September 5, 2019

Kennedy Space Center in Florida Gets All Clear as Hurricane Dorian Moves On (Source: Space.com)
NASA's historic spaceport in Florida, the Kennedy Space Center, has received the "all clear" after a glancing blow from Hurricane Dorian Wednesday (Sep. 4). Hurricane Dorian, currently a Category 2 storm on the Saffir-Simpson wind scale, drenched the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral with torrents of rain and brutal winds as its outer layers blew past the spaceport overnight Tuesday and early Wednesday. A damage assessment team will begin reviewing the storm's impact to the center on Thursday.

KSC officials closed the spaceport last week as Dorian, then a harrowing Category 5 storm, threatened to hit Florida's east coast. The storm has since weakened and turned north, avoiding a head-on hit to Florida. Still, a 120-member "Ride Out Team" has been encamped inside the center's Launch Control Center since Monday (Sept. 2) to monitor the storm's impact, NASA officials said. Members of the U.S. Air Force's 45th Space Wing also rode out the storm at the launch center, the space agency said. (9/4)

NASA Satellite Spots a Mysterious Green Light That Quickly Disappeared (Source: CNET)
NASA's NuSTAR X-ray observatory has spotted something a little weird. While imaging the Fireworks galaxy, NuSTAR spotted several mysterious bright sources of X-ray light, appearing as green and blue spots. Within days, the blobs had disappeared. A recent study offers potential explanations for the appearance of a green blob near the galaxy's center, which appeared and disappeared within weeks.

It's possible the light was from a black hole consuming another object like a star, the study suggests. When objects get too close to a black hole, they can get torn apart by gravity, and their debris is pulled into a close orbit around the black hole. Material at the disk's inner edge moves so quickly that it "heats up to millions of degrees and radiates X-rays," NASA says. For reference, the surface of the sun is around 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. (9/4)

Thales Alenia to Restructure as Orders Drop (Space News)
Satellite manufacturer Thales Alenia Space will restructure its business to address a drop in orders. Thales Group, which owns 67 percent of Thales Alenia Space, said the global slowdown in geostationary satellite orders is dragging on longer than it expected, causing space revenues to contract. The company didn't elaborate on its restructuring plans, but did say it expects to take a charge of 40–50 million euros in the second half of this year to "adjust our overall headcount in our space business." Thales plans to increase R&D spending over the next two years, a move it acknowledges will depress earnings but believes is necessary to develop advanced satellites. (9/4)

Air Force Official Warns Against a New Acquisition Organization for Space Force (Source: Space News)
Giving the new Space Force its own acquisition office could create more problems than it solves, an Air Force official warns. Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Will Roper said Wednesday that while he was "sympathetic" to a desire by Congress, in the defense acquisition bill, to spin off space acquisition into a new office, he warned that approach could be costly and inefficient. Roper said what will really help space programs more than having its own acquisition executive is to have their own budgets once the Space Force is established. (9/4)

Australia's 'Fleet' Raises $7.3M for Constellation Expansion (Source: Space News)
Australian smallsat startup Fleet has raised $7.35 million in a new funding round. The company will use the funding to expand its constellation of smallsats that provide Internet of Things services. Fleet launched its first four satellites in late 2018 and the company says demand for connectivity from its customers led the company to seek the new round to enable it to launch a new set of satellites next year. The funding round was led by new investors Momenta Ventures and Horizons Ventures along with some existing investors. (9/4)

India to Support Private Sector Launch Vehicle Development (Source: Hindu Business Line)
The Indian space agency ISRO says it is ready and willing to support private ventures in the country developing launch vehicles. The head of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre told a recent meeting of entrepreneurs that the agency "will not create any issues for you" as companies propose development of their own launch vehicles. That includes providing ground control and tracking services for private launch vehicles, although ISRO's launch facilities are fully booked through at least next year. (9/4)

Astronauts Test Retro Spacesuit Tech for Mock Mars Missions Under the Sea (Source: Space.com)
Astronauts just resurfaced from a trip to the bottom of the ocean where they tested retro futuristic spacesuit and submarine tech. From Aug. 21 to 28, 2019, NASA astronaut Drew Feustel, ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet and Japanese astronaut Norishige Kanai took part in a new NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) mission off the coast of California in the U.S.

This mission tested the kinds of underwater training methods that might be best to use for training the next astronauts to land on the moon. The mission, hosted by the University of Southern California's Wrigley Institute, is known as NEEMO NXT. In previous NEEMO missions, "aquanauts" have spent time in the underwater Aquarius base off the coast of Florida. But with this mission, the team resurfaced every day. The mission focused on technology and underwater tests of the commercial ExoSuit, with the help of a team of divers and land-based support. (9/4)

AIA Increases Grants for American Rocketry Challenge 2020 (Source: AIA)
Registration has begun for next year's American Rocketry Challenge, and the Aerospace Industries Association is expanding support for Title I schools that want to participate. "We've seen the life-changing impact this competition has had on the tens of thousands of students who've participated, but it's not enough," AIA President and CEO Eric Fanning says. "We know there are countless more students who want to compete, so this year, in addition to offering mentorship for all teams, we're making grants available to teams that wouldn't otherwise be able to take part." (9/4)

Norwegian Hybrid Rocket Scales Up (Source: Aviation Week)
Norwegian aerospace and defense company Nammo is working with the European Space Agency (ESA) to help industrialize flight-proven hybrid propulsion technology for the development of a family of low-cost, responsive sounding rockets and small-payload launch vehicles. The venture, known as the North Star launch family, builds on the successful launch of the company’s Nucleus technology demonstrator sounding rocket from Andoya Space Center in northern Norway in September 2018. (9/5)

China's Booming Private Aerospace Industry (Source: China.org)
Space is big, to say the least. But what is less well known is this: Space is expensive. Want to deliver something into space? Forget about the cost of shipping through your local post office. It is estimated that sending just half a kilogram of mass into orbit will cost approximately $3,000. The economics of space as an accessible field for business are just as much an obstacle to overcome as the technology required to make such feats possible. Up to now, American companies such as SpaceX have led the charge in revolutionizing the possibilities and monetization of space travel.

Not only American companies are paving the way, however. China's space industry is starting to flex its muscles and is enjoying an influx of talented young people entering its ranks. China currently boasts about 100 privatized aerospace companies – a huge leap from only 30 in 2014, when the government first gave the green light for start-ups to operate in the space industry. Companies such as the Beijing-based LinkSpace are also pioneering reusable rocket technology, bringing the heavens one step closer. (9/3)

Eutelsat Drops Out of C-Band Alliance (Source: Broadcasting + Cable)
The four satellite services companies in the C-Band Alliance are now three, though the remaining companies say they will press on. The companies are backing a private auction of some C-Band spectrum for 5G, but Eutelsat Tuesday (Sept. 3) withdrew from the alliance. That leaves Intelsat, Telesat, and SES still advocating for that approach. (9/3)

Will LandSpace Be China’s SpaceX? (Source: Space Review)
China has seen a surge of space startups, many of which are developing launch vehicles. Chen Lan and Jacqueline Myrrhe visit one of those companies, LandSpace, which is in position to become the Chinese version of SpaceX. Click here. (9/3)
 
The Curious Case of the Transgressing Tardigrades (Source: Space Review)
In the second part of their examination about the recent controversy about undisclosed microscopic life included on a lunar lander mission, a group of experts examines the regulatory issues in the United States that come into play in this incident. Click here. (9/3)
 
Solving the Commercial Passenger Spaceflight Puzzle (Source: Space Review)
Despite decades of experience, human orbital spaceflight remains a risky endeavor. In the first in a three-part article, Mike Snead critiques one recent proposal to establish a system intended to improve human spaceflight safety. Click here. (9/3) 

Facebook and Hughes Plan Satellite WiFi in Colombia (Source: Hughes)
Facebook has partnered with Hughes Network Systems to launch a satellite-enabled Wi-Fi hotspot service in Colombia. The service provides prepaid internet access using terminals from Hughes and Express Wi-Fi, a Facebook software platform designed to help providers build, operate and monetize Wi-Fi services. Hughes said the program enables local merchants to offer internet access throughout the country. Hughes said its customers have deployed more than 32,000 satellite-enabled community Wi-Fi hotspots across Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, and Russia, reaching more than 25 million people. (9/3)

ArianeGroup's GKN Cuts Jobs (Source: Guardian)
GKN Aerospace, an ArianeGroup supplier, is cutting 1,000 jobs from a global staff of 18,000 as part of a restructuring. Those plans predate the start of an 8 billion pound ($11 billion) hostile takeover by Melrose in 2018. Melrose, facing scrutiny from the British government, said it would continue to invest in GKN and keep Melrose’s headquarters and stock market listing in the U.K. The restructuring plans, according to GKN Aerospace, are part of an earlier initiative to combine its four divisions into one. (9/4)

Spain's GMV Developing SatNav System for BMW (Source: GMV)
Spanish space company GMV is developing a high-precision satellite-based positioning system for German carmaker BMW to use in self-driving vehicles. GMV said it has modified software for calculating a vehicle’s position, along with other information, to meet performance and safety requirements from BMW Group. The terms of the contract were not disclosed. GMV is a supplier for ground elements of the European Union’s Galileo satellite navigation constellation. (9/4)

Astrocast Raises $9.2 Million for Fleet Expansion (Source: Space News)
Satellite constellation company Astrocast has raised $9.2 million in a new funding round as it seeks to expand the size of its fleet. The Swiss company raised the Series A round, announced Wednesday, from what it described as a mix of existing and new investors that it did not disclose. Astrocast originally planned a constellation of 64 satellites to provide Internet of Things services, but now plans to launch 80 satellites. Astrocast has two demonstration satellites in orbit, with the first five operational satellites scheduled for launch in spring 2020. (9/4)

OneWeb Plans Satellite Coverage Starting in Arctic Region (Source: OneWeb)
OneWeb reiterated that the arctic will be the first place to receive its megaconstellation broadband services. The company said it will start delivering 375 Gbps of capacity above 60 degrees latitude starting in 2020. OneWeb’s satellites operate in polar orbits, meaning their coverage is most tightly concentrated at the poles, fanning out as they transit the equator. Arctic markets above 60 degrees north include Norway, Finland, Canada, Russia and Alaska — the latter being a state OneWeb has frequently cited as a starting point for service. OneWeb said it will provide coverage over the estimated 48% of the arctic that lacks broadband connectivity. Gateway antennas in Alaska and Norway will be fully operational by January, OneWeb said. (9/4)

NASA Updates Lunar Lander Solicitation (Source: Space News)
NASA has updated a draft solicitation for commercial human lunar landers. The updated draft for the Human Landing System program, released late last week, maintains the overall approach from the original draft in July, which calls on NASA to procure landing services, rather than the landers themselves, from companies, but with some tweaks to its approach. NASA expects to award four "base" contracts in December for nine-month studies, with NASA then exercising options with up to two companies to proceed with lander development. The final solicitation should be out early this fall. (9/4)

Air Force Recompetes Space Enterprise Consortium Support (Source: Space News)
The Air Force is recompeting a contract for its Space Enterprise Consortium because its work is growing faster than expected. The Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center announced it is doing market research with the goal to select a new contractor next year to manage the consortium. An Air Force official said the service doesn't have a problem with the current manager, ATI, but is looking for a new manager because there's growing interest in using the consortium to develop preproduction prototypes of spacecraft, payloads, ground systems and other space technologies. (9/4)

US Expands Sanctions Against Iranian Space Program (Source: AP)
The U.S. government has expanded Iranian sanctions to include its space program. The State and Treasury Departments said Tuesday that it was sanctioning the Iran Space Agency and two related organizations after a launchpad explosion last week appeared to destroy an Iranian rocket being prepared for launch. The U.S. government has argued that Iran's space program is a cover for ballistic missile development, a claim Iran has denied. The sanctions allow the U.S. government to impose penalties on companies or governments that work with those organizations, although it's unclear if the sanctions will have any impact on Iran. (9/4)

Australia Revises Regulations for Domestic Launch Industry (Source: Space News)
Australia has updated commercial launch regulations in the hope of stimulating its domestic launch industry. The revised regulations, which took effect last weekend, reduce the insurance requirements for launch companies and no longer require a company seeking a launch license to also own its own launch site. Australian launch companies say the revised regulations will make it easier for them to perform launches in the country. (9/4)

Scottish Spaceport Costs Rise (Source: Aberdeen Press & Journal)
The cost of a Scottish spaceport is rising, leaving some worried who will bear those costs. A recent report concluded that the cost of the spaceport near Sutherland, Scotland, announced last year by the U.K. Space Agency, is increasing, but did not state by how much. Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the Scottish development agency that is paying part of the cost of the vertical launch site, said it is in discussions with the space agency and the Scottish government about cost of the project. (9/4)

UK Spaceport at Sutherland Enters Public Consultation Phase (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
The UK’s new domestic spaceport in the Scottish Highlands has moved into a public consultation phase. Space Hub Sutherland is hoping to launch up to 10 small sat missions per year. Development agency Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), which is backing the £17.3m project to design and build Space Hub Sutherland, lodged a proposal of application notice with the Highland Council on Wednesday, a notice that effectively triggers the start of a process that will lead to a formal application for planning consent being submitted to the local authority at the end of December. (9/4)

Here’s How NASA Plans to Pull off its 2024 Moon Landing (Source: Aerospace America)
If U.S. astronauts land on the surface of the moon in 2024 as NASA plans, historians might someday cite a series of bold decisions in 2019 by managers at NASA Headquarters and Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. I met with one of the decision-makers, veteran NASA engineer Lisa Watson-Morgan, in her office at Marshall on Aug. 30 to discuss these decisions and the strategy underlying them.

Watson-Morgan is program manager for the Human Landing System, or HLS, effort, in which contractors will vie to supply the lander for Artemis, as the 2024 mission is called. NASA assigned Marshall responsibility for the billion-dollar lander program in August, to the dismay of lawmakers in Texas, home to Johnson Space Center. Getting astronauts to the moon in just five years will require combining “the speed at which we have seen some commercial partners operate” with “the lessons learned from NASA” in decades of human spaceflight, Watson-Morgan says. This way, “we all have a better chance of making the schedule,” she says. Click here. (9/4)

Canada Studies Wildfire Monitoring System (Source: SpaceQ)
The Canadian Space Agency has awarded study contracts to two companies for a proposed wildfire monitoring satellite system. The Phase A contracts to Honeywell and MDA cover initial work on a concept called WildFireSat, a small satellite that would monitor smoke and air quality associated with wildfires. WildFireSat could lead to a constellation of such satellites, potentially as a commercial service with the government as an anchor customer. [(9/4)

Space One of Five Trump Administration R&D Budget Priorities (Source: Space Policy Online)
The Trump Administration released its list of R&D priorities for the FY2021 budget today.  Space exploration and commercialization make the list of the top five areas of investment needed to maintain American science and technology leadership during what it refers to as the Second Bold Era. No budget numbers are included, but the document from the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) signals what to expect when the budget request is released in February.

OSTP Director Kelvin Droegemeier refers to the First Bold Era of S&T as the period from World War II until now where the U.S. government invested in basic and applied research, infrastructure and education across many disciplines. Today is the Second Bold Era “characterized by unprecedented knowledge, access to data an computing resources, ubiquitous and instant communication” and amazing technologies, but also “extraordinary threats.”

The five R&D priorities are: Security; Leadership in Industries of the Future; Energy and Environmental Leadership; Health and Bioeconomic Innovation; and Space Exploration and Commercialization. That last one calls for government R&D investments to leverage efforts at universities and in the private sector and to focus on American leadership in space by supporting the Artemis program, including utilizing the Moon as a proving-ground for Mars. (9/3)

A Bug in SpaceX’s Communication System Kept the Company in the Dark About Potential Satellite Collision (Source: The Verge)
On Monday, a European satellite changed its position in orbit to avoid a potential collision with one of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites — one of 60 probes the company launched in May to beam internet coverage down to Earth. The European Space Agency (ESA), which operates the satellite, performed the maneuver after calculating a higher-than-usual probability that the two satellites might run into each other. SpaceX did not move its satellite, blaming a computer bug that prevented proper communication with ESA.

Maneuvers like this aren’t uncommon. Every now and then, satellite operators will slightly alter a spacecraft’s position if they calculate an uncomfortable chance that their vehicle might hit another vehicle. No one wants a collision, especially since these satellites are moving through space at several thousands of miles per hour. At those speeds, an impact can cause spacecraft to break apart into hundreds of pieces. The resulting high-speed junk could potentially run into other satellites, possibly creating more dangerous debris.

This particular scenario with ESA raises some concerns since SpaceX’s probes are the first of nearly 12,000 internet-beaming satellites the company intends to put into a low orbit around Earth. The sheer size of the planned Starlink constellation has prompted many space experts to speculate how these vehicles might increase the chances of collisions in space. (9/4)

Stalled in Hawaii, Giant Telescope Faces Roadblocks at its Backup Site in the Canary Islands (Source: Science)
The Native Hawaiian protesters blocking the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) on the summit of Mauna Kea appear to have settled in for the long haul. After 2 months of protests, their encampment on the Mauna Kea access road has shops, a cafeteria, and meeting spaces. “It’s like a small village,” says Sarah Bosman, an astronomer from University College London who visited in July. “There are signs up all over the island. It was a bit overwhelming really.”

The stalemate between astronomers eager to build one of the world’s next great telescopes and opponents, many of whom believe the site is sacred, has shifted attention to the TMT’s “plan B,” an alternative site on La Palma, one of Spain’s Canary Islands off the coast of Morocco. But La Palma is looking like another bed of nails for the project. (9/3)

Melatonin is a Potential Drug for the Prevention of Bone Loss During Spaceflight (Source: Kanazawa University)
Melatonin could be a novel drug for preventing bone loss of astronauts during space flight. Here we used goldfish scales as a bone model of coexisting osteoclasts and osteoblasts and demonstrated that melatonin synthesis decreased under microgravity. Melatonin treatment of scales stimulated expression of Calcitonin, an osteoclast-inhibiting hormone, and decreased expression of an osteoclastogenesis promotor. This is the first study to report the inhibitory effect of melatonin on osteoclast activation, which is cancelled by microgravity.

For proper and healthy metabolism of bone, appropriate stimuli are necessary. In outer space with microgravity, calcium is lost from bone and bone mass is reduced. Measurement of the bone density of astronauts before and after a long stay in outer space indicates bone mass loss. At the dawn of an era where astronauts are to stay for a long period of time in an international space station, it is an urgent task to elucidate changes of osteoblasts and osteoclasts under microgravity conditions and to perform research on potential drugs as remedies. (9/3)