January 2, 2020

How to Succeed in Spaceports Without Really Launching (Source: Space News)
For most people, the term “spaceport” conjures up visions of launch pads and gantries, with rockets taking off vertically. Some expand that vision to spaceplanes, taking off from or gliding back to a landing on runways. In either case, it involves vehicles departing to, or returning from, space. But for some, spaceports are becoming a place where businesses, rather than rockets, take off. A case in point is Houston Spaceport, also known as Ellington Airport. The airport received a spaceport license from the FAA in 2015, but has yet to host a launch or a landing and has no prospects for doing so for the foreseeable future.

But the Houston Airport System, which runs Houston Spaceport along with the city’s two major commercial airports, doesn’t see that as a problem. “We determined that there were too few players, in terms of operators,” said Arturo Machuca. Instead, he said the spaceport is intended to “build a focal point for aerospace innovation.” From that perspective, Spaceport Houston is a success. The site has already attracted aerospace companies, including lunar lander developer Intuitive Machines. Earlier this fall, Flight Safety International announced it would build a 125,000-square-foot aviation training facility at the spaceport, part of the spaceport’s initial phase of development that offers 165 acres to aerospace companies.

Other would-be spaceports are taking similar approaches to attracting business without launches. Midland International Air and Space Port got an FAA license, and changed its name, in 2014, expecting to host suborbital spaceflights by XCOR. The hangar XCOR used there is now home to Avellan Space Technology and Science, which is using it to build smallsats. Colorado Air and Space Port, formerly Front Range Airport outside Denver, received its license in 2018. While the spaceport still expects to one day host launches, its focus for now is on companies that want to do rocket engine testing and other activities. Click here. (12/27)

Indonesia Negotiating Launch of 1st Indigenous Astronaut with Russia's Roscosmos (Source: Space Daily)
Indonesia is in talks with Russia's State Space Corporation Roscosmos on sending its first domestic astronaut to space, Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin said. "We have started negotiations with countries such as Turkey, Indonesia, Hungary as they want to launch their own cosmonaut. They want to cooperate with Roscosmos", Rogozin said in an interview with the Rossiya 24 television. Earlier reports indicated that Russia could send Turkish and Hungarian astronauts into space. (1/1)

It’s the First Orbiting Garbage Collector—or a New Kind of Space Weapon (Source: Daily Beast)
The European Space Agency is about to pull one of the bigger hunks of garbage from orbit. But there’s a problem: The same tech that could help make space cleaner might, in the long run, also make it more dangerous. That’s because the ESA’s ClearSpace-1 orbital garbage truck, as well as other spacecraft like it, could double as a weapon.

Swiss startup ClearSpace designed the ClearSpace-1 vehicle to intercept a chunk of debris, latch onto it, and drag it back into Earth’s atmosphere where it can safely burn up. The ESA has scheduled the clean-up mission for 2025 and has even identified its target: a 265-pound piece of an old rocket orbiting 310 miles above Earth’s surface. The 2025 mission will involve what ClearSpace CEO Luc Piguet called “non-cooperative capture.” That is to say, the targeted piece of debris wasn’t designed with an interface or any other system that might help a clean-up craft grab onto it. (1/2)

The Moon Used To Have Its Own Magnetic Field, Twice As Strong As The Earth (Source: Mashable)
It is of common knowledge that the Earth has its own magnetic field. Not only does it protect our ozone layer by repelling solar winds but also powers major navigation systems in the world. A conventional compass that tells you the direction on Earth won’t be of any help on the Moon, which today lacks a global magnetic field. However, scientists now believe that a lunar magnetic field existed a billion years ago and was likely even stronger than the Earth’s field today.

In a new study, scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, United States have been able to determine so by studying the Moon samples brought back by NASA’s Apollo mission. According to a press release, MIT measured microteslas in order to determine changes in the magnetic field against the Earth’s magnetism which is 50 microteslas today. The rock samples, that date four billion years ago, measured around 100 microteslas, means the lunar magnetic field was twice as strong as the Earth. (1/2)

Allies Join Space Force for Multinational Collaboration (Source: Space Daily)
Allies are in the early stages of collaboration with the newly created U.S. Space Force, which has hosted its first "five eyes" level briefing and authorized its first collaborative task order, the Air Force said Friday. According to an announcement by the U.S. Air Force, Group Captain Darren Whiteley, a Royal Air Force officer from Britain and the deputy director of the Combined Space Operations Center, recently signed the first combined tasking order for Space Force command units.

"Allied partnerships are critical to defending our assets at home and in the space domain," Whiteley said. "The threat is expanding and international collaboration is essential to strengthen deterrence against hostile actors. Through these partnerships we are able to expand the depth and multiply the effects we can have to those evolving threats." The task order is the first by a coalition partner under Operation Olympic Defender, a multinational effort intended to optimize space operations and share information between allies. (12/27)

SpaceX Starlink Launch Delayed to Jan. 6 (Source: Teslarati)
SpaceX's next launch of Starlink satellites has slipped by three days. That Falcon 9 launch, which had been scheduled for Friday evening, had slipped to the evening of Jan. 6. SpaceX did not disclose the reason for the delay, but weather forecasts were unfavorable for the Friday night attempt. SpaceX could attempt two more Starlink launches later this month, as well as a in-flight abort test of its Crew Dragon spacecraft currently scheduled for Jan. 11. (1/2)

Oneweb's First Launch Delayed to February (Source: Sputnik)
The launch of OneWeb's first set of satellites has been delayed to February. Russian officials said the Soyuz launch of 34 OneWeb satellites, which had already been delayed from December to January, has now been pushed back to Feb. 9. Some of the satellites that will launch on that rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome won't arrive there until mid-January, postponing the launch. (1/2)

This May Be a Transcendent Year for SpaceX (Source: Ars Technica)
In the early years of SpaceX at its first factory in El Segundo, the company had a mock-up of a spacecraft that it intended to one day take humans into space. The company's engineers called the capsule Magic Dragon, an allusion to the folk song "Puff, the Magic Dragon." The dope name didn't stick—but the aspiration to launch humans into space has remained among SpaceX's big goals since its founding in 2002.

Now, that day may finally be at hand. The launch of Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken on a Crew Dragon spacecraft later this year, perhaps as early as this spring, represents the top-level achievement SpaceX will reach for in 2020, but it is far from the only potential accomplishment on the table. Here's a look at some of the company's major goals for this year. Click here. (1/2)

NASA Mission to Track Near Earth Objects Takes Shape (Source: Space News)
A revamped NASA mission to search for near Earth objects from space has secured funding to start development as the agency works out details about how it will be managed. The fiscal year 2020 “minibus” spending bill signed into law by President Trump Dec. 20 that provides $22.63 billion for NASA includes $35.6 million to start development of the Near Earth Object (NEO) Surveillance Mission. That mission would fly a small space telescope with an infrared camera to discover and track NEOs, helping identify any that pose an impact risk to the Earth. (12/26)