November 1, 2021

Blue Origin's Defense of Its "Toxic" Culture Was Absurdly Awful (Source: Inc.)
A Washington Post (which Bezos owns) article quotes the company's former head of that Blue Origin's "culture sits on a foundation that ignores the plight of our planet, turns a blind eye to sexism, is not sufficiently attuned to safety concerns, and silences those who seek to correct wrongs." Ouch. Another former employee was quoted as saying: "The C-suite is out of touch with the rank-and-file pretty severely. It's very dysfunctional. It's condescending. It's demoralizing, and what happens is we can't make progress and end up with huge delays."

Mary Plunkett, Blue Origin's senior vice president of human resources, said the company ...has an anonymous hotline that is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week for employees, 'where any claims of this nature are registered and then investigated.' Where do I start? Look, anybody who's been around the corporate politics block more than once knows that "anonymous" complaints are almost always recorded and, if the complaint involves a senior executive, that recording will played for that executive, who will immediately recognize the voice and punish accordingly.

The worst part of the Blue Origin response is the idea that having a conversation with Human Resources or "senior leadership" will result in anything other than, you guessed it, the complainer being punished accordingly. The purpose of HR is not to represent the best interests of the employees. The purpose of HR is to prevent the company from being sued. As such, complaining to HR about being harassed is like giving your soon-to-be-ex-spouse's lawyer a detailed list of all the time you've been unfaithful. (10/31)

Blue Origin Signs Deal with Four Wichita Aerospace Companies (Source: KAKE)
Blue Origin, commercial space company founded by Amazon's Jeff Bezos has announced it has inked multi-year contracts with four Wichita-area aerospace companies. Accurus Aerospace Wichita, C.E. Machine Company Inc, Harlow Aerostructures LLC, and Orizon Aerostructures, LLC will work on Blue Origin's engine program, as well as their reusable heavy-lift orbital launch vehicle. (10/29)

Can your Startup be Part of the Space Race? (Source: Gulf  Business)
A space race that was once between countries is now between billionaires and entrepreneurs. There are some big names involved, including Elon Musk, Richard Branson, and Jeff Bezos, so investment is growing. The Bryce Start up Space Report reveals that in 2019, $5.7bn was poured into startup space ventures, up by $3.5bn in comparison to the year before. More avenues of exploration are rapidly opening, so here are three of them to keep an eye on. Click here. (10/30) 

Hypersonic Missile Defense is a Job for the Space Force (Source: The Hill)
The recent revelation that China has tested two hypersonic glide missiles has rocked the American national security establishment. According to Bloomberg, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley suggested that the tests approached a “Sputnik moment,” harkening back to the Soviet launch of the first Earth satellite, which also proved the capability of delivering a nuclear warhead anywhere on Earth with a ballistic missile.

A nuclear capable, intercontinental range hypersonic glide missile presents a challenge for the American military. The Chinese missile is hard to track when it is in the midrange stage of its flight, which can occur over the South Pole, bypassing American missile defenses. Once the missile reenters the Earth’s atmosphere, it can glide to its target from any direction, making it difficult for current terminal-stage defenses to engage and destroy. Click here. (10/31)

Taking India’s Cost-Effective Space Launches To the Next Level (Source: Observer Research Foundation)
Earlier in the month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the creation of the Indian Space Association (ISpA), an industry association of space and satellite industries, meant to contribute to making India Atmanirbhar (self-sufficient) as well as “a global leader in the space arena,” which is seen as “the next growth frontier for mankind.” The ISpA is expected to engage the different stakeholders across the entire space ecosystem in order to formulate “an enabling policy framework,” taking India closer to the goal of self-sufficiency.

The new association is supposed to establish global linkages for the Indian space industry in order to facilitate transfer of critical technologies and bring in funds that could result in the creation of more high skilled jobs. Establishing the ISpA, Modi said India’s space program has been primarily driven by Indian government institutions, but that there is a need to bring in actors with different capabilities from both the public and private sector to strengthen India’s space competitiveness. (10/30)

Amazon Web Services Looks to Space Opportunities – From Tourism to Manufacturing (Source: The National)
Amazon Web Services, the cloud-computing unit of billionaire Jeff Bezos' e-commerce company Amazon, is looking at space opportunities in asteroid mining, tourism, manufacturing and digital services over the next five to 10 years. This comes as an increasingly lucrative and competitive market unfolds beyond the 100-kilometre high Karman line – a definition of the boundary between the Earth's atmosphere and outer space.

With new sectors emerging in the space industry, the world's biggest cloud services provider is seeking to reduce the cost of capturing, analytics, storing and sharing valuable space data in a fraction of the time for clients from major governments to smaller start-ups. AWS's aerospace unit is considering applications for its cloud computing services in the next decade and beyond in emerging sectors.

“There is a broader group of missions that are emerging in space that we are not doing today that we will, and I would put space tourism in that category, but on-orbit manufacturing is one of the things that are really the most interesting,” said Clint Crosier, a former US Air Force major general who most recently directed the establishment of the US Space Force. Building and assembling satellites on the ground before launching them into space is very expensive, leading companies to explore platforms similar to the ISS that can be used for additive manufacturing and building parts in space. (10/31)

Iowa Returns to Space (Source: The Gazette)
Iowa is set to return to space before dawn this morning in the scheduled launch of Crew Dragon III with Raja Chari as Commander. Chari, whose family is native to India, was raised in Cedar Falls and graduated from Waterloo Columbus High School in 1995. From there, he enlisted in the Air Force and attended the U.S. Air Force Academy, majoring in aerospace engineering.

Considering himself to be a self-admitted “nerd,” Chari went on to gain his masters at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology while also training as an Air Force and Navy Test Pilot. He applied with NASA to be an astronaut in 2016 and was selected as one of eleven from thousands of aspirants in 2017. Three years later, the world was introduced to Iowa’s newest native son to be awarded astronaut wings when Chari was named Commander of Crew Dragon III. (10/31)

Virgin Galactic’s Struggles Raise Questions About New Mexico Spaceport’s Future (Source: Santa Fe New Mexican)
Virgin’s latest snags — and a further delay — call into question the outlook for Spaceport America, whose fortunes are to some extent tied to the company and its success at establishing space tourism at this complex in a remote area near Truth or Consequences. The spaceport, in fact, was built primarily to accommodate Virgin. Scott McLaughlin, the spaceport’s chief executive, said there’s no need for concern as long as Virgin keeps paying $5.5 million in yearly fees.

“So this planned flight downtime does not necessarily have a direct impact on Spaceport America’s financial picture,” McLaughlin said. Even if Virgin’s commercial flights don’t take off for a few years, the impacts will be felt more in the local economy, where businesses have been waiting for the boost that space tourism will bring, he said. “Once Virgin Galactic is flying to space regularly, there will be tourists and other guests staying in hotels and spending money in Las Cruces, Truth or Consequences and, ideally, all around New Mexico,” McLaughlin said.

The governor and other state leaders also have been eager for Virgin to launch regular passenger flights to justify the sizable investment of public dollars in creating the spaceport. The state paid roughly two-thirds of the $200 million-plus in construction costs, and the rest was covered by a gross receipts tax approved by Sierra and Doña Ana counties. However, State Rep. Rebecca Dow, a Republican from Truth or Consequences who is seeking the Republican nomination for governor in 2022, played down Virgin’s importance to the spaceport and the area’s economy. (10/30)

SpaceX's Dragon Space Toilet is Off Limits for Astronauts Returning to Earth Soon (Source: Space.com)
The next astronauts to return to Earth on a SpaceX Dragon won't be able use a crucial system on their trip home next month: the space potty. SpaceX's toilet on its Crew Dragon Endeavour will be off limits for the four Crew-2 mission astronauts once they leave the International Space Station in early November, NASA officials said on Oct. 29. That's because of a possible urine leak in the toilet like one seen on SpaceX's all-civilian Inspiration4 flight in September. SpaceX has since redesigned its toilet to avoid leaks on future flights. (10/30)

Rocket Lab Launch: Helicopter Prepares for Reusable Rocket Catching off Mahia Coast (Source: New Zealand Herald)
Rocket Lab's next launch from Mahia in just over a week will involve a reusable rocket. The United States-based space company says the next mission would be its third ocean recovery mission, bringing Electron's first stage back to Earth under a parachute before a soft landing in the ocean where a team of engineers will be stationed to retrieve it, haul it onboard their vessel, and bring it back to Rocket Lab's production complex for inspection.

For the first time a helicopter will be involved in the operations offshore and will simulate catching a returning rocket in preparation for future mid-air recovery missions. The mission — called Love At First Insight — is scheduled to lift off from Launch Complex 1 in Mahia during a 14-day launch window that opens on November 11. The mission's primary objective is to deploy two Earth-observation satellites for global monitoring company BlackSky, with the secondary objective to splash down and recover Electron's first stage to further validate Rocket Lab's recovery operations and hardware. (10/30)

SpaceX's 7th Hire Describes What it's Like to Work with Elon Musk: 'He Expects a Lot, and That's a Challenge' (Source: Business Insider)
Elon Musk's seventh hire at SpaceX has said that the billionaire businessman expects a lot from his staff — and that could be a "challenge." German aerospace engineer Hans Koenigsmann, a former vice president at SpaceX, retired from the company in early October after 19 years there, having in February announced his intention to leave.

During his time at SpaceX, Koenigsmann was in charge of several missions and launches. He worked for a few years on the company's satellite internet service, Starlink. He was also involved with the company's first all-civilian mission to space, Inspiration4. There was always a lot of work to do at SpaceX, Koenigsmann said: he worked evenings and on weekends to catch up with his heavy workload. But he said he "never had a day where I went there and was thinking I don't want to do that work," adding that he was always motivated and happy. (10/30)

Battleface Taking Early lead in Space Insurance Race (Source: Travel Weekly)
The development of space tourism may still be in its nascent stages, but insurance startup Battleface is looking to stay ahead of the curve with what it claims is the market's first civilian space travel insurance plan. Launched earlier this year, Battleface's space insurance policy is highly customizable, offering many of the same protections typically covered by more traditional travel insurance plans, including trip cancellation and interruption benefits.

"For example, you may have to travel to Texas just to get to your space launch," said Battleface CEO Sasha Gainullin. "So, standard travel insurance is still an important part of your journey from the time you leave home to the time you come back." Unlike regular travel insurance, however, the company's space travel protections also include add-ons like accidental death and permanent dismemberment coverage. The policy is also far more costly, due to the high expense and risk associated with space travel. (10/30)

Former ULA Employee Speaks Out on Federal Vaccine Mandate Deadline (Source: WAAY)
On Friday, workers with the Decatur location of United Launch Alliance had to comply with the federal vaccine mandate and show proof of vaccination by 3:30 p.m. or be let go. Now we're hearing from a newly released employee who told us he is fighting back against the decision. Hunter Creger walked WAAY-TV through his last day at work at ULA. He was protesting until the final cars left the building. He told us the federal mandate on vaccines is a complete overreach.

"You're pushing people into a corner, and after going on two years of this pandemic, I think people have had enough," he said. Creger worked at ULA until recently. The federal vaccine mandate for contractors officially goes into effect Dec. 8, but ULA decided to start the mandate for their employees early. By end of business Friday, everyone had to have proof of their Covid-19 vaccine shot. Creger told WAAY-TV he didn't want to be forced to be vaccinated, and Wednesday was the last day he walked into work. (10/29)

Another Aerospace Company Lands at the Long Beach Port (Source: Press-Telegram)
Another aerospace company will land at the Port of Long Beach, bolstering the city’s growing reputation — and the continuing legacy of the region — as a hub for space technology companies. The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners approved an agreement Thursday, Oct. 28, to let ABL Space Systems build a spacecraft processing facility at the Port of Long Beach and use the waterfront area to deliver and ship its cargo.

“We welcome ABL Space Systems to the Port of Long Beach family. It’s exciting to add yet another tenant in the rapidly growing spacecraft technology industry,” Long Beach harbor commission President Steven Neal said in a statement. “We look forward to what we know will be a mutually beneficial relationship with our newest tenant.” (10/28)

A Mars Colony Could be a Hydrogen Factory, Providing Propellant for the Inner Solar System (Source: Universe Today)
There are lots of potential uses for a Mars colony. It could be a research outpost, mining colony, or even a possible second home if something happens to go drastically wrong on our first one. But it could also be a potential source of what is sure to be one of the most valuable elements in the space economy—hydrogen.

A new paper from Dr. Mikhail Shubov at the University of Massachusetts Lowell discusses just such an eventuality. Hydrogen is useful in myriad applications. From creating water to exploding as rocket fuel, the most abundant element in the universe sure has many uses. The problem is it's relatively hard to get access to in the broader solar system.

There is plenty of it in Jupiter or even the sun, but extracting the material from those enormous gravity wells is not particularly cost-effective. Smaller orbital bodies, such as asteroids, have some water that could be used as a hydrogen source, but they are not large enough to provide all of the solar system's needs. (10/29)

SpaceX Links Up with Filipino Firms to Bring Starlink Services to Philippines (Source: Inquirer.net)
Elon Musk is firming up deals with Filipino companies ahead of SpaceX's rollout of satellite internet services in the Philippines in 2022. Through its Starlink project, SpaceX will launch thousands of satellites into low earth orbit to form a constellation of spacecraft capable of beaming high-speed internet to difficult-to-reach areas around the globe. Starlink’s planned debut in the Philippines next year requires local partners with legislative franchises and infrastructure, including earth stations, which are ground-based transmitters that communicate with satellites, and fiber cables. (10/29)