A sampling of links to recent space policy, politics, and government (US and international) related space news and resource items that I found of interest:
EU/ESA Space Council – ESA – Webcast of “9th high-level EU/ESA Space Council, with the theme ‘Space as an enabler’, will take place on Tuesday, 28 May”.
On the Science Edition of Voice of America Press Conference USA, host Rick Pantaleo discusses the possibilities of life in space with Mark Hopkins and Al Globus of the National Space Society (30 minutes).
** UAE MeznSat is a CubeSat in development by the UAE Space Agency, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, and the American University of Ras Al Khaimah (AURAK),. The 3U CubeSat will study the Earth’s atmosphere. The launch is expected at the end of 2019. Preliminary design for UAE’s MeznSat 3U CubeSat under review – SatellitePro ME
… AURAK students are designing and building the satellite to collect and analyse data about carbon dioxide and methane levels in the atmosphere above the UAE. The students are utilising Masdar Institute’s facilities during the satellites design and construction.
MeznSat is to be launched in late 2019 from a site in Japan, in coordination with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Once in orbit, the satellite will use a visible camera as well as a shortwave infrared spectrometer to measure the abundance and distribution of methane and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. A team of students will monitor, process, and analyze the data sent from the satellite at a ground station in the UAE.
The latest episode of NASA’s Space to Ground weekly report on activities related to the International Space Station:
** Use NASA’s Spot the Station to get updates on when the ISS will fly over your location:
** Expedition 59 – CSA In-Flight Event with Astronaut David Saint-Jacques C2 – Montreal May 24, 2019 –
Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 59 Flight Engineer David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency discussed research and technological breakthroughs aboard the orbital laboratory during an in-flight question and answer session May 24 with innovators and technology devotees gathered at a conference in Montreal, Canada. Saint-Jacques is the final month of six-and-a-half month mission on the complex.
** NASA Administrator Speaks at Florida Institute of Technology Event:
A sampling of links to recent space policy, politics, and government (US and international) related space news and resource items that I found of interest:
NASA announces the first partnership of its kind with MAXAR Technologies to power the future lunar orbiting station. For more information visit NASA.gov/moontomars
** The Space Show – Tue, 05/21/2019 – Dr. Philip Metzger discussed “starting space industrialization, establishing Cislunar transportation, lunar development, asteroid development, thinking big, Mars and more”.
The former Oklahoma congressman and Navy aviator stepped into the leadership role barely a year ago. Now he wants to see humans back on the Moon by 2024 as a vital stepping stone to Mars. Join us for a wide-ranging conversation about this ambitious plan and much more. Planetary Society Chief Scientist Bruce Betts continues the countdown to launch of LightSail 2 before he takes us across the heavens in What’s Up.
*** SpaceX set to launch Falcon 9 with 60 Starlink satellites. Following a stand-down of about a week since the initial launch attempts, liftoff of the Starlink mission is now set for a 90 minute window that opens at 10:30 pm EDT this evening (0230 GMT onMay 24). The SpaceX webcast should go live about 15 minutes before liftoff time.
On April 21, 2019, we, the USC Rocket Propulsion Lab, launched our latest space-shot rocket, Traveler IV, out of Spaceport America. Traveler IV reached an apogee of 339,800 ft with a confidence of 90% of having crossed the internationally-recognized border between Earth’s atmosphere and space known as the Kármán line. By flying higher than the Kármán line, Traveler IV has broken the world record for the highest altitude ever reached by a vehicle entirely designed and built by a collegiate rocketry team. USCRPL thanks the alumni, faculty, department staff, parents, the university, and all others who have supported the lab’s fourteen-year-long dream.
Even greater things lie ahead. Read the full data analysis and check out more information in the following links:
Join us as we host hundreds of the world’s ambitious collegiate rocketeers at the third annual Spaceport America Cup June 18-22, 2019. The event brought to you by the Experimental Sounding Rocket Association and the Spaceport America Crew, is the world’s largest intercollegiate rocket engineering conference and competition.
The Spaceport America Cup will kick off on June 18th with the Spaceport America Cup Conference at the Las Cruces Convention Center in Las Cruces, NM. Spectators are invited to see the rockets displayed and interact with the rocket teams. The event is FREE.
June 19th will be flight preparation day where teams will have the entire day to assemble their rockets in the field and test components while being judged. (OPEN TO THE PUBLIC) Gates open: 11 am
Teams will be launching and recovering rockets June 20-22 at the Spaceport America Vertical Launch Area. (OPEN TO THE PUBLIC) Gates open: 8 am- 4 pm. If you are planning to attend as a spectator, you must purchase a spectator pass.
We’re proud to announce that we completed perhaps the most challenging, most important, and most successful test in the history of our LauncherOne program: Last week, we lit up our Mojave site with our final full duration, full scale, full thrust – hell, full everything – test firing of LauncherOne’s main stage. That’s more than three minutes of controlled rocket thrust, using all of the same equipment we’ll use on our actual flights to orbit later this year. Here’s one fun way to think about it: the data proved that if this stage wasn’t physically bolted down, it had the oomph to make the journey into space.
https://youtu.be/L2_i2GfiULc
** India launches RISAT 2B radar Earth observation satellite with PSLV (Polar Space Launch Vehicle):
Designed for a five-year mission, RISAT 2B carries an X-band radar imaging instrument capable of resolving structures and features on Earth’s surface, regardless of daylight or weather conditions. Earth-looking optical telescopes are inhibited by cloudy weather, and only produce usable imagery during daytime.
The satellite was developed by ISRO — the Indian space agency — and carries a dish-shaped radar antenna that was folded up to fit inside the rocket’s payload compartment. Now that the satellite is in space, its radial band antenna will be unfurled to its full diameter of 11.8 feet (3.6 meters).
“This has been a much-awaited satellite with complex new technologies, X-band synthetic aperture radar, and one of the most cutting edge technologies in the world — one that is world-class — the 3.6-meter radial band antenna,” said P. Kunhikrishnan, director of ISRO’s UR Rao Satellite Center in Bangalore.
** China Long March 4C rocket launch of a remote sensing satellite fails due to a problem in the third stage of the 3-stage vehicle:
The latest BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) launch took place from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 11:48 p.m. on May 17. Launched on a Long March-3C carrier rocket, it is the fourth BDS-2 backup satellite and the 45th satellite in the BDS network. It can provide users with more reliable services and enhance the stability of the satellite constellation.
** Chinese commercial company LandSpace tests LOX/Methane engine:
Hydros thruster: Hydros uses electrolysis to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gas, which can then be burned as rocket propellants. The concept meshes well with the idea of extracting water ice from the moon or near-Earth asteroids for spacecraft refueling. Three Hydros-M flight units already have been delivered to Millennium Space Systems, and Hoyt said a Hydros-C module is due for launch on the PTD-1 CubeSat mission in December.
Despite that warning, launch vehicle startups remain focused on unique engine designs. At last count, there were 129 rocket startups, Rich Pournelle, NanoRacks senior vice president for business development, said at the April conference.
How many will survive? Eric Salwan, Firefly Aerospace commercial business development director, suggested the market could support three, four or five.
In support of the mission, SpaceX will need to completely integrate Falcon Heavy and prepare the rocket for a routine static fire test approximately one week prior to launch, sometime in mid-June. STP-2 will be critical to both SpaceX and the USAF for a number of reasons, ranging from rocket reusability to the future of US military launch procurement.
NASA has announced a series of awards as part of its 2024 Moon return ambitions, providing up to $45.5M for 11 companies to study lunar landers, spacecraft, and in-space refueling technologies.
Among those selected for studies are SpaceX, Blue Origin, Masten Space, and the Sierra Nevada Corporation, alongside usual suspects like Boeing and Lockheed Martin. The chances of NASA actually achieving a crewed return to the surface of the Moon by 2024 are admittedly minuscule. However, with the space agency’s relatively quick three-month turnaround from accepting proposals to awarding studies, those chances of success will at least be able to continue skirting the realm of impossibility for now. In fact, SpaceX believes its Moon lander could be ready for a lunar debut as early as 2023.
*** Watch the lifting of a Falcon Heavy to vertical on Pad 39A in this video (at 1:04): Construction of SpaceX’s largest spaceship ever could be taking place in Cocoa –
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says that there is now a chance that a vacuum-optimized version of the Raptor engine will be ready for near-term Starship launches, indicating that development has either been re-prioritized or is going more smoothly than expected.
This is a significant shift away from a strategy discussed by Musk just four months ago, in which a single variant of Raptor was to be used on Starship and Super Heavy to shorten the next-gen rocket’s path to orbit. For unknown reasons, that approach may have already been replaced with a new alternative that would lead to a Starship with six Raptors instead of seven and a 50-50 split between vacuum and sea level-optimized engines.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has confirmed that the company’s second orbital Starship prototype is already in the early stages of integration at a parallel Florida facility, piggybacking on ongoing work in South Texas.
SpaceX’s plans to simultaneously build Starship prototypes in Texas and Florida have been public for some time. However, photos taken by forum members of NASASpaceflight.com offer the first direct confirmation that hardware is already being assembled in Florida. Likely unique in the annals of full-scale heavy-lift rocket development, SpaceX’s strategy of building largely identical prototypes in separate locations – and with separate teams – could be an ingenious method of speeding up development.
A comment from Elon on the two projects:
SpaceX is doing simultaneous competing builds of Starship in Boca Chica Texas & Cape Canaveral Florida
As SpaceX continues to make steady progress on multiple Starship test vehicles at their Boca Chica launch facility, the company’s CEO Elon Musk has confirmed that they are also constructing a Starship vehicle in Florida. The Florida-based Starship is expected to launch from one of SpaceX’s Cape Canaveral based facilities, as opposed to the company’s launch site in Boca Chica, Texas. NASASpaceflight.com understands that one facility under serious consideration is historic Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center.
SpaceX hopes to use the Starship spacecraft to return humans to the moon and colonize Mars. While plans for the vehicle are rapidly evolving, at present multiple sources have indicated that the company is hoping to perform orbital test flights of the Starship prototypes.
What level of testing remains an open question, as Elon Musk noted on Twitter that using SSTO (Single Stage To Orbit) test launches – where just the Starship launches without the Super Heavy booster – wouldn’t allow the vehicle to be reusable.
