May 28, 2020

Trump Politicizes Space With Claims Against Predecessor (Source: Quartz)
President Donald Trump’s campaign used the occasion of his visit to the Cape Canaveral Spaceport to attack his predecessor, Barack Obama, and current electoral rival, former vice president Joe Biden, accusing them of neglecting NASA, while taking credit for the upcoming launch. It’s pretty rich, and false. Let’s not forget that president George W. Bush made the decision to retire the Space Shuttle and begin working with private companies to build new spacecraft.

Under Obama, those partnerships were expanded to include crewed flights. The progress thus far under Trump was built on a path set long ago. There is plenty of debate to be had on space policy between this president and the past one—Obama attempted to cancel a return to the moon, while Trump, notably, has rushed forward a lunar mission to occur before the end of his potential second term, and also created a new military service focused on space. The first has nothing to do with bringing crewed flight back to the US, and the latter has nothing to do with NASA.

NASA has always been a political tool, for the US and for the lawmakers whose districts are the recipients of its investment, and presidents routinely snipe at each other obliquely over big changes in NASA’s mission. But it’s novel to see one president criticizing his predecessor for the same decisions he’s also taking credit for. (5/28)

Weather Delays First Crew Launch Test (Source: Space News)
Weather forced NASA and SpaceX to scrub Wednesday's commercial crew launch, delaying it until at least Saturday. Launch controllers halted the countdown for the Demo-2 mission about 17 minutes before the scheduled 4:33 p.m. Eastern liftoff when they concluded that weather conditions would not improve in time. There had been no technical issues with either the Falcon 9 rocket or Crew Dragon spacecraft during the countdown. President Trump and Vice President Pence, who were both at the Kennedy Space Center for the launch, left shortly after it was scrubbed, but Trump tweeted later he would return for Saturday's attempt. (5/28)

Crowds Pack Viewing Areas for Historic Launch, Ignoring Pandemic Warnings (Source: Florida Today)
Despite requests by NASA for the public to watch the launch from home, crowds did show up to try to view Wednesday's launch. People packed causeways and other prime viewing sites to watch the launch, undeterred by inclement weather or concerns that mass gatherings could spread COVID-19. The crowds, though, were smaller than seen for past major launches from the Kennedy Space Center. In the weeks leading up to the launch, NASA recommended the public watch the launch from home to avoid spreading COVID-19, and limited the number of official guests at KSC for the launch. (5/28)

Astronauts Engaged in Crew Dragon Development to Understand and Mitigate Risk (Source: Space News)
The astronauts flying the Demo-2 mission argue that the risks can't be boiled down to a single number. The commercial crew program set a requirement that vehicles have a loss-of-crew probability of no worse than 1 in 270, which NASA officials said last week that SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft has achieved. In interviews last week, NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley said they didn't rely on that statistic alone, but instead relied on being involved in the spacecraft's development, as part of an initial cadre of commercial crew astronauts, since 2015. NASA estimates that the shuttle, by comparison, had a 1-in-90 chance of loss of crew at the end of the program. (5/28)

Lawmakers: FCC Should Not Have Approved Ligado (Source: Space News)
Lawmakers say that if the FCC sought classified briefings on potential GPS interference, they would have never approved the Ligado system. Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said this week that FCC officials told House members recently that they did not seek a classified briefing on the interference concerns. "I highly doubt they would have proceeded with their order" if they had, Inhofe argued. The FCC countered that it was not aware of any offer by the Defense Department to provide such a briefing, and that "the fact that another agency does not like the end result in this proceeding says nothing whatsoever about the process the FCC followed." (5/28)

Army Evaluation of Starlink Focuses on Reliability and Vulnerability (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Army's evaluation of SpaceX's Starlink broadband constellation will focus on its reliability and vulnerability. Gen. John Murray, commander of the U.S. Army Futures Command, said Wednesday that an agreement it recently signed with SpaceX is "exploratory" and is designed to examine both the benefits it offers as well as any risks. Murry said the Army was certainly interested in using commercial satellite broadband services, but wants to test the system "before we lock ourselves into a multibillion dollar acquisition program." (5/28)

Intelsat and SES to Support C-Band Clearing (Sources: Intelsat, SES, Space News)
Intelsat has confirmed it will participate in the FCC's "accelerated" clearing of C-band spectrum. The company, which filed for Chapter 11 earlier this month, had until Friday to declare its intent to participate in the program, which makes the company eligible for several billion dollars in payments for freeing up that spectrum for terrestrial 5G services by the end of 2023. SES, which along with Intelsat accounts for most of the C-band capacity serving the United States, also announced it would take part in the accelerated clearing program. (5/28)

Airbus to Provide Earth Science Data to NASA (Source: Space News)
NASA plans to add Airbus to a program to acquire commercial imagery for Earth science applications. The agency filed a procurement notice earlier this month stating that it planned to enter into a blanket purchase agreement with Airbus Defence and Space for optical and radar satellite data, part of its Commercial Smallsat Data Acquisition Program. NASA currently has agreements with several companies to provide commercial imagery for use by scientists. (5/28)