June 10, 2020

From Space, Russian Cosmonauts Fight Chess Grandmaster to a Draw (Source: Space Daily)
Two Russian cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station played chess against an Earth-bound grandmaster on Tuesday, in a celebration of the first such game half a century ago. Equipped with an electronic chessboard, cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner played in zero gravity against 30-year-old Russian former child prodigy Sergei Karyakin. The game was broadcast live and ended in a draw after about 15 minutes. (6/9)

First Arab Mission to Mars Designed to Inspire Youth (Source: AFP)
The first Arab space mission to Mars, armed with probes to study the Red Planet's atmosphere, is designed to inspire the region's youth and pave the way for scientific breakthroughs, officials said Tuesday. The unmanned probe Al-Amal -- Hope in Arabic -- is to blast off from a Japanese space centre on July 15, with preparations now in their final stages. The project is the next giant step for the United Arab Emirates, whose colossal skyscrapers and mega-projects have put it on the world map. (6/9)

Dragon Could Stay At ISS For Months (Source: Space News)
NASA is increasingly confident the Crew Dragon spacecraft launched to the International Space Station last month will be able to stay there for at least a couple months. NASA didn't set a duration for the Demo-2 mission when it launched May 30 as it wanted to see how SpaceX's crewed vehicle operated in space. At a meeting Tuesday, Ken Bowersox, NASA's acting associate administrator for human exploration and operations, said the spacecraft is doing "very well" and that he now expected it to remain at the station until August. An extended stay would allow the Demo-2 crew of Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley support station operations, including spacewalks to replace batteries in the station's power system. (6/10)

Congressional Letter Urges Two-Launcher Limit to NSSL Contract (Source: Space News)
A letter signed by 28 members of Congress is asking the Air Force not to make any changes in a launch vehicle competition. In the May 29 letter, lawmakers from Colorado, Alabama and other states where ULA has manufacturing and launch operations asked Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett and Chief of Space Operations Gen. John Raymond not to cave to pressure to add a third provider in National Security Space Launch Phase 2 competition. Blue Origin has lobbied to have the Air Force select three companies rather than the originally planned two in the Phase 2 launch services procurement in order to promote competition. The Air Force says it still plans to make awards this summer. (6/10)

FCC: LEO Constellations May Be Eligible for Rural Broadband Subsidies (Source: Bloomberg)
The FCC now says it's willing to consider low Earth orbit constellations like SpaceX's Starlink for rural broadband subsidies. The FCC originally ruled out such systems from competing for the most lucrative tier of the FCC's $20 billion rural broadband subsidy program because they had not yet demonstrated their capabilities. However, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said Tuesday that he accommodated a request from another commissioner, Michael O'Rielly, to allow such systems to bid, but that the FCC will closely examine if such systems can really offer the capabilities they propose. O'Rielly said he sought the change to address the "harsh treatment" of satellite services in the original proposal, but that the FCC's consideration of satellite systems was still "problematic." (6/10)

York Space Systems to Build Satellites for LatConnect (Source: Space News)
York Space Systems has won a satellite manufacturing contract from an Australian startup. LatConnect 60, a company founded in 2019, plans to launch its first satellite in 2021 and to establish an initial constellation of three satellites with multiple payloads, including radio frequency detection sensors and multispectral imaging cameras. LatConnect 60 said it selected York in part because it offered to get the first satellite into orbit in "well under nine months and at an attractive price point." (6/10)

S7 Considering Sale of Sea Launch (Source: TASS)
Russia's S7 Group is considering selling Sea Launch. S7 acquired Sea Launch from Energia in a deal announced in 2016, and recently moved the venture's mobile launch platform and command ship from California to Russia's Far East. However, S7 is facing major losses from its airline business because of the pandemic and can't afford the costs to refurbish and operate the ships. Russian industry sources said a likely buyer of Sea Launch is Rosatom, Russia's state nuclear energy corporation, although it wasn't clear why it would be interested in Sea Launch's assets. (6/10)

Dmitry Rogozin Sick and Tired of Trampoline Jokes (Source: Reuters)
Rogozin, head of Roscosmos, told the Russian edition of Forbes that after the successful commercial crew launch last month, Americans lampooned Russia instead of thanking it. "When our partners finally managed to conduct a successful test on their spacecraft, there were nothing but jokes and mockery directed at us," he said. As Russian deputy prime minister in 2014, he threatened to revoke NASA's access to Soyuz spacecraft as retaliation for Western sanctions for Russia's annexation of Crimea, suggesting that the U.S. would need a trampoline to get to the station. "The trampoline is working!" SpaceX's Elon Musk said after the commercial crew launch, referencing that earlier threat. Rogozin, in a later tweet, took it in stride: "I loved his joke." (6/9)

8K Airmen Volunteer to Go To Space (Source USSF)
During the month of May, more than 8,500 active-duty Airmen within 13 eligible officer and enlisted career fields volunteered to build the ranks of the newly-created U.S. Space Force. “I am incredibly proud of the men and women who made the bold decision to volunteer to join the U.S. Space Force and defend the ultimate high ground,” said Gen. Jay Raymond, chief of space operations, U.S. Space Force. "It is a critical time for space, and those Airmen will build the Space Force necessary to compete, deter, and win as required to meet the needs of the National Defense Strategy."
 
While approximately 16,000 military and civilians from the former U.S. Air Force Space Command are now assigned to the newest service, this transfer process will officially commission or enlist military members into the Space Force. (6/9)

Make Space For Everyone (Source: Super Cluster)
Kerbal’s Developers built a space program for the rest of us back on Earth. Sure we get internet, TV, weather, and GPS maps from space, but it’s not a personal connection. Space doesn’t always feel like it’s for everyone when the price of a ticket to Earth orbit is $55 million U.S. dollars minimum, and a quick suborbital flight for a few precious seconds of weightlessness is at least a quarter of a million.

So what does “space is for everyone” actually mean? And how do we achieve it? The answer, it turns out, may lie partly in a computer game. Kerbal Space Program to be precise. The game is a grounded, real-physics simulation that doesn’t shy away from the hard parts of space travel — like building a rocket that works or the complexities of docking your capsule to a space station.

The game also gives you people, called Kerbals, your spaceships have to protect during flight — an aspect of the game made all the more real when players realize that protecting people is an element of orbital space exploration so far only entrusted to four organizations in real life: the Space program of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Soviet Union)/Roscosmos (Russia), NASA, the China National Space Administration, and SpaceX. The game is immersive, challenging… but a lot of fun to play. You naturally learn the same lessons and make the same mistakes that the world’s space agencies, like NASA, have made for the last sixty years. (6/3)

Pakistani Girl Creates Her Own Space Future (Source: MIT Technology Review)
On Saturday, people around the world were glued to their screens as SpaceX and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched the first commercial rocket to space, with two astronauts on board. Many in Pakistan were inspired by the new development in space science as well. For many, it has been a dream to witness a Pakistani rocket traveling to space with local astronauts.

For one Pakistani girl, however, it has been a lot more than just a dream. Yumna Majeed started eyeing galaxies when she was just a child. As she nursed her dream to become an astronaut and aim for the moon, quite literally, Pakistan’s educational system wasn’t kind enough to encourage her aspirations for space. Owing to her passion for space, she was mocked and bullied as a child, not only by other children but also her science teachers.

 When she was in Grade 9 of a government school, Yumna was selected to be a part of the high achievers’ classroom. On the first day, the teacher asked the students what they wanted to be when they grew up. Unsurprisingly, most responded they wanted to be doctors or engineers. When it was Yumna’s turn to answer, she proudly announced that she wanted to be an astronaut. This was followed by silence, only broken by the teacher laughing at her, as the rest of the students joined in. While discussing her journey, Yumna recounts that most students didn’t even know what an astronaut was. But that wasn’t the worst; what followed is much grimmer. (6/8)

NASA and Lockheed to Begin X-59 Supersonic Jet Tests in 2021 (Source: Flight Global)
Despite the use of advanced design tools, the team developing NASA’s X-59 Quiet Supersonic Technology (QueSST) demonstrator cannot be sure it will meet their “low-boom” goals until the jet actually breaks the sound barrier in flight. Although design features that reduce sonic booms are understood, the team faces the challenge of ensuring that the X-59 QueSST retains its unique boom-softening shape while in flight. It is also unclear how sound from the jet will move through the atmosphere. Those questions will be answered through flight testing, which the team expects will begin in autumn 2021. (6/8)

NASA Edges Closer to First Flight of All-Electric X-57 Plane (Source: Interesting Engineering)
NASA is completing tasks for the X-57's ground testing at the agency's Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California — with aims toward taxi tests and flight testing, according to a post on NASA's website. Qualification tests and assembly are in progress on two crucial components of the X-57 vehicle at NASA's primary contractor for the project: Empirical Systems Aerospace (ESAero). The new components include a future high-aspect-ratio wing that can fly on the aircraft in X-57's ultimate configuration, and the electric cruise motors — which will power the craft during flight. (6/8)