Space Coast Companies
Hiring Like Crazy as We Compete in Country's 'Talent Wars'
(Source: Florida Today)
The campaign is called "Live Big Space Coast." The slogan, "Better
Gigs. Sunny Digs." Its promotion video opens with a group of athletic
men, apparently in their 30s, bike riding along the Indian River
Lagoon. It then transitions to a young couple paddleboarding near the
Cocoa Beach pier. The woman then changes into a United Launch Alliance
polo shirt and heads to work at a rocket facility. You might have seen
the billboards advertising the Space Coast's tourism attractions along
highways. Now, our region is trying to market itself to prospective
employees in our tech, aeronautics, defense and space industries.
The "Live Big" campaign, which you can find on Facebook, is an effort
by the Economic Development Commission of Florida's Space Coast to
ensure we're not lagging behind in the country's talent wars. The
purpose is to market our region mainly through social media to young
professionals who aren't familiar with Brevard County. I say "talent
wars" because that's truly what they are.
At the same time we're facing historic low unemployment rates,
Brevard's space, defense and technology sectors are booming — and they
need the most qualified workers. The search for talent is twofold: On
the one hand, companies are looking for highly skilled engineers and
tech workers. On the other, they need technicians and manufacturing
workers to build things like rockets and defense and aviation
equipment. Not only are our local employers — from L3 Harris
Technologies to Northrop Grumman, to SpaceX to even Florida Tech —
competing with each other, but they are also competing with the rest of
the nation for talent, including tech hubs in places like California
and Texas. (9/26)
Cave Exploration Program
Prepares Space Explorers for Planetary Missions (Source:
ESA)
Astronauts from five space agencies around the world are taking part in
ESA’s CAVES training course – Cooperative Adventure for Valuing and
Exercising human behaviour and performance Skills. Click here.
(9/26)
Blue Origin Gets Ready
for Next Spaceflights But Might Delay Flying People Until 2020
(Source: GeekWire)
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture is laying plans for
two more uncrewed tests of its New Shepard suborbital spaceship, but
may have to delay its plans to put people on board until next year. The
potential for shifting the start of test flights with people came up on
Tuesday when Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith met with reporters in
Washington, D.C.
Blue Origin has filed plans with the Federal Communications Commission
for at least two more New Shepard test flights from its test and launch
facility in West Texas. These would be the 12th and 13th flights of the
New Shepard test program. On Tuesday, Blue Origin sought
reauthorization of the next test flight for a six-month period running
from Nov. 1 to next May. The existing authorization is set to expire on
Dec. 1, which suggests that the company wants to reserve more time to
prepare for the test.
Blue Origin has repeatedly pushed back its predictions for the start of
New Shepard flights with people on board. Less than a year ago, for
example, Smith told GeekWire that the first crewed flight would take
place during the first half of 2019. (9/25)
Hubble Spots a
Football-Shaped Planet Leaking Heavy Metals Into Space
(Source: Astronomy)
Astronomers just used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to take the
temperature of an exoplanet called WASP-121b and discovered that the
world is so hot that heavy metals actually leak behind it as it whips
about its central star. It’s the first time scientists have seen such a
phenomenon.
Since the beginning of the exoplanet era, when astronomers began
finding planets outside our solar system, these so-called hot Jupiters
have demanded attention. They’re as big or bigger than our planet
Jupiter, made of mostly gassy hydrogen and helium, and orbit shockingly
close to their stars. These monster planets can take mere hours or days
to orbit. And as a result of their clinginess, they can be heated to
thousands of degrees.
But WASP-121b is extreme even for its class. The planet has an upper
atmosphere some 10 times hotter than any other world yet measured.
Astronomers think that intense heat is what’s causing the metals, in
addition to lighter materials, to puff up and stream away from the
planet. (9/25)
AIA Report Finds
Continued Growth for Aerospace, Defense (Source: AIA)
A report from the Aerospace Industries Association highlights the 4.2%
growth of the aerospace and defense sector last year, totaling $929
billion. "On the commercial side, experts estimate that production will
steadily increase due to a strong backlog," according to AIA. "For
defense products, a rise in geopolitical threats has resulted in
increased spending on a global scale as allies in foreign markets
continue to procure cutting-edge American technology." (9/26)
Soyuz Launches Three to
Crowded ISS (Source: CBS)
A Soyuz carrying three people arrived at the International Space
Station six hours after its launch Wednesday. A Soyuz rocket carrying
the Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at
9:57 a.m. Eastern. The spacecraft, on a four-orbit approach to the ISS,
docked with the station's Zvezda module at 3:42 p.m. On board the Soyuz
were Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka, American astronaut Jessica Meir
and Emirati astronaut Hazza Ali Almansoori, the first person from the
United Arab Emirates to go to space. Their arrival temporarily brings
the station's crew to nine. Almansoori will return to Earth Oct. 2 with
current ISS crew members Alexey Ovchinin and Nick Hague. (9/25)
Spire Raises $40M for
Business Expansion (Source: Space News)
Spire has raised more than $40 million in a new funding round to
develop analytics products and enter new markets. The company said the
funding came from a mix of strategic partners, including Japanese
companies Itochu and Mitsui, and new and existing financial investors.
Spire, which operates a constellation of more than 80 satellites that
collect weather and tracking data, will use the funding to develop
analytics products based on that data, such as weather forecasts
tailored to specific industries, as well as move into the Asia-Pacific
market. The company expects to be profitable within the next two years
and in a position to conduct an IPO. (9/26)
Eutelsat and Clyde Space
and Loft Space Plan Cubesat Constellation for IoT (Source:
Space News)
Eutelsat is working with AAC Clyde Space and Loft Space on a smallsat
constellation for Internet of Things services. AAC Clyde Space will
build two 6U cubesats for launch in 2021, while Loft Space will include
two Eutelsat payloads on its "condosat" smallsats scheduled for launch
in 2020. The satellites and payloads will cost no more than $1.1
million each, Eutelsat said. The satellites will be part of the
Eutelsat LEO for Objects system, with a goal of 25 satellites in orbit
by 2022. (9/26)
Russia Launches Military
Satellite on Soyuz Rocket (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
Russia launched a military satellite on a Soyuz rocket early Thursday.
The Soyuz-2.1b rocket lifted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in
northern Russia at 3:46 a.m. Eastern, placing the EKS 3 satellite into
an elliptical Molniya orbit. The satellite is part of a series also
known as Tundra for missile warning activities. (9/26)
US and Japan Affirm
Desire for Collaboration on Lunar Exploration (Source:
Space News)
NASA and the Japanese space agency JAXA reiterated their desire to
cooperate in the exploration of the moon. NASA Administrator Jim
Bridenstine, visiting Japan this week, signed a joint statement of
cooperation, outlining JAXA's intent to participate in the lunar
Gateway and develop lunar surface systems, such as a pressurized rover,
for future crewed missions. NASA will also participate in upcoming
Japanese robotic lunar missions. JAXA is particularly interested in
providing a habitation module for the Gateway as well as logistics
support using an advanced version of its HTV cargo spacecraft. (9/26)
Momentus Tests Water
Plasma Thruster in Space (Source: Space News)
Momentus has successfully tested its water plasma thruster system in
space. The company launched a demonstration satellite, El Camino Real,
earlier this year to test the technology it plans to use on its future
on-orbit tugs. The company's CEO said the microwave electrothermal
plasma technology, which uses water as propellant, is working well on
the satellite, although the company will conduct several more months of
tests. (9/26)
2nd Interstellar Visitor
to Our Solar System Confirmed and Named (Source: CNN)
An unusual object detected streaking across the sky last month was a
comet that originated outside our solar system, observations have
confirmed, becoming only the second observed interstellar object to
cross into our solar system. It has been named 2I/Borisov by the
International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center. And it's
anywhere between 1.2 and 10 miles in diameter, astromoners say.
Observations by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Solar System Dynamics
Group have supported that this comet has the most hyperbolic orbit out
of the thousands of known comets. (9/24)
Second Yunhai-1 Lofted by
Chinese Long March 2D (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
China launched a new meteorological satellite on September 25 using a
Long March-2D launch vehicle. Launch of the second Yunhai-1 satellite
took place from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. This was the fifth
Chinese orbital launch in less than a month. The Yunhai-1 are a series
of meteorological satellites built by Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight
Technology (SAST), possibly based on the CAST2000 platform. According
to official information, the satellites are used for observation of
atmospheric, marine and space environment, disaster prevention and
mitigation, and scientific experiments. (9/24)
First UAE Astronaut Lifts
Off With US and Russian Space Station Crew (Source:
CollectSpace)
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has now become the 40th country in
history to see one of its citizens fly into space with the launch of a
crew bound for the International Space Station. Hazzaa AlMansoori, a
spaceflight participant flying under a contract between Russia's space
agency and the UAE's Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center (MBRSC), lifted
off with cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka of Roscosmos and astronaut Jessica
Meir of NASA on Wednesday (Sep. 25). The three launched on board
Russia's Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft at 9:57 a.m. EDT (1457 GMT or 6:57 p.m.
local time) atop a Soyuz FG rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in
Kazakhstan. (9/25)
We Need This Futuristic
Tech if We're Going to Get Through Deep Space Alive
(Source: SyFy Wire)
Sending humans into deep space, even the moon, isn’t as easy as
launching a spacecraft and waiting for a call to Houston. You have to
figure out how to keep said spacecraft afloat, and said humans alive.
NASA’s Orion spacecraft will be taking off on the space agency's SLS to
fly us to the moon for the first time since the Apollo era on upcoming
Artemis Missions (is this going to be the Artemis era?). The moon isn’t
Orion’s final destination, because it will venture beyond the moon to
what NASA says is a distance 1,000 times farther from Earth than the
International Space Station. Make that farther than any spacecraft
carrying humans, period. That means it needs tech as advanced as its
sci-fi-sounding missions. Click here.
(9/24)
Dark Matter Mystery: CERN
Results Hint at ‘Evidence of New Physics’ (Source: Express)
Dark matter accounts for approximately 85 percent of all the mass
density in the known Universe. The elusive substance is “dark”, meaning
scientists cannot detect or interact with it in any meaningful way. Now
an experiment conducted at the European Organization for Nuclear
Research (CERN), demonstrates a landmark new technique for capturing
and measuring the extremely rare decay of a sub-atomic particle. And
their results indicate how precise measurements of this process could
hint at new physics, beyond the Standard Model developed in the 1970s.
Click here.
(9/25)
NASA Wants to Test New
Moon Spacesuits on the Space Station in 2023 (Source:
Space.com)
If NASA is ever going to send astronauts back to the moon by 2024, it's
going to need new spacesuits for lunar exploration. But
before astronauts ever don those suits on the moon, they'll test "walk"
them on the International Space Station in 2023, according to the
engineer backing the program. NASA's Artemis moon program aims to land
the first astronauts at the south pole of the moon in 2024, but the
agency's current spacesuit design — called the Extravehicular Mobility
Unit, or EMU — is designed for floating spacewalks (also
known as extra-vehicular activities or EVAs), not clambering around a
rocky, lunar surface. (9/24)
Putin Reveals He Offered
to Sell Trump Russia's Hypersonic Missiles (Source:
Sputnik)
Earlier, in August, the US officially withdrew from the INF treaty and
conducted a ground-based medium-range missile test just a few weeks
after. Russian president Putin then ordered the Defence Ministry to
formulate an appropriate response to the testing. Vladimir Putin
revealed during the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok that he
offered to sell Russia's newest weapons to Donald Trump, including a
hypersonic missile system, when they met in June this year in Japan. "I
told Donald, 'if you want, we'll sell them to you and that's how
everything will be balanced right away." (9/6)
Bolton Says Russia
'Stole' US Hypersonic Technology (Source: Space Daily)
The senior White House official made the highly contentious claims
while commenting on the recent explosion at a military facility in
Russia's Arkhangelsk region involving the testing of an unspecified
"new piece of armament," which the US has alleged was a new Russian
nuclear-powered cruise missile. Russia's new hypersonic glide vehicle
and hypersonic cruise missile systems are "largely" a rip-off of
American technology, US National Security Advisor John Bolton has
claimed. (8/16)
No comments:
Post a Comment