November 18, 2019

NASA Adds Five Companies, Including Blue Origin and SpaceX, to Moon Delivery List (Source: GeekWire)
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture is among five companies that have just been cleared to deliver payloads to the moon for NASA. So is Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which is offering its Starship super-rocket for lunar trips. Sierra Nevada Corp., Ceres Robotics and Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems round out today’s list, joining nine other commercial teams that were put into NASA’s “catalog” for lunar delivery services a year ago. NASA has already picked two of those teams, headed by Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines, to put science experiments on the moon in 2021.

The next delivery orders in what NASA calls the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, or CLPS, are likely to call for payloads to be launched by 2022, said Steve Clarke, deputy associate administrator for exploration in NASA’s science mission directorate. One payload that’s certain to be on the list is NASA’s VIPER rover, which is destined to look for signs of water near the moon’s south pole in late 2022.

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said Starship should be ready to put as much as 100 metric tons’ worth of payload on the moon’s surface by then. “That capability far exceeds the mass that CLPS was looking for, but we think that brings pretty extraordinary capability to NASA, both for the CLPS program and others,” Shotwell said. The four other newcomers to the CLPS list said their readiness would largely depend on what NASA needed to send by when. Sierra Nevada Corp. is aiming for 2022, and Ceres Robotics is targeting 2023. (11/18)

Boeing Further Disputes NASA Audit Criticizing Starliner Payments (Source: UPI)
Boeing made a stronger retort Monday to an audit that criticizes NASA for making "unnecessary payments" to the company for developing a capsule to carry people into space. Boeing said the company had taken on significant up-front financial risks for NASA. But its new response goes further by questioning figures used in the audit. The audit said NASA overpaid Boeing by up to $287 million when the agency sought to address an anticipated gap in missions to deliver astronauts to the International Space Station. That gap was caused partly by Boeing's own delays.

The audit also said Boeing's Starliner trips will cost $90 million per seat with four seats, compared to SpaceX's $55 million. "Boeing will fly the equivalent of a fifth passenger in cargo for NASA, so the per-seat pricing should be considered based on five seats rather than four," Boeing said. "For proprietary, competitive reasons Boeing does not disclose specific pricing information, but we are confident our average seat pricing to NASA is below the figure cited."

Boeing's new retort says Starliner has "superior value," and that the company believes Starliner is "much safer" partly because it lands on land rather than at sea. SpaceX's Dragon capsule lands at sea, as did Apollo program capsules. In 2014, Boeing and SpaceX were awarded contracts to pursue Commercial Crew Program launches to the space station. In 2019, those contracts are valued at $4.3 billion and $2.5 billion, respectively. (11/17)

Structural Failure Caused SARGE Crash (Source: Parabolic Arc)
On Saturday, October 26th, Exos Aerospace launched its SARGE-SRLV at Spaceport America. Launch initiation was at 11:39 MST. While we beat SpaceX to a fourth flight, we will likely not beat them to a fourth recovery, given the loss of the vehicle at T+48 seconds. We are still in the process of evaluating video and telemetry data; however, it appears a structural failure resulted in an abort and deployment of the recovery system at speeds far beyond its design capability. Exos recovered the vehicle within the flight hazard area, and the retrieved hardware confirms that the safety systems performed flawlessly.

This event presents an opportunity to implement the lessons learned from the first three launches of SARGE – S1. Much has changed in the Industry and supplier base since we completed the design of this vehicle. While it may take a little longer to implement the lessons learned and return to flight, our change management will include numerous upgrades that are low risk – high impact. We will work closely with the FAA and AST on the return to flight plan and relevant submission on the planned vehicle upgrades. (11/17)

China Launches Two Small Satellites on Kuaizhou-1A (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
China launched a pair of small satellites Sunday. The Kuaizhou-1A lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 5 a.m. Eastern, placing the two KL-Alpha satellites into relatively high polar orbits. The satellites are designed to test Ka-band communications technologies for an unidentified German company. The launch was the second in four days for the Kuaizhou-1A, a small launch vehicle based on the DF-21 missile. (11/18)

Spaceflight Industries Raising New Funds (Source: GeekWire)
Spaceflight Industries is raising a new round of funding. According to filings with the SEC, the company has raised $39.5 million of a planned round of nearly $40 million. Spaceflight hasn't commented on that funding. In 2018, the company raised $150 million in a Series C round that included the formation of a joint venture, LeoStella, with Thales Alenia Space to build smallsats. (11/18)

Commerce Department to Take Space Traffic Management Role From DoD (Source: Space News)
U.S. Space Command is ready to hand over space traffic management responsibilities to the Commerce Department. In a speech Friday, Air Force Maj. Gen. Stephen Whiting, commander of the 14th Air Force and the Combined Force Space Component Command under U.S. Space Command, said his organization is working with the Commerce Department on how to hand over civil space traffic work. Space Policy Directive 3 last year directed Commerce to take over that work, but the schedule for doing so is dependent on the department getting the necessary resources to handle it. Whiting also said that the Air Force's decision to use "space domain awareness" in place of "space situational awareness" reflects the new need to have "the ability to maintain track and custody of all threatening objects in space." (11/18)

ULA Preps Delta 4 at Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
United Launch Alliance has started preparations for the next Delta 4 Heavy launch. The rocket rolled out to Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral, Florida, Thursday and was raised to the vertical position Friday. The rocket will launch a classified NRO satellite next year. (11/17)