July 29, 2022

NASA Authorization a Rarity in Disfunctional Congress (Source: Space News)
Congress passed the first NASA authorization act in more than five years on Thursday. The House approved the CHIPS and Science Act on a 243-187 vote, a day after the Senate passed the bill. The legislation, primarily to promote domestic semiconductor manufacturing, includes a NASA authorization act that extends International Space Station operations to 2030 and endorses the agency's Artemis lunar exploration program. The bill has the support of NASA and industry. It is the first NASA authorization act to pass both houses of Congress since 2017. (7/29)

Senate Appropriation Bill Meets Overall NASA Budget Request, With Adjustments (Source: Space News)
A bill would match overall funding for NASA to the agency's request but with some changes among programs. The draft commerce, justice and science appropriations bill would provide nearly $26 billion for NASA, the same amount the agency requested in its budget proposal for fiscal year 2023. The bill includes small increases for science, exploration and space operations compared to the request but cuts space technology. Democratic leadership of the appropriations committee said the draft bills are intended to restart months of stalled negotiations with their Republican counterparts, but Republicans criticized the bills as partisan measures that increase the chances of a long-term continuing resolution. (7/29)

Senate Bill Adds $2 Billion for Military Space, Including $100 Million for Responsive Launch (Source: Space News)
A draft Senate appropriations bill would add more than $2 billion to military space programs. The bill, part of a set for fiscal year 2023 released by the Democratic leadership of the Senate Appropriations Committee Thursday, devotes most of the increase to satellites and launch services for the military's missile-warning space network. Among the increases is $100 million for tactically responsive launch, a Congressionally directed program that the Pentagon has not funded. Senate appropriators did not include funding for a Space National Guard but asked for additional information on how current space activities conducted by the Air National Guard will transition to the Space Force. (7/29)

NRO Rocket Lab Mission Shows Non-Launch Issues with Responsive Launch (Source: Space News)
A delay in the launch of the second of two back-to-back NRO missions shows that issues with responsive launch go beyond the rockets themselves. The NRO had planned to launch its NROL-199 mission July 22 on a Rocket Lab Electron, 10 days after NROL-162 launched on another Electron. However, the NRO delayed the launch because of software upgrades to the payload, and the launch is now scheduled for Aug. 2. Peter Beck, Rocket Lab's CEO, noted that the delay shows that while the focus on responsive launch has been on launch systems, that alone is insufficient if satellites are not ready. Rocket Lab believes the answer to responsive space services is to offer a complete end-to-end package, including the satellite and the launch. (7/29)

Northrop Grumman Not Worried About FTC Challenge to Orbital ATK Acquisition (Source: Space News)
Northrop Grumman's CEO is not worried that the Federal Trade Commission could attempt to reverse its acquisition of Orbital ATK. In an earnings call Thursday, Kathy Warden dismissed speculation prompted by a report last week that the FTC was weighing action for alleged anti-competitive behaviors by Northrop after it acquired Orbital ATK and its solid rocket motor business. She said she doubted any FTC action would have "a material adverse impact" on Northrop, arguing that she believes the company has complied with FTC directives to make those solid rocket motors available to other companies. (7/29)

Crew Dragon Debris Suspected to Fall Onto Australia (Source: Australian Broadcasting Corp.)
Debris from a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft may have landed in Australia. Sheep farmers in New South Wales found the debris earlier this month, including one piece nearly three meters tall wedged into the ground. The debris may be from the trunk section of the Crew Dragon spacecraft launched on the Crew-1 mission in November 2020 and jettisoned before its reentry six months later. That object was predicted to reenter around the time people in the region reported hearing a loud bang. (7/29)

Georgia County Sponsoring Spaceport Effort Sues Union Carbide to Force Land Sale (Source: ABC News)
A Georgia county has filed a lawsuit seeking to force a company to sell land on which the county has long planned to build a launchpad for commercial rockets. Commissioners in coastal Camden County said in a statement Thursday that Union Carbide Co.'s refusal to sell the 4,000 acre (1,600 hectare) property, if allowed to stand, “will cause the County the loss of the Spaceport Project as well as an enormous financial loss in excess of $11 million.”

County officials have spent that sum over the past decade seeking to license and build Spaceport Camden, a site for launching satellites into space. Opponents say the project would pose safety and environmental risks that outweigh any economic benefits. The county held a referendum in March in which a large majority voted to kill the land deal.

Commissioners opted to disregard the vote, which they contend violated Georgia's constitution. But Union Carbide balked at the county's efforts to move forward with closing on the property. The company said last week that the deal was off because it had been “repudiated” by voters. The county filed a civil suit Wednesday in Camden County Superior Court in hopes of keeping the spaceport project alive. Commissioners said the company still has a “contractual obligation to sell the property.” (7/28)

As 1.5C Warming Limit Nears, Interest in Sun-Dimming Tech Heats Up (Source: Reuters)
As fossil fuel use continues apace and a hotter planet edges close to passing safety limits, some scientists are exploring a controversial technological stopgap: spraying chemicals into the atmosphere to reflect away some of the sun's warmth. Deploying the technology, using special planes, would be relatively cheap and simple, costing a few billion dollars a year, its backers say. And it could - if maintained - hold down global average temperatures, potentially staving off increasingly deadly climate-change impacts such as heatwaves, they argue.

"I do see it as a likely option" if plans to cut emissions fall short and dangers grow, said Emmi Yonekura, a researcher on the risks of climate "geoengineering" at RAND Corporation, a military-focused policy think-tank, during an online event. But the technology, which mimics the sky-darkening effect of volcanic eruptions, also carries serious and unpredictable risks, critics say - with some scientists so worried that they believe research should stop and outdoor tests be banned.

Editor's Note: No mention here of potential space-based methods for global solar heat mitigation, including structures placed in Lagrange point (L1) orbit designed to shade the Earth (and also potentially protect it from harmful solar storm emissions). Click here. (7/18)

Jury Rejects Residents' Claim That Pratt & Whitney was Responsible for "Cancer Cluster" Near South Florida Rocket/Aerospace Testing Facility (Source: WFLX)
A federal jury rejected claims Tuesday that Pratt & Whitney was responsible for a cancer cluster in The Acreage more than a decade ago. The verdict said that the aerospace giant did not release pollution or transport radioactive materials into the community from its facility located along Beeline Highway in western Palm Beach County. While the jury found that Pratt & Whitney was not responsible for cancer that multiple residents contracted, the verdict said that the company "failed to exercise reasonable care in the use and disposal of radioactive materials" at the facility. (7/27)

Inside the First Private Mission to Mars (Source: Quartz)
The news that two nascent space companies are planning the first private mission to the planet is exciting, but the question is whether this is a PR stunt, a technology development program, or a business worth investing in. This was Relativity’s idea, a way to connect with the company’s founding obsession of building the first factory on Mars with 3D printing technology. The company is getting close to flying its first rocket, the Terran 1, next year, but this mission mission to Mars would mark the first flight of the company’s next-generation rocket, the Terran R, in 2024.

Relativity and Impulse Space say they will be able go to Mars at a cost several times less than NASA did with its $816 million Mars Insight Lander. That’s believable: The mission will be smaller, with “tens of pounds” of scientific payloads arriving on Mars, instead of Insight’s 50 kg (110 lbs). It will cost less to launch than $163 million required for Insight. And the lander itself will rely on a proven design, and not include the cost of the super-sensitive scientific instruments that represented a large chunk of Insight’s cost.

The companies hope to recruit a customer who will pay to put scientific instruments onboard the lander, whether that is NASA, another space agency, or a university, which would help defray the cost. At the very least, the lander will collect images of Mars and send them back to Earth. Just getting these vehicles built, tested, and on the pad will be an accomplishment. Then the real fun starts: problems that might be tolerable on a two-week mission, like a small leak, could ruin a 300-day spaceflight. The precision required to keep antennas and solar panels pointed at the Earth is magnified by the millions of miles the spacecraft must travel. And assuming the vehicle gets there, the soft landing is the hardest part. (7/28)