May 8, 2021

NASA Increases Prices for ISS Private Astronaut Missions (Source: Space News)
NASA has increased the prices it will charge for future private astronaut missions to the International Space Station, saying the new prices reflect the true costs of supporting those missions. A revised price list, posted April 29, updates the prices NASA charges to private missions flying to the ISS for cargo, station resources, crew time and other services. NASA said earlier this year it would update the pricing after revising its charges for commercial and marketing activities on the station.

Under the original pricing policy released in June 2019, as part of NASA’s low Earth orbit commercialization strategy, the agency charged $11,250 per person per day for life support and toilet capabilities, and $22,500 per person per day for other crew supplies, including food and air. There were additional, smaller changes for stowage, power and data. (5/7)

Follow The Leader: When A CEO Resigns, The CFO Is Likely To Exit Within Two Years (Source: Forbes)
“When there’s a CEO change, within two years of that change, there is a CFO change more than 50% of the time,” he says. “CEO changes often lead to CFO changes within a short time period.” Just look at Virgin Galactic, where in February CFO Jon Campagna stepped down just seven months after CEO George Whitesides moved on to the role of chief space officer. (5/5)

New Technology Demonstration and Facility Installed on the Space Station to Enable Future Research (Source: Parabolic Arc)
During the early hours of Monday, February 22, Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft berthed with the International Space Station (ISS), bringing with it dozens of research and technology development payloads. This launch, which was part of Northrop Grumman’s 15th Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) mission funded by NASA, carried more than 10 payloads sponsored by the ISS U.S. National Laboratory. Now that the payloads safely arrived onboard the orbiting laboratory, the ISS crew members of Expedition 64 and 65 have been hard at work supporting many of these investigations. (5/7)

NASA Awards Space Coast-Based Eta Space Contract for Gas Stations in Space (Source: Parabolic Arc)
Eta Space signed a $25M contract on April 27 with NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate under the Technology Demonstration Missions (TDM) Program to demonstrate critical Cryogenic Fluid Management (CFM) technologies in low Earth orbit. Headquartered in Rockledge, Florida, Eta Space was the only small business awarded one of NASA’s STMD “Tipping Point” contracts for a CFM project within the TDM Program. This contract, along with a separate 2019 Tipping Point award to develop cryogenic propellant depots on the Lunar surface, solidifies Eta Space as the new space industry leader in commercial cryogenic propellant servicing.

“The ability to refuel in space is critical to meeting NASA’s goals of sustainable space exploration,” says Dr. William Notardonato, CEO of Eta Space, “but propellant depots have always had an economic ’chicken and egg’ problem. Rockets and spacecraft aren’t designed to be refueled in space since there are no propellant depots, but neither are depots being built because there are no vehicles that can currently use that capability.” Enter NASA’s Tipping Point program. NASA is developing public/private partnerships to fund critical technologies to the economic tipping point at which point the private sector can then take over.

Eta Space developed the LOXSAT mission as a small, low-cost payload to test a dozen critical cryogenic storage and transfer technologies in orbit. After launch in late 2023, the nine-month LOXSAT 1 mission will fully demonstrate the capability of in-space cryogenic storage and transfer. Anticipating successful mission results, Eta Space will use private funding to develop a truly commercial depot intended to serve multiple customers. (5/8)

FAA Adds Spaceports to Aeronautical Charts to Increase Pilot Safety and Airspace Awareness (Source: FAA)
The FAA has added space launch activity areas to the sectional aeronautical charts. Sectional charts are the primary navigational reference used by pilots operating small to medium-sized aircraft under visual flight rules (VFR). The addition of space launch activity areas to the charts follows recent growth in demand for commercial space transportation and coincides with FAA’s ongoing efforts to increase pilot safety and airspace awareness.

Symbolized by a rocket symbol on sectional charts, these areas indicate where space launch and reentry activity occurs around the nation. In some instances, a rocket symbol may represent more than one launch or reentry site due to proximity. Pilots can download sectional charts and reference the FAA Aeronautical Chart User’s Guide to learn more about recent updates and how to interpret the charts. (5/6)

SpaceX is Buying Up a Texas Village. Homeowners Cry Foul (Source: Wall Street Journal)
In autumn 2019, Celia Johnson began resisting efforts by billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX to buy two modest houses she owns near the company’s rocket-launch facility. Then she discovered that a 1,600-gallon water tank had gone missing at one of her houses, a rental property. Ms. Johnson said she and her neighbors quickly concluded SpaceX workers were the culprits. SpaceX denied responsibility but reimbursed her, she said, as it did when she accused its workers of later breaking into the vacant rental house and sleeping there.

“SpaceX bullied us from the beginning,” she said. “SpaceX employees did what they wanted.” Some 30 small ranch houses sit on a sandy spit of land near the Mexican border and Gulf of Mexico beaches, where SpaceX rockets roar into the sky and then return for a landing. Some come crashing back on land. Villagers said Mr. Musk’s company has tried multiple times to buy them out. Some took the money, and SpaceX used the homes for its workers. Holdouts, at least seven of them, said they want more from a billionaire who’s after their dream vacation homes. (5/7)

No, NASA Shouldn’t Get in Bed With China’s Space Program (Source: Heritage Foundation)
Some see the Chinese space station as an opportunity to once again call for U.S.-PRC space cooperation. In particular, there has long been a segment of NASA and the broader American space community that would dearly love to see more open cooperation with China in space. Much has been made of the Apollo-Soyuz mission, which some consider some kind of turning point in U.S.-Soviet relations, and there is the hope that a similar reset might be possible if there were a joint U.S.-Chinese space mission, perhaps involving the International Space Station and the new Chinese station.

Absent from this discussion has been the Wolf Amendment, which prohibits NASA from spending any money on bilateral cooperation with China. Despite this, it is the fond hope of this contingent at NASA and the arms control community that the United States will choose to pursue more extensive space cooperation with China, a position that the new NASA administrator, Bill Nelson, seemed to reject during his confirmation hearings.

These advocates ignore basic realities of China’s space program. Perhaps most important, China’s space program is heavily integrated with the Chinese military. Indeed, every launch facility, tracking facility, and mission control facility is a Chinese military facility. (The Tianhe module was launched from the Wenquan Satellite Launch Center on Hainan, aka Base 27 of the People’s Liberation Army.) Cooperating with the Chinese in space unavoidably means getting in bed with the Chinese military. (5/7)

There Must Be Rules for How We Use Space, Defense Leaders Say (Source: DoD)
With more nations using space for both commercial and defense purposes, there must be rules that allow everybody to operate safely — and to be able to identify what's going to be considered a threat, say defense leaders. "There are many benefits to having common guidelines for space operations," John D. Hill, who is performing the duties of the assistant secretary of defense for space policy, said. He testified yesterday before the House Armed Services Committee.

Right now, Hill said, the DOD's policies and practices for its operations in space serve as a model for space behavior. "[The] DOD models responsible behavior through our routine space operations, and [the] DOD works carefully to ensure that our space operations are consistent with international measures the United States supports, with relevant domestic and international law, including the law of armed conflict, and the inherent right of self-defense," he told lawmakers.

Further development of internationally agreed-upon rules for operations in space will benefit both the Defense Department and commercial space operations, Hill said. "From the DOD perspective, United States leadership and the development of a rules-based order for space activities reap benefits for U.S. civil, commercial, scientific and national security space operators," he said. "As space activities worldwide become more prolific and more varied, voluntary non-binding international norms, standards and guidelines of responsible behavior can benefit U.S. national security and foster a conducive environment for growing global space activities." (5/6)

NOAA Tracks and Analyzes the Changing Climate (Source: Space News)
Earlier this month, atmospheric carbon dioxide reached a daily average of 421 parts per million, 50% higher than levels measured before the industrial revolution, according to data gathered at Hawaii’s Mauna Loa Observatory. That information came from NOAA’s Earth Systems Research Laboratory which tracks atmospheric gases and other climate change drivers and their impacts.

Many different organizations within NOAA monitor climate change with data and imagery captured by ground-based, airborne, maritime and satellite sensors. NOAA officials then gauge the accuracy of the information, analyze it and compare it with historical observations to detect trends. NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information determined, for example, that in March the average temperature in the contiguous United States was 7.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.2 degrees above average for the month.

Overall, precipitation for March was 1.5 millimeters below average for 127 years of climate records. Nearly 44 percent of the contiguous United States experienced drought conditions. NOAA’s climate-monitoring role is likely to expand under the Biden administration. The White House plans to ask Congress to provide $6.9 billion for NOAA, more than $1.4 billion above the agency’s 2021 budget. (5/8)

China's FAST Starts In-Depth Pulsar Research (Source: Xinhua)
Chinese scientists have found the first evidence of three-dimensional (3D) spin-velocity alignment in a pulsar with the help of the world's largest radio telescope. Based on observations of China's Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), a research team led by the National Astronomical Observatories (NAOC) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences studied the supernova remnant (SNR) S147. The discovery, published in the latest issue of the journal Nature Astronomy, sheds light on unraveling the mystery involving the origin of pulsar spins and marks the beginning of in-depth pulsar research using FAST. (5/7)