June 24, 2019

Bell to Repay Louisiana $9.5 Million for Failing to Meet Incentive Job-Creation Target (Source: GCAC)
Bell Helicopters, which operated an assembly facility next to Lafayette Regional Airport, has agreed to pay the state some $9.5 million over its failure to meet job-creation goals. The state’s Economic Development Agency cut ties with Bell in 2017. The state had given the company tax credits to open the Lafayette facility in a deal originally announced in 2013, but it depended on Bell attaining certain employment goals, which it failed to do. The company moved its operations to Texas. Swiss Helicopter Company Kopter Group AG is moving into the location. (Source: KADN, 06/21/19) Gulf Coast note: Lafayette is two hours west of New Orleans along Interstate 10. (6/23)

SpaceX Launch Carries Human Cremains for Memorial Flight (Source: Business Insider)
SpaceX's Falcon Heavy carries 24 satellites into orbit around Earth — as well as the ashes of 152 dead people. The launch of cremated remains is facilitated by a company called Celestis Memorial Spaceflights, which purchases available room on spacecraft, installs a container, then packs it with small metal capsules filled with ashes. It refers to these as " participants." The ash capsules are stowed on the same spacecraft as NASA's atomic clock payload. (6/22)

NASA Seeks Proposals for Commercial ISS Modules (Source: Space News)
NASA issued a call for proposals for commercial modules that could be added to the International Space Station, although one industry executive warns that such facilities may not be as lucrative as NASA believes. NASA issued a call for proposals June 21 for “commercial destination development in low Earth orbit using the International Space Station.”

The solicitation is an appendix to the agency’s Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP), a program that uses public-private partnerships to develop key exploration-related technologies. Under the solicitation, NASA will eventually make available a docking port on the Node 2, or Harmony, module on the ISS for use by a commercial module. The language in the solicitation leaves open the possibility of establishing a “commercial segment” of the station there, consisting of multiple commercially developed elements. (6/23)

Houston, We Have a Cookie (Source: Doubletree)
At DoubleTree by Hilton, we pride ourselves on hospitality that’s out-of-this-world. That’s why we’re embarking on a mission to make our signature, warm DoubleTree cookie the first food baked fresh in outer space. Now, we’re bringing that light and warmth to the final frontier—the first step in making space travel more hospitable. Our goal is to test how food behaves when it’s baked in microgravity. Will our cookies be flat? Spheres? Fluffy or dense? But, that’s the fun of science and space!

DoubleTree is committed to a brighter future on Earth, too. We’ve partnered with Scholastic to bring a space-age curriculum and competition to 50,000 middle-school classrooms across America. Students will learn about the challenges of living in space and are encouraged to think creatively about hospitality within space travel. (6/24)

Florida Governor Signs Workforce Apprenticeships Bill at Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: WFTV)
Gov. Ron DeSantis was at the Space Florida offices in Merritt Island Monday to sign a bill. The bill was created to increase apprenticeship training opportunities in the Space Coast, and will help students plan for careers, even if they don't want to seek a four-year college degree. “I think this bill is a step in the right direction,“ DeSantis said.

Besides promoting career and technical training, the new law will also require that high schools teach financial literacy and allow students to use computer science courses to help meet math and science graduation requirements. “We applaud the passage and the signing of this bill,” a representative of Space Florida said. The bill will also provide help for students who want to return to college if they are a few credits short of earning a degree. It requires that schools provide a course in career and education training for middle school students.

“I think these apprenticeships are really important because as student's develop knowledge in the classroom, and they are put in these environments, that's really the best way to learn,” DeSantis said. DeSantis also said the bill is a part of his commitment in making Florida number 1 in workforce education by 2030. (6/24)

Gov. DeSantis Says Trump Can Override the Air Force to Bring Space Command to Florida (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is not done fighting for Florida to be the home of the newly formed Space Command, despite the U.S. Air Force’s insistence that only Colorado, California and Alabama are still in the running. The nation’s 11th combatant command doesn’t have a headquarters yet, but the Air Force — the military branch overseeing Space Command — last month released its shortlist of six potential sites it’s still eyeing. Despite an aggressive campaign by the state to pursue the headquarters, Florida didn’t make the list.

But speaking on Merritt Island on Monday morning, DeSantis contradicted that information, suggesting that Florida still had a chance — if the governor can convince President Donald Trump to make the final call. “I went to the president early on, I said, ‘Mr. President, they’re going to do this process ...if that’s it, that’s the process and that’s what’s going to happen, I’ll respect that. But I think it’s your decision,'” DeSantis said. “And he made it very clear that it is his decision to make.” (6/24)

Musk Says People Can Buy Seats to Mars After the First Orbital Starship Prototype Completes its Test Flight (Source: Business Insider)
SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk tweeted Sunday that people can start reserving seats to Mars as soon as Starship, the next big rocket that SpaceX is building, returns from its first orbit around Earth. Musk tweeted that the development of Starship is being accelerated to build the "Martian Technocracy." When another user asked if people can start reserving places, Musk said, "After Starship returns from orbit." (6/24)

NASA Mars Rover Finds Possible Sign Of Life In Martian ‘Puff Of Smoke’ (Source: IB Times)
Mars may finally be showing signs that life exists in the Red Planet. New measurements taken by NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity show unusual amounts of methane gas in the Martian atmosphere. Back here on Earth, methane often signals the existence of living microbes. The report shows that the new measurements arrived late last week yet NASA is still to announce the findings. “Given this surprising result, we’ve reorganized the weekend to run a follow-up experiment,”  wrote Ashwin R. Vasavada.

To get more information regarding Mars’ methane content, the controllers based on Earth have sent new instructions to the rover last Friday. The new instructions aim to further explain the result of the initial readings. The team expects the new reading to arrive early this week. Methane gas is usually a byproduct of microbes called methanogens which survive in rocks found deep underground in Earth and even in digestive tracts of animals. Methane can also be produced via geothermal reactions so some reports say that the Curiosity rover might have just encountered a small packet of methane gas. (6/23)

NASA's New Supersonic Jet Will Be Missing a Front Window (Source: Science Alert)
When it comes to supersonic aircraft, engineers aren't afraid to go with a weird design if it will get them a faster plane. In the latest installment of such feats, NASA's X-59 QueSST has taken the shape of a pencil with wings. The aircraft's shape brings with it some interesting questions. For example, if the cockpit is meters and meters away from the nose, how do you see out the front of it? Well, according to a NASA press statement, the solution is a 4K TV and a couple of cameras. (6/23)

Dark Matter May Have Punched a Hole in the Milky Way (Source: Astronomy)
A massive clump of dark matter may have plowed through a conga line of stars streaming around the Milky Way, according to new research. The research, led by Ana Bonaca, reveals a curious abnormality in an otherwise uniform stream of stars orbiting in the Milky Way’s outer halo. Specifically, the researchers found an odd kink within the stream that they think was caused by a “close encounter with a massive and dense perturber,” according to the presentation’s abstract.

Because there are no obvious culprits made of normal matter that fit the bill, the researchers believe the intervening object could be a 5 million-solar-mass blob of dark matter that ripped through the stream at over 500,000 miles (800,000 kilometers) per hour roughly half a billion years ago. Although this theory is far from confirmed, the unique observation does open the door to the possibility of using stellar streams like this one to constrain the properties of dark matter in the Milky Way. (6/12)

Our Fate Is in the Stars (Source: American Scholar)
As much as the Apollo program inspires, it also taunts. The unity of purpose, the technological virtuosity, and the exploratory achievements seem beyond us today—not just in space, but in every domain. I almost wish we didn’t remember Apollo, because the remembrances fill a void. The space program still does amazing things, but nothing like Apollo. The world has made itself a safer and healthier place, but some problems demand direction from the top, and we don’t get much of that.

You don’t have to be a space lover to think so. Apollo had detractors, especially on the political left, who complained that the money should have been spent on fighting poverty. But there never was a straight choice between the two. We could do both—in fact, we did. As Fishman points out, while the U.S. government was funding moon rockets, it was also thinking big in social policy: the Voting Rights Act, the Clean Air Act, Medicare and Medicaid. When it withdrew from space, it pulled back from such initiatives, too. Public investments of all sorts tend to sink or swim together. (6/3)

Stratolaunch For Sale (Source: Ars Technica)
Holding company Vulcan is seeking to sell Stratolaunch for $400 million, people familiar with the matter told CNBC. Vulcan is the investment conglomerate of late billionaire and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Allen died last October following complications of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The price includes ownership of the airplane as well as the intellectual property and facilities.

Who will buy? ... It is not clear who might emerge as a buyer, although the report suggests that Virgin's Richard Branson has offered $1 for the airplane. This is an unfortunate, but probably predictable, development for a company that never seemed to make that much sense from a business standpoint: using a very large airplane to launch relatively small rockets. (6/21)

SpinLaunch Joins Cadre of Small Launch Companies DoD Wants to Try Out (Source: Space News)
Startup SpinLaunch is the latest small launch provider that has partnered with the Defense Innovation Unit to help the military figure out how to use and acquire these companies’ services. SpinLaunch announced June 19 that it received an “other transaction authority,” or OTA cost-sharing contract from DIU, the Pentagon’s technology outreach office in Silicon Valley. RocketLab and Vox Space previously announced they entered OTA agreements with DIU.

A fourth provider was selected but its name has not been disclosed. A DIU spokesperson said the organization leaves it up to awardees to announce contracts. The Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center in 2017 asked DIU for help figuring out how to work with emerging small launch providers after Congress inserted $15 million into the Pentagon’s budget for the “Rapid Agile Launch Initiative.” DIU sought proposals from vendors for “responsive launch” options and selected four from a total of 24 submissions.

DIU defines responsive launch as “low-cost, precise, and on-demand deployment of small payloads into space.” Small launch provider RocketLab on May 5 lifted three experimental Air Force satellites to orbit in the first of five missions planned for 2019 under the rapid launch initiative. Vox Space is on deck to launch later this year. The company will use Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket that is air launched from a Boeing 747 mothership. (6/20)

NASA Hacked Because of Unauthorized Raspberry Pi Connected to its Network (Source: ZDNet)
A report published this week by the NASA Office of Inspector General reveals that in April 2018 hackers breached the agency's network and stole approximately 500 MB of data related to Mars missions. The point of entry was a Raspberry Pi device that was connected to the IT network of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) without authorization or going through the proper security review.

According to a 49-page OIG report, the hackers used this point of entry to move deeper inside the JPL network by hacking a shared network gateway. The hackers used this network gateway to pivot inside JPL's infrastructure, and gained access to the network that was storing information about NASA JPL-managed Mars missions, from where he exfiltrated information. The OIG report said the hackers used "a compromised external user system" to access the JPL missions network. (6/21)

Latimer Flies at the Cutting Edge of Aviation — and Soon, Space (Source: LA Times)
Kelly Latimer, 54, is a test pilot for Virgin Galactic and Virgin Orbit — two commercial space companies owned by British billionaire Richard Branson. For space tourism company Virgin Galactic, Latimer flies the giant, twin-fuselage aircraft known as WhiteKnightTwo, which carries a smaller spaceship at its belly to an altitude of up to 50,000 feet before the spaceship detaches and blasts off toward suborbital space. Latimer is also chief test pilot for Virgin Orbit, where she flies a modified 747 plane called Cosmic Girl. (6/20)

These Are the Challenges of Going Back to the Moon by 2024 (Source: CNN)
NASA's "Artemis" mission promises to again send astronauts to the moon. But with a tight new deadline from Trump, can the agency pull off another moonshot? Click here. (6/21)

Study Predicts More Long-Term Sea Level Rise from Greenland Ice (Source: NASA)
Greenland’s melting ice sheet could generate more sea level rise than previously thought if greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase and warm the atmosphere at their current rate, according to a new modeling study. The study, which used data from NASA’s Operation IceBridge airborne campaign. In the next 200 years, the ice sheet model shows that melting at the present rate could contribute 19 to 63 inches to global sea level rise, said the team led by scientists at the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. These numbers are at least 80 percent higher than previous estimates, which forecasted up to 35 inches of sea level rise from Greenland’s ice. (6/19)

Proton Launch Delayed for Battery Failure (Source: Russian Space Web)
Several hours before the planned liftoff, the Russian media reported that the mission faced at least a 24-hour delay due to a technical problem with the spacecraft. Roskosmos announced only an unspecified technical issue would postpone the launch to a backup date (June 22). However, RIA Novosti revealed a discharged battery aboard the Spektr-RG satellite. The issue was too serious to be resolved in 24 hours and the next launch opportunity would not come until July 12. A delay beyond 24 hours would require removing the launch vehicle from the pad and returning it to the assembly building. In the meantime, the official certification of the Proton rocket for launch is reportedly expiring in the middle of this year. (6/21)

NASA Chief: Artemis Mission Won't Jeopardize Other Funding (Source: CNN)
In an exclusive interview with CNN Business' Rachel Crane, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine explains NASA's role in climate change science and says going back to the moon won't impact funding for other programs. Click here. (6/20)

Russia's Minimalist Lunar Program? (Source: Russian Space Web)
Although the key mission for the Angara-5V rocket would be to compete on the commercial market and deliver heaviest military payloads, the rocket could be considered for a role in human missions beyond the Earth orbit. A single Angara-5V rocket would be enough to place a modified Soyuz spacecraft into orbit around the Moon, while two such launchers could support a Soyuz-based expedition delivering two cosmonauts onto the lunar surface, according to preliminary estimates made at RKK Energia.

However as many as four Angara-5V rockets would be required to put a larger crew on the surface with the use of the 20-ton next-generation PTK NP spacecraft. Not surprisingly, the PTK development team apparently received a request in April 2015 to reduce the mass of the spacecraft by at least two tons. Under the second scenario, two rockets would blast off within three days from each other carrying the lunar module and its space tug. After linking up in the Earth orbit, the space tug would send the lander toward the Moon.

Within a month, another pair of rockets would have to lift off, carrying the PTK NP spacecraft with a crew of four and their space tug. Cosmonauts would link up with their space tug in the Earth orbit and then make another rendezvous with the lunar lander in the orbit around the Moon. Two crew members would then transfer into the lander and make a sortie onto the lunar surface. Responding to potential critics, Koptev said that Russia's extensive experience in conducting rendezvous and docking operations would minimize the risk of this complex scenario. As of April 2015, the circumlunar mission was expected around 2025, while lunar landing could take place in 2029. (6/21)

Atlas Launch Delayed for Battery Failure (Source: Spaceflight Insider)
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V 551 rocket with the fifth Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF-5) satellite for the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center will have to wait a little longer before taking flight. A vehicle battery failure was uncovered during the final processing of the mission which had been slated for launch on June 27. In order to review the situation and replace the battery will require the launch date to slip to no earlier than Tuesday, July 9. (6/23)

A Rover for Phobos and Deimos (Source: Space Daily)
Mars has two small moons, Phobos and Deimos. These are the target of the Japanese Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission, which also involves international partners. Scheduled for launch in 2024. it will enter Mars orbit in 2025, and return samples to Earth in 2029. The spacecraft will carry a German-French rover that will land on either Phobos or Deimos and explore the surface in detail for several months. The scientists hope to gain new insights into the formation and evolution of the solar system. The German Aerospace Center (DLR), Japan's JAXA, and the French space agency CNES agreed to further collaborate on the world's first exploration of a minor solar system body with a rover. (6/20)