July 16, 2020

SpaceX’s Grand Ambitions for Space are Hitting a Key Stumbling Block (Source: Inverse)
Reusing rockets is not as easy as it may seem, as SpaceX's recent delays indicate. But while SpaceX wants to reuse rockets more often than ever, it also wants to ensure it maintains its reputation for dependability and safety. Flying a rocket that's not ready to fly would be unwise, even if it breaks SpaceX's records. But even if it fails to break the record just yet, it will have plenty of chances this year. SpaceXStats shows the firm is scheduled to complete more launches this year than ever before, reaching a total of 25. As it builds out the Starlink and sends more NASA astronauts into space, there will be other times to push its timings down. (7/14)

China's Tianwen-1 Mars Spacecraft: Everything We Know About the Daring Mission (Source: C/Net)
The Chinese mission will kick the difficulty up a few more notches. Tianwen-1 is a triple threat: It contains an orbiting spacecraft, a lander and a rover. "Tianwen-1 is going to orbit, land and release a rover all on the very first try, and coordinate observations with an orbiter," the mission's chief scientist wrote in a short article for the journal Nature Astronomy on July 13. "No planetary missions have ever been implemented in this way."

China hopes to provide a "global and extensive survey of the entire planet" while using the rover to examine locations on the surface with high scientific interest. The rover, which is about twice the mass of China's lunar Yutu-2 rover at around 240 kilograms (530 pounds), contains six instruments and also includes two cameras, as well as radar and three detectors which can be used to understand the soil composition and magnetic fields of Mars.

The landing site for the rover has been the subject of speculation, but the Nature article confirms it will be somewhere in Utopia Planitia, a vast plain in Mars' northern latitudes and the same place NASA's Viking 2 mission landed in the 1970s. The expected touchdown date is approximately two to three months after Tianwen-1 arrives in Mars orbit so, if all goes to plan, we can expect it sometime in April or May 2021. (7/15)

More Than 2,400 Airmen to Transfer to U.S. Space Force in September (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Space Force has selected 2,410 airmen to transfer to the new branch starting Sept. 1, officials announced July 16. These airmen were selected from more than 8,500 who applied to transfer to the Space Force. The airmen selected are all from space operations career fields. They have volunteered to leave the U.S. Air Force and will either commission or enlist, as applicable for officers or enlisted, into the Space Force.

Last month the Space Force said more than 8,500 active-duty airmen from a broad range of career fields applied to join the space branch. From the 8,500 applicants, more will be selected from career fields like intelligence, cyberspace operations, developmental engineering, acquisition, geospatial intelligence, signals intelligence and others. (7/16)

Orion Cockpit Designed with Crew in Mind for Artemis Missions (Source: NASA)
NASA’s Orion spacecraft will carry astronauts from Earth on their journeys to the Moon. To ensure crew get there safely during Artemis missions, Orion’s design team is considering every detail about living and working inside the spacecraft. Building Orion to support crew during multi-week missions requires engineers to think through countless details, from making room for exercise to blocking enough light out of the cabin for crew to sleep.

To do it, the team is capitalizing on data from current and past missions, like International Space Station expeditions and the Apollo Program, and bringing in a variety of experts from diverse backgrounds. Deep space presents greater challenges for spacecraft than low-Earth orbit and an array of expertise is needed to build the safest human exploration spacecraft.

“We’ve consulted with acoustics specialists on how loud it will actually get in the cabin from the equipment running, a bag designer on how to store items contaminated by fire, and seamstresses and sewers to create sleeping bags and window shades for when Orion crew end their day,” said Jason Hutt, lead engineer for Orion crew systems integration at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “We also worked with a special effects studio to create waves in a controlled space to test out the crew life raft.” (7/14)

Another ISS Spacewalk for Battery Replacement (Source: NASA)
Astronauts started a spacewalk this morning to continue battery replacement work at the International Space Station. Bob Behnken and Chris Cassidy started the spacewalk, scheduled to last six to seven hours, at 7:10 a.m. Eastern. They will work on the far starboard end of the station's truss, starting replacement of batteries in one of eight channels in the station's power system. This spacewalk, along with another scheduled for next week, will complete the multi-year replacement of the station's batteries. (7/16)

Virgin Galactic's New CEO is Disney's Former Theme Parks Chief. Whitesides Becomes "Chief Space Officer" (Source: Space News)
Virgin Galactic is hiring a Disney executive as its new CEO. The company announced Wednesday that Michael Colglazier will take over as CEO effective next week. Colglazier spent more than three decades at Disney, most recently as president and managing director of its theme parks division. George Whitesides, who had been CEO since 2010, will become "chief space officer" of the company and devote his attention to future business opportunities, such as point-to-point high-speed travel and orbital spaceflight applications. The leadership change comes as the company prepares to move into commercial operations of its SpaceShipTwo suborbital vehicle, with Colglazier focused on developing "an amazing customer experience" for those customers, leveraging his Disney experience. (7/16)

Airbus Reorganizes for Space in US, Supports Continued Florida OneWeb Production (Source: Space News)
Airbus is reorganizing its U.S.-based operations to build up business in space and intelligence. A new business unit, called Airbus U.S. Space & Defense, will focus on the military, intelligence and NASA markets. That unit operates under a Special Security Agreement with the U.S. government that allows it to compete for highly sensitive national security and defense contracts. Its newly appointed boards of directors and advisors are packed with former U.S. government and senior military officials. Christopher Emerson, the CEO of the new unit, said that Airbus was committed to OneWeb Satellites, its joint venture with OneWeb, and plans to continue operating that venture's Florida factory to produce spacecraft for OneWeb as well as other customers. (7/16)

SES Sues Intelsat in C-Band Dispute (Source: Space News)
Satellite operator SES is suing Intelsat for breaking up the C-Band Alliance. The suit, filed this week, seeks $1.8 billion in damages, alleging Intelsat breached an agreement where it and SES had agreed to evenly split proceeds the C-Band Alliance was poised to collect from auctioning C-band spectrum. Intelsat broke ranks earlier this year when the FCC offered incentive payments to operators for clearing C-band spectrum. SES accuses Intelsat of breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duties, and unjust enrichment. Intelsat, in a statement, said that the C-Band Alliance was formed when a private auction of C-band spectrum was being pursued rather than the public auction the FCC later adopted. (7/16)

Weather Delays Japanese Launch of UAE Mars Mission (Source: Khaleej Times)
Weather has pushed back the launch of the UAE's Hope Mars mission to next week. Project officials said early Thursday that with poor weather remaining in the forecast for the next few days, the next launch opportunity will be between July 20 and 22 (July 19 to 21 U.S. time) from the launch site in Japan. The launch window for the mission is open through Aug. 3. (7/16)

Boeing Expects SLS Green Run Static Fire in October (Source: Space News)
A Boeing official expects a static-fire test of the SLS core stage to take place in October. Speaking at a conference Wednesday, John Shannon, Boeing vice president and program manager for SLS, said work on the Green Run test campaign has not run into any issues recently, with the first three in a set of eight test objectives completed. He said a wet dress rehearsal, where the rocket is loaded with cryogenic propellants, is now scheduled for September, followed by a full-duration hot-fire test in October. That core stage was built for the first SLS mission, Artemis 1, now expected to launch late next year. (7/16)

Floyd Killing Causes Race Reckoning in Space Industry (Source: Space News)
The protests in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in May have created a moment of reckoning for the space industry. Space industry executives and others in the field say that companies need to do more to address issues of racial inequality. If the space industry wants to become more diverse, it must come to terms with how racial bias shapes the country, said one expert. "Part of my fear, in terms of being a business person in space, is that space exploration gets branded as being either behind the times or counter to the reforms taking place," warned Jeffrey Manber, CEO of NanoRacks. (7/16)

Starlink May Start Beta Testing Soon (Source: Business Insider)
The website for SpaceX's Starlink has hidden details about the company's plans for its broadband satellite internet service. Information hidden in the site's code suggests the company is preparing to start a private beta test of Starlink, providing free hardware and a service charge of as little as $1 a month during the test period. That beta test will likely be limited to people in the northern continental U.S. and southern Canada. The site also had images of the Starlink antenna, a "UFO on a stick" the company claims can be easily installed. (7/16)

Boeing Wins ISS Ops Contract Extension Through 2024 (Source: Boeing)
NASA has awarded Boeing an extension to its existing ISS operations contract. The $916 million extension, announced Wednesday, covers ISS operations through September 2024. That is the current date to which ISS operations have been authorized, although an extension through the end of the decade is likely. Boeing has been the prime contractor for the station since 1993. (7/16)

NASA’s Inspector General Report Roasts Lockheed Martin for Orion Fees (Source: Ars Technica)
NASA's inspector general on Thursday released a detailed report that investigates the time and money that the space agency has spent to develop its Orion spacecraft. This is the vehicle NASA hopes to use to fly its astronauts to and from lunar orbit as part of the Artemis Program. Since NASA awarded its first contract on Orion in August 2006, the report says NASA has spent $16.7 billion for development of Orion, or about $1.1 billion annually. NASA has paid the lion's share of those funds to Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor for development of the Orion capsule.

For this tally, the report does not include funding for Orion's large Service Module, which is being built and delivered by the European Space Agency. Most of the awards to Lockheed were conducted under a "cost-plus" contract structure, in which NASA is required to reimburse Lockheed for all allowable costs and, in addition, pay applicable award and incentive fees. Despite significant cost increases and schedule delays, Lockheed received nearly all available award fees, the report found. Those award fees struck NASA Inspector General Paul Martin as excessive.

He writes that the agency's contract with Lockheed for Orion, "In our judgement disincentivizes contractor performance by offering the contractor the opportunity to, at the end of a final award fee period, earn previously unearned award fees. We calculate that, at a minimum, NASA paid at least $27.8 million in excess award fees to Lockheed throughout development for the 'Excellent' performance ratings it received while the Orion Program was experiencing substantial cost increases and schedule delays." (7/16)

NASA’s First Lunar Habitat May Be an RV-Like Rover Built by Toyota (Source: Ars Technica)
On Friday a NASA engineer named Mark Kirasich, who is acting director of NASA's Advanced Exploration Systems, laid out NASA's plans for lunar surface activities. Assuming NASA makes the goal of landing humans on the Moon by 2024—which is theoretically possible but would require a lot of budgetary, political, and technical factors to fall the space agency's way—a "Lunar Terrain Vehicle" would follow in 2025. This would be delivered via the "Commercial Lunar Payload Services" program, in which NASA has a pool of private companies to choose from for lunar delivery services.

This rover would be a relatively simple, unpressurized vehicle similar to what astronauts had at their disposal during the final three Apollo missions to the Moon. "This is the very first of the surface elements that we’re going to build," Kirasich said. He said NASA will move to formally establish a program office for the rover at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. The next step would involve development of a pressurized rover. "This thing is the coolest element I’ve ever seen for people," Kirasich said. "It's like an RV for the Moon. We are going to try and develop this jointly with JAXA, as a Japanese contribution to our plan."

Last week NASA formalized this agreement by signing a "Joint Exploration Declaration of Intent" that includes Japanese contributions to the Lunar Gateway, in orbit and surface exploration. This potentially means that Japan's space agency, JAXA, will lead development of a critical piece of the Artemis Program architecture, a rover that doubles as a habitat for up to two people for 14 days. Kirasich did not provide a date for when this larger rover might launch. A senior lunar scientist who participated in the meeting, Notre Dame's Clive Neal, said the announcement that Japan would now lead development of a pressurized habitat on the Moon came as a surprise. "Under Constellation NASA had a sophisticated rover put together," Neal told Ars. "It's pretty sad if it’s never going to get to the Moon." (7/16)

Giant 'Wall' of Galaxies Has Been Found Stretching Across The Universe (Source: Science Alert)
The Universe isn't just a random scattering of galaxies sprinkled throughout an expanding void. The closer we look, the more we see that there are structures - some of which are incomprehensibly vast groupings and clusters of galaxies that are gravitationally bound together. Such a structure has just been discovered arcing across the southern edge of the sky, and it's a colossus, spanning an immense 1.37 billion light-years from end to end. Its discoverers have named it the South Pole Wall. Although the size is remarkable - it's one of the largest structures in space we've ever seen - we know exactly what the South Pole Wall is. It's a galaxy filament, a huge formation of galaxies that forms a border between the empty spaces of cosmic voids that together form the cosmic web. Hence, we call it a wall. (7/14)

New Horizons Spacecraft Forges Ahead (Source: CNN)
New Horizons continues to explore the outer reaches of our solar system, sharing its unique view of the stars billions of miles away from Earth. Meanwhile, it's receiving some scouting help from an Earth-based telescope. The Subaru Telescope, located on Mauna Kea in Hawaii, is operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. It's helping to search for potential target candidates for New Horizons to observe next. "We are using the Subaru Telescope because it is the best in the world for our search purposes," Stern said.

"This is due to its unique combination of telescope size -- one of the very largest anywhere, and Hyper Suprime-Cam's wide field of view -- which can discover many Kuiper Belt objects at once." Currently, Subaru is observing an area in the Sagittarius constellation, where New Horizons is located. The Subaru observation team expects to find hundreds of new Kuiper Belt Objects, with 50 that should be at the right distance from New Horizons to be observed. They may find another one that is perfectly situated for a flyby, such as Arrokoth. (7/16)

Dish and DirecTV Join Forces to Oppose SpaceX Starlink (Source: Law360)
Rival satellite programmers Dish and DirecTV have found common ground in opposing SpaceX's latest round of proposed tweaks to a constellation of broadband satellites, telling the FCC that further changes could "imperil" TV service. The two pay-T providers argued that SpaceX has strayed so far from its originally proposed project that it risks interfering with satellite programming transmissions in the 12 GHz band. (7/15)