February 26, 2021

Virgin Galactic Further Delays SpaceShipTwo Test Flights (Source: Space News)
Virgin Galactic says it is delaying the next test flight of its SpaceShipTwo suborbital vehicle by more than two months to address technical issues, part of a revamped flight test program that will postpone flights of space tourists to 2022. In an earnings call Feb. 25 timed to the release of its fourth quarter and full year 2020 financial results, company executives blamed an aborted test flight of SpaceShipTwo Dec. 12 on electromagnetic interference (EMI) that caused a flight computer to reboot just as the vehicle ignited its hybrid rocket engine. The vehicle glided to a safe landing at Spaceport America in New Mexico.

Mike Moses, president of Virgin Galactic, said a new flight control computer system is the likely source of increased levels of EMI. The company took steps to shield components from that interference to avoid a similar reboot and prepared to make a powered test flight as soon as Feb. 13. But in the final days of preparations, technicians noted continued EMI issues with vehicle systems.

The May flight will be followed by two more: one with two pilots and a “full cabin” of company employees to test the passenger cabin of the vehicle, followed by one with company founder Richard Branson on board. Colglazier said the company isn’t yet announcing specific dates for those flights, but expects both to take place this summer. That will be followed by a flight for the Italian Air Force, confirming an agreement signed in October 2019. That flight will carry a set of research payloads and three Italian payload specialists, and generate revenue for the company. (2/25)

Maxar Posts Big Loss at Start of Diversification Push (Source: Space News)
Maxar says it's at only the beginning of a "multi-year" diversification strategy that calls for more national security work. The company reported a net loss of $46 million last year in a financial release this week compared to net income of $83 million in 2019, but the company said the 2019 figures included an insurance payout and sale of assets that did not recur in 2020. CEO Dan Jablonsky said the company is still in the "early innings" of efforts to win more defense and intelligence business as it seeks to diversify away from its past reliance on commercial business, including competing for the next iteration of the EnhancedView program. He added the company is continuing to investigate the payload problem on the Maxar-built SXM-7 satellite announced last month, but offered no new details on the cause of the problem. (2/26)

‘Planet Pioneers’ Lands at Orlando Science Center (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Feeling otherworldly? Then the timing of “Planet Pioneers” at Orlando Science Center is good. The traveling exhibit explores what it would take — from preparation to protection — to live on a planet that isn’t Earth. This is going to be tougher than a tribal council on TV’s “Survivor.” The displays and information aren’t specific to Mars, but with Perseverance, a car-sized rover there, it’s one small mental step to apply the presented facts to the red planet (plus, the whole place has a soft orange glow to it.) (2/25)

Russia Planning for NASA Astronaut Flight on April Soyuz Mission to ISS (Source: Space News)
There are growing signs that a NASA astronaut will fly on a Soyuz mission to the ISS in April. A Roscosmos news release about cosmonaut training for the Soyuz MS-18 mission included a patch for that flight that lists NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei as one of the crew. NASA has stated its intent to acquire a seat on that mission, but has offered few details in recent days about that effort, citing the ongoing procurement. The head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, spoke with NASA Acting Administrator Steve Jurczyk Thursday, which a Roscosmos statement said included a discussion on "the arrangement to maintain continuous presence of Russian and American crews at the ISS." (2/26)

South Korea Plans Space Investments for 2021 (Source: Space News)
The South Korean government will spend more than half a billion dollars on space projects this year. The Ministry of Science and ICT announced its 2021 budget earlier this month, including $553.1 million for satellites and launch vehicles. About half that budget will go to development of observation and multipurpose communications satellites and an integrated satellite data management system, with much of the rest spent on development of the KSLV-2 launch vehicle. The first KSLV-2 rocket, carrying a mock payload, is scheduled for launch in October. (2/26)

AT&T to Spin Out DirecTV (Source: LA Times)
AT&T will spin out its satellite TV business, DirecTV, into a stand-alone entity. AT&T said Thursday it will partner with TPG Capital to spin off DirecTV and AT&T's other pay-TV services into a separate company, called DirecTV. AT&T will take a 70% stake in the company, which will be valued at $16.25 billion. AT&T paid $49 billion to acquire DirecTV, a leading direct-to-home satellite TV company, in 2015. (2/26)
 
Space Weapons are Here to Stay (Source: Space News)
A new report says space weapons are a fact of life. The report, released Friday by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, concluded countries, particularly China and Russia, are building arsenals of weapons that can destroy or disrupt satellites in orbit. That trend can't be stopped, the report concluded, but they can be countered with technologies and tactics. The report recommended that the U.S. "prioritize and expedite its efforts to improve space defenses." (2/26)

Orbex Plans Scotland Rocket Production with Europe's Largest 3D Printer (Source: Space News)
Small launch vehicle developer Orbex has acquired an advanced 3D printer to support vehicle development. Orbex said the printer, which it claims is the largest in Europe, will allow the company to produce more than 35 rocket engines a year. The printer will operate at the company's factory in Scotland, where it is building the Prime rocket for a first flight in 2022. (2/26)

NASA Renames HQ Building to Honor 'Hidden Figure' (Source: NASA)
NASA will formally rename its headquarters building after a "Hidden Figure" today. The agency will hold a ceremony at the building this afternoon to officially name it the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building. Jackson, NASA's first Black female engineer, was one of the individuals highlighted in the book and film Hidden Figures, and received the Congressional Gold Medal posthumously in 2019. (2/26)

Space Force Chief Jay Raymond Talks Uniforms and Ranks (Source: Politico)
On the timeline for new uniforms: “We have a team working on a new service dress, which is the coat and tie. I saw one prototype. We went back to the drawing board on a few items on that, and we're hosting our first uniform board in March. I would expect we'll have a new service prototype here in the next couple of months that we'll begin wear testing.”

On "Guardians" and why there are no space admirals: “I think it's really important that [the rank structure] means something to folks inside the service and not so much Star Trek fans, although we do have a lot of Star Trek fans.” ... “In 1983, there was a contest that was done to [pick] the official motto of Air Force Space Command. The motto that was chosen was ‘guardians of the high frontier.’ We just thought that guardians was something that was tied to our history.” (2/26)

Negative Reactions to Nelson NASA Rumors (Source: Politico)
The space community was “disappointed” by unsubstantiated rumors this week that the Biden administration tapped former Sen. Bill Nelson to be NASA administrator, says Eric Stallmer. Even though White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that no decision had been made on who will lead NASA, many industry leaders still reacted poorly to the idea that the Biden administration would select a 78-year-old white man amid its push to make its Cabinet more diverse, Stallmer said.

“I think a lot of people in the space community felt that a woman would be considered for NASA administrator, myself included. Because there are some fantastic women candidates out there that I think should be highly considered,” he said. “The initial reaction to Sen. Nelson I think caught people off guard and left people wondering, what about people like Pam Melroy and Ellen Ochoa and Ellen Stofan and Laurie Leshin and others? I would really hope that they are considered in this decision.” No woman has ever led the space agency.

One space lobbyist reacted to the rumors about Nelson, a Florida Democrat who flew into orbit on the space shuttle, more bluntly: “Why wouldn’t they have the vision to lean forward? I don’t think he’s a bridge to the next generation.” (2/26)

Vulcan Centaur: Pathfinder Goes Vertical for Next Testing Phase (Source: ULA)
A pathfinder of the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan Centaur, the new all-American rocket designed to meet the needs of U.S. national security space launches, now stands assembled for major launch pad testing. At ULA's Vertical Integration Facility (VIF) on Feb. 15, the Vulcan Centaur program achieved a significant milestone when the Pathfinder Tanking Test (PTT) booster was hoisted into place aboard the Vulcan Launch Platform (VLP). PTT is a flight configuration core stage that will complete validations of the launch site and later be used on a Vulcan Centaur launch into space. (2/22)

Stoke Space Raises $9.1 Million to Create a New Breed of Reusable Upper-Stage Rockets (Source: GeekWire)
Stoke Space Technologies, founded by veterans of Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture, has attracted $9.1 million in seed investments for extending rocket reusability to new frontiers. The first goal will be to develop a new kind of reusable upper stage, Stoke co-founder and CEO Andy Lapsa said. “That’s the last domino to fall in the industry before reusability is commonplace,” Lapsa told GeekWire. “Even right now, I think space launch is in a production-limited paradigm.”

Lapsa declined to discuss the technology that Stoke is planning to use for upper-stage reusability, or lay out a development timeline. But with nine employees (plus additional job openings), the company is well beyond the drawing-board stage. Last month, Stoke signed a five-year lease on a 2.3-acre site at the Port of Moses Lake in central Washington state for an engineering and test facility. Investments from the funding round will go toward developing hardware, including an injector for Stoke’s upper-stage rocket engine. (2/25)

Relativity Space Unveils a Reusable, 3D-Printed Rocket to Compete with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 (Source: CNBC)
3D-printing rocket builder Relativity Space is working on Terran R, a fully reusable launch vehicle that would be near the capabilities of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. "Terran R" is "an obvious evolution” from the company’s Terran 1 rocket, Relativity CEO Tim Ellis said. The first Terran 1 is scheduled to launch later this year.

Terran R is the first of several new initiatives that Ellis expects Relativity to unveil in the year ahead, with the company having raised more than $680 million since its founding five years ago. Just like Terran 1, Relativity will build Terran R with more than 90% of the parts through additive manufacturing – using the world’s largest 3D printers. Relativity, valued at $2.3 billion, ranks as one of the most valuable private space companies in the world. (2/25)

Company Plans to Start Building Private Voyager Space Station with Artificial Gravity in 2025 (Source: Space.com)
Orbital Assembly Corporation (OAC) recently unveiled new details about its ambitious Voyager Station, which is projected to be the first commercial space station operating with artificial gravity. OAC, a manufacturing firm centered on the colonization of space, discussed Voyager Station during a video press junket late last month. The Jan. 29 "First Assembly" virtual event served as an update for interested investors, marketing partners and enthusiastic vacationers.

Its team of skilled NASA veterans, pilots, engineers and architects intends to assemble a "space hotel" in low Earth orbit that rotates fast enough to generate artificial gravity for vacationers, scientists, astronauts educators and anyone else who wants to experience off-Earth living. As a multi-phase endeavor requiring funds to realize the dream, OAC is now officially open for private investors to purchase a stake in the company at $0.25 per share, until April 1, 2021.

Voyager will house 24 integrated habitation modules, each of which will be 65 feet long and 40 feet wide (20 by 12 meters). At near-lunar gravity, the rotating resort will have functional toilets, showers, and allow jogging and jumping in fun and novel ways. But before the station can start spinning, its builders must establish the necessary orbital infrastructure and create smaller structures to test the concept. (2/25)

Futuristic Space Technology Concepts Selected by NASA for Initial Study (Source: NASA)
Early-stage research into futuristic space ideas – a lunar levitation track system, light bending lunar power system, method for making soil from asteroid material, and more – could help revolutionize NASA’s technology toolbox and pioneer new kinds of missions. More than a dozen researchers from within the agency, industry, and academia will receive grants from the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program to study their concepts' feasibility. Click here. (2/25)

Pilot Reports UFO, Says Missile-Like Object Flew Over Plane During Flight to Phoenix (Source: USA Today)
A pilot at American Airlines radioed that an unidentified object flew over their passenger jet during a flight in the area of New Mexico from Cincinnati to Phoenix on Sunday. At approximately 1:19p.m.CST, the pilot of American Airlines Flight 2292 reported, "Do you have any targets up here? We just had something go right over the top of us," according to a radio transmission recorded by a blogger, Steve Douglass, and uploaded on Douglass' blog, Deep Black Horizon.

At that time, the aircraft was over the northeast corner of New Mexico, according to Douglass. "I hate to say this — looked like a long cylindrical object that almost looked like a cruise missile type of thing moving really fast. It went right over the top of us," the pilot said in the radio transmission. (2/25)

Scientists Discover Massive 'Pipeline' in the Cosmic Web Connecting the Universe (Source: Motherboard)
If you peer into the deep reaches of time and space to glimpse the universe when it was just a few billion years old, you’ll see an ancient era populated by many massive galaxies. Simulations suggest these galactic behemoths must have been fed by cold gas in dark matter filaments—structures that make up the cosmic web that connects galaxies in the universe—but the nature of these gas infusions has remained murky in the absence of direct observations.

Now, scientists led by Hai Fu, an associate professor of astronomy at the University of Iowa, have spotted what they describe as a “pipeline” gas filament feeding an enormous galaxy that formed when the universe was 2.5 billion years old, about one fifth of its current age. The discovery, which was years in the making, confirms long-standing models that suggest star-forming material is delivered to huge galaxies via these cosmic filaments.

Fu and his colleagues were able to identify the chemical signatures of the gas stream in the galaxy they studied, thanks to the very rare and fortuitous alignment of giant luminous bodies around it. The galaxy, which is known as SMM J0913, is part of a larger cosmic neighborhood that contains two radiant quasars, which are special galactic cores that are among the most brightest phenomena in the universe. (2/25)

NASA Delays 2nd Planned Hot Fire Test for Artemis I Core Stage (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
NASA’s plans to send the most powerful rocket ever to the moon is still waiting for its largest piece to make it to Kennedy Space Center. That won’t happen though until officials sign off on the 212-foot-tall core stage that awaits another test fire of its four engines to simulate an actual launch. NASA attempted the hot fire test on Jan. 16 at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, but shut the test down after just over a minute into a planned eight-minute burn.

By the end of January, mission managers announced a second hot fire test would take place, originally planned for Feb. 25, but that is now delayed because of a valve issue on one of the RS-25 engines that together provide 1.6 million pounds of thrust to the Space Launch System to be used on the Artemis missions to the moon.

NASA managers were checking out the core stage systems this past weekend when one of the eight valves that supply liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen to the RS-25 engines did not work as expected. All eight valves worked fine during the January test, although one of the engines exceeded some preset parameters while gimbaling, which means adjusting its angle slightly, and the computer system in place shut the test down. (2/24)

UCF Joins Project to Develop Composites for Spacecraft, NASA Missions (Source: Space Daily)
Sometimes big things come in small packages, and the new thin but strong materials the University of Central Florida is helping NASA develop are no exception. These materials, known as thin-ply composites, are as thin as carpenter's measuring tape but strong enough to support satellite payloads, such as solar sails for solar-powered space travel, or serve as supports for large spacecraft. And like measuring tape, thin-ply composite structures can be rolled up, compacted and stored for long periods until they are needed to be deployed.

The thin composites are made from woven fibers of materials such as carbon, graphene and polymers, and their strength comes from slight curves along their edges that allow them to support weight rather than bending backward. The work is funded through a recently announced NASA Small Business Technology Transfer program in which Purdue University-affiliated software company AnalySwift is the lead and UCF is the primary research institution. (2/24)

Blue Origin Invests Billions at Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Blue Origin)
According to a February 25 news release about their status with the development of New Glenn launch capabilities, Blue Origin pointed to the creation of more than 600 jobs in the region, and to their massive investments in launch pad infrastructure and manufacturing/processing facilities. "Blue Origin has invested more than $2.5 billion in facilities and infrastructure at all sites, including $1 billion invested in the rebuild of historic LC-36, which is nearing completion." (2/25)

Suspected Breach Plugged in Russian ISS Module as Air Leak Hunt Continues (Source: Sputnik)
Cosmonauts have patched up several areas suspected of hiding a breach in the Russian segment of the International Space Station as they continue their frantic search for a mystery air leak. Dmitry Belkin, a senior press officer at the Russian state space agency Roscosmos, said the crew identified several potential sources of the leak in the Zvezda service module on Tuesday.

The ISS began leaking air in September 2019. The Russian crew sealed a 1.8 inch jagged tear in the Zvezda module in October 2020, but expedition commander Vladimir Solovyov said in January that the orbital outpost was still leaking tiny amounts of air. Cosmonaut Sergei Ryzhikov tried to identify the hole on Wednesday by covering an area near the thermal control system with a film but abandoned the attempt because of the presence of sealant. He said he was looking for the elusive hole with a microscope. (2/25)