December 11, 2021

Relativity Space Tests Water Deluge System at Refurbished Florida Launch Pad (Source: Relativity Space)
Relativity Space, the launcher startup developing 3-D printed rockets, continues its work at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport to modify an old launch pad for their commercial missions. The company recently posted this video of their new water deluge system at Launch Complex 16. (12/10) 

Old Shepard vs New Shepard: How Astronaut Daughter's Launch Stacks Up (Source: CollectSpace)
Laura Shepard Churchley is now the 372nd American to fly into space. Her dad was the first. Separated by 60 years, 7 months and 6 days, Churchley followed in her father's footsteps — and suborbital flight trajectory — by launching on board Blue Origin's New Shepard on Dec. 11. The rocket, named after Alan Shepard, the United States' first astronaut to fly into space (and Churchley's dad), completed its 19th successful spaceflight and first to carry a full crew of six people.

The two Shepards' history-making missions were similar in many ways, but here's how they were different: Alan Shepard (AS) flight duration = 15 minutes 28 seconds, New Shepard (NS) flight duration = 10 minutes 13 seconds; AS apogee = 187.5km, NS apogee = 105.9km; AS vehicle height = 25m, NS vehicle height = 15m; AS vehicle diameter = 1.8m, NS vehicle diameter = 3.7m. (12/11)

Saving the Shuttle Simulator—“It Was an Artifact That Needed to be Preserved” (Source: Ars Technica)
Every NASA astronaut who ever rode aboard the space shuttle, more than 350 of them, first sat in its full-motion simulator. And even though the simulator was firmly on the ground, anchored inside Building 5 at Johnson Space Center, it offered one hell of a ride.

"It was absolutely identical to what we flew," says Bonnie Dunbar, a former NASA astronaut who launched on the space shuttle five times from 1985 to 1998. "It rolled over on its back. It would vibrate as if you were going through a launch and landed like a shuttle entry. If you wanted to go into space, you had to pass the training in the motion simulator."

After the space shuttle was retired in 2011, artifacts from the program were sent across the country to various museums. Precious little of the shuttle actually remained in Texas, where the program was managed and its astronauts were trained. Texas A&M University sought to keep the full-motion space shuttle simulator, however. The chair of the aerospace engineering department at Texas A&M, Dimitris Lagoudas, led the effort to raise $500,000 and move the simulator to the university's campus in 2012. (12/10)

FAA Says Lack of Federal Whistleblower Protections is 'Enormous Factor' Hindering Blue Origin Safety Review (Source: CNN Business)
Jeff Bezos' rocket company, Blue Origin, became the subject of a federal review this fall after a group of 21 current and former employees co-signed an essay that raised serious questions about the safety of the company's rockets — including the rocket making headlines for flying Bezos and other celebrities to space.

But that review was hamstrung by a lack of legal protections for whistleblowers in the commercial spaceflight industry, according to emails from Federal Aviation Administration investigators that were obtained by CNN Business. The FAA also confirmed in a statement Friday that its Blue Origin review is now closed, saying the "FAA investigated the safety allegations made against Blue Origin's human spaceflight program" and "found no specific safety issues."

The emails reveal that investigators were not able to speak with any of the engineers who signed the letter anonymously. Investigators also were not able to go to Blue Origin and ask for documents or interviews with current employees or management, according to the FAA. The situation highlights how commercial spaceflight companies like Blue Origin are operating in a regulatory bubble, insulated from much of the scrutiny other industries are put under. There are no federal whistleblower statutes that would protect employees in the commercial space industry if they aid FAA investigators, according to the agency. (12/10)

Blue Origin Safely Completes Third Human Spaceflight (Source: Blue Origin)
Blue Origin today successfully completed the third human spaceflight - the first with six astronauts on board. The astronaut manifest included, Laura Shepard Churchley, Michael Strahan, Evan Dick, Dylan Taylor, Cameron Bess, and Lane Bess. The NS-19 mission marked the sixth flight of the year for the program. Blue Origin is planning several crewed and payload flights in 2022. (12/11)

DOJ Accuses Likely Pratt & Whitney Exec Of Wage Violations (Source: Law360)
The U.S. Department of Justice announced the criminal indictment Thursday of an aerospace executive for allegedly participating in a conspiracy to restrict the hiring of engineers and other skilled laborers working for engineering services suppliers, marking the latest example of criminal enforcement against attempts to illegally restrain wages. (12/10)

NASA, Aerojet Rocketdyne working through engine issue for Artemis I (Source: MyNews 13)
The highly anticipated launch of the first mission in the Artemis program is potentially only a couple months away, but before that happens, NASA needs to work through an issue with one of the rocket’s four RS-25 engines that power the core stage of the rocket. During a series of systems tests and checkouts, NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) team encountered a problem with part of the avionics that controls engine four.

A NASA spokesperson told Spectrum News 13 that during the week of November 22, the SLS team “could not verify communication between the flight computers and the engine controller for engine number 4,” but that prior to that week, “the engine four controller was powered up and communicated with the rocket’s flight computers as expected.”

The engine controller is described by NASA as “an avionics unit that controls engine operation and communicates with other avionics systems in the vehicle.” The RS-25 engines are built by Aerojet Rocketdyne. The first three rockets for the Artemis program will use 16 engines originally developed for the Space Shuttle program. (12/7)

Meet the Real NASA Scientist Behind Netflix’s Don’t Look Up (Source: The Verge)
In Netflix’s new star-studded space comedy Don’t Look Up, scientists scramble to save the world from a “planet-killer.” In the movie, it’s a comet. In the real world, humans are more likely to conjure up the vehicle of our demise all on our own, whether it’s through climate change or the patriarchy. The movie gets into those thorny themes, too.

It opens with a scene in which a grad student played by Jennifer Lawrence discovers the comet, something real-world NASA astronomer Amy Mainzer has experience with. Just last year, Mainzer and her team discovered the brightest comet in the northern hemisphere in more than two decades, called NEOWISE. To flesh out Lawrence’s character and the other scientists in the film — and bring some real science to a movie about the end of times — the actors took cues from Mainzer.

Mainzer happens to be “one of the world’s leading scientists in asteroid detection and planetary defense,” according to NASA, and she has also turned her attention to climate change (she’s using remote sensing to find invasive species that fuel wildfires). The Verge talked with Mainzer about the end of the world and what to do about it. (12/10)

Russia Showed it Can Attack. Is U.S. Space Force Ready to Defend? (Source: Space News)
Russia’s anti-satellite missile test has raised calls for the United States and its allies to push for international norms to ban such tests. But reaching an agreement on space arms control could take years or even decades. And until that happens, there is no guarantee Russia or another country won’t attempt to blow more satellites out of the sky, including those belonging to the United States.

How should the U.S. respond? “We need to get on with building resilient architectures,” he said. Work is underway to design future satellites with more maneuverability and deploy them in larger numbers to create disaggregated networks that would be harder to target. The Pentagon’s deputy chief of space operations, Lt. Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, noted that the satellites the U.S. military currently operates were not designed for space warfare.

“When I started flying satellites, our primary concern was the longevity of the system. It was so expensive to put these capabilities on orbit that we did trend analysis on batteries and solar array efficiencies.” These satellites clearly were not intended to operate in a “contested domain,” he said. “So now we have to shift.” The Space Force stood up a warfighting analysis center to lead the design of future space architectures using modeling and simulations. (12/9)

Debris of Destroyed Soviet Satellite Poses No Threat to Space Objects, Says Russian Military Chief (Source: TASS)
The debris of a Soviet satellite that was destroyed by a direct hit during the tests on November 15 is under control and poses no threat to operational space vehicles, Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov said at a briefing for foreign military diplomats on Thursday.

"The fragments that emerged pose no threat to space activity in orbit. Currently, the fragments are moving along the trajectories outside the orbits of space stations, are under control and have been entered into the main catalog of the Russian space control system," Gerasimov said. As the chief of the Russian General Staff said, on November 15 "successful tests were held to strike a defunct domestic satellite launched back in 1982." (12/9)

Making Space Travel Inclusive for All (Source: San Diego Metro)
In a weightless, microgravity environment like space, what do ability and disability look like? How can someone with partial sight or impaired mobility navigate in a confined space like the space station? As scientists and innovators continue to push the boundaries of spaceflight and the possibility of human life on other planets, how can we build space infrastructure that is inclusive of all humans?

The Mission: AstroAccess project aims to answer these questions, starting with a historic parabolic flight that took off from Long Beach on Oct. 17, 2021. A group of 12 disabled scientists, veterans, students, athletes and artists launched into a zero-gravity environment as a first step toward understanding what is needed to make space inclusive for all. (12/9)

NASA Selects Education Projects to Help Broaden STEM Participation (Source: NASA)
NASA has selected a diverse group of projects from museums, science centers, library systems, and other informal education organizations across the country as NASA Informal Education Community Anchors.

The projects all received Teams Engaging Affiliated Museums and Informal Institutions (TEAM II) Community Anchor Awards. Designation as a community anchor recognizes an institution as a local community resource. These projects will bring space exploration to traditionally underserved areas and broaden student participation in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Click here. (12/9)

FAA Will No Longer Give Out Commercial Astronaut Wings Because Too Many are Launching Into Space (Source: WESH)
Heads up, future space travelers: No more commercial astronaut wings will be awarded from the FAA after this year. The FAA said Friday it's clipping its astronaut wings because too many people are now launching into space and it's getting out of the astronaut designation business entirely. The news comes one day ahead of Blue Origin's planned liftoff from West Texas with former NFL player and TV celebrity Michael Strahan. He and his five fellow passengers will still be eligible for wings since the FAA isn't ending its long-standing program until Jan. 1. (12/10)