In Today’s Deep Space Extra… Jim Bridenstine is confirmed as NASA Administrator. Customers for new platforms in low Earth orbit may bring both government needs and commercial branding. Like the International Space Station, the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (LOPG) envisioned by NASA might host external as well as internal experiments, bringing interest from scientists.
Senate votes to confirm Bridenstine as NASA Administrator
Space News (4/19): Jim Bridenstine, the Oklahoma congressman and President Trump’s nominee to serve as NASA Administrator, was confirmed for the top spot by the U.S. Senate on Thursday. The 50-49 vote along party lines was unprecedented in NASA’s near 60 year history. Despite his opposition, a key opponent, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, of Florida, pledged his support. The Coalition for Deep Space Exploration and Commercial Spaceflight Federation were also among those quickly offering their congratulations and support as was NASA Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot. Lightfoot is soon to retire, and Thursday’s confirmation prevents a leadership gap.
Trump’s NASA nominee, Jim Bridenstine, confirmed by Senate on party-line vote
New York Times (4/19): Jim Bridenstine, Oklahoma Congressman and former naval aviator and war veteran, won confirmation Thursday as NASA Administrator. The hard fought close vote, 50/49, was shrouded in suspense to the very end, perhaps not unlike the future NASA intends to forge as it transitions its human exploration focus from low Earth orbit and the International Space Station to deep space, including a return to the Moon and missions to Mars.
Human Space Exploration
Are we ready to send humans to Mars?
Esquire (4/19): The answer to the headline question might be: more now than before. The governments of the U.S., Russia and China are discussing and making plans to launch explorers to Mars. And so are extensions of the private sector, perhaps most notably Mars One in Europe, which has turned to the equities market to raise funds, and in the U.S. SpaceX, privately held yet convinced the human race needs to prepare to migrate.
Taco Bell space station? It’s possible, panelists say
Coalition Member in the News – Nanoracks
Space News (4/19): NASA will continue to require access to low Earth orbit aboard some kind of R & D platform as the agency shifts its focus from the International Space Station to human deep space exploration. And a commercial space station without the government as a client is financially implausible. That is likely to fuel discussions over how to realize corporate space sponsorships, said those participating in a panel discussion on the future of public/private cooperation in orbit hosted by the 34th annual Space Symposium in Colorado Springs.
Space Science
NASA engineers dream big with small spacecraft
NASA/JPL (4/19): With NASA’s TESS extra solar planet hunter mission now underway, many in the space community are awaiting the launch of Mars InSight, a Mars lander mission equipped to study the Red Planet’s internal processes for the first time with instruments that drill below the surface. The launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, is set for May 5. Two Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) assembled CubeSats are to break ground as well as they accompany InSight to monitor the primary spacecraft’s entry, descent and landing at Mars in late November through direct communications with Earth.
NASA Exploration Campaign opens new opportunities for science
Space News (4/19): NASA’s proposed Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (LOPG), a human tended outpost in orbit around the Moon, serving as both a hub for future human expeditions to Mars as well as the lunar surface, has generated surprising interest from the science community, as expressed during a Denver workshop at the end of February. Among the strategies for addressing the interest could be to accommodate experiments on the exterior of the NASA Power and Propulsion Module (PM) that is to launch in 2022 as the first Gateway element.
What can a gorilla teach us about the search for space aliens?
NBC News (4/20): A new study by Spanish researchers suggests humans could be looking but not seeing in their search for evidence of life beyond the Earth, exhibiting a kind of tunnel vision. SETI Institute chief astronomer Seth Shostak offers some historical examples.
Other News
Blue Origin expects BE-4 qualification tests to be done by year’s end
Space News (4/19): Blue Origin’s BE-4 domestic rocket engine development should reach the qualification stage by the end of this year, company chief executive Bob Smith said this week during the 34th Space Symposium in Colorado Springs. The engine will propel Blue’s New Glenn launch vehicle. “We have the performance characteristics that cover all the missions, civil, commercial, national security that we’d like,” said Smith.
Russia appears to have surrendered to SpaceX in the global launch market
Ars Technica (4/18): Earlier this week, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin offered a surprise concession to the U.S. launch services company SpaceX and China a second rival in the global launch services market. Once prominent Russia, he said, will ramp up its focus on the more lucrative satellite manufacturing business.