November 1, 2019

Indian Space Station to Have Room for Three Astronauts (Source: Sputnik)
Initial designs of the space station suggest that it will be a 20-tonne modular abode located in low earth orbit (LEO), at an altitude of between 120 km and 140 km. The Bengaluru-based Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) on Thursday announced plans to put a space station into orbit within five to seven years, a media report said. (11/1)

Even 'Goldilocks' Exoplanets Need a Well-Behaved Star (Source: Space Daily)
An exoplanet may seem like the perfect spot to set up housekeeping, but before you go there, take a closer look at its star. Rice University astrophysicists are doing just that, building a computer model to help judge how a star's own atmosphere impacts its planets, for better or worse. By narrowing the conditions for habitability, they hope to refine the search for potentially habitable planets. Astronomers now suspect that most of the billions of stars in the sky have at least one planet. To date, Earth-bound observers have spotted nearly 4,000 of them.

Lead author and Rice graduate student Alison Farrish and her research adviser, solar physicist David Alexander, led their group's first study to characterize the "space weather" environment of stars other than our own to see how it would affect the magnetic activity around an exoplanet. It's the first step in a National Science Foundation-funded project to explore the magnetic fields around the planets themselves. (11/1)

UCF Researchers Discover Mechanisms For the Cause of the Big Bang (Source: Space Daily)
The origin of the universe started with the Big Bang, but how the supernova explosion ignited has long been a mystery - until now. In a new paper appearing in Science Magazine, researchers detailed the mechanisms that could cause the explosion, which is key for the models that scientists use to understand the origin of the universe. "We defined the critical criteria where we can drive a flame to self-generate its own turbulence, spontaneously accelerate, and transition into detonation," says Kareem Ahmed. (11/1)

Eutelsat Cuts Costs, Workforce (Source: Space News)
Eutelsat is planning to lay off about 10% of its workforce as part of cost-cutting measures. The Paris-based satellite operator said it will lay off about 100 of its 1,000 employees, as well as freeze wages and suspend hiring. That overall effort will save the company 20–25 million euros annually by 2022 as the company looks for ways to reduce spending while investing in broadband connectivity to jump-start growth. The company is also facing a potential loss of its Eutelsat 5 West B satellite that suffered a solar array problem after launch in October. The company expects to determine this month if the satellite can be salvaged, and said it's too soon to talk about a mitigation plan if it is declared a loss. (10/31)

Senate Bill Provides $22.75 Billion for NASA (Source: Space News)
The Senate passed an appropriations bill Thursday that funds NASA, but a final budget deal may still be weeks or months away. The Senate overwhelmingly approved a "minibus" bill that combined several individual spending bills, including the commerce, justice and science bill that funds NASA. The bill provides $22.75 billion for NASA in fiscal year 2020, with most, but not all, of the $1.6 billion in additional Artemis funding requested by the administration in May. That bill must be reconciled with a House bill passed earlier this year, but a lack of agreements on spending allocations, and debates on other issues, make it unlikely that will be accomplished before the current stopgap funding bill for the government expires Nov. 21. (10/31)

Space Debris and Mt. Everest (Source: Via Satellite)
If we want to predict the future of LEO, consider the history of Mount Everest. Like LEO, Mount Everest was once beyond our reach. Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were the first to summit Mount Everest in 1953. Things very quickly got messy. In just over five decades, however, the first dedicated mission to clean up the garbage on Everest was underway. Is there anywhere our species can go without leaving a mess? If we’re going to sort that out with respect to space debris, the time is now.

Only 60 satellites launched during the first nine years of space exploration. It’s about to get much more crowded up there. The SpaceX Starlink constellation aims to launch 12,000 small satellites by 2027. Of the first 60 SpaceX satellites that were launched earlier this year, five percent of them are no longer responding to demands and appear to be “dead.” If that trend continues, 600 of the planned 12,000 Starlink satellites will be floating space junk in a few years. Add in constellations of over 1,000 satellites planned by OneWeb and Amazon plus dozens of companies preparing smaller constellations and the magnitude of the problem will continue to get worse. LEO is expansive, but it’s not infinite. (10/31)

Cruz Complains House Won't Pass Space Bill (Source: Space News)
The chair of the Senate's space subcommittee criticized House counterparts for lack of action on commercial space bills. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said Thursday that the House has a "current disinterest" in legislation like his Space Frontier Act. That bill, which included a number of space regulatory reforms, passed the Senate last year but died in the House. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), chair of the House Science Committee, criticized earlier this year that "rushed effort" to pass the Space Frontier Act and argued for taking a slower approach to such bills. (10/30)

Russia to Produce Two Additional Soyuz, Just In Case Commercial Crew is Further Delayed (Source: TASS)
The head of Roscosmos said Russia will build two additional Soyuz spacecraft, in part to address potential extended commercial crew delays. Dmitry Rogozin said he instructed Energia to start work on the two Soyuz spacecraft, one of which will be used for a space tourist flight in 2021 and the other for ISS crew rotations. Rogozin said he received "a warm letter" from NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine about NASA's desire to purchase additional Soyuz seats in 2020 and 2021 because of the possibility of additional delays by Boeing and SpaceX in commercial crew development. Doing so, he said, would require Russia to reduce the number of Russian cosmonauts on those missions. (10/31)

Boeing to Broadcast Starliner Pad Abort Test on Monday (Source: WKMG)
Boeing will broadcast a commercial crew pad abort test next week at NASA's request. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said Thursday that the test, scheduled for 9 a.m. Eastern Monday from White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, will be broadcast. "Transparency for the taxpayer," Bridenstine tweeted. Neither Boeing nor NASA had disclosed any plans to broadcast the test of the CST-100 Starliner's abort system. All future flight tests in the program by Boeing and SpaceX will also be broadcast by NASA. (10/31)

Alaska's Plans for Hawaiian Launch Site Hit Snag (Source: West Hawaii Today)
Plans for a launch site on the Big Island of Hawaii have fallen through after a landowner backed out. W. H. Shipman, a company that owns land near the city of Hilo, had offered to allow Alaska Aerospace Corporation to build a launch site there for small launch vehicles. The company now says it's terminated its agreement after concluding the launch facility "wasn't the right fit" for the property. Many local residents opposed the launch site because of environmental issues. (10/31)

A New Type of Black Hole Has Been Discovered and It May Be the Smallest Ever (Source: CNN)
Astronomers studying black holes in our galaxy, the Milky Way, have discovered what they believe to be a new type of black hole. This previously unknown class of black holes could be smaller than others that were previously dubbed the smallest black holes. The researchers were creating a black hole census when they made the discovery. "We're showing this hint that there is another population out there that we have yet to really probe in the search for black holes," said Todd Thompson. (10/31)

Russian Firm Has Reusable Smallsat Launcher Plan (Sources: TASS, Ars Technica)
A private company named Laros will begin launches of a reusable rocket capable of delivering up to 200kg of payloads into low Earth orbit sometime between 2024 and 2026. Next year, Laros plans to begin launching a sub-orbital, one-stage rocket to begin practicing propulsive landing such as that performed by the Falcon 9. We think there is room in the market for a low-cost, reusable, small-satellite launcher. And there is no similar capability in Russia today. However, a company with a seven-year timeline that says it needs "extra" funding to reach its spaceflight goals, does not sound particularly sustainable to us. (10/31)

Northrop Grumman Plans Use of Delta-4 Pad for OmegA at Vandenberg (Source: Ars Technica)
Omega rocket could launch from Vandenberg. Northrop Grumman intends to conduct West Coast launches of its Omega rocket from the same Vandenberg Air Force Base launch complex currently leased to United Launch Alliance for Delta 4 Heavy launches, Kent Rominger, a Northrop Grumman's vice president said last week, according to SpaceNews.

Rominger said it will be possible for Northrop Grumman to start preparing SLC-6 for Omega launch pads without disrupting ULA's Delta 4 Heavy operations, which are expected to wrap up in 2024 with Delta 4's final flight. "Our plan is to use it on a non-interference basis as we modify the pad to accommodate Omega," Rominger said. All of this likely supposes that the Air Force selects Northrop Grumman as one of its two providers for launches from 2022-2026. (10/31)

MDA Awards Space-Based Missile Tracking Contracts (Source: Space News)
The Missile Defense Agency awarded contracts this week to four companies to work on space-based missile tracking sensors. L3Harris, Leidos, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon each received $20 million contracts to develop designs for the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor program, formerly known as the Space Sensor Layer. Each company will spend the next year working on a prototype sensor payload that can track hypersonic and ballistic missiles. The sensors would add new capabilities to detect advanced hypersonic glide weapons developed by China and Russia that would be undetectable by current systems after the initial boost phase of their flight. (10/31)

ArianeGroup Opens New Ariane 6 Upper Stage Facility (Source: ArianeGroup)
ArianeGroup has inaugurated its new integration facility for rocket upper stages in Bremen, Germany, and is finalizing integration of two Ariane 6 upper stages there. Roughly 100 of the 550 people employed at ArianeGroup’s Bremen site are working in the new integration facility. Ariane 6 will use a re-ignitable upper stage engine called Vinci, designed to place multiple satellites into different orbits, including constellations. ArianeGroup Germany CEO Pierre Godart said the “qualifying phase” for Ariane 6’s first flight in the second half of 2020 is now underway. (10/30)

NASA Wants To Advance Commercial Drone Economy in US Cities (Source: CNET)
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine says NASA's vision is for at least one US city to develop air traffic control systems for commercial drones by 2028. "They could be carrying cargo or could be carrying people, doing thousands of missions every day," he said in remarks at the Commercial USV Expo in Las Vegas. (10/29)

TESS Reveals an Improbable Planet (Source: Space Daily)
Using asteroseismic1 data from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), an international team2, led by Instituto de Astrofisica e Ciencias do Espaco (IA3) researcher Tiago Campante, studied the red-giant stars HD 212771 and HD 203949. These are the first detections of oscillations in previously known exoplanet-host stars by TESS.

Tiago Campante (IA and Faculdade de Ciencias da Universidade do Porto - FCUP) explains that detecting these oscillations was only possible because: "TESS observations are precise enough to allow measuring the gentle pulsations at the surfaces of stars. These two fairly evolved stars also host planets, providing the ideal testbed for studies of the evolution of planetary systems." (10/30)