In Today’s Deep Space Extra… Jim Bridenstine to be sworn in Monday afternoon as NASA’s 13th administrator. Lockheed pursues cut in Orion production costs. Tom Jones, Scott Altman enter U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame.
Bridenstine to be sworn in as NASA Administrator April 23
Spacepolicyonline.com (4/21): Jim Bridenstine, whose nomination was confirmed by the U.S. Senate last week, will be sworn in Monday as NASA’s 13th administrator. Vice President Mike Pence, who chairs the National Space Council, will preside over the 2:30 p.m., EDT, ceremony, which will be aired on NASA TV and followed by the two men speaking with the crew of the International Space Station.
Human Space Exploration
Lockheed Martin working to lower Orion costs
Coalition Member in the News – Lockheed Martin
Space News (4/20): Lockheed Martin, NASA’s prime contractor for the NASA’s Orion crew capsule, outlined a strategy for lowering the spacecraft’s costs as the 34th Space Symposium was drawing to a close last week. The plan includes the reuse of some spacecraft components. Production of components for the second Orion/Space Launch System (SLS) mission, the first to include astronauts, is already underway. “Our goal is 50 percent [cost reduction] on the vehicle, and I think we’re going to be close to that,” said Mike Hawes, the company’s Orion program manager, of downstream mission hardware.
Getting a crew to Mars: Here’s how NASA is tackling the mind-bending to-do list
CBC of Canada (4/21): The challenges range of reaching Mars with human explorers range from rocketry and life support systems to overcoming the physical and psychological obstacles of a two to three year voyages in confined spacecraft. Then, there are the expectations of scientific discovery.
Station science excellent; Commercial Cargo-2 contracts making good strides
NASAspaceflight.com (4/20): Earlier this year, the International Space Station reached a couple of new milestones. More than half of the world’s nations have now participated in some kind of Space Station experiment aboard the orbiting lab. The Station’s astronauts surged to more than 100 hours of science and technology activities in a single week, well beyond the average. Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA’s Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations, briefed the NASA Advisory Council on the accomplishments.
Coalition Board Member in the News – Thomas D. Jones, PhD
NASA/Kennedy Space Center (4/21): Two NASA shuttle era astronauts Tom Jones and Scott Altman, were inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame over the weekend. They join colleagues from the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo eras. Jones, a U.S. Air Force B-52 pilot, planetary scientist and author of four books launched on four shuttle missions. His final flight delivered the Destiny lab module to the International Space Station. Altman, a Naval aviator, also launched on four shuttle missions, two as commander of missions to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. Both men remain professionally active.
Space Science
Europe’s Mars rover takes shape
BBC of Great Britain (4/20): The European Space Agency’s ExoMars 2020 rover mission will search for evidence of life on the Red Planet. Ground analysis of hardware components is moving the project toward Critical Design Review on May 8, a milestone that leads to the production of flight hardware. ESA is partnered with Russia on the project. Moscow is supplying the all-important Descent Module.
EU-Russian Mars mission landing site to be chosen soon
Sputnik News (4/22): Russian and European collaborators in the ExoMars 2020 mission are preparing to select a landing site for the ambitious mission by the end of this year. It will likely be Oxia Planum or Mawrth Vallis for a mission whose goal is to find evidence of life on Mars.
Other News
Boeing, Lockheed, ULA corner the government-funded space market. SpaceX moving up
Coalition Members in the News – Boeing, Lockheed Martin, United Launch Alliance
Space News (4/22): A new market analysis of $83 billion in U.S. government spending in the space arena over the past six years, shows more than half went to established aerospace contractors. United Launch Alliance, the Lockheed Martin/Boeing joint venture, led all in market share.
Netflix doc ‘Mercury 13’ chronicles first U.S. women tested for spaceflight
Collectspace.com (4/20): Had history played out differently, one or more members of the Fellow Lady Astronaut Trainees, or FLATs, may have joined the John Glenns and Neil Armstrongs that pioneered U.S. human spaceflight from Earth orbit to the surface of the Moon. A new Netflix documentary, Mercury 13, that premiered Friday looks back at the women pilots quietly assessed for the risky missions.
The British are coming for the rocket-launching industry
CNBC (4/21): The United Kingdom Space Agency is prepared to advance its stake in a global, $350 billion annual space economy with a strategy to capture more of the small satellite launch vehicle market. That means establishing launch ports, something now absent from the U.K. Claire Barcham, director of the agency’s satellite launch program, spoke of plans to change that with CNBC at the 34th Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Major Space Related Activities for the Week
Major space related activities for the week of April 22-28, 2018
Spacepolicyonline.com (4/22): Vice President Mike Pence swears in Jim Bridenstine as NASA Administrator today at 2:30 p.m., EDT. A joint session of U.S. House space and environment panels features a hearing on space weather. Berlin, Germany is hosting a Mars sample return conference for international participants. NASA will host a discussion Thursday on its human deep space exploration efforts from the Johnson Space Center. Boulder, Colorado will host a presentation of the implications of privatizing the International Space Station.