October 11, 2021

KSC Visitor Complex "Salute to Brevard" (Source: Talk of Titusville)
During Salute to Brevard, Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex welcomes Brevard County residents with discounted admission. Daily admission costs only $19 for adults and $14 for children ages 3-11 (plus tax) with proof of residency. As part of the initiative, all visitor complex guests are encouraged to bring non-perishable food items and hygiene products to donate to Brevard County Sharing Centers. In order to receive this discount, please remember to bring your driver’s license or utility bill from Brevard County. Tickets must be purchased at the visitor complex ticket plaza on the date of entry. (10/11)

Rocket Lab to Launch NASA Smallsat Using SBIR Award (Source: Space News)
Rocket Lab will launch a NASA technology demonstration satellite under an unconventional arrangement as the agency works on a more standardized approach for launching smallsats. NASA selected the company to launch the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3) spacecraft on an Electron rocket. The 12-unit cubesat will test the deployment of a solar sail using composite booms seven meters long. Those booms, which will unspool over the course of 20 to 30 minutes, are designed to be lighter that traditional metallic booms while also being less susceptible to thermal distortion.

ACS3 will be part of an Electron rideshare mission launching in mid-2022 from New Zealand. The rocket’s kick stage will deploy other, unnamed payloads first, then raise its orbit to deploy ACS3 in its higher orbit. Rocket Lab’s release did not disclose the value of the contract in the release, issued shortly after markets closed, but the company’s shares soared in after-hours trading and closed up 10% in trading Oct. 7. A NASA spokesperson said late Oct. 7 that the contract was valued at $1.092 million. (10/11)

Rocket Lab Launch Operations Underway For Two BlackSky Missions in November (Source: Parabolic Arc)
Rocket Lab has scheduled two dedicated launches in November for Spaceflight Inc.’s customer, real-time geospatial and global monitoring company BlackSky. A two-week launch window for Rocket Lab’s 22nd Electron launch will open November 11-24, 2021, while the 23rd Electron mission is targeted for lift-off during a two-week launch window that opens November 27. Both missions are scheduled to launch from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand. (10/11)

Inside Blue Origin (Source: Washington Post)
In 2019, a mid-level employee at Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin had grown fed up with the company, and as he left, he wrote a long memo that he sent to Bezos, chief executive Bob Smith and other senior leaders: “Our current culture is toxic to our success and many can see it spreading throughout the company.” The problems at the spaceflight company were “systemic,” according to the memo, which was obtained by The Washington Post and verified by two former employees familiar with the matter, and “the loss of trust in Blue’s leadership is common.”

It was one of a number of warnings to Blue Origin’s leadership in recent years that the company’s culture had become dysfunctional, resulting in low morale and high turnover, significant delays across several major programs and a failure to successfully compete with Elon Musk’s venture SpaceX, current and former employees said. The new management’s “authoritarian bro culture,” as one former employee put it, affected how decisions were made and permeated the institution, translating into condescending, sometimes humiliating, comments and harassment toward some women and a stagnant top-down hierarchy.

A consultant retained by Blue Origin conducted a review of the company’s leadership, finding that the primary challenge was Smith’s ineffective, micromanaging leadership style, said two former employees, including a top executive. Blue Origin fired a senior executive, citing inappropriate behavior. Current and former employees say it’s part of the company’s toxic culture. Interviews and documents reveal wide-ranging employee concerns about Smith’s leadership style, a bureaucracy that hampered innovation, and a lack of intervention from Bezos, who employees said was not giving the company enough attention during a crucial period. Click here. (10/11)

With Just 8 Words, Elon Musk Exposed a Brutal Truth About Jeff Bezos' Space Ambitions (Source: Inc.)
At the Code Conference last week, Elon Musk responded to a lawsuit filed by fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, telling Kara Swisher that "you cannot sue your way to the moon." It's the latest in an escalating battle between the world's two richest men over their efforts to send people into space. As you might expect, Bezos had a few words in response to Musk's comment. Interestingly, however, it wasn't Blue Origin that responded. It was Amazon--which is weird because I wasn't aware that the company was planning to start shipping packages to the moon.

Musk is right. You can't sue your way to the moon. You have to actually build a vehicle capable of getting there. That's not something you can do by just showing up two days a week. It's hard work that takes vision, leadership, and resources. Look, I get that Bezos is probably a pretty busy guy. He has a lot of priorities, for sure. Spending almost $200 billion (Bezos' net worth is $192 billion as I write this) takes a lot of his attention, I'm sure. But Musk has a point. If space is more than a hobby for Bezos, he should stop complaining about losing, and start focusing on doing what is necessary to win. (10/11)

Musk Trolls Bezos as he Widens His Lead as the Richest Person on Earth (Source: CNN)
Elon Musk's personal wealth is now $222 billion, widening his gap as the richest person in the world according to Bloomberg's Billionaires Index. Musk's personal wealth skyrocketed an extra $10.6 billion after a secondary share sale by investors, announced last week, valued the space company over $100 billion. Bezos follows Musk with a net worth of $191.6 billion. Musk tweeted a second place medal at Bezos early today. (10/11)

Varda Space Selects SpaceX for Launch of First Space Manufacturing Satellite (Source: Space News)
Space manufacturing starting Varda Space will launch its first spacecraft on a Falcon 9 in early 2023 to demonstrate the ability to produce a wide range of materials in microgravity. Varda Space announced Oct. 11 it signed a launch services agreement with SpaceX for that smallsat, which will be part of a Falcon 9 rideshare mission scheduled for the first quarter of 2023. The companies did not disclose the terms of the contract.

The spacecraft will spend up to three months in orbit to test space manufacturing technologies. At the end of that mission, a reentry capsule will return to Earth the material produced in orbit. Company executives said they chose SpaceX because it offered the least expensive and most reliable solution for getting their spacecraft into orbit. Notably, the company decided not to launch the spacecraft on a Rocket Lab Electron even though it purchased three Photon satellite buses from Rocket Lab in August. (10/11)

The First Arab Mission to Mars is Delivering Some Interesting Science (Source: Ars Technica)
Since arriving at Mars eight months ago, the Emirates Mars Mission has quietly begun to deliver some intriguing scientific data about the Martian atmosphere and its weather patterns. Named "Hope," the probe is in a relatively high orbit, varying in altitude above Mars from 20,000 to 43,000 km. This vantage point allows the spacecraft to see an entire hemisphere at a time. For much of this year, then, the Hope probe has been training its multi-band imager, infrared spectrometer, and ultraviolet spectrometer on Mars to collect data about the planet's atmosphere and weather.

The project was financed by the United Arab Emirates, and the spacecraft was built in conjunction with several US-based universities. The goal was to inspire young Emiratis to pursue an education in math and science and train some of them through the resulting collaborations. The probe launched in July 2020 on a Japanese rocket. One goal of the mission was to share the resulting data freely, and as a result, the mission recently opened a science data portal. Anyone can register to get access to raw images and data collected by the probe, with new data sets being released every three months.

The mission, the first Arab probe sent to Mars, is planned to operate for a minimum of two years. The probe has already made some interesting discoveries. For example, scientists had expected to observe a fairly uniform distribution of oxygen throughout the Martian atmosphere. Although the planet's thin atmosphere is predominately composed of carbon dioxide, molecular oxygen is a trace gas. According to the Hope probe's observations of oxygen in the upper atmosphere, concentrations vary by more than 50 percent. (10/11)

On the Verge of Another Soyuz Launch, OneWeb Looks to Flights on Indian Rockets (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
OneWeb announced Monday it is working on an agreement to launch future broadband internet satellites on Indian rockets, the same day the next batch of 36 OneWeb spacecraft moved into position at a Russian spaceport for liftoff Thursday on a Soyuz launcher. The London-based company, which builds its satellites in a factory on Florida’s Space Coast, said Monday it has signed a letter of intent with NewSpace India Limited, the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organization, to use Indian rockets for launches beginning as soon as next year.

OneWeb is owned by a consortium of shareholders led by the Indian telecom company Bharti Global and the UK government. Arianespace won a contract in 2015 to launch OneWeb’s first-generation network. The deal between Arianespace and OneWeb now covers 19 launches aboard Russian Soyuz rockets from spaceports in Russia, Kazakhstan, and French Guiana. Ten of those missions are now complete, and the 11th OneWeb launch on a Soyuz rocket is scheduled Thursday at 5:40 a.m. EDT. (10/11)

L3Harris to Require Employees to Get COVID-19 Vaccine by Dec. 8 or Risk Losing Their Jobs (Source: Florida Today)
L3Harris Technologies Inc. — one of the Space Coast's largest employers — will be requiring its U.S.-based staff to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Dec. 8. Otherwise, employees risk losing their jobs at the Melbourne-based aerospace and defense technology company. The company said it is taking this action to remain in compliance with mandates from the Biden administration for federal contractors. (10/8)

Protests on Space Coast Over Northrop Grumman Vaccination Requirement (Source: Florida Today)
Monday morning, roughly 200 protesters displaying signs and U.S. flags rallied against the vaccine mandate along NASA Boulevard near the main entrance to Northrop Grumman's 180-acre campus at Melbourne Orlando International Airport. Some of the Space Coast's largest employers in the aerospace and defense industries — such as Northrop Grumman, L3Harris Technologies, Collins Aerospace and Lockheed Martin — will require workers to be fully vaccinated by Dec. 8. Otherwise, they risk losing their jobs.

Editor's Note: Wake up sheeple! Vaccines have been required since the Revolutionary War (1777) to combat deadly diseases. For several decades vaccinations have been required to attend K-12 schools and universities, join the military, for international travel, and other activities. Vaccines are unquestionably safe, with very rare exceptions, and have eradicated diseases like polio and smallpox. Thanks to vaccine deniers, we will likely suffer from recurring bouts with Covid-19. (10/11)

NGA Gauges Commercial Imagery Capabilities (Source: Space News)
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) plans to conduct an annual assessment of commercial satellite imagery like a recent Olympics-themed exercise. The NGA performed a study of commercial imagery earlier this year, awarding countries gold, silver and bronze medals in a wide range of imagery classes. While many in the intelligence community were well aware of the leading role foreign firms played in gathering commercial imagery, the results of the first annual evaluation produced some surprises, including the growth of Chinese capabilities. After seeing the standings, many policymakers asked NGA officials how they could help U.S. industry win the global Earth-observation competition. (10/11)

NRO Plans Cybersecurity and Licensing Requirements for Imagery Firms (Source: Space News)
The NRO will set cybersecurity and licensing requirements on companies it acquires imagery from. The agency said at the GEOINT 2021 Symposium last week that it has worked with the NGA to set up three cybersecurity categories for imagery providers, ranging from "unverified" companies to those that have a secret accredited architecture to process orders and imagery. The NRO also has a common family of end user license agreements for commercial imagery that ranges from licenses that reserve imagery for national security to licenses that allow imagery to be released publicly. (10/11)

Space Development Agency Seeks Proposals for 18 Satellites with Experimental Payloads (Source: Space News)
The Space Development Agency on Oct. 8 issued a draft request for bids for 18 satellites that will carry experimental payloads. These 18 spacecraft will be integrated with SDA’s planned mesh network of 126 optically interconnected data transport satellites. SDA is already reviewing bids for the 126 satellites that will make up the Transport Layer Tranche 1, projected to launch in 2024. The additional 18 satellite are for the Tranche 1 Demonstration and Experimentation System, or T1DES.

According to the draft request for proposals, “T1DES will augment the Tranche 1 Transport Layer constellation with demonstration and experimental capability.” The plan is to deploy the 18 satellites in a single plane about 600 miles above Earth, a mix of 12 satellites carrying industry-developed payloads and six with government-furnished payloads. Up to three vendors could be selected to produce the satellites and secure launch services by 2025. (10/11)

NASA Can Ease Mars Planetary Protection (Source: Space News)
A National Academies committee concluded NASA could ease planetary protection requirements for some Mars lander missions. The report, released last week, found that NASA could adopt less stringent requirements for missions that don't plan to dig into the surface anywhere on the planet, or don't plan to go more than a meter into the surface in some locations that have only patchy amounts of ice. The report did not make a specific recommendation on what those new planetary protection requirements should be, and noted the findings had only limited applicability to human Mars missions. (10/11)

Indian Space Association Formed to Provide Industry Input to Space Policy (Source: Economic Times)
India's prime minister announced a new space industry organization in the country. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Monday that the Indian Space Association will be an industry group that will work with the government agencies on space policy issues. The initial members of the industry association include manufacturers as well as telecom company Bharti Airtel. (10/11)

When is an Asteroid a Comet? (Source: Cosmos)
The distinction between asteroids and comets used to be clear-cut. Comets were icy bodies that spent most of their time in the cold, dark, outer reaches of the Solar System but occasionally plunged toward the Sun on kamikaze dives that warmed them, vaporised their ices, and produced the dramatic tails we know and love. Asteroids were basically rocks that circled sedately in orbits more like that of Mars. It’s a pretty picture. But it’s also wrong.

A few years ago, astronomers were stunned to discover that some asteroids behave like comets. A great example is an asteroid called (248370) 2005 QN173. In July 2021 astronomers had spotted on it a pencil-thin tail 720,000 kilometres long, but only 1,400km wide. A number of things could be causing this, including debris thrown off by a recent impact from another asteroid. But a search through millions of older images that might have captured QN173 found one from July 2016 that also shows the tail. Dust thrown off by a collision wouldn’t have lingered like that for five years.

More likely, the tail is produced by a water-rich layer of material, now exposed to sunlight and slowly vaporising into space. The hunt is on to find more of them. “Fewer than 30 of these have ever been found,” Colin Chandler says. “If you want to study them with any degree of confidence, you have to find more.” To do that, he is recruiting citizen scientists to pore through millions of images looking for more. Already, a woman in Switzerland has found one. (10/11)