June 23, 2021

Rosie the Rocketeer Buckles In for Upcoming Starliner Launch (Source: NASA)
Rosie the Rocketeer, Boeing’s anthropometric test device, claimed her spot once again in the commander’s seat inside the company’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft for its second uncrewed Orbital Flight Test (OFT-2) for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

During OFT-1, Rosie was outfitted with 15 sensors to collect data on what astronauts will experience during flights on Starliner. For OFT-2, spacecraft data capture ports previously connected to Rosie’s 15 sensors will be used to collect data from sensors placed along the seat pallet, which is the infrastructure that holds all the crew seats in place. OFT-2 is scheduled to lift off on July 30 to spend five to 10 days attached to the ISS before returning to Earth, touching down on land in the western United States. (6/23)

NASA Chief Reminds Congress They’re the Ones Not Funding a Lunar Lander (Source: Ars Technica)
Bill Nelson said NASA expects a decision from the GAO on a lunar lander protest by Aug. 4. This would seem to set a firm timeline after which NASA can move forward with its Artemis program. Nelson's comments came in response to members of the US House Science, Space, and Technology Committee asking for specifics on Artemis. "I will have a plan to announce," Nelson said, referring to Artemis specifics and the protest timeline. Later, US Rep. Bill Foster (D-IL) asked whether this plan would include a "resource loaded" schedule and budget for the Artemis program, and Nelson responded, "Yes sir."

This would represent a significant step forward for Artemis, as resource loading is a formal process by which a schedule integrates cost, schedule, and risk. It requires communication between the agency's leadership, program managers, and cost estimators and ultimately allows for more informed decision-making. It would signal to Congress that the Artemis program has concrete plans and goals rather than existing only as a PowerPoint presentation. (6/23)

Congress Unhappy About SpaceX Lunar Lander Contract (Source: Ars Technica)
Key US Representatives have signaled that they will not follow the Senate's lead. As part of its version of the Endless Frontier Act, the House Science Committee skipped authorizing funds for a second lunar lander. A US Representative from Seattle, near where Jeff Bezos' Amazon and Blue Origin companies are based, offered a stinging rebuke, telling The Wall Street Journal, "If Jeff Bezos wants to explore space, that’s great, but I don’t think he needs federal dollars."

So it seems clear that the House will not just throw more money at NASA for a second lunar lander. At the same time, the House is fairly hostile toward SpaceX and commercial space. The chair of the House Science Committee, Dallas Democrat Eddie Bernice Johnson, said she was "disappointed" after NASA selected SpaceX as its sole provider of a lunar lander in April.

Johnson's opposition was not a huge surprise. Last year, she and then-US Representative Kendra Horn issued a joint statement expressing concerns about NASA's plans to rely on a "commercial" provider for a lunar lander. NASA wanted to issue a fixed-price contract for the lander instead of a cost-plus contract. NASA explained that it had used fixed-price contracting as part of its Commercial Crew program, and it proved to be a cheaper and faster method. The agency seemed justified in this, as SpaceX Crew Dragons now safely ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

NASA IV&V Facility in Fairmont, West Virginia, Continues Work on Artemis Project (Source: The State Journal)
With the first of NASA’s Artemis missions set to launch in only a few months, the agency’s Katherine Johnson Independent Verification and Validation Facility in Fairmont has been hard at work running software testing for the project’s critical components. The Artemis Project, which has an end goal of eventually putting humans on Mars, has been one of NASA’s primary focuses for the last couple of years, and according to Joelle Spagnuolo-Loretta, NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) IV&V project manager, the project’s first mission — Artemis I — is closer than ever to launching. (6/21)

NASA, Nelson Push for Annual Moon Landings for 'a Dozen Years' (Source: UPI)
NASA needs crewed lunar landings every year for "a dozen years," the agency's administrator, Bill Nelson, said in a House of Representatives committee hearing Wednesday. Nelson, who became administrator May 3, said Congress hasn't appropriated enough money for the nation's coming lunar aspirations. "We want to have these sustained landings over a dozen years, and that's gonna cost some more money," Nelson testified to the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. (6/23)

Mystery of Galaxy's Missing Dark Matter Deepens (Source: Space Daily)
When astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope uncovered an oddball galaxy that looked like it didn't have much dark matter, some thought the finding was hard to believe and looked for a simpler explanation. "I think people were right to question it because it's such an unusual result. It would be nice if there were a simple explanation, like a wrong distance. But I think it's more fun and more interesting if it actually is a weird galaxy."

Determining the amount of the galaxy's dark matter hinges on accurate measurements of how far away it is from Earth. If DF2 is as far from Earth as van Dokkum's team asserts, the galaxy's dark-matter content may only be a few percent. The team's conclusion is based on the motions of the stars within the galaxy; their velocities are influenced by the pull of gravity. The researchers found that the observed number of stars accounts for the galaxy's total mass, and there's not much room left for dark matter. (6/18)

Opens Reservations for 1st Space Balloon Flights From Florida (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Space Perspective, the space tourism company that plans to launch a space balloon from the Space Coast is ready to take your money. After completing a successful test flight Friday, the company has opened up reservations for the planned 2024 launches of what will be its first passenger-ready balloon, the Neptune One. The price: $125,000 per person, but prospective passengers need only deposit $1,000 for now. The total price point is half of what Virgin Galactic charged its first round of customers, who have yet to fly. (6/23)

DoD: Iran Tried and Failed to Launch into Space in June (Source: CNN)
The Defense Department confirmed that Iran suffered a launch failure earlier this month but appears to be preparing for another launch. Analysis of commercial satellite imagery showed preparations for a launch in early June at Imam Khomeini Spaceport. However, Iran never announced a launch, and there were no signs of any payloads being placed into orbit. The Pentagon said it believed Iran attempted a launch June 12, likely of a Simorgh rocket, which failed to reach orbit. More recent commercial imagery shows signs of another launch campaign underway at the spaceport. (6/23)

DoD's SDA Wants Optical Links to Transfer Commercial Imagery to DoD Satellites (Source: Space News)
The Pentagon's Space Development Agency (SDA) is looking to work with commercial operators of imaging satellites so they can send data directly to U.S. government satellites in orbit. Derek Tournear, dircetor of the SDA, said the agency is exploring the use of optical inter-satellite links where companies could send data directly from their constellations to SDA's satellites. The agency is interested in working with operators of electro-optical, radar imaging or other types of observation satellites. (6/23)

Intelligent Life Probably Exists on Distant Planets — Even If We Can’t Make Contact (Source: Washington Post)
What we’re discovering is that the cosmos is much vaster than we ever imagined. According to our best estimate, the universe is home to a hundred billion trillion stars — most of which have planets revolving around them. This newly revealed trove of orbiting exoplanets greatly improves the odds of our discovering advanced extraterrestrial life. Scientific evidence from astrobiology suggests that simple life — composed of individual cells, or small multicellular organisms — is ubiquitous in the universe. It has probably occurred multiple times in our own solar system.

But the presence of humanlike, technologically advanced life-forms is a much tougher proposition to prove. It’s all a matter of solar energy. The first simple life on Earth probably began underwater and in the absence of oxygen and light — conditions that are not that difficult to achieve. But what enabled the evolution of advanced, complex life on Earth was its adaptation to the energy of the sun’s light for photosynthesis. Photosynthesis created the abundant oxygen on which high life-forms rely.

I’m optimistic that there have been Cambrian explosions of life on other planets similar to what occurred on Earth some 541 million years ago, spawning a cornucopia of biodiversity that is preserved in the fossil record. The more expert we become in observing and calculating the outer reaches of the cosmos, and the more we understand about how many galaxies, stars and exoplanets exist, the greater the possibility of there being intelligent life on one of those planets. (6/19)

EU and ESA Sign Financial Framework (Source: Space News)
An agreement between the EU and ESA signed Tuesday marked a "fresh start" between the two organizations. The Financial Framework Partnership Agreement governs cooperation between the EU and ESA on programs like Copernicus and Galileo. Officials with both organizations said the agreement was the beginning of a new, and more cooperative, phase in their relationship after tensions in recent years. (6/23)

EU Proposes "Launcher Alliance" for Next Generation of European Rockets (Source: Space News)
The EU is proposing to create a "launcher alliance" to support work on a new generation of European launchers. The alliance would involve governments and companies to support what an EU official called a "more offensive and aggressive strategy" in launch vehicle development. The exact role of the launcher alliance remains to be determined, and some European launch startups have taken a skeptical view of the proposal. ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher said earlier this week his near-term focus is ensuring the first Ariane 6 launch takes place next year before the ESA ministerial meeting in late 2022. (6/23)

Seraphim Hopes to Raise $250 Million with Public Offering (Source: Space News)
Seraphim Capital plans to raise $250 million by going public on the London Stock Exchange. The investment company said in a prospectus released Tuesday that it plans to use proceeds to buy stakes in space technology startups worldwide, including the investments Seraphim Capital has made in 19 ventures. It said trading on the public market gives more investors the opportunity to invest in the space industry. (6/23)
 
Ligado Moves Closer to Controversial Use of Spectrum for 5G Service (Source: Space News)
Ligado Networks is a step closer to using its satellite spectrum for terrestrial 5G services. The company said this week that the 3GPP consortium approved technical specifications that enable vendors to build 5G-compatible products on its spectrum. Last year the FCC unanimously approved Ligado's plan to use L-band for a 5G network despite warnings from industry, Congress and federal agencies that it could interfere with GPS signals. (6/23)

SpaceX Stacking Giant Super Heavy Rocket Ahead of Starship orbital Flight Test (Source: Space.com)
SpaceX is gearing up for the most ambitious test flight yet of its Starship Mars rocket. Last month, a Starship prototype aced a high-altitude test flight for the first time, soaring about 6.2 miles into the skies above SpaceX's "Starbase" site in South Texas and then touching down safely back at the facility. (Four other Starship test vehicles had tried this uncrewed hop in the previous five months, but none of them managed to stick the landing.)

Even before achieving that milestone, however, SpaceX had started planning out the first Starship flight to Earth orbit. In March, for example, company founder and CEO Elon Musk tweeted that SpaceX was targeting July for that landmark trial, which will require both elements of the reusable Starship system — the 165-foot-tall upper-stage spaceship, called (somewhat confusingly) Starship, and the huge first-stage booster known as Super Heavy.

The Super Heavy-Starship duo will lift off from Starbase, and the huge first-stage booster will come down about six minutes later in the Gulf of Mexico about 20 miles off the Texas coast. The upper stage will make its way to Earth orbit, ultimately returning for a soft splashdown about 62 miles off the northwest coast of the Hawaiian island of Kauai. Construction of the Super Heavy that will be involved in that flight is apparently well underway. (6/19)

SpaceX Starship Super Heavy Booster, Launch Tower Take Shape (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
Rockets aren’t the only things making progress in Boca Chica, Texas. The company’s orbital launch tower is continuing to see — upward — progress. The tower is being built in sections, and recently the fifth section (of up to eight) of the launch tower was lifted into place by SpaceX’s LR 11350 crane known affectionately as “Frankencrane.”

While the company’s spaceflight hardware has made significant progress recently, some of the more fun aspects of Starbase are beginning to take shape, such as the company’s on-site Tiki Bar. (6/23)

Army Interested in Kymeta Satellite Antennas (Source: Space News)
Kymeta's flat panel satellite antennas will be among the products the U.S. Army will evaluate for future use in its communications networks. The company said that eight Kymeta u8 flat panel satellite antennas will be installed on military vehicles and tested as part of an Army pilot program to identify communications equipment needed to provide connectivity to an armored brigade while on the move. The Army also plans to evaluate terminals from Isotropic Systems. (6/23)

Another ISS Spacewalk Planned to Complete Solar Panel Installation (Source: NASA)
NASA confirmed Tuesday that two astronauts will perform an additional spacewalk outside the International Space Station Friday. Astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Thomas Pesquet will conduct the spacewalk to complete the installation of a second solar panel. NASA originally expected to install the two new panels on two spacewalks, but a spacesuit problem and other technical issues on the first spacewalk June 16 caused them to fall behind, and they could only start the installation of the second panel on a June 20 spacewalk. (6/23)

NASA Working to Fix Hubble Onboard Computer (Source: NASA)
NASA said Tuesday work continues to restore the Hubble Space Telescope to normal operations. The agency said that engineers now believe that a problem with a payload computer itself, rather than a memory module, may have caused the computer to malfunction more than a week ago. Technicians are continuing work to isolate the problem and either correct it or switch to a backup payload computer. Tests scheduled for the next few days will help them determine the best course of action to restore Hubble to normal operations. (6/23)

China's President Speaks to Space Station Astronauts (Source: South China Morning Post)
Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke with the astronauts on the country's new space station Wednesday. In a five-minute call broadcast live, Xi congratulated the Shenzhou-12 astronauts who arrived at the station nearly a week ago for a three-month mission. "Establishing our own space station is an important milestone and a significant contribution to humankind's peaceful use of space," Xi said. (6/23)

P&G Working with NASA for Space Laundry (Source: CollectSpace)
Procter & Gamble is working with NASA on ways to do laundry in space. The company, which produces Tide laundry detergent, said Tuesday is signed a Space Act Agreement with NASA on ways to clean clothes in space using its products, with experiments planned for the ISS next year. Astronauts today are not able to wash their clothes in space, discarding them instead. (6/23)

Anti-Bezos Petitions Reveal Widespread Ignorance of Spaceflight (Source: GeekWire)
More than 100,000 people have signed petitions expressing their ignorance of suborbital spaceflight. The petitions, including one on Change.org that just passed the 100,000-signature mark, are demanding that Jeff Bezos stay in space when he launches on Blue Origin's New Shepard vehicle next month. However, New Shepard is a suborbital vehicle that is incapable of leaving Bezos, or anyone else, in space: he'll return to Earth about 10 minutes after liftoff, assuming a normal flight. (6/23)

Bring a Newspaper to the Moon? NASA Said No, LBJ Said No. Astronaut Alan Shepard Said Yes. (Source: Florida Today)
The USA TODAY network will be auctioning its inaugural non-fungible token (NFT) inspired by the first newspaper delivered to space in 1971. Apollo 14 astronaut Alan Shepard, the first American in space, transported a special edition of TODAY, now Florida Today, to the moon and back. In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Shepard’s visit. The plot appears to have been hatched over cocktails and jazz in the presence of legendary drummer Buddy Rich at Lee Caron’s Carnival Club in Cocoa Beach.

A photo captures TODAY's Buddy Baker shaking hands with Shepard. Rich, grinning like he knows a secret, stands alongside them. Confirmation came Dec. 15, 1970: A more formal letter addressed to Baker from Shepard, typed on letterhead from NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, gave the endeavor the green light. “I reaffirm that I intend to take the total films of TODAY with me on Apollo 14. I hope that you will be able to publicize this after the flight since so many of your readers are directly responsible for its success,” Shepard wrote. (6/22)

SpaceX Planning Polar Starlink Launches From Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
SpaceX has filed applications for FCC "special temporary authority" for launching Starlink missions into polar orbit from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. Launches could begin as early as July. SpaceX is also set to start launching Starlinks from Vandenberg in the same timeframe. SpaceX drone ships would be positioned between Cuba and the Bahamas to support first-stage booster recovery. (6/22)

​How Newquay Virgin Spaceport Could Benefit Cornwall Businesses (Source: The Packet)
 In a hangar on the edge of Newquay Airport there currently lies a piece of technology which could help to change Cornwall’s fortunes in the future – LauncherOne. In the hangar behind it a number of people from key businesses in Cornwall are finding out how they will be able to be involved in the evolving space sector which is set to have a new home in Cornwall.

There has been a lot of talk about Spaceport Cornwall since it was first announced but the scheme is quickly becoming reality and it is destined to provide a boost to Cornish businesses. Along with a number of firms which are already working in the space sector or relying on data that is gathered in space, there are also a number of other companies which are now finding that they will also be able to take advantage of the arrival of new space and tech firms which are coming to Cornwall.

For Stephen Eisele, vice president of business development at Virgin Orbit, using and developing new business opportunities in Cornwall was always a key part of the plan. “It’s a big part of who we are here, it is not about us providing a launch service, it is about providing a space ecosystem and provide sustainable access to space. “We want to help develop new opportunities in Cornwall, that includes launch but having satellites and downstream applications, software, app making, all that – and a lot of that will result from the data that comes from satellites in space. It is exciting.” (6/19)

Virgin Orbit Considering $3 Billion SPAC Merger (Source: Los Angeles Business Journal)
Long Beach-based Virgin Orbit is considering going public through a merger with Boca Raton, Fla.-based special purpose acquisition company NextGen Acquisition Corp. II. The merger would value Virgin Orbit at $3 billion and could be announced in coming weeks, sources familiar with the proposed deal told aerospace industry publication Sky News on June 12.

NextGen II is led by Gregory Summe, former PerkinElmer Inc. chairman and chief executive, and George Mattson, former global industrials group head at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Virgin Orbit has reportedly been in talks on a SPAC deal for months with several prospective business partners. A company representative declined to comment on the possible deal. (6/23)

Billionaire Branson Sees Fortune Slide Towards Cash Burning Space Startups (Source: Forbes)
Having built a multi-billion dollar fortune from record shops, planes, trains, gyms, and many more Virgin branded businesses over his 50-year long business career, British billionaire Richard Branson could soon have over half of his estimated fortune listed in two high risk, cash-burning and unproven space startup businesses.

Currently around $2 billion of Branson’s $5 billion estimated net worth comes from his stake in Virgin Galactic. Reports emerged last week that Virgin’s second space startup, Virgin Orbit—a small satellite launcher based in the U.S. and U.K.—is looking to go public via a SPAC merger, seeking a valuation of around $3 billion. The listing would tip the balance on Branson’s portfolio, and further shift the fortune of an entrepreneur who has made billions building traditional businesses on the strength of the Virgin brand, further towards a new highly risky and expensive industry.

Significant questions remain over the prospects of Branson’s better known space tourism venture, Virgin Galactic, which has been sitting on the runway in one form or another since Burt Rutan won the X Prize in 2004. Branson has now lost first mover advantage to Jeff Bezos, who announced earlier this month that he would fly into space in late July on his company Blue Origin’s spacecraft. In February, Galactic announced its fourth quarter and full year results for 2020, yet to generate any revenue of note the company posted a total comprehensive loss of $273 million, up from $210 million in 2019. (6/18)

NASA Inches Closer to Printing Artificial Organs in Space (Source: MIT Technology Review)
Six years after NASA announced its Vascular Tissue Challenge, a competition designed to accelerate research that could someday lead to artificial organs, the agency named two winning teams. The challenge required teams to create thick, vascularized human organ tissue that could survive for 30 days. The two teams, named Winston and WFIRM, both from the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, used different 3D-printing techniques to create lab-grown liver tissue that would satisfy all of NASA’s requirements and maintain their function.

The two approaches differ in the way vascularization—how blood vessels form inside the body—is achieved. One used tubular structures and the other spongy tissue structures to help deliver cell nutrients and remove waste. According to Atala, the challenge represented a hallmark for bioengineering because the liver, the largest internal organ in the body, is one of the most complex tissues to replicate due to the high number of functions it performs.

Along with advancing the field of regenerative medicine and making it easier to create artificial organs for humans who need transplants, the project could someday help astronauts on future deep-space missions. But the winning teams must still overcome one of the biggest hurdles in tissue engineering: “Getting things to survive and maintain their function over an extended period is really challenging,” says Andrea O’Connor. (6/18)

Will Bezos Be an Astronaut After Blue Origin Flight? There's Still a Debate About Where Space Begins (Source: Business Insider)
There's also an ongoing debate over where space actually begins. A common demarcation is the Kármán Line, an imaginary boundary sitting 62 miles or 100 kilometers above sea level. "Essentially, once this 100 km line is crossed, the atmosphere becomes too thin to provide enough lift for normal aircraft to maintain flight," Raman Prinja, head of University College London's Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, said via email.

But some academics, governments, and executives offer varying altitudes when asked to define where Earth's atmosphere ends and space begins. A few space-travel companies have boasted that they're going to the "edge" of space, even though they're flying well below the Kármán Line. NASA, meanwhile, says space begins at just 50 miles up, meaning anyone who crosses above that is an astronaut in the eyes of the US government. (6/20)

FAA Defends SpaceX To Congress (Source: AvWeb)
SpaceX has found a perhaps unexpected ally in its quest to democratize space—the FAA. FAA associate administrator for commercial space operations Wayne Monteith launched a spirited defense of the company he had criticized a few months before in front of a congressional committee last week. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee had Monteith on the carpet to discuss the commercial space industry and SpaceX naturally came up. Rep. Peter Defazio, D-OR, and Rep. Rick Larsen, D-WA, were particularly interested in the dust-up last December when the company launched prototype SN8 against the direction of the FAA.

Although he was miffed at SpaceX at the time, he told the committee the company has since cleaned up its act. “We would not have cleared them to start flight operations again had I not been confident they had modified their procedures effectively and addressed the safety culture issues that we saw,” Monteith said. The SN8 descent was a success until the very end when an engine failure led to it being blown to smithereens in the landing attempt. SpaceX defended its actions at the time by saying it was all a big misunderstanding and “assumed that the inspector did not have the latest information.” The next launch was approved as were all the subsequent launches resulting in three more massive explosions. On May 5 SN15 landed successfully. (6/21)