‘First Women on the Moon’ 2019 Essay Contest

The International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA) and the Moon Village Association (MVA) are sponsoring the

‘FIRST WOMEN ON THE MOON’ 2019 ESSAY CONTEST
200-Word Submission Due 10 October 2019

2019 FWotM Essay Contest Announcement

Grand Prize: All-expenses-paid participation at ILOA Galaxy Forum China: Hainan, 25-28 February 2020 provided by ILOA
And one-on-one Astronaut briefing(s) provided by the Moon Village Association

Introduction: Working to help to fulfill the Apollo 11 message ‘in peace for all’, ILOA and MVA are sponsoring the 2019 First Women on the Moon Essay Contest. Only 63 women have been to space, and of the 12 Moonwalkers, all have been men. The first step toward realizing a future where peoples of varied genders, geographies and generations live off-planet may begin with The First Women on the Moon.

Grand Prize: Winner will attend all sessions, ceremonies and activities at ILOA Galaxy Forum China 2020, Hainan 25-28 February, and participate in the “First Women on the Moon” special luncheon panel featuring invited Astronauts Soyeon Yi, Naoko Yamazaki, other women Astronauts from China and USA (TBD); and potentially an Apollo Moonwalker. Direct purchase by ILOA will cover round-trip regular class airline travel to Hainan Island, hotel accommodation at Hilton Wenchang, Galaxy Forum registration fee and meals. Reimbursement for reasonable traveling incidentals such as meals at airports and ground transportation will be covered. Reimbursement for passport and visa, and expedited fees, will also be provided, if necessary.

MVA will provide direct, one-on-one Astronaut briefing(s) for a total of up to 3 hours with the winner, by skype or in person, at a date to be mutually agreed, to answer questions they may have about living and working in space, and perhaps one day on the Moon.

How to enter: Visit www.galaxyforum.org and use the online form to describe the significance of the First Women landing on the Moon, and why you would like to be one of the First Women on the Moon –  in 200 words or less. Submit your essay with your full name, age, mailing address, and telephone number.

Optional graphic: Contestants are encouraged, but not required, to submit an original drawing, photograph, or image of any size to support their essay. Please do not submit any copyrighted or other intellectual property materials.

Deadline: All entries due by 10 October 2019 at 12:00 Hawaii Standard Time (UTC-10).

Eligibility: Contest is open to all women 21 years of age or older by 25 February 2019, from any country, nation, continent, background and ability. English is the main language of Galaxy Forum China, Hainan, therefore we ask for essays to be submitted in English. Contestant must already have or be eligible to receive a Passport and a Visa to travel to Hainan, China for 25-28 February 2020.

Galaxy Forum Hainan 2020 – China: Developing program and details for Galaxy Forum China 2020 may be found here: https://galaxyforum.org/galaxy-forum-china-2020-hainan/

Further information and contact: Please visit the websites for International Lunar Observatory Association, Galaxy Forum, or Moon Village Association.

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See also the update on the winner and other entrants for the 2018 ‘First Women on the Moon’ Essay Contest.

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Galaxy Girls:
50 Amazing Stories of Women in Space

Space settlement roundup – June.19.2019

A sampling of recent articles, videos, and images related to the establishment of human settlements in the solar system:

Lunar resources:

** An interview with Astrobotic CEO John Thornton about the recent $79M contract awarded to the company by NASA to send payloads to the Moon in 2021 aboard the company’s robotic lander/rover: ” Sunday Business Page: Astrobotic 6/9/2019 – CBS Pittsburgh

** A TMRO.tv program about Japan’s ispace, which has raised around $100M for lunar robotic missions: This private company will mine the moon – Orbit 12.19

Julien Lamamy from i-space joins us to talk their plans to make lunar transportation cheaper and more accessible, and begin using lunar resources.

Mars resources:

** NASA’s Mars 2020 Rover includes device to derive oxygen from Martian CO2:

Crazy Engineering explores a technology demonstration riding aboard NASA’s Mars 2020 rover that’s straight out of science fiction novels like “The Martian.” It’s an oxygen generator called MOXIE, designed to convert carbon dioxide — which constitutes about 96% of the Martian atmosphere — into breathable oxygen.

More at Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) – NASA Mars

** Perchlorate in Martian soil also can supply oxygen: Device seeks to brew oxygen on Mars from dangerous salt – SFChronicle.com

John Coates, a microbiologist at UC Berkeley, has patented a mechanism he says can turn the perchlorate into oxygen fit for humans. Throughout the development process, he consulted NASA scientists who see Coates’ invention as a partial answer to the oxygen issue, but not the entire solution.

“What happens if astronauts are 10 miles from home (base) and they have a big problem and need oxygen? That is the niche that the perchlorate would fill,” said Chris McKay, a planetary scientist at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View. “When you are (on Mars) out in middle of nowhere, scooping up a bag of dirt to produce oxygen would be easy to do.”

** SpaceX needs partners for development of Mars resources for settlements: SpaceX beginning to tackle some of the big challenges for a Mars journey | Ars Technica

… those things beyond building the rocket are critical. One of the key elements needed to make for a more cost-effective Mars mission is in-situ resource utilization, in which crew members use resources available on Mars to reduce the complexity of the mission—essentially living off the land. This was first proposed in the Mars Direct plan outlined by Martin Marietta, as it allows for a much smaller and cheaper mission. The primary benefit accrues from making the propellant for the return journey to Earth on Mars itself, reducing the cost of the mission significantly.

This is one area in which SpaceX is especially keen to find partners. “There are a lot of important aspects in producing the propellant for this vehicle,” Wooster said. The company has plans to do this on its own if it has to, but he said SpaceX would gladly allow others to assist. SpaceX is also seeking partners for critical needs such as power, habitats, science, food storage, and more. Beginning in September 2018, the company began to convene conferences to solicit advice and support in these areas.

** Dr. Robert Zubrin presented Mars Direct 2.0 at the recent ISDC 2019. The key feature of the Mars Direct approach is to maximize utilization of Martian resources to reduce as much as possible the amount of mass that needs to be delivered from Earth to sustain the first base on the Red Planet.

Asteroid resources:

** A University of Adelaide group is developing a solvent extraction process for asteroid mining that would reduce the support resources needed and make such mining more feasible economically: Asteroid mining edges closer with solvent extraction – The Engineer

The technique relies upon continuous-flow chemistry, where tailored combinations of solvents are mixed with asteroid material to harvest the precious metals contained within. According to the researchers, the process is scalable and can operate in zero gravity and vacuum conditions. Its capabilities are currently being trialled in-orbit following a May 4 launch coordinated in partnership with US firm Space Tango.

** NASA funds Mini Bee spacecraft to demo technology for extraction of water and other volatiles from asteroids:

NIAC normally focuses on paper studies but this unusual Phase III grant of $2M, along with $1M in private investment, will fund a hardware mission in low earth orbit.

This flight demonstration mission concept proposes a method of asteroid resource harvesting called optical mining. Optical mining is an approach for excavating an asteroid and extracting water and other volatiles into an inflatable bag. Called Mini Bee, the mission concept aims to prove optical mining, in conjunction with other innovative spacecraft systems, can be used to obtain propellant in space. The proposed architecture includes resource prospecting, extraction and delivery.

Apis™ is a breakthrough mission and flight system architecture designed to revolutionize NASA’s human exploration of deep space and to enable massive space industrialization and human settlement. Apis™ is enabled by Public Private Partnership (PPP) and a series of inventions including the Optical Mining™ method of asteroid resource harvesting, the Omnivore™ solar thermal thruster, and a spacecraft architecture that uses highly concentrated sunlight as a far lighter, less expensive, and higher performing alternative to electric power in space.” Credits: Joel Sercel, TransAstra Corporation

The Mini Bee mission will be carried out in partnership with sister company Momentus, which is developing in-space tugs that use water as propellant:

Mini Bee will use the Momentus Vigoride orbital shuttle spacecraft bus and fly into orbit as a piggyback on an ESPA ring launch to low Earth orbit along with a man made miniature asteroid which will be released into orbit separately from the Mini Bee. Mini Bee will chase down and capture the synthetic asteroid and demonstrate asteroid mining and water extraction along with high thrust water based propulsion.

Commercial space habitats:

** Bigelow Aerospace‘s posts “First Base” lunar settlement architecture and describes plans for ISS commercial activity. On the BA website and on Twitter, the company has posted descriptions and images of a design for a lunar base developed with the company’s expandable habitat modules:

A technique for protecting the habitats from radiation was described on June 17th:

More on our “First Base”: How do we help protect astronauts from radiation on the surface of the moon? Placing regolith over their heads has long been considered necessary but previous methods have not been practical. On the lunar surface, the simpler the construction the better.

Astronauts fill durable tubes with regolith. The tubes (~20 m long) are laced over the habitat to build a desired thickness. There is a simple approach to this placement. This approach to radiation protection doesn’t require moving parts. The astronauts perform the tube loading.

Outside of the habitat, an enclosed rover outfitted with water or other tiles provides much needed shielding on the lunar surface. The two person enclosed rover and the solar field are deployed from the two warehouses of “First Base”.

** And Robert Bigelow announced that his company has contracted SpaceX for Crew Dragon flights to take customers to the ISS. (Bigelow is proposing to NASA to attach a habitat to the station.): Bigelow Space Operations Announces it has Reserved up to Four Dedicated SpaceX Launches to the International Space Station – Bigelow Aerospace

On Friday, June 7, 2019 Bigelow Space Operations (BSO) announced that last September of 2018 BSO paid substantial sums as deposits and reservation fees to secure up to four SpaceX launches to the International Space Station (ISS). These launches are dedicated flights each carrying up to four people for a duration of one to possibly two months on the ISS.

BSO is excited about NASA’s announcements last Friday. BSO has demonstrated its sincerity and commitment to moving forward on NASA’s commercialization plans for the ISS through the execution of last September’s launch contracts. BSO intends to thoroughly digest all of the information that was dispersed last week so that all opportunities and obligations to properly conduct the flights and activities of new astronauts to the ISS can be responsibly performed.

In these early times, the seat cost will be targeted at approximately $52,000,000 per person.

The next big question is when is this all going to happen? Once the SpaceX rocket and capsule are certified by NASA to fly people to the ISS, then this program can begin.

As you might imagine, as they say “the devil is in the details”, and there are many. But we are excited and optimistic that all of this can come together successfully, and BSO has skin in the game.

** The Island Zero Alpha design for a first generation rotating station uses what appear to be Bigelow type of modules. The design was proposed a few years ago in a British Interplanetary Society sponsored study. (Item via Rocketeers):

Island Zero Alpha is an original space habitat design from the study group on space settlement in the British Interplanetary Society. Assembled and stationed in low Earth orbit, it is 115 metres in radius. The ring of habitat modules rotates at 2 rpm and this produces a pseudo-gravity of around 0.5g on the floor of the modules. The idea behind Island Zero Alpha is to move up to larger habitats than the International Space Station and to learn more about the effects of pseudo-gravity on humans in space. The station is expected to have a crew of around fifteen to twenty.

Other space settlement topics:

** Latest on the SSI 50: The Space Settlement Enterprise conference set for September 9-10 at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington: SSI 50: First Conference Panel Lineup Announced | Space Studies Institute

SSI (Space Studies Institute) was founded by the late Princeton professor Gerard O’Neill to pursue development of technologies that enable large in-space habitats. Here is an overview of such colonies: O’Neill colonies: A decades-long dream for settling space | Astronomy.com

** Japanese project develops system for making electronic circuits in space: Succeeded in Prototyping Integrated Circuits (ICs) with a Small-Volume Production System (Minimal Fab) – JAXA and AIST paving the pathway to minimal fab-produced ICs aboard spacecraft – JAXA

AIST [National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology ] has built a fully automatic Minimal Fab system, which enables a circuit designer to manufacture a semiconductor device on his own by operating a series of manufacturing equipment. Maneuvered by a JAXA circuit engineer, the new system has proven itself and produced the above ICs.

These prototyping and operational demonstration have opened the way to manufacturing electronic devices aboard spacecraft with a Minimal Fab process, which is expected to broaden the applications of the new process.

** Expanding the garden on the ISS: NASA Testing Method to Grow Bigger Plants in Space | NASA

In an effort to increase the ability to provide astronauts nutrients on long-duration missions as the agency plans to sustainably return to the Moon and move forward to Mars, the Veg-PONDS-02 experiment is currently underway aboard the International Space Station.

The present method of growing plants in space uses seed bags, referred to as pillows, that astronauts push water into with a syringe. Using this method makes it difficult to grow certain types of “pick and eat” crops beyond lettuce varieties. Crops like tomatoes use a large amount of water, and pillows don’t have enough holding capacity to support them.

As an alternative to the pillows, 12 passive orbital nutrient delivery system (PONDS) plant growth units are being put through their paces. The PONDS units are less expensive to produce, have more water holding capacity, provide a greater space for root growth and are a completely passive system—meaning PONDS can provide air and water to crops without extra power.

The 21-day experiment is a collaboration between NASA, Techshot, Inc., the Tupperware Brands Corporation, fluids experts at NASA’s Glenn Research Center and Mark Weislogel at Portland State University. As a U.S. National Laboratory, the space station provides commercial companies and government agencies with the ability to test the experiment in a microgravity environment.

** Disabilities on earth may be advantages in space: In a recent presentation to the Future In-Space Operations (FISO) Working Group, Sheri Wells-Jensen of Bowling Green State University discussed what is and isn’t a disability in space: “Preparing to Survive: the Case for Disabled Astronauts and Colonists”:

And in a Sci-Am blog posting, she discussed the example of a blind crew member on a space station: The Case for Disabled Astronauts – Scientific American Blog Network

After all, in a serious accident, the first thing to go might be the lights! This generally means that the first thing a sighted astronaut must do for security is ensure visual access to the environment. He hunts for a flashlight, and if emergency lighting comes on, his eyes take a moment to adjust. Meanwhile, the blind astronaut is already heading toward the source of the problem. In the fire aboard the Russian Mir space station, in 1997, the crew struggled as smoke obscured their view. The blind astronaut, while still affected by the lack of good air, would not be bothered by either dim lighting or occluding smoke. She would accurately direct the fire extinguisher at the source of heat and noise.

** Another debate on where to focus initial space settlement efforts was held at the National Space Society‘s ISDC 2019 meeting:

** ET mega-space settlements: The Space Show – Fri, 05/31/2019 –  Dr. Greg Matloff and C. Bangs “discussed their book, Stellar Engineering, terrestrial & possible alien megastructures & concepts for advanced civilizations outside our solar system”.

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Moon Rush: The New Space Race

Space transport roundup – June.18.2019

A sampling of recent articles, videos, and images dealing with space transport:

** Gyroc tethered hover testAirbourne Engineering in the UK:  Successful Test of VTVL Rocket | Airborne Engineering Limited

…The vehicle, codenamed Gyroc (a shortening of “gyro-stabilised rocket”) is the result of an internal research and development project that has been under way at Airborne for a few years at our Westcott facility in the United Kingdom. VTVL rockets like Gyroc can be used to test technologies required for landing on other planets, such as the Moon or Mars. We believe that this is the first time such a vehicle has been successfully tested in Europe.

… Gyroc uses non-toxic rocket propellants (nitrous oxide and isopropyl alcohol,) weighs about 20kg and can hover for over 30 seconds. After more testing, we plan to scale-up the vehicle so that it can be used to assist other organisations developing autonomous planetary landing technology and who need a way to carry out testing in a realistic way on the Earth. Although the development of Gyroc has been entirely self-funded by Airborne Engineering, we are very grateful to the European Space Agency who have kindly provided some additional funds to support the recent test programme. It is hoped this will lead to future collaboration.

** Stratolaunch is up for sale:

CNBC:

The hefty price tag includes ownership of the airplane as well as the intellectual property and facilities.

Stratolaunch is the world’s largest airplane by wingspan, which stretches 385 feet — longer than an American football field. The plane is powered by six jet engines salvaged from Boeing 747 aircraft.

Allen’s vision of a massive plane that can launch rockets from the air was at least partially fulfilled in April, when Stratolaunch flew for the first time after about eight years in development. Based at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California, the giant airplane flew for more than two hours before landing after what was deemed a successful first flight.

** Blue Origin has several major projects underway in Florida: Blue Origin investing $1 billion into Space Coast for ‘road to space’ – Florida Today

If all goes according to Blue Origin’s ambitious plan, the Space Coast will become the opening phase of a “road to space” for millions of people taking their livelihoods beyond Earth’s fragile atmosphere.

The Jeff Bezos-led company is investing more than a billion dollars into the region to transform infrastructure — old and new — into gateways for its upcoming New Glenn rocket, a towering vehicle slated to launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station no earlier than 2021. It will also be built, launched and refurbished here after landing on a ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

“New Glenn is all about millions of people living and working in space,” Scott Henderson, Blue Origin’s vice president of test and flight operations, said Tuesday during a National Space Club Florida Committee luncheon in Cape Canaveral. “It sets the foundation for building an infrastructure required to get to space.”

** Ariane V rocket set to liftoff from Kourou, French Guiana on June 20th with the AT&T T-16 and Eutelsat 7C communications satellites during the window 2143-2330 GMT (5:43-7:30 p.m. EDT).

VS248 payloads
“Flight VA248’s two satellite passengers are readied for launch during parallel activity inside the Spaceport’s S5 building. The photo at left shows AT&T T-16 during its fueling process, while at right EUTELSAT 7C undergoes its fit-check with the payload adapter that will provide the interface with Ariane 5 when integrated on the launcher.” – Arianespace

** Russian Proton rocket set to launch the German and Russian X-ray telescopes on June 21st at 1217 GMT (8:17 am EDT) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan: Proton rocket, Russian-German astronomy satellite arrive at launch pad – Spaceflight Now

** ULA Vulcan rocket development update: ULA Preparing Proven Hardware and New Innovations for Vulcan – NASASpaceFlight.com

One of the only components of Vulcan Centaur which will likely not fly prior to Vulcan’s debut is the BE-4 engine, two of which will power Vulcan’s first stage. The BE-4 is a liquid methane and liquid oxygen fueled engine developed by Blue Origin, originally for their New Glenn launch vehicle.

New Glenn is also expected to debut in 2021, so the BE-4 could only fly prior to Vulcan’s debut if New Glenn flies first. The BE-4, as well as BE-3U engines for New Glenn, will be manufactured at a new factory in Huntsville, Alabama, not far from ULA’s Decatur factory. Construction equipment has begun to arrive at the factory site.

Prototype engines have been test fired extensively at Blue Origin’s West Texas facility, also the launch site of their suborbital New Shepard vehicle. Further testing and eventual qualification of the engine will take place in Texas, as well as the 4670 test stand at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. Blue Origin is also preparing an engine test facility at LC-11 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, next to the future launch site of New Glenn, LC-36.

** Firefly seeking payloads for first demo flight of Alpha rocket:

The company

has an (undisclosed) customer for the flight, but the smallsat launcher also has some unused capacity for the mission—the Alpha rocket has about twice as much lift as an existing competitor, Rocket Lab’s Electron vehicle.

So on Monday, Firefly announced that it will accept some academic and educational payloads free of charge on the Alpha flight. “We’ve wanted to do something like this on our first flight from the beginning,” Markusic said. The payloads will fly to a 300km circular orbit, with a 97-degree inclination.

** SpaceX:

*** STP-2 Falcon Heavy launch preparations: Liftoff from Pad-39A at Cape Kennedy Space Center is set for a window that opens on the evening of June 24th at 11:30 pm-3:30 am EDT (0330-0730 GMT)

If the routine test goes as planned, SpaceX’s third completed Falcon Heavy will be ready to lift off as early as 11:30 pm ET (03:30 UTC), June 24th. Atop the massive rocket will be the US Air Force’s Space Test Program-2 (STP-2) mission, a collection of 24 small satellites from a variety of US government agencies and academic institutions. Practically speaking, STP is often more of an engineered excuse to launch, involving satellites and customers that are willing to accept higher risk than more valuable payloads, making it far easier for the US military to certify new technologies and new commercial launch vehicles.

As previously discussed on Teslarati, STP-2 is an extremely ambitious mission that aims to simultaneously certify or pave the way towards certification of critical capabilities. First and foremost, it will (barring serious anomalies) give the US military the data it needs to certify SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket for all national defense launches, giving ULA’s Delta IV Heavy its first real competition in a decade and a half.

Included under the umbrella of that catch-all certification is a sort of torture-test validation of the long-coast capabilities of SpaceX’s Falcon upper stage. To successfully complete STP-2, the upper stage will be subjected to “four separate upper-stage engine burns, three separate deployment orbits, a final propulsive passivation maneuver, and a total mission duration of over six hours.” It will likely be SpaceX’s most technically-challenging launch ever.

*** Planetary Society’s LightSail-2 solar sail on FH flight and the Society is providing lots of information on all aspects of the launch:

*** The Falcon 9 launch of the RadarSat constellation spacecraft looks to be the last SpaceX launch from Vandenberg for several months:

*** Announcement of Korean satellite launch contract may be just one of several launches for 2019 that have not yet been revealed by SpaceX: SpaceX Falcon 9 wins Korean launch contract as 2019 mystery missions persist – Teslarati

As previously discussed in both Teslarati articles and newsletters, comments from SpaceX executives in February and May 2019 reiterate the company’s expectation of 18-21 launches in 2019, excluding Starlink. Hofeller’s “more than 21 launches” admittedly came more than two months before a catastrophic Crew Dragon failure threw the spacecraft’s launch manifest into limbo.

Three months later, SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell reiterated the idea that SpaceX could beat its 2018 launch record (21 launches) or at least get close. Curiously, she specifically noted that SpaceX’s purported 18-21 launch manifest excluded Starlink missions, of which SpaceX has already launched one. In short, SpaceX has completed 7 launches in 2019 (6 if Starlink v0.9 is excluded). The company’s public manifest – unofficially cobbled together by fans – shows 9 more launches scheduled for a total of 15 non-Starlink launches in 2019.

To meet Shotwell’s expected 18-21 non-Starlink launches, anywhere from 3 to 6 missions are apparently missing from publicly-managed launch manifests. It’s unclear if SpaceX actually has enough launch-ready customers to achieve those ambitious targets. Additionally, SpaceX is currently on track to complete 8 launches total (1 Starlink) in the first half of 2019. In 2017 and 2018 (two years without interruption), SpaceX consistently launched an equivalent number (or more) missions in the first half of the year when compared to the second half, and both years have maxed out at 9 launches in H2.

*** SpaceX aiming Starlink internet services at markets outside of densely populated urban areas: SpaceX CEO Elon Musk hints at Starlink’s global reach at Tesla shareholder event – Teslarati

Elon Musk’s specific comment indicated that Starlink – at least in its current iteration – was never meant to serve more than “3-5%” of Earth (population: ~7.8 billion), with most or all of its users nominally located in areas with low to medium population densities. This generally confirms technical suspicions that Starlink (and other constellations like OneWeb and Telesat) is not really capable of providing internet to everyone per se.

For SpaceX, each Starlink satellite – per official statements that the first 60 satellites represent more than 1 terabit of bandwidth – likely offers bandwidth of roughly 17-20 gigabits per second. In simpler terms, this means that one Starlink satellite overhead could theoretically support as many as 4000 users simultaneously streaming YouTube videos at 1080p/30fps, a figure that sounds impressive but glosses over the sheer number of people that live in cities. Importantly, every single Starlink satellite at ~550 km will likely have a service radius of several thousand – if not tens of thousands of – square kilometers.

Here’s an overview of the Starlink project:

*** Starhopper continues to wait for it’s Raptor engine, which apparently was damaged in tests at the SpaceX facility in McGregor, Texas. Elon Musk said in a tweet that the next test hop of the Starhopper was awaiting repairs to the engine. This also means that his update on the Starship project, which he had hinted would be given on June 20th, will be postponed.

*** The roads near the Starhopper launch pad will be closed during testing times: County preps for SpaceX closures – Brownsville Herald

In a first, Cameron County has announced possible closures of Boca Chica Beach and State Highway 4 for SpaceX testing that could span a week-long window, as opposed to three-day windows.

Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño Jr. announced in the public notice that closures are possible on June 20 and/or June 21 and/or June 22, as well as June 24 and/or June 25 and/or June 26 from 2 to 8 p.m. for space flight activities.

Testing was initially scheduled for this week, but during the last week of May and each week of June the county has announced the testing has been rescheduled.

*** Views of Starhopper and orbital demo Starship vehicles in Texas and Florida:

SpaceX is leasing Coastal Steel to build its largest spaceship ever. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said right now, there is simultaneous construction of the interplanetary Starship going on in both Texas and Florida.

 

 

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LEGO Ideas NASA Apollo Saturn V 21309
Outer Space Model Rocket for Kids and Adults, Science Building Kit
(1900 pieces)

Space policy roundup – June.17.2019

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:

** The Space Show – Fri, 06/14/2019 James A. M. Muncy talked about “draft regulations for commercial space transportation and launches, rules, regulations, and much more”.

** IAF begins process to select astronauts for Gaganyaan

The Indian Air Force (IAF) has started the process for selecting 10 astronauts for the country’s maiden manned space mission, of which three, including a woman, will go to space.

** The Case for Space: Interview with author Dr. Robert Zubrin:

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The Case for Space:
How the Revolution in Spaceflight Opens Up
a Future of Limitless Possibility