August 26, 2019

Air Force Space Plane Breaks Previous Record for Orbital Spaceflight (Source: Tech Crunch)
The Boeing-built X-37B space plane commissioned and operated by the U.S. Air Force has now broken its own record for time spent in space. Its latest mission has lasted 719 days as of today, which is one day longer than its last mission, which ended in 2017, as noted by Space.com. It’s not an overall record, as geocommunications satellites typically have life spans of five years or more, but it’s nonetheless an impressive milestone for this secretive Air Force vehicle, which is all about testing and developing U.S. technologies related to reusable spaceflight and more.

The X-37B began its current mission in September 2017, when it launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The specific details of the spacecraft’s missions are classified, but in addition to apparently spending ever-increasing amounts of time up in space (each successive mission of the space plane has lasted longer), it’s also “operating experiments that can be returned to, and examined, on Earth.” These tests involve tech related to guidance, navigation, thermal protection, high-temperature materials and durability, flight and propulsion systems and more, which is basically not saying much, as that’s just about everything involved in space flight. (8/26)

Air Force Seeks New Candidates to Manage the Space Enterprise Consortium (Source: Space News)
The Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center is looking to make changes in the management of its fast growing Space Enterprise Consortium. In a Request for Information posted Aug. 20, SMC announced it is “performing market research to help inform the acquisition strategy to recompete the Space Enterprise Consortium Other Transaction Agreement.” Responses are due Sept. 16.

Created by SMC less than two years ago, the Space Enterprise Consortium, known as SpEC, has quickly become a central player in SMC’s efforts to bridge the cultural gap between military buyers and commercial space startups and small businesses. The consortium manages the development of pre-production prototypes of space systems, including satellites, payloads and ground systems. To date more than 50 prototype projects have been awarded by the SpEC. (8/25)

India's Anti-Satellite Test Debris Still in Space (Source: Space Daily)
In its latest assessment on debris in space published in Orbital Debris Quarterly News, NASA claimed there are 101 pieces of debris big enough to be tracked, of which 49 pieces remain in orbit as of 15 July. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States has revealed in a report that debris from India's anti-satellite test on 27 March is still floating in space. (8/23)

Barbie Hails Astronaut Sally Ride With New 'Inspiring Women' Doll (Source: CollectSpace)
Barbie has added to her astronaut wardrobe the flight suit of a real space explorer. Mattel on Monday (Aug. 26) revealed its new Barbie Inspiring Women Series Sally Ride doll, modeled after the late NASA astronaut. "Sally Ride was the first American woman, and the youngest American, to fly in space. Her adventurous nature, quest for discovery and pioneering accomplishments inspire girls everywhere to boldly reach for the stars," a Mattel spokesperson said.

The Sally Ride Barbie is styled after the astronaut as she appeared in June 1983, when the then-32-year-old physicist and former nationally-ranked junior tennis player launched as an STS-7 mission specialist on the space shuttle Challenger. The first of Ride's two spaceflights — Ride flew again on Challenger's STS-41G mission in 1984 — the first six days she spent orbiting Earth established her place in history as the first U.S. female in space. (8/26)

AsiaSat Heading Toward Privatization (Source: Space News)
Shareholders of satellite operator AsiaSat have voted overwhelmingly in favor of privatization. AsiaSat said Friday that shareholders controlling 99.8% of shares not already held by its majority owners, CITIC and Carlyle, voted in favor of privatization. CITIC and Carlyle own nearly three-quarters of AsiaSat and proposed in June to buy the remaining shares for $130.8 million. If the plan is approved by a court, the company could delist from the Hong Kong stock exchange next week. (8/26)

OneWeb Engages Again With Radio Astronomers on Interference Issues (Source: Space News)
Satellite constellation company OneWeb has restarted discussions with radio astronomers about potential interference after a three-year hiatus. FCC regulations require OneWeb and other Ku-band constellations to first coordinate with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) before beginning service in the U.S. The observatory said discussions with OneWeb recently resumed, after the NRAO sent a letter to the FCC about the issue. Astronomers say it's not too late for OneWeb to work out a way to minimize interference even as the company begins to launch its satellites, adding that the NRAO already has an agreement with SpaceX regarding its Starlink constellation. (8/26)

UCF Sets Another Record in Research Funding (Source: Orlando Business Journal)
UCF brought in a record $192.1 million in research funding for fiscal year 2019, with 26 grants worth more than $1 million each and 155 first-time lead investigators. The university saw more funding from federal agencies ($104.8 million) and industry ($66 million), with the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health contributing $25.3 million and $12.9 million, respectively.

The uptick in research funding continues a trend, as in fiscal year 2018, research funding came in at $183.1 million, marking the third consecutive year to see an increase. Even better, the trend sets the university on a path toward its strategic goal of $250 million by 2020. UCF researchers will use the research money to advance knowledge in a variety of areas, including helping communities face coastal threats, developing artificial intelligence to detect cancer tumors and how to get us to the moon and beyond. (8/26)

The Curious Case of the Transgressing Tardigrades (Source: Space Review)
An Israeli spacecraft that crash-landed on the Moon in April carried a hidden payload: microscopic organisms called tardigrades, whose presence on the spacecraft wasn’t revealed until earlier this month. A group of space law experts examines the legal ramifications of this undisclosed payload. Click here. (8/26) 
 
Huge Cash Prizes and the Abdication of Public Oversight (Source: Space Review)
Last week, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and others proposed a $2 billion prize for a human mission to the Moon. Casey Dreier explains that, while prizes can sound promising, they have significant flaws. Click here. (8/26)
 
Revectoring the Small Launch Vehicle Industry (Source: Space Review)
The space industry has long expected the vast majority of small launch vehicle startups to fail, a belief supported by problems suffered earlier this month by one high-profile venture, Vector. Jeff Foust reports that Vector’s problems don’t necessarily mean a shakeout is imminent for the rest of the industry. Click here. (8/26)

Could Earth Microbes Survive in a Martian Lake? (Source: Air & Space)
Mars is a very different world from ours. While evidence continues to mount that early Mars had lots of water, and possibly even oceans on its surface, it’s been dry for at least a billion years. As the planet transitioned to a cold, arid world, chemicals such as hydrogen peroxide and perchlorate accumulated on its surface and subsurface. If any life exists on Mars today, it would have had to adapt to the presence of these biology-unfriendly compounds.

In a new paper published in the journal Astrobiology, Jacob Heinz from the Technical University of Berlin and colleagues (including myself) report just how much chloride and perchlorate Earth microorganisms can tolerate, and how they adapt to the presence of these chemicals. The tests were done with a microbe, Planococcus halocryophilus, that thrives in the cold and salty environment of the High Canadian Arctic.

After exposing it to higher and higher perchlorate and chloride concentrations at different temperatures, the scientists found that P. halocryophilus exhibits the highest tolerance to sodium perchlorate of all microorganisms tested so far. This is not to say terrestrial microbes could survive in an underground Martian lake like the one described by Roberto Orosei and his Italian colleagues last year. That lake, which was discovered by radar measurements from Martian orbit, has a temperature of about -68o C, and therefore must have extremely high concentrations of perchlorate to keep its water liquid. (8/25)

Boeing Completes First NASA SLS Engine Section, Getting Ready for Final Core Stage Mate (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
Officials from NASA along with prime contractor Boeing formally signed off on the first assembly of the most complicated element of the civilian space agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. After a review of data from two months of functional testing at the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New Orleans, the engine section element of the first SLS Core Stage is complete and is now cleared to be mated to the rest of the vehicle.

Reaching this engine section milestone took much longer than original estimates, which complicated the schedule for the first SLS launch on Artemis 1. Early in 2019, with the finish line for the engine compartment not appearing to get closer, the final assembly sequence was rewritten to do the remainder of it horizontally. Work on the upper “four-fifths” of the stage was released from its dependency on the engine section in the Spring, those pieces were bolted together in late May, and standalone work is mostly complete.

In parallel, the engine section/boattail assembly was also relocated to the same Final Assembly area at MAF in early April to complete outfitting, connections, and checkouts. The next step is to move the engine section and boattail to another building, rotate them from vertical to horizontal, and then come back for bolting to the aft end of the stage in the last “major join” in its assembly. (8/25)

NASA Curiosity Rover Investigates Shiny Object on Mars (Source: CNET)
Mars is a dusty place, so when something shiny shows up, it stands out. NASA's Curiosity team posted an update to its mission blog on Wednesday with a lovely look at a shiny lump sitting on the planet's surface. The target of Curiosity's curiosity is nicknamed "Little Colonsay" and it looks like a small nugget. The rover's ChemCam captured a close-up view of the object on Monday.

"The planning team thinks it might be a meteorite because it is so shiny," writes Curiosity team member Susanne Schwenzer. "But looks can deceive, and proof will only come from the chemistry." Curiosity's ChemCam is a suite of instruments that includes a camera, spectographs and a laser that helps NASA analyze the composition of Martian rocks and soil. The rover is scheduled to investigate Little Colonsay with the ChemCam to determine if it really is a meteorite. (8/25)

SpaceX Loses Falcon Heavy Customer Ovzon to Arianespace (Source: Space News)
Satellite broadband company Ovzon said Aug. 24 that a better offer from Arianespace for a 2021 launch aboard an Ariane 5 prompted it exit an agreement to launch its first fully owned satellite on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy. Ovzon disclosed the switch to Ariane 5 in an earnings report Aug. 23, saying it had “recently contracted Arianespace to launch our satellite in 2021... [W]e have thus left the preliminary agreements we had,” Ovzon said.

René said Ovzon-3’s Ariane 5 launch is planned for the second half of 2021, and didn’t experience a change in schedule through the switch in vehicles. René said Ovzon may return to SpaceX for future missions, since the company envisions having multiple satellites for global coverage. “Next time we may use SpaceX … we think they had a very good offer as well, but Ariane’s offer at this time was better,” he said. (8/24)

NASA Dangles $7 Billion Carrot for Next Moon Landing (Source: Bloomberg)
The agency that sent humans to the moon 50 years ago is offering $7 billion to take the first steps for a U.S. return to the lunar surface within five years. NASA is seeking U.S. companies that can deliver cargo, experiments and supplies to a spacecraft named Gateway in lunar orbit as part of the planned Artemis landing mission. It’s the largest of several proposals unveiled since May as the agency accelerates work to return to space, with the eventual goal of reaching Mars.

The agency is still lobbying Congress and President Donald Trump to sign off on Artemis, which may require as much as $30 billion to complete the task by 2024, NASA administrator James Bridenstine said in June. He later declined, in testifying to a Senate committee, to pin down an estimate. In May, Trump upped NASA’s budget for next year. The U.S. 2024 landing target would be ahead of the goal set by China, which wants to have its astronauts at a research station at the south pole in the 2030s. India in July launched its second lunar mission, with a south pole landing scheduled for early September. (8/25)