September 13, 2019

NASA Wallops ‘Fights Mother Nature’ To Testore Eroding Shoreline and Keep Rockets Flying (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Sitting right inside “hurricane alley,” NASA Wallops Flight Facility is in a never-ending struggle to keep the Atlantic at bay while powerful waves encroach inexorably on its launch pads. Those pads were built by Virginia taxpayers, most recently to boost commercial cargo runs to the International Space Station. But Wallops also hosts important Naval infrastructure, and integration facilities for Northrop Grumman’s Antares rockets and Cygnus spacecraft.

“It’s over a billion dollars worth of assets on the island,” said Keith Koehler, NASA Wallops news chief. “Wallops is typical of the barrier islands — they’re not wide, and they have served (to protect) the mainland over the years. So we’ve made the best of it.” Those efforts rebuilt a roughly 100-yard-wide beach to separate the Atlantic from the launch pads. But in the years since, the beach has shrunk to half that width. Recent studies show that the southern reaches of Wallops are losing 235,000 cubic yards of sand every year to erosion.

So in January the Virginia Marine Resources Commission approved a plan to haul that migrant sand back into place — 1.3 million cubic yards of material to be harvested from the north end of the island to restore a 19,000-foot stretch of beach on the south. They’re also installing a new set of breakwaters. The cost of the project isn’t set — the work is going up for bid. The work is expected to begin no earlier than November and should take about a year to complete. NASA has a 50-year permit to keep renourishing the beach, which Bull expects should be done every five to seven years. (9/9)

China Launches Three Satellites on Long March 4B Rocket (Source: Xinhua)
China launched three satellites on a Long March 4B overnight. The rocket lifted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center at 11:26 p.m. Eastern and placed into orbit the ZY-1 02D Earth resources satellite. It also carried two smallsat secondary payloads, one from a Chinese university and the other from a Chinese company. There was little advance notice of the launch. (9/12)

Spire Begins Weather Forecasting Support with Cubesat Constellation (Source: Space News)
Spire has unveiled its first product from its weather forecasting unit. Spire Forecast is a product designed to provide the maritime industry with detailed information on atmospheric conditions. The product uses data from Spire's constellation of more than 70 cubesats that collect radio occultation data. Spire separately announced this week that its constellation now collects 5,000 daily radio occultation profiles. (9/12)

UK and Airbus Consider Constellation of Radar Satellites (Source: BBC)
The British military has awarded a study contract to Airbus for a constellation of SAR satellites. Project Oberon would deploy several smallsats to provide imagery in all weather and lighting conditions. Airbus believes that, if the U.K. Ministry of Defence decides to go forward with the system, it could start launching satellites in 2022 and have the full system operational in 2025. (9/12)

Squyres Joins Blue Origin (Source: GeekWire)
A planetary scientist best known for leading a Mars rover mission is joining Blue Origin. Steve Squyres, a Cornell University professor of planetary scientist, will be the chief scientist for Blue Origin, the company said Wednesday. Squyres was the principal investigator for the Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, which landed in 2004 and, in the case of Opportunity, operated until 2018. Before being hired by Blue Origin, he served on a science advisory board for the company as it planned development of its Blue Moon lunar lander. (9/12)

Japan's Maezawa Sells Fashion Company, Plans Preparation for SpaceX Lunar Trip (Source: AFP)
The Japanese billionaire who bought a SpaceX Starship trip around the moon last year has sold his fashion company. Yahoo Japan will take a 50.1% stake in Zozo for $3.7 billion, including buying some of the shares owned by founder Yusaku Maezawa, who will step down as CEO. SpaceX announced a year ago that Maezawa would buy a flight of the Starship vehicle SpaceX is developing, sending it around the moon with several artists on board. Maezawa said that, by stepping down from Zozo, he can spend more time preparing for the flight. (9/12)

SECAF  Nominee Supports Space Force Creation (Source: Space News)
The White Houses nominee to be Secretary of the Air Force said establishing a Space Force was a "key imperative." Former U.S. ambassador Barbara Barrett, testifying at her Senate confirmation hearing Thursday, said the United States has to prepare to defend its assets in space and deter adversaries by investing in advanced space technology, training and education. She said she was in "full support" of the administration's proposal for the Space Force, and would recommend the Air Force and Space Force share resources in areas like infrastructure and recruiting. The Senate is expected to vote on her nomination next week. (9/12)

Senate Bill Would Provide $22M for Air Force Small Launcher Program (Source: Space News)
The Senate's defense appropriations bill includes $22 million for a new small launch program. The funding for Tactically Responsive Space Launch, part of the Air Force's research, development, testing and evaluation account, is intended to "leverage new and innovative commercial capabilities" for Defense Department needs. The bill also includes a provision to study an inland hypersonic test and space launch corridor. The proposed Space Force would get the $72.4 million it requested, as well as full funding for the Space Development Agency. (9/13)

China's Space Station Core Module Passess Review (Source: Space News)
Although the core module for China's space station has passed a major review, its launch could be delayed. The China Manned Space Agency said earlier this month that the Tianhe module has passed a design and prototype review, allowing assembly of the flight version of the 20-ton module to proceed. That module was set to launch in 2020 as the first step in assembling a space station that was to be complete in 2020, but a Chinese official said earlier this week that the station will now be completed between 2022 and 2024. (9/13)

Chinese Company Inks Deal with Satellogic for Earth Imaging (Source: Space News)
Satellogic has signed a deal with a Chinese company giving it access to its constellation of Earth imaging satellites. The $38 million agreement gives ABDAS, a Chinese data science company, exclusive access to Satellogic's satelites for images of Henan Province in China. The deal is the first such agreement for Satellogic, which also sells imagery and data products. Satellogic currently has eight satellites in orbit, producing multispectral and hyperspectral imagery, and plans to launch 16 more in the next eight months. (9/13)

Bigelow Shows Off B330 Space Habitat Module (Source: KTNV)
Bigelow Aerospace showed off a prototype of its B330 expandable module Thursday. The module, developed under a NASA award, is being tested at Bigelow's Las Vegas facilities. The company said that the B330, initially intended for low Earth orbit facilities, could also be used for missions to the moon and Mars. (9/13)

Texas Sees $4.7B Annual Economic Impact From JSC (Source: KPRC)
A study by the Texas state government has quantified the economic impact of the Johnson Space Center. The study, released Thursday by the Texas State Comptroller, concluded JSC has a $4.7 billion impact on the Texas economy, directly or indirectly supporting 52,000 jobs. Space Center Houston, which serves as the visitor's center for JSC, has 1.1 million visitors last year, 750,000 of which came from out of state. (9/13)

Colorado Workshop Focuses on Space Commerce (Source: Daily Camera)
The future of space commerce was examined from a constellation of angles Thursday in a daylong workshop devoted to that topic at the U.S. Department of Commerce campus in Boulder. The space economy, currently valued at between $350 and $450 billion globally, is estimated to likely soar to $1 trillion to $3 trillion over the next 20 to 40 years.

With that seemingly limitless potential will come an array of problems to be solved and challenges to be met, including space debris, the variability of space weather, civil space traffic management and technology transfer, to name just a few. In his opening remarks Office of Space Commerce Director Kevin O’Connell quipped that Boulder’s National Institute of Standards and Technology — which is under the umbrella of the Commerce department — was a fitting setting for the daylong session, because “We’re a mile closer to space than everybody else.”

The conference was cosponsored by the U.S. Office of Space Commerce and the University of Colorado Boulder. Appropriate, too, as National Institute of Standards and Technology Director Walter Copan pointed out that Colorado boasts the second-largest aerospace industry in the United States. (9/12)

Will Texas Lead The Coming Commercial Space Race? (Source: Texas Standard)
With launch sites in South and West Texas, and NASA in Houston, Texas plays an outsized role in the burgeoning commercial space industry. Last month, after several setbacks, the SpaceX StarHopper reached an unprecedented height during a short test flight in Boca Chica. Tech expert Omar Gallaga says commercial spaceflight is really just beginning, and it’s getting a big boost from well-funded, and well-known billionaire entrepreneurs. Click here. (9/12)

California's Vandenberg AFB Spaceport Eyed for Future Development and More Launches (Source: Santa Maria Sun)
Northwest of Lompoc, Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) encompasses 110,000 acres, more than 15 times the size of the town right next to it. The base is rich in aerospace expertise and extra land, and broad coalition of state, county, and local leaders are trying to figure out how to boost economic growth by allowing private companies closer access to launch pads and facilities that can fire a rocket into space.

Col. Anthony Mastalir, the new base commander, came with plans to improve infrastructure at the base. “I’m not in charge of expanding the number of launches,” Mastalir said. “But I need to be ready so that when the number of launches is ready to expand, range is ready to support.” ... “Quite frankly, there’s an opportunity here in California to capitalize on what lies ahead in terms of more economic growth and more jobs,” he said. “So I think the state has an interest in participating.”

Mastalir has had multiple discussion with Lenny Mendonca, a top economic adviser to Gov. Gavin Newsom. California boasts the largest share, more than 20 percent, of the national aerospace business. But it has dwindled over the years. The state has lost business to tax friendly competitors like Texas. Leaders at virtually every level of government—local, county, state, the governor’s office, and U.S. Congress—want to bolster California as a competitor in the aerospace business. Now, Mastalir said, there’s interest at the highest levels of the military and national government to expand Vandenberg’s mission and responsibilities. (9/11)

NASA to Share Vikram Landing Site Imagery with India (Source: Hindustan Times)
NASA said it would share “before and after” images of the location where Chandrayaan 2’s Vikram lander made a hard-landing in the early hours of September 7. “NASA will share any before and after flyover imagery of the area around the targeted Chandrayaan-2 Vikram Lander landing site to support analysis by the Indian Space Research Organization,” a NASA statement to the New York Times said. The US space agency is also attempting to re-establish communication with Vikram lander, which has not transmitted any signal since September 7. (9/13)

The Risks and Rewards of Growing US-China Space Rivalry (Source: The Diplomat)
Despite President Trump’s proposed cuts to NASA’s budget for 2018 and 2019, Congress has reversed the trend, increasing the agency’s budget by 8 percent for 2018 and 3.5 percent for 2019. This year’s $21.5 billion allocation is the best in a decade, adjusting for inflation. Trump’s proposed cuts were aimed at overall budget control. But they were also incompatible with rising U.S. ambitions in space, which include commitments to put people on the moon and in a base in lunar orbit in the 2020s, and to send astronauts to Mars in the 2030s.

A growing factor in the US’ intensifying push is China. Beijing is quickly becoming a major space power, succeeding the Soviet Union as today’s rival to the U.S. in space. Last year, China launched more rockets into Earth’s orbit than any other country. In January, it landed a robotic probe on the unexplored far side of the moon. Beijing has also announced plans to establish a robotic outpost on the moon by the end of the next decade. Pessimists see only dangers in this growing rivalry. Competition in space between Beijing and Washington carries existential risk.

Militarization of space could make it difficult to leave Earth for peaceful purposes. Uncontrolled proliferation of satellites could create space debris that might threaten life on Earth. But competition over space exploration can also benefit humankind, including accelerating the enormous potential for more and better telecommunications networks, global positioning systems and spinoff technologies. As space infrastructure develops to support a more permanent human presence off-planet, we could see transformational gains — notably the opportunity to harvest virtually limitless energy through space-based solar power stations. (9/13)

No Diapers in Film Inspired by NASA Astronaut Who Wore Them on Wild Chase (Source: CNET)
When it comes to movies about astronauts, we generally expect tales of adventure and bravery, images of rockets and spacesuits. And in the case of the upcoming movie Lucy In the Sky starring Natalie Portman and Jon Hamm -- diapers. Toronto International Film Festival goers are learning, though, that there's a nary a diaper to be found in the story, which is loosely based on that of astronaut Lisa Nowak.

If that sounds like an odd expectation, here's the backstory: In 2007, Nowak drove 900 miles from Houston to Orlando, Florida, to confront a woman she thought was (as The New York Times put it) "a rival for the affections of a fellow astronaut." One notable detail that surfaced from the incident? Police said the determined Nowak wore a diaper so she wouldn't have to stop to take breaks. Nowak eventually pleaded guilty to felony burglary of a car and misdemeanor battery, accepting a plea deal. (9/12)