DoD Acquisitions Chief:
Pentagon Unlikely to Change Air Force Launch Procurement Strategy
(Source: Space News)
The Air Force launch service procurement competition in recent months
has come under legal and political challenges. But the Pentagon
currently has no plans to make any changes to the program, said Ellen
Lord, undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment. “There
are no changes imminent,” Lord said on Monday at a Pentagon news
conference. But Lord did not completely rule out future revisions to
the National Security Space Launch Phase 2 Launch Service Procurement.
“We will see how things go and adjust if necessary,” Lord said. Even
though no contracts have yet been awarded, companies competing in the
NSSL Phase 2 competition already have taken the Air Force to court. And
there is legislative language proposed by the House Armed Services
Committee to change the rules set by the Air Force for the program and
create more opportunities for new commercial launch companies to
compete. (8/26)
No Legal Stones Left
Unturned in the Battle for U.S. Air Force Launch Contracts
(Source: Space News)
A decision on which two launch providers the U.S. Air Force will select
to split all national security missions between 2022 and 2026 is
months, perhaps a year away. And already the Air Force is facing legal
and political challenges that could make the Launch Service Procurement
competition not simply a battle over what rockets are the most capable
and cost-effective but also one to be fought by lawyers and lobbyists
at every step of the way.
Four competitors submitted proposals for the National Security Space
Launch Phase 2 Launch Service Procurement — United Launch Alliance,
SpaceX, Northrop Grumman and Blue Origin. SpaceX and Blue Origin both
have already taken legal action against the Air Force, arguing that it
has failed to create a level playing field for them and other companies
to be able to challenge heavily favored ULA. The GAO has 100 days to
deliver a ruling.
Separate from the legal squabbles looms a bigger question: Will the
newly designed rockets that three providers are developing for the
competition be ready to fly in time for Phase 2 missions? ULA’s Vulcan,
Blue Origin’s New Glenn and Northrop Grumman’s OmegA are projected to
launch their first missions in 2021 and get certified by 2022, if all
goes as planned. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is the only vehicle offered for
Phase 2 that is already certified and flying national security
missions. (8/26)
Uncrewed Soyuz Cargo
Craft Docks Successfully to ISS on Second Try (Source:
Space News)
An uncrewed Soyuz spacecraft successfully docked with the International
Space Station on its second attempt Monday night. The Soyuz MS-14
spacecraft docked with the Zvezda module at 11:08 p.m. Eastern, nearly
three days after a faulty automated rendezvous system aborted its first
attempt. The Soyuz, carrying a small amount of cargo and a humanoid
robot called FEDOR or Skybot F-850, will remain at the station until
Sep. 7. (8/27)
Rubio Urges Policy Shift
to Keep US Payloads on US Rockets (Source: Space News)
A U.S. senator is seeking a change in policy regarding launches of
hosted payloads. In a letter to Vice President Mike Pence, Sen. Marco
Rubio (R-FL) said that government hosted payloads should launch on
American rockets. Current policy, dating back to 2013, allows
government hosted payloads on commercial satellites to launch on
foreign vehicles without the need for a formal approval process
required for government satellites. Rubio argued that the U.S. launch
industry is robust enough to accommodate hosted payloads, but some in
industry worry that a change in policy could exacerbate existing
challenges in finding rides for hosted payloads. (8/27)
UK Space Industry Wants
Boris to Act on Proposed Satellite Programs (Source:
Financial Times)
The British space industry is calling on the country's new prime
minister to back up his rhetoric on space policy with action. Prime
Minister Boris Johnson, in his first speech since becoming the head of
government a month ago, endorsed development of new navigation and
remote sensing satellite systems, saying they would provide "long-term
strategic and commercial benefits for this country." Johnson has not
yet taken action on those proposed satellite systems, and members of
the British space industry organization UKspace say it's now time for
him to "put his money where his mouth is" with measures such as a
national space innovation fund. (8/27)
Intel Community’s Secrecy
Culture Frustrates DoD Sat Safety Effort (Source: Breaking
Defense)
The Defense Department's efforts to improve the safety of space
operations is facing pushback from the intelligence community. The NRO
is slow rolling implementation of DoD’s effort to lift restrictions on
the location of classified satellites, insiders say. That runs counter
to Defense Department efforts to provide more information on the orbits
of national security satellites in order to enhance safety.
“The US is being more transparent, but there are still those Cold
Warriors that can’t figure out that things are changing and insist on
subverting policy they have been tasked to implement,” one frustrated
expert told me. “They are effectively taking USG efforts to be
transparent and instead making it look like we’re playing games and
can’t be trusted—basically shooting ourselves in the foot.” (8/27)
Brazil's Bolsonaro
Defiant Despite Potential Disasterous Effect of Burning Amazon
(Source: Guardian)
As Donald Trump’s America retreats from global leadership, coalitions
of like-minded nations are attempting to limit the damage. One such
grouping at this weekend’s G7 summit in France managed a breakthrough
over one of the globe’s most pressing problems: the accelerating
deforestation in the Amazon. France’s Emmanuel Macron take Brazil’s
far-right president Jair Bolsonaro to task for encouraging the wanton
destruction of the world’s biggest tropical forest.
Much more will have to be done to change Mr Bolsonaro’s mind over the
threat posed by the climate crisis. The Brazilian president has
appointed climate deniers to prominent roles. When the country’s space
agency revealed increasing deforestation in the Amazon in July – a
result of the rollback of environmental protections and enforcement –
the president said the numbers were fake. He then sacked the head of
the institute, shooting the messenger rather than acting on the
message.
The rate of destruction has brought the Amazon close to a dangerous
threshold – where it becomes too small to generate its own clouds. As
the trees disappear, rainfall declines and deforestation begins to feed
on itself; this could push it to a point of no return, where the vast
basin would end up resembling a savannah more than a rainforest. Mr
Bolsonaro sees the Amazon as a “virgin” that should be “exploited” by
big business. (8/27)
Mystery Deepens Around
Newly Detected Ripples in Space-Time (Source: Gizmodo)
The true identity of last week’s purported neutron star-black hole
merger may never be known, as follow-up searches for a source of the
signal have turned up nothing. Scientists affiliated with the LIGO
detector announced last week that they’d spotted, in the form of
gravitational waves, what appeared to be a black hole gobbling up a
neutron star. But without an electromagnetic counterpart to the
detection, it’s difficult to distinguish such an event from a pair of
black holes merging. Either possibility is exciting. (8/27)
NASA’s Space Launch
System Debut Looks Set To Slip Into 2021 (Source: Aviation
Week)
Contractors for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lift rocket
indicate the agency’s decision to put the core stage through a “green
run” full-scale ground test means first launch is more likely in 2021
as they enter a final phase of integrated structures, engines and
systems testing. Although NASA is still officially targeting late 2020
for the SLS debut in the Artemis 1 test mission, the agency is widely
expected to acknowledge the slide as part of the outcome of an ongoing
review associated with recent leadership changes in its exploration
programs.
The green run, which will be held at NASA Stennis Space Center in
Mississippi, is set for next year and could take place “in 6-9 months,”
said Robert Broeren, Boeing integrated product team lead for SLS
stages. Broeren said that even though the company will complete core
assembly in the coming weeks at the company’s Michoud Assembly Facility
(MAF) in New Orleans, there is still more work to do. “We have tests to
verify the avionics, the cabling and [to] make sure everything talks to
each other correctly,” he said. (8/23)
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. (8/25)
U.S. Aims to Block
Chinese Acquisition of Ukrainian Aerospace Company
(Source: Wall Street Journal)
U.S. national-security adviser John Bolton is seeking to scuttle the
pending Chinese acquisition of a Ukrainian aerospace company on grounds
that it will give Beijing vital defense technology, according to senior
U.S. administration officials familiar with the matter. Mr. Bolton’s
personal interest and involvement in the deal, acknowledged by the
senior administration officials, underscores the growing importance of
this case to the U.S. national-security establishment. (8/27)
A Burj Khalifa-Sized
Asteroid is About to ‘Narrowly’ Miss Earth (Source:
Esquire)
Mark your calendars folks, September 14 will see an enormous asteroid
shoot by our planet at more than 23,112 kilometres per hour (14,361
miles per hour). The rock, named 2000 QW7, is estimated to measure in
at 650 meters, making it over twice the size of the London Shard at 310
metres and near the size of the tallest building in the world at 828
meters. Depending who you ask, you'll get a different scale. China
compares it to the Shanghai Tower, France to the Eifel Tower and here
in the UAE to the infamous Burj.
While a massive Burj Khalifa-sized rock charging towards us at a speed
near 10 times that of a fighter jet may be scary, don’t worry, it’s
really not. According to NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies
(CNEOS), the asteroid is being monitored and has no danger of wiping
out humanity. Our friendly little 2000 QW7 may clock in at 0.03564
astronomical units but that’s still 5.3 million km away from our
surface. Earth is around 20,036 km so that would put the asteroid and
us at around a distance of 265 Earths. (8/27)
US, Russia and China Far
Outpace India with Space Debris (Source: Business Insider)
NASA pointed out that debris from India's anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons
test — dubbed ' Mission Shakti' — is still in orbit. "A total of 101
debris pieces have entered the public satellite catalog, of which 49
remain on-orbit as of 15 July 2019," NASA stated. NASA also pointed out
that that initially there were over 400 fragments from the ASAT test.
It also said that cataloging them was difficult due to the low altitude
of the event and the rapid orbital decay. Yet, India's debris is mere
fraction of the debris left behind in space by other nations around the
world. The United States, Russia and China are miles ahead of anyone
else. (8/26)
Milestone Achieved!
SpaceX to Launch Astranis’s First Commercial Satellite Into Orbit As
Early As Next Year (Source: Medium)
Four years ago, my co-founder Ryan and I set out to get the next four
billion people online by building the next generation of internet
satellites from Geostationary orbit. Last year, we introduced ourselves
to the world, announcing a Series A fundraising from the likes of
Andreessen Horowitz and Y Combinator. This January, we announced our
first mission: tripling the satellite internet capacity of Alaska by
partnering with Pacific Dataport.
And today, we’re excited to announce that we’re even closer to
achieving our mission: Astranis has signed with SpaceX to put the first
of our ground-breaking geostationary satellites into orbit next year,
dedicated to making an immediate impact on bridging the digital divide
in Alaska. We’ve reserved a ride on a SpaceX Falcon 9 with a launch
window at Florida’s famed Cape Canaveral starting in the fourth quarter
of 2020. (8/26)
Iran Seen Preparing For
Space Launch (Source: NPR)
In the latest indication that it may be readying an attempt to launch
another space rocket, Iran has given its launch pad a fresh coat of
paint. A satellite image taken by the commercial company Planet shows
the pad painted a bright blue. The image, taken August 24, was shared
with NPR. Until this month, the launch pad at the Imam Khomeini Space
Center had been sporting a burn scar from a previous failed launch
attempt. It had also been covered in debris from a possible flash flood
at the site this past spring.
"The Iranians have finished clearing off the pad, and they painted over
the previous launch scar," says Dave Schmerler, a senior research
associate at the Middlebury Institute for International Studies who has
analyzed the imagery. Other recent imagery has shown vehicle activity
at a nearby building where Iran assembles its rockets. "We're getting
close to a launch, but exactly when that will happen I can't tell you,"
Schmerler says. (8/26)
Hawaii or Spain?
Telescope Experts Say it May Not Matter (Source: West
Hawaii Today)
Despite years of legal battles and months of protests by Native
Hawaiian opponents, the international coalition that wants to build the
world’s largest telescope in Hawaii insists that the islands’ highest
peak — Maunakea — is the best place for their $1.4 billion instrument.
But just barely. Thirty Meter Telescope officials acknowledge that
their backup site atop a peak on the Spanish Canary island of La Palma
is a comparable observatory location, and that it wouldn’t cost more
money or take extra time to build it there.
There’s also no significant opposition to putting the telescope on La
Palma like there is in Hawaii, where some Native Hawaiians consider the
mountain sacred and have blocked trucks from hauling construction
equipment to Maunakea’s summit for more than a month. But Hawaii has
advantages that scientists say make it slightly better: higher
altitude, cooler temperatures, and rare star-gazing moments that will
allow the cutting-edge telescope to reach its full potential. (8/26)
SpaceX Scrubs Starhopper
Test Flight on Monday (Source: Ars Technica)
Shortly after 7pm ET (23:00 UTC) SpaceX began counting down to the
100-meter hop test for its Starhopper vehicle. And while there were
some definitely rocket-like noises at T-0, the Raptor engine did not
ignite. There may have been a problem with the igniters, as Musk noted
on Twitter shortly after the test, "Raptor uses dual redundant torch
igniters. Better long-term, but more finicky in development." The next
launch attempt will occur no earlier than Tuesday. (8/27)
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