October 16, 2019

Astronaut Organization Seeks Role Advising Artemis (Source: Space News)
An organization of current and former space travelers is offering its expertise to NASA as the agency works towards a “quite aggressive” goal of landing people on the moon in five years. Leaders of the Association of Space Explorers (ASE), a professional group comprised of about 400 people who have made at least one orbit of the Earth, said at a press conference at the beginning of their week-long 32nd Planetary Congress here Oct. 14 that their experience in spaceflight could be critical to the success of the Artemis program. (10/15)

Japanese Satellite Re-Enters Atmosphere After Experiments in Ultra-Low Orbit (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
An experimental Japanese satellite has ended its mission after proving it could operate at super-low altitudes, testing an Earth-imaging camera and using ion propulsion to fight against aerodynamic drag at an altitude of 112 miles (181 kilometers). The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Tsubame satellite, named for the Japanese word for barn swallow, re-entered the atmosphere Oct. 2 after a nearly three-year mission.

Tsubame, also known as the Super Low Altitude Test Satellite, demonstrated controlled flight in an unusually low orbit, skimming through the rarefied layers of the upper atmosphere where aerodynamic drag typically causes spacecraft to quickly drop out of orbit and burn up. JAXA’s Tsubame satellite carried an ion thruster, powered by electricity and fueled by xenon gas, to counteract the effect of atmospheric drag. The spacecraft also had an on-board camera to demonstrate the capability to collect high-resolution images of cities and landforms from an altitude as low as 112 miles. (10/15)

Next Year, New Space Missions Will Test Technologies to Fix Busted Satellites in Orbit (Source: The Verge)
Next year, the long-held dream of repairing satellites already in orbit around Earth will come a little closer to reality. Two new missions — from military contractor Northrop Grumman and a startup called Astroscale — will send spacecraft into orbit to rendezvous with other vehicles zooming around Earth to see if it’s possible for two satellites to delicately meet up with each other in space. If successful, these missions could mark a big first step toward cleaning up Earth orbit and making it a more sustainable place.

Designing a spacecraft that can catch up to and dock with a broken satellite is no easy feat. For one thing, these satellites are zooming overhead at thousands of miles per hour, making them difficult to approach. Additionally, practically all of the satellites that have been sent into space weren’t designed to be caught and repaired. They don’t have appendages for spacecraft to latch on to, so satellite servicing vehicles will have to come up with creative ways to grapple a satellite that’s run out of fuel. And if a satellite suffered some kind of catastrophic failure, it’s possible it broke into pieces, making it even harder to grab. (10/14)

NASA is Exploring Nuclear Propulsion — a Project Started By the Agency 60 Years Ago (Source: Houston Chronicle)
With America’s eyes trained on the impending moon mission in the 1960s, NASA officials began quietly working on a project that could transform space travel. They were trying to build a nuclear rocket engine, capable of getting astronauts to Mars in four months — about half the time of a conventional chemical rocket. Though the program showed early promise, it died due to inadequate funding.

Almost 60 years later, NASA is picking up where it left off, working again to develop a nuclear propulsion system that could carry humans farther than ever. President Donald Trump recently issued an executive order calling on NASA to develop and launch nuclear space systems, and Congress has provided $100 million to study the cost and feasibility of building such a rocket over the next year.

“The main rationale for pursuing this again is human Mars missions,” said Jeff Sheehy, chief engineer in the Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C. “There’s been a re-emphasis on going to the moon and doing those things on the moon that are necessary to develop the systems and demonstrate the capability to go to Mars.” But there still is a long way to go before NASA personnel can even begin to think about building these systems. (10/14)

SpaceX’s Starship Raptor Vacuum Engine Plans Laid Out by CEO Elon Musk (Source: Teslarati)
Elon Musk says that SpaceX Starship engine upgrades are on track to begin static fire tests of a Raptor Vacuum variant as few as a “couple months” from now. Designed to enable more efficient performance in thin atmosphere or vacuum, Musk admitted that the first version(s) of Raptor Vacuum (RVac) will likely be a compromise between efficiency and speed of development. Nevertheless, the faster SpaceX can prepare Raptor Vacuum for flight, the easier it will be for Starship to begin serious (sub)orbital flight tests.

As it turns out, SpaceX’s first and only official render of Raptor – published in September 2016 – showed the engine’s vacuum-optimized variant. In the years since, CEO Elon Musk has vacillated between keeping the vacuum engines as a central Starship feature and simply replacing them with regular sea level Raptors to expedite the spacecraft’s debut. The 2016 and 2017 vehicles featured a mixture of vacuum and sea-level engines, whereas Musk revealed a vehicle with sea-level engines only in 2018. (10/16)

NASA Commits to Future Artemis Missions With More SLS Rocket Stages (Source: NASA)
NASA has taken the next steps toward building Space Launch System (SLS) rocket core stages to support as many as 10 Artemis missions, including the mission that will carry the first woman and next man to the Moon by 2024. The agency intends to work with Boeing, the current lead contractor for the core stages of the rockets that will fly on the first two Artemis missions, for the production of SLS rockets through the next decade. The core stage is the center part of the rocket that contains the two giant liquid fuel tanks.

Towering 212 feet with a diameter of 27.6 feet, it will store cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen and all the systems that will feed the stage’s four RS-25 engines. It also houses the flight computers and much of the avionics needed to control the rocket’s flight.

NASA has provided initial funding and authorization to Boeing to begin work toward the production of the third core stage and to order targeted long-lead materials and cost-efficient bulk purchases to support future builds of core stages. This action allows Boeing to manufacture the third core stage in time for the 2024 mission, Artemis III, while NASA and Boeing work on negotiations to finalize the details of the full contract within the next year. The full contract is expected to support up to 10 core stages and up to eight Exploration Upper Stages (EUS). (10/16)

NASA Seeks to Adjust SpaceX Workplace Culture with $5M After Pot Smoking (Source: Politico)
NASA provided $5 million to SpaceX to review its workplace culture. The review, which stemmed from an incident last year where SpaceX CEO Elon Musk briefly smoked marijuana during the taping of a podcast, includes educating employees about federal laws and regulations about illegal drug use, even in states where marijuana is legal. Boeing was also directed to perform a similar review, but was not paid by NASA to carry it out. (10/16)

NASA Announces New Head of Human Exploration as Artemis Moon Mission Takes Shape (Source: Florida Today)
NASA has selected a new head for its human exploration directorate, a critical role in shaping the agency's Artemis program as it targets 2024 for its next crewed mission to the surface of the moon. Douglas Loverro, a veteran of the Department of Defense and National Reconnaissance Office, was selected on Wednesday to serve as the new associate administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. He replaces former astronaut Ken Bowersox, who was serving in the position in an interim role. (10/16)

NASA Shifts ISS Spacewalks (Source: Space News)
NASA is changing its schedule of upcoming International Space Station spacewalks after a battery charger on the station failed. The device, known as a battery charge/discharge unit (BCDU), failed to turn back on after spacewalkers swapped out batteries in the station's power system during a spacewalk last Friday. NASA said Tuesday that astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir will perform a spacewalk Friday to replace that failed BCDU with a spare, as well as conduct some unrelated tasks. NASA plans to delay the remaining spacewalks originally scheduled to complete the battery replacements in order to understand whether those earlier spacewalks in any way caused the BCDU to fail. (10/16)

NRO Contracts with Planet for Imagery (Source: Space News)
The National Reconnaissance Office has awarded an imagery subscription contract to Planet. The contract, announced Tuesday, is of undisclosed value but succeeds an April contract from the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency last April to buy imagery for six months for $5.9 million. NRO is purchasing an unclassified, multiyear subscription for daily, large-area, three- to five-meter resolution commercial imagery gathered by Planet's Dove constellation. (10/16)

Planet Moves Satellite to Improve Resolution (Source: Space News)
Planet announced Tuesday upgrades and other changes to its satellites to provide new capabilities. The company will move one of its SkySat satellites into a lower orbit as a means of improving the resolution of the images it provides from 72 to 50 centimeters. If that test is a success, the company plans to move all 15 SkySats into those lower orbits. Planet has also developed a new generation of its Dove imaging cubesats, called SuperDove, with eight spectral bands versus the four of the current satellites. The company has already launched 26 SuperDoves, which produce five times as much data as earlier Dove satellites. (10/16)

Sierra Nevada Dream Chaser Takes Next Step with Composite Structure Completion (Source: Space News)
Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) has taken possession of the primary structure for its first Dream Chaser spacecraft. The composite structure was built for SNC by Lockheed Martin and arrived at an SNC facility last week. The company will spend the next 18 months assembling the rest of the spacecraft in preparation for its first cargo mission to the ISS, scheduled for late 2021. The company has long-term plans to build a fleet of Dream Chaser vehicles, each capable of at least 15 flights, and hopes to eventually build a crewed version. (10/16)

Army Interested in Commercial Megaconstellations (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Army is interested in using commercial satellite megaconstellations to support its troops. Under the latest Army plan to equip forces with reliable and super fast communications, officials see an opportunity to buy commercial broadband services from constellations in low and medium orbits. The Army's goal is to provide soldiers with multiple options to get bandwidth in the field, including both satellite-based and terrestrial communications. Megaconstellations could address challenges the Army currently has with satellite communications, including insufficient capacity and high latency. (10/16)

Army Reorganizes Space Activities (Source: Space News)
The Army is reorganizing its space activities as a key general prepares to move to U.S. Space Command. The U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC) is standing up a new brigade focused on satellite operations, Lt. Gen. James Dickinson said Tuesday. Dickinson is the current commander of SMDC but was recently confirmed by the Senate to be deputy commander of U.S. Space Command. He said he will move to Space Command's temporary headquarters at Peterson Air Force Base in the next couple of months once a new SMDC leader is named. (10/16)

NASA Gets Improved Spacesuits for Artemis Lunar and Orion Astronauts (Source: CBS)
NASA showed off Tuesday the new spacesuits it is developing for the Artemis program. At an event at NASA Headquarters, the agency put the Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit, or xEMU, and Orion Crew Survival System through its paces. The xEMU is designed for moonwalks, with upgrades compared to Apollo-era suits to make them more flexible and resistant to the lunar environment. The Orion Crew Survival System is a pressure suit for astronauts to wear on the Orion spacecraft, incorporating improvements from similar shuttle-era suits. (10/16)