November 2, 2021

Space Business Opportunities in the Netherlands (Source: Space Daily)
In Noordwijk the Netherlands, a new Space Campus is arising. In the next coming years, new office buildings and facilities are being constructed. NL Space is home to ESA's technical heart, the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), the Galileo Reference Centre (GRC - EUSPA), SBIC Noordwijk and Space Expo.

With the development of this Campus, Noordwijk is the ideal location for those who wish to foster business growth and are keen to engage with space industry. The Campus is a unique environment where entrepreneurs, start-ups and scale-ups, education institutes, research organisations, governmental organizations and other (societal) stakeholders can come together and collaborate. (11/1)

War in Space is Coming (Source: Space Daily)
A new arms race is unfolding among spacefaring nations. Space experts have been telling us about contested space for the last several years. The number of active satellites is exploding from about 1,000 a few years ago to an expected 50,000+ within 10 years. The sky is indeed getting very congested.

These satellites provide worldwide communications, GPS navigation, weather forecasting and planetary surveillance. Military organizations rely on many of these satellites in support of modern warfare. The three main contenders in space are the US, China and Russia. It is entirely possible that the ongoing power struggle may ignite a conflict that could cripple the entire space-based infrastructure while reducing the capabilities of warfighter organizations. (10/29)

Unvaccinated ULA Contractors Report Badges Being Turned Off First Day After Vaccination Deadline (Source: WAFF)
Several United Launch Alliance employees showed up for work Monday, only to be told to turn around and go home. It comes after the company’s deadline kicked in Friday to follow the federal vaccine mandate. But the timing couldn’t be worse as the White House issued new guidelines Monday that may provide some flexibility to federal contractors who refuse to get vaccinated.

For 16 years, Brent Vandiver has pulled in to ULA, scanned his badge and got to work, until Monday morning when the badge stopped working. Vandiver says he called a number given to him by the security guard for HR. “They told me I was being placed on unpaid administrative leave.” Vandiver says he’s not against vaccines, but is against vaccine mandates. (11/1)

The Commercial Space Station Race (Source: Space Review)
NASA’s plans to retire the International Space Station by 2030 depend on companies developing commercial space stations to succeed it. Jeff Foust reports on recent developments in that effort, including new concepts announced late last month by two industry teams. Click here. (11/1)
 
Will SpaceX Follow Tesla to a $1 Trillion Market Capitalization? (Source: Space Review)
Tesla, the electric vehicle company run by Elon Musk, recently passed a market cap of $1 trillion. Sam Dinkin examines what it would take for SpaceX to pass that threshold. Click here. (11/1)
 
How a Small, Distant Space Telescope Can Solve Astrophysical Mysteries Big Ones Can’t (Source: Space Review)
The long-awaited Astro2020 decadal survey of astrophysics will be released this week, offering its recommendations for the next large space telescope NASA should develop. Michael Zemcov makes the case for NASA to also consider much smaller telescopes that, placed far from Earth, can do things large telescopes can’t. Click here. (11/1)
 
Strategic Geographical Points in Outer Space (Source: Space Review)
Geography plays a key role in military strategy, something which extends to space. Matthew Jenkins examines how concepts like lines of communication and choke points apply to spaceports, orbits, and Lagrange points. Click here. (11/1)

Hubble Remains in Safe Mode, NASA Team Investigating (Source: Space Daily)
NASA is continuing to investigate why the instruments in the Hubble Space Telescope recently went into safe mode configuration, suspending science operations. The instruments are healthy and will remain in safe mode while the mission team continues its investigation. Hubble's science instruments issued error codes at 1:46 a.m. EDT Oct. 23, indicating the loss of a specific synchronization message.

This message provides timing information the instruments use to correctly respond to data requests and commands. The mission team reset the instruments, resuming science operations the following morning. At 2:38 a.m. EDT, Oct. 25, the science instruments again issued error codes indicating multiple losses of synchronization messages. As a result, the science instruments autonomously entered safe mode states as programmed. (11/2)

Satellite Images Show Positive Impact of Conservation Efforts for China's Coastal Wetlands (Source: Space Daily)
Coastal wetlands support diverse and vital ecosystems central to coastal areas' biodiversity and economic vitality. However, coastal wetlands are threatened by sea level rise that can lead to flooding and land use changes that alter the way people can live or work in these areas. These impacts are large. Approximately 600 million people live less than 10 meters, approximately 6 miles, above sea level, while 2.4 billion people live within 100 km, or around 60 miles, of the coast.

An international, interdisciplinary research team led by University of Oklahoma professor Xiangming Xiao is using satellite images to measure the changes of coastal wetlands in China from the early 1980s to the present. The research team is also assessing the effects of conservation efforts on preserving and recovering these important ecosystems. Their findings on China's coastal wetlands are now published in the journal, Nature Sustainability. (10/29)

Why Are We Letting Monopolists Corner Space? (Source: Washington Monthly)
When Silicon Valley tycoons look up into space today, they see dollar signs: a booming space industry flush with venture capital funding, Wall Street investment, and a hot satellite technology market worth billions of dollars. But Moriba Jah, a NASA scientist turned ardent space environmentalist, sees doom on the horizon.

On February 12, 2020, Jah testified before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on the political economy of space and national defense. Called to Washington as a witness from Texas, where he’s a professor of aerospace engineering at UT Austin, Jah stood out from the other witnesses. He wore a charcoal-gray suit, a nose ring, and a black kukui nut necklace partially obscured by his dreadlocks.

Jah, who grew up partly in Venezuela before joining the U.S. Air Force, warned the committee about the looming disaster of space debris, which threatens to derail the entire satellite industry as well as future space exploration. The two main culprits are Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’s Amazon. The tech giants are launching thousands of satellites into low Earth orbit (LEO) with reckless abandon to provide high-speed broadband to underserved areas where terrestrial cable doesn’t reach or the connection runs too slowly. (11/1)

This Video Is Almost As Good As Visiting The International Space Station (Source: Forbes)
Space tourism is one of the big stories of 2021, and that includes the International Space Station. A Russian film crew just returned from filming a major movie there, and we know that Hollywood actor Tom Cruise has an arrangement to visit the orbiting complex in the near future. For most of us, though, space will remain out of reach for a while and we need to find other ways of experiencing it. Even seats on a suborbital flight such as Virgin Galactic are at least $450,000 each.

But we have other ways of virtually taking a trip to space without the cost and without the risk, including this new YouTube video showing us a cool fly-through the space station. This glimpse of the space environment comes courtesy of Thomas Pesquet, the ever-busy French astronaut who has been filming tours of the station ever since he arrived in space. Now commander of the ISS, Pesquet still fills his spare time with public engagement, sending pictures, video and other missives from space to keep us flying alongside him as much as possible. Click here. (11/1)

Boulder-Area Companies Embrace New Markets in Space-as-a-Service Sector (Source: Daily Camera)
A new business park is being developed with the help of some innovative Boulder County companies. Want to see where it’ll be? Look up. Way up. The announcement last week that Sierra Space and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin will build a space station called “Orbital Reef” in low-Earth orbit is the latest and most high-profile example of the development of “Space as a Service,” platforms where manufacturing, research and development, tourism and other private-sector activities can be done without the constraints of gravity.

“We see many possibilities for businesses that could utilize space, including several industries including manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, universities, medical and disease research, and any scientific study that could benefit from zero gravity,” said John Roth, vice president for business development at Sierra Space. “Our new space-station business park, Orbital Reef, plans on offering the infrastructure to allow a tenant to rent out space — from a locker to a whole module.” (11/1)

Terran Orbital is the Latest 'Space SPAC' & has Backers (Source: Washington Technology)
We readily admit to losing count of all the so-called “Space SPACs” that have hit the market in the past two years with seemingly one direct listing following the next. A shortlist of those space companies that have gone public through mergers with those blank-check special purpose acquisition companies includes Astra, AST SpaceMobile, Blacksky, Momentus, Redwire and Rocket Lab. Those having SPAC deals in place include Planet Labs, Satellogic and Virgin Orbit.

Enter into the mix Terran Orbital, a small satellite maker that announced Friday its transaction to go public in next year’s first quarter by merging with Tailwind Two Acquisition Corp. By merging with Tailwind Two, Terran Orbital is getting an initial $470 million cash infusion from the SPAC and other investors to further expand manufacturing capacity and move forward on delivering “satellite imagery as-a-service” to customers. (11/1)

Rocket Lab’s Peter Beck Shares Why He Keeps Things Complex (Source: LA Business Journal)
So, in the short to medium term, it’s all about continuing to grow in the Space Systems Group, and in the medium to long term is our large launch vehicle called Neutron, which is a pretty significant program. From a long-term perspective, what we’re trying to build here is a company that has its own launch, has its own ability to build whatever spacecraft or satellite it wants and to ultimately go after space applications.

When I say space applications, I mean the services that we’ll use from space down here on Earth. We want to put constellations of our own satellites up there and provide our own services down to Earth. We are a launch company, but we also are a satellite company. Having both of those things under one roof is very unique. We’re trying to build the first end-to-end space company here, so I think those two things are probably the most important. Click here. (11/1)

NASA, SpaceX Delay Crew-3 Launch Again, Citing ‘Minor Medical Issue’ with Astronaut (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
NASA is again having to delay the launch of its Crew-3 mission because one of the four astronauts is experiencing a “minor medical issue,” the agency announced Monday. NASA would not say which of the crew members — Americans Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn or Kayla Barron or the European Space Agency’s Matthias Maurer — was affected or what exactly the medical issue entailed but said “the issue is not a medical emergency and not related to COVID-19.”

The agency said SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and the Crew Dragon capsule that the team will ride in, named Endurance, are “in good shape” to take Crew-3 to the International Space Station. The launch was originally scheduled for early Halloween morning but postponed until Wednesday due to a large storm in the rocket’s flight path. Now NASA is targeting no earlier than Saturday at 11:36 p.m. (11/1)

Curiosity Finds Organic Molecules on Mars (Source: Inverse)
NASA’s Curiosity rover was suffering from a slight malfunction. The robot’s drill stopped working while Curiosity was on Mars’ Vera Rubin ridge at the base of Mount Sharp. The rover had collected a sample of Martian dirt, and the team behind the mission decided to go a different route. Instead of dropping the sample into one of the cups in the sample carousel, they dropped it into a cup pre-filled with a chemical mixture. The molecules released from the cup were then trapped and analyzed, revealing organic molecules on Mars that no space agency had previously detected. (11/1)

FAA Delays Georgia Spaceport Decision Again (Source: Brunswick News)
The Federal Aviation Administration is delaying a decision on a proposed spaceport in Camden County, a decision it was initially scheduled to announce three years ago. The federal agency’s Record of Decision, most recently planned for Wednesday, is now scheduled for Dec. 15. While FAA officials did not explain the most recent delay, opponents to the proposed spaceport believe they know the answer.

Kevin Lang, an Athens lawyer whose family owns property on Little Cumberland Island, said strong opposition from the U.S. Department of Interior, as well as concerns expressed by residents on Little Cumberland Island, has put the FAA in “a very difficult decision.” If the county gets the launch site operator’s license, the site in Camden would be the only spaceport in the nation to launch rockets over an occupied area.

Steve Weinkle, a vocal opponent who lives less than 10 miles from the proposed launch site, said the FAA ignored the environmental and public safety concerns and “blew through red flag after red flag after red flag after red flag.” Weinkle said the FAA ignored opposition to the project at public hearings and in the written public comments. Taxpayers are concerned about the more than $10 million the county has already spent with no guarantee a launch will ever happen and whether it will ever recoup the money spent. (11/2)

Sam Adams Is Launching a New Beer Made With Hops That Traveled to Space (Source: Travel & Leisure)
Samuel Adams is giving us all an out-of-this-world beer. And they mean that literally. In late October, the craft beer company out of Boston announced that it's launching Space Craft, a beer brewed from 66 pounds of hops that traveled more than 300 miles above Earth on the first-ever all-civilian space mission in September. (11/1)

Midland Developing Strong Reputation in 'Central Space Basin' (Source: Midand Reporter-Telegram)
The Permian Basin is known globally as one of the most prolific oil and gas producing basins on the planet. Now it’s developing a reputation as a prime member of what is known as the Central Space Basin. There is a ‘hub’ of six spaceports in the central US and Midland’s International Air and Space Port and its adjacent Spaceport Business Park sit in the middle, Oscar Garcia, chairman and chief executive officer of InterFlight Global Corp., told Midland Development Corp. board members at their monthly meeting Monday.

“We’re getting more calls and interest from companies wanting to explore Midland and the Central Space Basin,” he said during his third-quarter update. He estimated the tenants at Midland’s Spaceport Business Park address a market that amounts to $140 billion. Since 2018, Garcia said his company has attracted three companies to the park, creating 200 jobs and hosted more than 50 companies who have visited the facilities. Just last week, he said, a large, high-profile company visited Midland and focused on the ability to develop an airspace corridor. (11/1)

UN Committee Votes ‘Yes’ On UK-US-Backed Space Rules Group (Source: Breaking Defense)
The UN First Committee, responsible for international security, today approved a new working group to develop rules of the road for military activities in space, and possibly even lay the groundwork for a new treaty. The vote, while a baby step, is an indication of growing political concurrence that action, not just political posturing, is required to mitigate the ratcheting risks of conflict as nations pursue technologies to best each other in the military space domain.

“This may actually accomplish something,” said Victoria Samson, head of Secure World Foundation’s Washington office. “As we see different actors coming up with a lot of the same ideas of responsible/irresponsible behavior, we actually stand the chance of getting some progress in multilateral fora about this instead of having the same tired circular arguments that have been held for decades.” (11/1)

Jessica Watkins Could Be the First Woman and Person of Color on the Moon (Source: 5280.com)
When the Orion spacecraft lifts off in 2024, it will break more than the sound barrier. NASA’s Artemis mission, which is scheduled to return humans to the moon for the first time in 50 years, has promised that during this maiden trip, a woman will add her footprints to the lunar surface, and that a person of color will too by the end of the decade. As one of 18 astronauts training to fill the initial four-person crew—and the only Black woman among them—33-year-old Jessica Watkins of Lafayette may be poised to take those huge steps.

Since joining NASA’s astronaut program in 2017, Watkins, a geologist by training, has analyzed near-Earth asteroids, studied landslides on Mars, and been part of the Curiosity Rover team that discovered evidence of water on the red planet. But even if NASA doesn’t choose her for the program’s first human expedition, Watkins still has a shot at studying space rocks up close. During the latter part of the 2020s, subsequent Artemis expeditions will establish a base camp on the moon’s southern pole to serve as a research site and an eventual way station for longer space explorations—including the 140-million-mile leap to Mars. (11/1)

Starlink in India: Musk Gears Up to Launch Internet Services (Source: Aljazeera)
Starlink, the satellite internet division of billionaire Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX, registered its business in India on Monday, company documents filed with the government showed, as it gears up to launch internet services in the country. Having a local unit, Starlink Satellite Communications Private Limited, will allow the company to apply for licences that it needs from the government before it can provide broadband and other satellite-based communication services. (11/1)

Why Celebrities Are Going to Space —and What it Means for Our Future (Source: Harvard Crimson)
Humans have long dreamed of going to space, and now, the wealthiest and most famous can buy the chance to make this vision a reality. Celebrities such as Tom Hanks, Angelina Jolie, Leonardo Dicaprio, and James Cameron have all purchased tickets to fly on an upcoming space flight. Several weeks ago, “Star Trek” actor and pop culture icon William Shatner became the oldest man to travel to space with Jeff Bezos and his aerospace company Blue Origin. Others, like Billie Eilish, have spoken out about their desire to do literally anything else.

Some celebrities chose to purchase tickets for reasons related to the production of their art. Singer and pop star Lady Gaga intends to be the first person to sing in space, and a source told Us Weekly that she plans to take a month of vocal training to prepare for this bizarre experience. Fellow pop singer and ticket holder Justin Bieber even floated the possibility of filming a music video in space. The idea of capitalizing on the allure of space to boost an artist’s image and connect with their audience in a fresh way can be seen as a bold and brilliant PR move. (11/1)

Inside Artemis 1’s Complex Launch Windows and Constraints (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
When the flight hardware and ground systems are finally ready for the inaugural Artemis 1 launch to the Moon, NASA will also have to synchronize the timing of the flight with unique celestial mechanics. The Orion and Space Launch System (SLS) Programs in the Exploration Systems Development (ESD) division are working together to calculate when the Earth, Moon, and sometimes the Sun are all in the right positions to support the agency’s requirements for this first joint Orion-SLS test flight.

In general, NASA will have daily opportunities to launch this first Artemis mission to the Moon in an approximately “two weeks on, two weeks off” pattern. On a particular day that has a launch opportunity, the Exploration Ground Systems (EGS), Orion, and SLS programs will have a launch window that will vary from a few minutes to a few hours. Click here. (11/1)

New Chinese Launch Firm Signs Deal for Reusable Rocket Engines (Source: Space News)
Rocket Pi of China has signed a deal with a liquid rocket engine maker for supply of engines to power its Darwin-1 reusable launch vehicle. The deal, announced by methane-liquid oxygen engine maker Jiuzhou Yunjian Oct. 30, is for Lingyun-70, 70-ton (sea level) thrust engines with deep throttling capabilities and 12.5-ton (vacuum) thrust Lingyun-10 engines and is worth “tens of millions of yuan” (10 million yuan = $1.56 million).

A single Lingyun-70 will power the first stage of the 2.25-meter-diameter Darwin-1 launcher with a Lingyun-10 engine on the second stage. Rocket Pi secured financing of tens of millions of yuan in July. That report also stated that Darwin-1 was slated for a test flight in early 2023. The launcher was previously stated to be capable of carrying 270 kilograms into low Earth orbit or 150 kg into a sun-synchronous orbit. However, these earlier plans also indicated that the Darwin-1 first stage would use five Lingyun-10 engines instead of a single Lingyun-70. (10/31)

Falcon Heavy Could Launch Three U.S. Space Force Missions in 2022 (Source: Space News)
Two U.S. Space Force missions on Falcon Heavy rockets that had been scheduled for 2021 have slipped into next year. There is now a third U.S. national security launch that will be added to the Falcon Heavy’s crowded 2022 manifest. USSF-67, a classified national security mission to geostationary Earth orbit awarded to SpaceX last year under a $332 million contract, is “on track for mid-to-late 2022 launch,” a U.S. Space Systems Command spokesman confirmed Oct. 30. (10/31)

New Roles, Combined Offices for NASA Administrator Leadership Team (Sources: NASA, Space Policy Online)
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson is announcing new leadership roles, as well as the merging of two offices into the Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy (OTPS), in support of Biden-Harris Administration priorities and the focus on space strategy.

Bhavya Lal, a Biden political appointee who has held several positions at the agency since the inauguration, is taking on a new role as head of the agency’s just-created Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy. The reorganization merges two units including the Office of Chief Technologist and Lal will also serve as Acting Chief Technologist. A number of personnel reassignments were announced simultaneously. Click here. (11/1)

Russia Thinks UK-Initiated Draft Resolution on Space Unacceptable (Source: TASS)
The UK-initiated draft UN resolution on space has serious drawbacks and ignores Russia’s principled approaches, Russian Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Geneva office Andrei Belousov said on Monday.

"The First Committee’s draft resolution should center round preventing an arms race in outer space rather than dwell on space security in its broad interpretation," he said at a meeting of the UN General Assembly First Committee. "Russia supports the establishment of open working groups to discuss the most pressing issues on the disarmament agenda with an aim of reaching consensus solutions." (11/1)

Roscosmos Signs Cooperation Memorandum with Zimbabwe's Space Agency (Source: TASS)
Russia's space corporation Roscosmos and the Zimbabwe National Geospatial and Space Agency have signed a memorandum of understanding and cooperation in space, Roscosmos said. On November 1, Roscosmos said, talks were held between its deputy CEO, Oleg Frolov, and Zimbabwe's Deputy Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education and Innovation, Science and Technology Development, Raymore Machingura and ZINGSA Acting Director Pianos Gweme. (11/1)

Northrop Grumman Selects Mynaric as ‘strategic Supplier’ of Space Laser Communications (Source: Space News)
Mynaric, a manufacturer of laser communications equipment, announced Nov. 1 it was selected by Northrop Grumman as a strategic supplier. The partnership with top Pentagon contractor Northrop Grumman is significant for Germany-based Mynaric, which has been making moves in the U.S. market, particularly in the government and defense sectors. (11/1)

Beresheet 2 to Include Two Landers and an Orbiter (Source: Space News)
The company that built the first Israeli spacecraft to attempt to land on the moon is starting work on the second mission with a significantly different design. Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) was the prime contractor for Beresheet, the lander it built for the nonprofit organization SpaceIL, one of the competitors of the former Google Lunar X Prize.

Beresheet attempted to land on the moon in April 2019, but its main engine shut down prematurely during its descent, causing the spacecraft to crash. A later analysis found that one of two inertial measurement units on the spacecraft shut down during its descent, and the process of restarting it caused resets in the lander’s avionics that caused the engine to shut down.

After some initial uncertainty about its future plans, SpaceIL is moving ahead with a Beresheet 2 mission, and will once again have IAI build the spacecraft. However, Beresheet 2 will be significantly different from its predecessor. “SpaceIL came up with a very interesting idea: let’s land twice,” said Shlomi Sudri, vice president and general manager of the space division of IAI, in an interview. “We’ll develop an orbiter that will carry two small landers.” (11/1)

Most of Soyuz Launches for OneWeb in 2022 Planned from Baikonur (Source: TASS)
Most of the launches of UK communications satellites OneWeb in 2022 will be carried out from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, a source in the rocket and space industry told TASS. "For the most part, the launches of OneWeb satellites next year will take place from Baikonur," the source said. According to the source, the first launch of the Soyuz launch vehicle with OneWeb satellites from Baikonur in 2022 is scheduled for January 27.

In 2021, the majority of launches (five) under the program was carried out from the Vostochny cosmodrome. Two more - from Baikonur, this is where the Soyuz-2.1b rocket is expected to launch with OneWeb satellites on December 27. The renewed agreement between OneWeb and Arianespace includes the launch of 16 Russian Soyuz missiles from the Kourou, Vostochny, and Baikonur spaceports in 2020-2022. (11/2)

Russia Eyes Methane-Fueled Booster With Reusable First Stage (Source: Aviation Week)
Russia plans to spend about $1 billion for development and at least three flight tests of a methane-powered orbital launch vehicle known as the Amur SPG that has a first stage designed to glide itself back to its launch site. Russia plans to flight-test a super-light reusable rocket called Krylo-SV—Russian for “wing.” (11/1)

Amazon Picks ABL to Launch Kuiper Prototype Satellites (Source: Space News)
Amazon will launch its first Project Kuiper broadband satellites with ABL Space Systems. Amazon said Monday it will launch the KuiperSat-1 and KuiperSat-2 prototypes on ABL's RS1 small launch vehicle in late 2022. The satellites will test technologies being developed for use on the proposed constellation of about 3,200 satellites to provide broadband internet service. The two satellites will not be part of the constellation, and are designed to inform the development of the operational satellites before their designs are finalized. Although ABL has yet to launch its first RS1, an Amazon official said the company was "impressed by ABL's unique capabilities, rapid development progress and dedication to customers." (11/2)

This Astronaut is Spending his SpaceX Launch Delay Cleaning Up a Florida Beach (Source: Space.com)
A German astronaut is showing his love for Earth during a few extra days on the planet's surface before his first space mission. Matthias Maurer, who is waiting with the rest of Crew-3 team for a delayed ride to the International Space Station, has spent part of his quarantine picking up trash on the Florida beach, within range of his SpaceX launch site at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. (11/1)

Redwire to Acquire Techshot (Source: Space News)
Redwire is acquiring space biotech company Techshot. Redwire announced the acquisition Tuesday but did not disclose the terms of the deal. Techshot was founded more than 30 years ago and specializes in developing biotech and other payloads for microgravity research, such as a bioprinter currently on the ISS. The acquisition is the first since Redwire went public two months ago in a merger with a SPAC, a deal it said was designed to give it resources to pursue additional acquisitions. Redwire had acquired several space technology companies since its founding last year. (11/2)

Goldin Joins Stratolaunch Board (Source: Stratolaunch)
Former NASA Administrator Dan Goldin has joined the board of Stratolaunch. The company announced Monday that Goldin, along with Kamiar Karimi, a former senior technical director at Boeing, are joining the board of directors. Stratolaunch developed its Roc aircraft originally as an air-launch platform but has since pivoted to hypersonics projects. Its Talon-A hypersonic tech vehicle is scheduled to begin flight testing in 2022. Goldin, in a statement about joining the board, said the company "has the potential to reshape the understanding and use of hypersonic technologies." (11/2)

Scale Proposed to Rank Potential Discoveries of Extraterrestrial Life (Source: Space.com)
Scientists have proposed a scale to measure potential discoveries of life beyond Earth. In a paper published in the journal Nature last week by a team led by NASA Chief Scientist Jim Green, scientists proposed a one-to-seven scale, modeled on the one-to-nine Technology Readiness Level, to measure the significance of astrobiological discoveries. On Mars, finding potential signatures of life would be considered a Level 1 discovery, while finding signs of life with several instruments in several locations on the planet would be a Level 7. The purpose of the scale, authors said, is to eliminate binary questions of life or no life, and instead better express uncertainties and the needs for additional studies to confirm discoveries. (11/2)