July 1, 2019

Silicon Valley Bank: The Ultimate Advocate of NewSpace Investment (Source: Via Satellite)
When it comes to NewSpace investment, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) serves as the industry’s ultimate market insider and growth champion. Consider this: Nearly 7 out of every 10 U.S. venture-backed technology firms that completed an Initial Public Offering (IPO) in 2018 and half of all U.S. venture-capital backed firms are SVB clients. For 35 years, this outside-the-box commercial bank has helped the most innovative startups connect and navigate the world of venture capital investment.

That’s especially true of the space sector, where SVB counts the largest smallsat companies and the leader in the smallsat launch category among its clients. “With the advent of affordable launch and the cubesat revolution, investors realized money could be made in this NewSpace industry,” said Kim, noting that SVB’s aerospace practice started with clients in the smallsat and small launch space. (6/27)

Interstellar Mold Is Becoming a Problem for Space Travel (Source: Vice)
Your chores list may not be all that different from an astronaut at the International Space Station (ISS), many of whom spend hours each week cleaning the walls to ensure mold doesn’t grow. Mold, a new study shows, is even more suited to space travel than we are. Researchers found that certain fungal spores can likely cling to the outside of spacecraft all the way to the moon or Mars, according to a news release.

Researchers tested two common fungal genera— Penicillium and Aspergillus. Besides their ubiquity on earth, Aspergillus is one of the most common types of mold found onboard the ISS and the Russian Space Station. The spores did much better than a human could. Radiation exposure is measured in gray, a unit of measurement defined as how much energy something absorbs. Half a gray causes radiation sickness in humans, while five gray can kill you. These tiny fungal spores survived X-ray exposure up to 1000 gray, heavy ion exposure up to 500 gray, and UV light exposure up to 3000 joules per meter squared. (7/1)

Top Secret DAMON: the Classified Reconnaissance Payload Planned for the Fourth Space Shuttle Mission (Source: Space Review)
The NRO built a reconnaissance payload for the Space Shuttle that would have been on STS-4, but the program was cancelled before it flew. Dwayne Day provides new insights on that program and why it was grounded. Click here. (7/1)
 
Déjà vu or Sea Change? Comparing Two Generations of Large Satellite Constellation Proposals (Source: Space Review)
The “megaconstellations” of communications satellites under development by Amazon, OneWeb, SpaceX, and others come two decades after previous efforts to develop networks of communications satellites in low Earth orbit ran into financial difficulties. Stephen J. Garber and James A. Vedda compare the two generations to see if history will repeat itself. Click here. (7/1) 
 
The Eagle Has Crashed: the Top Secret UPWARD Program and Apollo Disasters (Source: Space Review)
During planning for the Apollo landings, NASA turned to the NRO to develop a camera system based on reconnaissance satellites for mapping the Moon, including investigating any landing accidents. Dwayne Day examines what is known about the proposed system based on recently declassified information. Click here. (7/1)
 
Astronomers and Apollo (Source: Space Review)
It took tens of thousands of engineers, technicians, and others to get astronauts to the surface of the Moon 50 years ago. Jeff Foust describes how a few astronomers and other scientists also contributed, in some cases literally guiding the way. Click here. (7/1)
 
Why the Next Space Policy Directive needs To Be To the Secretary of Energy (Source: Space Review)
The first four space policy directives from the Trump Administration have dealt with everything from returning humans to the Moon to establishing a Space Force. Peter Garretson argues the next should deal with making use of the energy resources of space. Click here. (7/1)

18 Senior Pentagon Roles are Currently Filled by Temporary Officials or Vacant (Source: CNN)
Eighteen of the most senior roles at the Pentagon lack permanent appointees, the Department of Defense confirmed to CNN on Monday, providing a complete list of positions currently being filled by temporary officials. It is a reflection of the Department of Defense's ongoing struggle to establish an unprecedented transition plan aimed at ensuring continuity of leadership at the highest levels while there is still no confirmed secretary of defense. (7/1)

UK Space Agency Drawing Up Rules for Cornwall Spaceport (Source: Daily Mail)
The UK Space Agency has confirmed that it is drafting regulations for Europe's first spaceport set to be built in Cornwall. Rocket trips will allow passengers to experience weightlessness and view the curvature of the planet and could mean 90-minute journeys to Australia. Rules are being drawn up now to allow sub-orbital human spaceflight from the spaceports on Virgin Galactic spacecraft within the next decade. Sub-orbital flights, which are currently undergoing tests in the US, could be operating from the base in the early 2020s, officials said. (7/1)

Cornwall to Host Europe’s First Spaceport with Tourist Spaceflights and 90-Minute Journeys to Australia (Source: The Sun)
Sub-orbital spacecraft, which are currently undergoing tests in the US, could be operating from the base in the early 2020s and provide tourist flights into space and 90-minute journeys to Australia. Flights from the Newquay-based spaceport will be available to fee-paying passengers, who will be able to experience feeling weightlessness.

British astronaut Tim Peake, 47, said: "For Britain to be the first spaceport in Europe to be able to offer that service because we have the legislation in place, because we’ve sorted out our infrastructure, that will be huge.” Major Peake believes space tourism will not be just for the rich. (7/1)

Space Miners Race to an Asteroid Worth Quintillions (Source: Big Think)
Would you like to be a billionaire? All you have to do is figure out how to go into space and mine 16 Psyche, an asteroid made of gold and other metals like iron and nickel. Flying somewhere between Mars and Jupiter, this amazing space rock is estimated to be worth as much as $700 quintillion, thanks to all the metals it contains.

Quintillion, if you are wondering, is 1 with 18 zeroes. It's such a large amount of money that if you divide it up between everyone alive on Earth currently, each person would get about $93 billion. Of course, don't pack your bags for your new palace just yet – the prospect of actually getting such a giant chunk of precious metals back to Earth is difficult and hasn't been accomplished yet even on much smaller scales. And 16 Psyche is a truly massive space rock at over 200 km in diameter. It is one of the largest asteroids flying in the asteroid belt. (7/1)

Four Asteroids on Collision Course With Earth (Source: Russia Today)
The United Nations fears that the possibility of an asteroid smashing into a densely populated area isn’t being taken seriously enough, so it designated June 30 as International Asteroid Day to raise awareness about the potentially catastrophic occurrence. The date was chosen because the largest asteroid impact in recorded history took place over Tunguska, Russia on that day in 1908 when an enormous asteroid exploded and destroyed hundreds of acres of forest. Here are four asteroids that could wallop into Earth. (6/30)

NASA’s 2020 Mars Rover Gets 7-Foot-Long Robot Arm (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
Engineers working in High Bay clean room 1 of the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) recently added a vital component to the space agency's Mars 2020 rover. On June 21, the team installed the rover's main robotic arm. Measuring 7 feet (2.1 meters) long, the arm will allow the rover to work as a human geologist would: by holding and using science tools with its turret. (7/1)

SpaceX Targets 2021 Commercial Starship Launch (Source: Space News)
The first commercial mission for SpaceX’s Starship and Super Heavy launch system will likely take place in 2021, a company executive said June 26. Jonathan Hofeller, SpaceX’s vice president of commercial sales, said the company is in talks with prospective customers for the first commercial launch of that system roughly two years from now.

“We are in discussions with three different customers as we speak right now to be that first mission,” Hofeller said at the APSAT conference here. “Those are all telecom companies.” SpaceX’s Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage are being designed to launch up to 20 metric tons to geostationary transfer orbit, Hofeller said, or more than 100 metric tons to low Earth orbit. It is equipped with a nine-meter payload fairing. (6/28)

SpaceX Sets New Falcon 9 Block 5 Reusability Milestones for Second Half of 2019 (Source: Teslarati)
SpaceX plans to launch the same Falcon 9 Block 5 booster for the fifth (or sixth) time by the end of 2019. This means that there are plans for a Falcon 9 booster to launch for the sixth time in the second half of 2019. The demonstration of such an extreme level of operational reusability barely 18 months after Falcon 9 Block 5’s debut would make it clear that SpaceX’s latest Falcon upgrade has been a resounding success.

After a successful debut in May 2018, Block 5 took over all SpaceX launches less than two months later. Since then, a total of 12 freshly-built Block 5 boosters have supported 16 Falcon 9 and 2 Falcon Heavy launches, ten – more than half – of which involved flight-proven boosters. According to official statements made recently by SpaceX executives, Block 5 boosters are expected to support an additional 12-19* launches in the second half of 2019. (7/1)

Emissions Concerns Could Jeopardize Supersonic Flight (Source: Simple Flying)
One of the talking points at last week’s Paris Air Show was the reintroduction of faster than the speed of sound airliners. While new supersonic jets are exciting, questions remain over how emission concerns could jeopardize supersonic flight. Denver based startup Boom Technology went out of their way in Paris to showcase the green credentials of the 75-seat, Mach 2.2 jetliner they are building. Boom’s airliner, named the Overture, is looking to fill a void left by Concorde. They hope it will be ready to by 2025.

The problem for Boom is that they do not want to spend billions of dollars on developing supersonic engines that conform to emission and noise levels. Rather they are intent on modifying existing engines. The International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) claims that modified jet engines will consume five to seven times more fuel than subsonic jet engines. The tinkered-with engines will also emit 40% more nitrogen and 70% more carbon dioxide, according to a report published by Reuters.

Based on the ICCT study, new supersonic airliners would be unable to meet standards for both emissions and noise currently in place. The ICCT claims that the only way to comply would be to build a new engine with a variable cycle option that would operate differently when taking off and when in cruise mode. Other than this, Boom would have to get lawmakers to create a different set of rules for supersonic aircraft, something that is unlikely to happen in Europe. (6/30)

Sky and Space to Launch 200 Nano-Satellites with Virgin Galactic (Source: ZDNet)
Australian Securities Exchange-listed telecommunications company Sky and Space Global has announced signing a letter of intent with Virgin Galactic to use its vehicle LauncherOne to launch up to 200 nano-satellites into space from 2018. According to Sky and Space, using Virgin's LauncherOne will provide significant cost savings, as several satellites can be launched at once, in addition to flexibility in terms of launch timelines and orbital parameters. (6/27)

FAA Accepts Camden County Georgia’s Launch Site Operators License Application (Source: Spaceport Camden)
The FAA has notified Camden County, Georgia that it has completed an initial review of the Spaceport Camden Launch Site Operator License application and found it to be complete enough to accept and begin the 180-day review process. According to the FAA it “anticipate[s] making a license determination, in accordance with 14 CFR § 413.15, on or before December 16, 2019.”

Separately, the FAA announced that it has synchronized all processes related to the Spaceport Camden Environmental Impact Statement and is targeting December 5, 2019 for the issuance of a Record of Decision. The Department of Transportation Permitting Dashboard has been updated to reflect all Spaceport Camden related deliverables as “inprogress.” (7/1)