December 4, 2022

Former NASA Engineer Suspected in the Texas Killing Fields Murders (Source: Texas Monthly)
There have been few crimes more haunting in Texas than the killings of several young women who lived in towns located along the fifty-mile coastal stretch between Houston and Galveston. According to law enforcement officials, the killings began in the early seventies and lasted through the late nineties.

Over the years, various suspects have come and gone. And none of them have been more interesting than a former NASA engineer, Robert Abel, who owned a small horseback-riding business outside the town of League City. The League City police were so convinced he murdered those women and buried them, creating his own private graveyard, that they filed a court affidavit calling him a “serial sexual offender” who displayed the kind of rage and violent behavior often seen in serial killers.

There was no evidence, in fact, that he had committed any crime. Abel told me his life had been ruined—that he couldn’t even go to the grocery store without someone treating him like he was a serial killer. He could never shake loose of the past. In 2005, he stopped his golf cart on the railroad tracks and waited for a train to slam into him. Everyone who knew him was certain he had taken his own life. (12/1)

Alaska Man Rescued After Using His iPhone 14's Emergency Satellite SOS Feature (Source: Business Insider)
A man in Alaska used Apple's new Emergency SOS via Satellite feature to be rescued after he became stranded in an area without cellular or WiFi signals while traveling on a snow machine. Around 2 a.m. on Friday, Alaska State Troopers received a notification that an adult man had activated the feature while traveling from Noorvik to Kotzebue, according to the Alaska Department of Public Safety (ADPS).  The man's snow machine became disabled. (12/2)

Phantom Space Gets a NASA Launch Contract (Source: Ars Technica)
Phantom Space—yes, the Phantom Space co-founded by Jim Cantrell—has received a "task order" from NASA to launch four CubeSats on the company's Daytona rocket. The CubeSats will launch no earlier than 2024, NASA said, as part of the agency’s Venture-class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) program. This is NASA's program to on-ramp a greater diversity of US rockets for government launch contracts.

NASA will not launch any high-value satellites through VADR, which the agency says allows it to procure "commercial launch services for payloads that can tolerate higher risk." There are currently 13 companies eligible to bid on VADR launch contracts, including established firms such as SpaceX and ULA, and less-established firms such as L2 Solutions in Houston. It will be interesting to see if Phantom Space can succeed in lofting the CubeSats for NASA. (12/2)

Relativity Completes Terran 1 Stacking (Source: Ars Technica)
Relativity Space said it has successfully mated the first and second stages of the Terran 1 rocket ahead of a debut launch. "The next time Terran 1 is out on the pad, it will be stacked and vertical. Upcoming milestones to track: rollout, static fire, and launch," the company said in its newsletter. The company also said it completed thrust vector control testing.

Given that Relativity has yet to roll the Terran 1 out to the pad for its static fire test, it looks increasingly unlikely that the rocket will make its debut in 2022. However, the company is in good position to test its additively manufactured rocket early in 2023, perhaps even in January. (12/2)

South Korea Sets 2032 Target for Moon-Capable Rocket (Source: Ars Technica)
South Korea launched its own indigenously developed Nuri rocket successfully for the first time in June. Now, it has bigger plans, Aviation Week reports. President Yoon Suk Yeol unveiled a space economy road map that envisions the development of an indigenous launch vehicle capable of robotically reaching the Moon to support the mining of lunar resources by 2032. (12/2)