April 13, 2020

NASA's Offering Online Astronaut Training While You're Stuck in Lockdown (Source: Science Alert)
Who hasn't dreamt of escaping to the stars? Especially now, with most of us confined to limited spaces and steeped in tragic news. NASA and the ISS National Lab are ready to help. They've developed a range of adventurous programs and activities for all the children stuck in home lockdown, including a training program to become a home astronaut, build a hovercraft, launch rockets, and many more.

"Astronauts see the world from space and want to share its beauty and its wholeness," explained ISS National Lab education manager Dan Barstow. "They do medical experiments to search for cures, and they help young people see the power of the mysterious Universe to pull us to explore." Now children can follow their lead, with free educational activities that equip parents to help students explore science subjects, from life sciences and human health to robotics, maths and physics - complete with specific guides for kindergarten through to year 12. (4/11)

Russia Will Cut Space Launch Prices by 30 Percent in Response to SpaceX Predatory Pricing (Source: Sputnik)
ccording to Roscosmos chief, the market price of a SpaceX launch is about $60 million but NASA pays between 1.5 and 4 times more for it. Russia will slash the price of its space launch services by 30 percent to counter what it sees as dumping by Elon Musk's SpaceX company, the head of Russia's state space agency Roscosmos said Friday.

"Our pricing policy is our response to the dumping policy of US companies that are funded from the budget," Rogozin said in his report to President Putin. Rogozin estimated that space launches cost NASA 1.5 to 4 times more than what SpaceX charges its customers, which is roughly $60 million per launch. "To increase our share in the global market we are considering cutting the launch price by more than 30 percent by reducing non-manufacturing costs and increasing the operational efficiency of our factories," Rogozin explained. (4/10)

SpaceX Developed New Machines to Speed Up the Construction of Starship (Source: Tesmanian)
Starship’s development is partially funded by Yusaku Maezawa, a fashion entrepreneur who dreams of going to the moon. Maezawa booked Starship’s first crewed flight, it will be a circumlunar voyage scheduled for the year 2023. SpaceX has an ambitious deadline to meet. The rocket company is manufacturing a production line of Starships at its South Texas assembly facility located in Boca Chica Beach, Brownsville, TX. To rapidly innovate, many vehicles must be manufactured and tested rapidly. Therefore, the company aims to ramp up its production to build one Starship per week.

“Production is at least 1,000 percent harder than making one of something. At least 1,000 percent harder,” Musk said. This year, the company manufactured three stainless steel prototypes of the craft, two imploded during pressurization tests. They are currently working on the construction of the fourth prototype of Starship, SN4. Each prototype will undergo a series of tests, and improvements needed towards developing a space-ready vehicle. SpaceX aims to conduct a debut test flight this year. The first launch is expected to be 150 meters, followed by a high-altitude flight of 20 kilometers.

SpaceX engineers developed new machines to aid in the construction of Starship prototypes. Engineers made a new welding tool called a "knuckle seamer" with the purpose to speed up Starship dome tank production and improve weld quality. Engineers also developed a "shielded X-ray machine" to inspect their welding quality. Usually, X-ray teams must clear the work area when using radiation, so, the process of inspecting an entire spacecraft's welds can take an entire day. The new shielded X-ray machine could help teams conduct weld inspections in a few hours. (4/11)

Trends in NASA’s Robotic Planetary Exploration Program as Revealed in a New Dataset (Source: Space Review)
Comparing budgets from year to year among NASA planetary science program can be difficult. Casey Dreier discusses a new dataset on those budgets he has compiled, and trends apparent in the analysis of that data. Click here. (4/13)
 
Planning the Next Decade of Planetary Science Missions (Source: Space Review)
Despite the ongoing pandemic, work is getting started on the next planetary science decadal survey. Jeff Foust reports on what will be different about the next decadal, and how its recommendations can still lead to struggles regarding how to fund missions. Click here. (4/13)
 
The Role of Global Cooperation in Space After COVID-19 (Source: Space Review)
The coronavirus pandemic may force countries to delay or cancel space projects in order to pay for the relief effort. Ajey Lele argues that it provides an opportunity for greater international cooperation in future space projects. Click here. (4/13)
 
Hard Law or Soft Law? The Debate About the Future of Space Law (Source: Space Review)
Last week the White House issued an executive order calling on the State Department to seek international support for its stance on space resource rights. Dennis O’Brien recalls a recent space law conference that debated whether informal agreements or new, binding treaties were needed for the future of lunar exploration and utilization. Click here. (4/13)

NASA Award Supports Continued Brain Organoid Research on Upcoming ISS Stem Cell Lab (Source: ISSNL)
Researchers at the University of California San Diego (UCSD), together with Space Tango, received an award of nearly $5 million from NASA to develop a new dedicated stem cell research laboratory on the International Space Station (ISS). The award also supports the launch of three initial research projects that will utilize the stem cell lab, including a project on brain organoids that builds on previous ISS U.S. National Laboratory-sponsored research.

Microgravity induces many changes in the human body, and space-based studies can provide accelerated models of aging and disease. The UCSD team’s initial ISS National Lab investigation, which launched on SpaceX’s 18th commercial resupply services mission, explored microgravity’s effects on stem-cell derived brain organoids—three-dimensional cellular models that represent aspects of the human brain. (4/13)

NOVA-C Selects Landing Site, Masten Gains CLPS Contracts (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
Intuitive Machines (IM) announced the IM-1 mission with the Nova-C lander has selected the Oceanus Procellarum near the Vallis Schrasöteri as a landing site. The Nova-C lander is a lunar lander under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, with the goal of testing technologies to help land astronauts on the lunar surface.

Intuitive Machines selected an area near the Vallis Schrasöteri as a landing site, the largest valley on the Moon and is surrounded by the Oceanus Procellaurum (Ocean of Storms). NASA considered a site near the Vallis Schrasöteri for the Apollo 18 mission before it was canceled. Nova-C will land near the site to conduct the surveyance of the area. The area that was selected for landing is flat, free of large raters and rocks, and has abundant sunlight throughout the 14-day lunar “day”. (4/13)

Lockheed Martin Continues NASA Orion KSC Processing for Artemis 1 (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
The Orion spacecraft for NASA’s Artemis 1 mission is set up back at home in its final assembly cell at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida following its last major pre-launch development test. The lunar-rated spaceship spent just shy of four months at NASA’s Plum Brook Station facility in Ohio undergoing thermal vacuum and electromagnetic interference testing.

Following a March 25 flight home on the space agency’s Super Guppy cargo aircraft, this second Orion flight article was returned to the Armstrong Operations and Checkout (O&C) Building, unpacked and removed from its shipping container, and lifted back into the Final Assembly System Test (FAST) cell there. Orion prime contractor Lockheed Martin is continuing its Assembly, Test, and Launch Operations (ATLO) work on the spacecraft as NASA continues to evaluate how far to proceed with processing. (4/13)

In a First, NASA Measures Wind Speed on a Brown Dwarf (Source: NASA)
Not quite planets and not quite stars, brown dwarfs are cosmic in-betweeners. Learning about their atmospheres could help us understand giant planets around other stars. For the first time, scientists have directly measured wind speed on a brown dwarf, an object larger than Jupiter (the largest planet in our solar system) but not quite massive enough to become a star. To achieve the finding, they used a new method that could also be applied to learn about the atmospheres of gas-dominated planets outside our solar system.

Described in a paper in the journal Science, the work combines observations by a group of radio telescopes with data from NASA's recently retired infrared observatory, the Spitzer Space Telescope. Officially named 2MASS J10475385+2124234, the target of the new study was a brown dwarf located 32 light-years from Earth -- a stone's throw away, cosmically speaking. The researchers detected winds moving around the planet at 1,425 mph (2,293 kph). For comparison, Neptune's atmosphere features the fastest winds in the solar system, which whip through at more than 1,200 mph (about 2,000 kph). (4/9)

Virgin Orbit Conducts Captive Carry Test (Source: Space News)
Virgin Orbit carried out a final test of its LauncherOne system before its first orbital launch attempt. During a captive carry test flight Sunday, Virgin Orbit's Boeing 747 aircraft, with a fully fueled LauncherOne rocket attached, performed what the company called "a complete, end-to-end launch rehearsal" for the system, including the launch release maneuver where the plane pulls up sharply after releasing the rocket. The company said this test was the last major one before its "Launch Demo" mission, which could take place in the next few weeks. (4/13)

Russia Halts Soyuz Production During Pandemic (Source: Space News)
The manufacturer of Soyuz rockets is putting production on hold during the coronavirus pandemic. Dmitry Baranov, general director of the Samara Space Center, said the production hold was intended to keep workers safe. The company has 52 Soyuz rockets already built, including 12 at spaceports awaiting launch. Baranov didn't state what effect the bankruptcy of OneWeb, a major customer for the Soyuz, would have on the company. (4/13)

Russian Proton Rockets Returned to Factory With Quality Problems (Source: Sputnik)
Three Russian Proton-M rockets have been returned to manufacturer Khrunichev to replace "low-quality" parts found in them during inspections by Roscosmos. The news came after the launch of two Russian communications satellites on a Proton was delayed by two months because of issues with the launch vehicle. (4/13)

SoftBank Spearheads OneWeb Loan Offer to Complete Spectrum Sale (Source: Space News)
neWeb is asking a bankruptcy court for permission to borrow between $75 million and $300 million the company says it needs to stay afloat while it attempts to sell its spectrum assets. OneWeb’s largest creditor, SoftBank, has agreed to lead the loan, OneWeb said in an April 10 filing before the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. SoftBank supplied $2 billion of the $3.4 billion in equity and debt that OneWeb raised before filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last month. (4/13)

OneWeb Seeking UK Bailout (Source: The Telegraph)
OneWeb is reportedly seeking a bailout from the British government. The satellite operator, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States last month, is requesting a loan backed by the U.K. government to help it restructure its operations. The report claimed that OneWeb "offered to move its entire operations from Florida to Britain" as part of the deal. OneWeb itself does not have significant operations in Florida, but is a partner with Airbus in the joint venture OneWeb Satellites, which builds satellites for OneWeb at a Florida factory. (4/13)

L3Harris Wins Contract to Prepare Spy Satellite for 2021 Launch (Source: Space News)
A missile warning satellite under development for the last six years is nearly completed. L3Harris received a $9.3 million contract on April 6 to maintain and prepare the Wide Field of View (WFOV) satellite for launch in 2021. The satellite will be part of a rideshare mission known as USSF-12, currently scheduled for no earlier than August 2021 on a United Launch Alliance rocket. WFOV is a test bed satellite that is not part of a missile-warning constellation but instead will be a stand-alone experiment to test different ways to collect and report missile launch data. (4/13)

Trump and Putin Discuss Space Cooperation (Sources: AP/TASS)
President Trump discussed space cooperation with Vladimir Putin in a call last Friday. A Kremlin statement said that, in a call between the two leaders, "crucial aspects of bilateral relations, including cooperation in space were touched upon," but did not elaborate on the substance of those discussions. The White House has not released its own readout of the call. Russia's foreign ministry, meanwhile, criticized the U.S. State Department for not mentioning Yuri Gagarin by name in a Facebook post marking the International Day of Human Space Flight Sunday, the 59th anniversary of Gagarin's flight. That omission, the Russian statement claimed, is "disinformation and a base trick of the post-truth epoch." (4/13)

Scottish Spaceport Investor Investigated for Fraud (Source: Daily Record)
An investor in a proposed Scottish spaceport is facing fraud charges. Leonne International took a 20% stake earlier this year in the Shetland Space Centre, which has plans to build a launch site on the island of Unst in the Shetland Islands. The director of Leonne International, Michael Haston, was charged by police in 2017 on allegations of fraud and remains the subject of an active investigation. The company claimed that the charges are "without foundation." (4/13)

Next GPS Launch Delayed by Coronavirus Concerns; X-37B Launch Remains on Track (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
U.S. military officials said Tuesday the launch of the next satellite for the GPS navigation network — planned for April 29 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket — has been delayed to no earlier than June 30 to avoid exposing launch crews to the COVID-19 viral disease. However, the next launch of the military’s X-37B spaceplane remains on track for liftoff in May on a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, officials said. (4/7)

Dark Matter and Dark Energy - Exploring the Start of the Universe (Source: YouTube)
What did the ancient Greeks recognize as the universe? In their model, the universe contained Earth at the center, the Sun, the Moon, five planets, and a sphere to which all the stars were attached. This idea held for many centuries until Galileo’s telescope helped allow people to realize that Earth is not the center of the universe. They also found out that there are many more stars than were visible to the naked eye. All of those stars were in the Milky Way Galaxy.

In the early 20th century, an astronomer named Edwin Hubble Figure below discovered that what scientists called the Andromeda Nebula was actually over 2 million light years away, many times farther than the farthest distances that had ever been measured. Hubble realized that many of the objects that astronomers called nebulas were not actually clouds of gas, but were collections of millions or billions of stars that we now call galaxies. Click here. (4/12)

Russia Wants to Resume Sea Launch Operations in 2024 (Source: RIA Novosti)
Roscosmos is considering participating in the resumption of launches from the Sea Launch floating spaceport since 2024, in connection with which it instructed its enterprises to work out the possibility of participating in the project, a state corporation letter sent to the industry enterprises and available to RIA Novosti says. In addition, the Progress Rocket and Space Center (the manufacturer of rockets) was tasked with evaluating the cost of developing the Soyuz-7 rocket for launches from the Sea Launch, the cost of its serial production and the cost of preparing for launch. (4/13)