May 5, 2024

Air Guardsmen Explain Why They Don’t Want to Switch to the Space Force (Source: Air and Space Forces)
Air National Guardsmen called a proposal to transfer their units into the Space Force an “existential threat” to the Guard and dangerous for national security in the latest volley of criticism of an idea that Department of the Air Force leaders are pushing Congress to adopt. In a media call featuring 10 Guardsmen involved in space missions, troops cited their families’ needs, personal connections to their communities, and uncertainties about how the Space Force will administer a combined full-time/part-time component as reasons they don’t want to make the switch.

Should the proposal championed by Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall go through, the Guardsmen warned, many of them and their colleagues would change jobs to stay in the Guard rather than make the switch—creating critical vacancies that would take the Space Force years to fill. One internal survey, sent to all 14 ANG units in seven states that perform space missions, found that 70 percent of respondents would retrain or retire rather than join the Space Force, according to the Guard. (5/3)

Waco Man Suing SpaceX After He Says Rocket Testing Damaged His Home (Source: Houston Chronicle)
Another lawsuit tied to SpaceX has been filed in Texas, and this time it has to do with alleged property damage. Waco resident Edward Leslie is suing SpaceX, saying rocket engine testing at the company’s facility in McGregor, about 18 miles west of Waco, caused damage to his house. Specifically, he alleges that the foundation of his home has shifted due to vibrations caused by rocket engine testing at the company’s nearby Central Texas facility, KWTX reports.

Leslie says his home was damaged in February 2023 from continuous vibrations and that the foundation shifts caused damage including cracks to the ceiling, brick walls and floor, as well as the interior doors not staying open. He’s seeking $250,000 to $1 million in damages from SpaceX due to negligence. (5/3)

NASA Fears China’s Plans to Build Moonbase are On Schedule (Source: Washington Examiner)
The launch of a Chinese investigation that aims to collect lunar samples from the far side of the moon is a unique step in humanity’s goal to advance its space initiatives. But for the United States, some believe it could be troubling. “We believe that a lot of their so-called civilian space program is a military program,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said at an April congressional hearing. “And I think, in effect, we are in a race.”

The success of this mission will determine whether China can hit its goal of putting astronauts on the moon by the end of this decade. Sample-return missions follow the “exact same steps that any human mission to the moon will go through,” said James Head III, a Brown University professor who worked on NASA’s Apollo program and collaborated with Chinese scientists on studying the Chang’e-6 landing zone. “There’s a lot of practicing going on here,” he added. (5/3)

IN-SPACe Releases Norms to Implement Indian Space Policy (Source: Economic Times)
Space regulator IN-SPACe on Friday unveiled norms, guidelines and procedures for effective implementation of the Indian space policy that opened up the sector to private players to engage in a range of activities from building and launching satellites to setting up ground stations and share remote sensing data. The 147-page document lists out space activities that need authorisation from IN-SPACe, specifies criteria for granting such authorisations and provides necessary guidelines/pre-requisites to be fulfilled by an applicant for making an authorisation application. (5/4)

Analysts Hope Launch of Pakistan’ Lunar Mission Will Open New Avenues for Space Exploration (Source: Radio Pakistan)
It is a very positive development that Pakistan today launched its first lunar orbit mission ICUBE-Q. It is designed and developed by the Institute of Space Technology in collaboration with China’s Shanghai University and Pakistan’s national space agency. Pakistan is already sending space shuttles for the sake of knowledge about weather forecasts and prediction of other disasters.

Pakistan is a victim of global warming challange and is in dire need of modern air space technology. China is well advanced in the field of science and technology and is supporting Pakistan in this regard as well. China-Pakistan space cooperation will help Pakistan in terms of satellite monitoring of natural disasters and agricultural production, land and resources surveying, and waste handling in a microgravity environment. (5/3)

‘China’s Cape Canaveral’ is Booming, Fueled by Moon Mission and Space Program (Source: CNN)
Hainan, a Chinese island that’s geographically closer to Hanoi than Beijing, is known as the Hawaii of China due to its sandy beaches and temperate weather. But there’s another reason tourists from around China are flocking to Hainan these days: space. The city of Wenchang is home to a rocket launch center – and a tourist industry that caters to a growing interest in space-related tourism.

China has made no secret of its desire to develop tourism here, drawing inspiration from Florida’s Cape Canaveral – the launchpad for many famous NASA space missions. The interior of the Hilton Wenchang looks more like a space center than a typical tropical resort. From celestial scenes in the corridors to a rocket on the breakfast buffet, the sprawling property is inspired by the nearby Wenchang Launch Center.

The growth of China’s space program has fueled more interest in all things aeronautic. Hotel representatives tell CNN that room rates at the Hilton Wenchang can be seven times higher when there’s a launch. Visitors can watch the takeoff from the hotel’s beach. State media in China reports that 1.5 million people have visited Wenchang in the past two years, while the number of hotels has gone from five to more than 50. (5/3)

Ellen Ochoa, First Latina to Travel in Space, Awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom (Source: San Diego Union-Tribune)
Astronaut Ellen Ochoa, the San Diego State University graduate who became the first Latina to fly in space, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Biden during a ceremony at the White House. The La Mesa native was one of 19 people to be recognized Friday with the nation’s highest civilian honor, which is given to those who have made major contributions in areas ranging from world peace to improving the prosperity and values of the United States. (5/3)

NASA is Expanding its Wallops Island Facility to Support Three Times as Many Launches (Source: Tech Crunch)
NASA is kicking off a formal environmental assessment of its facilities on Wallops Island, Virginia, to increase the number of authorized rocket launches at the site by almost 200%, according to slides and recordings of an April 29 internal meeting viewed by TechCrunch. The proposed changes could help ease congestion at the country’s other spaceports, which have felt the strain of a rapid increase in launch capacity due primarily to SpaceX.

That strain is projected to only worsen as companies, including Rocket Lab, Relativity, Blue Origin and others, aim to bring new rockets online in the next few years. Wallops expansion has likely been on the minds of NASA officials for some time. After Rocket Lab conducted its first Electron launch from there in 2022, agency officials told the media that interest from private companies looking to launch from the site was “high.” (5/3)

Karpathy Suggests AI Chatbots as Interstellar Messengers to Alien Civilizations (Source: Ars Technica)
On Thursday, renowned AI researcher Andrej Karpathy, formerly of OpenAI and Tesla, tweeted a lighthearted proposal that large language models (LLMs) like the one that runs ChatGPT could one day be modified to operate in or be transmitted to space, potentially to communicate with extraterrestrial life. He said the idea was "just for fun," but with his influential profile in the field, the idea may inspire others in the future.

In his playful thought experiment (titled "Clearly LLMs must one day run in Space"), Karpathy suggested a two-step plan where, initially, the code for LLMs would be adapted to meet rigorous safety standards, akin to "The Power of 10 Rules" adopted by NASA for space-bound software. This first part he deemed serious: "We harden llm.c to pass the NASA code standards and style guides, certifying that the code is super safe, safe enough to run in Space," he wrote. (5/3)

Audit Delivers 6 Critical Issues for NASA to Fix Before Artemis II Launch (Source: Cosmos)
An audit of NASA’s readiness for the Artemis II mission – which will put astronauts into orbit around the Moon – has found critical issues with the US space agency’s 2022 test flight. The Artemis I mission was an uncrewed test flight of the Orion spacecraft, which inserted the module into lunar orbit before splashing down after Earth re-entry.

Examination of the module as well as site visits to the Kennedy Space Center and interviews with officials from mission-associated programs has led to the Office of NASA’s Inspector General (OIG) finding “significant risks” to the Artemis II crew. That includes 100 locations on Orion’s heat shield that “wore away differently than expected” during re-entry, noting engineers are investigating options to modify its design or alter re-entry trajectory. (5/3)