July 2, 2020

Florida Governor Endorses Multiple Bids for U.S. Space Force Headquarters (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Gov. Ron DeSantis has endorsed six Florida counties, including Orange, Seminole and Brevard, and three cities that hope to land the command headquarters of the U.S. Space Force. In a letter Monday to Air Force Assistant Secretary John Henderson, DeSantis also supported other proposals by Jacksonville, Pensacola, Miami-Dade County, Pinellas County and a joint proposal from Tampa and Hillsborough County.

The deadline to apply with the governor’s endorsement was Tuesday. President Donald Trump in December signed a law that created the Space Force as a separate branch of the military. In May, Henderson outlined criteria for communities that want to be considered for the Space Force headquarters, including being located within 25 miles of a military installation, being among the top 150 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the U.S. and scoring a 50 or higher out of 100 on the American Association of Retired Persons Public Policy Institute’s Livability Index.

Final selection is expected in early 2021. Henderson wrote that each nominee will be graded on a series of issues including the local workforce, infrastructure, community support for military families and local construction costs. (7/2)

DoD Small Launcher Contracts Canceled (Source: Space News)
The Defense Department has canceled plans to award contracts to six small launch vehicle developers. The Pentagon said last month that it would award contracts for two launches each to Aevum, Astra, X-Bow, Rocket Lab, Space Vector and VOX Space, through its authorities under the Defense Production Act. However, in a procurement filing Wednesday, the Defense Department said it was withdrawing the planned contracts and "is re-evaluating its strategy on how best to proceed with this action." The selection of the six companies drew widespread criticism because it was unclear how these suppliers were selected over others. (7/2)

Advisory Committee Criticizes FCC Ligado Decision as "Grave Error" with "Very High Risk" (Source: Space News)
A government advisory committee called the FCC's approval of Ligado's 5G network a "grave error" that will harm GPS. The National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Advisory Board unanimously approved a report presented at a meeting Wednesday that concluded that Ligado's plan to operate a terrestrial network on a band adjacent to GPS is "very high risk" and one whose benefits are outweighed by potential disruptions to GPS and other navigation services. The committee, though, did not take a position on how the FCC's approval of Ligado should be reversed. (7/2)

Blue Origin Delivers First BE-4 Engine for ULA Vulcan (Source: Space News)
Blue Origin has delivered the first BE-4 engine to United Launch Alliance. The engine is the first of two "pathfinder" engines that ULA will use in testing, with the second to be delivered later this month. Blue Origin has not said when a flight-qualified engine will be delivered. ULA will use two BE-4 engines in the first stage of its Vulcan rocket, scheduled to make a first launch in 2021. Blue Origin will also use the engine in its own New Glenn rocket. (7/2)

China Preps for July Mars Launch (Source: AFP)
China will likely launch its Tianwen-1 Mars mission between July 20 and 25. That mission, which includes an orbiter, lander and rover, will launch on a Long March 5 rocket from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center. The mission will arrive at Mars next February. (7/2)

SwRI Wins NOAA Space Weather Instrument Contract (Source: Space News)
The Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has won a contract to build an instrument for a space weather mission. SwRI won a $15.6 million contract announced Wednesday to design and build the Solar Wind Plasma Sensor for NOAA's Space Weather Follow On L-1 satellite, scheduled for launch in 2024. That overall mission will ensure the continuity of key data used in space weather observations. (7/2)

Solar Sail Mission Extended (Source: Space News)
A privately funded solar sail satellite is entering an extended mission. LightSail 2 launched last June and successfully deployed a solar sail, using it to modify its orbit. The Planetary Society has started an extended mission for LightSail 2 to continue to refine solar sailing techniques and collect other data. Project leaders say the use of the sail has slowed the rate the satellite's orbit is decaying, and should allow it to remain in orbit well into 2021. (7/2)

FAA Plans New EIS for Boca Chica as Nearby Residents Complain of Starship Plans (Source: Border Report)
New environmental assessment of SpaceX plans at Texas launch site. Residents, environmentalists charge SpaceX with 'bait and switch' to community
The FAA will perform a new environmental review of SpaceX's South Texas launch site. The FAA performed the original review of the Boca Chica site when SpaceX proposed developing a launch site there for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches. The company is now using it to test its next-generation Starship vehicle, which the FAA says currently fits within the scope of that original review. However, a "full-scale Starship launch site" is outside the scope of that review, the FAA concluded, and it is now in the "early stages" of a new review. (7/2)

Swamp Watch: Former NASA CFO Returns to Trump Campaign (Source: Axios)
NASA's former chief financial officer is returning to the Trump campaign. Jeff DeWit will become chief operating officer for the campaign to reelect President Trump, a role similar to one he had during the 2016 campaign. DeWit, a former Arizona state treasurer, was confirmed by the Senate as NASA CFO in March 2018, but resigned in February. At the time, he said he was leaving NASA to return to his family in Arizona and work in the private sector. (7/2)

Embry-Riddle Highlights Spacesuit Lab Research (Source: ERAU)
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's Spacesuit Utilization of Innovative Technology (S.U.I.T.) Laboratory was founded in 2017 under the Spaceflight Operations degree program. The lab has a curriculum-based goal of providing students with hands on experience in spacesuit operation, simulated environments, and extravehicular activity (EVA) operations. Additionally the lab has a research focused goal of acting as a testbed for industry partners to receive feedback, data, and recommendations for spacesuit design with innovative solutions. Click here for the video. (7/2)

Metals in Lunar Craters Provide New Insights to its Origin (Source: Space Daily)
A popular hypothesis contends that the Moon was formed by a Mars-sized body colliding with Earth's upper crust which is poor in metals. But new research suggests the Moon's subsurface is more metal-rich than previously thought, providing new insights that could challenge our understanding of that process. A study sheds new light on the composition of the dust found at the bottom of the Moon's craters. Led by Essam Heggy, co-investigator of the Mini-RF instrument onboard NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), researchers used radar to image and characterize this fine dust.

They concluded that the Moon's subsurface may be richer in metals (i.e. Fe and Ti oxides) than scientists had believed. According to the researchers, the fine dust at the bottom of the Moon's craters is actually ejected materials forced up from below the Moon's surface during meteor impacts. When comparing the metal content at the bottom of larger and deeper craters to that of the smaller and shallower ones, the team found higher metal concentrations in the deeper craters. (7/2)

Who Cares What Joe Biden Thinks About Space Policy (Source: Quartz)
It is safe to say that “moon or Mars” is not the defining issue of the 2020 presidential election. The former vice president’s campaign declined to talk to Quartz about Biden’s space policy or share who is advising him on what to do with NASA and the nascent US Space Force. But the next president will face key decisions that will shape not just space exploration but also American technological and economic superiority, and the topic deserves scrutiny.

Biden the politician is defined by his Senate career, and most lawmakers only dig into NASA if the space agency or its contractors have facilities in their district. Biden’s home state of Delaware does not, hence his transportation interests lay more with Amtrak than SLS. There is little record of his involvement with space policy as Barack Obama’s number two, but he did play a role in wringing funding from Congress. Since taking over, president Donald Trump’s space policy has largely adopted the Obama space agenda. The key difference has been accelerating Artemis.

Editor's Note: President Trump also bigly advanced the existing concept to establish a Space Force. President Obama included a continuation of the National Space Council in his campaign's space policy agenda, but never implemented it. If he had, then Vice Presient Biden would probably have led the organization, as Vice President Pence now does. (7/2)

Ligado Would Be Banned from DoD Contracts Under House Plan (Source: C4ISRNet)
Lawmakers took another apparent jab at Ligado Networks on Wednesday as the House Armed Services Committee passed a ban on the Pentagon awarding contracts to firms that interfere with Global Positioning System signals. The panel adopted an amendment from House Strategic Forces Subcommittee Chairman Michael Turner to bar the Department of Defense from contracting with an entity that engages in commercial terrestrial operations using certain frequency ranges ― unless the defense secretary certifies the operations do not cause harmful interference to a the military’s GPS devices. (7/1)

Advanced Rockets Corporation Granted Space Vehicle System Patents (Source: Space Daily)
Advanced Rockets Corporation (ARC) report it has been granted a Space Vehicle Systems patent featuring a unique architecture for multiple applications, including space launch, national defense, and high-speed civil aviation. The patent also addresses critical factors for reducing the cost of access to space, including, high-utilization, Continuous Intact Abort Capability (CIAC), and reusability.

It also further increases the total number of patent protected systems and design details and effectively extends the protection period for ARC's vehicle systems, allowing ARC to maintain a key market advantage in launch and the hypersonic arenas. Using a common framework, the new Space Vehicle system can be used in a multitude of applications, including launch vehicles that will spend significant time within the atmosphere for efficient airbreathing purposes, hypersonic missile systems for military defense, and high-speed civil aviation. (7/2)

NASA Invests $51M in Innovative SBIR Ideas from US Small Businesses (Source: Space Daily)
NASA has selected 409 technology proposals for the first phase of funding from the agency's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program. The contracts will provide approximately $51 million to 312 small businesses in 44 states and Washington, D.C. More than 100 of the selected companies will be first-time recipients of a NASA SBIR or STTR contract. Additionally, 27% of the small businesses are from underrepresented groups, including minority and women-owned businesses.

Companies will receive up to $125,000 for each of the Phase I selections. SBIR awards are made to only a small business, while STTR awards are made to a small business in partnership with a non-profit research institution. Fifteen Florida projects from 11 companies and one university (UCF) are among the winners. Click here for the SBIR list and here for the STTR list. (7/1)

Return to Venus on Indian Space Mission (Source: Space Daily)
For the second time the Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF) will explore Venus. On board the Indian Venus mission Shukrayaan-1, IRF's satellite instrument Venusian Neutrals Analyzer (VNA) will study how the charged particles from the Sun interact with the atmosphere and exosphere of the planet. Between 2006-2014 IRF's instrument ASPERA-4 (Analyzes of Space Plasma and EneRgetic Atoms) studied Venus on board the European spacecraft Venus Express. The satellite instrument measured the plasma properties around Venus in detail, as well as neutral atoms that escape into space from the atmosphere. ASPERA-4 consisted of four different sensors to analyze energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) and plasma particles. (7/2)

ESA Selects Prime Contractors for Six New Copernicus Missions (Source: Space News)
The European Space Agency on July 1 awarded 2.5 billion euros in development contracts for six new Earth-observation missions under the Copernicus remote-sensing satellite program. According to the German space agency DLR, some 800 million euros ($901 million) of those contracts will go to companies in Germany. Funding for the six so-called High-Priority Candidate Missions was approved as part of the European Space Agency’s Space 19+ ministerial meeting in Seville, Spain. (7/1)

Storm Chasers in Outer Space (Source: Air & Space)
Anew NASA mission to study how the sun creates vast space storms might one day lead to an early-warning system for astronauts threatened by bursts of radiation that periodically flood the solar system. The $62.6 million project, the Sun Radio Interferometer Space Experiment (SunRISE), is an array of six CubeSats that operate together as one very large radio telescope. Flying within six miles of one another, the toaster-size probes will create 3D maps to pinpoint where giant jets of radiation originate on the sun and how they expand outward into space. (6/30)

The Search for Life on Mars -- and the People Who Say We've Found it Already (Source: CNET)
NASA has never discovered life on the red planet, but a cabal of fringe scientists believe they have. Staring at a flickering TV monitor inside NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Gilbert Levin waited nervously with his collaborator Patricia Straat as data from Mars trickled in. It was July 30, 1976, and Levin was receiving results from an experiment that had taken place on the surface of Mars. Inside a small chamber on the metal hull of Viking 1, a soil sample was being examined for signs of radioactivity.

The test, known as the Labeled Release experiment, was designed to take Martian soil and spray it with a soup of radioactive nutrients. If there were microbes in the soil, they would slurp up the soup and release it into the chamber as a radioactive gas theoretically proving that life existed on Mars. At around 9 p.m., the first full readout had been delivered to the lab, showing a sharp curve on the graph. It was the first sign life might exist elsewhere in the cosmos. Additional experiments were required to confirm what the LR experiment was seeing. A week later, Levin ordered a second sample to be taken and heated to 160 degrees centigrade -- killing any microbes that might be in the soil -- and then treated with the radioactive soup. This time the readout showed nothing, as expected.

"The pre-mission criteria for life detection had been satisfied," Ron says. "Dad found microbial life in the soil of Mars." In total, Viking performed nine tests, and all appeared to point to the same conclusion. But the excitement was short-lived. Another experiment on the lander failed to detect organic molecules necessary for life, leading NASA scientists to hypothesize the LR experiment had detected an unknown chemical reaction taking place in the soil. "They decided our experiment was wrong," Gilbert Levin says. Click here. (6/30)

Helvetia Offers Space Launch and In-Orbit Insurance (Source: Helvetia)
Swiss insurance company Helvetia has established a new team focused on providing insurance to the space sector. Jan Schmidt, the former head of Swiss Re’s space insurance division, will lead Helvetia’s team. Helvetia said it will concentrate on launch and in-orbit insurance, providing a maximum coverage of $25 million. Swiss Re shuttered its space insurance division last year after a string of high-profile satellite and launch failures put pressure on the insurance market. (7/1)