April 27, 2021

Bill Nelson is a Born-Again Supporter of Commercial Space at NASA (Source: The Hill)
During the Bill Nelson nomination hearings for NASA administrator, the nominee, a former senator, broke with some of his previous positions on space policy. The one thing that raised a lot of eyebrows was Nelson’s enthusiastic support for commercial space at NASA. He expressed approval of the commercial crew program that is sending astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS). He claimed in his opening statement to have always supported commercial space. He even supported the recent selection of SpaceX’s Lunar Starship as the first crewed moon lander in 50 years.

Contrary to his opening statement, Nelson was not always as enthusiastic about commercial space flight. In 2010, according to Space News, the then-senator proposed zeroing out the commercial crew program and applying the money to the heavy lift rocket that would shortly be called the Space Launch System (SLS).

Part of what must have changed Nelson’s mind is the fact that SpaceX is now providing assured American access to space. Not coincidentally, SpaceX is launching the Crew Dragon from the Kennedy Space Center in Nelson’s own state of Florida, providing lots of jobs and money. Nothing changes minds as thoroughly as success. (4/25)

Embry-Riddle’s Research Park to Support Business and Job Growth (Source: Daytona Times)
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s  Research Park, which has so far served 22 companies and generated 104 high-paying, fulltime jobs, will soon gain another 10,000 square feet of production space to advance innovation and entrepreneurship in Central Florida. Dubbed the Advanced Technology and Manufacturing Center, the new facility was designed to include 5,000 square feet of space for both emerging and established businesses in need of a larger footprint for light assembly and production operations.

WeatherFlow-Tempest, a company focused on weather observation, modeling and forecasting technology, was first in line to claim all of the leasable space. By adding the new production facility, Embry-Riddle will expand the Research Park to include five buildings and is well on its way to completing Phase I of the development. Since the Research Park’s spring 2017 inception, 22 companies have raised $41.1 million from grants and investors, Embry-Riddle reported. Research Park companies have also created 104 full-time jobs with an annual average salary of $67,000 and provided employment for 159 student interns. (4/16)

The Rise and Fall of the Commercial Proton Booster (Source: Parabolic Arc)
Russia recently marked the 25th anniversary of the entry of the Proton rocket into the international commercial marketplace. On April 8, 1996, a Proton-K booster with a DM3 upper stage launched the Astra 1F geosynchronous communications satellite built by U.S.-based Hughes for Luxembourg’s SES from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The flight would mark the first of more than 100 commercial Proton launches marketed and overseen by U.S.-based International Launch Services (ILS). The Proton became a major force in the launch market, orbiting satellites for more than 50 companies representing 25 countries. The rocket earned a substantial amount of hard currency for Russia during a period when the nation’s economy struggled after the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Yet, the venerable booster would fade during the late 2010’s amid strong competition from Elon Musk’s SpaceX, a string of embarrassing failures, a changing launch market, and a moving-slower-than-the-glaciers-are-melting effort to replace it with a new booster that burns cleaner propellants. Click here. (4/27)

OneWeb Secures $550 Million as Eutelsat Takes Significant Equity Stake in Satellite Broadband Company (Source: Parabolic Arc)
OneWeb has secured $550 million in funding from Eutelsat, bringing OneWeb’s total funding to $1.9 billion in fresh equity. This investment from one of the world’s most experienced and largest global operators is a vote of confidence in OneWeb. Eutelsat's  investment is expected to be completed in the second half of 2021, subject to regulatory approvals. (4/27)

U.S., Israel Expand Cooperation to the Space Domain (Source: Parabolic Arc)
The U.S. Space Force hosted its first Space Engagement Talks (SET) with the Israeli Air Force during separate virtual sessions April 19-20. The talks brought together two nations with a shared interest in ensuring access to and peaceful use of outer space. As one of only nine countries in the world to have indigenous launch capabilities, Israel is poised to collaborate with the U.S. on various projects. Possessing its own space program since 1981, Israel maintains close ties to the U.S. across all domains. (4/27)

Meteorite That Landed in Botswana Tracked to its Birthplace in the Asteroid Belt (Source: Live Science)
A small asteroid barreled through the sky and burned up over the Kalahari Desert of Botswana in the summer of 2018 and now, scientists suspect that the space rock originated from Vesta, the second largest asteroid in the solar system. The small asteroid, named 2018 LA, was first observed through a telescope at the University of Arizona's Catalina Sky Survey and looked like a speck of light whizzing through the stars.

Mere hours after being spotted, 2018 LA came tumbling out of the sky and burned up in the atmosphere over Botswana. Remarkably, the SkyMapper Telescope at Australian National University (ANU) captured the moments just before the rock broke through Earth's atmosphere, and CCTV camera footage caught the final moments of the meteor's explosive descent in black-and-white. "These last images before the asteroid entered Earth's atmosphere were SkyMapper's biggest contribution. They helped to pinpoint both the search area for the meteorite fragments on Earth and the meteor's origin in space." (4/26)

Stone Skipping Techniques Can Improve Reentry of Space Vehicles (Source: Space Daily)
Scientists from several universities in China reveal several key factors that influence the number of bounces a skipping stone or landing aircraft will undergo when hitting the water. The study involved theoretical modeling and a simple experimental setup using a model stone to gather data in real time. The investigators used an aluminum disk as a stand-in for the stone and designed a launching mechanism that utilized a puff of air from a compressor to control the speed at which the disk traveled toward the water.

Previous studies had already determined that spinning the stone is key in getting it to skip or bounce, so the experimental setup allowed a motor to apply a controlled spin to the disk prior to launch. "Our results show that the main effect of spinning is to stabilize the attitude during the collision by the gyro effect," said Zhao. "Our results provide a new perspective to advance future studies in aerospace and marine engineering," said Zhao. (4/26)

Reusable Plane Project Aims for Low Orbit (Source: Space Daily)
China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp, a major defense contractor, plans to produce a reusable aerospace plane and put it into commercial flight by 2030. The plane will take off from and land on a conventional runway like a jetliner and will be capable of flying in near space or even into outer space. The low-cost aircraft will have high-quality safety features and will be used to fulfill a wide range of operations such as space tourism, astronaut commuting, satellite deployment, cargo transportation and emergency rescue, the State-owned defense conglomerate said. (4/27)

Polyakov Acquires Dragonfly Aerospace (Source: Max Polyakov)
Max Polyakov has completed his acquisition of a majority stake in Dragonfly Aerospace, a South African NewSpace company with over 20 years of proven heritage in high-performance imaging satellites and payloads. This purchase cements Dragonfly Aerospace's status as a critical component of the vertically integrated space ecosystem being built by Dr. Polyakov and Noosphere Ventures that includes Firefly, the competitively-priced space launch provider, EOS Data Analytics (EOSDA), a satellite data and analytics company with its own radar and optical satellite constellations, and SETS, a space electric thruster systems firm. (4/27)

Germany's Isar Launcher Startup Wins Airbus Launch (Source: Space News)
German launch startup Isar Aerospace has signed its first customer. Airbus Defence and Space plans to launch a future Earth observation satellite on Isar's Spectrum rocket, but did not set a date for that launch. The contract includes options for additional launches. Spectrum, designed to place 700 kilograms into sun-synchronous orbits, is slated to make its first launch in 2022. (4/27)

SpaceX Strikes Deal with Port of Long Beach (For Real This Time, Mayor Says) (Source: Los Angeles Times)
SpaceX is taking over a facility at the Port of Long Beach in California once used by Sea Launch. Port officials said Monday they approved a deal to have SpaceX take over the 6.5-acre site at the port, using it to host ships for recovering the company's Falcon 9 boosters. The site had long been the home port for Sea Launch's floating launch pad and command ship, but has been vacant since Sea Launch's Russian owners moved the ships to Russia last year.

SpaceX had based its West Coast recovery operations at the Port of Los Angeles, but there had been little activity there recently given the limited number of launches from Vandenberg and company's switch to the new version of its cargo Dragon spacecraft that splashes down in the Atlantic rather than the Pacific. Under the terms of the two-year agreement, SpaceX will pay $107,000 a month to use the Long Beach site, according to a port spokesperson. SpaceX can terminate the agreement at any time with 90 days’ notice. (4/27)

NASA and NSF to Support Education in Underserved Communities (Source: NASA)
NASA and the National Science Foundation will cooperate on educational programs to support underserved communities. The agencies announced Monday that they will work together on "engagement activities" in cooperation with minority-serving institutions to support efforts to increase interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). NASA's Minority University Research and Education Project will amplify ongoing efforts by NSF in this area. (4/27)

Military Leaders Urge Declassification of Intelligence on Russia and China (Source: Politico)
America’s top spies say they are looking for ways to declassify and release more intelligence about adversaries’ bad behavior, after a group of four-star military commanders sent a rare and urgent plea asking for help in the information war against Russia and China. A host of troubling actions from those two countries — including efforts to damage America’s relationships with allies and to violate other countries’ sovereignty — mean the Intelligence Community must do more to show the world what Russia and China are doing, according to the commanders.

The letter was organized by Adm. Phil Davidson, the outgoing head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, and was also signed by Gen. Jay Raymond, who at the time was commander of U.S. Space Command but is now head of the Space Force and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. One area of intelligence that the military said needs to be made more public is satellite images. A former senior Pentagon intelligence official said the memo alludes to frustrations some combatant commanders have about their inability to share satellite photos with allies and partners about adversaries' behavior. (4/26)

Roskosmos Details Serious Challenges to Russia's Lunar Plans (Source: Russian Space Web)
The Russian lunar exploration strategy faces a moment of truth, as mounting financial and engineering obstacles brought a wider realization inside Roskosmos that landing cosmonauts on the Moon by 2030, as mandated by the Kremlin, is now impossible. It is an essential dead end in the national lunar exploration effort. (4/27)

Blue Origin Protests SpaceX Lunar Lander Contract Win (Source: Space News)
Blue Origin filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office Monday over NASA's award a single lunar lander contract to SpaceX. Blue Origin argued that NASA "moved the goalposts at the last minute" when it concluded that it had only enough funding to make a single award in the Human Landing System program, rather than the two that were widely expected.

The company said it was not given a chance, after NASA reached that conclusion, to revise its proposal and lower its cost. Blue Origin bid $5.99 billion, more than double SpaceX's winning bid of $2.9 billion. The company also complained that NASA improperly evaluated technical and managerial aspects of its proposal, and "unreasonably favored" SpaceX's Starship lander in the agency's evaluation. Only about 15% of protests were sustained by the GAO last fiscal year. (4/27)

No Finders Keepers Under Spacecraft Parts Bill That’s Landed on Florida Governor's Desk (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Recovered rocket and spacecraft parts will need to be reported and returned or criminal charges could be filed, under a bill launched toward Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday. The Senate voted 38-0 to pass a proposal (HB 221) intended to protect aerospace companies that increasingly reuse launch equipment such as SpaceX on the Space Coast of Brevard County.

In an earlier committee discussion, Senate sponsor Tom Wright, R-New Smyrna Beach, said the bill is aimed at protecting trade secrets of the aerospace industry, noting that boaters have recovered jettisoned capsule parts and attempted to sell the items on eBay. “This just helps to allow those companies that are here and others that hopefully will be moving here to feel more comfortable that we’re protecting them,” said Wright, whose district includes part of Brevard.

The bill would require people to report finding crewed or uncrewed capsules, parachutes and other landing aids and other equipment that had been attached to vehicles during launches, orbits or reentry. Failure to do so would carry a first-degree misdemeanor theft charge, with a penalty of up to one year in jail or a $1,000 fine for a new crime of misappropriation of a spaceflight asset. (4/27)

North Korea's Satellites in Orbit Not Transmitting Data (Source: Space Daily)
North Korean satellites launched into orbit are either unstable or not fully operational, and a reconnaissance satellite launched in February 2016 is not relaying data, a South Korean analyst said. Song Geun-ho, a professor at Korea Defense Language Institute at South Korea's Joint Forces Military University, said in a new report on North Korea's space program that Pyongyang's claims of victory are not necessarily true. (4/23)

ULA Delta 4 Launches Spy Satellite From California Spaceport (Source: Space News)
A Delta 4 Heavy rocket successfully launched a classified satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office Monday. The rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 4:47 p.m. Eastern, and the NRO confirmed the launch was a success several hours later. Neither United Launch Alliance nor the NRO disclosed the payload for that NROL-82 mission, thought to be a large imaging satellite. ULA has three more Delta 4 Heavy launches remaining before it retires the vehicle and replaces it with the Vulcan Centaur. (4/27)

Crew Dragon Splashdown Delayed (Source: Space News)
A Crew Dragon mission will remain in orbit a few extra days because of weather. NASA had scheduled to return the four Crew-1 astronauts to Earth Wednesday on the Crew Dragon spacecraft named Resilience, but the agency said late Monday forecasts of high winds at the splashdown location in the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida coast led it to postpone the landing. The Crew Dragon will now undock late Friday afternoon and splash down at 11:36 a.m. Eastern Saturday. (4/27)

Northrop Grumman Developing Tactical SATCOM Prototype for Space Force (Source: Space Daily)
Northrop Grumman has been selected by the Space Force to proceed with its ongoing Protected Tactical SATCOM (PTS) Rapid Prototype program, with a flight demonstration of the company's PTS payload set to occur in 2024. Selected for the initial award through the Space Enterprise Consortium, this continuation enables Northrop Grumman to proceed with the completion of the detailed design, manufacturing and testing of the payload. The company will also integrate its payload onto a host space vehicle and conduct its on-orbit demonstration. (4/23)

Orbcomm and Swarm Battle for Spectrum (Source: Space News)
Two companies offering internet of things (IoT) services using satellites are waging a regulatory battle at the FCC. Orbcomm is challenging a letter the FCC sent last month to clarify how it and Swarm would share VHF bands. Orbcomm said the letter should be rescinded and reviewed because it was procedurally and substantively defective, but Swarm argues that Orbcomm's request is "stunningly frivolous" and designed to confuse international regulators as Swarm seeks to expand its services. Orbcomm offers IoT services using a second generation of satellites, while Swarm started offering commercial services earlier this year with a constellation of 81 satellites, each the size of a hockey puck. (4/27)

With Starship, NASA is Buying the Moon, But Investing in Mars (Source: Space Review)
NASA’s selection of SpaceX’s Starship for the Human Landing System is designed to allow astronauts to return to the Moon. Casey Dreier and Jason Davis describe how it also paves the way for human missions to Mars by both organizations. Click here. (4/26)
 
A Message of Continuity From NASA’s Next Administrator (Source: Space Review)
The Senate Commerce Committee held a confirmation hearing last week for Bill Nelson, a former committee member who is the White House’s nominee for NASA Administrator. Jeff Foust reports that Nelson wasn’t exactly grilled by his former colleagues. Click here. (4/26)
 
Thanks, Dmitry! (Source: Space Review)
Russian officials have recently suggested they could pull out of the International Space Station partnership as soon as 2025, putting the station’s future in jeopardy. A.J. Mackenzie argues that such a threat might be a good thing, based on what happened when another Russian politician made similar threats seven years ago. Click here. (4/26)

Space Force Foresees Debris/Traffic Risks (Source: Space News)
The Space Force's vice chief of operations is worried that commercial space activities could, at some point, create safety issues. Gen. David Thompson said in an interview that he is not too worried about current risks from commercial spacecraft, but that could change over time if satellites and debris are not properly managed. He said he supports putting a civilian agency in charge of managing traffic and regulating unsafe activities. (4/27)
 
China Launches Asteroid Mining Tech (Source: Space News)
A Chinese launch Monday night included, as one of its payloads, a technology demonstration satellite for asteroid mining. A Long March 6 rocket launched from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center at 11:20 p.m. Eastern carrying nine satellites on a commercial rideshare mission. The largest satellites were three imaging satellites, the Qilu-1 radar satellite and Qilu-4 and Foshan-1 optical satellites. Among the secondary payloads was NEO-1, developed by Shanghai ASES Spaceflight Technology Co. Ltd. for Shenzhen-based Origin Space. The spacecraft will test near Earth asteroid observation and prototype technology verification for space resource acquisition in low Earth orbit. The mission will carry out an active debris removal test using a net. (4/27)