their rockets] onto us, because people are starting to realize that these companies that they bought launches with are years and years away from actually flying. The road to first flight is brutal, but the road post first flight, into production, is equally as brutal." (6/20)

NASA Confronts Changing Demands with Limited Funding, Shifting Visions (Source: Houston Chronicle)
Lawmakers and experts generally agree that the dearth of grandiose projects at NASA, or the delays and setbacks on the ones that exist, stem in large part from a lack of continuity between presidential administrations. Under President George W. Bush, NASA aimed to reach the moon as a steppingstone for a mission to Mars. Obama ended that project, then Trump redirected the agency back to the moon.

Former Congressman John Culberson, a Republican who lost re-election in 2018, blamed the Obama administration for not seeing through Bush’s Constellation program, citing the “heartbreak for all the wonderful engineers and scientists” at NASA. “It was catastrophic,” Culberson said.

Culberson, who chaired the appropriations subcommittee that oversees NASA, at one point proposed to help solve the continuity problem by setting the NASA administrator’s term at 10 years. The proposal, which never passed, was an attempt to de-politicize NASA and maintain stability between administrations, Culberson said. Burns said he has heard people who work at NASA say they would recognize when a project was destined to come to an end under a new administration and decide to “just wait it out.” (6/19)

Will Humans Really Be Back on the Moon by 2024? (Source: Politico)
Fifty years ago, a Cold War competition between two superpowers motivated the first moon mission. Today NASA is still trying to convince Congress to appropriate money for such a return. Plus, the field is wider now – new international players have since joined the race, and commercial companies have their own plans for space travel. We hosted a live chat on Reddit with space industry experts to answer questions about the new moon race. A key question the panelists answered: What can we gain from going back to the moon at all? Click here. (6/19)

Houston’s Sports Ties With NASA Go Beyond Astros (Source: Houston Chronicle)
Even though it was waged with science and technology rather than balls, bats or pucks, the space race between the United States and Soviet Union that culminated in the Apollo 11 moon landing paralleled Houston’s emergence as a big league sports town in the 1960s — two groups of driven young men, each in pursuit of their dreams.

“It’s like an athlete playing baseball,” astronaut Walter Cunningham said in a recent interview, recalling the ambitious NASA astronaut corps of the 1960s. “You grow up being a baseball player, then if you get paid to do it, that’s wonderful.” The military test pilots who became astronauts and the athletes of the 1960s Colt .45s/Astros and Oilers were joined in the public eye at — where else — the Astrodome, which opened in 1965 as the Manned Spacecraft Center was being built a few miles down the way. (6/20)