June 16, 2020

SpaceX’s Rocket Fairing Reuse Milestone Within Reach (Source: Teslarati)
SpaceX’s next major Falcon 9 fairing reuse milestone is now within reach after the company managed to successfully recover an entire reused nosecone with both halves intact. On June 13th, a flight-proven Falcon 9 rocket lifted off on the seventh Starlink mission of 2020 and ninth launch overall, also marking SpaceX’s third reuse of a payload fairing since the first flight-proven nosecone flew in November 2019. As usual, Falcon 9’s upper stage commanded fairing deployment around three minutes after launch, leaving the house-sized shells to coast to an apogee of ~150 km (~93 mi) before falling back down to Earth.

Once safely through reentry, both halves deployed GPS-guided parafoils and flew in the direction of two recovery ships, gliding for more than half an hour. Unfortunately, although they likely got close, recovery ships GO Ms Tree and Ms Chief were unable to catch the parasailing fairings in their football field-size nets, leaving them to gently splash down in the Atlantic Ocean. Technicians were able to fish them out of the water with smaller onboard nets soon after and the ships sailed into port less than 36 hours later.

Preventing a vast majority of seawater exposure, a catch with Ms. Tree or Ms. Chief may always be preferable for fairing reuse but the fact remains that all three successful reuses up to this point have been achieved with fairing halves that landed in the ocean. That success means that SpaceX has found a way to fully prevent or mitigate any potential corrosion that might result from seawater immersion. The design upgrade that enabled one reuse might mean they could fly for the third time just a few months from now. (6/16)

Maryland Senator Seeks Restoration of Funding for NASA Projects (Source: Space News)
A Maryland senator said Monday he will work to restore funding for programs cut in NASA's fiscal year 2021 budget proposal. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) said he and other members of the state's congressional delegation will seek funding for several missions, like the PACE Earth science spacecraft and Roman Space Telescope, proposed for cancellation by the agency's budget request. Cardin said that while he supported NASA's exploration programs, funding for them needs to be balanced with those of other agency programs. Senate appropriators are scheduled to start work on their 2021 spending bills next week. (6/16)

Astra Plans Another Orbital Launch Attempt in July, at Alaska Spaceport (Source: CNBC)
Rocket builder Astra will try again for an orbital launch as early as July 20, as the venture capital-backed startup looks to crack into the business of launching small satellites. The company has raised about $100 million to date, from investors including Advance, ACME Capital, Airbus Ventures, Canaan Partners and Salesforce founder Marc Benioff. Astra CEO Chris Kemp told CNBC that that he will restart the company’s fundraising in the next month as well, which he says is “a function of the market recovering” for now. (6/16)

Space Force Considers Second Round of Personnel Transfers (Source: Space News)
The Space Force will consider a second round of personnel transfers to address any staffing shortfalls. Maj. Gen. John Shaw, commander of the Space Operations Command of the U.S. Space Force, said Monday that the Space Force did "better than expected" in the total number of Air Force personnel who applied last month to transfer to the Space Force. However, he said it's possible the service came up short in some career fields. Shaw said a provision in the Senate version of a defense authorization bill could allow the service to do a second round of applications to address any shortfalls. (6/16)

Intelsat Opens Mobile Broadband Service (Source: Space News)
Intelsat General is launching a new mobile broadband service for military and other users. The company, a subsidiary of Intelsat that focuses on U.S. government business, said the new FlexGround Communications-On-The-Move service is aimed at mobile users that currently rely on push-to-talk radios and low-bandwidth satellite communications, such as the U.S. Army. The company says the service offers higher bandwidth than competing L-band services. (6/16)

Intelsat Orders Six Satellites, From Maxar and Northrop Grumman (Source: Space News)
Intelsat announced Monday it has ordered six C-band satellites as part of its efforts to clear spectrum. The company ordered four satellites from Maxar and two from Northrop Grumman, with a seventh satellite still being competed. The satellites are for C-band services, mainly television broadcasting, that satellite operators will have to conduct with less C-band spectrum as the FCC clears spectrum to make way for more terrestrial 5G services. Intelsat, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May, obtained court approval for $1 billion of debtor-in-possession financing June 10 to ensure it could move forward with vacating the spectrum on an accelerated timeline. Intelsat is the customer of the multi-satellite order Maxar disclosed in May. (6/16)

SES Orders Four Satellites, From Boeing and Northrop Grumman (Source: Space News)
SES announced Tuesday that it has ordered four of a planned six C-band-clearing satellites from Boeing and Northrop Grumman. Boeing will use its all-electric 702SP satellite bus to build SES-20 and SES-21. Northrop Grumman will build SES-19 and SES-21 using its GeoStar-3 platform. All four satellites are slated to launch in the third quarter of 2022. SES expects to order two more C-band satellites in the coming days or weeks. (6/16)

Musk: Starship Rocket is SpaceX's Top Priority Now (Source: CNBC)
Elon Musk urged SpaceX employees to accelerate progress on its next-generation Starship rocket "dramatically and immediately," writing Saturday in a company-wide email seen by CNBC. "Please consider the top SpaceX priority (apart from anything that could reduce Dragon return risk) to be Starship," Musk wrote in the email. (6/7)

China's IoT Satellites Complete Phase-1 In-Orbit Tests (Source: Space Daily)
Two satellites for China's space-based Internet-of-Things (IoT) project have completed phase-1 tests in orbit, sources with the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation said. The satellites, Xingyun-2 01 and 02, were launched by a Kuaizhou-1A carrier rocket on May 12 from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. Engineers tested the satellite platforms, payloads, and key technologies such as inter-satellite links. The results were in line with expectations, the corporation said. Additional in-orbit tests will be continued for the completion of the Xingyun project, China's first self-developed, space-based IoT constellation. (6/16)

Swamp Watch: NOAA Acting Administrator Violated Agency Policy (Source: Washington Post)
The acting administrator of NOAA violated the agency's scientific integrity policy during "Sharpiegate" last year. An independent report Monday found that Neil Jacobs and former NOAA deputy chief of staff and communications director Julie Kay Roberts violated that policy in a statement in early September that criticized a National Weather Service office for correcting a claim by President Trump that Alabama would be hit hard by Hurricane Dorian.

The affair became known as "Sharpiegate" after the president showed a forecast map that appeared to have been modified by a marker to back the president's claims. The investigation, led by Steve Volz, NOAA's assistant administrator for satellite and information services, recommended no punishments for Jacobs or Roberts. Jacobs' nomination to be NOAA administrator cleared the Senate Commerce Committee last month but is still pending action by the full Senate. (6/16)

Raytheon Wins NOAA Contract for Satellite Instrument (Source: Space News)
Raytheon won a NOAA contract to study a new infrared sounder for future weather satellites. Raytheon will spend seven months fleshing out the details of the High-Resolution Infrared Sounder (HIRIS), an imaging grating spectrometer for low Earth orbit, under a $295,000 contract awarded last month. Raytheon is not revealing the resolution the company expects from HIRIS but says the instrument would meet NOAA's requirement for data with a resolution of two kilometers, far sharper than what current instruments provide. (6/16)

Rocket Lab Aims to Demonstrate Quick Turnaround (Source: Rocket Lab)
Rocket Lab is aiming for its fastest turnaround yet between launches as it prepares for its next mission. The company announced Monday its next Electron launch is scheduled for July 3 from New Zealand, which will be less than three weeks after its most recent launch June 13. The launch, dubbed "Pics Or It Didn't Happen," will carry seven small satellites, with the primary payload an imaging satellite from Canon. Planet will fly five SuperDove imaging satellites on the rocket, with In-Space Missions flying its Faraday-1 cubesat with a set of hosted payloads. (6/16)

Russia's Rockot Rocket Upgraded and Scheduled for 2022 Launch (Source: TASS)
An upgraded version of Russia's Rockot rocket is scheduled to make its first flight in 2022. The Rockot-M, a modified ICBM, will use a new control system developed in Russia, replacing the control system in the original Rockot that was built in Ukraine. The last launch of the earlier version of Rockot was in December 2019. (6/16)

SpaceX Requests Incentive Funds to Upgrade Texas Rocket Test Site (Source: Waco Tribune-Herald)
SpaceX is seeking financial support from local and country governments for upgrades to a Texas test site. SpaceX plans to spend $10 million to upgrade infrastructure at its facility outside McGregor, Texas, including equipment to suppress the noise from engine tests it conducts there. The Waco City Council and McLennan County Commissioners Court will vote Tuesday to provide $1 million each for the work, which will also include utilities and road upgrades. (6/16)

ISS to Get New Toilet (Source: Space.com)
The next big improvement project for International Space Station is a new toilet. NASA plans to send the Universal Waste Management System to the station no earlier than this fall. The new toilet will incorporate feedback from previous station crews about the toilet's performance and test technologies needed for waste management on future deep space missions. A similar version of the toilet will be used on NASA's Orion spacecraft. (6/16)

Swamp Watch: Ligado's House Critics Flag Alleged Conflict Of Interest At FCC (Sources: Law360, C4ISRnet)
Congressional critics of the FCC's move to let Ligado Networks kick off a wireless buildout using the airwaves' so-called L-band have called for the agency's inspector general to probe an alleged conflict of interest, saying a consultant for Ligado also chairs a related FCC technical panel. A bipartisan trio of House members wrote to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai seeking information on how much weight the FCC gave to a study by the consultant, Dennis Roberson, who chairs the FCC Technical Advisory Council.

The members noted that the study done by Roberson’s company “is referenced more than eighty times in the [FCC’s] approval order and was clearly a significant factor in the Commission’s decision.” In addition, the members noted, Roberson has written several public pieces supporting the FCC’s decision. In addition, Roberson has written several public pieces supporting the FCC’s decision. Congressional staffers, speaking on condition of anonymity to C4ISRNET, argued that together those actions raise questions about whether Roberson gave impartial technical advice to the FCC. (6/15)

KBR Wins NASA Human Spaceflight Operations Contract (Source: Space Daily)
KBR has been awarded a $570.3 million contract by NASA to develop and execute spaceflight operations at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. With this award, KBR has earned a sizeable footprint at Marshall providing highly technical, mission-focused, high-impact services. The cost-plus-award-fee contract has one base year followed by seven years of options and includes an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity component.

Under the Marshall Operations, Systems, Services and Integration (MOSSI) contract, KBR will perform International Space Station payload operations and support testing of the most powerful rocket ever built-the Space Launch System. The work will support spacecraft, payload, satellite and propulsion systems operations, as well as multi-program facilities, including the Huntsville Operations Support Center, and is an exciting addition to our International Space Station operations work at Johnson Space Center. (6/16)