July 24, 2019

Lockheed Martin Invests in ABL Small Launcher (Source: Space News)
Lockheed Martin has made a "strategic" investment in small launch vehicle developer ABL Space Systems. That investment, the size of which the companies did not disclose, will support continued development of ABL Space System's RS1 rocket, slated to make a first launch next year. The companies emphasized the role the RS1 could play in responsive space applications for the military. Lockheed Martin Ventures, the venture capital arm of the company, previously invested in another small launch vehicle company, Rocket Lab. (7/24)

SecDef Confirmed, Supports Space Force (Source: Politico)
The Pentagon now has its first Senate-confirmed secretary of defense in seven months. The Senate confirmed Mark Esper on a 90—8 vote Tuesday, and President Trump administered the oath of office later in the day. The Pentagon had been run by a series of acting secretaries, including Esper, since James Mattis resigned in December. Esper said at his confirmation hearing last week that he supported the formation of a separate Space Force, and wanted to work with the House and Senate to address issues in language in their defense authorization bills that would establish a separate military branch for space. (7/24)

NASA Plans Sole-Source Contract for Northrop Grumman for Habitation Module (Source: Space News)
NASA plans to issue a sole-source contract to Northrop Grumman for building a habitation module for the lunar Gateway. In a recent procurement filing, NASA said that only Northrop Grumman could provide a habitation module that could be added to the Gateway in time to support a 2024 lunar landing. Northrop Grumman was one of six companies that received awards from NASA in 2016 to begin studies of habitation modules, including recent ground testing of prototypes. Northrop's concept for a "minimal" habitation module is based on its Cygnus cargo spacecraft, which NASA said was a key factor in selecting the company. NASA and Northrop will now negotiate a contract for the module, the value of which the agency did not disclose.

Editor's Note: NASA's rush to meet a 2024 deadline is driving a lot of decisions that might not be consistent with creating a sustainable lunar presence and an optimal Mars mission plan. (7/24)

Boeing Reports Higher Space Revenues, Profits (Source: Boeing)
Boeing's space and defense unit reported an increase in revenue and profits in the second quarter. The company said its Defense, Space & Security unit had revenues of $6.6 billion in the quarter, up from $6.1 billion in the same quarter last year. Earnings from operations also increased sharply, to $376 million last year to $975 million. Boeing said the revenue increase was driven by higher volume on a number of programs, including satellites, while the earnings increase came from a sale of property and lower cost growth on its KC-46 tanker program. (7/24)

Northrop Grumman Reports Higher Revenues, Profits (Source: Northrop Grumman)
Northrop Grumman also reported higher revenues and profits in the second quarter. The company overall had net earnings of $861 million on total sales of nearly $8.5 billion in the quarter, compared to $789 million in net earnings and $7.1 billion in total sales in the same quarter last year. The company's Innovation Systems division, the former Orbital ATK, had $1.5 billion in sales for the quarter compared to pro forma sales of $1.4 billion in the second quarter last year, when the acquisition by Northrop was closing. (7/24)

Planetary Society's LightSail Unfurls for Journey to Outer Orbit (Source: Space.com)
The Planetary Society's LightSail-2 spacecraft appears to have successfully deployed its solar sail. Telemetry from the spacecraft is consistent with a successful deployment of the 32-square-meter sail, project officials said Tuesday, although they weren't able to immediately get images back from the spacecraft confirming that was the case. LightSail-2 launched as part of the Falcon Heavy STP-2 mission last month and was released from another satellite early this month. The spacecraft's mission is to demonstrate the ability of solar sails to propel a spacecraft and change its orbit. (7/24)

Blue Origin Plans More Test Flights Before Tourist Flights (Source: Axios)
Blue Origin still has a few more New Shepard test flights to perform before the company starts flying people on the suborbital spacecraft. Bob Smith, the CEO of Blue Origin, said the company still hopes to perform a first flight of the vehicle with people on board before the end of the year. The vehicle performed its last test flight more than two and a half months ago, and the company hasn't announced when the next will take place. (7/24)

Canada Joins SMILE Mission with China, Europe (Source: SpaceQ)
Canada will join a Sino-European space science mission. The Canadian Space Agency said this week it has formally joined the Solar wind-Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE) mission, providing an ultraviolet imager. SMILE started as a joint project between the European Space Agency and Chinese Academy of Sciences to study the interaction between the solar wind and the Earth's magnetosphere. SMILE is scheduled for launch in 2023. (7/24)

SpaceX Will Boost the Power of Its Huge Super Heavy Rocket (Source: Space.com)
SpaceX's Mars-colonizing rocket will be even more powerful than we had thought. The Super Heavy megabooster, which will launch SpaceX's 100-passenger Starship vehicle toward Mars, the moon and other distant destinations, was originally envisioned to feature 31 next-generation Raptor engines. But the rocket will actually sport 35 Raptors, company founder and CEO Elon Musk announced. "Starship Super Heavy with 35 Raptors," Musk said via Twitter. "Full stack is 41 rn, but kinda beggin for just one more," he added.

SpaceX envisions Starship and Super Heavy eventually taking over all of the company's spaceflight duties, from launching satellites to lofting astronauts to cleaning up space junk. The company has one Starship-Super Heavy mission officially on the docket, a round-the-moon flight booked by Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa. That flight is targeted for 2023. But SpaceX hopes to begin commercial operations of Starship and Super Heavy as early as 2021, likely with commercial satellite launches. (7/23)

NASA Prepares Air Traffic Management System For Delivery Drones (Source: OPB)
It’s just a matter of time before retailers make deliveries by drone. The Federal Aviation Administration will manage traffic in the sky but, first, researchers at NASA are developing systems to make it possible. Click here. (7/22)

Russia's Humanoid Robot FEDOR Renamed to Skybot Ahead of Its First Space Mission (Source: Sputnik)
Russia's humanoid robot FEDOR has been renamed to Skybot ahead of its first space mission scheduled in August, according to Rocket and Space Corporation Energia. Energia is the operator of the Russian segment of the International Space Station and the manufacturer of the Soyuz spacecraft, one of which will fly FEDOR into space.

FEDOR (Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research) is an anthropomorphic rescue robot developed by the Android Technology Company as well as the Russian Foundation for Advanced Research Projects. The robot is scheduled to fly on the International Space Station on August 22 on the Soyuz MS-14 unmanned spacecraft. After docking, the cyber-cosmonaut will be transferred from the ship to the Russian segment of the station, where it will perform tasks under the close watch of cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov. (7/22)

Neil Armstrong’s Death, and a Stormy, Secret $6 Million Settlement (Source: New York Times)
When Neil Armstrong died in a Cincinnati hospital two weeks after undergoing heart surgery in 2012, his family released a touching tribute addressing the astronaut’s millions of admirers around the globe. “Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty,” they wrote, telling fans of the first man to walk on the moon that “the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink.”

But in private, the family’s reaction to his death at 82 was far stormier. His two sons contended that incompetent post-surgical care at Mercy Health – Fairfield Hospital had cost Mr. Armstrong his life, and even one expert retained by the hospital would find serious problems with his treatment. The hospital defended the care, but paid the family $6 million to settle the matter privately and avoid devastating publicity, documents show. The hospital insisted on keeping the complaints and the settlement secret. (7/23)

Moving From NewSpace to “NowSpace” (Source: Via Satellite)
After reading an interesting Via Satellite article, “Satellite Manufacturing in a State of Transition,” it brought to mind the dynamics that set the industry on the creative manufacturing path we’re on today. Over the last decade, we’ve witnessed a huge disruption in the space industry. Government contracts, have been augmented by the acceleration of commercial entrants focused on agility and innovation, lighting a spark that ignited the entire industry – and leading to a new focus on building satellites faster and making space more accessible.

This conversation about speed continues. But, I would argue that the days of conceptual thinking are over. Our warfighters simply can’t wait. We need to deliver mission relevant capability at unprecedented speed and affordability. It’s no longer about NewSpace; it’s about “Now Space.” To achieve this transformation, satellite manufacturers are reexamining how they work to enable mission affordability.

We’re looking at more mature industries that build in volume and speed for clues. Reconfigurability, architectural accelerators, and advanced manufacturing techniques are three of the areas we are exploring. Reconfigurability has been a game-changer in the space industry. We no longer require a fully defined set of requirements before beginning the development process, and systems are designed to adapt to new applications and missions, even after delivered to orbit. (7/3)

Space Needs to be Regulated Before Humans Ruin It (Source: CNN)
What we're doing in space today is providing incredible benefits right now, right here on Earth. From space, we can monitor, manage, automate and care for our planet. Satellite-based sensors show us the short- and long-term impacts of human activity on our environment. Many entrepreneurs are using their interest in space to help solve problems here at home, from using hyperspectral imaging, which enables us to map vegetation and rainforests, to microsats that provide global connectivity for the internet of things.

The race to space promotes quantities of satellites, not quality. While every few months we will be doubling the number of satellites in space, governments have yet to create meaningful regulation or 'rules of the road' for the use of low-earth orbit. The low-earth orbit is smaller than we think, and low-quality satellites prone to failure, or overlapping constellations with intertwining satellites, is a recipe for disaster.

Objects in low-earth orbit move at great speed. They circle the entire Earth in only 90 minutes. In any given second, a 1m x 1m x 1m satellite takes up over 7,000 cubic meters of space, tearing through anything in its path. It's like a hippopotamus traveling at 17,000 miles per hour on ice skates. In this new crowded space, when satellites collide, as is likely to happen if many of the current proposed systems are launched, they create cascading debris fields that can destroy the remaining satellites around them. This build-up of debris could ruin low-earth orbit for hundreds of years. (7/23)