November 22, 2019

NATO Names Space as an ‘Operational Domain,’ But Without Plans to Weaponize It (Source: Defense News)
NATO foreign ministers have for the first time formally declared space as an “operational domain.” The announcement at a meeting in Brussels on Wednesday means space will now be regarded as equally important for NATO alongside air, land, sea and cyberspace. The move illustrates the growing significance of space for the alliance. “This can allow NATO planners to make requests for allies to provide capabilities and services, such as hours of satellite communications,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said. (11/20)

Boca Chica Starship Blows Top (Source: Space News)
The first prototype of SpaceX Starship vehicle was damaged during testing Wednesday. The Starship Mark 1 tanks were being pressurized for a test at SpaceX's Boca Chica, Texas, site when a bulkhead ruptured, causing a plume of material to erupt from the top of the vehicle and tossing part of it into the air. The company said there were no injuries during the incident, and claimed it was "not a serious setback." Company CEO Elon Musk unveiled the Starship Mark 1 at an event nearly two months ago, saying that the vehicle would fly to 20 kilometers in the next one of two months.

In a statement after Wednesday's anomaly, SpaceX said the company had already decided not to fly the Mark 1 vehicle, a decision it had not previously disclosed. SpaceX will instead turn its attention to a Mark 3 version under construction. A Mark 4 version is being developed on Florida's Space Coast, across the river from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. (11/21)

ESA Sets Funding for Vega Return-to-Flight (Source: Space News)
ESA will set aside funds to ensure a successful return to flight of the Vega rocket next year. Thilo Kranz, head of ESA's space transportation technology coordination office, said the funding will be in the range of the "lower double digits" millions of euros and will be used to be sure the problem that caused the Vega launch failure in July has been corrected. The ESA funding covers several recommendations that a failure review panel made regarding testing and inquiries about materials used in the vehicle. (11/21)

Germany's OHB Diversifies With Small Launcher Development (Source: Space News)
The head of German company OHB is defending his company's investment in a small launch vehicle. CEO Marco Fuchs said his company hopes its small launcher, capable of sending 200 kilograms to low Earth orbit, will conduct its first flight by the end of 2021. OHB established an entity called Rocket Factory Augsburg to spearhead the small launcher program. OHB is best known for building Europe's Galileo navigation satellites, but Fuchs said he wants the company to be known as more than just a satellite manufacturer. (11/21)

NASA Seeks Lunar Lander Ideas (Source: Space News)
NASA will request ideas for a lunar rover to be used by astronauts. In a conference speech Wednesday, Tom Cremins, NASA associate administrator for strategy and plans, said the agency will soon release a request for information for an unpressurized lunar rover for use by astronauts on Artemis lunar landing missions. NASA plans to develop the rover through a public-private partnership, and have that rover ready in time for the first Artemis lunar landing in 2024. Cremins said NASA is also looking beyond 2024 for additional capabilities needed for later lunar landings, including a larger pressurized rover and a habitat. (11/21)

ULA Wavers on Vulcan Upper Stage Timeline (Source: Space News)
ULA's plans for a new upper stage for its Vulcan rocket are becoming less clear. Vulcan will launch in 2021 using a version of the Centaur upper stage currently flying on the Atlas 5. ULA had planned as recently as 2018 to replace Centaur with the Advanced Cryogenic Evolved Stage (ACES) in 2023, but the company now says its has no specific timeline for ACES. That upper stage would have the ability to operate in space for weeks instead of hours, enabling transport between orbits and more missions beyond Earth, while also increasing how much Vulcan could lift. (11/21)

India Blames Braking Thrusters for Lunar Lander Failure (Source: Space News)
The Indian government says a problem with braking thrusters caused its Vikram lander to crash on the moon in September. In a written response to questions from India's parliament, a government minister said the lander slowed more "than the designed value" during the second phase of its descent, which ultimately caused it to "hard land" 500 meters from the expected landing site. The statement didn't explain what caused that deviation in performance during the descent. The statement was the first formal acknowledgement by the Indian government that the lander crashed. It took place nearly five months after Israel's first lunar lander crashed, after a computer reboot during descent wiped out memory that contained updated control software. (11/21)

ITU Approves Guidelines for New Constellations (Source: ITU)
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has approved new deployment guidelines for satellite constellations. The new milestones, approved by delegates at the World Radiocommunication Conference in Egypt this week, will require licensees to deploy 10% of their constellations within two years, and 50% within five years. The full satellite constellation must be deployed within seven years. The guidelines, the ITU said, are intended to prevent "warehousing" of spectrum while taking into account deployment requirements for constellations. (11/21)

NOAA Nominee Withdraws (Source: Washington Times)
The nominee to be NOAA administrator is asking the White House to withdraw his long-delayed nomination. Barry Myers cited health reasons, including treatment for cancer, for his request to have the nomination withdrawn. Myers was originally nominated by the White House in 2017 and renominated early this year, and in both cases the Senate Commerce Committee forwarded the nomination to the full Senate on party-line votes. The Senate, though, never took up the nomination, with Democrats opposed to his nomination because of conflict of interest concerns in his past role as head of AccuWeather. (11/21)

SpaceX Rideshares Shift Design Planning for Small Satellites (Source: Space News)
SpaceX's plan to slash the cost of space transportation is shaking up the small satellite propulsion market. SpaceX is offering low-cost rideshare missions that some in the industry say could stimulate demand for satellite propulsion systems to enable those satellites to transfer to their desired orbits. Doing so, satellite propulsion companies argue, will be cheaper than a dedicated launch of a satellite without propulsion to a customer's desired orbit. (11/21)

Planet Seeks Defense and Intelligence Work (Source: Space News)
Planet is seeking to build up its business with the defense and intelligence communities. At a Capitol Hill event Wednesday, Planet said such agencies should make greater use of low-cost geospatial data to supplement high-resolution imagery. Such efforts had the support of Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.), who said commercial imagery like that from Planet presents "an opportunity in national security and intelligence to bring down the cost and increase access to geospatial data." (11/21)

Italy's D-Orbit Plans SAR Satellite (Source: Space News)
A consortium led by Italian space company D-Orbit plans to deploy a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite for infrastructure monitoring within the next two and a half years. D-Orbit and partners aim to provide information on the displacement of buildings, bridges and highways to government agencies and private citizens in Italy's Lombardia Region. The SAR payload will be mounted on D-Orbit's free-flying Ion cubesat carrier. (11/21)

Capella Wins Ai Force SBIR for SAR (Source: Space News)
Capella won an Air Force award to adapt its SAR imagery for military applications. Capella won the $750,000 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase 2 contract for its presentation at Air Force Space Pitch Day earlier this month. Capella will feed SAR data into Air Force virtual reality software to support simulations and intelligence work. Capella is developing a 36-satellite constellation, with its second satellite, Sequoia, scheduled for launch in the first quarter of 2020. (11/21)

China's Spacety Plans SAR Satellite (Source: Space News)
Chinese company Spacety also has SAR satellite plans. The firm, with 70 employees, has completed nine missions with 15 satellites in orbit. The company's CEO said Spacety is working on its first SAR satellite, which he described as similar to those developed by Capella and Iceye, a European SAR company.  (11/21)

QinetiQ Expands in Belgium for ESA Work (Source: Space News)
British aerospace company QinetiQ will use a newly expanded factory to build equipment for an ESA experiment. QinetiQ will build experiment modules for ESA’s Heat Transfer Host 2 project at a new clean room in Kruibeke, Belgium, that cost three million euros. That experiment will fly to the International Space Station in 2023. QinetiQ hopes to use the facility to grow in three areas: small satellite manufacturing, electric propulsion thrusters and docking mechanisms. (11/21)

Companies Caution on 3D Printing Space Hardware (Source: Space News)
Space hardware manufacturers caution that 3D printing of components is more complex than it might appear. At a conference panel Thursday, companies said that while additive manufacturing has benefits, companies need realistic expectations. The technology, they said, is well-suited for prototypes, but hasn't yet demonstrated it's a better approach to serial manufacturing of hardware than conventional techniques. (11/21)

Germany Advances Concept for Spaceplane (Space News)
Advances in technology are aiding the development of proposed spaceplanes. The German space agency DLR has a concept for a vertical takeoff, horizontal landing spaceplane similar to SpaceX's Starship, called Starliner, that could fly from Europe to Australia in 90 minutes. DLR and others working on such projects identified advances like composite materials and new engine concepts, like Reaction Engines' SABRE, as enabling those vehicle projects, which remain in very early stages of design. (11/21)

Germany's Morpheus Space Wins USAF SBIR Contract (Source: Space News)
A German space propulsion startup has turned to the U.S. for funding and other support. Morpheus Space is part of a team that won an Air Force SBIR contract and also won a purchase order from JPL after participating in the Techstars Starburst Space Accelerator. Morpheus is a spinoff from the Technical University Dresden Institute of Aerospace Engineering that developed electric propulsion systems for small satellites. As it pursues those prospects, Morpheus is preparing to open an office in Los Angeles in 2020. (11/21)

Credit Suisse Bullish on Virgin Galactic (Source: CNBC)
Credit Suisse is bullish on Virgin Galactic. The investment firm gave an "outperform" rating on Virgin Galactic's stock Thursday, saying the suborbital spaceflight company is attractive since it estimates revenues will be three times its costs once it begins SpaceShipTwo commercial flights. Credit Suisse also said Virgin had a monopoly on space tourism market in the near term, claiming it was at least two years ahead of Blue Origin, which has already flown its New Shepard vehicle multiple times and is preparing to soon begin crewed flights. "Not everyone will see the value, but we believe the math works nonetheless," Credit Suisse concluded. Despite the upbeat assessment, shares in Virgin Galactic fell more than 7% in trading Thursday. (11/21)