December 10, 2019

NASA's SLS Core Stage is Ready (Source: Space News)
NASA said Monday that the core stage of the first Space Launch System rocket is complete ahead of a launch now expected in 2021. NASA marked the milestone in the vehicle's development at an event at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, with the stage expected to be transported around the end of the month to the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi for testing. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said the launch of the rocket on the Artemis 1 uncrewed test flight is likely to take place some time in 2021, but a specific launch date won't be set until the new associate administrator for human exploration and operations, Doug Loverro, completes a review of the program over the next few months. (12/10)

U.S. Issues Orbital Debris Mitigation Guidelines (Source: Space News)
The U.S. government issued updated orbital debris mitigation guidelines Monday, but the revision fell short of the sweeping changes many in the space community expected. The revision, an update of guidelines first published nearly two decades ago, sets new quantitative limits on events that can create debris and updates the classes of orbits to be used for the disposal of satellites. The new guidelines, though, don't make major changes, and leaves intact the 25-year time frame for post-mission disposal of satellites, a period many in the industry now believe to be far too long. (12/10)

ClearSpace Wins ESA Contract for Orbital Debris Removal (Source: Space News)
A Swiss company has won a contract to perform an orbital debris removal mission for ESA. The ClearSpace-1 mission by ClearSpace is slated to launch in 2025 to capture and deorbit a 100-kilogram Vespa payload adapter a Vega rocket left in orbit after deploying ESA's Proba-V remote-sensing satellite. ClearSpace will lead a consortium of European companies in building a spacecraft equipped with four robotic arms to capture debris and drag it into Earth’s atmosphere. The mission has an estimated cost of $129 million, with more than half the funding allocated at ESA's ministerial meeting last month. (12/10)

China's Landspace Raises $71 Million (Source: Space News)
Chinese launch vehicle company Landspace has raised $71 million in a new funding round. The Series C round, led by Country Garden Venture Capital, brings the total raised by Landspace this year to $85 million. The new funding will be mainly used for the development of the two-stage Zhuque-2 medium-lift launch vehicle, whose first launch is scheduled for 2021. The funding will also support work on reusable rocket technology. (12/10)
 
Virgin Galactic Shares Rise on Morgan Stanley Rating (Source: CNBC)
Shares in Virgin Galactic soared Monday on an optimistic assessment by a major firm. Morgan Stanley said Monday it was starting coverage of the company and giving it an "overweight" rating with a price target of $22 per share. That assessment, Morgan Stanley said, was based less on the near-term prospects for Virgin Galactic in the space tourism market and more on long-term ambitions for high-speed point-to-point suborbital travel, which Morgan Stanley believes could "disrupt the multi-trillion-dollar airline" business even though such flights are likely many years in the future. Virgin shares closed up nearly 16% Monday at $8.42 a share. (12/10)

Made In Space Wins ESA Contract for Robotic Arm (Source: Space News)
The European subsidiary of Made In Space has won an ESA contract to develop a robotic arm system. Made In Space Europe, working with the Luxembourg Space Agency, won a contract of unspecified size to develop a robotic arm designed for low-cost space missions. The goal, company founder Jason Dunn said, is to develop an "off-the-shelf robotic arm product" that can produced inexpensively and at larger scales for applications such as satellite servicing and lunar surface operations. (12/10)

Near Space Labs Offers Balloon-Based Imagery (Source: Space News)
Near Space Labs is offering access to high-resolution images taken from balloons rather than satellites. The New York startup plans to offer persistent observation of major metropolitan areas and sell imagery at prices low enough to attract real estate, insurance and logistics customers. It will do so using stratospheric balloons equipped with cameras that can take images at a resolution of 30 centimeters. (12/10)

Rocket Lab Launches with Autonomous FTS (Source: Rocket Lab)
Rocket Lab used an autonomous flight termination system for the first time on its latest launch. The company said Monday its Electron launch last week was the first to use the autonomous system as the primary flight safety system, after four launches where the system was tested while using a traditional ground-based system as the primary. The company said all future launches will use the autonomous flight control system, reducing the need for ground-based infrastructure for flight safety. (12/10)

How Enceladus Got Its Stripes (Source: New York Times)
Planetary scientists say the believe they know how Saturn's icy moon Enceladus got its stripes. Scientists had been puzzled by a set of fissures dubbed "tiger stripes" seen near the south pole of Enceladus by the Cassini mission. According to a new analysis published Monday, the center fissure likely formed when a subsurface ocean began to freeze and swell, cracking the crust. Water erupted through that fissure and piled up on either side, creating parallel cracks. That process, scientists estimate, took place over 100,000 to one million years. (12/10)

Washington Debates Role of Satellites in Open Skies Treaty (Source: Air Force Magazine)
Almost 20 years after countries began enforcing the Open Skies Treaty, the idea of using satellites to replace the Air Force’s decades-old OC-135B surveillance airplanes is gaining new life in Washington. But is it feasible? The treaty allows about three dozen signatory nations to fly over other countries to monitor their domestic military operations and, occasionally, local developments like natural disasters. America’s two OC-135B jets were equipped with wet-film cameras to take photos of foreign land, but are now switching to digital cameras and are in the early stages of being replaced by newer planes.

The challenges of maintaining nearly 60-year-old aircraft, a standoff with Moscow over Russian sensor upgrades and behavior during flights, and improved satellite imagery capabilities are driving the treaty’s critics to call for a new way forward. Critics say new electro-optical sensors give Russia an unfair advantage, which the US should use satellites to offset. Others note that the resolution of Moscow’s cameras fall within the treaty’s parameters, are commercially available, and could be matched by American camera upgrades in the works. (12/9)

USAF’s Space Force ‘War Room’ Ready and Waiting (Source: Air Force Magazine)
The Air Force has a “war room” of space experts that have been preparing for the go ahead from lawmakers, which could come as early as Dec. 11, to create the new Space Force. Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett said these experts have been “putting together designs and plans” to establish the service with the resources the Pentagon will receive, adding “this is a serious business. We’ve got to get this done.”

Multiple key lawmakers said they expect the floor vote on the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act soon, and the conference language that has been agreed upon will include direction to create the Space Force. (12/9)

Is Being in Space Hard On Your Brain? UVic Scientist Wants to Find Out (Source: Times Colonist)
An all-Canadian research team led by a University of Victoria neuroscientist is spending a week in a simulated Mars habitat in Hawaii in hopes of solving a problem for NASA. The researchers are testing technology that they believe could become a reliable way to measure an astronaut’s brain function during space missions. Beyond just asking astronauts how they’re doing, NASA doesn’t have a way to determine if people on long missions are feeling depressed, stressed, cognitively impaired or mentally tired, said Olav Krigolson, a neuroscientist and associate director of UVic’s Center for Biomedical Research, who is co-leading the mission. Krigolson and the team of scientists are hoping to change that. (12/6)