August 3, 2019

SpaceX’s Crewed Dragon Launch Debut Likely to Slip Into 2020 as NASA Pursues “Realistic” Dates (Source: Teslarati)
In a recent blog post, NASA made it clear that changes happening to leadership within the agency – specifically within the Human Exploration and Operations Directorate – are impacting the timelines to return astronauts to the International Space Station(ISS) from US soil. Agency conflicts are just the latest of several setbacks that have impacted the schedule of SpaceX’s crewed Crew Dragon launch debut.

Initially, the SpaceX Demo-2 mission set to carry NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the ISS was slated to occur in the summer of 2019. That demonstration flight has since dropped off of the NASA launches and landings schedule, at least through October. SpaceX is now targeting a Demo-2 launch no earlier than December 2019 but an array of critical milestones must be completed to achieve that goal and both SpaceX and NASA have been keen to express that a crewed Crew Dragon launch in 2019 is a huge stretch. (8/3)

Loon Balloon Flies Over Florida Forest (Source: WKMG)
While kayaking in the Alexander Springs recreation area of the Ocala National Forest last month, Don Brouillard and his wife Ginny spotted something up above that wasn't nature's work. "My wife spotted a small white dot in the sky," Brouillard said. "There the mystery began. You try not to think of UFO's and things like that, but you go back and forth between some high-tech we're unaware of. We're pretty sure it was something high-tech that was deployed. That's when we contacted Channel 6."

A representative with the FAA told News 6 it was unlikely the balloon was an item they were aware of flying at the time. Finally, officials with a company called Loon told News 6 the balloon was likely theirs. Since 2013, Loon has launched a network of balloons traveling on the edge of space, twice as high as commercial airplane, to help people in underserved areas get internet access. In short, Loon works with cellphone providers to expand their reach. Loon is owned by Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google. (8/2)

So, How Much Did the Planetary Society’s Light Sail Really Sail? (Source: Ars Technica)
On Wednesday, the Planetary Society declared "mission success" for a small spacecraft launched on June 25 by a Falcon Heavy rocket, saying its small solar sail had raised the apogee of its orbit around Earth by 1.7km over the course of four days. "We completed its primary goal of demonstrating flight by light for CubeSats," said Bruce Betts, the LightSail 2 program manager and chief scientist at The Planetary Society. Several scientists began to question the achievement by LightSail 2.

For example, astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell wrote, "I am not seeing the claimed orbit raising in the data. I see the normal orbit decay, but an increase in eccentricity presumably caused by the sail—so yes apogee is going up, but perigee is going down even faster." And in response to a query whether this achievement constituted solar sailing, an expert in the field, Tomas Svitek, replied, "If 'sailing' means controlled orbit raising, then no. LS-2 orbit is modified by solar radiation pressure, that is not new. But orbit energy has not been increasing. Likely explanation is that spacecraft is randomly tumbling, not actively changing its attitude around orbit."

Asked about this on Thursday, LightSail 2 Project Manager David Spencer said that engineers have indeed been actively controlling the attitude of the spacecraft about two-thirds of the time. "About one-third of the time, we have been in 'detumble' mode, reducing the momentum wheel speed and allowing our torque rods to remove angular momentum from the system," Spencer acknowledged. "When in detumble mode we are not actively controlling the orientation of the sail relative to the Sun." (8/2)

'Right Stuff' TV Show Cast, Crew Film at Kennedy Space Center on Apollo 11 Anniversary (Source: Florida Today)
This is so Space Coast: A space-themed TV show films at Kennedy Space Center on a major space anniversary. The American drama miniseries, "The Right Stuff," executive produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, filmed at the space center on July 16, 2019, which coincidentally was the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch. The show's premise? Astronauts — and their families — become instant celebrities in their quest to be part of Project Mercury.

Cast members suited up in a hangar at KSC and met with experts. "What we did today was to try to give our actors exposure to the real world of experimental flight test," retired Navy test pilot Dave Kennedy said in the video. "It's impressive when a production understands how important it is to get this kind of hands-on exposure." The cast and crew will film in Cocoa Beach in the fall. Editor's Note: The cast worked with Starfighters Aerospace to get familiar with some of the aircraft flown by the Mercury astronauts. Click here. (8/2)

SpaceX to Begin Flights Under New Cargo Resupply Contract Next Year (Source: Spaceflight Now)
SpaceX is set to retire its current fleet of Dragon capsules, in use since 2010, next year and begin flying supplies to the International Space Station on a new variant of the Dragon spacecraft based on the model in development to carry astronauts. After originally awarding SpaceX a cargo transportation contract in 2008 that eventually totaled 20 Dragon missions, NASA selected the company for a follow-on contract — known as Commercial Resupply Services-2 — in 2016 for at least six additional Dragon deliveries through 2024.

The changeover to SpaceX’s next-generation Dragon — called Dragon 2 or Crew Dragon — for cargo missions next year will come with several benefits, including a faster process to recover, refurbish and re-fly the capsules. For cargo missions, SpaceX has designed a version of the Crew Dragon, or Dragon 2, spacecraft without SuperDraco abort engines. The launch abort system has been a stumbling block in the Crew Dragon program after a spacecraft exploded during moments before a ground test-firing of the abort engines in April. (8/2)

NASA Analyst Crowned Miss Universe Ireland (Source: Irish Central)
Fionnghuala O’Reilly (25), from Swords, Dublin was named unanimously by a panel of judges Miss Universe Ireland 2019 at Dublin’s Mansion House, on Thursday. O’Reilly who works remotely from Dublin as a NASA data analyst wowed the judges and told the competition she plans to use her position as an engineer and as a bi-racial woman to promote diversity and equality, the Irish Independent reports. (8/2)

NASA Gives SpaceX a Challenge with the Moon as a Prize (Source: The Hill)
SpaceX is developing a massive rocket it calls the Starship. Propelled into space by a first stage dubbed the Super Heavy, it promises to change space travel as profoundly as the ocean-going caravel did sea travel. Starship, Musk has boasted, will carry the first colonists to Mars. He has also suggested that the new rocket could land on the moon in two years. Musk has contracted with a wealthy, Japanese businessman to take a crew of artists and writers in a free return voyage around the moon.

Jeff DeWit, NASA’s chief financial officer, threw down the gauntlet to SpaceX. If SpaceX is able to land a Starship on the lunar surface, the space agency will partner with the company to conduct voyages to the moon on the rocket ship. Of course, DeWit hastened to add that he thinks that Musk’s chances of pulling off a lunar landing are “slim.”

SpaceX has thus far not responded to the challenge laid down by NASA. However, Elon Musk is nothing if not competitive and is always up for a challenge. If any organization can pull off a private moon landing on the scale that Starship could accomplish, it would be SpaceX, in two years or perhaps a bit longer, considering the nature of space development projects. (8/2)

Report Details Starship Launch, Landing Plan at Kennedy Space Center (Source: Click Orlando)
An environmental report from SpaceX for NASA details what interplanetary launches could look like from NASA's Kennedy Space Center including where Elon Musk’s company plans to land Starship and its mega rocket booster Super Heavy. SpaceX produced a draft report for NASA to provide a possible action plan to avoid environmental impacts that Starship and Super Heavy booster launches and landings could have on the Space Center, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Canaveral National Seashore and the greater Space Coast.

Starship is SpaceX’s fully reusable spacecraft designed for human and spacecraft launches to the moon and Mars. The 180-foot-tall, 30-foot-wide Starship will launch on a reusable booster called the Super Heavy which is powered by 31 Raptor engines. For those launches, SpaceX plans build an additional launch mount for Starship/Super Heavy within the Launch Complex 39A at KSC, according to the 250-page action plan. The company currently launches its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets from the historic KSC launch site where Saturn V launched Apollo 11 to the moon 50 years ago.

The document also shows SpaceX plans to construct a new landing pad at 39A to support Starship landings. Before a new pad is complete, Starship will land at Landing Zone-1 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station where SpaceX currently lands its Falcon boosters. The new landing pad at 39A would be approximately 85 meters in diameter and look similar to the existing landing pads SpaceX uses at Cape Canaveral. However, land landings of Starship at 39A will require "additional analysis to fully assess the potential impacts to NASA programs, facilities, personnel and operations," according to the report. (8/2)

Apollo Patch Awaits Trip to Mars at KSC (Source: TIME)
On July 20, 1987, the eighteenth anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, the astronauts presented the patch to then-NASA Administrator James Fletcher, with the request that it be minded carefully and carried along with the first American crew to set out for Mars. At the time, there was no planned NASA Mars mission. So the patch stayed with Fletch until 2014, when it was transferred to Kennedy, in honor of the renaming of the complex’s Operations and Checkout Building—where spacecraft have been assembled and tested since 1964—for Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong.

There it will stay, held in trust in Florida, until the time a Mars crew is ready to fly. That journey is still far off, but for the first time in a long time it seems to be edging closer, as NASA continues to ramp up its plans to get to the moon—a necessary first step to Mars—and the robotic exploration of the Red Planet continues apace. This week offered more signs of a space age resurgent. (8/2)

Tesseract Makes Spacecraft Propulsion Smaller, Greener, Stronger (Source: Tech Crunch)
Launch vehicles and their enormous rocket engines tend to receive the lion’s share of attention when it comes to space-related propulsion, but launch only takes you to the edge of space — and space is a big place. Tesseract has engineered a new rocket for spacecraft that’s not only smaller and more efficient, but uses fuel that’s safer for us down here on the surface.

The field of rocket propulsion has been advancing constantly for decades, but once in space, there’s considerably less variation. Hydrazine is a simple and powerful nitrogen-hydrogen fuel that’s been in use since the ’50s, and engines using it (or similar “hypergolic” propellants) power many a spacecraft and satellite today.

There’s just one problem: Hydrazine is horribly toxic and corrosive. Handling it must be done in a special facility, using extreme caution and hazmat suits, and very close to launch time — you don’t want a poisonous explosive sitting around any longer than it has to. As launches and spacecraft multiply and costs drop, hydrazine handling remains a serious expense and danger. (7/30)

An Asteroid Bigger Than the Empire State Building is Passing by Earth. Here's Why You Shouldn't be Worried (Source: CNN)
Yes, there's an asteroid bigger than the Empire State building passing by Earth. No, it's not anything to worry about -- it's actually pretty normal. Asteroid 2006 QQ23 is scheduled to zoom by Earth on Aug. 10 and, at an estimated diameter of up to 1,870 feet, it's easy to see why people are worried. But Lindley Johnson and Kelly Fast of NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office say there's nothing to fear.

Tracking these objects is mainly a defense mechanism, to ensure none are anywhere close to hitting Earth. And, as far as Asteroid 2006 QQ23 goes, Johnson said it's a moderate-sized asteroid, and it's nearly 5 million miles away. It's "more or less benign," he said. Asteroids around this size pass by Earth about a half dozen times a year, Johnson said. Asteroid 2006 QQ23 is less than a mile long, but the biggest known asteroid that orbits our sun is about 21 miles long, though asteroids of that size are rare. (8/1)

It Is Time for America to Reassert Leadership in Space (Source: NewsMax)
It is high time America reassert its leadership in space. Leaving the cosmos to China would be a catastrophic mistake. The technological, economic, and national security implications are important and very real. To simply cede these matters to China would harm not only the US, but the rest of the world. The communist Chinese intend to dominate militarily and would love for us to cede this arena to them. Fortunately, President  Trump sees space as an important frontier. President Trump is pushing America towards Mars.

The truth is, America already has a capable new rocket that dwarfs the capabilities of the Saturn V rockets that took our astronauts to the moon. The Space Launch System will be online and ready later this year. As with any attempt to design and build something that has never been done before, the Space Launch System had some challenges.

Real and robust competition pushes all participants to perform their best. But SpaceX has so far been able to avoid real competition. Without any real requirement that it ultimately succeed, SpaceX has been a technological failure, even while Musk has managed a public relations success and gotten paid based on his public relations campaign, more than actual accomplishment. To make it to Mars we must encourage real competition, not Elon Musk’s fake version of competition where he gets paid regardless of what he produces. (8/1)

Greenland Loses Staggering Amount Of Ice In July Heat Wave (Source: Huffington Post)
Greenland saw a staggering melt of its ice sheet in July amid an unrelenting heat wave, producing enough water to cover all of Florida by several inches, researchers said Friday. The semi-autonomous Danish territory, which has 82% of its surface covered in ice, lost 197 billion metric tons of ice in July, Ruth Mottram, a climate scientist with the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI), tweeted Friday.

“This is not science fiction,” he said. “It is the reality of climate change. It is happening now and it will worsen in the future without urgent climate action.” In some instances, the melt has resulted in powerful rushes of water, offering a tangible look at the forces behind sea-level rise. Laurie Garrett, a journalist and author covering global health threats, shared shocking footage of one of those water flows on Twitter. (8/2)