June 17, 2020

Space Development Agency Must Be a Constructive Disruptor (Source: Space News)
SDA must be allowed to operate outside of legacy acquisition systems until it has had time to innovate, flourish and deliver. Space development has historically been both costly and time consuming. A single large Defense Department satellite can easily require billions of dollars and well over a decade to develop and deploy. No matter how critically our way of war, and our ability to deter, depend upon our ability to provide warfighting capabilities from space, such expenditures are difficult to justify in comparison with other equally crucial national security needs.

If we are to have the Space Force we need, the Department of Defense must bring our nation’s enterprising spirit to space development and acquisition — not at the cost and on the time scales we see today, but affordably and ahead of the threat. As a clean-slate organization, SDA’s mission is not to defend existing “product lines” but to disrupt them. Unencumbered by the culture and processes of existing research, development and acquisition organizations, SDA is designed to deliver warfighting capabilities to all of the military services. In this context, it should be noted that the Army is the largest user of space, and Navy is the second largest. (6/15)

Starlink Could Disrupt The Telecommunications Industry (Source: Medium)
For Starlink to build its foundation, in space, it needs infrastructure. So, Starlink’s main backbone is its satellites. Satellites will act as the source for the wireless communication system to provide, for example, internet access, directly to us on Earth. One of their alleged partners is a high-end satellite and video communications company based in Florida, Vislink. The company provides technology that Starlink might just exactly need. This may not be the only reason SpaceX or Starlink is related to Vislink. Additionally, SpaceX appears to conduct a lot of its operations including testing in Florida, the same state where Vislink is headquartered at. These can be nothing or something, but they are strong signs of correlation between the two companies.

The main go-to advantage of why we’ll be using Starlink is the easy and fast access to the internet from wherever we are in the world. Imagine being in a beach in the Philippines and having 233 MBPS internet connection or chilling under a Palapa in Uganda, while watching your favorite Netflix show with no interruptions. How amazing will that be? Third world countries, where internet communication is found to be unstable and unreliable, will be the obvious beneficiary of Starlink. Think of the possibilities. If that happens, telecommunication companies will be at risk.

Think about it today. A huge amount of people subscribe to a phone service provider, like Verizon, mostly for internet purposes. If they have to call someone, they use Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, or Whatsapp, you know it. Regardless of whether you are a millennial or not, the future of communications will be based on this ecosystem. If people start becoming more aware of Starlink and Starlink starts getting more critical mass attention, people won’t even think of Verizon, Sprint, AT&T anymore. (6/16)

Fitted with Super-Clean Sample Tubes, NASA’s next Mars Rover Nears Launch Date (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
The Perseverance rover’s sterilized sample tubes — designed to seal Martian rock and sediment for eventual return to Earth — are installed on the spacecraft as teams at NASA KSC prepare to enclose the rover inside the payload shroud of its Atlas 5 for liftoff July 20. The addition of 39 super-clean sample tubes, each sterilized in an oven, into the underside of the robotic spacecraft marked one of the final major items to be installed on the Perseverance rover before launch next month. In early July, once the rover is mounted on top of its Atlas 5 rocket, ground crews plan to affix a nuclear battery to the spacecraft that will generate power for years of driving across the surface of Mars. (6/16)

SpaceX Pursues Plans to Build Offshore Spaceports for Starship Launches (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
SpaceX had envisioned launching Starship from offshore spaceports for both orbital trips and point-to-point travel around the globe. Now it’s hiring to get those plans going. After SpaceX posted a job opening for an offshore operations engineer, CEO Elon Musk confirmed via Twitter that “SpaceX is building floating, superheavy-class spaceports for Mars, moon & hypersonic travel around Earth.” “We need to be far enough away so as not to bother heavily populated areas. The launch & landing are not subtle. But you could get within a few miles of the spaceport in a boat,” Musk posted.

Back in 2017, SpaceX had produced video renderings of what its vision was for point-to-point travel around the planet using a new form of rocket, which evolved into the current Starship development. It featured floating launch and landing centers that could support a hopper-type vehicle to make quick transport around the Earth among major cities such as New York. Now, the company is looking for expert help in getting that dream accomplished, in at least one location off the coast of Texas. (6/17)

Kepler Space Telescope Reveals as Many as Six Billion Earth-Like Planets in Our Galaxy (Source: SciTech Daily)
There may be as many as one Earth-like planet for every five Sun-like stars in the Milky Way Galaxy, according to new estimates by University of British Columbia astronomers using data from NASA’s Kepler mission. To be considered Earth-like, a planet must be rocky, roughly Earth-sized and orbiting Sun-like (G-type) stars. It also has to orbit in the habitable zones of its star—the range of distances from a star in which a rocky planet could host liquid water, and potentially life, on its surface.

“Our Milky Way has as many as 400 billion stars, with seven percent of them being G-type. That means less than six billion stars may have Earth-like planets in our Galaxy.” Previous estimates of the frequency of Earth-like planets range from roughly 0.02 potentially habitable planets per Sun-like star, to more than one per Sun-like star. Typically, planets like Earth are more likely to be missed by a planet search than other types, as they are so small and orbit so far from their stars. That means that a planet catalog represents only a small subset of the planets that are actually in orbit around the stars searched. (6/16)

China Launches Spy Satellite (Source: Space News)
China launched an imaging satellite early Wednesday. A Long March 2D rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 3:19 a.m. Eastern and placed the Gaofen-9 (03) satellite into orbit. Gaofen-9 (03) is a sub-meter resolution optical remote sensing satellite, and follows the launch of Gaofen-9 (02) May 31. The launch also carried a fifth Automated Identification System (AIS) services satellite for private company HEAD Aerospace and Pixing-3 (A), a picosatellite technology test developed by Zhejiang University. (6/16)

DoD Still Working to Revise Space Acquisition (Source: Space News)
The Pentagon is still working to revise a congressionally mandated report that proposes changes to space acquisitions. Shawn Barnes, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for space acquisition and integration, said he was "very hopeful" a final version of the report will be delivered to Congress soon. The Defense Department provided a version of the report in May, then said that was a draft version only and is still being revised. Barnes said the report will not include any specific legislative changes sought to reform space acquisitions but instead is intended to start a deeper conversation with Congress on future reforms. (6/17)

Kratos Acquires CPI's Satellite Antenna Business (Source: Space News)
Kratos will acquire a satellite antenna company that Communications & Power Industries (CPI) is divesting as part of a merger. Kratos will acquire ASC Signal for $35 million in cash from CPI in a deal announced Tuesday and expected to close within 60 days. CPI had to sell off ASC Signal as part of an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to allow CPI to acquire General Dynamics SATCOM Technologies while preserving competition for large satellite ground station antennas for geostationary satellites in the United States. (6/17)

ISS Program Manager Retires (Source: Space News)
NASA's International Space Station program manager is retiring. NASA announced Tuesday that Kirk Shireman will retire from NASA, effective June 26. Shireman has been at NASA for 35 years, including the last five as ISS manager. Shireman is leaving to take an unspecified position in the private sector. Joel Montalbano, deputy ISS program manager, will take over as acting program manager. (6/17)

NASA to Allow Falcon-9 and Dragon Capsule Re-Use (Source: Space News)
NASA will allow SpaceX to reuse Falcon 9 boosters and Crew Dragon spacecraft on future commercial crew missions. A recent contract modification gave SpaceX approval to reuse the boosters and spacecraft starting with the second operational mission in 2021. SpaceX originally planned to use new Crew Dragon spacecraft on each mission under its NASA contract, but company officials earlier this year said they were open to reusing the spacecraft because of benefits for cost and safety. (6/17)

Northrop Grumman's SRB Segments Arrive at KSC for SLS (Source: NASA)
The solid rocket motors for the first Space Launch System mission have arrived at the Kennedy Space Center. The 10 segments, which had been in storage at a Northrop Grumman facility in Utah, were transported by train to KSC on a 10-day trip that concluded earlier this week. The motors will be assembled at KSC into the twin solid rocket boosters that will be attached to the SLS core stage and upper stage. The first SLS launch is expected to take place later next year. (6/17)

Momentus to Support Launch of Two Bulgarian Cubesats on Falcon-9 (Source: Space News)
Momentus has signed an agreement with a Bulgarian company for the launch of two cubesats. Under the agreement, Momentus will enclose Kuwait's first spacecraft, QMR-KWT, and EnduroSat's Shared Platform for Applied Research and Technology Affirmation (SPARTAN) in its Vigoride orbit transfer vehicle for launch on a Falcon 9 rideshare mission in February 2021. Momentus purchased rides on five SpaceX Falcon 9 smallsat rideshare missions in 2020 and 2021 to showcase the ability of its Vigoride vehicle to move customer satellites into their desired orbits after deployment from the rocket. (6/17)

Cubesat Built in Monaco Reveals New Partnership Approach (Source: Space News)
A cubesat launching this week will demonstrate an alternative business model for smallsat manufacturers. Orbital Systems Monaco (OSM) built the OSM-1 CICERO cubesat for GeoOptics at no charge to the company. Instead, OSM will receive a share of the revenues generated by the overall fleet of CICERO spacecraft that provide radio occultation data to government and commercial customers. OSM is eager to make similar arrangements through its Fleet Participation Program with other companies beginning to sell Earth observation data, allowing those companies to expand their satellite constellations as a faster rate. OSM-1 CICERO will launch on a Vega rocket Thursday night. (6/17)

Airbus Wins ESA Rover Contract for Mars Sample Mission (Source: BBC)
Airbus has won an ESA contract to work on a rover that is part of a Mars sample return mission. The "Advanced B2" contract with the U.K. arm of Airbus will allow the company to continue design work on a rover called Fetch. The rover would go to Mars on a 2026 lander mission and collect the samples cached by NASA's Perseverance Mars rover launching next month. Fetch will gather the sample containers and load them into a canister on the lander, which would then be launched into Mars orbit to be collected by another spacecraft and returned to Earth as part of a NASA-ESA joint Mars Sample Return mission. Airbus started work on the rover concept under a separate ESA study contract in 2018. (6/17)

China's Lunar Rover On the Move Again (Source: Space.com)
China's Yutu-2 lunar rover is moving again after a pause last month. The rover, part of the Chang'e-4 mission that landed last year on the far side of the moon, started operations on Monday as its 19th lunar day began. The rover did not move during the previous lunar day in May because of upgrades to Chinese ground stations required to support the Tianwen-1 mission launching in July. (6/17)

NASA Hints at Truss-Braced X-Plane to Test Technologies for Next Ccommercial Narrowbody (Source: Flight Global)
NASA may develop a test aircraft to evaluate several next-generation, efficiency-improving technologies that could be incorporated into the next single-aisle commercial aircraft, which manufacturers will likely bring to market in the 2030s. NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine says the agency could use such an aircraft – possibly NASA’s next “X-plane” – to evaluate truss-braced wings, small-core turbofans and advanced electric systems. (6/16)

British MoD Shortlists Four Vendor Teams for its Multibillion-Dollar Skynet Satellite Program (Source: Defense News)
Four international consortia have been shortlisted by Britain’s Ministry of Defence to enter the final stage of bidding to operate ground control facilities for its Skynet satellite communications network. Teams led by Airbus Defence & Space, Babcock Integrated Technology, BT and Serco, have been down-selected for the Skynet 6 Service Delivery Wrap program following the MoD’s Defence Digital organization release of an invitation to tender document to the remaining contenders June 12. (6/16)

UK-U.S. Space Cooperation Soars to New Heights (Source: Space News)
On June 16, after two years of negotiations, the United Kingdom and United States have signed their new “U.K.-U.S. Technology Safeguards Agreement,” which is sure to enable even more inspirational space endeavor on both sides of the Atlantic. Because of this agreement, American space companies can launch rockets from British soil for the first time. It establishes critical safeguards for American companies to operate from UK spaceports and to safely export sensitive launch technology across the pond. (6/16)

China's Wenchang Spaceport Eyes Boosting Homestay, Catering Sectors (Source: Space Daily)
Homestay and catering industries related to aerospace are expected to be developed in Wenchang township, the location of China's fourth satellite launch center in tropical Hainan province, according to a local official. "I believe the two new industries will further contribute to our economy and employment, even though we have just put forward the idea and are still studied specific measures," said Huang Liangji, deputy head of Longlou township. He said he was confident about the industries because he witnessed the township's fast developments and big changes driven by the China Wenchang Satellite Launch Center, also the country's first coastal launch center, in the past two years. (6/17)

Spaceflight Inc. Signs Multi-Launch Agreement with SpaceX for Rideshare Services (Source: Parabolic Arc)
Spaceflight Inc. has inked an agreement with SpaceX to secure rideshare capacity on multiple launches. This agreement between the two companies secures Spaceflight capacity to launch manifest payloads on several SpaceX launches through the end of 2021, providing launch schedule assurance to smallsat customers needing frequent, reliable, and cost-effective launches to Sun-synchronous orbit. (6/17)

Relativity Space May Be Printing the Future of More Than Just Rocketry (Source: SpaceQ)
Rocketry is making leaps forward now, and companies are experimenting with a variety of new launch techniques. Yet Relativity Space may well outdo them all, ushering in a rocket manufacturing revolution that may end up being about far more than simply access to space. Relativity Space’s revolution? 3D printing entire rockets. Nearly everything in their rockets, from the tip of the nose to the engine nozzles, comes out of a 3D printer. If it works, it could promise to be revolutionary.

Nobody has ever had the resources or opportunity to learn this much about additive manufacturing. “Manufacturing as software” means that creating a single part or product is as economical as a million-part run; even creating new parts only waits on Relativity’s engineers and Stargate AI’s to sort out the optimal way to produce them. Iteration becomes as fast for hardware as it is for software. While Noone didn’t get into details, this could change manufacturing in ways that go far beyond rockets.

It’s also incredibly scalable. While only one Stargate currently exists, any new Stargate will be as capable as the first. A Stargate in their Mississippi facility has the same capabilities as the one in Los Angeles; and any future Stargates in any future factories would as well. A Stargate (with accompanying small printers) in Jakarta would be as capable as the one in Los Angeles. Terran rockets, with Aeon engines, could be built and launched almost anywhere. Click here. (6/17)