In Today’s Deep Space Extra… White House lunar exploration plans win early backing from lawmakers, commercial industry and prospective international partners.
Human Space Flight
Trump’s moon directive earns praise from NASA, others
Space.com (12/13): NASA, contractor Lockheed Martin, the Coalition for Deep Space Exploration and at least two key lawmakers praised President Trump’s Space Policy Directive-1, which was issued Monday on the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 17 moon landing. The directive calls on the nation to return to the lunar surface to prepare for the human exploration of Mars and other deep space destinations. “NASA’s flagship programs for human space exploration the Orion crew vehicle and the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket supported by ongoing research on human health and performance conducted on the International Space Station will take a major step to fulfilling this vision beginning with Exploration Mission 1 targeted for late 2019,” commented Mary Lynne Dittmar, the coalition’s CEO.
Japan plans to join U.S.-led moon station project
Kyodo News of Japan (12/11): Japan plans to partner with NASA in the assembly of a Deep Space Gateway, a lunar orbiting human habitat. The DSG is to serve as a terminal for human and robotic exploration of the lunar surface as well as a departure point for future human missions to the Martian realm.
Lightfoot excited about implementing new space policy, details to come in FY2019 budget
Spacepolicyonline.com (12/12): Additional details on the implementation of Space Policy Directive-1, which President Trump signed on Monday directing NASA to return to the lunar surface with human explorers with commercial and international partners, will accompany the presentation of the administration’s 2019 fiscal year budget request early next year, Robert Lightfoot, NASA’s acting administrator, told the Space Transportation Association on Tuesday. As much as possible, whatever is done on the moon will be “extensible” to Mars because that remains the horizon goal, said Lightfoot.
Op-ed | We agree, Mr. President: America should return to the moon
Space News (12/11): In a bi-partisan show of support from Congress, U.S. Reps Brian Babin, of Texas, and Ami Bera, of California, back efforts by the Trump administration to merge the contributions of the private sector and international community with NASA’s to return to the lunar surface with human explorers. Babin, a Republican, chairs the U.S. House Space Subcommittee, which serves as a policy shaping body. Bera is the subcommittee’s ranking Democrat. Trump signed Space Policy Directive-1 on Monday instructing his administration to make the moon the first destination for astronauts beyond low Earth orbit.
Trump vows Americans will return to the moon. The question is how?
The Washington Post (12/11): Might President Trump’s pledge to return human explorers to the lunar surface this week outlast those of past White House administrations to return to the moon, explore an asteroid and reach the Martian environs in the 2030s? In brief remarks Monday, Trump did not lay out a schedule or address costs, but his recently re-established National Space Council has made it clear the U.S. private sector is to play a critical role. “This is very different than what happened in previous major space efforts where it was really just governments,” said Scott Pace, the space council’s executive secretary. “We want U.S. industry to be leading, and we want to do it with our international partners.”
NASA establishes advisory group for National Space Council
NASA (12/12): The panel will consist of up to 30 member selected to advise the new National Space Council on aerospace topics, including the impacts of U.S. and international laws and regulations, national security space priorities relating to the civil and commercial space sectors, scientific and human space exploration priorities, and ways to bolster support for U.S. space priorities and leadership in space.
SpaceX delivery delayed few days; 1st reused rocket for NASA
Associated Press via New York Times (12/12): Planned for Tuesday, SpaceX’s 13th NASA contracted resupply mission to the six person International Space Station was been delayed until no earlier than Friday. Earlier, SpaceX asked for a delay from Tuesday to Wednesday for additional pre-launch ground system checks. It was the seventh setback for the first use of the greatly modified Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, which was heavily damaged on September 1, 2016 by a SpaceX Falcon 9 explosion during a pre-launch activity with a commercial satellite payload.
Space Science
Jupiter’s great red spot is more than 50 times deeper than Earth’s ocean
Space.com (12/12): NASA’s Jupiter orbiting Juno mission has produced new findings, details on the Giant Red spot, one of the solar system’s most violent storms. Details presented before an American Geophysical Union gathering in New Orleans suggest the long lived storm is smaller but more deeply rooted than apparent from past observations.
Other News
Talks underway about potential rocket landing site at KSC
Florida Today (12/12): NASA’s Kennedy Space Center has begun discussions with the U.S. Air Force and Space Florida over the location of a launch vehicle landing site on space center grounds. SpaceX, which leases KSC’s Launch Pad 39A, is ramping up efforts to recover the core stages of its Falcon 9 rockets for refurbishment and reuse. However, it’s not yet clear who the future landing site’s users might be.
Galileo launch brings navigation network close to completion
European Space Agency (12/11): An Arianespace Ariane 5 rocket launch from French Guiana on Tuesday added four satellites to the European Galileo satellite navigation constellation. Now populated by 22 satellites, Galileo needs one more launching to complete the satellite navigation network.
Blue Origin launches 1st New Shepard spaceship test flight in over a year
Space.com (12/12): Blue Origin’s reusable New Shepard suborbital launch vehicle launched Tuesday from on the company’s first test flight in more than year. The successful test flight was carried out at Blue Origin’s West Texas launch complex.
FCC begins approval of Orbital ATK satellite-servicing mission for Intelsat-901
Coalition Member in the News – Orbital ATK
Space News (12/12): The U.S. FAA’s regulatory authority has granted Orbital ATK permission to proceed with a satellite servicing demonstration mission involving Intelsat’s 901 satellite, which orbits in a graveyard orbit. Some later phases of the demonstration mission, however, have not yet been approved.