September 24, 2019

LauncherOne: Shaping Up and Shipping Out (Source: Virgin Orbit)
Like a beautiful, 70-foot-long bird made of carbon fiber and science, the time has come for us to push our next rocket out of the nest. This week, after a very hard drive by our teammates in our Long Beach factory, we waved good-bye to our latest test rocket. Our previous LauncherOne served valiantly through a battery of tests highlighted by several captive carry flights and especially by our flawless drop test. Our latest rocket — which has already been fully integrated, tested, checked, re-checked, analyzed, and triple-checked — is destined for a rigorous crucible of engineering demonstrations and tests of its own.

The final demonstration for this rocket will also be the biggest test we’ve attempted as a team: during that test, we’ll fire up LauncherOne’s engine in flight and head for space for the first time. Over the last month, we’ve subjected the rocket to an array of full-vehicle system checkouts. The work, ranging from electromagnetic interference (EMI) tests to guidance and navigation tests, from sequence tests to transmitter checks, has led us to quite literally poke, prod and inspect every aspect of this launch vehicle. (9/24)

Senate Bill Offers $22.75 Billion for NASA in 2020 (Source: Space News)
A Senate appropriations subcommittee approved a spending bill Sept. 24 that would provide $22.75 billion for NASA in fiscal year 2020, including much, but not all, of what the agency sought in additional funding for the Artemis program. The commerce, justice and science subcommittee favorably reported its appropriations bill in a brief markup session. The full Senate Appropriations Committee will take up the bill, and several other spending bills, Sept. 26.

The $22.75 billion included in the bill is $1.25 billion above what NASA received in fiscal year 2019, and $435 million above what the House provided in its 2020 spending bill, approved in June. The final Senate version of the bill will ultimately be reconciled with the House version in conference. (9/24)

SpaceX is Using Tesla Battery Packs in New ‘Starship’ Mars Vehicle Prototype (Source: Electrek)
In the latest example of cooperation between Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Tesla, the former appears to be using battery packs from the latter in their “Starship” prototype, a vehicle they hope will help humanity get to Mars. SpaceX is currently focused on building Starship MK1, a prototype of the spacecraft they plan to use for their ambitious Mars colonization plans.

Musk is set to give a presentation about the updated design of the spacecraft and its planned rocket, Super Heavy, on Saturday. In the meantime, SpaceX fans have been closely following the development of the spacecraft prototype in Boca Chica, Texas, and some of them on the Nasa Space Flight forum found that SpaceX has been adding several Tesla battery packs to the prototype. Workers have been spotted stacking Model S/X battery packs to one of Starship’s header tank. (9/24)

Virgin Galactic Announces Major Milestone in Next Spaceship Manufacture (Source: AeroTech News)
Virgin Galactic announced Sept. 17 that it has mated the fuselage and cabin of its next spaceship to the completed wing assembly. In addition, the two tail booms have been mated to the spaceship’s rear feather flap assembly. The completion of these two milestones brings assembly of the next SpaceShipTwo, planned to enter service after VSS Unity, a major step forward. With these milestones, the part fabrication of the wing, fuselage, cabin, nose and feather flap primary structures is now complete for the second commercial spaceship.

In addition, the majority of systems integration for the wing is complete, as well as the build of the cabin crew station installation. SpaceShipTwo vehicles are assembled in a modular fashion, with the cabin, fuselage, wing and feather assemblies built in parallel. Employing Design For Manufacturability and Assembly techniques, this approach grants easier access for systems integration earlier in the build process, as well as an overall shorter assembly duration. (9/20)

Space Coast Workforce Summit Rescheduled to Oct. 17 After Hurricane (Source: CareerSource Brevard)
Join CareerSource Brevard & our partnering agencies along with aerospace industry representatives, community partners, education & training partners, elected officials and community stakeholders as we build the strategic direction and deliver the solutions needed to support the industry's continued expansion. Click here. (9/23)

Russia Says It Will Keep Source of Hole (and Air Leak) on Soyuz Secret— But NASA Wants to Know (Source: Space.com)
Amid reports that the Russians will keep the cause of an air leak discovered at the International Space Station in 2018 secret, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has promised to speak personally with the head of the Russian space agency. "They have not told me anything," Bridenstine said during a Houston energy conference question session Thursday (Sept. 19), according to the Houston Chronicle. But he emphasized that he wants to keep good relations with the Russians, one of the two chief partners on the orbiting complex.

"I don't want to let one item set [the relationship] back, but it is clearly not acceptable that there are holes in the International Space Station," he said, referring to the 2-millimeter (0.08 inches) hole that the Expedition 56 crew found in the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft, a crew vehicle that was docked to the station. (9/21)

Commerce Dept. Supports Open Data pool of Spacecraft (Source: Space News)
Air Force is sharing space data with 450-plus organizations covering 2,200 spacecraft currently, but some see an "open architecture data repository," as the next step in space situational awareness. "We see the OADR as the place from which you ultimately create conjunction notifications, per SPD-3, based on the DOD authoritative catalog and a wide range of commercial and allied services," Kevin O'Connell of the Commerce Department says. (9/20)

NASA Joins Final Core Section of its First Space Launch System Rocket (Source: Huntsville Times)
NASA has connected the last of the five sections of the core the Space Launch System marking a major step in the big rocket’s completion. “Now, to complete the stage, NASA will add the four RS-25 engines and complete the final integrated avionics and propulsion functional tests,” SLS stages manager Julie Bassler said. “This is an exciting time as we finish the first-time production of the complex core stage that will provide the power to send the Artemis I mission to the Moon.”

The last piece added was the engine section located at the bottom of the 212-foot-tall core stage. NASA said it is one of the most complicated pats of the rocket including systems for mounting, controlling and delivering fuel from the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellant tanks. NASA will transport it on the agency’s Pegasus barge from Michoud to NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, for Green Run testing. During Green Run testing, engineers will install the core stage into a vertical test stand for a series of firing tests ending in a firing of all four engines. That will test the engines, fuel lines, valves, pressurization system and software needed for a successful launch. (9/23)

Trump Marks Mars as NASA’s Next Target, Says Moon Is ‘Not So Exciting’ (Source: Sputnik)
US President Donald Trump on Friday praised the US space program’s efforts to return astronauts to the moon by 2024 as "tremendous," yet outlined that the ultimate goal is Mars. "We're going to Mars," Trump told reporters after a White House meeting with Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison, marking Mars as a more exciting target than the moon.

"We're stopping at the moon. The moon is actually a launching pad," Trump said. "That's why we're stopping at the moon. I said, 'Hey, we've done the moon. That's not so exciting.' So we'll be doing the moon. But we'll really be doing Mars." NASA's deadline for a 2024 return to the moon by astronauts was unveiled in March by Vice President Mike Pence. Earth’s natural satellite was also a primary goal for Space Policy Directive 1, a directive signed by Trump in December 2017 ordering NASA to send astronauts to the moon and aim for Mars. (9/23)

NASA Wants a New Space Telescope to Protect Us All from Dangerous Asteroids (Source: Space.com)
Earth will soon lose a key tool in the fight to spot potentially hazardous asteroids — and NASA has decided to fund a custom-built replacement. NASA wants to build a space telescope to survey the sky in infrared light, a much-needed boost in its program to identify and track asteroids in Earth's immediate neighborhood. These activities are the cornerstone of planetary defense, and NASA's Science Mission Directorate has created a separate bucket in the budget, worth $150 million in the current fiscal year, for planetary defense, the agency announced today (Sep. 23).

That budget line is intended to increase flexibility and responsiveness in planetary defense, Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, said during a meeting of the Planetary Science Advisory Committee held in D.C. today. "The goal is not to do everything for eternity," he said. "The goal is to do the right things as they pop up." (9/23)