February 21. 2020

March 2020 Could Bring First Polar-Orbit Launch From Florida in Over a Half Century (Source: Teslarati)
Argentinian space agency CONAE says that both its SAOCOM 1B satellite and SpaceX are on track for a type of launch that the United States’ East Coast hasn’t supported in more than half a century. CONAE has revealed that SpaceX aims to launch the ~2800 kg (6200 lb) radar Earth observation satellite into orbit on a Falcon 9 rocket as early as March 30, 2020. With such a light payload, the Falcon 9 booster – presumably reused – will be able to perform a Return to Launch Site (RTLS) recovery, touching down at one of SpaceX’s two Landing Zone (LZ) pads at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport.

While Landing Zone rocket recoveries have become increasingly rare for SpaceX, that’s not actually why the SAOCOM 1B mission is so unique. Instead, it’s exceptional because it will be the United States’ first East Coast polar launch in nearly six decades. The mission’s “polar” launch profile refers to the fact that the Argentinian radar satellite will ultimately orbit Earth’s poles, effectively perpendicular to more common equatorial orbits. If successful and repeatable, the mission could ultimately spark a new era for the spaceport and raises big questions about the future of California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base — or at least SpaceX’s presence there.

Back in October 2019, while SpaceX had effectively confirmed that it would try to move SAOCOM 1B’s launch from California to Cape Canaveral, CCAFS hadn’t fully approved the change or literally reopened the East Coast’s polar launch corridor. Now, given that CONAE has officially announced a specific launch date (March 30), it seems safe to say that CCAFS has fully given SpaceX the go-ahead for the launch. While Falcon 9’s upper stage will still technically overfly Cuba over the course of the launch, the combination of a rare ‘dogleg’ maneuver shortly after launch and the fact that said upper stage will be far above the Earth’s surface have effectively mitigated any technical or legal showstoppers. (2/21)

AFRL, Masten Space Systems, NASA, Test Methane Engine (Source: AFRL)
The Air Force Research Laboratory, NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, and Masten Space Systems Inc. successfully tested a liquid methane rocket engine, the first of its kind tested at AFRL. AFRL and Masten signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement in December 2018. The agreement enabled Masten to test the Broadsword 25K engine at AFRL’s rocket testing facility at Edwards Air Force Base in Test Area 1-125 and complete NASA’s Tipping Point contract requirement of a ten second hot fire test.

The Broadsword 25K engine required a large supply of high-pressure gaseous nitrogen to pressure feed their engine. AFRL’s Aerospace Systems Directorate and their Rocket Propulsion Division at Edwards AFB has the capability at Test Area 1-125 to deliver a large supply of high-pressure gaseous nitrogen. The Tipping Point public-private partnership is an innovative way NASA helps industry develop promising space technologies that could benefit future commercial and government missions. (2/18)

Washington State May Suspend Tax Break for Boeing (Source: Modesto Bee)
Washington state lawmakers introduced bills, at Boeing’s request, to suspend the company's preferential business and occupation tax rate unless the United States and European Union reach an agreement on their long-running international trade dispute that would allow the lower tax rate. Last year, the World Trade Organization body ruled that Boeing received an illegal U.S. tax break from Washington state that damaged sales by European archrival Airbus.

A decision by the WTO’s appellate body considered whether the United States had complied with a 2012 ruling that found that plane-maker and defense company Boeing received at least $5 billion in subsidies prohibited under international trade rules. But the ruling was limited and the decision found no grounds upon which the European bloc could seek damages from an arbitrator, except for the relatively small Washington state tax program — which the U.S. says was worth $100 million a year. (2/19)

SpaceX Pushing for 2020 Starship Orbital Launch, Maybe From Florida (Source: Ars Technica)
SpaceX founder Elon Musk said Thursday the company is "driving hard" toward an orbital flight of the company's Starship vehicle this year. It has not been decided yet whether this orbital launch will take place from the company's new facility near Boca Chica Beach in South Texas, a site at Cape Canaveral in Florida, or perhaps even an ocean-based launch platform. The company is pressing ahead with all three options in parallel. The orbital mission would involve a future iteration of Starship with six Raptor engines, Musk said.

Since late November, when the very first prototype of a Starship vehicle was damaged during a pressurization test, SpaceX employees have been working on a new version of the vehicle dubbed SN1, for serial number 1. The company has gone with this nomenclature because Musk envisions building the large spaceships rapidly, with each new iteration improving on the last—be it through smoother manufacturing processes, shedding unneeded mass, improving performance, or more. (2/21)

Lower Satellite Sales Lead to Layoffs at Airbus (Source: Space News)
Airbus Defence and Space plans to eliminate 7% of its workforce because of weak sales. The company said it will cut 2,362 positions, citing "lower performance in space" as a key reason for the layoffs. The company started consultations this week with the European Works Council, the information and consultation organization representing its workers, about the cuts. Airbus is the third major satellite manufacturer to announce layoffs in the last 12 months, after Maxar and Thales Alenia Space made job cuts last year. (2/21)

SpaceX Revives Plans for Launch Vehicle Construction in Los Angeles (Source: Space News)
The Port of Los Angeles has approved a new lease agreement with SpaceX. The lease agreement covers the same property that SpaceX originally planned to use for a new launch vehicle factory in 2018, only for SpaceX to pull out of the project a little more than a year ago. The revised agreement emphasizes the "adaptive reuse" of existing structures on the property rather than the construction of a new factory there. SpaceX projects up to 130 aerospace jobs will be created there, plus an unspecified number of construction jobs, although the company has not discussed its specific plans for the site. (2/21)

Russian Proton Rocket Ready to Laumch ISS Module (Source: TASS)
The Proton rocket that will launch a Russian space station module is ready, Roscosmos announced. The Proton will be used to launch the Nauka module to the station from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, either late this year or early next year. Nauka, which has suffered years of delays because of technical problems, will serve as a multipurpose lab module on the station's Russian segment. (2/21)

India Plans Uncrewed Capsule Test Launch (Source: The Statesman)
India's space agency is still planning an uncrewed test flight of its Gaganyaan spacecraft before the end of the year. In an interview, K. Sivan, chairman of the Indian space agency ISRO, said that test flight will be part of the qualification process for both the spacecraft and its GSLV launch vehicle. ISRO hopes to make the crewed Gaganyaan flight in late 2021. (2/21)

Commerce Dept Sees Urgent Need for Space Traffic Management (Source: SpacePolicyOnline)
A Commerce Department official said there is an "urgent" need for funding the department's space traffic management work. In a speech at a space traffic management conference Thursday, Diane Howard, chief counsel for the Office of Space Commerce, said that funding is needed to continue work on implementing Space Policy Directive 3, which gave civil space traffic management responsibilities to the department. The Commerce Department has requested $15 million for the Office of Space Commerce in its fiscal year 2021 budget proposal, primarily for that work, after Congress rejected a $10 million budget for the office in 2020. (2/21)

Air Foce Decommissios Weather Satellite (Source: USAF)
The Air Force has decommissioned a polar-orbiting weather satellite. The Space and Missile Systems Center announced Thursday it decommissioned the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) F14 spacecraft after more than 22 years of operations. Four other DMSP satellites remain in service, and a critical design review for a next-generation Weather System Follow-on — Microwave program is scheduled for the end of March. (2/21)

SpaceX is Super-Busy Prepping Starship for its Next Big Test (Source: C/Net)
While SpaceX is burning the midnight oil preparing for the first suborbital test flight of its next generation Starship, it's also stockpiling parts for the Mars rocket prototypes. On Wednesday, CEO Elon Musk tweeted out a video from the company's Boca Chica, Texas, development facility, showing a handful of rocket nose cones at different stages of completion.

Early Starship "hopper" prototypes have already made a pair of short, controlled "hops" from Boca Chica, near South Padre Island. The most recent saw the small vehicle rise to a maximum height of about 492 feet (150 m). The next iteration of the design is dubbed SN1 and could make a test flight to about 12.4 miles (20 km) in altitude as soon as March. Presumably the nose cones under production are for upcoming Starship vehicles, as SN1 is under construction outdoors at the Boca Chica facility, with its schnoz already in place. (2/19)

Lockheed Martin Lost $410 Million on Latest Three Commercial Satellite Orders (Source: Space News)
Lockheed Martin says it lost $410 million on the first three commercial satellites built on its new LM2100 platform, including the JCSAT-17 satellite Arianespace launched Feb. 18 on an Ariane 5 rocket. The other two commercial satellites built at a loss were Arabsat-6A and SaudiGeoSat-1/Hellas Sat-4, two Arabsat spacecraft that launched last year following manufacturing and launch vehicle delays.

The LM2100 is the culmination of a multiyear modernization initiative meant to make Lockheed Martin more competitive against Maxar Technologies, Airbus Defence and Space, and other manufacturers that routinely win commercial geostationary satellite orders. The platform features 26 upgrades, including improved solar arrays, propellant tanks and flight software. Lockheed Martin, in a Feb. 7 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, said the three satellites “experienced performance issues related to the development and integration” of their LM2100 platforms. (4/19)

Scientists Eye the Martian Underground in Search for Alien Life (Source: Space.com)
The search for present-day life on Mars is heating up. And for good reason: An improved knowledge of Mars' geologic diversity and history, a better appreciation of life in extreme environments here on Earth, and a sharp focus on sensitive life-detection measurement methods are all bolstering the Mars-life hunt, giving scientists more reason to think that they just might find something. While the cold, dry surface of Mars, with its harsh radiation environment, is widely considered to be uninhabitable, the subsurface has been hypothesized to be a viable, long-lived habitable environment, protected from the punishing surface conditions of Mars and a place where water could be stable.

Over the years, researchers have spotted pit craters on the surface of Mars. These features are locations where the roof of a lava tube has partially collapsed and created a "skylight." Researchers at the meeting pointed out that Mars-circling spacecraft have imaged numerous potential cave entrances. Shielded underground as they are, could lava tubes be prime microbial real estate on Mars? Here on Earth, cave-exploring scientists have gathered evidence of microbial activity in the form of biofilms, slime, and microbially induced or precipitated minerals. Conditions in caves, the researchers have found, are typically far different, more consistent and more benign than on the surface. (2/20)

Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana (Source: ESA)
Europe's Spaceport lies northeast of South America in French Guiana, an overseas department of France. This location near the equator enables the Ariane, Soyuz and Vega launch vehicles operated at the Spaceport to complete a wide range of missions to any orbit for clients from around the globe. The Spaceport comes under the responsibility of the French space agency CNES while infrastructures are funded by the European Space Agency.

ESA owns the launcher and satellite preparation buildings, launch operation facilities and a plant for making solid propellant and integrating solid rocket motors. ESA also finances new facilities, such as launch complexes and industrial production facilities for new launchers such as Vega-C and Ariane 6. Click here for the video. (2/17)

What Should We Do If a 'Planet-Killer' Asteroid Takes Aim at Earth? (Source: Live Science)
If a giant object looks like it's going to slam into Earth, humanity has a few options: Hammer it with a spacecraft hard enough to knock it off course, blast it with nuclear weapons, tug on it with a gravity tractor, or even slow it down using concentrated sunlight. We'll have to decide whether to visit it with a scout mission first, or launch a full-scale attack immediately. Those are a lot of decisions to make under existential duress, which is why a team of MIT researchers have come up with a guide, published February in the journal Acta Astronautica, to help future asteroid deflectors. Click here. (2/20)

Pensacola Airport Gets $4.8 Million State Grant for Company's Aerospace Facilities (Source: Pensacola News Journal)
Gov. Ron DeSantis announced a $4.8 million grant for the Pensacola International Airport on Wednesday — the final piece of the $210 million project to expand the ST Engineering campus at the airport. The expansion project, which calls for building three more hangars and office space for ST Engineering, is expected to bring more than 1,300 jobs to the airport.

ST Engineering opened its first maintenance, repair and overhaul, or MRO, hangar at the Pensacola airport in June 2018. That hangar is expected to employ 400 people when operating at full capacity, putting the number of jobs at the entire facility at more than 1,700 people. At last count in January, ST Engineer had 163 employees at the airport. (2/19)

On Saturn’s Moon Titan, Living Cells May Be Very Different From Ours (Source: Air & Space)
Scientists are considering the possibility of life on Titan—and, more specifically, whether living creatures would need cell membranes to survive. Membranes are essential for life as we know it because they protect the integrity of a cell’s interior by keeping unwanted substances out. At the same time, they allow critically needed nutrients to come in, and waste products to be discharged. On Earth, cell membranes are built in such a way that they are polar to the outside (to interact well with water, which is a polar solvent), and non-polar to the inside. It’s generally thought that the first membranes were able to self-assemble under Earth’s early environmental conditions.

On Titan the conditions are quite different. Temperatures are extremely cold—between 90 and 94 degrees Kelvin (about -180o C). There is no liquid water anywhere near the surface, and no free oxygen. There are, however, lakes on Titan’s surface consisting of methane and ethane. These hydrocarbons are non-polar. That has led scientists, including me, to suggest that membranes on Titan would be inverted compared to Earth—non-polar on the outside to interact with methane as a solvent and polar to the inside. (2/19)

Ariane 5 Launches Asian Satellites (Source: Space News)
An Ariane 5 launched two geostationary orbit satellites for Japan and South Korea Tuesday. The rocket lifted off at 5:18 p.m. Eastern from Kourou, French Guiana, and deployed the JCSAT-17 and GEO-KOMPSAT-2B satellites into geostationary transfer orbits about a half-hour later. JCSAT-17, built by Lockheed Martin for Japanese operator Sky Perfect JSAT, carries C- and Ku-band transponders and an 18-meter S-band reflector from L3Harris Technologies. GEO-KOMPSAT-2B, a weather satellite developed by the South Korean space agency KARI, carries an ocean imaging payload from Airbus Defence and Space and an environmental spectrometer from Ball Aerospace. (2/19)

DARPA Changes Rules for Responsive Launch Challenge, Allows Single Spaceport for Sole Competitor (Source: Space News)
DARPA is allowing the sole remaining competitor in its responsive launch competition to perform both launches from the same spaceport. The DARPA Launch Challenge originally required competitors to perform two launches from two different sites, both revealed on short notice, in order to win as much as $12 million. In a media briefing Tuesday, DARPA said Astra, the only company still in the competition, would be able to conduct both launches from the Pacific Spaceport Complex — Alaska on Kodiak Island, although from two different pads about 300 meters apart. That decision, DARPA said, is intended to reduce the logistical and regulatory burdens of the competition. Astra plans to perform that first launch no earlier than Feb. 25 in a window that runs through March 1. If that launch is successful, it would attempt a second launch between March 18 and March 31. (2/19)

Space Adventures and SpaceX to Launch Tourists on Dragon (Source: Space News)
Space Adventures announced Tuesday an agreement with SpaceX for a dedicated Crew Dragon space tourist flight to an altitude above the International Space Station. The company said that it will fly four tourists on a Crew Dragon mission launching between late 2021 and the middle of 2022. That mission would last for up to five days and go to an altitude at least twice as high as the station to provide a different view of the Earth. The company did not disclose pricing for the mission but said tickets prices would be "in the range as other orbital spaceflight opportunities." (2/18)

DARPA Seeks More Funding for Blackjack Project (Source: Breaking Defense)
DARPA is seeking a 50% increase in the budget for its Blackjack smallsat program. The agency requested $75 million for the program in 2021, up from the $50 million it received in 2020. The increase would cover procurement of a missile-tracking sensor and on-orbit testing of the first two satellites in the program. The budget documents don't make clear to what part of the Defense Department the program will eventually be transferred to, with both the Space Force and Space Development Agency potential partners. (2/19)

Alabama County Offers Training Program with Airbus (Source: Fox10)
Airbus and the Baldwin County Commission plan to partner to provide new training opportunities for students. Airbus is offering new technical programs through its Flight Works Alabama program. The 18,000-square-foot Flight Works Alabama at the Mobile Aeroplex is designed to be a hub for students to explore opportunities in the aerospace industry. It will house an interactive exhibition area, workshop, classrooms and more. Airbus will invite 50 10th-graders from every Baldwin County High School for a day of hands-on learning.

Once in 11th grade, interested and qualified students will be able to apply for the FlightPath9 training program. Airbus in Mobile builds A320 and A220 jetliners, and has grown to nearly 1,100 employees in five years and will be adding more. Baldwin County Commissioners, who met with the head of the Airbus Mobile plant Tuesday, will vote on the partnership at the next regular meeting. Baldwin County students will be able to enter the program in the fall of 2020. (2/18)

New Adventures in Beds and Baths for Spaceflight (Source: Space Daily)
The European Space Agency is expanding its bedrest programme that allows researchers to study how human bodies react to living in space, without leaving their bed. In weightlessness, astronauts' bodies lose muscle and bone density, eyes change, fluids shift to the brain and more  -- our bodies adapted to life on Earth and are not designed for spaceflight. Finding ways to stay healthy in orbit is a large part of human spaceflight research. The more test subjects the better, but sending people into space is expensive and hard.

Bedrest studies simulate aspects of spaceflight by placing volunteers in bed for long periods of time with their head 6 below horizontal. At all times one shoulder must touch the bed - meals, showers and toilet breaks included. ESA has conducted many bedrest studies with Medes in Toulouse, France, and at the German aerospace centre DLR's ':envihab' facility in Cologne, Germany. The space agency is now welcoming the Jozef Stefan Institute based in Planica, Slovenia, to conduct a new round of 60-day studies: one in Toulouse and one in Planica.

The Planica site is a fitting addition, since it is located at high altitude and there is less atmospheric pressure - much like a in future lunar habitat, which adds to simulation. The centre allows researchers to tweak environmental conditions, such as oxygen levels in the room. Testing volunteers in low oxygen levels, or hypoxia, is relevant for future space missions where the confined environment of spacecraft and space habitats could contain less oxygen. (2/18)

Kleos Space Takes $3.7 million Loan (Source: Space News)
Radio-frequency-mapping startup Kleos Space has secured a $3.7 million loan to keep the company "well funded" while it awaits the launch of its first satellites. The loan from Dubai-based Winance, announced Tuesday, is intended to support the company's operations until it starts to receive revenue from early customers. The company is developing a constellation of satellites to track radio signals from ships, with its first four satellites now scheduled for launch in March. Kleos is currently looking for manufacturers for a second set of four satellites. (2/19)

Russia Switches to Backup Crew for Next Space Station Mission (Source: RBC)
Russia's Roscosmos space agency decided to replace the crew of the next expedition with the International Space Station (ISS), which is due to depart in April. Two cosmonauts will be replaced by understudies due to medical indications. This was reported to RBC in the press service of Roscosmos. “For medical reasons, the Russian part of the crew is changing to backups,” the report said. (2/19)

NASA Mars SpaceCraft Goes Offline for Maintenance (Source: NASA JPL)
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) will be offline through the end of the month to perform a memory update. The orbiter started a two-week hiatus Monday so that engineers could update battery parameters stored in the spacecraft's flash memory, which will ensure the spacecraft's batteries are properly charged. Controllers will make other updates to the spacecraft's memory during that hiatus. MRO has been orbiting Mars for nearly 14 years and, with this update, should be able to continue operations "well into" the decade. (2/19)

Rotating Detonation Engine Could Make Rockets More Fuel Efficient and Lightweight (Source: Space Daily)
It takes a lot of fuel to launch something into space. Sending NASA's Space Shuttle into orbit required more than 3.5 million pounds of fuel, which is about 15 times heavier than a blue whale. But a new type of engine  -- called a rotating detonation engine  -- promises to make rockets not only more fuel-efficient but also more lightweight and less complicated to construct. There's just one problem: Right now this engine is too unpredictable to be used in an actual rocket.

Researchers at the University of Washington have developed a mathematical model that describes how these engines work. With this information, engineers can, for the first time, develop tests to improve these engines and make them more stable. "A rotating detonation engine takes a different approach to how it combusts propellant," Koch said. "It's made of concentric cylinders. Propellant flows in the gap between the cylinders, and, after ignition, the rapid heat release forms a shock wave, a strong pulse of gas with significantly higher pressure and temperature that is moving faster than the speed of sound." (2/19)

Mitsubishi Opens Satellite Factory (Source: Mitsubishi Electric Co.)
Mitsubishi Electric Co. has opened a new satellite factory. The new factory at the company's Kamakura Works facility will allow Mitsubishi to produce up to 18 satellites a year, up from 10 satellites a year it had been able to build. That increased capacity will support an expected increase in demand in satellites from the Japanese government, as well as commercial communications satellites. (2/18)

Scottish Spaceport Gets Funding Boost (Source: The Scotsman)
A proposed spaceport in the Shetland Islands has received a funding boost. Private equity firm Leonne International has taken a 20% stake in Shetland Space Centre for more than £2 million ($2.6 million). Shetland Space Centre has proposed building a vertical launch site on the island of Unst, the northernmost inhabited island in the United Kingdom. That launch site could be ready as soon as late 2021, but the center did not disclose how much additional funding it needs to build the launch complex. (2/18)

Michigan Wants Former Air Force Base to Become Spaceport (Source: Detroit Free Press)
A former Air Force base in Michigan could become a spaceport. The Michigan Aerospace Manufacturing Association announced Tuesday it had selected Wurtsmith Airport on the shores of Lake Huron in northeastern Michigan as its candidate to become a spaceport. The airport, a former Air Force base that closed in 1993, would host horizontally launched systems, although no launch companies have announced plans yet to use the site. The airport would need to obtain various government approvals, and may need funding from the state government to support launches. (2/19)

Virgin Galactic Stock Rise Questioned by Analysts (Source: CNBC)
The sharp rise in Virgin Galactic's stock is too much for even the most bullish people on Wall Street. In an investor note Tuesday, Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas said Tuesday that the stock could use a "breather" and that its recent ascent "appears to be driven by forces beyond fundamental factors." The company's stock is up more than 150% since the beginning of the year despite the lack of major announcements that would ordinarily drive a company's stock higher. Virgin Galactic will report its earnings Feb. 25. (2/19)

Outer Space Chicken (Source: Space Daily)
A new version of the game of "chicken" is evolving in outer space. According to Gen. John Raymond, the U.S. Space Force Chief, Russian "inspector" satellites are threatening the tenuous stand-off stability between adversarial spacefaring nations. The U.S. Space Command has been tracking these satellites since launch on November 25.

They have apparently been positioned near a U.S. national security satellite. One Russian satellite is known as Cosmos-2542 which ejected a smaller, nested satellite referred to as Cosmos-2543. Analysts have suggested the mission of the sub-satellite is to inspector USA 245, a classified NRO imaging satellite. Satellite trackers claim the Russian satellites have been actively maneuvering near USA 245. On February 10, Time Magazine reported the first public comment by a U.S. official regarding this Russian satellite activity. This announcement reflects a growing concern that other nations are turning space into a warfighting domain. (2/19)

Intelsat to FCC: C-Band Alliance is Dead, We Deserve More Money (Source: Space News)
Intelsat on Feb. 19 urged the FCC to give the company at least $1 billion more of $9.7 billion in proposed compensation for clearing C-band spectrum for 5G networks and to treat the C-Band Alliance Intelsat formed with rivals SES and Telesat as essentially dead. Intelsat said it has more C-band revenue, capacity use and satellite dishes in operation across the continental U.S. than any other operator, and that it therefore deserves $5.8 billion to $6.5 billion in accelerated clearing payments instead of the $4.85 billion offered under the FCC’s proposed plan. (2/20)

Bezos’ Earth Fund Should Invest in Space Based Solar Power (Source: WIRED)
Right now there are 173,000 trillion watts of solar energy bathing the Earth. If we were to capture just 1 percent of that, it would be enough to meet the world’s energy needs. But soaking up the rays is harder than it sounds. Cloud coverage limits the effectiveness of solar panels, top-of-the-line photovoltaic cells aren’t very efficient at converting sunlight into electricity, and solar power isn’t an option for half the planet at any given moment.

Yet if you were to construct a giant solar farm in space and beam that energy to Earth, the power of the sun would be available around the clock. Isaac Asimov first floated the idea for space-based solar power in the 1940s. A handful of companies like Solaren and Solar Space Technologies have tried to build businesses around space-based solar energy, but lacked the capital needed to bring their technology to fruition.

Last year, the Air Force Research Lab announced a $100 million program to develop the hardware for a satellite that will beam solar power to Earth. If Bezos spent just 1 percent of the Earth Fund to develop space-based solar power, it would effectively double the available funding in the US. If he wanted to sweeten the deal, he could offer solar power satellites a lift to orbit on one of his rockets. Although Blue Origin, Bezos’ space company, hasn’t yet sent a rocket to orbit, they plan to do so by next year. (2/20)

Space Force Seeks to Combine Military and Commercial Satcom (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Space Force unveiled a plan Wednesday to change how it acquires satellite-based communications for the Defense Department. The "United States Space Force Vision for Satellite Communications" seeks to combine military and commercial satcom systems into a unified network. However, how to achieve that vision still has not been settled. The Space Force will appoint a team of experts to help develop a road map to guide future efforts, including issues like cybersecurity and incompatibility of military terminals with commercial systems. (2/20)

China Launches Test Satellites (Source: Space News)
China has resumed launches after a break caused by the Chinese New Year and exacerbated by the coronavirus outbreak. A Long March 2D rocket lifted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 4:07 p.m. Wednesday and placed four technology test satellites, named XJS-C, -D, -E and -F, into orbit. The satellites will test "new Earth observation technology" and inter-satellite networking, according to a statement by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. It added that the launch also verified measures implemented by the group to fight the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak. (2/20)

Russia Launches Military Satellite (Source: TASS)
Russia launched a military communications satellite Thursday after weeks of delays. The Soyuz-2.1a rocket launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome at 3:24 a.m. Eastern carrying a Meridian-M military communications satellite. The launch was scheduled for nearly a month ago but delayed by problems with the rocket that required the replacement of its third stage. (2/20)

Japan Moves Ahead with Phobos Mission (Source: Ars Technica)
Japan's space agency has finalized a plan to send a probe to the Martian moons of Phobos and Deimos, and it includes an ambitious lander to collect samples from Phobos to return to Earth. The agency, JAXA, submitted the plan to the country's science ministry on Wednesday, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported. On Twitter, the Martian Moons Exploration (MMX) official account also announced that it had formally moved from design into the "development" phase of operations. The space agency estimated that the total cost for the mission would come to $417 million.

The current plan calls for a 2024 launch of the probe on an H-3 rocket, a new booster built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and expected to debut late this year or in 2021. The MMX spacecraft would enter into orbit around Mars in 2025 and return to Earth in 2029. (2/20)

Colorado Springs Campaigns for Space Command HQ (Source: Space News)
Colorado Springs is launching a campaign to keep U.S. Space Command headquartered in the city. The city's chamber of commerce and economic development commission announced a $350,000 national campaign to make the case that Space Command, temporarily headquartered at Peterson Air Force Base, should remain in the city. The Pentagon has yet to select a permanent headquarters, but is considering locations in several states besides Colorado. The campaign by Colorado Springs will include people wearing T-shirts with the phrase "#usspaceCOm" on them during a rally in the city by President Trump on Thursday. (2/20)

Potential For NOAA Weather Satellite Failure Discussed in Hearing (Source: Space News)
NOAA says that the failure of an aging satellite in the next few years could leave it "hurting a little bit" regarding space weather forecasting. At a hearing last week, Bill Murtagh, director of NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center, said that the ESA/NASA SOHO spacecraft is the only one at the Earth-sun L1 point equipped with a coronagraph that can monitor the sun's corona and provide warnings of solar storms. That spacecraft, though, launched in 1995 and is well beyond its design life. NOAA is developing a replacement, the Solar Weather Follow-On, scheduled for launch in 2024. However, he said there wasn't a need to accelerate development of that mission, citing other spacecraft that can fill in to some degree if needed. (2/20)

Spaceflight Ride-Share Sale a "Win-Win" (Source: Space News)
The executives of both smallsat ride-share company Spaceflight and its parent company, who plans to sell Spaceflight, say the deal will be a "win-win" for all involved. Spaceflight Industries announced last week it would sell Spaceflight for an undisclosed sum to two Japanese companies, allowing it to focus on its BlackSky geospatial intelligence business. The money from that sale will accelerate the deployment of the BlackSky satellites, while Spaceflight says its new owners will free up additional resources to allow it to extend its services beyond launch. (2/20)

NASA Gets New Acting CFO (Source: SpacePolicyOnline.com)
NASA has named an acting chief financial officer. Melanie Saunders, deputy to associate administrator Steve Jurczyk, will serve as acting CFO after the departure last week of Jeff DeWit, who resigned to return home to his family in Arizona. Saunders previously worked as associate director of the Johnson Space Center and associate manager of the ISS program. A permanent replacement for CFO will require a formal nomination by the White House and confirmation by the Senate. (2/20)

Former CASIS Executive Pleads Guilty to Reduced Charge of Tax Fraud (Source: Florida Today)
A former executive with the nonprofit organization that manages the ISS national laboratory has pleaded guilty to tax fraud. Charles Resnick, the former chief economist for the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, pleaded guilty to one charge of filing a false tax return with the ISS as part of a plea agreement where the government dropped other charges against him. The government alleged Resnick filed returns that understated his income and sought deductions for expenses he had already been reimbursed for. That included creating false receipts and using government money for escorts and prostitutes. Resnick, who was fired from CASIS in 2015, faces up to three years in prison. (2/20)

Asteroid Comedy Coming to Netflix (Source: TechCrunch)
Jennifer Lawrence will star in a Netflix "asteroid comedy" movie. Lawrence has signed on to the film Don't Look Up, a comedy about two "low-level astronomers" who try to warn the world of an impending asteroid impact. Netflix plans to release the movie later this year. (2/20)