Activism, Space Policy

Space policy roundup – March.6.2019

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:

Webcasts:

** Space Policy Edition: When a (Space) Cowboy Came to Washington | The Planetary Society

Historian John Logsdon discusses his new book, Ronald Reagan and the Space Frontier. It explores the legacy of the 40th president’s major space policy decisions. We look at four major topics: early efforts at commercializing space, the survival crisis for planetary exploration, the Space Shuttle, and the decision to build the space station. Casey also shares good news about NASA’s newest budget and how a battle between rocket companies could spell trouble for NASA’s Lucy mission.

** ISPCS 2018 – Development of Commercial Space Markets – Greg Autry – YouTube

Greg Autry, Assistant Professor of Clinical Entrepreneurship & Director of the Southern California Commercial Spaceflight Initiative at University of Southern California, presents his keynote “Public Private Partnerships Spur Development of Commercial Space Markets and Returns to Earth Economy.”

** “Breaking the Cost Curve:  Applying Lessons Learned from the James Webb Space Telescope Development” – Lee Feinberg, NASA GSFC – FISO Seminar – February 27, 2019. Slides (pdf)

** February 28, 2019 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast | Behind The Black

** The Space Show – Sun, 03/03/2019 – David Livingston hosted an open lines discussion with show listeners.

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Sunburst and Luminary: An Apollo Memoir

Rockets

Space transport roundup – March.5.2019

A sampling of recent items related to traveling to and through space:

** Randa Milliron and InterOrbital Systems are profiled in this article: The Rocket Woman and the Smallsat Invasion by Sarah Scoles — Winter 2019: The New Landscape in Space | The Wilson Quarterly

Their first simple launcher was a small suborbital rocket, meant to fly high, but not high enough to start circling Earth. Then came the TACHYON, made of tubes of propellant bundled against each other like firewood, rather than stacked like those of a traditional rocket. It also wasn’t meant for orbit, but the design allowed Interorbital to add and subtract the propellant tubes to make the rocket more or less powerful.

NEPTUNE, also a bundle of fire sticks, is the next step in the company’s evolution – and the rocket that will compete for DARPA’s attention. Intended to launch things much higher, the smallest configuration can get your little payload to low Earth orbit. If the Pentagon wanted to send a 20-kilogram spy satellite to take pictures from 310 miles above Earth, it could order such a configuration of the rocket. If – oops! – it actually wanted two satellites, it could just ask Interorbital to add more fire sticks.

A recent video from InterOrbital:

** The Delft Aerospace Rocket Engineering (DARE) student team at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands is “one of the largest and most advanced student rocketry teams in the world”. Here is a video about a recent launch campaign:

This video describes DARE’s Stratos IV rocket, which they hope will reach space, i.e. exceed 100 km, in August 2019:

** Firefly Aerospace wins a launch contract with D-Orbit, an Italian company that provides a wide range of small satellite products and services: D-Orbit Signs Framework Agreement with Firefly to Acquire Launch Capacity – Firefly Aerospace

“We are proud of this partnership with Firefly, one of the most innovative small payload launch operators,” said Pietro Guerrieri, D-Orbit Chief Strategic Officer. “Capitalizing on the capabilities of ION CubeSat Carrier, our free-flying CubeSat deployer, we are expanding our launch services portfolio and taking an additional step in our roadmap to offer the New Space market an innovative launch transportation solution.”

“Firefly Alpha was specifically designed with the needs of our rideshare partners in mind,” said Firefly CEO Dr. Tom Markusic. “Alpha’s 630 kg to 500 km SSO capacity allows D-Orbit significant flexibility in manifesting missions. Our agreement with D-Orbit for up to fifteen launches over 5 years will allow their customers frequent, reliable access to space, on the schedule of their choosing and to the orbit that best matches their business needs.

See also Firefly inks deal with D-Orbit – Austin Business Journal.

** PLD Space tests parachute rocket recovery with an air drop test in Arizona. The Spanish company is developing reusable rockets, starting with the suborbital MIURA 1.

PLD Space performed on February 16th our Drop-Test 1 of the MIURA 1 suborbital launch vehicle, in close collaboration with Airborne Systems North America. The test was conducted in Eloy, Arizona Desert (AZ).

** Interstellar Technologies of Japan test fired the engine on March 1st on the company’s third MOMO suborbital rocket for the full duration needed during flight.

They will now move forward to the test flight. Last summer the second MOMO rocket failed shortly after liftoff:

The first MOMO launched in July of 2017 and flew for over a minute before a break in the telemetry communications connection caused a premature shutdown of the engine.

** SpaceX:

**** Crew Dragon docking to the ISS – more videos and articles:

Video of welcoming ceremony (the crew appears at 10:19):

ISS Expedition 58 crewmembers Anne McClain of NASA, Oleg Kononenko from Roscosmos, and David Saint-Jacques from the Canadian Space Agency during welcome ceremony for the DM-1 SpaceX Crew Dragon in the Node 2 module on Sunday, March 3, 2019.

Scott Manley discusses the Crew Dragon mission:

More at:

**** A view of the Crew Dragon launch from outside the Cape perimeter (via www.USLaunchReport.com):

**** More picts/vids of the Crew Dragon mission at

**** The booster from the launch of the Nusantara Satu satellite and SpaceIL spacecraft returns from Port Canaveral to the hangar (via www.USLaunchReport.com):

**** Latest views of activities at Boca Chica Beach:

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The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos,
and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos

Activism, Space Policy, SpaceCasts

The Space Show this week – March.4.2019

The guests and topics of discussion on The Space Show this week:

1. Monday, March 4, 2019, 2-3:30 pm PST (4-5:30 pm CST, 5-6:30 pm EST): No show for today. Monday is for special and timely programs only.

2. Tuesday, March 5, 2019, 7-8:30 pm PST (9-10:30 pm CST, 10-11:30 pm EST): We welcome back Rod Pyle to discuss his new book, Space 2.0: How Private Spaceflight, a Resurgent NASA, and International Partners are Creating a New Space Age.

3. Wednesday, March 6, 2019, Hotel Mars. See Upcoming Show Menu and the website newsletter for details. Hotel Mars is pre-recorded by John Batchelor. It is archived on The Space Show site after John posts it on his website.

4. Friday, March 8, 2019, 9:30-11 am PST (11:30 am -1 pm CST, 12:30-2 pm EST): We welcome back Jose Ocasio-Christian of Caelus Partners for important news and updates.

5. Sunday, March 10, 2019, 12-1:30 pm PST (3-4:30 pm EST, 2-3:30 pm CST): NOTE TIME CHANGE DUE TO DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME. We welcome Don Eyles for his book, Sunburst and Luminary: An Apollo Memoir“. Don programmed most of the software on the LM’s onboard computer that was specific to the lunar descent phase. He is best known for solving the abort-switch problem on Alan Shepard’s Apollo 14 mission.

Some recent programs:

** Sun, 02/24/2019 – Linda Plush talked about “Human spaceflight medical concerns, challenges, solutions, mitigations, R&D, budget issues, progress, engineering differences and more”.

** Mon, 02/25/2019 – Micah Walter-Range discussed “how to expand and develop space with both government and private sector activity to establish a sustainable global space economy”.

** Tue, 02/26/2019 – Bernie Taylor discussed “Lunar time life, lunar cycles and life, extraterrestrial life, Drake equation modification to reflect the Moon, intelligent animals w/o lunar cycles and more”.

** Fri, 03/01/2019 – Dwight Steven-Boniecki talked about his new film, Searching For Skylab, and about the “Skylab crew, Skylab stories and accomplishments, solar physics, the truth about the Skylab “mutiny,” Skylab’s return to Australia, and more”.

See also:
* The Space Show on Vimeo – webinar videos
* The Space Show’s Blog – summaries of interviews.
* The Space Show Classroom Blog – tutorial programs

The Space Show is a project of the One Giant Leap Foundation.

The Space Show - David Livingston
The Space Show – David Livingston
Amateur/Student Satellite

Student and amateur CubeSat news roundup – March.3.2019

A sampling of recent articles, press releases, etc. related to student and amateur CubeSat / SmallSat projects and programs:

** The Virginia CubeSat Constellation involves students at four Virginia universities and is supported by the Virginia Space Grant Consortium. They have developed three CubeSats that will be launched to the ISS on a Cygnus cargo craft and then sent into orbit by a NanoRacks deployment system:  Three Virginia University Satellites Get Closer to Launch – Virginia Space Grant Consortium (pdf)

A giant leap towards space for Virginia university students took place on February 26 when students from three Virginia universities delivered their small satellites to NanoRacks in Houston to be integrated into the Company’s commercially developed CubeSat deployer (NRCSD) and then launched on Northrop Grumman’s Antares to the International Space Station.

The satellites are part of the Virginia CubeSat Constellation mission, a collaborative project of the Virginia Space Grant Consortium and four of its member universities: Old Dominion University (ODU), Virginia Tech (VT), University of Virginia (UVA), and Hampton University (HU). Three nano-satellites, each about 4 inches cubed and weighing approximately 3 pounds, have been developed and instrumented (one each at ODU, VT and UVA) to obtain measurements of the properties of the Earth’s atmosphere. As the orbits of the satellites decay due to atmospheric drag, satellite instruments will quantify atmospheric density.

The three CubeSats will be deployed via the NRCSD by astronauts aboard the International Space Station into orbit near-simultaneously so they can orbit together and function as a constellation. The ODU satellite, which has a drag brake to intentionally cause orbital decay, is expected to remain in orbit for up to four months. The other two satellites should orbit for up to two years at an altitude of 250 miles before burning up when they re-enter Earth’s atmosphere. The satellites will communicate data to ground stations at Virginia Tech, University of Virginia and Old Dominion University for subsequent analysis using an analytical tool being developed by Hampton University students from the Atmospheric and Planetary Science Department.

See also

Mission leads from UVA (Erin Puckette), ODU (Kim Wright) and Virginia Tech (Madison Brodnax) happily pose with their teams’ satellites prior to integration.

** Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) has put two cubesats into orbit (ZA Cube-1 and ZACube-2) and is developing a constellation for Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) and fire detection in the South African grasslands: CPUT receives more investment to build South Africa’s MDA satellite constellation – Space in Africa

The recently announced R27 million investment will fund the CubeSat space program to develop three more nano-satellites for an MDA satellite constellation that will assist South Africa’s ocean monitoring efforts and veld fire detection. The space programme has already graduated over 60 postgraduate students starting from CPUT’s first CubeSat ZACube-1.

See also R27m cash injection for satellite programme | ITWeb.

** CubeSat (STF-1) developed by TMC Technologies with the help of West Virginia University students and supported by the  West Virginia Space Grant Consortium was launched in December by Rocket Lab. The project may be the start of a WV smallsat industry: WV could serve as new satellite manufacturing hub – State Journal News/wvnews.com

STF-1 is a cube satellite designed and assembled in North Central West Virginia by Marion County-based TMC Technologies in collaboration with faculty and students at West Virginia University as part of NASA’s Educational Launch of Nanosatellites mission. Launched from New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula in December, STF-1 recently achieved a milestone of 60 days in space, orbiting the globe more than 960 times.

…

[Project lead engineer Matt Grubb] said that given STF-1’s success, there’s a strong foundation to build upon in terms of infrastructure and experience if a CubeSat manufacturing industry were to take off. One issue that does need to be addressed, he said, is attracting outside scientists and innovators. STF-1 has been successful, but it was largely a feat of engineering and technical prowess. Now, Grubb said, the next big project will have to be more creative to find new instruments or designs to send into orbit.

TMC President and CEO Wade Linger is hoping the success of STF-1 will lead to getting the chance to build more spacecraft in West Virginia.

** AMSAT news on student and amateur CubeSat/smallsat projects: ANS-061 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin

  • Call for Volunteers – AMSAT at Dayton Hamvention
  • JAMSAT Announces 2019 Symposium, March 16-17
  • SatNOGS Client and gr-satnogs Updates
  • ARISS News — Reports Requested
  • “Off to the Motherland” Rove
  • Activating Northern Maine Grids – March 2-3
  • Summer Internship Positions Open in the SpaceSTEM Program
  • Virginia Cubesat Constellation Moves Forward
  • New ‘NASA Science Live’ Program Premiers This Week
  • Satellite Shorts From All Over

General CubeSat/SmallSat info:

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Living in Space, Space Systems, Spaceflight & Parabolic Flight

SpaceX Crew Dragon successfully docks to the ISS and crew enters capsule

The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft successfully docked with the International Space Station early this morning. The uncrewed vehicle, which was launched on Saturday morning, approached the station very systematically, carrying out a set of highly choreographed actions to prove that it was capable of safely maneuvering near the station before being allowed to approach autonomously, and very slowly, push its nose into the docking adapter on the port of the Harmony module.

The first Crew Dragon docked to the ISS.

The hatch was opened about 2 hours after the docking. Crew members entered the capsule wearing air masks in case there were any leaks of noxious fumes into the capsule during the trip to the station.

Some photos of the Dragon and the ISS during the rendezvous and docking:

The Crew Dragon nears the station. The nose cap was opened soon after the Dragon was deployed from the Falcon 9 upper stage.
A view of the ISS from the Crew Dragon. Overlaid are indicators of the vehicle’s distance from the station, relative speed, etc.
Targeting the docking adapter on the Harmony module.
Views from a camera on the Crew Dragon of the docking port (left) and from a camera on the ISS of the Dragon (right).
Ripley waits in the Dragon while the crew prepared to open the hatch. The astronauts wear masks initially in case of any air quality problems in the capsule.
Astronaut David Saint-Jacques and cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko test the air inside the Dragon. Astronaut Anne McClain remained in the Harmony module.

More about the docking at:

An appropriate musical tribute to the Crew Dragon flight:

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The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos,
and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos

Everyone can participate in space