December 14, 2019

SpaceX's East Coast Starship Launch Pad is Making Some Serious Headway (Source: Teslarati)
Over the last few weeks, SpaceX’s Florida Starship launch pad construction has made some major progress and the structure that will one day support the first East Coast Starship and Super Heavy flight tests have grown several stories tall and show no signs of slowing down. In a bid to make what could otherwise be an extremely expensive and time-consuming ordeal much faster and cheaper, SpaceX’s Starship/Super Heavy launch pads will be quite a bit different from the company’s several existing launch pads.

This includes Kennedy Space Center’s LC-39A pad, leased and operated by SpaceX for Falcon Heavy and Crew Dragon missions and formerly used for dozens of Space Shuttle launches and all Saturn V Apollo Moon missions. In a very on-brand move, SpaceX has decided to build Starship’s East Coast orbital pad within the bounds of Pad 39A but without using the pad’s existing launch mount or concrete flame trench. Instead, SpaceX is building a separate steel mount and water-cooled thruster diverter designed to stand up to the fury of a Super Heavy booster without allowing the rocket’s plume to dig a crater in the ground after ever ignition. (12/13)

Why Policymakers Must Birth the Right Culture for the Space Force (Source: The Hill)
The House this week passed the National Defense Authorization Act, marking one of the final steps towards toward the creation of the Space Force as a new service. This will become a service within the Air Force, akin to the Marine Corps within the Navy. The signing of the bill into law will end the drama of creating a legal framework for the Space Force, but it is by no means the end and is certainly not the end of the beginning.

What happens on day two of the Space Force is as, if not more, important than its legal structure. For the first time in more than 60 years, the armed forces will stand up a new entity with a unique mission set of securing and defending the United States position in space and need to create a new service culture. Space is, as has often been repeated, now a warfighting domain. American adversaries witnessed the growth and application of space capabilities. China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea each now aim to develop and deploy their own similar capabilities to counter our own.

To address this, getting the Space Force right means getting government aligned toward national defense, and national security aligned with civil space. The Commerce Department, the Transportation Department, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and others will play roles in this. It means we need to revisit launch licensing and remote sensing licensing, and find ways of making this process more efficient and more effective. It means developing a framework for the safe coordination and deconfliction of satellite orbits and the tracking of much space debris. (12/12)

How Elon Musk Can Help Save Astronomy (Source: LA Times)
Elon Musk will soon offer broadband connectivity to the entire world, delivered through a mega-constellation of 12,000 satellites. Within the next decade, the number of satellites in Earth orbit could increase tenfold, from about 5,000 to about 50,000, as mega-constellations are launched by SpaceX and other companies like Amazon, OneWeb and Telesat, which are just getting started. Satellites are already interfering with radio astronomy, which studies solar activity, black holes, pulsars, star formation and the echoes of the Big Bang.

A tenfold increase in communications satellites would exacerbate this interference and probably require an expansion in the range of frequencies used by the satellites, rendering more regions of the electromagnetic spectrum unavailable to radio telescopes. Musk has responded to such concerns with defensiveness, tweeting: “There are already 4900 satellites in orbit, which people notice ~0% of the time. Starlink won’t be seen by anyone unless looking very carefully and will have ~0% impact on advancements in astronomy.”

Stopping mega-constellations is not an option. There are no international or domestic laws that prevent companies from placing thousands of satellites in orbit, even if doing so causes major problems. There is, however, hope for mitigating the damage — by having the polluters pay. SpaceX and other companies that are ruining the night sky could support astronomy by helping to place telescopes into orbit, or even on the moon. Musk is well positioned to reduce the severity of the problem that he is helping to create. He could take the lead in launching telescopes as a new form of philanthropy, saving astronomy from satellites. (12/13)

One Small Step Toward the $2 Billion Moon Prize (Source: Newsweek)
America faces a deadline on the moon. China has stated its intention to colonize the moon, and they have landed two rovers on the lunar surface as precursors to human missions. They are positioning to assert operational privileges in crucial areas of the moon that may contain valuable water ice and minerals. Given their history of wildly aggressive territorial claims in the South China Sea and elsewhere, it is crucial that we land American infrastructure on the lunar surface in short order using commercial capabilities that exist now.

We are the $2 billion moon prize team. Individually, we've advocated for space development and have supported the current administration's bold return to the moon, both under NASA's Artemis program and through the commercial development of cis-lunar space. As a group, we have recently proposed a prize-driven approach to placing a full-time outpost on the lunar surface. That goal, of human beings residing full time on another world, remains our North Star. It's an important first step in getting to Mars and part of growing the robust space economy that will enable the colonizing of our solar system. Click here. (12/12)

Trump’s US Space Command Will Bring Earth’s Battlefields to the Stars (Source: Boston Globe)
The Trump administration has officially designated space as “a war-fighting domain.” Doing so has massive implications politically, culturally, and in our day-to-day lives. Wars in space could create mass civilian casualties. Is this the Hollywood version of our future we want? Space is legally considered a global commons — an area outside the reach and ownership of an individual or nation. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty “recognizes the common interest of all mankind in the progress of the exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes.”

Outer space “is not subject to appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means.” International law extends these same rights to the high seas, the atmosphere, Antarctica, and the Internet. There is no precedent for assuming that weaponizing space will benefit humanity. In fact, we should assume the opposite, especially when reviewed in the context of its closest corollary: the Internet. The Internet is a war-fighting domain and becoming more so daily. Cybercriminals and other bad actors use the Internet to maliciously target American citizens, companies, and institutions, steal data, and spread disinformation.

A war in a global commons is not traditional war: It is not finite, with strict boundaries and rules of engagement. Instead, wars in global commons spill outward and impact our entire world. In wars that take place where there is no sovereign claim, weapons take new and ever-changing forms and have unintended consequences. Weapons in space could be used to defend against attacks on space-based critical infrastructure, but they could also lead to unprecedented damage. (12/12)

South Korean Satellite Co. Tells US Court Int'l Rules Flouted In $1M Row (Source: Law360)
A South Korean satellite communications provider has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review $1.04 million in arbitral awards to a Hong Kong-based company over a soured satellite deal, slamming the arbitrators for meddling in foreign affairs. KT Corp. and its subsidiary KTSAT Corp. said Wednesday that the International Chamber of Commerce tribunal that issued the awards lacked the authority to reject the South Korean government's efforts to take back a satellite sold to Asia Broadcast Satellite Global Ltd. after the government deemed the sale illegal for national security reasons. (12/12)

India Launch Revenues Rise (Source: The Print)
The Indian government said launch revenue from commercial customers increased by 40% in 2019. A government minister told India's parliament Thursday that the Indian space agency ISRO collected 3.25 billion rupees ($46 million) in revenue from foreign customers launching satellites on Indian rockets in 2019, an increase of 40% over 2018. Over five years, ISRO earned about $175 million in commercial launch revenue. (12/13)

"Impossible" Black Hole Proves to be Impossible (Source: Space.com)
An "impossible" black hole turned out to be just that: impossible. Astronomers announced last month the discovery of a black hole in a binary system called LB-1 that weighed 70 times that of the sun. The discovery puzzled astronomers since there was no known way to make a black hole of that size. Other astronomers, though, reexamined the data and found that the Doppler shift used to calculate the black hole's mass was incorrect, failing to take into account a separate absorption line that gave the appearance of a shifting emission line. They now believe that the binary system likely has a black hole, but one that is much smaller and in line with existing models for their formation. (12/13)

NASA Approves Boeing Starliner Launch Plans (Source: Space News)
NASA approved plans Thursday to launch Boeing's CST-100 Starliner commercial crew vehicle on a test flight next week. NASA said the uncrewed test flight cleared its flight readiness review, allowing work to proceed on a launch scheduled for Dec. 20. A launch that day would have the Starliner dock with the International Space Station a day later, remaining there for nearly a week before landing at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. A successful test flight would allow Boeing to proceed with a crewed test flight some time in the first part of 2020, although neither NASA nor Boeing would be more specific on when they expect to be ready to fly that mission. (12/13)

Kepler Picks SpaceX to Launch Rideshare Satellites (Source: Space News)
Kepler Communications has signed a contract with SpaceX for the launch of some of its satellites. Kepler said it will use SpaceX's smallsat rideshare program to launch an unspecified number of its Internet of Things cubesats in 2020. The company said the SpaceX rideshare and its other launch agreements provide enough rides to low Earth orbit for the company’s "Gen-1" constellation of 15 cubesats. Kepler plans to scale its constellation to reach 140 satellites in 2023, using cubesats to transfer data traffic to and from ships, oil rigs, farm machinery and equipment in various other industries. (12/13)

Air Force SBIR Projects Could Support Cislunar Operations (Source: Space News)
The Air Force is seeking technologies that could support cislunar space operations. The latest round of the Air Force Small Business Innovation Research program include technologies for operations far beyond geosynchronous Earth orbit, including all the way out to the moon. Those desired technologies include payloads for providing space domain awareness from the lunar surface, lightweight sensors for space-based space domain awareness, and methodologies for orbit determination and catalog maintenance in cislunar space. Other technologies of interest involve improving the capabilities of small satellites and providing "ubiquitous satellite command, control and operations." Proposals are due Feb. 12. (12/13)

Australia's Gilmour Space Scales Up (Source: Space Daily)
Australia's leading rocket company, Gilmour Space Technologies, has signed a Statement of Strategic Intent and Cooperation with the Australian Space Agency, demonstrating their commitment to launch Australia to space. Gilmour Space is developing new hybrid rockets to launch small satellites into low earth orbits by 2022. In the last two-and-a-half years, the company has successfully test-fired their proprietary hybrid rocket engine to a record 80 kilonewtons of thrust, completed testing a semi-autonomous mobile launch platform in rural Queensland, raised two rounds of venture capital funding, signed a Space Act Agreement with NASA, and tripled their team to 45 employees on the Gold Coast. (12/13)

Maxar Sells California Property for Debt Repayment, Will Lease It Back (Source: Space News)
Maxar Technologies completed a $291 million property sale in Palo Alto, California. The company said it will use the sale proceeds to help pay off a series of past loans. Maxar plans to lease the facilities it sold, one for two years at an annual rate of $12 million, and a second for 10 years at an annual rate of $8 million, according to November filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. (12/12)

This Was the Decade the Commercial Spaceflight Industry Leapt Forward (Source: The Verge)
Two years into the decade, on May 25th, 2012, a small teardrop-shaped capsule arrived at the International Space Station, packed with cargo and supplies for the crew living on board. Its resupply mission at the ISS wasn’t remarkable, but the vehicle itself was unique: it was a Dragon cargo capsule, owned and operated by a private company called SpaceX. Before 2012, only vehicles operated by governments had ever visited the ISS. The Dragon was the first commercial vehicle to dock with the station. The milestone was a crowning achievement for the commercial industry, which has permanently altered the spaceflight sector over the last 10 years.

This decade, the space industry has seen a shift in the way it does business, with newer players looking to capitalize on different markets and more ambitious projects. The result has been an explosion of growth within the commercial sector. It’s allowing for easier access to space than ever before, with both positive and negative results. Such growth is providing the commercial space industry with lots of momentum coming into the 2020s, but it’s unclear if this pace is something that can be kept up.

Commercial companies have been involved in spaceflight since the dawn of space travel. Private companies built the Saturn V rocket for NASA, which took the first humans to the surface of the Moon. But for much of the 20th century, the companies that built those rockets and spacecraft weren’t purely focused on space travel. Instead, behemoth contractors specialized in space technologies, while also focusing on other areas of tech such as aviation and defense. They pursued purely government contracts — either from NASA or the Department of Defense — and most often the government told them exactly what to do. Click here. (12/13)

Asgardian Parliament Convenes in Estonia (Source: Asgardia)
Asgardia is a fully-fledged and independent space nation, and a future member of the United Nations, with all the attributes this status entails: a government and embassies, a flag, a national anthem and insignia, and so on. The essence of Asgardia is Peace in Space, and the prevention of Earth’s conflicts being transferred into space. The first official meeting between the Government and the Asgardian Mayors was held on November 25.

AMPs held a physical Sitting in Tallinn, Estonia, opened with an address from Head of Nation Dr Igor Ashurbeyli, and a fully formed Government and Asgardian Mayors present for the first time. AMPs voted on the Asgardian Citizens’ Bill of Rights, State and Private Civil Service Act, and debated on financial legislation. The Parliament is an unicameral legislature representing all Asgardian citizens. It consists of 150 members selected from all-national equal direct elections on the basis of language in proportion to the 12 official languages of Asgardia. Click here. (12/12)

Australian Startups Launch Space Balloon (Source: Space Daily)
Two startups on Saturday launched a one-story-high aerial monitoring balloon in a testing phase that will lead to a rocket launch in 2020. Space robotics startup Lux and satellite developer ResearchSat are both participating in Australia's first space incubator program. Lux is building autonomous atmospheric satellites equipped with cameras that capture and transmit high-resolution aerial images in real-time. ResearchSat is developing small satellite payloads which can take microbiological experiments to space. (12/10)