October 30, 2021

SpaceX Delays Launch of Four NASA Astronauts to ISS From Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Sources: SPACErePORT, The Verge, Florida Today)
SpaceX's fifth human spaceflight, its third operational crew transport mission for NASA, has been rescheduled from Sunday to Wednesday for its lift off from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport due to downrange weather. Four NASA astronauts will be aboard the Crew-3 mission, riding a new reusable Dragon capsule, along with supplies and experiments.
 
Once Crew-3 arrives, there will be a changing of the guard. The four Crew-2 astronauts already on board the space station will greet the incoming astronauts and get them settled. Then in mid-November, the Crew-2 members will climb into their own Crew Dragon and return back to Earth. As for the Crew-3 astronauts, they’ll be on board the ISS for six months, scheduled to come back sometime in the spring of next year. (10/30)

Musk Says He Wants to Use Wealth to Get Humans to Mars, Not Pay Taxes (Source: Futurism)
It didn’t come as a shock when Tesla CEO Elon Musk criticized a plan to tax billionaires earlier this week over a plan to tax billionaires. The billionaire — who also happens to be the richest person in the world — has other goals in mind for his tremendous wealth: making humanity interplanetary. “My plan is to use the money to get humanity to Mars and preserve the light of consciousness,” he tweeted today.

Thanks to Tesla closing a massive deal with rental car company Hertz this week, Musk’s personal net worth is closing in on $300 billion — which, just to be clear, is an absolutely obscene amount of money, despite the majority being tied up in shares. Musk also resorted to a common conservative talking point: that the ultra-wealthy can only pay so much.

“US national debt is ~$28,900 billion or ~$229k per taxpayer,” Musk argued in a tweet on Wednesday. “Even taxing all ‘billionaires’ at 100 percent would only make a small dent in that number, so obviously the rest must come from the general public. This is basic math.” Ironically, Musk has often relied on government spending to grow his businesses. (10/28)

NASA, National Geographic Partner to Show Inside Artemis Moon Mission (Source: NASA)
NASA has selected National Geographic to help tell the story of Artemis II, the first Artemis flight that will carry astronauts around the Moon and back to Earth aboard the agency’s Orion spacecraft. Following a competitive selection process, NASA and National Geographic entered into a non-reimbursable (no-exchange-of-funds) Space Act Agreement to collaborate on compact, lightweight audiovisual hardware to fly inside Orion and related support for the project. (10/29)

NASA Employee Says SpaceX's Starship Is About to Change Everything (Source: Futurism)
NASA Jet Propulsion Lab system architect Casey Handmer is impressed with SpaceX’s progress toward developing a rocket capable of sending astronauts to the Moon and even Mars. “Two years ago Starship was a design concept and a mock up,” Handmer wrote in a lengthy post on his personal blog about the hyper-ambitious rocket. “Today it’s a 95 percent complete prototype that will soon fly to space and may even make it back in one piece.”

“Starship matters,” Handmer writes. “It’s not just a really big rocket, like any other rocket on steroids. It’s a continuing and dedicated attempt to achieve the ‘Holy Grail’ of rocketry, a fully and rapidly reusable orbital class rocket that can be mass manufactured.” He was also somewhat excoriating toward his employer, predicting that Starship is going to render many of the agency’s grand ambitions moot. “Artemis will continue to limp awkwardly on with occasional half-hearted press releases, Eric Berger scoops, and middling budgets,” he wrote.

“At some point Starship will demonstrate an automated Lunar landing and return with a few tonnes of Moon rocks," he wrote. “It may take a year or three,” he wrote, “but Starship will happen and it will change everything.” (10/29)

SpaceX Flexes Giant Starship-Catching "Chopsticks" for the First Time (Source: Futurism)
SpaceX has flexed the “Chopsticks” arm of its massive Starship-catching tower for the first time this morning at the company’s testing facilities in South Texas. The “Mechazilla” tower, as SpaceX CEO Elon Musk likes to call it, is meant to ensure that the space company’s heavy lift rocket called Starship and its accompanying Super Heavy booster make a soft landing. It is a truly wild concept that could quickly turn into a disaster unless everything goes perfectly to plan. (10/28)

Ultrahot, Ultrafast Explosion Called 'the Camel' Has Astronomers Puzzled (Source: Live Science)
In October 2020, astronomers detected an enormous, ancient explosion tearing through a galaxy several billion light-years from Earth. The blast appeared out of nowhere, reached peak brightness within a few days and then rapidly vanished again within a month — indicating that an extreme cosmic event, like the formation of a black hole or neutron star, had just occurred. Astronomers call sudden, bright blasts like these fast blue optical transients (FBOTs),  named for their extreme "blue" heat and incredibly rapid evolution.

But, if you prefer, you can call this one "the Camel." Behind the blast, a powerful engine seethed for months. The team found that the blast glowed with X-ray emissions long after its visible light faded. This stream of X-rays suggests that something powerful, like a black hole or a neutron star, was driving the Camel's intense emissions, the team suggested. It could be that FBOTs represent a rarely seen moment of cosmic creation — blasts that occur the instant an old star implodes, collapsing into a massive black hole or fast-spinning neutron star before our very eyes. (10/29)

0-G Launch and Canary Islands Aeronautic and Aerospace Cluster Plan Flights and Air Launch Service (Source: Parabolic Arc)
0-G Launch, an innovative Washington DC-based provider of the Space Jet™ horizontal rocket air-launch and microgravity service aircraft, and the Canary Islands Aeronautic and Aerospace Cluster -CAAC, an international center of excellence dedicated to promoting companies in the aeronautical-aerospace sector in the archipelago, today announced the signature of an agreement to initiate consumer zero-gravity parabolic flights from the islands in 2023.

The agreement was signed during an in-person ceremony at the World Air Traffic Management (ATM) Conference in Madrid. As first part of this agreement, 0-G Launch will fly its Space Jet™ to the Canary Islands to make exciting zero-gravity parabolic flight experiences locally available on a yearly basis. CAAC will organize and manage the media outreach and logistics to ensure that these unique flights are actively promoted among the nearly 13 million tourists that visit the archipelago annually. (10/27)

Ariane 6 Undergoing Preparations for 2022 Debut (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
ArianeGroup and the European Space Agency are carrying out preparations for the maiden launch of the Ariane 6 rocket next year. Ariane 6 represents the next generation of the Ariane family of rockets, intended to allow its customers lower-cost access to space. The rocket and launch pad still have an extensive test program ahead of them, with a current target launch date in the second half of 2022.

Ariane 6 is the sixth member of the Ariane family of rockets, whose development began in the 1970s to allow the ESA (European Space Agency) to place its own satellites–and commercial payloads–into geostationary orbit. From 1979 to 2003, the Ariane 1, 2, 3 and 4 rockets launched 144 times with 137 successes. (10/29)

NASA Claims Their New Space Engine Can Reach 99% the Speed of Light (Source: Brighter Side)
NASA engineer David Burns has produced an engine concept that, he says, could theoretically accelerate to 99 percent of the speed of light - all without using propellant. He's posted it to the NASA Technical Reports Server under the heading "Helical Engine", and, on paper, it works by exploiting the way mass can change at relativistic speeds - those close to the speed of light in a vacuum. It has not yet been reviewed by an expert.

Understandably this paper has caused buzz approaching levels seen in the early days of the EM Drive. And yes, even some headlines claiming the engine could 'violate the laws of physics'. But while this concept is fascinating, it's definitely not going to break physics anytime soon.

As a thought experiment to explain his concept, Burns describes a box with a weight inside, threaded on a line, with a spring at each end bouncing the weight back and forth. In a vacuum - such as space - the effect of this would be to wiggle the entire box, with the weight seeming to stand still, like a gif stabilized around the weight. Overall, the box would stay wiggling in the same spot - but if the mass of the weight were to increase in only one direction, it would generate a greater push in that direction, and therefore thrust. (10/28)

Dubai’s MBRSC to Collaborate with Airbus on Lunar Mission (Source: Gulf Business)
Dubai’s Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) has signed an agreement with both Airbus. The MOU with Airbus is to collaborate on the Emirates Lunar Mission. The two entities will collaborate in the field of material testing in-situ on the surface of the Moon by means of the material adhesive demonstration (MAD) experiment. (10/28)

SpaceX Rideshare Program Beats Small Rockets for Emirati Launch Contract (Source: Teslarati)
The United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) space agency has contracted with SpaceX to launch a domestically-built Earth observation satellite on a Falcon 9 rideshare mission. Known as MBZ SAT, the ~700 kg (~1550 lb) spacecraft will be the second domestic imaging satellite (mostly) built by the UAE itself and, among several other upgrades, will nearly double its resolving power from KhalifaSat’s 0.7m/pixel to ~0.4m/pixel – not far off from the unclassified state of the art.

That makes the mission a bit of a jewel in the crown of SpaceX’s Smallsat Rideshare Program, which is intentionally branded as a more hands-off, public-transit-like utility that offers extremely low prices at the cost of more traditional white-glove launch services. For a direct contract with SpaceX itself, the Smallsat Rideshare Program charges a minimum of $1 million to launch up to 200 kg (440 lb) on one payload adapter. Anything beyond that 200 kg mark costs the same, so twice the payload on the same adapter would cost exactly twice as much. For a fee, SpaceX also offers fueling services and gives customers the option of buying SpaceX-built adapters and deployment mechanisms or bringing their own.

Above all else, MZB SAT is almost perfectly sized and destined for the perfect orbit (500 km) to be launched on one of several new small rockets that could be operational by H2 2023. That list includes Firefly’s Alpha, Relativity’s Terran 1, ABL Space’s RS1, and several other vehicles specifically designed to launch small satellites in the 300-1000 kg range. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket ultimately won over the UAE, firmly demonstrating that industry-best pricing paired with the most reliable rocket currently flying is a hard combination to beat. (10/28)

Revised Budget Package Provides Less for NASA Infrastructure (Source: Space News)
A revised version of the budget reconciliation spending package provides less funding for NASA infrastructure repairs. The updated $1.75 trillion bill, released Thursday, includes $750 million to repair NASA facilities, compared to $4 billion in the original House version of the bill. NASA had requested more than $5 billion for work such as fixing damage caused by recent hurricanes. The new bill also slightly reduces funding for climate change activities at NASA. As with earlier versions of the bill, it includes no funding for a second Human Landing System contract, something NASA sought earlier this year. (10/29)

Indonesia Orders ComSat From Thales Alenia (Source: Space News)
Indonesia has ordered a high-throughput communications satellite from Thales Alenia Space. The HTS 113BT satellite, slated for launch in 2024, will be operated in geostationary orbit by Telkomsat, a subsidiary of Indonesian state-owned telecoms operator Telkom. The satellite, based on Thales Alenia's Spacebus 4000B2 bus, will weigh about 4,000 kilograms at launch with a C- and Ku-band payload. It will take the place of Nusantara-2, formerly Palapa-N1, which was destroyed when a Chinese Long March 3B rocket failed in April 2020. (10/29)

UAE Considers NASA Commercial Crew Alternative for Sending Astronauts to ISS (Source: Space News)
The United Arab Emirates is examining a range of options for flying its astronauts. The country's first astronaut went to the International Space Station on a Soyuz in 2019, primarily because that was the only option available. However, an official with the center that runs the U.A.E.'s space program said that, with commercial crew vehicles now in service, they are considering options such as buying a seat on a commercial flight to the station or a mission like Inspiration4 that simply orbits the Earth, as well as government-to-government agreements. The U.A.E. has four astronauts, including two selected earlier this year. (10/29)

CASIS and Estée Lauder Team for ISS Research (Source: Space News)
The nonprofit that runs the ISS National Lab is partnering with a cosmetics company on space station research. The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) said Thursday it will work with Estée Lauder to solicit microgravity projects aimed at reducing plastic waste. Estée Lauder plans to provide funding to support one or more flight projects to see if microgravity can support the production of biopolymers as an alternative to conventional petrochemical plastics. (10/29)

US, Russian, Chinese Satellites Seen Maneuvering (Source: Breaking Defense)
New data visualizations show how U.S., Russian and Chinese satellites are maneuvering around one another. Space situational awareness company COMSPOC produced videos that show how USA 271, a space surveillance satellite, approached China's SJ-20, only to have SJ-20 quickly move away. In another case, a Chinese satellite timed a maneuver in the vicinity of its upper stage in such a way to allow it to slip away undetected. (10/29)

Senators Concerned Over DoD’s Sexual Assault Overhaul Timeline (Source: FNN)
The DoD is pledging major resources in its plan to overhaul the way it treats sexual assault in the military, however, a handful of powerful senators are questioning the Pentagon’s timeline for those changes. Eight lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, including Sens. Diane Feinstein (D-CA), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), wrote to Secretary Lloyd Austin with concerns that DoD’s plan will take too long to implement. “We write to express our disappointment and concern with the vague approach and lax timeline the Department of Defense has laid out,” the senators wrote this week. (10/29)

DoD CIO Nominee Cites Ligado's Threat to Agency's GPS (Source: Breaking Defense)
John Sherman, nominee for Defense Department CIO, says that the issue of radio spectrum sharing with Ligado is something he would closely monitor, citing use of the L-band frequency commercially as "an unacceptable threat to bleed over" into GPS spectrum. Ligado was given FCC permission to use a portion of the radio spectrum in the L-band frequency. That range, Sherman said, was dangerously close to GPS, representing “an unacceptable threat to bleed over in that spectrum” — an echo of long-held DoD concerns. (10/28)

Step Inside the Cleanroom Where a Revolutionary Satellite is Taking Shape (Source: C/Net)
In a massive clean room in the middle of Denver, a giant satellite sits dormant, waiting for its journey into orbit. Engineers with Lockheed Martin's Space division move around its hulking body, indistinguishable from one another in their face masks and full-body protective suits. I've been given rare access to see the GOES-T, a massive weather satellite Lockheed Martin is building for NOAA and NASA. The satellite is destined to enter geostationary orbit, a bit more than 22,000 miles above Earth's surface, and collect huge amounts of data about weather here on Earth and in space.

"We're getting 30 times the data down on this satellite as they did on the previous satellites," says GOES-T's deputy program manager, Alreen Knaub. "We're doing space weather, sun weather and Earth weather." From the initial fabrication of the circuit boards inside the satellite to the final testing, the team at Lockheed Martin Space is concerned with precision at every stage of the build. This isn't "measure twice, then cut once." This is measure countless times with lasers, reposition, measure again, repeatedly torture test, show it to the lady in the orange hairnet, then take your one chance for launch.

Though many of these components were once soldered by hand, much of the fabrication is now done with the help of automation. Walking around the SEC lab, I see machines programmed to solder circuitry, and robotic arms whir as they lay down components on circuit boards. Gone are the electrical engineers identifying tiny resistors based on their color-coded stripes -- instead, long spools of plastic-sealed components are wound up like film reels, ready to be loaded into the machines for automated assembly. (10/28)