February 1, 2020

Orion Spacecraft Advancing Through Tests at Plum Brook Station (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
Testing is fully underway on the Orion spacecraft for the upcoming Artemis I test flight mission at NASA’s Plum Brook Station testing facility in Sandusky, Ohio. The Orion crew capsule, integrated with its European Service Module, is currently inside the facility’s Space Environments Complex undergoing thermal vacuum tests in the largest thermal vacuum chamber in the world.

“We got everything closed up right before Christmas and pumped down the chamber,” said Nicole Smith, Orion testing Project Manager at Plum Brook. “We are about a third of the way through the test now for thermal vacuum, and things are going very well.” The Artemis I mission will be the second uncrewed test of the Orion spacecraft, but the first to launch the vehicle atop NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. The launch will send Artemis I on a mission to orbit the Moon and return to Earth. The mission is currently scheduled for launch sometime in 2021. (1/31)

Historic Dual-Habitat Mock Mars Mission Begins in the Utah Desert (Source: Space.com)
A new crew has arrived on "Mars," at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in Utah, for a rare dual-habitat simulation to see how two different teams tackle emergencies together on the Red Planet. The MDRS is located in the harsh desert of southern Utah and is the world's largest and longest-running Mars-analog program, which is used to simulate Mars missions for testing, training and educational outreach. The new, 12-member crew — designated Crew 220 — from Mars Academy USA (MAU) arrived at the station last week.

At the facility, which is run by the Mars Society, a space advocacy organization, crews live and work like astronauts in a simulated Martian habitat environment. For this upcoming mission, one crew will work out of the MDRS while Crew 220 operates the MAU habitat, according to a statement from the Mars Society. While some members of Crew 220 will stay at the MDRS facility, others will stay at the MAU habitat. The crews will switch from one habitat to the other halfway through the mission. That way, both teams can experience each habitat and simulate how astronauts will communicate from different locations during real Red Planet missions. (1/31)

World's Youngest Astronaut-in-Training (from Florida Tech) is Part of Out-of-This-World 2020 Super Bowl Ad (Source: ABC News)
If you're watching Super Bowl ads this Sunday, keep an eye out for Alyssa Carson -- the world's youngest astronaut in training -- on your screen. The 18-year-old originally from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, became fascinated with space when she was a kid after watching a cartoon called the "The Backyardigans," which had an episode about a mission to Mars. Carson's dad then told her that her generation would be the first to go to the "Red Planet."

From that point on, Carson decided to dedicate her life to becoming an astronaut, with the ultimate goal of being one of the few people picked for the Mars Mission at some point in the 2030s. At the age of 15, Caron entered the Possum Academy, which trains citizen scientists to become ready to go to space through research missions. By the age of 17, she was certified to go into space, and by the age of 18, she received her pilot's license. She is currently studying astrobiology at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida. (1/31)

Alaska Launch Facility Prepares for Commercial Space Boom (Source: Politico)
Far from the Florida space coast, a remote island in Alaska is making a big play for the burgeoning commercial space launch industry. The Pacific Spaceport Complex - Alaska, located on Kodiak Island in the Gulf of Alaska, has traditionally launched one or two military and NASA payloads per year. But its manifest of a handful of commercial missions is expected to more than double this year as the market for smaller launchers takes off, according to Mark Lester, president of Alaska Aerospace, which owns and operates the spaceport.

"We did two test launches in 2018. We have about five or six planned for this year and I see that growing. It's really turning the spaceport into a viable enterprise, into an economic hub for the region, which was intended for the past couple of decades. We were just waiting for that market to mature.” Ultimately, Lester believes the spaceport will grow to a launch cadence of 36 launches a year in about four years -- through a mix of government and commercial launches, anchored by two tenants at the facility launching once a month.

But Lester does not envision private facilities like his totally eclipsing the three federally-run launch pads, even as cheaper commercial facilities become more routine alternatives. “It probably makes a lot of sense for DoD in particular and the Space Force to have dedicated space bases to launch from,” he said. “But for the day in, day out maintenance of constellations where you're sending a GPS satellite up or a constellation satellite up, using commercial spaceports could probably fit that bill very well and at a lower price point.” (1/31)

Make Space in Florida for Space Command (Source: The Ledger)
One question that eventually must be resolved about Space Command is where will the headquarters go. We say Florida. The Trump administration recently generated a minor controversy - when doesn’t it? - when it released the logo for the newly created U.S. Space Command. The administration was immediately mocked because pop culture enthusiasts maintained the government’s logo copycatted the insignia worn by the cast of the futuristic “Star Trek” series. The Air Force countered that it had used the logo for decades.

Nonetheless, Space Command itself is taking root as the newest branch of America’s armed forces. And one question that eventually must be resolved is where will the headquarters go. We say Florida. But first some background. The Air Force has an internal agency called Space Command that was created in September 1982 and located at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado. Beneath its umbrella are Air Force space-focused assets at other locations in Colorado as well as California and Florida. The latter is Patrick AFB, south of Cape Canaveral.

Florida Poly, with its emphasis on engineering and the other STEM disciplines, can make a solid case that it offers the intellectual talent, research drive and the actual geographic space to accommodate many of the personnel, companies and contractors that will support Space Command. Jake Polumbo, chairman of the Central Florida Development Council and a retired Air Force major general, said with Space Command in relative proximity, Florida Poly could potentially draw interest from companies involved in launch operations, space logistics, rocket technology, telemetry, artificial intelligence, communications and even “space apparel.” (2/1)

Commerce Pursues Space Tracking Role Despite Cuts (Source: Breaking Defense)
After Congress rejected most of its $10 million 2020 budget request, the Commerce Department is still plugging away to improve management of space debris — including co-hosting an exercise in December with DoD, says Kevin O’Connell, head of the Office of Space Commerce. “It’s no secret that we did not get the budget we requested for 2020,”O’Connell told an audience at the Federal Aviation Administration’s annual conference on commercial space yesterday. Congress provided only $2.8 million for O’Connell’s office in 2020 — a tiny $500,000 increase from 2019.

The extra funding in the 2020 request was slated primarily for the Office of Space Commerce to begin taking over from DoD work to provide commercial operations with space situational awareness (SSA) data and information, O’Connell said, as well as for it to begin implementing a new US space traffic management (STM) regime. President Trump’s 2018 Space Policy Directive-3 (SPD-3) ordered the transfer of space object tracking and collision warning authority for civil and commercial space to free the military to focus on growing threats, especially from Russia and China, to US space assets. (1/31)

Two More Companies Locate Operations at Spaceport America (Source: KRWG)
Two companies, TMD Defense and Space (TMD) and White Sands Research and Developers (White Sands), have announced they are moving some of their operations to Spaceport America in New Mexico, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced today.  Here is a statement from the New Mexico Economic Development Department:

“My administration has targeted aerospace as one of the key economic sectors to diversify our economy,” Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said. “It is a sector that is growing quickly and adding higher paying jobs. I'm excited to see additional companies, including a homegrown operation, choosing to be part of a thriving aerospace economic sector in our state."​

“These companies are bringing new jobs and setting up operations in New Mexico,” Spaceport America Chief Executive Daniel Hicks said. “They will add to the companies already at Spaceport and help create a business cluster of space and aerospace in the state.” TMD, a 30-year old company based in El Paso, plans to relocate 10 engineering and other staff positions to Las Cruces to support launches at the Spaceport. It plans to begin testing at Spaceport America in the fall. (1/31)

Plans Released For 2020 Las Cruces Space Festival (Source: KRWG)
The 2020 Las Cruces Space Festival launches in under two months. The event is free and open to the public. The Festival launches with two days of workshops at Mesa and Vista Middle Schools hosted by NASA. The classroom workshops will focus on "mixed messages" and be attended by STEM students from 6th-8th grade.

We will be bringing a new space-themed show to downtown Las Cruces called 'Dawn of Discovery'. The pop-up art exhibit will be held at the Bank of the West building on Main/ Church St and will be open Monday- Friday evening from 5-8pm and Saturday from 10am- 5pm. Further details can be found on our call for artists blog. We will be running seven missions at the Challenger Learning Center of Las Cruces from March 30th- April 3rd 6-8pm, and two on Saturday April 4th, at 1pm and 5pm. These simulated missions to Mars are a great way to strengthen knowledge in STEM fields and space exploration and are fun for all ages! Advanced registration is required and sign ups will open later this month. (1/31)

India Readies Low-Cost Launch Vehicles (Source: ANI)
India's space agency is preparing low-cost satellite launch vehicles costing arount Rs 30-25 crores each. which can put into orbit satellites weighing 500 kgs. The first launch is expected to take place in the next four months. ISRO has earmarked $1.6 billion for launch vehicles, of which $870 million will be for PSLV and the remaining for GSLV. Some 500 PSLV launches are planned in the next five years. (1/31)

NASA Keeps Falling Victim to Presidential Whims (Source: Washington Post)
NASA IS rocketing toward the country’s next moonshot — or is it Mars shot? Vice President Pence did his best John F. Kennedy impression last spring when he asked the space agency to achieve the almost impossible: return humans to the lunar surface within five years “by any means necessary.” The mandate seemed unreasonably ambitious; for one thing, those necessary means aren’t nearly as available to NASA today as they were during the Cold War, when all aspects of government were committed to whatever-the-cost victory in the space race. The other problem: Not everyone seems to agree on the goal.

NASA has been here before. President George H.W. Bush wanted to put man back on the moon, and on Mars, too. President Bill Clinton disagreed. President George W. Bush dusted off his father’s plans, envisioning a moon landing that could lay the groundwork for a Mars mission. President Barack Obama canceled that project and told NASA to head to an asteroid and then Mars. President Trump turned the nation’s gaze toward the moon again — and then months later tweeted perplexingly that “NASA should NOT be talking about going to the moon” but rather “Mars (of which the Moon is a part).”

"Mars (of which the Moon is a part)” is either nonsense or exactly what legislators in the House of Representatives seem to have their eye on today: putting humans on the moon only as a jumping-off point to explore the red planet in person. That’s different from the plan NASA is envisioning, despite the president’s contradictory tweets; the agency looks to Mars in the distant future but treats the moon as an end in itself — where it can establish bases on the far side and mine lunar ice, ostensibly for life support and rocket fuel. (1/31)

NASA Funds In-Space Manufacturing Demonstration (Source: GeekWire)
NASA has awarded a $142 million contract to Maxar Technologies for a demonstration of in-space construction technologies, including the robotic assembly of a communications antenna and the production of a structural beam. The beam-manufacturing device, known as MakerSat, is being provided by Tethers Unlimited, a space technology company headquartered in Bothell, Washington.

Maxar, Tethers Unlimited and other partners — including the West Virginia Robotic Technology Center and NASA’s Langley Research Center — will have their hardware integrated onto NASA’s Restore-L spacecraft, which Maxar is getting ready for launch in the 2020s. Restore-L’s main mission is to show how satellites can be serviced and refueled robotically in low Earth orbit, with the Landsat 7 Earth-observing satellite chosen as the potential test target. After that demonstration, Maxar’s Space Infrastructure Dexterous Robot, or SPIDER, will take on the assembly task. (1/31)

Space Force Decommissions 26-Year-Old GPS Satellite to Make Way for GPSIII Constellation (Source: US Space Force)
The 2nd Space Operations Squadron decommissioned Satellite Vehicle Number-36, the second to last Block IIA satellite, Jan. 27. Capt. Collin Dart, 2nd SOPS assistant flight commander of GPS mission engineering, said the disposal of SVN-36 will allow for newer vehicles to take it’s place. “The main reason it was decommissioned was because, at this time, we’re accepting a lot of the new generation GPS IIIs,” he said. “We’re trying to open up the constellation to accept more of those new vehicles.” Initially launched March 10, 1994, the satellite exceeded its estimated design life of around seven years, serving operationally for nearly 26 years. (1/29)