July 25, 2019

Canadian Government Pledges $521 Million for Telesat LEO Constellation (Source: Space News)
The Canadian government is investing 85 million Canadian dollars ($64.7 million) into research and development for Telesat’s broadband satellite constellation, and has agreed to spend up to 600 million Canadian dollars ($456.6 million) more on capacity. Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Navdeep Bains said July 24 that the Canadian government views Telesat’s future low Earth orbit broadband constellation as the only means to connect the country’s most remote citizens. (7/24)

China's First Commercial Rocket Delivers Satellites to Orbit (Source: Space News)
A Chinese startup became the first private company in the country to place a payload into orbit Thursday. The Hyperbola-1 rocket from iSpace lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 1 a.m. Eastern. The company reported the small solid-fueled rocket successfully placed several small satellites into orbit, making iSpace the first private Chinese company to reach orbit. Two other companies, Landspace and OneSpace, attempted orbital launches in the last year but suffered failures. (7/25)

Another Starhopper Test Aborted in Texas (Source: Space.com)
SpaceX aborted what was to be the first free flight of its Starhopper prototype Wednesday. The vehicle was set to perform a hover test, flying to an altitude of 20 meters above its launchpad at SpaceX's South Texas test site. However, the vehicle's Raptor engine shut down moments after ignition at 8:30 p.m. Eastern, with the vehicle remaining on the pad. Company founder Elon Musk later said that the engine's chamber pressure was too high because of "colder than expected" propellant flowing into it. SpaceX hasn't announced when the test flight will be rescheduled. (7/25)

Artemis Schedule Pressure Increases Costs, Harms Other Priorities (Source: Space News)
A key House appropriator said Wednesday he is concerned about the cost of speeding up NASA's plans to return humans to the moon. At a hearing about the Office of Science and Technology Policy, Rep. José Serrano (D-NY), chairman of the commerce, justice and science appropriations subcommittee, said the additional funds needed to land humans on the moon by 2024, versus earlier plans for a 2028 return, could have "grave consequences" for other programs.

Serrano added that he wasn't opposed to sending astronauts to the moon, only that he disagreed with "spending this money on moving something up a couple of years." The House has already passed an appropriations bill that funds NASA, but without the $1.6 billion in additional Artemis funding requested. That bill will have to be reconciled with a Senate version not yet introduced. (7/25)

DoD Not Getting Full Space Force Ask (Source: Space News)
The top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee says the Pentagon will not get what it is asking for regarding a Space Force. Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX) said Wednesday that while there is bipartisan support for some kind of Space Force, Congress will likely not include in a final defense authorization bill many of the items that the Defense Department has sought. A conference report reconciling the House and Senate versions of the National Defense Authorization Act should be complete by Oct. 1, he said, and expects it will include "a lean space force designed to meet the objectives that we all want to achieve." (7/25)

India's Lunar Probe Maneuvers Toward Moon (Source: PTI)
India's Chandrayaan-2 lunar mission has completed its first post-launch maneuver. The Indian space agency ISRO said the maneuver Wednesday raised the perigee of its elliptical transfer orbit from 170 to 230 kilometers. A second orbit-raising maneuver is scheduled for later today. Chandrayaan-2, launched on Monday, will gradually raise its orbit around the Earth until it reaches the moon in mid-August. (7/25)

India Delays Small Launcher Debut (Source: Times of India)
ISRO is delaying the first launch of a new small launch vehicle until after the Chandrayaan-2 landing in September. ISRO previously said it would perform the first test launch of the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) in June or July, but ISRO Chairman K. Sivan said that launch will be postponed until after the attempted landing. SSLV is designed to place 500 kilograms into low Earth orbit for about one-tenth the cost of the existing, larger PSLV rocket. (7/25)

Air Force's DSX Satellite is Pretty Big (Source: Space News)
The Air Force says its recently launched DSX satellite is the largest structure in space other than the International Space Station. The DSX, or Demonstration and Science Experiments, satellite was launched on the Falcon Heavy STP-2 mission last month. On July 12, the satellite deployed antenna booms spanning 80 meters. The Air Force Research Laboratory says the satellite will be used to study the Van Allen radiation belts and their effects on spacecraft components. (7/25)

Toyota Unveils Its Cosmic Collaboration for Futuristic Moon Rover (Source: Space Daily)
Many major national space agencies are currently looking to utilise the resource of the Moon and its shadowed craters through the development of new technologies. NASA has previously used "moon buggies" on the final three Apollo moon missions, in 1971 and 1972, respectively, and plans to have astronauts on the Moon's south pole by 2024.

Toyota has announced the cosmic-scale launch of its off-road moon rover of the future for astronauts. The joint effort by Japan's world-renowned car company and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has been signed for the next 3 years to collaborate in the creation of a pressurised lunar rover and include cutting-edge fuel-cell electric-vehicle technologies.

Toyota announced in a statement that "JAXA and Toyota will manufacture, test and evaluate prototypes, with the goal of developing a manned, pressurised lunar rover and exploring the surface of the moon as part of an international project." They also added that the time-frame which this effort will take place will run starting this fiscal year and through 2021. (7/24)

Monthly Launches Coming for OneWeb (Source: Space Daily)
Internet firm OneWeb plans to begin launching 35 to 40 communications satellites a month in December, and has 27 Soyuz rocket missions lined up through European launch company Arianespace to send them aloft, company officials said in Florida on Monday. "Those are the best rockets we could find for the quality, price and capability we were looking for," OneWeb founder and executive chairman Greg Wyler said. (7/24)

Senate Confirms Former Delta Executive as FAA Chief (Source: UPI)
The Senate on Wednesday confirmed former Delta Air Lines executive Stephen Dickson to head the Federal Aviation Administration. The chamber voted 52-40 for Dickson to head the agency as it faces scrutiny of its oversight after recent two Boeing 737 Max crashes overseas killed nearly 350 people. Wednesday's was a rare party line vote for the job, the nominees for which typically receive near-unanimous support from the Senate. Sen. Maria Cantrell, D-WA, cited an "ongoing case" regarding whistle-blower retaliation at Delta as a source of concern for Dickson's confirmation. (7/24)

What Will Astronauts Do on the Moon When Humans Go Back? (Source: Space.com)
The timeline is set, and aggressively: Land humans on the moon again by 2024, just five years from Vice President Mike Pence's announcement earlier this year. Those humans have a general destination as well: the moon's south pole, a region no human has explored before. And the grand goal is well-touted: Draw on commercial and international partnerships to establish a sustainable human presence on the moon, one that lasts for more than a handful of years as Apollo did.

"One of the first things we have to do is to commit to it not just being a demonstration flight," former NASA astronaut Mae Jemison told Space.com. "When you first go up, you actually do some stuff that allows you to stay longer and allows other people to come." But the first landed mission is expected to be short, just a couple of days at most on the moon's surface, designed to prove that the technologies NASA is building or commissioning from commercial partners works the way they are designed to. That list includes rocket, spacecraft, a moon-orbiting station and a spacesuit.

"It would almost be redundant, it wouldn't add a lot of scientific value, to have a robotic lunar sample-return mission," Laura Forczyk, who runs a space industry consulting firm called Astralytical, told Space.com. She sees more potential in human-driven science on the lunar surface, which would progress faster and with more finesse than remote or robotic investigations. (7/25)

Spaceport Infrastructure Work Underway at Ellington Field in Texas (Source: Houston Chronicle)
An $18.8 million plan for the Houston Spaceport is coming together in the Bay Area, signaled by the recent groundbreaking for the first phase of work on the planned complex, which will be at Ellington Airport. “We are going to develop about 154 acres with infrastructure — water, power, fiber optics, gas, electricity, roads — essentially the basic services that are necessary and will allow companies to operate,” said Arturo Machuca, general manager of Houston Airport Systems.

The site is in the southeast quadrant of the airport next to the Sonny Carter Training Facility and will eventually feature 53,000 square feet of office and lab space for tenants, who will likely be companies involved in the commercial spaceflight and aviation industries. “Most of these tenants will likely build their own facilities once the infrastructure is in place, but Houston Airport System certainly has the capability to build for them if that were something they needed and we negotiated it with the tenant,” Machuca said.

The target date for completion of the first phase is May 2020. Funding is coming airport system revenues and a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration. “The target date is about nine months from now; so there’s already a lot of activity going on at the site,” Machuca said. Building the spaceport, Machuca said, is an important step in keeping Houston relevant in the ever-changing aerospace industry, especially as spaceflight becomes commercialized. (7/23)

China Says Former Senior Space Official Under Investigation for 'Serious Violations of Discipline' (Source: Reuters)
China’s military said a former senior official in the country’s space program was under investigation for “serious discipline violations”, but rejected reports the investigation was linked to espionage allegations. Qian Weiping was formerly the deputy head of the Chinese Central Military Commission’s (CMC) equipment development department which oversaw the design of the space program’s tracking and control systems, according to state media. (7/24)

China, Russia, Europe to Jointly Explore Plan for Research Station on Moon (Source: Xinhua)
Space authorities of China, Europe and Russia have agreed to jointly explore the plan to build a scientific research station on the Moon, a senior Chinese space official said Monday. The joint exploration will focus on the scientific objectives of the station, as well as system-related or mission-based discussions, said Wu Yanhua, deputy director of the China National Space Administration (CNSA).

Participants will jointly plan and design the station, coordinate their implementation of the plan and ultimately share the scientific results, Wu said at an international conference on the exploration of the Moon and the deep space that opened Monday in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai, Guangdong Province. Pei Zhaoyu, deputy director of the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the CNSA, said the construction plan for the station is expected to be completed after two to three years of deliberations by an international team of scientists. An intergovernmental coordination committee on the lunar research station will be established, according to Pei. (7/22)

Pentagon Eyes Medium Orbit For Future Constellations (Source: Aviation Week)
A new leadership team at the Space Development Agency (SDA) is considering a switch to a higher orbit with larger and potentially fewer satellites for the critical communications layer of a proposed future military space architecture. The announcement on July 23 at the SDA Industry Day in Chantilly, Virginia, could rule out participation by commercial space companies that specialize in smaller satellites in low Earth orbit and would imply that higher latencies for data transfer. (7/24)

SoftBank to Support Commercial Partnerships for OneWeb (Source: SoftBank)
OneWeb investor SoftBank says it will help the satellite operator with product development and forming commercial partnerships. SoftBank, which has invested more than $1 billion into OneWeb, said it will leverage its experience in the telecommunications sector with OneWeb, focusing on satellite solutions from a user perspective. OneWeb has six of a planned 650 satellites in low Earth orbit, and intends to start commercial demonstrations in 2020. Full service is anticipated in 2021. (7/24)

Kleos Launch Delayed by Rocket Lab (Source: ITWire)
Signal geolocation company Kleos Space will have to wait a little while longer for its next launch. Rocket Lab, the launch provider for Kleos Space’s second mission, said it may take until October to launch the satellites instead of by August. Kleos Space CEO Andy Bowyer said the company will work on a second generation of satellites, as well as product development and lining up additional customers during the launch delay. “[O]ur team has ensured that our satellites are mission ready, but we cannot launch without a vehicle,” Bowyer said. (7/24)

Hughes Gets $11.8M From Army for Satellite Narrowband Architecture (Source: Hughes)
Hughes Network Systems received an $11.8 million research and development contract from the U.S. Army July 24. The contract tasks Hughes with demonstrating a narrowband satellite communications architecture with machine learning and artificial intelligence features. The demonstration will aim to improve network management, automated control, and system interoperability for the Army. (7/24)

NASA Tracked Three Large Asteroids Zipping By -- and One Was Closer Than the Moon (Source: CNN)
Three asteroids flew by Earth Wednesday, although none of them were considered to pose a threat, according to NASA. The asteroid 2019 OD passed the closest, flying closer to the Earth than the moon. It will cross Earth's orbit within 222,164 miles of the surface. The moon is 238,900 miles away. It was only observed by NASA for the first time three weeks ago. It likely passed by around 9:31 a.m. ET today. The asteroid is 393 feet across at its widest point and passing by at 42,926 miles per hour. (7/24)