February 17, 2020

Universities Win Grants for Lunar Exploration (Source: Space Daily)
Through the competitive Breakthrough, Innovative and Game-changing (BIG) Idea Challenge and the Space Grant project, NASA has awarded nearly $1 million to eight university teams to build sample lunar payloads and demonstrate innovative ways to study the Moon's darkest areas. The selected teams will develop ways to collect data in and around permanently shadowed regions, generate wireless power for future infrastructure, enable autonomous mobility even in the most extreme environments, and more. Click here. (2/17)

DirecTV Satellite Retired to Graveyard Orbit (Source: Space News)
A communications satellite whose batteries were in danger of exploding has been safely retired in a graveyard orbit. DirecTV's Spaceway-1 satellite moved to an orbit 500 kilometers above the geostationary arc, and observations by ground-based telescopes suggest the satellite has been deactivated. DirecTV said last month it was rushing to retire the satellite by late February to avoid using the satellite's batteries, which were at risk of exploding after an anomaly late last year. Deactivating the satellite in a graveyard orbit puts it out of harm's way for other geostationary satellites. (2/17)

Commerce Department Seeks $15 Million for Space Office (Source: Space News)
The Commerce Department is once again seeking a big increase in the budget for the Office of Space Commerce. The fiscal year 2021 budget proposal last week seeks $15 million for the office, which would be combined with one handling commercial remote sensing licensing. Congress rejected a similar proposal last year, when the department sought $10 million for the combined office. The additional funding would primarily be used to support its new civil space traffic management mission, including hiring a dozen people. (2/17)

Crew Dragon Arrives at Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: NASA)
The Crew Dragon spacecraft that will be used for a crewed test flight to the ISS has arrived in Florida. NASA and SpaceX announced Friday that the spacecraft for that Demo-2 mission is now at Cape Canaveral for final testing and launch processing. NASA has not set a date for the mission, but SpaceX said after an in-flight abort test last month it would be ready for that launch in the second quarter. (2/17)

Will We Hit the Snooze Button on an Orbital Debris Wakeup Call? (Source: Space Review)
Last month, two defunct satellites missed colliding with each other by only meters, an event widely seen as a wakeup call about the dangers of orbital debris and the need to take action. Jeff Foust reports that while that incident might have raised awareness, it won’t necessarily translate into near-term action. Click here. (2/17)
 
Why the International Lunar Decade Still Makes Sense (Source: Space Review)
In a recent commentary, Louis Friedman argued against NASA racing back to the moon, saying its energies are better placed for going to Mars. Four authors note that Friedman once backed the concept for an “International Lunar Decade,” a concept that is still worth pursuing today. Click here. (2/17) 
 
Democratizing Space Exploration with New Technologies (Source: Space Review)
Advances in satellite and launch technologies are often touted as opening space for new and expanded business opportunities. Dylan Taylor argues that such technologies also democratize space, making it available to more people around the world. Click here. (2/17) 

From Dubai to Mars, With Stops in Colorado and Japan (Source: New York Times)
In December, a spacecraft named Hope was motionless in the middle of a large clean room on the campus of the University of Colorado, mounted securely on a stand. But engineers were tricking Hope — a foil-wrapped box about the size and weight of a Mini Cooper — into thinking it was speeding at more than 10,000 miles per hour as it pulled into orbit at Mars. It was a simulation to make sure that the guidance, navigation and control systems would respond correctly to a variety of less-than-perfect circumstances when it arrives at Mars for real next year.

While this spacecraft was assembled on American soil, it will not be exploring the red planet for NASA. Hope is instead an effort by the United Arab Emirates, an oil-rich country smaller than the state of Maine and one that has never sent anything out into the solar system.

Emirati engineers worked here, close to the ski slopes of the Rocky Mountains and far from the sands of the Middle East, learning from their American counterparts. It was part of the Emirates’ planning for the future when petroleum no longer flows as bountifully, to invest its current wealth in new “knowledge-based” industries. (2/15)

Bezos Pledges $10 Billion To Fight Climate Change (Source: Huffington Post)
Amazon’s chief executive, Jeff Bezos, is pledging $10 billion to help fight climate change. On Monday, the richest man in the world announced on Instagram that he would be launching “the Bezos Earth Fund.” “Climate change is the biggest threat to our planet. I want to work alongside others both to amplify known ways and to explore new ways of fighting the devastating impact of climate change on this planet we all share,” Bezos wrote in the caption.

“This global initiative will fund scientists, activists, NGOs — any effort that offers a real possibility to help preserve and protect the natural world,” he continued. “We can save Earth. It’s going to take collective action from big companies, small companies, nation states, global organizations, and individuals. ”

Bezos’ pledge of billions to climate change is a staunch departure from his previous giving behavior. Amazon has long been the subject of ire because Bezos is one of the few top U.S. billionaires who has not signed the Giving Pledge, a campaign founded by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to encourage extremely wealthy people to contribute a majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes. Notably, Bezos’ now-ex-wife, MacKenzie Bezos, signed the pledge last year. (2/17)

Moon Mark and Intuitive Machines Partner to Launch First Ever Race on the Moon (Source: Intuitive Machines)
Moon Mark, a multi-media entertainment and education content company, has announced a partnership with Houston-based Intuitive Machines, who’s on track to become the first private aerospace company to land on the Moon. The companies will team up to launch the first-ever high school competition to race vehicles on the surface of the Moon. Mission 1 is slated for 2021. (2/17)

SpaceX Loses Falcon 9 Booster at Sea After Successful Starlink Launch (Source: The Verge)
SpaceX successfully launched a new batch of its Starlink satellites on Monday morning, but the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket that put them in orbit missed its landing on a floating platform at sea. It’s the first time that’s happened in almost four years; the last time Falcon 9 booster failed to land on one of SpaceX’s drone ships was in June 2016.

To be sure, SpaceX has lost a few rocket boosters since then. The company has lost the center core of the three-core Falcon Heavy two out of three times in that rocket’s first few launches. A Falcon 9 booster also missed the landing pad at Cape Canaveral in December 2018, spiraling into the sea instead after a failure with one of the gridded fins that stabilize its descent. SpaceX has also not attempted landings on about a dozen missions since that 2016 miss — something it usually does when the missions require the rocket to reach higher velocities that make landings more difficult. (2/17)