August 29, 2019

Another Iranian Rocket Launch Ends In Failure, Imagery Shows (Source: NPR)
Satellite imagery shows that an Iranian rocket appears to have exploded on the launch pad Thursday. The imagery from the commercial company Planet and shared via the Middlebury Institute of International Studies shows smoke billowing from the pad at the Imam Khomeini Space Center in northern Iran. The pad had been given a fresh coat of paint in recent days, and numerous vehicles had been spotted around the site in preparation for the launch attempt.

"This look likes the space launch vehicle blew up on the launch pad," says Dave Schmerler, a senior research associate at the Middlebury Institute who has analyzed the imagery taken Thursday. "This failure happened maybe a couple of minutes before the image was taken." The failure is the third this year. In January and February, Iran attempted to launch two rockets, both of which failed to reach orbit. (8/29)

Claims Court Punts SpaceX’s LSA Bid Protest to California Court (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Court of Federal Claims ruled Monday that it lacks jurisdiction to hear SpaceX’s complaint that the Air Force has put it at a disadvantage to win future launch service contracts by denying it a share of the $2.2 billion it awarded rivals Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman and United Launch Alliance to prepare new rockets for the competition. Judge Lydia Kay Grigsby granted the U.S. government’s motion to dismiss SpaceX’s bid protest but granted the company’s motion to transfer its complaint to U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

SpaceX filed its bid protest with the U.S. Court of Federal Claim in May seeking to stop its rivals from receiving any more of the Launch Service Agreement money the Air Force awarded Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman and United Launch Alliance in 2018 to help the companies defray the costs of meeting the government’s launch requirements for the upcoming launch procurement competition known as National Security Space Launch Phase 2 Launch Service Procurement.SpaceX, the only competitor not developing a new rocket to compete for the forthcoming launch contracts, said the Air Force’s decision has unfairly tilted the playing field. (8/29)

Enough With the Obsession With 'Gender Diverse' Space Crews (Source: Quartz)
Saralyn Mark, an M.D. and specialist in gender-based medicine, spoke on Aug. 21 to the National Space Council about gender bias. Her main point: NASA needs to — no kidding — realize there are gender differences because sending “gender diverse” crews to Mars is going to be difficult. At least I think that was her point. It was frankly hard to listen to because enough already!

We’ve been sending gender-diverse crews to space since 1983. We’ve had women do every job a man does in space. Every one. Space walks? Check. Shuttle commander? Check. Space Station commander? Check. Record for long-duration flights? Check. So what’s going to be the new gender-bias thing NASA needs to start — start? — paying attention to? (8/29)

How Women’s Equality Day Looks From Space (Source: Space News)
Women’s Equality Day was extra special for me as an American woman in space. I’m honored to be working at NASA at a time when women will apply the same dedication that drove the suffrage movement to accomplish yet another historic milestone — going to the moon.

NASA recently launched the Artemis program, an effort to send the first woman and next man to the lunar surface. Named after Apollo’s twin sister, this program will return humans to the moon by 2024 and establish a sustainable presence there by 2028. The mission will continue the scientific exploration that the historic Apollo mission began more than 50 years ago, and empower humans to travel to Mars and beyond. This time, we go in an era when the contributions to the mission are as diverse as the people who dare to dream them.

My astronaut class was equally male and female, and women are strongly represented in NASA’s talented astronaut corps and mission control centers. During my time aboard the space station, two of my fellow NASA astronauts are also women, Anne McClain and Jessica Meir. Within the last year, we will have had three different pairs of female astronauts together in space. That is the same number of female pairs as in the previous 18 years of human presence on the space station. (8/27)

These Researchers Want to Run a Cable From the Earth to the Moon (Source: Futurism)
It would be much easier to escape Earth’s gravity if you could skip the energy-intensive rockets. That’s the idea behind the Spaceline, a newly-proposed type of space elevator that would link the Earth and the Moon in a bid drastically cut the cost of space travel.

Described in research published to the preprint server ArXiv by researchers at Columbia University and Cambridge University, the Spaceline would be tethered to the surface of the Moon and dangle down into geostationary orbit around the Earth like a plumb bob, waiting for astronauts to latch on and ride into the cosmos. The proof-of-concept paper found that the Spaceline could be constructed out of materials that exist today, raising the possibility of easier space travel and perhaps even orbital settlements.

Instead of rocketing all the way out of orbit, astronauts would only need to reach the end point of the Spaceline, cutting back the cost and challenge of rocket launches. Once it reaches the vacuum of space, free of terrestrial gravity and atmospheric pressure, the spacecraft would meet up with the cable and latch onto a solar-powered shuttle that would climb along its length. (8/27)

DoD Secretary Endorses Space Command, Space Force (Source: Space News)
New Secretary of Defense Mark Esper offered a strong endorsement of both the new U.S. Space Command and the proposed Space Force Wednesday. At a joint press conference with Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford at the Pentagon, Esper said he was "excited" for the formal activation of Space Command, scheduled to take place at the White House Thursday afternoon. "As a unified command, the United States Space Command is the next crucial step toward the creation of an independent Space Force as an additional armed service — an independent additional armed service," Esper said. Pentagon officials have met with congressional committee staffs over the August recess to discuss Space Force legislation, specially issues they have with language in the Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act. (8/29)

Swissto12 Raises $18M for Small GEO Satellites (Source: Space News)
European telecommunications component company Swissto12 has raised more than $18 million and signed a deal with Tyvak to develop small GEO satellites. Swissto12 said the $18.4 million Series B round will allow it to expand its production capacity for satellite components such as antenna arrays and waveguides. The company has also opened new offices in Israel and the United States, and established a partnership with Tyvak focused on producing dishwasher-size communications satellites for geostationary orbit. (8/29)

Bridenstine Likes In-Space Manufacturing (Source: Space News)
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine shares the vision of on-orbit manufacturing espoused by startup Made In Space. During a visit to the company's offices at the Ames Research Center this week, Bridenstine said the ability to manufacture spacecraft components in space could get around the limitations imposed by the limited size and volume of launch vehicle payload fairings, approaches "that are not optimum and cost more." Made In Space won a $73.7 million NASA contract recently for Archinaut One, a small satellite equipped with a 3D printer and robotic arm that will demonstrate on-orbit manufacturing technologies. That spacecraft is scheduled for launch in 2022. (8/29)

NGA Picks Maxar for Imagery Services (Source: Breaking Defense)
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) has awarded a contract to Maxar for access to high-resolution satellite imagery. The Global Enhanced GEOINT Delivery extension includes $44 million for one year of imagery services and options for three additional years at the same annual price. The contract gives government users access to the large archive of images that Maxar's satellites have collected, and is separate from imagery purchase contacts the company has with the National Reconnaissance Office. (8/29)

India's First Astronauts All Male (Source: PTI)
India's first human spaceflight mission will fly only men. An official with the Indian space agency ISRO said that the agency plans to select as its initial astronauts military test pilots, who in India are all male. The agency expects to complete a shortlist of potential candidates for that 2022 mission next month, who will then undergo training in Russia. ISRO says that women will be considered for later crewed missions. (8/29)

Raytheon to Build GLIMR Instrument for Earth Science (Source: Raytheon)
Raytheon will built an Earth science instrument for launch on a geostationary satellite. The company won a contract from the University of New Hampshire to build the Geostationary Littoral Imaging and Monitoring Radiometer (GLIMR) instrument. NASA recently selected GLIMR for development to study coastal and ocean ecosystems. The instrument will launch on a GEO satellite in 2026 or 2027. (8/29)

UK Spaceport Climate Impacts Negligible (Source: Cornwall Live)
A study has concluded that a proposed British spaceport will have little effect on the climate. The study analyzed spaceflight operations from Cornwall Airport Newquay, a site proposed for use by air-launch companies like Virgin Orbit. The study found that carbon emissions linked to spaceport activities would be no more than 0.1% of Cornwall's entire carbon footprint. Cornwall is seeking to make its economy carbon-neutral by 2030. (8/29)

Musk Says Starship Could Be Followed By a Dramatically Larger Rocket (Source: Teslarati)
Hinted at in a brief tweet on August 28th, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says that SpaceX’s massive Starship and Super Heavy launch vehicle – set to be the most powerful rocket ever built upon completion – could eventually be followed by a rocket multiple times larger. SpaceX is currently in the process of assembling the first full-fidelity prototypes of Starship, a 9m (30 ft) diameter, 55m (180 ft) tall reusable spacecraft and upper stage. Two prototypes – Mk1 and Mk2 – are simultaneously being built in Texas and Florida, respectively, while the beginnings of the first Super Heavy prototype has visibly begun to take shape at SpaceX’s Florida campus.

A full Starship/Super Heavy ‘stack’ would be the tallest (~118m/390ft), heaviest (~5000 tons/11 million lbs), and most powerful rocket ever assembled. And yet, despite its size, orbital-class rocketry in Earth gravity will almost never fail to benefit from more thrust; more propellant; more rocket. In light of this, CEO Elon Musk says that a theoretical next- next-generation SpaceX rocket – to potentially follow some years after Starship and Super Heavy – could be a full 18m (60 ft) wide, twice the diameter of its predecessors. (8/29)

German Robot Assistant Departs Space Station (Source: Space Daily)
The Crew Interactive Mobile CompaniON (CIMON) mobile astronaut assistant, which is equipped with artificial intelligence (AI), returned to Earth on 27 August 2019. The SpaceX CRS-18 Dragon spacecraft carrying CIMON was undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) at 16:59 CEST; the capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean approximately 480 kilometers southwest of Los Angeles and was recovered at 22:21 CEST. (8/29)

Russian Robot Assistant Arrives at Space Station (Source: Space Daily)
It was second time lucky on Tuesday as an unmanned spacecraft carrying Russia's first humanoid robot docked at the International Space Station following a failed attempt over the weekend. "Sorry for the delay. Got stuck in traffic. Am ready to carry on with work," the robot's Twitter account said in a jokey first tweet from space. Copying human movements and designed to help with high-risk tasks, the lifesize robot, Fedor, is due to stay on the ISS until September 7.

Fedor is not the first robot to go into space. In 2011, NASA sent up Robonaut 2, a humanoid developed with General Motors that had a similar aim of working in high-risk environments. It was flown back to Earth in 2018 after experiencing technical problems. In 2013, Japan sent up a small robot called Kirobo along with the ISS's first Japanese space commander. Developed with Toyota, it was able to hold conversations -- albeit only in Japanese. (8/28)

UCF Student Working as Image Analyst for NASA's OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Recovery Mission (Source: Space Daily)
While many students spent their summer break at the beach or working to earn tuition money, UCF physics student Jennifer Nolau spent her break analyzing thousands and thousands of digital images beamed to her from an asteroid millions of miles from Earth.

Curled up in her favorite pajamas with her laptop in her off-campus apartment, the 25-year-old from South Florida, spent about 10 hours a week analyzing boulder and rock images from asteroid Bennu, the site of NASA's OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer) mission. The first American mission of its kind has sent a spacecraft to the asteroid and is currently analyzing where to best grab a sample of its surface to bring back to Earth. (8/28)

NASA Works to Secure its Launch Pads as Storm Approaches (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
On the Space Coast, where some models put Hurricane Dorian touching land Monday, teams at Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station are working to secure multi-million-dollar equipment ahead of the storm. A major storm slamming the space center facilities head-on would be a first. Past storms have come close — damage from Hurricane Matthew in 2016 cost KSC millions of dollars in repairs and a Hurricane Frances in 2004 toppled a Mercury-Redstone rocket at KSC’s credentialing center and tore off panels from the iconic VAB. (8/28)

Congress Must Put the Space Force on the Right Trajectory (Source: TheHill)
Two months ago, a bipartisan group of 40 former senior officials from across the spectrum of U.S. national security space came together to urge action to authorize the establishment of the United States Space Force, within the Air Force, as an independent branch of the armed forces. Such action was necessary, the letter stated, to ensure continued U.S. leadership in this critical domain and to serve as the most effective means to deter conflict in space.

Today, thanks to the important ongoing work of key congressional committees, America is nearing the day when this bold vision becomes reality. The fulfillment of that vision, however, will require careful planning and effort. The most critical and fragile period in the establishment of any new organization comes at the foundational stage, when the mortar is fresh and the structure easily adjusted. Once it hardens, adjustments become more difficult, and often happen only after the most serious failures. (8/28)

Space Force to Florida? It’s Donald Trump’s call, Ron DeSantis Says (Source: Florida Politics)
Gov. Ron DeSantis expressed confidence Wednesday that President Donald Trump would base Space Force in the Sunshine State. DeSantis, addressing reporters in Jacksonville, thinks his ally in the White House could override forces within the Air Force that would prefer it in Colorado. “The Air Force, they’ve got a lot of assets in Colorado,” the Governor said. “If you have people in the general officer ranks, (it’s) more natural for them to be in Colorado.”

DeSantis also doesn’t see the Air Force as “supportive” of Space Force, and Colorado offers another advantage there. “If you keep it underneath in Colorado where you have all the Air Force brass, you really keep it in a box. Whereas, if you put it out here, this thing could really blossom and become something bigger,” DeSantis said. “I don’t think the Air Force really wants to see that. They think it’s a bad idea. And that they want to keep it boxed up somewhere in Colorado,” he added.

“We knew going in to this that the Air Force was not going to pick Florida for a combatant command,” DeSantis said. “My pitch to the President was I want you to pick Florida, but I’m not even saying you should do that right now, What I would like is a commitment that it’s going to be your decision.” "Absolutely,” Trump said – according to DeSantis. The Governor extolled the economic benefits of Space Force, but “the message it sends that this is the place for American space innovation is really powerful.” (8/28)

Quantum Gravity Could Reverse Cause and Effect (Source: Live Science)
You've probably heard of Schrödinger's cat, the unfortunate feline in a box that is simultaneously alive and dead until the box is opened to reveal its actual state. Well, now wrap your mind around Schrödinger's time, a situation in which one event can simultaneously be the cause and effect of another event. Such a scenario may be inevitable in any theory of quantum gravity, a still-murky area of physics that seeks to combine Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity with the workings of quantum mechanics.

In a new paper, scientists create a mashup of the two by imagining starships near an enormous planet whose mass slows time. They conclude that the starships could find themselves in a state where causation is reversed: One event could end up causing another event that happened before it. "One can devise this kind of scenario where temporal order or cause and effect are in superposition of being reversed or not reversed," said study co-author Igor Pikovski.

If a futuristic spacecraft were near a massive planet, its crew would experience time as a little bit slower than would people in a fellow spacecraft stationed farther away. Now, throw in a little quantum mechanics, and you can imagine a situation in which that planet is superpositioned simultaneously near to and far away from the two spacecraft. In this superpositioned scenario of two ships experiencing time on different timelines, cause and effect could get wonky. (8/28)

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope Is Finally 100% Assembled (Source: Space.com)
Engineers have joined both halves of the $9.7 billion James Webb Space Telescope, which is scheduled to launch in March 2021, NASA officials announced today (Aug. 28). "The assembly of the telescope and its scientific instruments, sunshield and the spacecraft into one observatory represents an incredible achievement by the entire Webb team," Webb project manager Bill Ochs, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said in a statement. (8/28)