July 23, 2019

Space Florida Receives $90M USDOT Grant for Bridge Replacement Serving Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Florida Today)
The U.S. Department of Transportation will award Space Florida $90 million for an Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) grant to replace the Cape Canaveral Spaceport Indian River Bridge with new, twin high-level bridges. The bridge provides a critical link between the Cape Canaveral Spaceport and State Road 405, especially in the transportation of significant payload components. With heavy traffic flows across the bridge expected to increase, replacing the bridge to accommodate future needs is paramount. (7/22)

An Update on US Space Command Re-Formation (Not in Florida) (Source: Space News)
The Pentagon merged Space Command with STRATCOM in 2002 to free up resources to create U.S. Northern Command. In the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the priority was homeland defense. Seventeen years later, space has emerged as a top national security concern so Space Command is back as the military's 11th unified command. The official opening is expected within the next two to three weeks. The basic structure of Space Command is already in place at its temporary headquarters at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado, where the commander, Gen. John Raymond, is based.

It will take months, if not years, for the command to reach "full operational capability." There will be two components: a Combined Force Space Component Command and Joint Task Force Space Defense. Most of the personnel assigned to STRATCOM for now will remain at current locations at Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA; Offutt Air Force Base, NE; Schriever Air Force Base, CO, and Peterson.

A typical combatant command headquarters has 1,000 to 1,500 people but the projected size of Space Command it still being studied. Of the $83.8 million requested for fiscal year 2020, $8.2 million is new money and $75.6 million would be transferred from other accounts. The secretary of the Air Force has selected six candidate locations: Buckley Air Force Base, Colorado; Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station, Colorado; Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado; Redstone Arsenal, Alabama; Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado; and Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. (7/23)

And Now, the Next 50 Years (Source: Space Review)
As the Apollo 11 anniversary celebrations come to an end, some wonder when we will go back to the Moon. Jeff Foust notes that popular interest in Apollo today doesn’t necessarily translate into support for a return to the Moon or other human space exploration programs. Click here. (7/22)
 
The Big White Bird: the Flights of Helo 66 (Source: Space Review)
When many of the Apollo missions returned to Earth, the astronauts were recovered by the same helicopter. Dwayne Day tells the story of Helo 66 and its unfortunate fate. Click here. (7/22)
 
Is ISRO’s “Cryogenic Curse” Finally Over? (Source: Space Review)
On Monday, India successfully launched the Chandrayaan-2 lunar mission on its GSLV Mark III rocket. Ajey Lele says the launch suggests India has mastered the cryogenic engine technology it had struggled with for decades. Click here. (7/22)
 
Why the Space Corps Needs to Use Naval Rank (Source: Space Review)
Most concepts for a separate Space Force or Space Corps assume that the new military branch will use the same rank structure as the US Air Force. Brent Ziarnick makes the case for naval ranks to help ensure a Space Corps takes on a different culture and mindset from the Air Force. Click here. (7/22)
 
Advancing the Jurisdiction of the US Federal Court System to Address Disputes Between Private Space Actors (Source: Space Review)
The emerging commercial space industry brings with it potential for new disputes that could be difficult for current legal systems to handle. Michael Listner offers a proposal for how US federal courts could deal with cases involving companies from different countries. Click here. (7/22)

NASA's Chris Kraft Dies (Source: NASA)
Christopher C. Kraft, Jr.,Kraft, 95, passed away Monday in Houston. Kraft joined NASA immediately after it was established in 1958, becoming the agency's first flight director for human missions and establishing the processes and planning for Mission Control. He later served as director of the Johnson Space Center for a decade before his retirement in 1982. Neil Armstrong once called Kraft "the man who was the 'Control' in Mission Control." (7/22)

Commercial Space Ride Secured for NASA’s New Air Pollution Sensor (Source: NASA)
NASA has secured a host satellite provider and ride into space for an instrument that will dramatically advance our understanding of air quality over North America. Maxar Technologies of Westminster, Colorado, will provide satellite integration, launch and data transmission services for NASA’s Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO), an Earth science instrument that will observe air pollution over North America in unprecedented detail from a geostationary orbit.

A contract with Maxar was awarded by the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center through its Hosted Payload Solutions contract, a procurement mechanism that provides a pool of qualified vendors that meet the government's needs for various hosted payload space missions at a cost savings to the government. Scheduled to fly in 2022 on a 1300-class commercial satellite provided by Maxar, TEMPO will make hourly measurements of atmospheric gases – including ozone, nitrogen dioxide and formaldehyde as well as aerosols – across North America, from a geostationary vantage point 35,786 km (22,236 miles) above Earth’s equator. (7/22)

Tory Bruno: Is There Really Money in Space Tourism? (Source: UCF)
United Launch Alliance CEO Tory Bruno chats with Dean Paul Jarley on the state of space exploration. 50 years after the Apollo 11 moon landing, rocket launch technology has drastically improved and the prospect of commercial space travel is almost top of mind. Can space tourism really become the multi-billion dollar market that some expect it to be? And are Cape Canaveral and the Space Coast ready for the demand? Is space ready to be the final commercial frontier? Click here. (7/23) https://business.ucf.edu/tory-bruno-is-there-really-money-in-space-tourism/

3-D Printing Transforms Rocketry in Florida (Source: UPI)
On the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, 3-D printing technology is changing the way rockets are made and the way Florida space companies do business. Significant new space companies or related technology endeavors in central Florida are building entire rockets, rocket fuel and even human tissue using the printers, which spit out different materials in computer-controlled patterns to form solid, three-dimensional objects.

At Cape Canaveral, rocket company Relativity Space is renovating Launch Complex 16 with a goal of this year launching a rocket -- the Terran 1 -- that is 95 percent made of 3-D printed parts. Nearby in Cocoa, another company, Rocket Crafters, is printing plastic fuel cores for hybrid rocket engines. And next to the University of Central Florida in Orlando, 3-D printing company nScrypt is working with biotech experts to print a mesh, called scaffolding, that allows human stem cells to grow into various organs and human tissue. A printer made by nScrypt is traveling to the International Space Station to test the benefits of printing soft tissue in micro-gravity.

Relativity couldn't find the kind of printers it needed to build rockets, so it designed its own. The largest, called Stargate, takes up a two-story space in a building at the company headquarters in Los Angeles. "They've done big printers before, but not like this and not with metal," Noone said. The metal is fed into the printer as a wire. Inside the printer, the metal is melted under high temperature. When it emerges, it cools rapidly, fusing in a strong bond with the rest of the structure. (7/23)

Numerica to Provide Space Situational Awareness Data to Air Force (Source: Space News)
Numerica, a space data science company based in Fort Collins, Colorado, is the latest commercial partner signed by the Air Force Research Laboratory to provide space situational awareness data under the CAMO (commercially augmented mission operations) program. Other providers include LeoLabs, ExoAnalytics and L3Harris ADS. (7/23)

Next-Gen ICBM Program Officially Underway (Source: Space News)
The Air Force released a request for proposals for the Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) phase for the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent intercontinental ballistic missile system. Two contractors, Boeing and Northrop Grumman, will compete for the EMD contract. The Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center expects to award the contract in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2020. (7/23)

Thales Alenia Space and Telespazio Win ASI Satellite Contract (Source: Thales)
The Space Alliance between Thales Alenia Space (Thales 67%, Leonardo 33%) and Telespazio (Leonardo 67%, Thales 33%) has signed a contract with the Italian Space Agency (ASI) for the initial development of an innovative satellite system dubbed Ital-GovSatCom. This contract paves the way for a dynamic program within the scope of the Italian “Space Economy” initiative. The Ital-GovSatCom program was originally Italy’s contribution to a European initiative called GovSatCom. Its aim is to develop and operate an innovative and competitive satellite system providing secure, robust and reliable communication services for several government applications, including civil security, defense, humanitarian aid, telemedicine and maritime surveillance. (7/23)

OneWeb Opens Satellite Factory Near Kennedy Space Center, Helping ‘Transform’ the Space Coast (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
“What we had to do was design a satellite system that was so cost efficient that it would literally be a no-brainer to buy,” Wyler said. “It was so cost efficient that everyone would use it.” And those cost efficient satellites were coming to Florida in a big way. Their manufacturing facility, Wyler decided in 2016, would be on the Space Coast, a major win for a region desperately trying to become more than just a launch site.

The sleek white building, across from another new tenant, the rocket factory for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, features two production lines inside. That allows OneWeb to build two 330-pound satellites, about the size of a mini fridge, a day. The company says it can build them for a 50th of the cost of a traditional manufacturer, about $1 million or less each.

Right now, the factory employs about 80 people, but expects to ramp up to 250 by the end of the year. Through its supply chain, it’s estimated the facility will bring 3,000 indirect jobs to the state. nched its first six satellites into orbit in late February on a Russian Soyuz rocket from French Guiana and plans to launch another 34 in December. Then, it’ll start sending up about 30 satellites on a monthly basis to reach about 650 satellites over the next two years. (7/23)

Amanda Knox Wants You to Pay for Her Space-Themed Wedding (Source: Daily Beast)
In the universe of wacky wedding planning, Amanda Knox’s betrothal to poet Christopher Robinson surely is in a galaxy all its own. The couple have set up a crowdfunding wedding registry site to raise $10,000 to help pay for their moonscape matrimony. Knox posted a video of Robinson’s elaborate space-themed proposal on YouTube last year, so clearly the wedding theme was established then. Knox, who became a celebrity after her conviction, then acquittal, for her alleged role in the 2007 murder of her roommate Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy, recently came to Modena to speak at an Innocence Project event. (7/23)

Japanese Astronaut to Fly Commercial Crew Mission (Source: Kyodo)
A Japanese astronaut is the first non-NASA astronaut assigned to a commercial crew mission. The Japanese space agency JAXA said that Soichi Noguchi will go to the ISS on a future commercial crew vehicle, although the specific mission and date have yet to be announced. While NASA has assigned astronauts to the first operational commercial crew missions by Boeing and SpaceX, it had not yet identified what astronauts from ISS partners would also fly on those missions. (7/23)

Air Force Considers Australia and Spain for Space Surveillance Telescopes (Source: Breaking Defense)
The U.S. Air Force is considering locations in Australia and Spain for new space surveillance telescopes. A request for proposals to industry regarding operations of the  Ground-based Electro-Optical Deep Space Surveillance (GEODSS) system, which currently has three telescopes in Hawaii, New Mexico and Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, said that the Air Force is considering adding new telescopes in Australia and Spain to expand its coverage. The GEODSS system can track objects the size of a basketball in geostationary orbit. (7/23)

India and Japan Consider Lunar Sample Return Mission (Source: The Hindu)
India may cooperate with Japan on a future lunar sample return mission. The two nations' space agencies have reportedly held initial discussions about cooperation on a potential Chandrayaan-3 mission in the early 2020s that would go to the moon, collect samples and return them to Earth, although there is yet no formal agreement or confirmation that discussions are taking place. The reports about the discussions came the day after the successful launch of Chandrayaan-2, India's first attempt at a lunar lander mission. (7/23)

Spending Expansion Deal Could Ease Artemis (Source: Washington Post)
A bipartisan spending deal announced Monday could ease fiscal pressures on NASA and other federal agencies. The agreement between the White House and Congressional leadership would raise spending caps on both defense and non-defense discretionary spending as well as suspend the debt ceiling through the 2020 elections. The agreement, which must be approved by the House and Senate, could make it easier to provide additional funding for NASA as it seeks to return humans to the moon by 2024. (7/23)

Lockheed Martin Posts Increased Space Profits (Source: Lockheed Martin)
Lockheed Martin reported an increase in revenue and profits for its space division in its fiscal second quarter. Lockheed's space unit reported an operating profit of $288 million on net sales of $2.7 billion in the second quarter of 2019, compared to a $274 million operating profit and net sales of $2.43 billion in the same quarter a year ago. Government satellite programs were responsible for the increase in sales, while improved commercial satellite program performance helped boost profits. However, earnings from its stake in United Launch Alliance dropped from $50 million to $15 million. (7/23)