It’s Time to Pink-Slip NASA and its
Bloated Budget (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
The Government Accountability Office, which investigates federal
spending for Congress, has released its latest look at NASA
procurement. The “major projects” of America’s astro-bureaucracy
“continued to experience significant cost and schedule growth this year
and the performance is expected to worsen. Since GAO last reported on
the portfolio in May 2019, cost growth was approximately 31% over
project baselines — the third consecutive year that cost growth has
worsened.”
The current estimate for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST),
“designed to help understand the origin and destiny of the universe,
the creation and evolution of the first stars and galaxies, and the
formation of stars and planetary systems,” is $9.7 billion. That’s up
94.7% from the observatory’s fiscal 2009 baseline, which itself was
quintuple the early figure of around $1 billion. (Once expected to
launch as early as 2008, the JWST won’t be sent into the heavens until
2021 — maybe.)
Yet for crimes against the taxpayer, nothing can touch the Space Launch
System and its Orion capsule. The former, a massive rocket
intended to launch as many as 130 tons of payload, has experienced
“further development cost growth of $700 million since 2019, for a
total increase of approximately $1.7 billion — or 24.6% — above the
program’s development baseline” of $9.7 billion. That mark, though, was
set in the 2014 fiscal year. The Space Launch System dates back further
— to George W. Bush’s administration, when it was the Ares V rocket.
“Limited performance, huge price tag, and the triumph of self-interest
over space-faring vision.” (5/11)
Virgin Galactic Has its Eye on
Supersonic Flights — and There's a Difficult Road Ahead (Source:
CNN)
Taking a meeting in London at noon and returning to New York in time
for dinner? Even before coronavirus, that was just a dream — but a
dream business travelers and companies that serve them have clung to
for decades. Last week marked the start of a new effort to make it
reality again, as NASA signed a deal with space tourism venture Virgin
Galactic.
The agreement will allow Virgin Galactic to share expertise and
resources with the space agency, giving Virgin Galactic's engineers
insight into "technologies developed over the last 50 years" as they
work to develop a new commercial aviation vehicle, James Kenyon,
director of NASA's Advanced Air Vehicles Program, said in a statement.
Boeing (BA) also invested $20 million in Virgin Galactic last year,
kicking off a partnership focused on commercial space and global travel
technologies.
Virgin Galactic's pledge to develop a point-to-point travel business is
one reason why the company's stock price is up more than 50% so far in
2020, even as the Covid-19 pandemic has hammered the travel industry
and the broader economy. Some on Wall Street have high hopes: A UBS
report last year suggested that the market for long-distance airline
tickets could be "cannibalised" by opportunities to travel via outer
space, tallying up to a potential $20 billion annual market. Though,
the report also noted that the cost "would need to come down materially
to the price of a business class ticket or below to make such travel
economical for consumers." (5/12)
Study Suggests Terrestrial Life
Unlikely to Contaminate Mars (Source: Space Daily)
Mars' hyper-arid conditions require lower temperatures to reach high
relative humidities and tolerable water activities, which are measures
of how easily the water content may be utilized for hydration. The
maximum brine temperature expected is -55 F - at the boundary of the
theoretical low temperature limit for life. "Even extreme life on Earth
has its limits, and we found that brine formation from some salts can
lead to liquid water over 40% of the Martian surface but only
seasonally, during 2% of the Martian year," Soto continued. "This would
preclude life as we know it." (5/12)
NASA Buys One More Astronaut Ride to
ISS (Source: Space News)
NASA will pay Russia more than $90 million for an additional Soyuz seat
to the International Space Station this fall. NASA announced Tuesday
that it has completed negotiations with Roscosmos to purchase a seat on
an October mission to the station, ensuring a continued U.S. presence
on the station in the event of problems with commercial crew vehicles.
Besides paying $90.25 million for the seat, NASA will also carry
Russian cargo to the station on its resupply spacecraft. NASA officials
said early this month they were in final negotiations with Roscosmos
for the seat, but that they had not yet decided if they should acquire
a second additional seat on a Soyuz mission launching in the spring of
2021. (5/13)
Space Force Wants to Prevent Chinese
Buyouts of US Space Companies (Source: Space News)
The vice commander of the Space Force said the Defense Department is
looking at ways to prevent space companies in financial distress from
being acquired by Chinese interests. In an interview Tuesday, Lt. Gen.
David Thompson said a particular concern was OneWeb, which filed for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March. The Defense Department had
been counting on OneWeb to provide communications services in the
Arctic. Two firms with links to the Chinese government have reportedly
submitted proposals to buy some of OneWeb's assets. Thompson said the
Pentagon is working on plans with the White House and Congress on ways
to prevent potential adversaries like China from taking advantage of
OneWeb and other commercial space companies that may be facing
bankruptcy. (5/13)
OHB and IAI Revive Israeli Lunar
Lander Effort (Source: Space News)
OHB and IAI are planning a commercial lunar lander mission in late
2022. The two companies signed an agreement last year to work together
on a robotic lander based on the Beresheet lander that IAI built. While
Beresheet crashed on the moon last year, an OHB manager said at a
conference Tuesday that the companies are moving ahead after making
changes to the lander's design. The 2022 mission will carry up to 25
kilograms of payloads, and OHB hopes to secure customers such as ESA,
other national space agencies and companies for the mission. (5/13)
SpaceX Seeks $656,000 From California
in Midst of Musk’s Battle (Source: Bloomberg)
SpaceX is seeking funding from a California agency for training
hundreds of new employees. The proposal to California's Employment
Training Panel requests $656,000 for training 900 existing employees
for work related to the Starlink satellite constellation and 300 new
employees who will work on Starship, the company's next-generation
launch system. State documents recommended that the panel approve the
proposal when it meets later this week. (5/13)
Florida-Based Space Force Unit Ready
to Rescue Astronauts (Source: Space News)
A Space Force unit is ready to rescue NASA astronauts if something goes
wrong on an upcoming launch. The 45th Operations Group Detachment 3 at
Patrick Air Force Base in Florida is responsible to rescue astronauts
on land or at sea if they have to abort the mission. It has been around
since Apollo, but its deployment for the upcoming SpaceX Demo-2
commercial crew mission will be the first for NASA since the end of the
shuttle program in 2011. The unit is part of the U.S. Space Force's
45th Space Wing but when it deploys for a mission it reports directly
to U.S. Space Command. (5/13)
China Resumes Rocket Production as
Pandemic Impacts Soften There (Source: Xinhua)
A Chinese industrial park that builds rockets has partially resumed
operations after the coronavirus pandemic. The Kuaizhou rocket
industrial park in Wuhan closed when the coronavirus outbreak started
early this year, but has now resumed partial operations. The site is
used for producing the Kuaizhou small solid-fuel rocket. (5/13)
Myanmar Developing Smallsat With Japan
(Source: Nikkei)
Myanmar will join the club of spacefaring countries next year.
Engineers in Myanmar are working with Japanese universities on a
50-kilogram smallsat, the first built in the country, that will be used
for monitoring natural disasters and pollution. The $16 million effort
is being financed by the government of Myanmar and will include a
second satellite. (5/13)
NASA DART Mission Could Cause Meteor
Shower (Source: New York Times)
A NASA asteroid mission could create a very small meteor shower. NASA's
Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission will collide with a
moon orbiting the asteroid Didymos in October 2022 to demonstrate a
technique for changing the orbit of a potentially hazardous asteroid. A
recently published study found that a small fraction of the debris from
the collision could reach the Earth 15 to 30 days later, creating "a
few to ten" meteors over a few days. Those meteors pose no risk,
including to satellites orbiting the Earth, but some scientists say it
could set a precedent for how future missions or other space activities
could affect the Earth. (5/13)
LeoLabs Unveils First Automated
Collision Avoidance Service for Satellite Operators (Source:
LeoLabs)
LeoLabs,Inc., the leading commercial provider of low Earth orbit (LEO)
tracking and space situational awareness (SSA) services, has introduced
LeoLabs Collision Avoidance, a platform for automating and modernizing
satellite operations, aimed at addressing the threat of orbital space
debris. Powered by LeoLabs global network of radars and built on the
LeoLabs SaaS data platform, LeoLabs Collision Avoidance offers a
real-time stream of alerts and on-demand risk analyses that uniquely
support collision monitoring. (5/13)
SkySats 16-21 To Launch On SpaceX
Falcon 9 Rideshare Missions (Source: Planet)
Planet is set to launch six more SkySat satellites (SkySats 16-21) into
Low Earth Orbit this summer, rounding out the fleet of 15 SkySats
already in operation. SkySats 1-15 operate in Sun Synchronous Orbits, a
specific type of Low Earth Orbit that results in the Earth’s surface
always being illuminated by the Sun at the same angle when the
satellite is capturing imagery.
About half of the SkySats currently pass overhead in a morning crossing
plane, while the other half moves in an afternoon crossing plane, so
together they provide twice-daily coverage of select areas on a global
scale. SkySats 16-21 will operate at a “mid-inclination” orbit of 53
degrees, complimenting the Sun Synchronous fleet, and will offer more
targeted coverage and thus unrivaled rapid-revisits and raw image
capacity in key geographic regions. (5/13)
South Florida Startups to Compete for
$100K From Space Florida (Source: Space Florida)
The Florida Venture Forum has selected 20 companies to present at the
Aerospace Innovation & Tech Forum via webinar series on May 22 and
May 29, with prize money award announcements on June 5. This will be
the third annual aerospace-focused event the Forum has hosted in
partnership with Space Florida. In addition to virtual company
presentations and other informational content, the Aerospace Innovation
& Tech Forum will provide a total of $100,000 in cash awards
presented to three winning companies, courtesy of Space Florida. (5/13)
Raytheon Open to Acquisition
Possibilities (Source: Jane's)
Raytheon Technologies says it has capacity to pursue acquisitions
during the current slowdown related to the coronavirus pandemic. "If we
see a buying opportunity, we're not going to be shy. We're not going to
be stupid either, though. We'll do what makes sense for the long-term
prospects of the business," CEO Greg Hayes said. (5/12)
Joe Biden: Space Policy Enigma
(Source: Medium)
While space exploration and the NASA budget are not headline news items
in the age of coronavirus, the 2020 election injects considerable
uncertainty regarding America’s future in space and our return to the
Moon. NASA has always been at the whim of sharp changes in presidential
priorities, and there is even less predictability about its future than
usual heading into 2021 and beyond.
As an incumbent, Donald Trump’s vision for America’s role in space is
(relatively) well known, favoring a robust, American-led effort to
return to the Moon by 2024. However Joe Biden, his presumptive November
challenger, has a much more limited public stance on space exploration.
This makes projecting how Biden would develop space policy as President
difficult, but there are instructive examples from his past that offer
clues. A number of external variables are likely to influence space
policy if Biden wins, and there is an opportunity to articulate a
bi-partisan, inclusive vision for space exploration regardless of the
outcome this November.
Joe Biden has an extensive career in public service, first winning a
Senate seat in 1972 (serving until 2008), running for President 3 times
(1988, 2008, 2020), and serving as Vice President from 2008–2016. Yet
despite a career spanning almost 50 years, Biden has expressed little
in the way of substantive opinions on NASA and the future of American
space exploration. Click here.
(5/13)
No comments:
Post a Comment