December 4, 2019

Welcome to Boca Chica, the Tiny Texas Town Where SpaceX is Building its Starship (Source: Washington Post)
The last thing the residents of Boca Chica expected were the spaceships. Hurricanes, yes. Border walls, maybe. But the gleaming metal rockets that began hurling themselves into the sky atop pillars of flame were unexpected, to say the least. When Elon Musk announced that his aerospace company, SpaceX, was considering the small coastal village as a potential location for their facilities in 2013, Boca Chica was a sleepy backwater at Texas’ southern tip. Today, an interplanetary spaceship is being built just down the road.

And, along with SpaceX came a glut of aerospace geeks, rocket enthusiasts and SpaceX fans. Some drive from Brownsville, the nearest city up the coast, or farther afield, while legions more tune in to the round-the-clock webcams broadcasting the company’s actions. To support our burgeoning obsession with the minutiae of spaceflight, a cottage industry of homegrown SpaceX observers has sprung up in this retirement paradise. They’re drawn by a simple, shared mission: to watch the future unfold. (12/3)

SpaceX Pauses Some Starship Activity in Florida; Focusing on New Version in Texas (Source: Florida Today)
SpaceX will move some activities related to its upcoming Starship vehicle away from the Space Coast as it pushes forward with the next phase of its development, a shift that will result in some impacts to local workers and operations. The company said it has not stopped all Starship-related activity at its facility on Cidco Road in Cocoa, but has paused some local work as it focuses on a new version known as "Mark III" in Boca Chica, Texas. SpaceX teams there and locally in Cocoa were building "competing" versions of the spacecraft and sharing lessons learned.

There have been no layoffs and local employees impacted by the shift can either opt to work on the Mark III build in Texas or stay in Florida to support other activities. Starship and its planned booster, Super Heavy, have seen various iterations since their wide-scale introduction under a different name in 2016. Since then, SpaceX has built a stainless steel version of Starship at its privately owned facility in Texas and has launched it on sub-orbital "hops."

Ultimately, Starship and Super Heavy are slated to launch from Boca Chica and Kennedy Space Center on deep-space trips to the moon and beyond. Both sites will also host facilities capable of building and refurbishing the vehicles. The movement to Texas also fits in with SpaceX's wider plan to build a facility in an empty area in the southern portion of KSC, which is well underway. Continuing to develop Starship in Texas will give SpaceX an opportunity to later shift some operations back to the Space Coast, but next time at KSC instead of Cocoa. (12/3)

Beer In Space? SpaceX Launching Budweiser Experiment (Source: WMFE)
SpaceX is set to launch a cargo capsule packed with supplies Wednesday to the International Space Station. Beer lovers might want to take note of one experiment hitching a ride. Researchers at Anheuser-Busch, Bud’s parent company, are studying how barley seeds malt in space — a critical step in extracting sugars from the grain for brewing, distilling or food production. Research from the experiment could help adapt the grain for long-duration spaceflight or altering the genes of the seed for better uses here on Earth.

It’s one of many experiments and supplies hitching a ride to the station on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket including a fleet of mice used for muscle degeneration research and an AI-powered robot that will help astronauts on board the station. NASA pays private companies like SpaceX to ship supplies to the station. This is SpaceX’s 19th mission under the contract. (12/3)

Globalstar Refinance Brings Stability (Source: Space News)
Globalstar says a recent refinancing of its debt should stabilize the company's finances through the mid-2020s. The company announced last month it borrowed $199 million led by fleet operator EchoStar and Thermo, Globalstar’s largest shareholder, using the money to make three payments toward the company's French loans and to negotiate more favorable terms for future payments. Globalstar's revenues had been failing to keep up with loan payments, and efforts to monetize its S-band satellite spectrum for terrestrial applications were taking longer than anticipated. With the refinancing in place, the company believes it will have sufficient cash flow through 2025. (12/4)

Sky and Space Global Narrows Immediate Goal to Eight Satellites as Funding Remains Elusive (Source: Space News)
Sky and Space Global, a startup planning a constellation of 200 cubesats for low-data-rate communications, has narrowed its near-term focus to raising enough money for an initial eight satellites. Difficulty obtaining financing has delayed Sky and Space Global’s target launch, once anticipated for late 2019, to the end of 2020, the company said in a report released Dec. 4.

The Australian company, whose staff of approximately 50 people are spread across Israel, the U.K. and Poland in addition to its home country, is seeking to raise 15.8 million Australian dollars ($10.8 million) in the coming months after an unsuccessful attempt in August. Sky and Space Global is again facing manufacturing delays with its Internet of Things constellation due to financial instability. (12/4)

Northrop Grumman Points to Size, Financial Stability as Strengths for Air Force Launch Competition (Source: Space News)
Northrop Grumman believes that its financial stability should be a strength in an Air Force launch competition. In a speech Tuesday, Charlie Precourt, Northrop Grumman's vice president of propulsion systems, said that its ability to leverage existing assets for its OmegA rocket, along with a diversified product line, means it would not need many Air Force launches to remain a viable supplier. That, he said, would allow it to better deal with future downturns in launch demand than competitors that are more dependent on government and commercial customers for launch services. Northrop is one of four companies competing for two Air Force launch services contracts. (12/4)

Japanese Space Official Guilty in Bribery Case (Source: NHK)
A former Japanese space agency official received a suspended sentence for taking bribes. Kazuaki Kawabata was found guilty for taking bribes from a medical consulting company executive who sought favors such as visits by JAXA astronauts to his company. Kawabata, the former director-general for international affairs at Japan's education ministry and on loan to JAXA at the time he accepted the bribes, received an 18-month suspended sentence and was fined 1.5 million yen. (12/4)

Russian Opposition Leader Points at Corruption in Space Industry (Source: Ars Technica)
A Russian opposition leader has criticized the head of Roscosmos for a lavish lifestyle. In a video, Alexei Navalny discussed corruption in Russia's space industry, highlighted by criminal cases involving the construction of the Vostochny Cosmodrome. Navalny then criticized Dmitry Rogozin, head of Roscosmos, for taking a salary of $460,000 a year and buying expensive cars and homes. "We have nothing against large salaries," Navalny says. "But why is it so insanely large? Is there really that much excess money in our budget?" (12/4)

Charlie Duke is 2020 Texan of the Year (Source: CollectSpace)
An Apollo astronaut has been named the "Texan of the Year." The Texas Legislative Conference, a nonpartisan policy and business forum, named Charlie Duke its 2020 Texan of the Year on Tuesday. Duke walked on the moon on the Apollo 16 mission in 1972 and continued to live in Texas after leaving the agency. Past winners of the award include former congressman Lamar Smith, singer George Strait and businessman T. Boone Pickens. (12/4)

SLS is "Absolutely Mandatory" for Artemis (Source: Space News)
The new head of NASA's human spaceflight programs says that the Space Launch System is "absolutely mandatory" for getting humans back to the moon by 2024. In a town hall meeting Tuesday, Doug Loverro rejected views that the SLS was competing with commercial vehicles like New Glenn or Starship that promise to be less expensive, saying both SLS and commercial vehicles will be needed to achieve NASA's aims. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, also appearing at the town hall meeting, dismissed an estimated cost of $2 billion per SLS launch, saying the vehicle's launch cost would likely be less than half that depending on negotiations for a long-term production contract. The town hall meeting marked Loverro's start at NASA as the new associate administrator for human exploration and operations, succeeding Bill Gerstenmaier. (12/4)

Boldly Go: America Needs NASA, Artemis Program to Succeed (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
For a half-century, America stood as the unrivaled leader in space. And yet, in 2011, we lost our way and abandoned a hard-fought legacy. Despite the political indecision that drew down human spaceflight on American soil, the enterprise and ingenuity of the private sector is leading a renaissance in human space exploration.

History is replete with nations eclipsed before their time, consumed with present-day concerns rather than forging their futures. We must avoid such a fate. The stakes of conquering the heavens are far too high to measure in mere calculation of the moment. As Carl Sagan presciently noted, “civilizations become either spacefaring or extinct.” (12/1)

NRO Concerned About China's Capabilities (Source: Space News)
The director of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) said a major priority for him is staying ahead of China. In his first meeting with reporters since becoming director five months ago, Chris Scolese said China's advances in space are a major concern for him: "They are putting spacecraft up very quickly and we have to stay ahead." Scolese said there are efforts underway to modernize satellites, including increased use of smaller satellites, and changes to ground systems to improve the speed and quality of data. He also highlighted his tight working relationship with U.S. Space Command and its commander Gen. John Raymond. (12/4)

Trump’s Excellent Space Force Adventure (Source: Washington Post)
“My new national strategy for space recognizes that space is a warfighting domain,” he told the troops, “just like the land, air and sea. We may even have a Space Force, develop another one: Space Force. We have the Air Force, we’ll have the Space Force. We have the Army, the Navy. You know, I was saying it the other day — because we’re doing a tremendous amount of work in space — I said, ‘Maybe we need a new force. We’ll call it the Space Force.’ And I was not really serious. And then I said, ‘What a great idea. Maybe we’ll have to do that.’ ”

The Department of Defense has been quietly working on both the potential threat to our satellites and the larger issue of maintaining space superiority during the past couple of presidential administrations, primarily through space experts in the Air Force. Creating a Space Force would elevate and focus those efforts, the thinking goes. It would foster a singular military space culture, which would nurture innovation in satellite strategy and defense, strengthen earthbound forces and potentially help safeguard future spacefaring.

The creation of a Space Force is still being negotiated in Congress, where different versions of it have passed the House and Senate. As of press time, it’s unclear whether the new military service will be included in the upcoming defense authorization act — but, with bipartisan support, America’s extraterrestrial military efforts are, one way or another, poised to accelerate. (12/3)

Funding Impasse Creates DoD Uncertainty for Space Development Agency (Source: Space News)
A lack of a final 2020 spending bill is creating uncertainty for the Pentagon's new Space Development Agency (SDA). Mike Griffin, undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, said in a speech Tuesday that the lack of a full-year appropriation is especially damaging to the SDA and to national security programs more broadly, delaying projects. The SDA was created in March specifically to help modernize the military's space architecture so it can be more resilient if anti-satellite weapons were used to disable or destroy U.S. spacecraft. The SDA reports to Griffin, but he said it would be "the right thing to do" to transfer it to the Space Force if Congress authorizes its creation. (12/4)

Boeing's First CST-100 Launch Slips to December 19 (Source: Space News)
The first orbital test flight of Boeing's CST-100 Starliner commercial crew vehicle has slipped two days. Boeing announced Tuesday the launch is now scheduled for Dec. 19 because of an issue with an air supply duct for the spacecraft's Atlas 5 launch vehicle. The test flight will be an uncrewed mission of the Starliner, docking with the International Space Station and remaining there for four to five days before returning to Earth. It will be followed by a crewed test flight some time next year. (12/4)

China Likely to Lead Launch Count for 2020 (Source: Space News)
China is likely to continue leading the world in orbital launches next year. An official with the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation said he expected his company, the main space contractor in China, to perform about 30 launches in 2020. That total will include a lunar sample return mission, China's first Mars mission and the launch of the first element of a Chinese space station. China has conducted 29 launches to date in 2019, with several more expected before the end of the year, well ahead of the 23 launches by the U.S. so far this year. (12/4)

FAA Approves Space Office Reorganization (Source: Space News)
The FAA has approved a reorganization of its commercial space office. At a conference Tuesday, Wayne Monteith, associate administrator for commercial space transportation at the FAA, said FAA Administrator Stephen Dickson signed off on the reorganization the day before. That reorganization, announced in April by Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, creates two directorates with the Office of Commercial Space Transportation, one focused on licensing and other regulatory issues and the other on policy, outreach and supporting activities. That change is intended to make the office more efficient as it copes with increasing commercial launch activity. (12/4)

Did SpaceX's Boca Chica Explosion Kill Sea Turtles? (Source: El Rrun Rrun)
After the Thanksgiving holiday, we will know what killed off more than 60 young sea turtles found  dead over four days beginning Nov. 20, most of them on Boca Chica Beach though a few on South Padre Island. Will it be Mexican gillnet fishermen - as has been suspected on the U.S. side? Or will it turn out to be  massive killoff as a result of chemicals that were carried by strong winds after a pressurization failure with SpaceX's Mk1 Starship prototype on Nov. 20, the same day the first dead turtles were found.

That incident, which resulted in the release of a large quantity of vapor and cryogenic liquid has been suspected to have caused some deaths, according to commenters on the Sea Turtle Inc. website. More than 60 young green sea turtles have been found dead over four days beginning Nov. 20, most of them on Boca Chica Beach though a few on South Padre Island. (11/26)

Why Do Rockets Scrub? (Source: KSCVC)
Chances are, you have heard of a rocket launch “scrubbing” before. You may have even thought that it seems to happen frequently. But what does a scrub really mean? Find out why launches may scrub and what it takes to give the GO for launch. What exactly does the term “scrub” mean? In this clip from the Kennedy Space Center Bus Tour, Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, the first female Launch Director, explains that term and what it means for the launch team. Click here. (12/4) https://www.kennedyspacecenter.com/blog/why-do-rockets-scrub?sf225302539=1

NASA's Parker Solar Probe Beams Back First Insights From Sun's Edge (Source: The Guardian)
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, which has flown closer to the sun than any spacecraft, has beamed back its first observations from the edge of the sun’s scorching atmosphere. The first tranche of data offers clues to long-standing mysteries, including why the sun’s atmosphere, known as the corona, is hundreds of times hotter than its surface, as well as the precise origins of the solar wind. (12/4)

8 Things You Never Knew About Supersonic Flight (Source: Bold Method)
Breaking the sound barrier doesn't just come with a loud bang. Check out these variables that affect an aircraft transitioning to supersonic flight. Click here. (12/3)

NASA Spacecraft Finds Indian Lunar Crash Site (Source: the Verge)
A NASA spacecraft in orbit around the Moon has found the crash site of India's ill-fated lunar lander, Vikram, which slammed into the Moon's surface during a landing attempt in September. Images taken by the spacecraft confirm that the lander met an explosive end, revealing the lander's impact site and the surrounding debris created by the accident. (12/3)

How NASA Upended Internal Processes to Prepare for its Next Lunar Mission (Source: Federal Times)
“Agile is all about small, manageable pieces of work,” Smith said. Agile development — an alternative to a more traditional, linear waterfall approach, where each phase depends on results from the phase previous — can apply to software assurance, software development, workforce policies and the government’s ability to adopt to new technologies quickly.

“In the 21st century, agility powered by IT, powered by data and powered by people is how leading players execute,” Margaret Weichert, the Office of Management and Budget deputy director of management, said at the same conference. The people piece was a critical part for Smith’s agile assurance of the Orion software, dividing into what he called “small self- organizing teams.” He started with two teams: one focusing on command and data handling, communications and tracking, and electrical power; and the other focused on entry, descent and landing of the spacecraft. Click here. (11/27) 

ArianeGroup Mulls ‘Kick Stage’ For Ariane 6 Launcher (Source: Aviation Week)
ArianeGroup is studying an additional “kick stage” for the Ariane 6 launcher designed to help a geostationary satellite reach its final orbit or deliver constellation spacecraft into more orbital planes, among other potential uses. The idea is part of the proposal that European Space Agency (ESA) Director General Jan Woerner will present Nov. 27-28 at a ministerial council that will make three-year budgetary decisions. It is part of the “complementary developments” aimed at improving Ariane 6 in the short term.

The entry into service of the kick stage could take place as early as 2023, according to Jürgen Ackermann, special advisor to ArianeGroup’s CEO. On the upper stage, the Vinci cryogenic engine provides most of the energy needed to reach the final orbits. It is designed for flexibility of use but physics limits the number of reignitions it can perform, Ackermann says. Vinci can ignite a total five times. (11/25)

Rocket Lab Leases California Facility (Source: Long Beach Business Journal)
Aerospace manufacturer and small satellite launch service provider Rocket Lab has leased an 87,605-square-foot building at Sares-Regis Group’s final Douglas Park development, Pacific Pointe Northwest, according to Larry Lukanish, senior vice president of commercial development and investment for Sares-Regis. Currently based in Huntington Beach, Rocket Lab is relocating its corporate headquarters to the Long Beach facility located at 3550 Carson St. Rocket Lab is the third satellite launch company to move into Douglas Park, with the first being Virgin Galactic – now Virgin Orbit – in 2015. (12/2)

Second Virgin Galactic Vehicle Takes Shape (Source: Antelope Valley Press)
Even as Virgin Galactic continues to push toward starting commercial passenger service with the first SpaceShipTwo vehicle built in-house, the second vehicle is taking shape in a hangar at the Mojave Air and Space Port. The company announced another production milestone on Monday, as the main oxidizer tank was installed into the fuselage.

The tank not only holds the liquid oxidizer that allows the craft’s hybrid rocket motor to burn a solid fuel to propel it to suborbital space, it forms part of the vehicle’s structure by connecting the front and rear sections of the rocket plane. Assembly of the second Space ShipTwo vehicle is proceeding alongside the finishing touches to the first vehicle, dubbed Unity, in the company’s FAITH hangar at the Mojave Air and Space Port. When complete, Unity will move to Spaceport America in New Mexico for final flight testing before beginning commercial flight operations there. (12/3)

UK Spaceport Planning Application Delayed Due to ‘Design Changes’ (Source: Press and Journal)
Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) has confirmed that an application for planning permission will not be lodged later this month, as was previously intended. Instead, the development agency now expects to submit its proposals for the £17.3million scheme in Sutherland to Highland Council “early in the new year”.

The delay will enable the developers to “make some design changes”, following feedback received during the consultation process, which recently concluded after a series of events in Caithness and Sutherland. The alterations are understood to relate to the “visual impact of the launch site”, as well as the internal road layout for the development near Tongue. (12/4)