October 14, 2021

NASA, ULA Pursue Precision Launch for Lucy Asteroid Mission (Source: UPI)
NASA has worked years to build a spacecraft to examine eight asteroids for clues about the origins of the solar system, and now the agency has a three-week period to launch starting this weekend. The launch is to send the $981 million mission on a complex journey of billions of miles, in a complex trajectory weaving through the solar system to eventually study the eight asteroids over a 12-year period. The farthest point of the journey will be over 400 million miles from Earth's orbit of the sun -- the relative distance of Jupiter's orbit from Earth's.

Such interplanetary missions are particularly challenging to launch because extreme precision is needed, John Elbon, chief operating officer of launch provider United Launch Alliance, said. For example, Lucy will loop through the inner solar system and past Earth three times to gain speed from the Earth's gravity. "It's very important that we get launched early in that three-week window. We're focused on the first day," Elbon said. (10/13)

Why Sending William Shatner to Space was 'a Marketing Victory' for Jeff Bezos (Source: CBC)
By sending William Shatner on a brief trip into space, Jeff Bezos has crafted a narrative of optimism and hope, instead of one about, for example, the privatization in space flight or the ethics of Amazon's labour policies. Shatner, 90, made history as the oldest person in space on Wednesday as he blasted off in a rocket built by the Amazon CEO's company, Blue Origin.

Jeff Bezos gets the aura of Star Trek surrounding his space endeavour. It's an interesting sort of overlay in that as we look at the increasing sort of privatization of some of space travel, at the same time, we're bringing in this modern myth about what space travel could be that is something that, as Star Trek has represented, has generally been good and positive and humanistic and ethical. Bezos stands to benefit greatly from having those traits associated with his own business. And for him, I think it's definitely a marketing victory. (10/13)

Inside the Space Camp Where Billionaires Get a Taste of Zero Gravity with Their Oysters and Champagne (Source: The Telegraph)
A new $30,000 'astronaut orientation' weekend offers the elite a luxurious preview — without going into space. ‘Earth’ in this case is the padded floor of a modified Airbus A310. Up front, Captain Eric Delesalle is flying parabolic arcs that recreate extraterrestrial conditions for his cargo of wannabe astronauts as we soar over France’s Atlantic coast. A handful of prospective space tourists who have paid $30,000 for a three day ‘astronaut orientation’ surround me. The wife of a beauty magnate gently rotates past. The founder of a French version of Amazon climbs the walls. A Pernod Ricard executive floats by, head over heels.

According to Nicolas Guame, a French hotelier and entrepreneur, “This is the year space tourism takes off.” He wants to give potential space tourists a flavor of what they will be in for, while cosseting them in comfort. He comes from the hospitality industry in France, and has set up Orbite with his friend Jason Andrews from Seattle. They met when Guame wanted Andrews to help age a case of wine on the International Space Station.

There are believed to be a million people rich enough and interested enough to take a trip to space. These tourists, Guame and Andrews believe, need “mental, physical and spiritual” preparation. To offer this, they have hired Brienna ‘Brie’ Rommes as Orbite’s director of astronaut training. Brie is a Floridian in a white pencil skirt channeling strong vibes of Kelly McGillis from the original Top Gun. Some years ago she trained Branson and his son Sam at the NASTAR center in Pennsylvania. She says: “You could spend $450,000 on a trip and not even know if you’ll enjoy it.” (10/14)

Steve Wozniak and Alex Fielding’s Startup Privateer Aims to be the Google Maps of Space (Source: Tech Crunch)
While the task of cleaning up LEO is an important one, there’s one problem, according to Alex Fielding, co-founder of a new "Privateer" space venture alongside Steve Wozniak: We don’t know where most of the space junk is actually located. Privateer is hitting the ground running. The company will be sending up its first satellite, dubbed “Pono 1,” on February 11, 2022. The spacecraft, which will be roughly 3U in size, equipped with 42 sensors, 30 of which are non-optical and 12 of which are optical cameras.

Pono 1 will only stay up for four months, when it will be deorbited and vaporized back in the Earth’s atmosphere. The second satellite, Pono 2, is going up at the end of April. Privateer has already chosen a launch provider and received the requisite approvals for both launches. In addition to the launches, Fielding said Privateer is already working with Astroscale, an orbital logistics and servicing startup that’s currently demo-ing a space junk removal satellite. Privateer also signed a partnership with the Space Force.

To not pursue a complete Google Maps of space might not just be negligent — it could be fatal, according to Fielding. “I’m an optimist and I still am very, very, very afraid that we’re too late, that we’re probably within 24 months of the first on-orbit human space casualty. And the reason for that is just the proliferation in low Earth orbit.” (10/14)

Asteroid Outpost Seen as First Step to Being “a Better Space-Faring Species” (Source: Denver Post)
A robotic space station shaped like a butterfly with a camper van-sized body, parked on an asteroid, will be humankind’s latest outpost for interplanetary exploration. University of Colorado engineers are teaming with the United Arab Emirates — again — to build the space station and launch it in 2028 when Venus and the Earth align. The mission requires sling-shotting the station around Venus to gain momentum and reach the asteroid 350 million miles away.

The goal is to understand materials that make up the solar system by probing 4.5 billion-year-old asteroid rock, and then determine where water could be found to allow future travel between planets, CU engineer and program manager Pete Withnell said. “Water is life-enabling for humans. It also can be turned into fuel. If we have access to water, whether on the moon, Mars, or the asteroids, it will enable human exploration beyond Earth,” Withnell said. (10/13)

Senators Square Off Over Huntsville Selection for Space Command HQ (Source: WAAY)
U.S. Space Command headquarters is coming to Huntsville. Right? Maybe not, if Colorado politicians get their way. The entire Colorado congressional delegation is pushing the Biden administration hard to suspend that decision, instead calling for the Air Force to keep Space Command where it is currently housed in Colorado Springs. Right now, the Department of Defense Inspector General's Office and the Government Accountability Office are both conducting reviews of this decision. It is unclear when their report will be completed.

That review launched after Colorado Democratic senators led the entire Colorado Congressional Delegation in urging President Joe Biden to suspend the Trump administration’s decision. U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper released a statement after Trump said he “single-handily” made the decision to move the U.S. Space Command headquarters from Colorado to Alabama during a rally in Cullman earlier this year: “Former President Trump has admitted what we already knew: That he made a strictly political decision to move Space Command and completely disregarded both critical national security and budgetary considerations."

But powerful Southern Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee said she’ll oppose efforts by Colorado leaders to keep Space Command in Colorado Springs. Blackburn points to the detailed site-selection process the Air Force conducted before picking Huntsville. Blackburn says this will impact the entire region. “A lot of Tennessee folks work here in Huntsville so when you look at Redstone Arsenal," she said. A the DOD review of how this decision was reached continues behind closed doors, Blackburn remains confident. (10/13)

Space Tourism is Coming to Tucson with a World View (Source: KOLD)
At 90 years of age, William Shatner of Star Trek fame, flew into space on the Blue Origin rocket. It was an up and back flight but it left quite an impression on Shatner. “What you have given me in the most profound experience you can imagine,” Shatner told Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos. “I’m so filled with emotion about what just happened, extraordinary.”

That’s a sentiment more and more Americans will begin to feel in the months and years to come as civilian space travel has become a reality with much more on the way. “We started taking reservations last Monday,” said Ryan Hartman, President and CEO of World View, a space enterprises company. “As of this morning we’re already at 450 reservations.” Enough to keep their schedule full for a year.

World View, starting in 2024, will take people to “near space” not outer space for $50,000. The half dozen passengers per flight will spend six to eight hours in a capsule where they will hover between earth and space at 100,000 feet, which is a profound experience. World View first brought the idea of space tourism to Tucson in 2016 when the Pima County Board of Supervisors voted to build and lease the company a facility with launch pad for $15 million. (10/13)

A Jupiter-Like Planet Orbiting a White Dwarf Hints at our Solar System’s Future (Source: Science News)
A glimpse of our solar system’s future has appeared thousands of light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius. There a giant planet like Jupiter orbits a white dwarf, a dim, dense star that once resembled the sun. In 2010, that star passed in front of a much more distant star. Like a magnifying glass, the white dwarf’s gravity bent the more distant star’s light rays so that they converged on Earth and made the distant star look hundreds of times brighter. A giant planet orbiting the white dwarf star also “microlensed” the distant star’s light, revealing the planet’s presence.

The astronomers were in search of the giant planet’s star, but saw, well, nothing. “We expected that we’d see a star similar to the sun,” Blackman says. “And so we spent quite a few years trying to figure out why on Earth we didn’t see the star which we expected to see.” After failing to detect any light from the spot where the planet’s star should be, Blackman’s team concluded that the object can’t be a typical star like the sun. Instead, the star must be something much fainter. The microlensing data indicate that the star is roughly half as massive as the sun, so the object isn’t massive enough to be a neutron star or black hole. But a white dwarf star fits the bill perfectly

The white dwarf formed after a sunlike star expanded and became a red giant star. Then the red giant ejected its outer layers, exposing its hot core. That former core is the white dwarf star. Our sun will turn into a white dwarf about 7.8 billion years from now, so the new discovery is “a snapshot into the future of our solar system,” Blackman says. (10/13)

The Fastest-Spinning White Dwarf Ever Seen Rotates Once Every 25 Seconds (Source: Science News)
The sun turns once a month and the Earth once a day, but a white dwarf star 2,000 light-years away spins every 25 seconds, beating the old champ by five seconds. That makes it the fastest-spinning star of any sort ever seen — unless you consider such exotic objects as neutron stars and black holes, some of which spin even faster, to be stars.

About as small as Earth but roughly as massive as the sun, a white dwarf is extremely dense. The star’s surface gravity is so great that if you dropped a pebble from a height of a few feet, it would smash into the surface at thousands of miles per hour. The typical white dwarf takes hours or days to spin. The fast-spinning white dwarf, named LAMOST J0240+1952 and located in the constellation Aries, got in a whirl because of its ongoing affair with a red dwarf star that revolves around it. Just as falling water makes a waterwheel turn, so gas falling from the red companion star made the white dwarf twirl. (10/12)

Walrus Counting From Space: How Many Tusked Beasts Do You See? (Source: BBC)
A new project aims to get a better idea of the number of walruses on Earth by counting them from space. Volunteers are being sought to search through thousands of satellite images to see how many of the tusked animals they can spot. Scientists need improved population data as they try to asses how this polar keystone species will be affected by climate change.

WWF is running the "Walrus From Space" project jointly with the British Antarctic Survey, which has expertise in satellite surveys of polar wildlife. BAS has long counted penguins from orbit, and is also now tracking seals, albatross, and even whales under the water. "It's only recently that satellites have had high enough resolution to allow us to count walruses accurately," said BAS remote-sensing specialist Peter Fretwell. "We'll be using Maxar's WorldView satellite which has a resolution where each pixel is only about 30cm on the ground." (10/13)

EUSPA Launches #myEUspace Competition, More Space for EU Innovation and Entrepreneurs (Source: Parabolic Arc)
The European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) launches myEUspace competition. The EU prize contest targets innovators and entrepreneurs ready to explore, develop and commercialise innovative solutions that leverage EU Space data and services, going beyond the current space-applications horizon, and fusing and testing new technologies in location-based services, smart mobility, smart agriculture, geomatics, and for the first-time, quantum technologies.

Building on the success of the previous competitions and with an amplified scope of activities, the European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) announces the launch of myEUspace competition. The increased availability of space-based data and services and the evolution of mobile and computing technologies are pushing the bar of innovation higher allowing for the development of more ambitious applications that rely on Galileo’s accurate positioning paired with Earth observation data generated by Copernicus, while exploring new opportunities from Quantum technologies. (10/14)

Prize Asteroid Near Earth Studied, Found to be Worth Trillions (Source: TweakTown)
There are many asteroids out in space, and some of them contain high amounts of precious metals that are used here on Earth to make smartphones, batteries, and build large skyscrapers. Human civilization doesn't quite yet have the technology to harvest the materials contained in these asteroids, but that hasn't stopped researchers from estimating their worth if it was possible. A recent study explores the possibility of harvesting the precious metal-rich asteroid named 1986 DA.

The researchers behind the study examined the asteroid and found that it's 85% metallic and possibly contains the following metals; iron, nickel, cobalt, copper, gold, and platinum. The researchers estimated that the mass of these metals contained in the 1986 DA would exceed the total metal reserves on Earth. Additionally, the researchers estimated the worth of the asteroid, taking into account market deflation that would occur if the materials were transported back to Earth and sold. Over a period of 50 years, the researchers estimated that mining the asteroid for its metals would yield $233 billion a year. In total, 1986 DA was estimated to be worth $11.65 trillion. (10/12)

The Woman Who Fell in Love with NASA's LSD-Dosed and Sex-Addicted Dolphin (Source: BoingBoing)
In the 1960s, NASA funded a study called "Mind of the Dolphin," with the goal of understanding how dolphins think and communicate. The neuroscientist in charge of the project, John Lilly, decided to set up the experiment by pairing a woman and a dolphin to live together for an extended period of time, while also giving the dolphin LSD. It turned out to be a poor idea. Click here. (10/12) 

Astra Announces Next Launch for Space Force (Source: Astra)
Astra announced a commercial orbital launch on behalf of the United States Space Force. The launch vehicle, LV0007, will carry a test payload for the Space Test Program’s second mission STP-27AD2. The launch window is divided into two segments: the first segment is open from October 27, 2021 through October 31, 2021, and the second is open from November 5, 2021 through November 12, 2021. LV0007 will launch from the Astra Spaceport in Kodiak, Alaska. (10/12)

Prince William: Focus on Climate Change, Not Space Tourism (Source: Sky News)
The Blue Origin flight, and other space tourism ventures, prompted criticism by a member of Britain's royal family. Prince William said in an interview that efforts focused on space tourism should instead be attempting to tackle climate change. "We need some of the world's greatest brains and minds fixed on trying to repair this planet, not trying to find the next place to go and live," he told the BBC. His comments come ahead of the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow. (10/14)

SpaceLink Picks OHB to Build Four Satellites for Data Relay (Source: Space News)
SpaceLink has selected OHB to build a series of data relay satellites. The contract, worth more than $300 million, covers four satellites in medium Earth orbit to connect commercial and government satellites with customer mission operations centers using radiofrequency and optical links. SpaceLink selected OHB based on a number of factors, including the German company's experience building Galileo navigation satellites for medium Earth orbit. The satellites are scheduled to launch beginning in 2024, although SpaceLink has not announced launch contracts for those satellites. (10/14)

Space Perspective Raises $40M for Florida Balloon Missions (Source: Space News)
Space Perspective has raised $40 million to complete development of its stratospheric ballooning system. Prime Movers Lab led the Series A round, with participation from existing investors and several new ones. The company is developing a system designed to take eight passengers to an altitude of 30 kilometers, providing them with views intended to be similar to those from space. Space Perspective is now fully funded through the start of commercial operations, scheduled for late 2024. (10/14)

Embedded Ventures to Support Space Force Space WERX (Source: Space News)
Embedded Ventures, a venture capital firm investing in space startups, has signed a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Space Force. Embedded Ventures will work with SpaceWERX, a new Space Force organization created to build ties with commercial industry and startups. The terms and the length of the agreement were not disclosed. Embedded Ventures was founded last year by tech entrepreneur Jenna Bryant and Jordan Noone, who was co-founder of Relativity Space, but has not revealed what ventures it has invested in so far. (10/14)

China's Deep Blue Tests Vertical Launch/Landing Rocket (Source: Space News)
A Chinese launch startup performed a test of a rocket that takes off and lands vertically. Deep Blue Aerospace conducted the Nebula M1 vertical landing and vertical takeoff test Wednesday, reaching a height of 100 meters before a powered descent and vertical landing. The company performed a similar flight, but to an altitude of only 10 meters, in July. Deep Blue Aerospace calls the tests "grasshopper jumps," a nod to SpaceX and its earlier Grasshopper vertical landing demonstrator. (10/14)

CAPSTONE Lunar Cubesat Launch Slips to 2022 (Source: Space News)
The launch of a NASA lunar cubesat mission has slipped to next year. NASA announced Wednesday that the CAPSTONE spacecraft will now launch in March, rather than this fall as previously planned. The delay is because of broader launch delays by Rocket Lab, whose Electron rocket will launch CAPSTONE, caused by pandemic lockdowns in New Zealand. CAPSTONE will test the stability of the near-rectilinear halo orbit that will be used by NASA's lunar Gateway. (10/14)

Planet Unveils Pelican Earth-Imaging Constellation (Source: Space News)
Planet unveiled “very high resolution” Pelican Earth-imaging satellites and revealed plans to bring synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) into its Planet Fusion Monitoring data stream. Planet made the announcements Oct. 12 at the start of Planet Explore 2021, a conference for the company’s customers, partners, developers and data product end users. Company officials declined to comment on the resolution of Pelican satellites, which are scheduled to begin launching in 2022. (10/13)

Space Force Recruiters Pitch Military Service to Warriors and Dreamers (Source: Space News)
Military recruiters today are being challenged by demographic trends showing a declining population of young people who are eligible and willing to serve. As a new military service, the U.S. Space Force is still working on a recruiting strategy to attract the best and the brightest. The results so far are promising, said Maj. Gen. Ed Thomas, commander of the Air Force Recruiting Service.

In an interview with SpaceNews, Thomas described the Space Force as a “small and elite force” that requires a nontraditional approach to recruiting. The Air Force Recruiting Service at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas, supports both the Air Force and the Space Force. It hit its goal last year of recruiting nearly 400 guardians, as members of the Space Force are known. This coming year the target has been raised to 500. (10/13)

36 OneWeb Satellites Launched on Soyuz Rocket (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
A Soyuz rocket launched this morning with the latest batch of OneWeb satellites. The Soyuz-2.1b rocket lifted off from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia at 5:40 a.m. Eastern. Its payload of 36 OneWeb satellites will be deployed over the course of four hours. The launch brings the constellation just past the halfway mark to its full size of 648 satellites. (10/14)