March 5, 2020

Major State-Funded Roadway Changes at Spaceport for New Glenn (Source: Florida Today)
Roughly 30 miles of roadways winding through the Cape Canaveral Spaceport will soon see multimillion-dollar infrastructure changes, making room for the future transport of Blue Origin's massive New Glenn rocket. The journey for New Glenn first stages, which measure around 200 feet in length before attachment of the second stage and nose cone, will begin at the company's factory just east of the KSC main gate. But in order to follow the 20-plus-mile trek to its pad at Launch Complex 36, changes will need to be made to road widths, light posts, fences, signs, and more.

According to Space Florida permitting documents, dozens of alterations will be made along a route that flows north toward the Vehicle Assembly Building, east toward SpaceX's pad 39A, then south into the heart of Cape Canaveral Space Force Station before turning onto Central Control Road, which leads to LC-36. The project's size actually grows to about 30 miles of roads when factoring in Port Canaveral, which is where recovered New Glenn first stages will be unloaded before transport to the spaceport. Blue plans on landing its rockets vertically on a ship in the Atlantic Ocean, much like SpaceX does with Falcon 9 boosters, then returning them to Port Canaveral.  

Hundreds of changes will be made at 27 sites along the entire path. Changes should be complete before the end of the year. The total cost of the project is estimated at $4.5 million, Space Florida said. Most of the support – $2.7 million – comes from the Florida Department of Transportation with Blue covering the rest. "These are significant changes to accommodate a very large vehicle," said Dale Ketcham. (3/4)

UCF Planetary Scientist Joins Blue Origin's Science Advisory Board (Source: Florida Today)
One of the University of Central Florida's planetary scientists — Phil Metzger — has joined Blue Origin's science advisory board as the company gets ready to head to the moon. With the aerospace company's plan to eventually have millions of humans living and working in space, Metzger will help advise Blue Origin on the lunar landing design of its Blue Moon lunar lander, payload accommodations and services, ideas for types of payloads being sent to the moon and landing site locations on the lunar surface.

"This is the century when we have to start moving civilization beyond the limits of our planet because we can save the planet by relieving the environmental impact of our industry from the planet by putting it into space," SAID Metzger, who is also part of UCF'S Florida Space Institute. Metzger joins the board along with Blue Origin chief scientist, Steve Squyres, Apollo 17 astronaut Jack Schmitt, Planetary Science Institute research scientist Ryan Watkins, retired NASA researcher Dean Eppler, the University of Hawaii at Manoa researcher emeritus Jeff Taylor and Washington University in St. Louis professor Brad Jolliff. (3/2)

Astronomers: Something Is Warping Our Entire Galaxy (Source: Futurism)
Astronomers have known for years that the edges of the Milky Way warp, ripple and wobble like a bowl of Jello — but nobody knew why. But according to a new study using data collected by the European space agency’s star-mapping satellite Gaia, the Milky Way’s disc, made up of hundreds of billions of stars, is being warped as it’s slowly colliding with a smaller neighboring galaxy. To get to this conclusion, a team of physicists at the Italian National Institute for Astrophysicists in Turin analyzed the way 12 million giant stars move in our Milky Way, as observed by ESA’s Gaia space telescope.

Their research suggests that the unique way the edges of our galaxy are being warped is being caused by “a recent or ongoing encounter with a satellite galaxy.” “We measured the speed of the warp by comparing the data with our models,” lead author Eloisa Poggio of the Turin Astrophysical Observatory, said in a statement. “Based on the obtained velocity, the warp would complete one rotation around the center of the Milky Way in 600 to 700 million years.”

That’s substantially slower than how long stars, including the Sun, take to make it all the way around the center of the Milky Way. Previous theories have attempted to explain the warp by suggesting that the inner disk of the galaxy is spinning like an inclined spinning top, leaving ripples. This slow rotational speed, however, would refute them, according to the researchers. (3/3)

What Is The Deal With This Weird Hole on Mars? (Source: Science Alert)
Mars is a pretty wild and wonderful place, and an image posted to the NASA science blog and Astronomy Photo of the Day this week is a brilliant example. It shows what appears to be a mountain... but completely hollowed out. While it's not actually the product of some strange mining experiment, the formation is indeed hollow. What you're looking at is a lava tube 'skylight', the product of ancient volcanic activity below the surface of Mars. Click here. (3/4) https://www.sciencealert.com/what-is-the-deal-with-this-weird-hole-on-mars

Hispasat and PLD to Collaborate (Sources: Hispasat, PLD)
Geostationary satellite operator Hispasat said March 3 it will work with launch startup PLD Space on establishing the criteria for spacecraft to launch on its future Miura 5 rocket. Hispasat will help define spacecraft requirements such as mass, volume and mechanical features that satellites will need to meet to be integrated and launched on board Miura 5 rockets. PLD Space completed a full mission duration hot-fire in February for Teprel-B, a liquid oxygen and kerosene-powered engine that will be used on the Miura 5 first stage. The rocket, for which a maiden flight date has not been announced, is being designed to launch 300 kilograms to low Earth orbit. The Spanish companies said they would work together to validate PLD Space as a launch provider. (3/4)

Maxar Reports Earnings (Source: Maxar)
Maxar Technologies reported $109 million in net income on revenues of $1.67 billion for 2019. Total revenue decreased by $138 million due to the company’s Space Infrastructure division, which contains the legacy SSL business. Maxar CEO Dan Jablonsky said the company is better positioned in 2020 following the downsizing of its Space Infrastructure division, including property sales, plus the $765 million divestiture of MDA and the issuance of $1 billion in senior secured notes. Maxar Chief Financial Officer Biggs Porter said the company’s results were in line with expectations. (3/4)