May 16, 2020

Trump Hails U.S. "Super Duper Missile" During Space Force Flag Unveiling (Source: USA Today)
President Donald Trump on Friday revealed the official flag for the new U.S. Space Force, the first military branch created in seven decades. He also touted the development underway of what he called a "super duper missile" that could outdo foreign adversaries. Trump said the flag will be displayed at the White House. The flag was presented to him in the Oval Office, where he also signed the 2020 Armed Forces Day Proclamation. "Space is going to be the future both in terms of defense and offense and so many other things," Trump said. "We're now the leader in space."

Trump said the country is building "incredible military equipment at a level that nobody's ever seen before" and described a missile he said is being developed that is the "fastest in the world" and will outpace China and Russia. "We have I call it the 'super duper missile,' and I heard the other night 17 times faster than what they have right now," Trump said. "You take the fastest missile we have right now. You've heard Russia has five times and China's working on five or six times. We have one 17 times, and it's just gotten the go ahead." (5/15)

Intelsat Aims to Cut Debt in Half Through Bankruptcy (Source: Space News)
Intelsat hopes it can eliminate around half of its $15 billion debt load through its recent bankruptcy, a change that would free the company to invest in next generation satellite technologies, according to a company executive. Intelsat accumulated most of its heavy debt load in the 2000s through a series of private equity buyouts and its merger with former rival PanAmSat. In the years since, Intelsat’s revenues and business backlog have continued to gradually shrink while its debt load stayed largely the same. (5/15)

Houston Wants SpaceX and Tesla to Ditch California (Source: KHOU)
Add Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner to the list of local officials who would love to see Elon Musk move his business to town. Today, Mayor Turner tweeted a letter he sent to Musk, touting Houston as the perfect location for the company to bring Tesla and SpaceX in its first global campus. Turner’s letter mentions Houston’s history as an innovator in industry and corporate collaboration, giving Musk the perfect opportunity for growth. (5/16)

How to Join the Space Force (Source: Newsweek)
There are various ways to apply for a position with the Space Force. The most direct path right now is to transfer from the Air Force. Others would be limited transfers from the Army and Navy, and then there's an online application like this. As of now, applications flow through the Air Force website and recruiting offices. (5/16)

A FONSI For Florida's Third Spaceport (Source: FAA)
The FAA is announcing the availability of the Final Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact for the Titusville-Cocoa Airport Authority (TCAA) Launch Site Operator License (Final EA and FONSI). The FAA has prepared the EA to evaluate the potential environmental impacts of the FAA issuing a Launch Site Operator License to TCAA for the operation of a commercial space launch site at the Space Coast Regional Airport (TIX) in Titusville, FL. TCAA proposes to offer the launch site for launches of horizontal reusable launch vehicles and construct facilities related to launches. Click here. (5/11)

Bidding Opens to Host Space Command HQ (Source: Space News)
An open bidding process is now underway to select the permanent location of U.S. Space Command headquarters. The new process allows any state with large military bases to compete to host U.S. Space Command. Bids are due June 30. The Air Force said it expects to select a location in early 2021 but it will take up to six years to build new facilities. During that time U.S. Space Command will remain at its provisional headquarters in Colorado Springs.

The Air Force last summer had narrowed the list of possible locations down to Alabama’s Redstone Arsenal, California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base and Colorado’s Peterson Air Force Base, Buckley Air Force Base, Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station, and Schriever Air Force Base. In a letter addressed to the nation’s governors, John Henderson, assistant secretary of the Air Force for installations, environment and energy, said the Air Force is starting the search over and “allowing eligible communities to self-nominate to serve as the host for this critical mission.”

Communities must meet certain criteria to be eligible. They must be locations that have a population base that is within the top 150 largest U.S. metropolitan areas located within 25 miles of a military base. They must have a “livability index” score of 50 points out of 100 or higher as determined by the American Association of Retired Persons Public Policy Institute. The Air Force will review the bids and the top scoring candidates will receive a site visit. SECAF Barbara Barrett said the process to select a permanent headquarters give state and local leaders a fresh opportunity to make their pitches. That announcement came amid growing lobbying campaigns by politicians from Colorado, Florida, Alabama and other states. (5/15)

Weather Delays Back-to-Back Launches (Source: SPACErePORT)
Bad weather in Central Florida has delayed the planned Saturday launch of a ULA Atlas 5 rocket, carrying a military spaceplane, to Sunday. This delay has in-turn pushed back the planned Sunday launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, carrying a batch of Starlink satellites. The two-launch shift maintains the Eastern Range's plan to accomplish two launches within a 24 hour period, with the added challenge of rescheduling the two launches on very short notice. (5/16)

Spaceport America Gets New PR Chief (Source: Las Cruces Business)
Alice Carruth has been in New Mexico for six years, having arrived with her husband who came here to work at White Sands Missile Range. She has adopted southern New Mexico as her home and says it is a fabulous place to raise her children. But even more than that, it is the place to be when talking about space. And talking is what she will be doing as the new public relations coordinator for the New Mexico Spaceport Authority.

Carruth, one of the primary organizers of the Las Cruces Space Festival since its inception, calls it a “fortunate accident” that, when she came to Las Cruces. “I have followed all things space for years and have been a fan,” she said. “Then I discovered this whole history in New Mexico.” No stranger to the communications business, Carruth was a London television producer and brand manager at ITV, an independent British network group. She also worked for Al Jazira English in the middle east for nearly six years as a newsroom producer. (5/15)

Israel Space Agency Proposal Among NASA Finalists in Search for Alien Life (Source: Jerusalem Post)
In the search for life beyond Earth, Israel Space Agency (ISA) is among four finalists chosen by NASA to develop concept studies in NASA's Discovery Program for new missions. The ISA's proposal is to launch an investigative mission to Neptune's largest moon, Triton. Each of the four finalists, who were selected out of a group of 22, is set to receive $3 million in the coming year to develop their plans before two are selected for missions. (5/15)

India Space Facilities Open to Private Sector (Source: NDTV)
Start-ups and private firms will get to use facilities and assets of the Indian Space Research Organization or IRSO to improve their capacities, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said today as she announced reforms for eight sectors amid the coronavirus pandemic. "Future projects for planetary exploration and outer space travel will be open for private sector," the Finance Minister said on her fourth press briefing of policy decisions after Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this week announced a Rs 20 lakh crore stimulus. (5/16)

NASA Unveils New Rules to Guide Behavior in Space and on the Lunar Surface (Source: Washington Post)
NASA on Friday unveiled a legal framework that would govern the behavior of countries and companies in space and on the moon, including the creation of “safety zones” around sites where mining and exploration would take place on the lunar surface. The United States has long held that nations and companies should be allowed to extract and use resources on the moon. The new legal framework, known as the Artemis Accords, comes as the U.S. space agency works to return people to the lunar surface by 2024.

NASA would make signing the accords a requirement for allied countries to participate in its lunar exploration program. The proposal, some aspects of which were first reported by Reuters, would “in no way change the 1967 Outer Space Treaty,” which prohibits nations from laying claim to the moon and other celestial bodies, said NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine. Click here. (5/15)

Musk’s SpaceX Is Denied Job Funding Sought From California Panel (Source: Bloomberg)
A California employment panel rejected a funding request from Elon Musk’s SpaceX after its billionaire founder defied a San Francisco Bay area health order and threatened to move Tesla Inc.’s headquarters out of the state. The state’s main union federation and other labor officials wrote to California’s Employee Training Panel on Thursday to voice opposition to the $655,500 that SpaceX sought to train existing workers and hire new ones. Their resistance was pivotal, since half of the eight panel members are labor leaders. Five voted no during Friday’s virtual meeting.

Musk “has a proven track record of enriching himself and his companies instead of being a good corporate partner,” Art Pulaski, the head of the California Labor Federation, and three other labor leaders wrote to the panel Thursday. Representatives for SpaceX didn’t respond to requests for comment. SpaceX reportedly raised money earlier this year at a roughly $36 billion valuation, so the state funding isn’t pivotal to the closely held company’s future. But the denial is an early indication of blowback following a week in which Tesla sued a California county for resisting the carmaker’s efforts to reopen its only U.S. auto plant. (5/15)

Xona Space Systems Wins Seed Funding for PNT Satellite Service (Source: Space News Feed)
Xona Space Systems, a California-based startup creating a secure and precise Position, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) satellite service, has raised a $1M pre-seed round led by 1517, with participation from Seraphim Capital, Trucks Venture Capital, and Stellar Solutions.​ Xona Space Systems is developing the secure and precise PNT service that will enable modern intelligent systems to operate safely at scale. The Pulsar service by Xona Space Systems offers ten times better accuracy than standard GNSS through its patent pending powerful and encrypted signal with rapid convergence times.​ (5/15)

Landowner Urged to Drop Campaign Against Scotland Spaceport (Source: The Times)
Campaigners are urging Scotland’s biggest landowner to withdraw his objection to a spaceport being planned in the Highlands. Anders Holch Povlsen, the Danish billionaire who owns land in the area, has described the project as “deeply damaging” through his company Wildland. The £17.3 million project at Melness, Sutherland, would deliver Britain’s first vertical launch spaceport.

The proposal has already prompted 570 comments to Highland council. Scott Coghill, a local painter and decorator, has submitted a petition that asks Wildland to “step back from acting against our local project”. The Space Port United Residents group, started by Mr Coghill, said that the overwhelming majority of residents supported the scheme and that the anti-spaceport group Protect The Mhoine lacks local support. (5/15)

Republicans Attack Astronaut's Bid for Arizona Seat in US Senate (Source: Arizona Republic)
Democratic Senate candidate Mark Kelly has cast himself as a successful astronaut-turned-entrepreneur who has made millions from good investments and generous speaking fees. Republicans are now hitting Kelly for a record they say also is built on a company using taxpayer-subsidized seed money and capital funding from a Chinese technology company willing to censor as needed that has stoked U.S. national-security anxieties. "China has imported two things to Arizona: coronavirus and support for Mark Kelly," said a spokesman for a political-action committee with close ties to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY.

"Mark is a U.S. Navy combat veteran who served in the Pacific and has been clear that China is an adversary and threat to American interests," said Kelly's campaign spokesperson. "Mark’s experience as a pilot and astronaut enabled him to help found World View in Tucson, which has worked with the Department of Defense and NASA among others while creating jobs and generating millions of dollars in economic impact for Arizona."

Lauren Passalaqua, a spokeswoman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, struck a similar theme of Kelly having a clear view of China. "Mark Kelly is a combat veteran who flew fighter jets in the Pacific and knows the Chinese government is an adversary, which is what he told the Arizona Republic last year — months before unelected Sen. McSally got her orders from Washington to 'attack China,'" Passalaqua said, alluding to a memo among Republicans to focus their rhetoric on China rather than defending President Donald Trump. (5/14)

Morgan Stanley Says Virgin Galactic Should Raise Capital in Case Space Tourism Plan is Delayed (Source: CNBC)
Morgan Stanley suggested that space tourism venture Virgin Galactic should raise new capital, in case the company’s plan for beginning regular flights is delayed. “Investors may want SPCE to expand available liquidity as a matter of sound operational and risk management,” Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas said in a note to investors on Thursday. (5/14)

In the Eye of the Storm: Greg Wyler Breaks Cover to Talk OneWeb (Source: Via Satellite)
Greg Wyler had this to say in February: “We have spent a lot of money. It is always in need of funding... It is an expensive system to build but it is a cheap system to operate. Once the system is turned on and active, the system generates strong revenues, but there is a cost to get there. The good news is that technology has been proven out. There is no technology barrier. There is no regulatory barrier. If we didn’t have spectrum, we would not have anything. If you didn’t have satellites you would have an issue but the satellites we have are fantastic, and they will continue to get better.”

He had this to say in April, when asked if there is one thing he would change: “I think LEO satellites have a long way to go. They are still in their infancy in terms of design and technology. They are still fat, heavy, and have very limited throughput. Even though they look like they are supercharged compared to ten years ago, they are still pretty darned inefficient vehicles for communications. There is a lot of opportunity for improvement in the future, so I wouldn’t write off satellites." (5/14)

Stennis Roars Back to Life After COVID-19 Shutdown (Source: WWL.com)
“Though Stennis remains in Stage 4 of NASA’s COVID-19 Response Framework, we assessed state and local conditions and worked with agency leadership to develop a plan to safely and methodically increase critical on-site work toward the launch of the next great era of space exploration.” Returning workers were trained on general safety procedures, personal protective equipment requirements, and self-monitoring. Site personnel also installed signs and markings to indicate where employees should stand and sit during upcoming activities. (5/14)

Pentagon Keeping an Eye on Space Industry Bankruptcies But No Actions Planned Yet (Source: Space News)
The Pentagon does not plan to rescue companies in financial distress except in extreme circumstances, said Will Roper, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics. DoD would intervene it were at risk of losing access to key supplies or if a U.S. company that develops technology of great value to the military were being targeted by foreign buyers, said Roper. Otherwise, “we simply cannot do stimulus for every company that is under duress right now. Every company is being impacted by COVID-19,” he told reporters May 14. (5/14)