March 24, 2020

DoD Contractors' Work Deemed "Essential" Allowing Work to Continue (Source: Washington Technology)
Employees of defense companies and suppliers can still report to work on their normal schedules even if local and state governments tell citizens they have to stay at home amid the coronavirus pandemic. In a Friday memo to industry obtained by Washington Technology, Defense Department acquisition chief Ellen Lord wrote that the defense industrial base is part of the nation's "critical infrastructure sector” and includes companies and their subcontractors that provide products and services under contract to the Defense Department. (3/20)

Bigelow Lays Off Entire Workforce (Source: Space News)
Bigelow Aerospace laid off its entire workforce Monday, blaming restrictions imposed by the coronavirus pandemic. The company said that it laid off its employees because of an order by the state government in Nevada, where the company is based, to close all nonessential businesses. Other sources claimed 68 employees were affected, and that while Bigelow said it would rehire employees after the state order was lifted, they expected the layoffs to be permanent. Bigelow Aerospace was established more than 20 years ago to develop commercial space habitats using an expandable module technology licensed from NASA. The company flew two prototype modules in 2006 and 2007 with a third, BEAM, currently installed on the International Space Station. (3/24)

Venezuelan Satellite Tumbling in Unusable Orbit (Source: Space News)
Venezuela's only government-operated communications satellite is tumbling in an unusable orbit. VeneSat-1 left its orbital slot in geostationary orbit March 13 and is currently tumbling in an elliptical orbit slightly above GEO. VeneSat-1's operator, the Venezuelan space agency ABAE, had issued no status reports on the satellite. VeneSat-1 was built by China Great Wall Industry Corporation and launched in late 2008 with a planned 15-year lifetime. (3/24)

Astra Suffers Another Anomaly at Alaska Spaceport (Source: Space News)
Astra has canceled a planned launch this week after its rocket was damaged in a "anomaly" in tests Monday. The "Rocket 3.0" vehicle was being prepared for a launch as soon as Tuesday from Pacific Spaceport Complex — Alaska when the company said it was damaged. Astra did not disclose the extent of the damage or when the launch might be rescheduled. Spaceport officials told a local radio station Monday that they had activated an emergency response plan because of the anomaly, adding that no injuries were reported but that the area around the launchpad was "hazardous." (3/24)

NASA's Mars Rover Perseverance Still on Track for July Launch Despite Coronavirus Outbreak (Source: Space.com)
NASA is determined to get its life-hunting Mars rover off the ground this summer despite the coronavirus outbreak. Space agency officials remain optimistic that the car-size Perseverance rover, the centerpiece of the Mars 2020 mission, will be ready to launch during a three-week window that opens on July 17. The stakes are high, because such windows come just once every 26 months, when Earth and the Red Planet align properly for interplanetary missions.

"We’re going to ensure that we meet that launch window in July," Lori Glaze, the director of NASA's Planetary Science Division, said during a virtual town hall meeting on March 19, according to SpaceNews. "As of right now, and even if we go to a next stage of alert, Mars 2020 is moving forward on schedule. And everything is, so far, very well on track." (3/21)

Musk is Donating 1,200 Ventilators from China to L.A.’s Coronavirus Fight (Source: Fortune)
Elon Musk, the chief executive officer of Tesla Inc. and an outspoken skeptic of the severity of the coronavirus outbreak, donated more than 1,000 ventilators to officials in Los Angeles to meet demand as the pandemic becomes more severe. The billionaire said in a tweet he helped acquire 1,255 of the machines from China last week and arranged them to be air-shipped to Los Angeles. He thanked Tesla staff and customs officials in China and Los Angeles for assistance. (3/24)

Virgin Orbit Will Continue Operations in California, as an "Essential Service" (Source: Space News)
Virgin Orbit announced March 20 that it will continue operations at its facility in Long Beach, California, after state officials categorized the work as an essential service that should not be completely shut down during the coronavirus pandemic. On March 19, California, Los Angeles County and Long Beach issued a series of “Safer at Home” orders that closed all non-essential businesses and requires most of the state’s 40 million inhabitants to stay at home until further notice. The city, county, and state orders provide exemptions for certain businesses and industries deemed essential services.

“In conversations with our representatives, we have learned that our work of developing and operating our flexible, responsive space launch system for our customers, including those at NASA and in the U.S. Department of Defense, has been deemed as one such essential service, and that therefore we have been exempted from many of the “Safer At Home” shelter in place restrictions,” Virgin Orbit Kendall Russell said in a statement. (3/21)

Small Space Companies at Risk of Failure During Pandemic (Source: Space News)
A space industry trade group is warning small companies may not survive the pandemic without a government stimulus package. The Commercial Spaceflight Federation says that while some of its larger members, like Blue Origin and SpaceX, will be able to weather the crisis, smaller companies that are suppliers are in greater jeopardy. The organization sent a letter to Congress last week requesting a number of measures to bolster its members, including a $5 billion grant or low-interest loan program to help small and medium firms survive the next several months. (3/24)

Remote Sensing Imagery In Demand During Pandemic (Source: Space News)
Satellite imagery companies are seeing growing demand because of the pandemic. Companies that provide imagery or value-added services based on imagery say more customers are interested in those services to monitor changes in economic activity, from decreased industrial output to changes in oil reserves. Satellite data is also being used for remote monitoring of facilities to avoid exposing people to travel risks. (3/24)

China Launches Spy Satellite on Long March 2C Rocket (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
China launched a set of reconnaissance satellites late Monday. A Long March 2C rocket lifted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 11:43 p.m. Eastern and placed a trio of Yaogan-30 satellites into orbit. While Chinese officials say the satellites will be used for "electromagnetic probes and other experiments," Western observers believe the satellites are used for signals intelligence or imaging for the Chinese military. (3/24)

China Readies to Launch Long March 5B Ahead of Crewed Missions (Source: Space News)
China is proceeding with launch preparations for the first Long March 5B mission. The heavy-lift rocket will carry a prototype new-generation crewed spacecraft payload designed to be capable of deep space travel, including crewed lunar missions. Measures introduced to contain the COVID-19 outbreak have altered, but not halted, launch preparations, with a launch expected in the latter half of April. The mission is also proceeding despite the failure last week of the Long March 7A, which shares commonalities with the Long March 5B. (3/24)

Boeing's First Crewed Starliner to Be Launched to ISS on 31 August (Source: Sputnik)
The first manned spacecraft of the Boeing company, called Starliner, will be launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on 31 August, a source in the Russian space and rocket industry said. "The launch of the first manned Starliner spacecraft is scheduled for 31 August", the source said. In December 2019, the Starliner spaceship set off on its first test flight to the International Space Station, but docking was canceled after Starkiner failed to execute an orbit-insertion burn on schedule. (3/24)

SASC Staffer Joins Parsons (Source: Space News)
A former Senate Armed Services Committee staffer has taken a position as an executive with Parsons. John "J.R." Riordan will be the senior vice president of business development for Parsons' space and geospatial business. Riordan previously led the committee's strategic forces staff overseeing nuclear, missile defense and space issues. In his new job, he will be responsible for business development, account management and customer engagement for Parsons' growing space business in the national security market. (3/24)

NASA Solar Research Satellite Ends Mission (Source: NASA)
A NASA space science satellite has shut down after a 17-year mission. NASA's Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) spacecraft powered down last month after far exceeding its original five-year lifetime. SORCE provided highly accurate measurements of solar irradiance used for climate models. That data is now provided by the a sensor installed on the ISS in 2017, with a similar sensor scheduled for launch on a spacecraft in 2023. (3/24)

An Astronaut's Tips for Living in Space or Anywhere (Source: Space Daily)
One thing astronauts have to be good at: living in confined spaces for long periods of time. Here are some tips for all who find yourself in a similar scenario. Nearly 20 years successfully living on the International Space Station and more than 50 flying in space did not happen by accident. NASA astronauts and psychologists have examined what human behaviors create a healthy culture for living and working remotely in small groups. They narrowed it to five general skills and defined the associated behaviors for each skill. NASA astronauts call it "Expeditionary Behavior," and they are part of everything we do. Click here. (3/24)

China's FAST Telescope Identifies 114 Pulsars (Source: Space Daily)
China's Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), the world's largest single-dish radio telescope, has identified 114 new pulsars since its trial operation began in September 2016. The gigantic telescope carried out nearly 1,000 hours of observation from Jan. 1 to March 23, 2020, according to the FAST Operation and Development Center of the National Astronomical Observatories of China. A pulsar is a highly magnetized, rotating neutron star, which emits two beams of electromagnetic radiation. (3/24)

Pentagon Fleshing Out Space Force Organizational Details (Source: National Defense)
As the fanfare around the new military service dies down, many unanswered questions surrounding the structure of the Space Force still remain. The newest member of the armed services was officially stood up in December and received its first budget from the Trump administration as a “separate but co-equal” branch in February. But structurally, the details of organizing, manning and training the new service and its members will be hammered out in the coming months.

Gen. John “Jay” Raymond was sworn in as the Space Force’s first chief of space operations in January. Secretary of the Air Force Barbara Barrett assigned more than 16,000 uniformed and civilian members of the Air Force to the Space Force, the service’s vice commander, Lt. Gen. David Thompson said in February. Most of those personnel came from what was formerly known as Air Force Space Command. The service is expected to grow substantially, Thompson said during remarks at the Air Force Association’s annual Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Florida. (3/23)

Astronomers Have Found the Edge of the Milky Way At Last (Source: Science News)
Our galaxy is a whole lot bigger than it looks. New work finds that the Milky Way stretches nearly 2 million light-years across, more than 15 times wider than its luminous spiral disk. The number could lead to a better estimate of how massive the galaxy is and how many other galaxies orbit it. Astronomers have long known that the brightest part of the Milky Way, the pancake-shaped disk of stars that houses the sun, is some 120,000 light-years across. Beyond this stellar disk is a disk of gas.

A vast halo of dark matter, presumably full of invisible particles, engulfs both disks and stretches far beyond them. But because the dark halo emits no light, its diameter is hard to measure. Now, Alis Deason, an astrophysicist at Durham University in England, and her colleagues have used nearby galaxies to locate the Milky Way’s edge. The precise diameter is 1.9 million light-years, give or take 0.4 million light-years, the team reports. To put that size into perspective, imagine a map in which the distance between the sun and the Earth is just one inch. If the Milky Way’s heart were at the center of the Earth, the galaxy’s edge would be four times farther away than the moon actually is. (3/23)

DoD Increases Progress Payments to Contractors to Shore Up Cash-Strapped Suppliers (Source: Space News)
The Pentagon has ordered contracting officers to increase so-called progress payments to suppliers amid concerns that many small businesses are running out of cash during the COVID-19 national emergency. The progress payment rates for DoD contractors have been increased from 80 percent to 90 percent for large companies, and to 95 percent for small businesses, Kim Herrington, acting principal director for defense pricing and contracting, wrote in a March 20 memo.

Progress payments are made to contractors, usually on a monthly basis, for costs incurred and work performed under a contract. A 90 percent rate means that if $1 million in expenses are submitted on the program, DoD will reimburse $900,000. Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Mike Andrews, said DoD is working with industry groups to help “mitigate impacts from COVID-19.” (3/22)