Moon Mining Is Gaining Traction, But is Still Far Off

Article by Luke Burgess                                               August 4, 2021                                                               (outsiderclub.com)

• Many have speculated that “space mining” will soon move out of the realm of fiction and into our future reality. Last year, President Trump signed an executive order stating America’s right to explore and use resources from the mining of resources on an asteroid, the Earth’s Moon, a moon of a nearby planet, or one of the nearby planets themselves. But there are realities that will postpone off-Earth mining for decades to come.

• The Moon is rich in metals like iron, aluminum, and titanium. But all of these are also found in great quantities on Earth. Going to the Moon to mine them would be like diving to the bottom of the ocean for a glass of water. According to experts, the Moon’s most critical resources are water, rare earth elements, and helium-3. Water would be useful for lunar agriculture or fuel, but certainly not worth bringing back to Earth. And ‘rare earth elements’ are about as common as most base metals on in the Earth’s crust.

• While 90% of the world’s rare Earth elements are mined in China, the main problem for rare earth production is we simply don’t have good technologies to commercially process these elements from different types of ore yet. Also, rare Earth elements production carries serious environmental risks.

• Helium-3 may be the only resource worth bringing back to Earth for now. Helium-3 is a very rare gas that has the potential to be used as a fuel in future nuclear fusion. But what about the cost of getting there and back? Up until very recently, the expected cost of sending just one pound of material into orbit was over $10,000. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch vehicle has drastically brought down those cost expectations, and the company’s Smallsat Rideshare Program is aiming to reduce the cost of mass payloads into a sun-synchronous orbit for $1 million — or $2,500 per pound. But this is still far from economical. For example, if someone were so inclined to put a bulldozer into orbit for whatever reason, it would cost around $50 million. It would cost much more to get a dozer on the Moon to conduct a mining operation.

• Let’s imagine for a moment that a world-changing technology drastically reduces the cost of payload launch to pennies, so that the cost of transporting anything to the Moon is equal to transporting it on Earth. Mining isn’t just showing up and digging. Different types of surveys and mapping need to be completed, and the ideal location must be identified before exploration can begin. On Earth, the process can take five to 10 years. So even if someone started on a project to commercially mine on the Moon today, it would take at least a decade for anything to actually be produced.

• Still, expect human beings to continue to push the space industry forward to improve our day-to-day lives on Earth. Just recently, a group of visionaries walked away from top-level positions at Apple, Amazon, SpaceX, and Tesla to join a small start-up company that’s aiming to create the first daily space delivery service in history. This firm builds rockets faster and 50 times smaller than anyone else in the industry. Says Jason Simpkins, investment director of Wall Street’s Proving Ground, “According to my calculations, this company’s enterprise value could grow 8,933% very soon… even if it captures just a modest share of this market.”

 

The idea of extraterrestrial mining has been around for more than a century. In the 1898 landmark sci-fi novel Edison’s Conquest of Mars, Garrett Serviss’ main characters come across aliens mining an asteroid made of solid gold.

And for decades since, science fiction writers have used asteroid and moon mining as plot devices — from the golden-age sci-fi greats like Isaac Asimov and Richard Heinlein, to modern authors Andy Weir and James S. A. Corey, to big budget Hollywood films “Avatar” (2009) and the “Alien” series (1979–present).

                 SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket

Over the past few years, many have speculated that “space mining” will soon move out of the realm of fiction and into our future reality. Last year the concept was even politicized by then-president Trump when he signed an executive order which stated America’s right

             Jason Simpkins

to explore and use resources from outer space. Then, just a month ago, the idea of extraterrestrial mining was reinvigorated with Jeff Bezos’ rocket stunt.

Yet as exciting as the whole idea is — to blast off the Earth to mine new mineral resources — I think it’s important to consider the realities of what extraterrestrial mining will actually require in practice. Because those realities will postpone off-Earth mining for decades to come. Let me explain, but first things first…

Let’s clear up some language…

“Space mining”… Technically speaking, we’re already mining in space. In fact, human beings have never not mined in space. The Earth is flying around in what we call “space.” We’re in space right now. So what we’re really talking about is better called “extraterrestrial mining”… mining that’s done anywhere but Earth.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

 

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.

The Emerging Space Economy

Article by George Pullen & Samson Williams                                    July 30, 2021                                        (financialexpress.com)

• Soon, the Space Economy will encompass production, trade, and commerce for goods and services both familiar and brand new taking place between the ‘Karman line’ (approximately 100 kilometers overhead) and ‘Cislunar space’

Continue reading

iRocket Accelerates Development of Reusable Launch Vehicles for Commercial and Military Customers

July 23, 2021                                                    (intelligent-aerospace.com)

• Jeff Bezos’ successful crewed Blue Origin mission on July 20th demonstrated that more and more companies are starting to realize the significance of ‘reusable rockets’ in the burgeoning space industry. New York startup iRocket is banking on its cost-effective resusable launch vehicles

Continue reading

Amazon/Blue Origin’s Jeff Bezos’ Day Trip to Space

Article by Jackie Wattles                                                    July 20, 2021                                                                    (cnn.com)

• On Tuesday July 20th, Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man, along with three other passengers strapped into their New Shepard crew capsule (pictured above) atop a rocket at Bezos’ Blue Origin’s launch site in rural West Texas to blast off on an 11-minute, supersonic joy ride. The capsule traveled 65 miles above the desert landscape, topping out at an altitude of 351,210 feet. At the peak of the flight path, the passengers were weightless for about three minutes and were allowed to unstrap themselves from their seat to float around and soak in panoramic views of the Earth and the cosmos. This flight marked the first-ever crewed mission for Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital space tourism vehicle, upon which the company plans to take wealthy thrill seekers on high-flying journeys in the future.

• Riding alongside the multi-billionaire were Bezos’ brother, Mark Bezos; Wally Funk, an 82-year-old pilot and one of the “Mercury 13” women who trained to go to space in the 20th century but never got to fly; and an 18-year old recent high school graduate named Oliver Daemen who was Blue Origin’s first paying customer and whose father purchased his ticket. Funk and Daemen became the oldest and youngest people, respectively, ever to travel to space.

• Bezos founded Blue Origin in 2000, six years after he started Amazon, with the goal of making spaceflight more affordable and more accessible. A few of his rivals in the industry — most notably Elon Musk and Richard Branson — both started their space ventures around the same time. While the suborbital New Shepard vehicle is the first fully operational piece of space hardware the company has developed, Bezos plans to build spinning orbital space stations where people can live and work. The company is also working on a much larger rocket, called New Glenn, and a lunar lander that it hopes will be used to support NASA missions.

• Thus far, the reservations for a trip to space have been offered solely to participants in an auction that Blue Origin concluded last month. The auction’s winner was a mystery bidder who agreed to pay $28 million for a ticket. He or she was expected to be on Tuesday’s spaceflight, but the high-priced traveler had to reschedule due to ‘scheduling conflicts’. Blue Origin is planning to conduct two more New Shepard tourist passenger flights this year.

• Bezos has not indicated what Blue Origin will charge space tourists or what the Dutch 18-year-old Daemen’s father paid for his ticket. The company said that the auction did give a strong indication that there are plenty of people anxious to go: 7,600 people from 159 countries registered to participate in the bidding war. These early suborbital space tourism flights will be prohibitively expensive to the vast majority of people, and that’s not expected to change anytime soon.

• “Blue Origin was founded by Jeff Bezos with the vision of enabling a future where millions of people are living and working in space to benefit Earth,” the company said in a press release. “To preserve Earth, Blue Origin believes that humanity will need to expand, explore, find new energy and material resources, and move industries that stress Earth into space. Blue Origin is working on this today by developing partially and fully reusable launch vehicles that are safe, low cost, and serve the needs of all civil, commercial, and defense customers.”

• An online petition garnered more than 162,000 signatures asking for Bezos never to return to Earth. Bezos, who is worth about $200 billion, has funded the company almost solely out of his own pocket. Repeated promises of benevolence and benefit to a ravaged Earth has critics concerned that the ultra-wealthy view outer space as their own personal escape hatch. “They are largely right,” Bezos told CNN’s Rachel Crane of critics who say billionaires should focus their energy — and money — on issues closer to home. “We have to do both. We have lots of problems here and now on Earth and we need to work on those, and we always need to look to the future. We’ve always done that as a species, as a civilization.” But regarding his sojourn to space on Tuesday, Bezos declared it “the best day ever”.

 

                              Jeff Bezos

Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man, went to space and back Tuesday morning on an

Oliver Daemen, Wally Funk, Jeff and Mark Bezos

11-minute, supersonic joy ride aboard the rocket and capsule system developed by his space company, Blue Origin.

Riding alongside the multibillionaire were Bezos’ brother, Mark Bezos; Wally Funk, an 82-year-old pilot and one of the “Mercury 13” women who trained to go to space in the 20th century but never got to fly; and an 18-year old recent high school graduate named Oliver Daemen who was Blue Origin’s first paying customer and whose father, an investor, purchased his ticket.

Funk and Daemen became the oldest and youngest people, respectively, ever to travel to space. And this flight marked the first-ever crewed mission for Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital space tourism rocket, which the company plans to use to take wealthy thrill seekers on high-flying joy rides in the months and years to come.

The four passengers on Tuesday strapped into their New Shepard crew capsule at Blue Origin’s launch site in rural West Texas just before the rocket lit its engines at 8:12 am CT, sending the vehicle blaring past the speed of sound and up to more than 65 miles above the desert landscape, topping out at an altitude of 351,210 feet. At the peak of the flight path, the passengers were weightless for about three minutes and were allowed to unstrap themselves from their seat to float around and soak in panoramic views of the Earth and the cosmos.

The launch was visible to reporters on the ground, with the rocket streaking across the almost cloudless Texas sky with a blooming contrail. The bright blaze of the rocket engine looked almost like a star or planet as it rose into the sky. Bezos and crew could be heard on Blue Origin’s livestream cheering as they moved about the capsule during the microgravity portion of the flight.

“It’s dark up here, oh my word!” Funk could be heard saying.

Bezos declared it “the best day ever” on his communications check upon landing.

3:29 minute video of Blue Origin spaceflight and landing (‘CNBC Television’ YouTube)

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

 

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.

Successful Space Flight for Richard Branson and Virgin Galactic

Article by William Harwood                                             July 12, 2021                                                       (spaceflightnow.com)

• On Sunday July 11th at 8:40 a.m. local time at the Virgin Galactic’s ‘Spaceport America’ launch site near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, Virgin Galactic owner Richard Branson and five crewmates rocketed into space on a sub-orbital test flight intended to demonstrate his company’s air-launched spaceplane is ready for paying customers at $250,000 or more per seat, in early 2022.

• Virgin’s twin-fuselage carrier jet lifted away with the ‘VSS Unity’ rocket-powered spaceplane bolted under its wing. At about 45,000 feet the Virgin mothership, VMS Eve, disengaged the spaceplane. The Unity spaceplane then soared to an altitude just above 50 miles, giving Branson and crew about three minutes of weightlessness and spectacular views of Earth before plunging back into the atmosphere in a spiraling descent to touchdown again back at the New Mexico launch site.

• “I have dreamt of this moment since I was a kid but honestly, nothing could prepare you for the view of Earth from space,” Branson, 70, said after landing. “It was just magical. … I’m just taking it all in, it’s unreal.”

• The flight upstaged Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who plans a sub-orbital spaceflight of his own aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft on July 2th as the two companies compete for passengers in the emerging commercial space marketplace. Bezos complimented Branson and his team, posting a note on Instagram saying “congratulations on the flight. Can’t wait to join the club!”

• Joining Branson aboard Unity were pilots David Mackay and Michael Masucci, along with Virgin astronaut trainer Beth Moses, flight engineer Colin Bennett and Sirisha Bandla, the company’s vice president of government relations. Mackay and Masucci, both veterans of earlier test flights to space, ignited Unity’s hybrid rocket motor and piloted the spaceplane pitched up onto a near-vertical trajectory. Burning rubberized solid propellant with liquid nitrous oxide, Unity’s hybrid motor fired for about one minute, accelerating the craft to about three times the speed of sound before shutting down.

• As the spaceplane rose upward, Branson and company had a chance to briefly unstrap, float about the cabin and marvel at the spectacular view as Unity reached its maximum altitude of 53.5 miles — three-and-a-half miles above what NASA and the FAA consider the “boundary” of space where the atmosphere is so thin that wings, rudders and other aerodynamic surfaces no longer have any effect. Live video from inside the spacecraft showed Branson and his crewmates floating free of their seats and enjoying the sensation of weightlessness and the out-of-this-world view. (see 3:12 minute video below)

• “To all you kids down there, I was once a child with a dream looking up to the stars,” Branson said while his crewmates floated weighlessly in the background. “Now I’m an adult, in a spaceship with lots of other wonderful adults, looking down to our beautiful, beautiful Earth. To the next generation of dreamers: If we can do this, just imagine what you can do!”

• A few moments later, the spacecraft then began the long plunge back to Earth. The pilots guided the spaceplane through a spiraling descent, lined up on Spaceport America’s 12,000-foot-long runway and settled to a picture-perfect landing, closing out a flight that lasted 59 minutes from takeoff to touchdown.

• Sunday’s launch marked Unity’s 22nd test flight, its fourth trip to space, Virgin’s first with a six-person crew on board and the first for Branson, who beat Bezos into space by nine days. Branson effectively blindsided Bezos, scheduling Sunday’s flight just ahead of the Amazon founder’s, which had already been announced. But Branson insisted again Sunday that he doesn’t view the competition as a “race” for space. “I’ve said this so many times, it really wasn’t a race,” Branson said. “We’re just delighted that everything went so fantastically well. We wish Jeff the absolute best and the people who are going up with him during his flight.”

 

                 Branson and Virgin crew

Virgin Galactic owner Richard Branson rocketed into space Sunday, an edge-of-the-

                ‘VSS Unity’ spaceplane

seat sub-orbital test flight intended to demonstrate his company’s air-launched spaceplane is ready for passengers who can afford the ultimate thrill ride.

And it appeared to do just that, zooming to an altitude just above 50 miles and giving Branson and his five crewmates about three minutes of weightlessness and spectacular views of Earth before plunging back into the atmosphere for a spiraling descent to touchdown at Virgin’s New Mexico launch site.

                     Richard Branson

“I have dreamt of this moment since I was a kid but honestly, nothing could prepare you for the view of Earth from space,” Branson, 70, said after landing, at a rare loss for words. “It was just magical. … I’m just taking it all in, it’s unreal.”

The flight effectively upstaged Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who plans a sub-orbital spaceflight of his own aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft on July 20 as the two companies compete for passengers in the emerging commercial space marketplace.

Bezos complimented Branson and his team after landing, posting a note to Instagram saying “congratulations on the flight. Can’t wait to join the club!”

                 Branson and Jeff Bezos

Branson’s trip began in dramatic fashion as Virgin’s twin-fuselage carrier jet — with the VSS Unity rocket-powered spaceplane bolted under its wing — lifted away from the company’s Spaceport America launch site near Truth or Consequences, New

    Branson and crew weightless in space

Mexico, at 8:40 a.m. local time (10:40 a.m. EDT).

Joining the globe-trotting billionaire aboard Unity were pilots David Mackay and Michael Masucci, along with Virgin astronaut trainer Beth Moses, flight engineer Colin Bennett and Sirisha Bandla, the company’s vice president of government relations.

With a throng of reporters and a global audience following along on YouTube and across Virgin’s social media channels, the Virgin mothership VMS Eve slowly climbed to an altitude of about 45,000 feet and then, after a final round of safety checks, released Unity high above the New Mexico desert.

3:12 minute video of Richard Branson and crews’ excursion into space (‘Virgin Galactic’ YouTube)

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

 

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.

Virginia’s Wallops Island Spaceport Seeks to Increase Launch Activity

Article by Jeff Foust                                                       June 13, 2021                                                               (spacenews.com)

• When the chief executive of the of the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority which operates the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at Wallops Island on the Virginia Coast, Dale Nash, decided to retire, the authority convened a search committee to select Nash’s successor. On June 10th, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam and the chairman of the board of the authority Jeff Bingham announced that Roosevelt “Ted” Mercer Jr., a retired Air Force major general, will be the next chief executive and executive director of the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority starting August 1st.

• In his 32 years in the Air Force, Mercer held a variety of space-related roles including commanding the 30th Space Wing at Vandenberg Air Force Base and serving as deputy director of operations for Air Force Space Command. Mercer retired from the Air Force in 2008. Mercer has since served as director of the Interagency Program Office for the Federal Aviation Administration’s ‘NextGen’ program to modernize management of the national airspace system.

• Northam said of Mercer: “Under his leadership, Virginia is poised to maximize the investments we have made in our world-class spaceport and launch into the future as a leader in space exploration, research and commerce.” Indeed, Mercer said that growing the spaceport’s launch business was second only to looking out for the needs of spaceport personnel. Mercer plans to “get aggressive” about bringing more customers to the MARS spaceport.

• The two existing MARS launchpads currently accommodate Northrop Grumman’s two Antares launches a year sending Cygnus cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station, and occasional launches of Minotaur rockets for various government missions.

• But another player has recently begun to operate at Wallops Island – Rocket Lab. The company built a launchpad for its Electron rocket, and in March, it announced it would launch its new medium-class Neutron rocket from Wallops as well. Getting both Electron and Neutron flying regularly from MARS could dramatically increase launch activity. Electron is designed to launch as frequently as once a month, while Neutron may launch six to eight times a year. “Between the Northrop Grumman launches and the Rocket Lab launches, we could be easily doing 20, 25 launches a year within a couple of years,” Nash predicted.

• Certification of an autonomous flight termination system required by NASA will delay the Electron, however. The first Electron launch from Wallops, originally scheduled for 2020, could slip to as late as November.

• Mercer wants to attract additional launch companies to Wallops. “The opportunity to grow in the next one to five years is extraordinary,” he said, citing interest in small satellites from both companies and government organizations like the Pentagon’s Space Development Agency. “I want MARS to be the place of choice for some of these companies that want to get their satellites into orbit.”

• MARS will have to complete with other spaceports for that launch business, in particular Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and Kennedy Space Center. Mercer suggested he would be open to building additional launch infrastructure at MARS if there is demand for it. Nash said NASA’s master plan for Wallops includes the ability to add two or three more launchpads, which could potentially accommodate larger launch vehicles than Antares and Neutron. The state of Virginia has more than $250 million in building the Wallops Island facility.

• But Mercer noted that there are limits to how large MARS could grow. “Will we ever become a Cape Canaveral? Probably not because of limits on the infrastructure that can be built there. …[B]ut we want to expand as much as we can… That will allow more customers to come to this range.”

 

               Roosevelt “Ted” Mercer Jr.

WASHINGTON — The new head of Virginia’s commercial spaceport on Wallops Island says he wants to increase launch activity at the site, while acknowledging that there are limits as to how big it can grow.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) announced June 10 that Roosevelt “Ted” Mercer Jr., a retired Air Force major general, will be the next chief executive and executive director of the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority, which operates the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at Wallops Island. Mercer will

   MARS launch facility on Wallops Island

take over Aug. 1 when the current head of the authority, Dale Nash, retires.

“Under his leadership, Virginia is poised to maximize the investments we have made

                    Dale Nash

in our world-class spaceport and launch into the future as a leader in space exploration, research and commerce,” Northam said of Mercer in a statement.

Mercer held a variety of space-related roles in his 32 years in the Air Force, including commanding the 30th Space Wing at Vandenberg Air Force Base and serving as deputy director of operations for Air Force Space Command. Mercer retired from the Air Force in 2008 and, in

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam

2016, became director of the Interagency Program Office for the Federal Aviation Administration’s NextGen program to modernize management of the national airspace system.

The authority convened a search committee to select Nash’s successor, which led them to Mercer. “This committee has unanimously selected the best candidate possible to take the helm of Virginia Space,” Jeff Bingham, chairman of the board of the authority, said in a briefing. “Our new CEO and executive director is uniquely qualified to ensure that we deliver on our objectives and work to become increasing active and competitive over the next decade.”

MARS hosts only a few orbital launches a year currently. Northrop Grumman conducts an average of two Antares launches a year from Pad 0-A, sending Cygnus cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station. Neighboring Pad 0-B hosts occasional launches of Northrop Grumman Minotaur rockets, including a Minotaur 1 launch of a National Reconnaissance Office mission scheduled for June 15.

Mercer said at the briefing that growing the spaceport’s launch business was a top priority, second only to looking out for the needs of spaceport personnel. “One of the cleanest ways we can begin to grow this business, without doing much in terms of infrastructure, is simply get aggressive about getting out and bringing more customers to our launch port and to our range,” he said.

A big factor in the future of MARS is Rocket Lab. The company built Launch Complex 2, a launchpad for its Electron rocket, next to Pad 0-A. In March, it announced it would launch its new medium-class Neutron rocket from Wallops, using the existing Pad 0-A. That rocket will also be manufactured at a facility to be built nearby.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

 

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.

New Spaceplane Is About To Make Its First Flight

Article by Bilal Waqar                                               May 8, 2021                                                 (wonderfulengineering.com)

• Sierra Nevada Corp (SNC) won a $2 billion contract from NASA to build the Dream Chaser, a space vehicle that promises to become the first-of-its-kind reusable cargo vessel. the new space plane could make a round-trip journey to International Space Station much faster than Elon Musk’s SpaceX vehicles. In fact, SNC aims to transform the way spaceflights are perceived, and could become the second big space organization, next to NASA. (see 4:01 minute video of the Dream Chaser’s Concept of Operations below)

• The Dream Chaser is currently able to travel in near space autonomously. SNC is planning a manned mission in 2022. The space plane will be carried into space on a United Launch Alliance rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Dream Chaser will land on the space center’s landing strip which the Space Shuttles used. This means that the Kennedy facility is not only performing as a NASA facility, it’s also becoming a multi-user commercial spaceport. The Sierra Nevada Corp’s Dream Chaser operation at Kennedy will include the hiring of dozens of employees and may even require the construction of new buildings to cater to engineering necessities.

 

SpaceX capsules designated for ventures to International Space Station might face competition after the announcement of a new spaceplane set to take its first flight. It is claimed that the new spaceplane could make a roundtrip to ISS much faster than SpaceX vehicles.

The new spaceplane is built and operated by Sierra Nevada Corp. in Nevada and aims to transform the way spaceflights are perceived. The new spacecraft is called the Dream Chaser and as announced can go on the space venture with autonomous capabilities. It will be lifted through ULA (United Launch Alliance) rocket from the Kennedy Space Center to execute flights to the ISS.

The new Dream Chaser by the Sierra Nevada Corp. will land on the space center’s landing strip which previously has been used for landing space shuttles. Former astronaut, Janet Kavandi said that the first of the Dream Chasers is getting ready for being delivered to Kennedy Space Center and will land on the strip somewhere around spring 2022.

“When we first launch next year, 2022, at the end of that mission, we plan to come back and land here at this very runway,” said Kavandi.

4:01 minute Dream Chaser Concept of Operations video (‘Sierra Nevada Corporation’ YouTube)

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

 

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.

Workers Needed in the Expanding Space Industry

Article by Michael Sheetz                                          April 18, 2021                                           (cnbc.com)

• This is a “most exciting time” to be involved in the private commercial space industry, Steve Isakowitz, CEO of The Aerospace Corporation and former president of Virgin Galactic, told attendees of the America’s Future Series Space Innovation Summit on April 6th and 7th. “I do think there’s opportunities for everybody to participate in the excitement … [and] it’s a great opportunity for the government to really lean in on looking for those public-private partnerships.”

• But Isakowitz says that private and government organizations must do more to tap the next generation of US space workers. “We need to do more [to] expand the candidate pool. We’ve got to make sure that all of America has the benefit of being part of the… opportunities that are out there.”

• The Aerospace Corporation, a federally-funded research and development center and non-profit based in El Segundo, California, focuses on analysis and assessment of space programs for organizations, including NASA, the Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center, and the National Reconnaissance Office.

• A report released by The Aerospace Corp urges space industry companies to partner with teachers and educators to focus more on science, tech, engineering and math disciplines. “I think that involves really looking at the curriculum that we teach our students to kind of draw their interest in. We often see that when you go into elementary schools there’s a lot of interest in these fields and the technical fields — and then it sort of drops off pretty quickly when they get into the middle school in high school years,” Isakowitz said.

• Isakowitz noted that internships, apprenticeships and fellowships have been essential to bringing students in and giving them hands-on experience. The Brooke Owens Fellowship helps place undergraduate women at space ventures and the Patti Grace Smith Fellowship helps black students find internships.

• Space Talent is a job board hosted by the investment group Space Capital, listing more than 3,600 openings at space infrastructure companies building spacecraft, rockets and more. Those job openings include a range of disciplines, from accounting to IT, design, manufacturing and more.

• A wave of investment by the private sector is “really driving a lot of the changes we’re now seeing in space,” says Isakowitz, and has given rise to a new generation of private space companies such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX. And according to Isakowitz, this entrepreneurial climate has also brought with it “a new ability to attract the kind of talent and excitement we need to really bring folks into this industry.”

 

The growth of space businesses makes this “the most exciting time” to be involved in the

Steve Isakowitz, CEO of The Aerospace Corporation

industry, but one CEO says private and government organizations must do more to tap the next generation of U.S. workers.

“I do think there’s opportunities for everybody to participate in the excitement … [and] it’s a great opportunity for the government to really lean in on looking for those public-private partnerships,” Steve Isakowitz, CEO of The Aerospace Corporation and former president of Virgin Galactic, told attendees of the America’s Future Series Space Innovation Summit. The event ran on April 6 and 7.

“We need to do more and expand the candidate pool — we’ve got to make sure that all of America has the benefit of being part of the STEM, K-12, opportunities that are out there,” he added, referring to the academic discipline that includes science, tech, engineering and math.

The Aerospace Corporation, based in El Segundo, California, is a federally-funded research and development center and non-profit.

The corporation focuses on analysis and assessment of space programs for organizations, including NASA, the Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center, and the National Reconnaissance Office.

Isakowitz’s comments coincided with The Aerospace Corp’s release of a report titled “Developing Future Space Workers.” From the report, he highlighted that he believes the space industry can partner with teachers and underrepresented groups.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

 

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.

A Case for the Convergence of National and Commercial Space

Article by Kimberly Underwood                                     April 14, 2021                                       (afcea.org)

• Technological investments by private industry have created innovative and cost-effective solutions for the space domain, which can no longer be ignored by the Department of Defense, asserts General Bob Kehler, USAF (Ret.), of Kehler and Associates. “It is imperative that those two entities, national security space and commercial space, converge now,” said the former commander of Strategic Command and the Air Force Space Command, speaking at AFCEA International’s April 13 virtual event, ‘Partnering for Space Power in 2021 and Beyond’.

• “I think there’s a difference between talking about how we want a partnership between national security space and commercial space companies, and my assertion is what we really need is convergence.” Kehler said. To achieve such a convergence, the DOD would have to “embrace commercial space as a full contributing member of the architecture. And this requires I think the most important technical and cultural shift that that maybe we have ever seen.”

• Spaced-based capabilities have to support a new way of conducting intelligence and operations, Kehler continued. “Intelligence can no longer be about indications and warning, order of battle and targeting, Intelligence has to be about trends and anticipation.” Given adversarial capabilities, there is “less emphasis on fielding systems that can totally defeat threats and more on systems that can function in the face of the threat.”

• It is no secret that the acquisition system is not as effective as it could be, according to the former Air Force commander. The military has to improve processes and remove the barriers that stem from relying solely on requirements-based acquisition. The DOD needs to offer more entry points for corporate opportunities into the acquisition process, as well as for contracting of services.

• The military does not always provide industry with the right language, the clearest insight or even the certainty to allow them to bring their best ideas or capabilities to the table, Kehler said. The differences in acquisition systems, the lack of effective communication between DOD and industry and the uncertainties associated with the Congressional budgets and long-term commitments all create real impediments.

• “There’s a sense that the United States has fallen behind adversaries that are outpacing us,” Kehler noted. “I think there is a pretty clear realization that the acquisition model doesn’t yield the capabilities that keep up with either the threat or the pace of technology advance. I think that that commercial space can bring incredible innovation and technological advances that are fueled by an opportunity-based and not a requirements-based acquisition process.”

• While the convergence of national security space and commercial space will not solve all capability gaps, Kehler contended that “such a convergence makes a great contribution to solving them.” Without that convergence, the military will not get close to results that the leaders say they need. “One only has to look at the endless stream of technological breakthroughs and the entrepreneurial spirit that produced them to recognize the benefits the commercial industry can make available to the Department of Defense and the national security space community,” Kehler stated.

• “Look at space launch for example, look at Earth observation, look at space-based communications. These are significant capabilities, and you can get them at lower costs than through traditional government acquisition,” said Kehler. “[Meeting] the challenges of today and tomorrow is going to require us to partner with commercial providers of space and other capabilities routinely and effectively. We need to converge.”

 

Before the explosion of the private sector’s low-earth orbit satellite constellations and commercial launch services, the divide

retired General Bob Kehler, USAF

between space-based capabilities used for national security purposes and solutions from the commercial sector was considerable. Technological investments by industry have created innovative and cost-effective solutions for the space domain, which can no longer be ignored by the Department of Defense, asserts Gen. Bob Kehler, USAF (Ret.), of Kehler and Associates.

“It is imperative that those two entities, national security space and commercial space, converge now,” said the former commander of Strategic Command and the Air Force Space Command, speaking at AFCEA International’s April 13 virtual event, Partnering for Space Power in 2021 and Beyond.

“Convergence is moving toward uniformity and partnership is cooperating to advance interests that are mutual,” Gen. Kehler explained. “I think there’s a difference between talking about how we want a partnership between national security space and commercial space companies, and my assertion is what we really need is convergence.”

To achieve such a convergence, the DOD would have to “embrace commercial space as a full contributing member of the architecture,” he said. “And this requires I think the most important technical and cultural shift that that maybe we have ever seen.”

The intersection is necessary given the complex and uncertain national security environment in which “potential adversaries can reach out at global distances and touch the United States and our allies and partners very quickly, and if we’re talking about cyberspace within seconds,” the general warned.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

 

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin Moves Closer To Suborbital Passenger Flights

Article from CBS News                                           April 14, 2021                                       (wsgw.com)

• On April 14th, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin took another step toward sending passengers into space with the launch of the fifteenth unpiloted New Shepard rocket in six years carrying an unmanned capsule on a suborbital test flight. Using live ‘astronaut stand-ins’ before takeoff and after landing to rehearse boarding and egress procedures, launch commentator Ariane Cornell said, “We’re getting very close to sending people up to space and back.” The stand-ins tested their communications gear and reviewed launch procedures before exiting to clear the pad for flight.

• Wednesday’s flight began at 12:51 p.m. ET when the New Shepard rocket’s hydrogen-fueled BE-3 engine launched from the pad at Blue Origin’s remote Van Horn, Texas, flight test facility. The stubby rocket quickly climbed away from Launch Site One, steadily accelerating to reach a maximum velocity of 2,247 mph before releasing the empty crew capsule about two minutes and 40 seconds after liftoff. The capsule then soared to an altitude of 66 miles, well above the 50-mile-high lower “boundary” of space, before beginning the long plunge back to Earth.

• The New Shepard booster homed in on its landing pad, restarting its engine and deploying four short landing legs before settling to an on-target touchdown. Inside the separated capsule, an instrumented test dummy dubbed ‘Mannequin Skywalker’ experienced three to five minutes of microgravity before atmospheric deceleration forces set in. The capsule floated to a relatively gentle landing a short distance away, slowed by three large parachutes.

• The New Shepard system is designed to carry space tourists, government and civilian researchers and a variety of payloads to altitudes just above the discernible atmosphere. Blue Origin has not yet announced when it plans its first launch with passengers on board or how much tickets might cost. But the New Shepard capsule will afford six passengers at a time several minutes of weightlessness and an out-of-this-world view through six large windows.

• NASA, the Air Force and the Federal Aviation Administration consider 50 miles to be the dividing line between space and the discernible atmosphere, while the international Fédération Aéronautique Internationale puts the threshold at 100 kilometers, or 62 miles. The New Shepard capsule routinely exceeds both of those standards.

• New Shepard is a strictly suborbital rocket and spacecraft that is not capable of achieving the velocities required to reach orbit. It will compete with Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic suborbital spaceplane for commercial passengers and payloads. However, Blue Origin is developing orbit-class New Glenn rockets that will use a powerful new company-designed engine to help boost large satellites into orbit. The company has built a huge rocket factory just outside the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to manufacture the rockets and is developing a launch complex at the nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

• The company also is leading a team, one of three, designing a moon lander to carry astronauts to and from the lunar surface in NASA’s Artemis program. NASA is expected to award contracts to one or possibly two teams over the next few weeks.

 

New Shepard rocket returning to landing pad

Taking another step toward sending passengers into space, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin

                     New Shepard rocket

launched an unpiloted New Shepard capsule on a suborbital test flight Wednesday, using astronaut stand-ins before takeoff and after landing to rehearse boarding and egress procedures.

The company has not yet announced when it plans its first launch with passengers on board or how much tickets might cost. But after 15 unpiloted test flights, the system appears to be on the verge of commercial operations, giving six passengers at a time a few minutes of weightlessness and an out-of-this-world view.

                  New Origin capsule

“We’re getting very close to sending people up to space and back,” said launch

              inside New Origin capsule

commentator Ariane Cornell.

To help pave the way, company personnel walked up the launch gantry before liftoff and strapped in aboard the New Shepard capsule just as paying customers will do for an actual flight. The stand-ins tested their communications gear and reviewed launch procedures before exiting to clear the pad for flight.

                   Ariane Cornell

Wednesday’s flight began at 12:51 p.m. ET when the New Shepard rocket’s hydrogen-fueled BE-3 engine ignited with a rush of flaming exhaust at Blue Origin’s remote Van Horn, Texas, flight test facility.

The stubby rocket quickly climbed away from Launch Site One, steadily accelerating as it consumed propellants and lost weight, reaching a maximum velocity of 2,247 mph before releasing the crew capsule about two minutes and 40 seconds after liftoff.

The capsule then soared to an altitude of 66 miles (348,753 feet), well above the 50-mile-high lower “boundary” of space, before beginning the long plunge back to Earth. Inside, an instrumented test dummy — Mannequin Skywalker — experienced three to five minutes of microgravity before atmospheric deceleration forces set in.

The New Shepard booster, meanwhile, homed in on its landing pad, restarting its engine and deploying four short landing legs before settling to an on-target touchdown. The capsule floated to a relatively gentle landing a short distance away, slowed as usual by three large parachutes.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

 

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.

SpaceX Civilian Passengers Heading Into Space This Year

Article by Anthony Cuthbertson                                        April 2, 2021                                         (msn.com)

• In the autumn of 2021, Jared Isaacman will sponsor and participate in the first-ever ‘all civilian’ three days in orbit commercial ‘Inspiration4 mission’ on a SpaceX Dragon rocket. Isaacman, 38, is himself a pilot and will serve as spacecraft commander.

• On Earth, Isaacman is the head of Shift4 Payments, a credit card-processing company in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He is covering the bill for what will be SpaceX’s first private flight, while raising money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. Isaacman is donating $100 million to St. Jude. A lottery was created to offer other donors a chance to fly in space, raising another $13 million.

• In addition to the previously announced passenger Hayley Arceneaux, 29, a St. Jude physician assistant who was treated there as a child for bone cancer, two others were chosen by lottery. They are: Ms. Sian Proctor, 51, a college instructor and space art artist from Tempe, Arizona chosen by a panel of judges, and Mr. Chris Sembroski, 41, a former Air Force missileman from Everett Washington and Space Camp counsellor who took the place of a friend who declined to fly for personal reasons

• Proctor applied three times to Nasa’s astronaut corps, coming close in 2009, and took part in simulated Mars missions in Hawaii. She was born in Guam where her father worked at NASA’s tracking station for the Apollo mission moonshots. She plans to teach from space and create art up there, too. “To me, everything that I’ve done… has brought me to this moment,” she said.

• Their SpaceX Dragon capsule will launch no earlier than mid-September, aiming for an altitude of 335 miles. That’s about 75 miles higher than the International Space Station, on the same level with the Hubble Space Telescope.

• The next-generation SpaceX Dragon spacecraft is still undergoing testing and is yet to land successfully after flying to a high altitude. But other SpaceX flights using the craft are expected to follow the Inspiration4 mission before Elon Musk’s company begins commercial operations of its Starship vehicle.

• Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has already reserved the first Starship tickets for a trip around the Moon scheduled for 2023.

 

                   Inspiration4 capsule

SpaceX has revealed the final members of its civilian crew who will take part in the

    Hayley Arceneaux and Jared Isaacman

first-ever commercial space flight later this year.

The new passengers are Sian Proctor, a community college educator in Tempe, Arizona and Chris Sembroski, a former Air Force missileman from Everett Washington. They will join flight sponsor Jared Isaacman and another passenger for three days in orbit this autumn.

Mr Isaacman also revealed some details about his Inspiration4 mission, as the four gathered at Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center this

        Chris Sembroski and Sian Proctor

week. He’s head of Shift4 Payments, a credit card-processing company in Allentown,

       Yusaku Maezawa and Elon Musk

Pennsylvania, and is paying for what would be SpaceX’s first private flight while raising money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

Their SpaceX Dragon capsule will launch no earlier than mid-September, aiming for an altitude of 540 kilometres (335 miles). That’s 120 kilometres higher than the International Space Station and on a level with the Hubble Space Telescope.

Mr Isaacman, 38, a pilot who will serve as spacecraft commander, did not reveal how much he’s paying. He’s donating $100 million to St. Jude, while donors so far have contributed $13 million, primarily through the lottery that offered a chance to fly in space.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

 

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.

Elon Musk’s Girlfriend is ‘Ready to Die With Red Dirt of Mars Beneath’ Her Feet

Article by Bhavya Sukheja                                         March 31, 2021                                                (republicworld.com)

• On March 30th, SpaceX’s Starship prototype, SN11, blasted off from the Starbase test site near Boca Chica Village, Texas. (see 5:44 minute video below) The rocket reached a height of 6.2 miles (10 kilometres) before beginning the landing procedure. About six minutes into its test flight, the stainless steel prototype Mars rocket failed and blew up over Texas. Space X CEO Elon Musk optimistically tweeted that a “significant” event took place before the landing sequence involving the engines.

• Before the launch, Musk’s 33-year-old girlfriend, Grimes (aka Claire Elise Boucher, pictured above with Musk), posted an image on Instagram posing in front of SpaceX CEO’s Starbase facility in Texas. In the caption, the Canadian singer wrote that she is “ready to die with the red dirt of Mars beneath my feet Starbase Tx”.

• The Canadian pop singer Grimes shares a son with Musk, named ‘X Æ A-Xii’. Grimes had previously admitted that she wants to help bring life to Mars. She had even confessed that she wants to relocate to the planet after she turns 50 in a bid to help erect a human colony there. Grimes said that she expects the move to the Red Planet will be “a case of manual labor until death, most likely,” but hoped that could change.

• Meanwhile, Grimes’ partner, Musk, claims that SpaceX will touch their spaceships down in Mars “well before 2030”. Musk plans to send one million people to Mars by 2050 and build a city there.

 

                     SpaceX’s Starship

Elon Musk’s girlfriend, Grimes, on March 30, took to Instagram to express her

              previous Starship test flight

extraterrestrial interests and reveal that she is “ready to die on Mars”. While her partner Musk continues with his efforts to touch down on the Red Planet, the 33-year-old singer posted an image on social media, posing in front of SpaceX CEO’s Starbase facility in Texas. In the caption, Grimes wrote that she is “ready to die with the red dirt of Mars beneath my feet Starbase Tx”.

In the picture, the Canadian singer, who shares son X Æ A-Xii with Musk, wore a long-sleeved black top with a red plaid skirt with black boots and floral leggings while posing in front of both massive cranes and the interior of Musk’s Starbase facility in Texas. It is worth mentioning that Grimes had previously admitted that she wants to help bring life to Mars. She had even confessed that she wanted to relocate to the planet after she turns 50 in a bid to help erect a human colony there.

According to Daily Mail, Grimes, whose real name is Claire Elise Boucher, had even said that the move to the Red Planet would be a case of manual labour until death most likely but admitted that she hoped that could change. Meanwhile, her partner, Musk, earlier this month had claimed that his company will touch their ships down in Mars “well before 2030”. Musk plans to send one million people to Mars by 2050 and build a city there, however, it hasn’t all been plain sailing so far in his plans.

 

5:44 minute Space X Starship SN11 launch and flight test (‘Space Videos’ YouTube)

 

5:32 minute Grimes music video ‘Genesis’ (‘Grimes’ YouTube)

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

 

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.

Space – The Next Frontier

March 24, 2021                                      (streetinsider.com)

• Nowhere is time so of the essence than in equipment designed for use in aeronautic and space applications. The list of companies having strong ambitions in the advanced space technology marketplace include space-tech firms, including Boeing Co., SpaceX, Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc, and Amazon.com Inc.

• Boeing Co. has acquired Millennium Space Systems, a provider of agile, flight-proven small-satellite solutions, and has become a major shareholder of Signal Advance Inc., a pioneer in biomedical and cybersecurity applications for Military Defense, presumably involve low-orbit space. This technology can potentially improve the performance of a wide range of devices that process analog signals in areas such as industrial process control, interventional medical devices, alarm/detection systems, flight, and vehicular control, as well as military targeting and weaponry. In short, the company’s technology effectively reduces the time it takes to get a meaningful signal from sensor-based devices or systems. This has huge implications for anything where time is of the essence.

• SpaceX founder Elon Musk said that he plans to make Tesla a publicly traded company once revenues become predictable. Given recent struggles, advancing sensor technology might be the key to SpaceX’s future. As the NYTimes put it: “If it exploded last time, try, try again. They did, and it exploded again… On Tuesday, a test flight of SpaceX’s Starship, a huge next-generation spacecraft that Elon Musk, the founder and chief executive of the private rocket company, dreams of one day sending to Mars, came to an explosive end.”

• Virgin Galactic’s model is tailored to the space tourism market. The company plans to generate billions in revenues in five to ten years carting thousands of wide-eyed space tourists up into orbit.

• Amazon is less well known in the commercial space industry. But the company has announced the establishment of a new unit called Aerospace and Satellite Solutions, led by former US Air Force Maj. Gen. Clint Crosier, who most recently directed the establishment of the U.S. Space Force.

 

               Elon Musk’s SpaceX

Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) was recently awarded contracts (over the past year) totaling

     Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic

$974 million to develop a next-generation seeker for the U.S. Army’s Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) Missile system, as well as continue and expand production on current generations of the PAC-3 seeker, in Huntsville, Alabama, as a subcontractor to Lockheed Martin.

BA also recently completed the acquisition of Millennium Space Systems, a provider of agile, flight-proven small-satellite solutions, to help grant it the underlying technology for some of this expanded air and space defense business. According to Boeing, Millennium Space Systems will operate under Boeing Phantom Works as a subsidiary called “Millennium Space Systems, A Boeing Company” and Millennium’s Founder/ Former CEO is a gentleman named Stan Dubyn.

Boeing first announced the agreement with Millennium Space Systems back in August 2018. The deal has closed in 2019 and Dubyn has gone on to become one of the largest shareholders in Signal Advance Inc., (OTCMKTS: SIGL).

        Jeff Bezos/Amazon’s Blue Origin

Signal Advance story – in terms of tangible catalysts – lies in its Biomedical and Cybersecurity applications. But the company has technology applications for Military Defense, which would presumably involve low-orbit space.

Signal Technology

Signal Advance Inc., (OTCMKTS: SIGL) only recently started to report commercial success and financial performance of note. Hence, it’s difficult to appreciate the story from the standpoint of pure financial data, although the for the first 9 months of 2020 Signal Advance Inc., had revenues of $6,347,811 which translates to an EPS of $0.1622 and currently awaiting 2020 year-end financial report. But the key to evaluating it now is by looking at its unique technology and how it may open up opportunities across a number of high-growth industries.

According to the company’s materials: Sensors are used to detect various physical or physiological properties (e.g. pressure, temperature, speed, heart rate) and convert these properties into analog electrical signals. Typically, these signals are then digitized and processed to generate an output which can be used for monitoring, intervention, process control or similar functions.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

 

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.

Relativity Space Wins US Military Launch Services Contract

Article by Sandra Erwin                                             March 15, 2021                                         (spacenews.com)

• Space Force’s ‘Space and Missile Systems Center Launch Enterprise’ (SMSCLE) was looking for a third launch services provider to carry payloads into low Earth orbit for the DoD Space Test Program’s ‘Rapid Agile Launch Initiative’ (RALI) in 2023. A SMSCLE subdivision, the ‘Defense Innovation Unit’ (DIU), is tasked with finding suitable providers in the private sector.

• DIU’s space portfolio director, Steve Butow, said the military is looking for “low-cost, responsive launch services that not only improve our access to space, but it also enable small satellites to be placed precisely in their mission designed orbits with little if no delay.” The DIU previously hired two launch services companies for RALI, Rocket Lab and Virgin Orbit.

• On March 9th, CEO Tim Ellis announced that his company, Relativity Space, had been selected by the DIU to become the third launch provider for the RALI program since its inception in 2017.

• Relativity Space will launch relatively small military payloads to lower inclination orbits utilizing its new Terran 1 rocket, which will see its first test flight from Cape Canaveral, Florida later this year. Relativity Space builds its rockets with 3D-printed components at its factory in Long Beach, California. The company recently announced plans to develop a larger Terran R reusable launch vehicle to compete with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.

 

WASHINGTON — Relativity Space was selected to launch a small U.S. military payload to orbit in 2023 using a 3D-printed rocket.
The company in a statement March 15 said it received its first Defense Department contract to launch a DoD Space Test Program mission. The award was first announced March 9 by Relativity’s CEO Tim Ellis in an interview with CNBC.

        Relativity Space CEO Tim Ellis

The Defense Innovation Unit — an organization that works with commercial companies and startups — picked Relativity to become a launch services provider for the DoD Space Test Program’s Rapid Agile Launch Initiative. RALI is a program managed by the Space Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center Launch Enterprise to identify viable commercial launch systems with capacity between 450 to 1,200 kilograms to low Earth orbit.

                        Steve Butow

Both Relativity and DIU declined to disclose the value of the contract.

Relativity builds its rockets with 3D-printed components at its factory in Long Beach, California. For the DoD mission it will use the Terran 1 small satellite launcher that is expected to fly for the first time later this year from Cape Canaveral, Florida. DoD is the ninth announced launch customer for Terran 1 and the second U.S. government deal following a NASA Venture Class Launch Services contract.

Relativity is the third launch provider selected by DIU for the RALI program since it started in 2017. The other two are Rocket Lab and Virgin Orbit.

Steve Butow, DIU’s space portfolio director, said the military is looking for “low-cost, responsive launch services that not only improve our access to space, but it also enable small satellites to be placed precisely in their mission designed orbits with little if no delay.”

READ ORIGINAL ARTICLE

 

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.

Private Chinese Firm to Build Space Lab by 2025

Article by Deng Xiaoci and Fan Anqi                                    March 14, 2021                                        (globaltimes.cn)

• In July 2019, China’s manned Tiangong-2 space lab completed 1000 days in orbit before the spacecraft was allowed to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere. The communist state’s first permanent manned space station is to become operational by 2022.

• Now, a private Chinese space technology start-up firm based in Huzhou, East China’s Zhejiang Province has entered the space arena. ‘Rocket Pi’ is working putting a manned space station biology lab into orbit by 2025. The firm’s founder, Cheng Wei, says that the lab will conduct studies relating to changes in human vital signs in space to support the development of future manned space activities.

• In September 2021, a biology experiment platform, ‘Sparkle-1’, is expected to be launched via a Long March carrier rocket. A multi-functional platform supporting biological experiments may be put into orbit by 2022. By 2025, a reusable payload that is able to shuttle between Earth and space objects will provide platforms for in-orbit biopharmaceutical experiments.

• The Rocket Pi space station will also test a self-generating bioregenerative life support system (BLSS) to study the feasibility of long-term human stays on the Moon or other celestial bodies. “The moon lab project simulates a lunar base where humans, animals, plants and microorganisms co-exist in a closed cabin,” said chief designer Liu Hong. “[W]ater and food are recycled within the lab, creating an Earth-like environment.”

• In 2017-2018, eight volunteers took turns living in a 150-square-meter cabin for 370 days as an experiment to study the participants’ physical and mental conditions. Currently, smaller BLSS equipment is being studied, which could be loaded onto space labs as well as Moon and Mars probes.

• By the end of 2022, Rocket Pi plans to launch its own rockets into space, and is currently developing a wide range of launch vehicles to support launches for various payloads of different weights into Low Earth Orbit and into a sun-synchronous orbit. These flexible, reusable rockets will transform the future of space exploration, says Cheng, to support a range of new space infrastructure programs including space labs, satellite-based internet networks and a microbial pharmacy research platform.

• Although these are the very early days, Rocket Pi’s goal of building a space biology laboratory to provide commercial space technology products and services for the biomedical industry heralds the rise of a private commercial aerospace industry in China.

• China has been considering the establishment of an ‘Earth-Moon space economic zone’ by 2050, generating up to $10 trillion a year. Bao Weimin, director of the Science and Technology Commission of the state space giant China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, revealed the ambitious plan during a seminar on the space economy in November 2019. Bao pledged to complete basic research on key technologies before 2030, establish the transportation system by 2040, and have the Earth-moon space economic zone up and running by 2050.

 

              Tiangong-2 space lab

As China has scheduled 11 launch missions in the next two years for the building of

  bioregenerative life support system (BLSS)

its first space station, a private space technology start-up based in Huzhou, East China’s Zhejiang Province has been keeping its pace close to the national program, with an ambitious goal of initiating an orbital space biology lab around 2025, firm founder Cheng Wei told the Global Times on Sunday.

It aims to conduct studies relating to changes in humans’ vital signs in space to explore the development of future manned space missions, while also planning to

         Cheng Wei, founder of Rocket Pi

load a self-generating life support system onboard its lab to study the feasibility of long-term human stays on moon or other extraterrestrial bodies.

Named after rocket plus the Greek symbol representing the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, Cheng’s firm, Rocket Pi, has a four-step framework toward its ambitious goals.

Bao Weimin, director of the Science and Technology division of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp

A single-function biology experiment platform payload, Sparkle-1, is expected to be launched via a Long March carrier rocket by September, while a multi-functional platform supporting biological experiments may be put into orbit by 2022. The company will establish a space shuttle-like mode for platform launches during the same period.

  BLSS designer Liu Hong

Next, by 2025, reusable payload that is able to shuttle between Earth and celestial bodies will become reality, which will provide platforms for in-orbit experiments for biopharmaceutical studies.

The company aims to launch a program to build the space biology lab after 2025.

Against the backdrop of China putting the construction of a space station, which is expected to become operational by 2022, Rocket Pi aims to conduct studies relating to changes in human vital signs in space to explore and support the development of future manned space activities.

According to material that the company provided to the Global Times, its spacecraft will be very much like China’s manned Tiangong-2 space lab, which successfully left orbit and re-entered the atmosphere in July 2019 in a controlled manner after more than 1,000 days in service, with a small amount of debris falling into a designated security area in the South Pacific Ocean. Most of the spacecraft burned up in the atmosphere.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

 

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.

London Stock Market Pressured to Invest in British Space Industry

Article by Aleksandra Serebriakova                                        March 13, 2021                                     (sputniknews.com)

• Last November, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised a $22 billion investment into British defense with an aim to create Britain’s own ‘Space Force’ space command. Johnson hopes to send British spaceships into space as early as 2022, as his government is boosting millions of dollars into the defense sector.

• Britain has been one of the global champions when it comes to operating civil and military satellites, but has yet to launch its first rocket from UK soil. “Space is the key to the world’s future,” said Will Whitehorn, chairman of UKSpace trade association. “We need to wake up and smell the coffee!”

• UKSpace is calling on British businesses to take a more active part in launching a “new industrial revolution” and turning Britain into a space superpower by investing big bucks into the industry. Whitehorn compared how Wall Street space firms were raising “billions” for American space initiatives, but nothing like that has happened in the UK. “I believe a new investment trust to invest in brilliant space companies is needed on the London Stock Market,” said Whitehorn.

• Meanwhile, the ‘UK Space Agency’ – Britain’s civil space authority (like NASA) – announced in October 2020 that America’s aerospace giant Lockheed Martin will develop UK launch operations from Shetland Islands, Scotland. And Scottish firm Orbex plans to launch its innovative Prime rocket from the Sutherland, Scotland spaceport in 2022.

• Virgin Orbit also plans to release a group of satellites from Spaceport Cornwall in southwestern England for the first time in spring 2020. The spaceport supports so-called “horizontal” launches, where modified aircraft such as the Boeing 747 will carry a rocket under its wings to send small satellites into orbit.

• The UK Space Agency’s plan is to control 10% of the world’s space economy by the end of this decade.

 

Last November, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised a $22 billion investment

 Prime Minister Boris Johnson

into British defence with an aim to create Britain’s own Trump-like ‘Space Force’. The country is planning to send its first rocket into space from British soil next year.

The trade association UKSpace is calling on British businesses to take a more active part in launching a “new industrial revolution” and turning Britain into a space superpower by investing big bucks into the industry.

           Will Whitehorn

“I believe a new investment trust to invest in brilliant space companies is needed on the London Stock Market,” Will Whitehorn, the president of UKSpace, told Express.co.uk.

Whitehorn has compared how Wall Street Space firms were raising “billions” for American space

              Shetland Islands

initiatives, but “nothing” like that has happened in the UK, he says, signalling that this had to change, albeit with the government’s support.

“Space is the key to the world’s future, key to battling climate change and could be a key to our future prosperity,” the trade association’s chairman went on. “We need to wake up and smell the coffee!”

Britain has been one of the global champions when it comes to operating civil and military satellites but has yet to launch its first rocket from UK soil.

PM Boris Johnson hopes that this could happen as early as 2022, as his government is boosting millions of dollars into the defence sector. He announced in November 2020 that the UK will create a new Space Command in a similar fashion to former US President Donald Trump with his much-debated US Space Force.

The prime minister expects that the first rocket will go into orbit from Scotland, as two large space ports are currently underway in the country: Space Hub Sutherland and Shetland Space Centre.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

 

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.

Indonesian Residents Unhappy With SpaceX Launchpad

Article by Akanksha Arora                                          March 10, 2021                                         (republicworld.com)

• Earlier in March, SpaceX launched a second Falcon 9 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. It was the 6th launch toward completing the ‘Starlink’ mission of a constellation of thousands of small internet communications satellites in orbit around the planet. Musk claims that internet service will improve from here, and officials at launch sites in the United States are content with SpaceX’s progress.

• People living on Papuan Island in Indonesia aren’t so happy. Indonesia has offered Papuan Island to Elon Musk for the launch of his SpaceX project. Indonesia’s coordinating minister for maritime and investment affairs said that Musk and the Indonesian president, Joko Widodo, had discussed the plans in December, and that Musk sent a team to Papuan Island in January to look at the potential investment.

• Papuans deny the Indonesian government’s claim that the local Papuan government was consulted about the planned launch facility. The tribal chief of Papuan Island, Manfun Sroyer, said that he fears that Papuan residents will be forced from their homes, and that the spaceport would encroach upon traditional hunting grounds. Papuan residents deny that the SpaceX launch facility would bring a positive economic impact to the community. They say that it will lead to deforestation in the region and devastate the ecosystem. It will also increase the presence of the Indonesian military and if the people protest, they will be immediately arrested.

 

                            Elon Musk

Indonesia has offered its Papuan island to Elon Musk for the launch of his SpaceX

      Indonesian president, Joko Widodo

project. The residents of the island do not seem to be happy about it as they have said that Musk is not welcome on their land. According to the reports by The Guardian, the residents said that Musk’s presence on the island would devastate the ecosystem and also drive people from their homes.

Residents unhappy

Papuans on Biak do not agree with the government representative who told The

                         Papuan village

Guardian that the plan was being developed after consulting the Papuan government and local communities. He also believed that this development would bring positive economic impacts. The residents, however, said that this will lead to deforestation in the region and increase the presence of the Indonesian military. According to the reports by The Business Insider, Indonesia’s coordinating minister for maritime and investment affairs said that Musk and the Indonesian president Joko Widodo had discussed the plans earlier in the month of December. Musk was planning to send a team to the island in

    Falcon 9 rockets with Starlink satellites

January to look at the potential investments.

The tribal chief of the island Manfun Sroyer said that he fears that the residents will be forced from their homes. He further added that the spaceport would cost the people their traditional hunting grounds. He also said that if people protest they will be arrested immediately.

SpaceX Rocket all set to launch

The SpaceX Rocket launch will be taking place on March 11th at 3:13 AM EST. This is the second rocket they are sending for the Starlink Launch this month and the 6th in total for the Starlink mission. The launch will be taking place in their Falcon 9 Rockets from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. SpaceX Launch for Starlink is being highly anticipated by everyone.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

 

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.

SpaceX Reveals its Starport Plans in South Texas

Article by Eric Berger                                           March 8, 2021                                             (arstechnica.com)

• The US Army Corps of Engineers has posted a public notice about the spaceport that Elon Musk’s SpaceX proposes to construct in Boca Chica, Texas, at the southern tip of the state along the Gulf of Mexico. The major hardware includes orbital and suborbital launch pads, landing pads, structural test stands, and a ground support “tank farm”.

• What is striking about this architectural drawing is the relatively limited amount of land that SpaceX has to work with, as a substantial portion must be devoted to stormwater flooding ponds. All of these facilities will be concentrated within a couple dozen acres, in stark contrast to the expansive launch sites in Florida at the Kennedy Space Center and the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

• Since acquiring the south Texas launch site in 2014, SpaceX’s planned scope of activities has grown from planning about 10 Falcon 9 launches a year to launches of the massive Starship vehicle. SpaceX has acquired two floating oil rigs, named Phobos and Deimos, that are being converted at shipyards along the Texas coast into massive floating launch pads (see video below). The plan is to launch Starships on suborbital hops from the ground launch pad in Texas to the floating platforms towed and anchored out in the gulf waters. The Starships can be launched from there into space without collateral damage.

• Musk has also proposed the incorporation of nearby Boca Chica Village into a new city, called Starbase, Texas. Such a city would need to have at least 201 residents and follow state rules for incorporation. Prior to SpaceX’s arrival, the small Boca Chica community consisted of several dozen homes. In recent years, the company has sought to buy out or otherwise remove residents so that it has more control over its nearby launch activities. SpaceX is also undergoing an environmental assessment in south Texas for evaluation by the Federal Aviation Administration.

 

                           Elon Musk

As part of a federal review process for its plans in South Texas, details of SpaceX’s

Starship rocket

proposed spaceport have been made public. They were posted late last week in a public notice from the US Army Corps of engineers, which is soliciting public comments on the changes.

Most notably, the new documents include a detailed architectural drawing of the multi-acre site at the southern tip of Texas, along the Gulf of Mexico. The major hardware that exists or will be built includes:
• Two orbital launch pads, one of which is already under constriction
• Two suborbital launch pads, one of which already exists
• Two landing pads, one of which already exists
• Two structural test stands for Starship and the Super Heavy booster
• A large “tank farm” to provide ground support equipment for orbital flights
• A permanent position for the totemic “Starhopper” vehicle at the site’s entrance

What is striking about this architectural drawing is its compact nature, largely because SpaceX has limited land to work with at the facility and must include stormwater ponds to mitigate against flooding. All of these facilities will be concentrated within a couple dozen acres, which is in stark contrast to more expansive launch sites in Florida at Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

However, SpaceX appears confident that it can control the launch and landing of its vehicles such that any mishaps will not severely damage nearby equipment. This is a non-traditional and possibly risky bet, but SpaceX has always been willing to take risks during development programs in order to move more quickly.

8:22 minute video on Starship Floating Launch Platform (‘Science of Space’ YouTube)

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

 

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.

South Korean Hanwha Aerospace Gets in on Space Business

Article by Park Si-soo                                     March 1, 2021                                       (spacenews.com)

• Hanwha Aerospace, the leading aircraft engine producer in South Korea with annual revenue of 5.32 trillion won (or $4.7 trillion US), is doing its best to position itself to become a major player in the new global space industry. The 37 year old Harvard educated architect of Hanwha’s space business strategy, Kim Dong-kwan, formed a “space task force” last year involving about 10 officials from Hanwha Aerospace, Hanwha Systems and Hanwha Corporation to advance and expand its technology for satellites and rocket boosters; satellite equipment and antennas; launch pads and solid fuel.

• In January, Hanwha won a 30% controlling stake in South Korean satellite maker, Satrec Initiative (SI) to produce small and medium-size Earth-observation satellites, ground systems and electro-optical payloads on Korean soil. In a statement, Hanwha said its investment in SI is to “possess core technologies related to the space satellite industry, which is expected to grow in the New Space era, and in the medium to long-term, preempt technological advance through synergy with the company to secure the capability of the satellite development technology.” For SI’s part, SI President Kim Ee-eul said the deal “provides the financial resources and strategic partnership that we can leverage for further growth.”

• While South Korea has been prohibited from developing solid-fueled launch vehicles by a bilateral nonproliferation agreement with the U.S. focused on ballistic missiles, last July the country won US permission to conduct research and to develop solid-propellant rockets, opening the door to Hanwha and other South Korean companies to enter the market.

• In December 2020, Hanwha Systems formed a strategic partnership with U.S.-based satellite communications company Kymeta. Hanwha plans to invest $30 million US into the development of Kymeta’s next-generation low Earth orbit antennas so it can “enter the LEO satellite antenna market early on, and diversify our technology portfolio,” said Hanwha Systems CEO Kim Youn-chul.

• In June 2020, Hanwha Systems acquired British satellite antenna developer Phasor Solutions, adding cutting-edge satellite communication antenna technology to its portfolio including “broadband electronically steerable antennas, that enable high-speed communications in-flight, at sea, or on land.” Phasor’s proprietary technologies include flat-antenna-beam steering and semiconductor chip-design technology.

 

SEOUL, South Korea — Hanwha Aerospace, the leading aircraft engine producer in

         Kim Dong-kwan

South Korea, is stepping up efforts to expand its space business.

In the latest move, Hanwha struck a 109 billion won ($96.8 million) deal in January to win a controlling 30 percent stake in a domestic satellite maker, Satrec Initiative (SI), by the end of April. Established in 1999 by engineers who contributed to making the nation’s first satellite KITSAT-1, SI is credited with developing core technologies to produce small and medium-size Earth-observation satellites, ground systems and electrooptical payloads on Korean soil.

Hanwha said while SI would be managed independently, Kim Dong-kwan — the first son of Hanwha Group chairman Kim Seung-youn and president of the group’s chemical affiliate, Hanwha Solutions — would join SI as a non-standing executive director to facilitate cooperation between the two companies.

In a statement, Hanwha said its investment in SI is to “possess core technologies related to the space satellite industry, which is expected to grow in the New Space era, and in the medium to long-term, preempt technological advance through synergy with the company to secure the capability of the satellite development technology.”

In a separate statement, SI President Kim Ee-eul said the deal “provides the financial resources and strategic partnership that we can leverage for further growth.” Kim added SI will “expand business to proactively respond to the growing domestic and international demands on Synthetic Aperture Radar and infrared satellite systems as well as optical satellite systems.”

After the deal was announced, SI hired 17 new engineers including those experienced in satellite design and developing synthetic aperture radar (SAR), according to SI.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

 

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at Exonews with any copyright issue.

World’s First Space Hotel to Open in 2027

March 4, 2021                                     (bbc.co.uk)

• Orbital Assembly Corporation is planning a space station “hotel” called Voyager Station with 400 guest rooms, viewing platforms, a cinema, a spa, and a gym with a low-gravity basketball court. Construction on the hotel will begin in 2025 and it will begin to accommodate guests in 2027. Inspired by a “spaceship of the future”, the hotel will also have 3D holograms, digital wall art, a digitally interactive tables and robots.

• The space station will be designed to accommodate both national space agencies conducting low gravity research and space tourists who want to experience life on a large space station with the comfort of low gravity and the feel of a nice hotel. The hotel will spin to create artificial gravity as it travels around the Earth at about 1/6th of the Earth’s gravity – which is the same level of gravity found on the Moon.

• The hotel will cruise around the Earth once every 90 minutes, at about 1,200 miles up. Guests at the hotel will not require any astronaut training. But the trips to space won’t come cheap. Despite the price, the hotel’s website says that guest will have the most comfortable stay possible in space, complete with working toilets.

• “Historically, a trip to space cost up to $25 million and that resulted in staying in a Zero-G facility, using vacuums for toilets, sleeping in a bag strapped to a wall, and living in a laboratory,” the website says. Artificial gravity means guests can enjoy normal “toilet facilities, showers, and beds that function similar to what you are used to on Earth”.

 

Do you want to go travelling to see the world when you’re older? But what if you could see the whole world in one go…?

That might be possible in just six years, when the first ever space hotel is expected to open.

Floating in low-orbit, guests will be able to see the Earth as they move around the planet.

The hotel, called Voyager Station, will have enough rooms for 400 guests, viewing platforms to see the Earth below, a cinema, a spa and a gym – including a basketball court where players can use low gravity for a slam-dunk the professionals would be proud of!

Inspired by a “spaceship of the future”, the hotel will also have 3D holograms, digital wall art, a digitally interactive table and robots.

Orbital Assembly Corporation (OAC), the company behind the idea, say building the hotel will begin in 2025 with plans for it to open its doors, or in this case air-lock hatches, in 2027.

“The station will be designed from the start to accommodate both national space agencies conducting low gravity research and space tourists who want to experience life on a large space station with the comfort of low gravity and the feel of a nice hotel,” OAC says.

What will the space hotel be like?

The hotel will spin as it travels around the Earth to create artificial gravity.

Onboard the gravity will be about a sixth of that found on Earth, which is the same level of gravity found on the Moon.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

 

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.

Space Force’s International Partnerships in Commercial Space Industry

Article by Meredith Roaten                                          February 25, 2021                                              (nationaldefensemagazine.org)

• At the Air Force Association’s Virtual Aerospace Warfare Symposium on February 25th, Space Force chief of operations, General John “Jay” Raymond, said that Space Force will prioritize collaboration with the commercial space industry and partners around the world. The commercial space industry has lowered the barriers to space, so that almost all Space Force missions can be commercially viable with smaller, more operationally relevant satellites, Raymond said. “We want to build a very fused connection with commercial industry.”

• In its first year, the Space Force transferred personnel and commissioned cadets to the service; published doctrine and set up monitoring systems to track space debris; fleshed out training and submitted recommendations to Congress about how to update the space acquisition process. “This second year is all about integration and integrating this force,” Raymond said. “It’s driving the car that we built.” Space Force is ready to move on to bolstering behavioral norms with international allies and launching more assets into space.

• Space Force’s structure allows it to work with industry to leverage technology innovation while saving money. Earlier this year, Space Force established ‘SpaceWERX’, a technology accelerator program that works with companies in the space industry. “As we design that force, we want to design it in a way that capitalizes on this new business model that has emerged, that produces satellites off of a production line, rather than the one-off, handmade wooden shoe that takes years and years and years to build,” Raymond said.

• International exercises and wargames have helped the service foster these norms in the past year. Strengthening norms of behavior for space operations alongside international partners will improve safety, Raymond said. Norms don’t prevent bad behavior but they draw attention to countries or companies operating in a dangerous way. “We’ve made some really good strides and we operate to demonstrate that good behavior,” said Raymond. “We want to build this coalition friendly from the beginning to allow our international partners to invest.”

• Meanwhile, Raymond noted that the “explosion” of the space industry and international space activity has created new problems in ‘space debris’ or ‘space junk’. There are thousands of pieces of debris in addition to the thousands of satellites in low-Earth orbit, creating the danger of collision. “If the space domain is something we all care about, then inventing some innovative way to get the debris out of space could be something very useful for the future,” Raymond said. Improving engineering and launch standards will help to prevent more debris buildup. International partners can also monitor space and warn each other about potentially dangerous debris.

 

This year, the Space Force will prioritize collaboration with the commercial space industry and partners around the world, the

           General John “Jay” Raymond

service’s chief of operations said Feb. 25.

These types of partnerships have and will continue to allow the United States to lead the world in space, Gen. John “Jay” Raymond said at the Air Force Association’s Virtual Aerospace Warfare Symposium. The service — the newest branch of the military — was stood up 14 months ago.

In its first year, the Space Force transferred personnel and commissioned cadets to the service. It also published doctrine and set up monitoring systems to track space debris, among other capabilities. The service also fleshed out training for its new personnel and submitted recommendations to Congress about how to update the space acquisition process.

“This second year is all about integration and integrating this force,” Raymond said. “It’s driving the car that we built.”

Now, the service is ready to move on to bolstering behavioral norms with international allies and launching more assets into space. Because the commercial industry has lowered the barriers to space, almost all Space Force missions can be commercially viable with smaller, more operationally relevant satellites, he said.

                            Space Junk

“We want to build a very fused connection with commercial industry,” he said.

The service’s structure should allow it to work with industry to leverage technology innovation while saving money, he noted.

“As we design that force, we want to design it in a way that capitalizes on this new business model that has emerged, that produces satellites off of a production line, rather than the one-off, handmade wooden shoe that takes years and years and years to build,” Raymond said.

Earlier this year, the service established SpaceWERX, a technology accelerator program that works with companies in the space industry. The technology areas of focus for the program will be announced in coming weeks.

The service will also grow partnerships with allies this year, Raymond noted. Strengthening norms of behavior for space operations alongside international partners will improve safety, he said.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

 

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.

Elon Musk Announces ‘There will be a Marscoin!’ Cryptocurrency

Article by Brian McGleenon                                              February 16, 2021                                                 (express.co.uk)

• The digital currency known as ‘Dogecoin’ is similar to the more famous, and lucrative, ‘Bitcoin’. Dodgecoin, which was created in 2013, has long traded for less than one cent. Implying that the digital currency field had “too much concentration”, the Tesla and SpaceX mogul, Elon Musk offered via Twitter to pay major Dodgecoin holders real money to to simply void their account.

• Then, the founder of currency trading platform Binance tweeted an idea: “Develop a new ElonCoin. Offer them to the existing non-major dogecoin holders to void their wallet. You wouldn’t need to pay dollars to make those majors dogecoin holders richer than they already are and allocate your time and support to make the ElonCoin the (new) currency of the Earth.” “Maybe call it MarsCoin? Musk tweeted back what could be the seed of the world’s first extra-terrestrial currency: “There will definitely be a MarsCoin!”

• Musk needs to be careful about making statements that could manipulate market prices. As CEO of a traded company, Musk’s statements are regulated to ensure investors have equal access to news that can significantly affect share prices. Cryptocurrencies, however, are not regulated in the same way as normal company shares and would fall outside the current rules against market manipulation, regardless of whether he owns the cryptocurrency or not.

 

                            Elon Musk

ELON Musk announced today on Twitter a plan for new digital currency, tweeting, “there will definitely be a MarsCoin!”

The CEO of SpaceX and Tesla made the claim in a Twitter thread about dogecoin. Mr Musk tweeted: “If major dogecoin holders sell most of their coins, it will get my full support. Too much concentration is the only real issue.

“I will literally pay actual $ if they just void their accounts.”

Then one follower of Mr Musk tweeted an idea: “Develop a new ElonCoin.

“Offer them to the existing non-major dogecoin holders to void their wallet.

“You wouldn’t need to pay dollars to make those majors dogecoin holders richer than they already are and allocate your time and support to make the ElonCoin the currency of the Earth.”

It was the founder of currency trading platform Binance that then postulated the idea, “Maybe call it MarsCoin?

It was then that Mr Musk came back with what could be the seedling of the world’s first extra-terrestrial currency.

He tweeted: “There will definitely be a MarsCoin!”

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

 

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.

Commercial Space Station Developer ‘Axiom Space’

Article by Dan Primack, Miriam Kramer                                      February 17, 2021                                          (axios.com)

• Houston-based ‘Axiom Space’ aims to be the world’s first commercial space station. Toward that end, it has raised $130 million in capital funding. Axiom represents what many believe is the future of space. Axiom will work with SpaceX, valued at $74 billion, on next January’s planned tourism trip to the International Space Station.

• Axiom’s plan begins with the launch of a commercial module that will be hooked up to the International Space Station in the 2024 time frame. Additional modules will be added to the Axiom module complex in subsequent years to create a commercial wing of the space station. When the ISS is decommissioned in 2028, as planned, Axiom will detach its commercial space base and operate independently as a privately owned space station.

 

Axiom Space, a Houston-based developer of what would be the world’s first commercial space station, raised $130 million in Series B funding led by C5 Capital.
Why it matters: Axiom represents what many believe is the future of space, whereby NASA becomes a customer everywhere in low-Earth orbit so that it can focus on the Moon, Mars and beyond.

• Other investors include Declaration Partners, Moelis Dynasty Investments, The Venture Collective, Hemisphere Ventures and Starbridge VC.

• More space bucks: SpaceX raised $850 million last week at around a $74 billion valuation last week, per CNBC. Axiom and SpaceX are working together on next January’s planned tourism trip to the International Space Station.

The bottom line: “Axiom’s plan for its own space station would begin with the launch of a commercial module that would be hooked up to the International Space Station in the 2024 time frame. Additional modules would be added to Axiom’s complex during the years that follow. If the ISS is decommissioned in 2028, as planned, Axiom would detach its modules and operate them independently as a privately owned space station,” Geekwire’s Alan Boyle reports.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

 

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.

Space Lasers Will Revolutionize Military Communications

Article by Patrick Tucker                                          February 18, 2021                                               (defenseone.com)

• Satellites using lasers to exchange data has been around since 2011. Space-based laser communication is only possible with a very narrow beam, making it much harder than radio-frequency communication but also much more difficult for adversaries to jam or interfere with. Laser communication promises to make military communications faster and harder to intercept. But figuring out how to do it at the scale and reliability needed for practical communication poses a big challenge.

• Laser communication is potentially big money and a host of big tech companies are looking at its potential. The two-year-old Space Development Agency (SDA) has already released a communications standard to be used by four companies supplying the laser gear for a four-satellite trial experiment. SDA director Derek Tournear expects to soon release a request for proposals for a 150-satellite constellation the SDA plans to launch into low-earth orbit by September 2024.

• Tournear didn’t say what four companies were working on the project. He did say that he wants SDA to become the initial go-to market for such innovations in satellite communications. “We are actually trying to create a market,” he said at a recent Space Foundation event. “I want industry to view this as a way to develop a product that then they can sell into that market to try and win a portion of that market share. As long as we do that we’ll have a robust industry base.”

• The Space Development Agency is to be folded into the US Space Force by October 2022, according to the National Defense Authorization Act. But the law specifies that the agency will keep authorities for contracting, classification, etc autonomous. That autonomy is essential to help industry create new space-based technologies that may disrupt markets, said Tournear.

• The agency is asking businesses to take a risk in research and develop capabilities solely for the SDA. These new businesses must be autonomous enough to eventually find non-SDA uses for these technologies in order to expand the market into the space industry commercial sector. Otherwise, they have no long-term incentive to develop these technologies. “[T]he language in law is actually very good at trying to protect that from occurring,” says Tournear.

 

                  Derek Tournear

Satellites that use lasers to exchange data promise to make military communications faster and harder to intercept — if the Pentagon can figure out how to make them work.

With plans to launch a 150-satellite constellation into low-earth orbit by September 2024, the two-year-old Space Development Agency is on a deadline. It has already released a communications standard to be used by four companies supplying the laser gear for a four-satellite experiment called tranche zero, agency director Derek Tournear said Tuesday at a Space Foundation event. And by August, Tournear expects to release a request for proposals that will spell out key details for the “more robust” standard needed for the 150-satellite tranche one.

Laser communication between satellites has been around since 2011 but figuring out how to do it at the scale and reliability needed for practical communication is a big challenge. As engineer Allan Panahi’s seminal 2010 paper on the subject explains, space-based laser communication is only possible with a very narrow beam, making it much harder than radio-frequency communication but also much more difficult for adversaries to jam or interfere with. “The requirement for much more pointing accuracy, acquisition, and tracking…and the impact that this may have on the spacecraft that is moving at 3 [kilometers per second] for [geosynchronous orbit] to 7 [kilometers per second] for [low Earth orbit] is a formidable task,” Panahi wrote.

It’s also potentially big money. SpaceX, Facebook, Google and a host of other tech companies are looking at the potential of laser-based communications.

Tournear didn’t say what companies were working on his project. He did say that he wants SDA, which has plans to launch six additional satellite layers after tranche one, to become the initial go-to market for innovations in satellite communications, at a time when funding for some satellite startups has grown shaky. “We are actually trying to create a market,” he said. “I want industry to view this as a way to develop a product that then they can sell into that market to try and win a portion of that market share. As long as we do that we’ll have a robust industry base.”

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

 

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.

Copyright © 2019 Exopolitics Institute News Service. All Rights Reserved.