July 23, 2020

Pensacola Hangar Deal Moves Forward with Space Florida (Source: Pensacola News Journal)
Space Florida, the state’s aerospace economic development agency, approved development of agreements for $35 million in financing and lease arrangements with the company that will provide new training helicopters for Naval Air Station Whiting Field. The agreements will cover $20 million for construction of a 100,000-square-foot maintenance, repair and overhaul hangar, and an additional $15 million in equipment and tooling. It will be provided by Space Florida through a lease-back arrangement with AgustaWestland Philadephia Corp., according to Matt Chesnut, director of business and economic development for Space Florida.

Plans call for the facility to be in place by the middle of next year, according to Chesnut. The maintenance facility will be at Whiting Aviation Park, adjacent to NAS Whiting Field. The facility is expected to bring 50 new jobs to Santa Rosa County, each with an average annual salary of $42,000, according to Space Florida. AgustaWestland is part of Italy's Leonardo, which in January was awarded a $176.4 million contract to provide the Navy with an initial order of 32 new TH-73A training helicopters, derived from the TH-119. Whiting Field is currently using the Bell TH-57. (7/18)

The US Needs to Take Action to Deter Near-Peer Rivals in Space (Source: C4ISRNet)
Earlier this June, the Department of Defense released the unclassified summary of its 2020 Defense Space Strategy, which openly designates space as a “distinct warfighting domain,” a distinction that only recently gained national policy acceptance. With this document, the DoD now has the authorization to begin preparing to deter potential space adversaries, and should deterrence fail, to win a conflict that extends into space.

This important update to the near-decade-old National Security Space Strategy follows an April announcement by U.S. Space Command that Russia conducted a direct-ascent anti-satellite (DA-ASAT) missile test that is purportedly capable of destroying low-Earth orbit satellites. This test stands in stark contrast to Russia’s frequent claims that it has tried to prevent an arms race and avoided introducing weapons into space.

Unlike its 2011 predecessor, the 2020 Defense Space Strategy explicitly calls out Russia and China as representing the “greatest strategic threat due to their development, testing, and deployment of counterspace capabilities.” The addition of the Russian threat is a crucial distinction. In the last decade, Russia has reactivated some of its Soviet-era counter-space weapons programs. Meanwhile, China has continued to refine and develop its own counter-space capabilities. (7/22)

Russia Conducts ASAT Test (Source: CNBC)
"The Russian satellite system used to conduct this on-orbit weapons test is the same satellite system that we raised concerns about earlier this year, when Russia maneuvered near a US Government satellite," Gen. John Raymond, Commander of US Space Command and US Space Force Chief of Space Operations said. "This is further evidence of Russia's continuing efforts to develop and test space-based systems, and consistent with the Kremlin's published military doctrine to employ weapons that hold US and allied space assets at risk." (7/23)

Draft 2020 Democratic Party Platform Statement On Space (Source: NASA Watch)
"Democrats continue to support the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and are committed to continuing space exploration and discovery. We believe in continuing the spirit of discovery that has animated NASA's human space exploration, in addition to its scientific and medical research, technological innovation, and educational mission that allows us to better understand our own planet and place in the universe.

We will strengthen support for the United States' role in space through our continued presence on the International Space Station, working in partnership with the international community to continue scientific and medical innovation. We support NASA's work to return Americans to the moon and go beyond to Mars, taking the next step in exploring our solar system. Democrats additionally support strengthening NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Earth observation missions to better understand how climate change is impacting our home planet." (7/22)

China Launches Mission to Mars (Source: Space News)
China successfully launched an ambitious Mars mission overnight.  A Long March 5 rocket lifted off from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center at 12:41 a.m. Eastern carrying the Tianwen-1 spacecraft. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation confirmed a successful trans-Mars injection burn 40 minutes later. Tianwen-1 is due to arrive at Mars in February 2021, entering a highly elliptical orbit. The spacecraft will then move to a near-polar orbit with a periapsis of 265 kilometers for two to three months before attempting to land a rover on the surface in the Utopia Planitia region of Mars. The ambitious mission includes seven science payloads on the orbiter, such as a high-resolution camera comparable to HiRISE on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The rover, designed to last 90 Mars days, carries six instruments, including cameras, spectrometers and a ground-penetrating radar. (7/23)

NASA Readies Launch to Mars (Source: NASA)
NASA's Mars 2020 mission is one step closer to its launch to the red planet next week. NASA announced Wednesday that the mission has completed its flight readiness review, one of the final reviews ahead of its July 30 launch. Technicians installed the spacecraft's radioisotope thermoelectric generator nuclear power source earlier in the week and the spacecraft now is powered on. A final launch readiness review for Mars 2020 will take place Monday. (7/23)

Broken Propellant Line Doomed Virgin Orbit Launch Attempt (Source: Space News)
Virgin Orbit says the main engine on its first LauncherOne mission shut down seconds into flight because of a broken propellant line. In a webinar Wednesday, Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart said that the first flight of LauncherOne in May was going well through release of the rocket from its Boeing 747 aircraft and ignition of the NewtonThree engine in its first stage. That engine, though, shut down several seconds into powered flight when a high-pressure feed line broke, stopping the flow of liquid oxygen into the engine. Hart said the company is making changes to the engine to address the problem, and expects to make another launch attempt before the end of the year. (7/23)

Loft Orbital Selects LeoStella to Supply Satellites for Space Infrastructure-as-a-Service (Source: Space Daily)
Loft Orbital Solutions Inc. (Loft Orbital), a Space Infrastructure-as-a-Service company, has signed a contract with LeoStella, a specialized satellite constellation design and manufacturing company, to build and integrate satellite buses for several upcoming Loft Orbital missions. Under the contract, Seattle-area LeoStella will use its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility, which opened in 2019, to produce multiple satellites based on ESPA-class buses for use in Loft Orbital's upcoming missions, including its YAM-3 and YAM-5 satellites. YAM stands for "Yet Another Mission." These buses will be nearly identical in design to the LeoStella satellite bus product line it has developed for other customers. (7/23)

Global Eagle Files for Bankruptcy (Source: Space News)
Global Eagle Entertainment, which provides satellite connectivity services for aircraft, boats and remote locations, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Wednesday. The company said it's lost revenue because most of its airline and cruise line customers have sharply reduced or altogether stopped operations. The company's list of top unsecured creditors includes several major satellite operators, which sold capacity to Global Eagle. The company plans to continue operating through a restructuring that it expects to complete by the end of the year. (7/23)

Smallsat Group Bemoans Loss of DoD Launcher Funds (Source: Space News)
The head of a smallsat industry group says the Pentagon should have competed small launch vehicle awards it announced in June and later withdrew. Chuck Beames, executive chairman of York Space Systems and chairman of the industry group SmallSat Alliance, said Wednesday that many launch companies thought it was unfair of the Pentagon to announce the awards without holding a formal competition. The Defense Department withdrew the awards early this month, with officials later saying that the $116 million set aside for them needed to be reallocated to other priorities. Beames said he has no direct insight into what prompted DoD to withdraw the contracts but suspects it had to do with the inability to explain how the six companies were selected without an open competition. (7/23)

Space Force Adopts Logo and Motto (Source: Space News)
The Space Force announced its official logo and motto Wednesday. The Space Force motto, "Semper Supra," means "always above." It represents the service's role in establishing, maintaining and preserving U.S. freedom of operations in the ultimate high ground, a Space Force spokesman said. The logo is based on the delta wing design that has been used by Air Force space organizations dating back to 1961 and is similar to that used on the Space Force flag and seal, although some argue it looks very similar to Star Trek's Starfleet logo. (7/23)

Astronomers View Multiplanet System Around Sunlike Star (Source: Space.com)
Astronomers have taken the first images of a multiplanet solar system around a sunlike star. The European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope took the image of TYC 8998-760-1, a younger version of our sun, as well as two giant planets orbiting it. The observations used a coronagraph to block the light from the star, allowing astronomers to see the planets that would otherwise have been lost in the star's glare. Only two other multiplanet systems outside of our solar system had been observed before, neither of which was orbiting a sunlike star. (7/23)

UK Parliament Will Investigate OneWeb Decision (Source: BBC)
Members of Britain's Parliament say they will investigate the government's decision to invest in OneWeb despite warnings from a top official. Darren Jones, chairman of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee in the House of Commons, said an inquiry was warranted after finding that Sam Beckett, the highest ranking civil servant in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, raised objections to the $500 million investment in OneWeb. Beckett said that there were "significant downside risks" to the investment and that "the central case is marginal." Business Secretary Alok Sharma overrode those objections and approved the deal. (7/23)

LeoLabs to Construct Fourth Radar in Costa Rica (Source: Space News)
LeoLabs will build its next space tracking radar in Costa Rica. The radar, set to begin operations early next year, will join three others in Alaska, Texas and New Zealand. The Costa Rica site, LeoLabs said, will help fill gaps in the company's current coverage of low Earth orbits. LeoLabs is working with Ad Astra Rocket Co., a company founded by former astronaut Franklin Chang Diaz that has a facility in the country. (7/23)

Autry Nominated to NASA CFO Post (Source: Space News)
The White House has nominated Greg Autry to be the next chief financial officer of NASA. Autry, an assistant professor of clinical entrepreneurship at USC, is a commercial space advocate and a former vice president of the National Space Society. He was part of the NASA transition team after the 2016 election, and briefly served as White House liaison at NASA in 2017. NASA's previous CFO, Jeff DeWit, resigned in February and recently became chief operating officer of President Trump's reelection campaign. (7/23)

US, UK Launch Military-Space Competition for Startups (Source: Defense News)
The U.K. and U.S. governments have turned to startups and inventors in a competition to adapt commercial technology solutions to answer pressing challenges in the military space sector. The two countries have jointly put up £1 million, or $1.3 million, to tap into potential new ideas in six technology areas from small companies, innovators and others around the world.

The finalists will face a beauty parade in front of senior British, American and NATO military officials at a space conference scheduled to take place in London in November. Up to 15 proposals will be selected to go forward with further work on what is being called International Space Pitch Day. (7/22)

UK and Swiss Space Startups Lead Capital Race in Europe (Source: Space News)
Space startups in the United Kingdom and Switzerland led their European counterparts in raising private capital last year. A study by the European Space Policy Institute found that European space startups raised 188 million euros ($218 million) in 2019, down 15% from 2018. Startups in the U.K. raised 60 million euros, while those in Switzerland raised 40 million euros. The study's authors conclude that British startups are doing better at fundraising because of a long-standing policy framework in the country that supports space startups. (7/23)

Aerospace Corp. to Open New Facility in Colorado for Classified Military Space Programs (Source: Space News)
The Aerospace Corporation announced plans to build a research and development facility in Colorado Springs. Aerospace said it will spend nearly $100 million on the 90,000-square-foot building, set to open in early 2022. The building will be adjacent to an existing Aerospace Corp. facility in the city. Aerospace plans to hire about 200 engineers and technical experts for the new facility to serve what it calls the "growing requirements" of organizations such as US Space Command and the Space Force. Editor's Note: Looks like an investment that will soldify Colorado's bid to host US Space Command HQ. (7/23)

Cubesat Maneuvers to Avoid Potential Collision (Source: Space News)
A cubesat used an electric thruster to avoid a potential collision. The University of Wurzburg Experimental-4 (UWE-4) cubesat lowered its altitude earlier this month using a NanoFEEP electric thruster from Morpheus Space. The maneuver, while previously planned, took place when the company received a notice of a potential conjunction with a retired Iridium satellite. UWE-4 launched in late 2018 to test technologies like electric thrusters needed for formation flights of cubesats. (7/23)