August 2, 2019

NASA Scientists Visit Australian Site Which Could Eventually Blast Rockets to the Moon (Source: ABC.net)
NASA scientists famous for scouring the red planet on rovers have travelled to the red dirt of remote Northern Territory to an area where rockets are expected to be launched within the next year. Todd Barber and Tom Nolan, both employed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California, were this week taken to land surrounding the now-named Gulkula Launch Site, outside of Nhulunbuy, in north-east Arnhem Land.

"When I first saw the land here and I saw the color, I said, 'this is Mars'," Mr Nolan said. "We have fake Mars at JPL to do things, and this is exactly what it looks like … the color and the texture. We're here." Mr Nolan said the site's remoteness was a distinct advantage. "We need remoteness. We can't launch out of Los Angeles — it's not going to work," he said. "So having the remote area is the beginning … being out in the middle of nowhere is a great advantage. It's unpopulated. It's a great opportunity."

The launch zone sits in a bushy, isolated 65-hectare patch of Yolngu-owned land. It has been sub-leased to space venture Equatorial Launch Australia (ELA) by the Gumatj clan, which will then be loaned as a sub-orbital rocket launch site to aeronautical organizations including NASA. "When I heard that NASA made a contract with ELA I just jumped up and down … what an opportunity for NASA, what an opportunity for the whole area here up in Northern Territory," Mr Nolan said. "NASA will have more places to launch, but it's not just about NASA, we need the whole international partners, all of industry to come and use this place for more and more and more launches." (7/31)

Iran Builds Satellite, 2 More in Final Preparation Despite Sanctions (Source: Sputnik)
Iranian engineers have developed a large array of advanced, domestically created technologies despite over four decades of US sanctions. These include a variety of homegrown rocket and missile technologies, which Washington claims violate the provisions of the Iran nuclear deal. Tehran has denied the claims. One domestically developed satellite is ready for launch and two more are in "final preparation," Hadi Rezaei, deputy head of research and technology at the Iranian Space Research Centre, has announced.

Scientists and engineers successfully created and built the satellites in spite of tough sanctions affecting Iran's ability to procure advanced technologies abroad, the official noted. "Despite all the aforementioned restrictions, due to the efforts of ISRC researchers and the cooperation of other scientific and research centres in the country [work on] one satellite has been completed and it is ready for launch, while a measurement satellite and telecommunication satellite are in their final preparation stages," Rezaei said, speaking to the Islamic Republic News Agency on Sunday.

According to the official, Iran's advances in this area are the result of Western import restrictions on advanced technologies, which have forced the country to build up its own scientific and technological potential, to train specialists and to create jobs in the field. The Iranian Space Research Centre is now cooperating with 11 Iranian universities and over 300 knowledge-based and private sector companies, Rezaei noted. (7/31)

Microgravity: Biomedicine's Next Frontier (Source: Space Daily)
The space-lab is busy with activity. In one corner, a liquid handling robot methodically transfers solutions from one plate to another. In a different section, a plate reader measures enzyme activity of a cell culture incubated with a drug candidate, while across the way a sequencer is busy reading off nucleotides. Then comes along an orbital tugboat; loaded with its cargo, it moves through the vacuum of space to deliver its payload to another research module, where more experiments will be run. In the background of it all lies the ISS and the great expanse of the universe beyond.

This might sound like the setting for a new biomedical sci-fi thriller, but it's not. This is the vision for Outpost, the commercial microgravity research facility that NanoRacks hopes to realize in the coming years. It won't be an easy task - there are major challenges to be met along the way - but NanoRacks has been working in the field for over ten years. They are intimately familiar with existing capabilities (some of which they've facilitated), and what's sorely needed to move microgravity research from the facilities available on the ISS to a state of the art system akin to the most advanced research labs here on earth.

Breakthroughs will require the right laboratories and the right equipment. Research in microgravity has crept along for decades, limited by equipment designed to work for only a single experiment, limited space and resources available on the ISS, not to mention precious astronaut time for handling the experiments, and limited access to the microgravity environment (launches don't happen every day, after all). To change all of this, commercializing space is key - and Jeff Manber is leading the charge with NanoRacks. Click here. (8/2)

DoD Launch Costs Rise (Source: Space News)
The cost of the Defense Department's main launch program went up by more than $4 billion in the last year. In the latest in a series of acquisition reports, the Pentagon estimated the total cost of the National Security Space Launch program, formerly the EELV program, had grown from $57.2 billion in December 2018 to $61.3 billion now. The report says the cost growth is due primarily to increased investment in new launch systems providers to support national security space missions, and an increase of 19 launch services, from 160 to 179, based on satellite launch requirements. (8/1)

SpaceX Delays Amos-17 Launch to NET Monday (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
SpaceX has delayed the launch of the Amos-17 satellite until at least Monday. The company announced Thursday that it would perform a second static-fire test of the Falcon 9 first stage after replacing a "suspect" valve in the vehicle. The company did not disclose a new launch date, but spacecraft manufacturer Boeing said it expected the launch to be rescheduled for no earlier than Monday. Even without the technical issue forcing the delay, a weekend launch was looking doubtful because of poor weather in the forecast. (8/1)

Vega Fallout: Swiss Re Exits Space Insurance (Source: Space News)
Swiss Re is getting out of the space insurance business. In an email to clients and brokers, Jan Schmidt, the head of Swiss Re's space underwriting division, said the insurer is ending "with immediate effect" underwriting of space insurance policies, citing "bad results of recent years and unsustainable premium rates." The decision followed the failure of a Vega rocket in July, causing more than $400 million in losses. Industry officials believe another launch or satellite failure could drive even more insurers out of the space market. (8/1)

Blocked Heat Pipe the Likely Cause of GOES-17 Problem (Source: Space News)
A blocked heat pipe is the likely cause of a problem that degraded the performance of a key instrument on the GOES-17 weather satellite. A summary of the final report of a mishap investigation board, released Thursday, said the radiator and loop heat pipes on the Advanced Baseline Imager instrument are failing to remove heat from the instrument, most likely because of particulates blocking the pipes. Investigators, though, didn't have enough data to determine an exact root cause, including the source of the particulates. Despite the problems, NOAA noted the instrument is providing 97 percent of its expected data. (8/1)

Race to Cape Canaveral: The "Silicon Valley of Space" (Source: ABC Action News)
NASA shut down the Space Shuttle program in 2011. But the gaps NASA left behind were quickly filled by companies like United Launch Alliance, SpaceX, and Blue Origin. "This truly is the second golden age for space exploration for our country, for Florida, but particularly for Brevard County," Lynda Weatherman, the President and CEO of The Economic Development Commission of Florida's Space Coast, said.

"There's an excitement about the nostalgia 50 years ago with the man on the moon," she said. "It is equivalent to the same excitement we saw 50 years ago too. We lost, we as a country lost, a lot of our launch market. 50 years ago we had it all." Technological advancements and private companies are turning the space race into a race, not between superpowers but eccentric billionaires. (7/25)

Second New Zealand Launch Pad Considered for Rocket Lab (Source: Gisborne Herald)
Rocket Lab has applied to Hawke’s Bay Regional Council for an amendment to its resource consent at the Mahia launch site to allow for a second launch pad.
Rocket Lab communications manager Morgan Bailey said the application referred to an amendment to Rocket Lab’s existing resource consent for Launch Complex 1, which allows for up to three launch pads on the same site. (7/31)

If You Think Uber Is Not A Space Company, Think Again (Source: Forbes)
Perhaps it’s best to illustrate how space technologies are all around us with an example of Average Joe and Plain Jane. Before heading to the airport for a business trip to New York City, Joe consults the weather forecast informed by NOAA's many Earth-observing weather satellites to see what to pack for his trip. In a bit of a hurry, he calls an Uber, the space app that matches riders with drivers via GPS, to the airport.  

Joe is alerted to a two-hour flight delay because of weather in New York City and decides to enjoy an extended lunch at the airport, with food from a local organic farm. Unbeknownst to him, Joe's lunch is made price competitive by maximizing yields with precision farming, made possible through optimized irrigation and fertilization with remote spectral sensing from space and GPS. (7/31)

Australia Can Pick Up its Game and Land a Moon Mission (Source: The Conversation)
Now all the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing have died down it’s worth considering where we are with future lunar missions half a century on. Australia has long played a role in space exploration beyond helping to bring those historic images of the first moonwalk to our television screens back in 1969. Labor MP Peter Khalil has already called for Australia to be involved in a mission to the Moon, and later to Mars. He is co-chair of the recently reformed Parliamentary Friends of Space, along with the National’s MP Kevin Hogan.

But there is plenty of interest from others in going to the Moon. Now is a perfect time for Australia to consider a new Moon mission. The industry is growing rapidly and a flagship mission would give it something around which to build. Our special expertise in resource extraction offers a unique opportunity, which others have only just started to pursue. And a community of companies and researchers has been gathered for the task. (7/31)

Cecil Airport Expects 2021 Completion of Air Traffic Tower and Spaceport Center (Source: Jacksonville Daily Record)
The Jacksonville Aviation Authority said it expects to complete a new air traffic control tower and spaceport operations center at Cecil Airport in early 2021. JAA CEO Mark VanLoh said the construction coincides with the 20th anniversary this year of the transition from NAS Cecil Field to Cecil Airport. At a cost of $8.9 million, the tower will be funded by JAA and matching Florida Department of Transportation and Space Florida funding. (7/31)

NASA Is Working With Private Companies to Go Back to the Moon. That's Riskier Than it Seems (Source: TIME)
NASA is pushing hard on this public-private front in its new effort to have Americans back on the moon by 2024, with three announcements in just the last two days touting all of the companies that are partnering in the latest lunar gold rush. There’s plenty of truth in all the news—but plenty of premature breathlessness, too. Over the course of NASA’s entire 61-year history, it has never not been part of a public-private partnership.

The only branding on the side of the space agency’s rockets and spacecraft may have been an American flag and the words “United States of America,” but if all of the companies that actually built the machines had been able to slap their decals on the ships too, there would have been no room for windows. None of that is necessarily bad. One of the reasons the lunar program stopped with Apollo is that the old model—a money spigot turned on full as the government paid the entire $24 billion tab ($168 billion in 2019 dollars)—was not sustainable. Better to spread the cost — and the for-profit rewards — among a lot of players.

The problem is that the risks are spread too. The old NASA could withstand setbacks and even disasters like the Apollo 1 fire that killed three astronauts in 1967 because it had no shareholders or investors to keep happy. Businesses are different—sensitive to markets, wary of loss. Those x-factors may make the 2024 deadline harder to meet than the space agency realizes. Either way, it’s likely that whenever America gets back to the moon, a lot of the commercial partners along for the ride now will eventually be left behind. (7/31)

Hilary Swank Will Travel to Mars in Netflix Space Drama 'Away' (Source: Space.com)
Two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank will soon be the star and executive producer of new Netflix drama "Away," which follows an astronaut crew's perilous journey through space. "Away is an epic love story and a thrilling tale of survival set against humanity's greatest endeavor - the first human mission to Mars," Netflix said about the series, adding that the series is "about hope, humanity and how ultimately, we need one another if we are to achieve impossible things."

Netflix has so far green-lit 10 episodes of the dramatic series, which has been underway for about six months. The series, very loosely based on an Esquire article of the same name, comes from playwright Andrew Hinderaker (Colossal), Jason Katims (Friday Night Lights, Roswell) and Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes). (7/31)

Scottish Spaceport Site Leased (Source: BBC)
A proposed U.K. spaceport has secured a lease from Scottish property owners. Melness Crofters Estate owns the land in northern Scotland where the British government announced a year ago it planned to construct a spaceport for small launch vehicles. A lease will be finalized once Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the Scottish agency leading the project, secures planning approvals. Construction of the launch site could begin next year. (8/1)

Canada Considers Solutions for Orbital Debris (Source: Ottawa Citizen)
The Canadian military is looking for concepts about how to deal with orbital debris. The Department of National Defence issued a call for ideas for how to track orbital debris and even how to remove it, with proposals due later this month. A department spokesman said there are no current plans to fund development of such capabilities, and that the department was just soliciting ideas. (8/1)

Kubos and Ruag Team for Constellation Software (Source: Space News)
Open source spacecraft software developer Kubos is working with Ruag Space to develop computer systems for megaconstellations. Kubos will provide its KubOS software and Ruag its satellite computing hardware, targeting government and commercial satellite constellations that are looking for high-performance but affordable systems for controlling their spacecraft. The agreement allows Kubos to move up from nanosatellites, the most common users of its software, to larger satellites. (8/2)

Chinese Satellite Crashes Onto Moon (Source: Xinhua)
A Chinese smallsat that had been orbiting the moon since last year has crashed into the surface. The Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the China National Space Administration said the Longjiang-2 crashed into the surface Wednesday in a planned end-of-life maneuver. The satellite, weighing less than 50 kilograms, launched to the moon last May along with the Queqiao satellite that serves as a communications relay for the Chang'e-4 lander. The satellite carried a radio astronomy instrument and a camera provided by Saudi Arabia. (8/1)

Milky Way is Warped (Source: Space.com)
The Milky Way galaxy is warped more than astronomers thought. A three-dimensional map of the galaxy, created by pinpointing the positions of Cepheid variable stars, showed that the disc of the galaxy is warped, with the edges of the galaxy's spiral arms angled away from the plane of the disc. That warping could be caused by gravitational interactions with smaller "satellite" galaxies nearby, the intergalactic medium or dark matter. (8/1)

It's Sentient (Source: WIRED)
Consider what’s happening in the private sector: BlackSky takes data from 25 satellites, more than 40,000 news sources, 100 million mobile devices, 70,000 ships and planes, eight social networks, 5,000 environmental sensors, and thousands of Internet-of-Things devices. In the future, it plans to have up to 60 of its own Earth-observing satellites. All of that information goes into different processing pipelines based on its type.

From a news story, BlackSky may extract people, places, organizations, and keywords. From an image, it may map out which buildings appear damaged after an earthquake. All of that processed, but still disparate, data goes into what BlackSky CTO Scott Herman calls a “giant analytic fusion engine,” which tries to turn it into more than the sum of its parts, tells satellites what to do about it, and alerts human analysts when events meet certain predetermined criteria.

In the real world, BlackSky might use that to keep track of the positions of Russian jets. The company has images of places where the Russian military parks its planes, and it knows the rough shape of different kinds of flyers. The company also has shape-recognition algorithms, able to pick out pixels that, together, map out a given pattern. It can tune that algorithm to pick out the outlines of Russian jets, like the MiG Fulcrum and Foxhound planes. Once you put the satellite pictures into that algorithm, you could learn how many of those aircraft are sitting on runways. Click here. (8/1)

Senate Passes Budget $2.7 Trillion Budget Plan (Source: Defense News)
The U.S. Senate sent the president a $2.7 trillion budget plan with roughly $45 billion more in military funding over two years, despite complaints from fiscal conservatives the measure would raise the federal deficit. The agreement — which passed 67-28 — has the support of President Donald Trump and bipartisan leaders from both chambers, but it sharply split Republicans in the final vote. Twenty-three Republicans voted “no,” and 30 voted “yes.”

Trump is expected to sign the measure within a day, which is designed to prevent a partial government shutdown this fall and stabilize appropriations plans for all aspects of federal agencies until after next year’s presidential election. After days of working to sway wavering Republicans, McConnell narrowly passed the measure. In the House last week, fiscal conservatives also found it a tough pill and the measure only drew support from only one-third of the House GOP membership. (8/1)

Air Force Readies for Launch of Anti-Jamming Satellite at Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Defense News)
Officials at the U.S. Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center said that despite recent delays, they expect an anti-jamming communications satellite to launch as early as Aug. 8. The satellite in question is the fifth satellite in the Advanced Extremely High Frequency system, a constellation that will ultimately be composed of six satellites providing highly robust, anti-jamming satellite communications for the military and high priority national leaders. The first AEHF was launched back in 2010. Lockheed Martin is the program’s prime contractor.

The satellite was slated to be launched into orbit from Florida June 27, but was delayed after a vehicle battery failure was found on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket to carry AEHF-5 into orbit. The launch was then rescheduled for July 17, giving the technical time to analyze the problem and replace the battery. But less than a week before the launch, it was delayed again “due to an anomaly during component testing at a supplier which has created a cross-over concern.” (8/1)