October 17, 2019

SpaceX Sees U.S. Army as Possible Customer for Starlink and Starship (Source: Space News)
SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell appeared on a panel Wednesday alongside U.S. Army leaders who talked about their efforts to modernize the force and bring more innovation into military procurement. Shotwell was speaking to an unfamiliar audience that may not know much about what SpaceX does or why she was sitting on that panel on the final day of the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference.

“SpaceX is new to this forum and this service,” she said. Shotwell then shared with the audience a bit of the history of SpaceX and mentioned that the company’s goal is to build “transportation systems” that are reliable and low cost. “We’re talking to the Army about Starlink and Starship,” she said without elaborating further. The Army does not launch big satellites or sends crews to space, but conceivably it could use Starship for point-to-point transportation around Earth, for example, to deliver cargo in minutes halfway around the world. SpaceX already has made that pitch to the U.S. Air Force. (10/17)

Rocket Lab Launches Astro Digital Satellite From New Zealand (Source: Space News)
Rocket Lab launched a smallsat for Astro Digital Wednesday night. The Electron lifted off from Rocket Lab's launch site on New Zealand's Mahia Peninsula at 9:22 p.m. Eastern and placed the Palisade satellite into orbit 71 minutes later. The 16U cubesat is intended to test technologies for Astro Digital's Corvus smallsat platform. The satellite's orbit, more than 1,000 kilometers high, is more than twice as high as previous Electron launches. The company said the launch tested upgrades to the Curie kick stage, including a switch to a bipropellant engine for higher performance. (10/17)

Senate Confirms Barratt as SECAF (Source: Space News)
The Senate confirmed Barbara Barrett as the next Secretary of the Air Force Wednesday. Barrett's nomination was approved on an 85–7 vote. Barrett is a former U.S. ambassador to Finland who also held posts as chair of the Aerospace Corporation's board and governance vice chair of JPL. She trained a decade ago to fly in space, serving as a backup to space tourist Guy Laliberté. Barrett endorsed the formation of a Space Force during her confirmation hearing last month and, if Congress authorizes a Space Force to be place under the Air Force, Barrett would serve as secretary of both the Air Force and the Space Force. (10/17)

Overland Test Corridor in Washington State Would Support Civil Supersonic Development (Source: Aviation Week)
An alliance has formed to promote the creation of a commercially operated civilian supersonic corridor to allow developers of supersonic transports to flight-test their aircraft over land. This would increase test efficiency and safety, says the Supersonic Flight Alliance (SSFA).  A subsidiary of Seattle-based engineering, testing and certification specialist AeroTEC, the SSFA is proposing the creation of a 300-mi.-long supersonic corridor in airspace over eastern Washington state. (10/17)

House Appropriator Not Ready to Fund Artemis 2024 Lunar Plan (Source: Space News)
The chair of the House appropriations subcommittee that funds NASA said Wednesday he was not yet ready to support moving up a human lunar landing to 2024. Rep. José Serrano (D-NY) said at a hearing that he couldn't support a $1.6 billion "down payment" on Artemis in fiscal year 2020 without knowing the total cost of the program, which NASA has yet to disclose. "Unless we know how much this is going to cost at the end, it would be irresponsible for us to take the first step," he said, a sentiment echoed by other Democratic members of the subcommittee. Republican members, by comparison, endorsed Artemis, but pressed NASA to make greater use of the Space Launch System and rely less on commercial vehicles. (10/17)

NASA Will Award Boeing a Cost-Plus Contract for Up To 10 SLS Rockets (Source: Ars Technica)
The principle behind a cost-plus contract is simple. Occasionally, the US government needs something exceptionally difficult, complex, and unprecedented to be built. In those cases, with technical challenges all but certain to arise, the government pays a contractor the entire value of the development costs, plus a fee—often 10 percent.

This is a useful tool to get the best contractors in the country to focus their efforts on large programs the government deems valuable. But it's not a good way to encourage a company to move quickly on a program, especially as businesses seek to maximize profits. This is because the longer a contract goes, the more money it costs, and the greater fees it generates.

The alternative to this is a fixed-price contract, in which the government pays a vendor a fixed fee for a product. If the company delivers a product for less than that, it makes a profit. If the product ends up costing more, the company eats the difference. Most of the time, a company does not get paid the bulk of the funding until they deliver a product. (10/17)

Viasat Considers GEO Upgrade (Source: Space News)
Viasat is thinking about a fourth generation of broadband GEO satellites. Company CEO Mark Dankberg said that while the company is still developing its three ViaSat-3 satellites for launch starting in 2021, it's looking ahead to a ViaSat-4 system at some future date to make clear ViaSat-3 isn't "the end state of what we're trying to do." While those satellites will operate in GEO, another Viasat executive said at a conference last week it's thinking about a medium Earth orbit constellation as well. (10/17)

Spire to Expand Constellation for Aircraft Tracking (Source: Space News)
Spire plans to double the size of its satellite constellation as it rolls out a new global aircraft tracking service. AirSafe, the first Spire Aviation product, currently offers more than 70 million daily aircraft position reports. To offer global aircraft tracking as well as rapid reporting, Spire will need to add another 70 or 80 satellites to its current fleet of 84 satellites, company CEO Peter Platzer said. By 2021, Spire’s constellation will be large enough to observe any aircraft's latitude, longitude, altitude and time and provide reports within 15 minutes. (10/17)

Japan Supports Artemis (Source: Kyodo)
The Japanese government has signaled its intent to participate in the Artemis program. The Committee on National Space Policy said Thursday it will formally notify the United States later this year of its decision, including offering technical cooperation. The committee, though, deferred a decision on providing modules for the lunar Gateway. (10/17)

OQ Technology to Use GomSpace Cubesats for IoT (Source: Space News)
An Internet of Things satellite startup hopes tests using another company's satellites will allow it to move ahead of the competition. OQ Technology of Luxembourg used GomSpace's two GOM-X4 cubesats in low Earth orbit to demonstrate waveforms for a future constellation. The tests began in July and will continue until the end of the year. OQ Technology is one of around two dozen companies hoping to capture a piece of the Internet of Things market. The company says a phased approach to getting IoT payloads deployed will help the eight-person startup keep its costs low. (10/17)

Iceye Offers High-Res SAR (Source: Space News)
Iceye is now offering customers access to high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery from its satellites. Spotlight imaging, with a resolution of one meter, is now a standard part of the service Iceye offers from its SAR constellation. Iceye operates three SAR smallsats and plans to launch two more radar satellites by the end of the year. (10/17)

Boeing’s Starliner Set for Two Pivotal Test Flights Before the Year’s End (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is preparing for two major flight tests before the end of the year, which will pave the way for the spacecraft’s first crewed flight in 2020. The capsule is being developed under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program to provide transportation services to and from the International Space Station.

NASA provided an official update on Boeing’s flight test dates last Friday. Starliner’s pad abort test is currently scheduled for no earlier than November 2nd, with the Orbital Flight Test (OFT) occurring no earlier than December 17. The pad abort test will see a Starliner capsule perform the abort sequence that would be necessary if there were to be a problem with the launch vehicle on the pad. November’s abort test will occur from a test stand at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. During the flight, Starliner will be tasked with executing a complicated set of maneuvers in short succession. (10/17)

Virgin Galactic Unveils Space Apparel (Source: The Verge)
Virgin Galactic unveiled the attire its customers will wear on SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceflights starting next year. The flight suits, developed by Under Armour, will be personally tailored for each customer, and include a variety of unique design elements. They are designed to help customers feel more comfortable during the high-G phases of launch and reentry, and include pads on the elbows and knees to cushion them from bumping into things during weightlessness. (10/17)

China Appoints New Space Leadership (Source: Xinhua)
China has made several personnel appointments as it prepares to launch its first permanent space station. The China Manned Space Agency has appointed a new chief designer and chief scientist for its overall human spaceflight program. The agency also selected several deputy chief designers, including Yang Liwei, the first Chinese astronaut. They will oversee the deployment of the space station, whose three-module configuration will be completed in 2022 with the option to expand it in the future. (10/17)

Amazon Filing Points to Satellite Collision Risk (Source: IEEE Spectrum)
Amazon has outlined the risks of satellite collisions from its proposed constellation. The company said in documents filed with the FCC that, if 5% of its satellites fail in orbit and can no longer maneuver, there is a 6% chance one will collide with debris at least 10 centimeters across at some point. That collision risk grows to 12% if one out of 10 of the satellites fail in orbit. The company added that even a 5% failure rate of its satellites is "well beyond what Amazon would view as expected or acceptable" and it will design its satellites for much lower failure rates. (10/17)