In Today’s Deep Space Extra… NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine sizes up the Moon’s value to the future of human deep space exploration. NASA’s new exo-planet hunter, TESS, nears the end of post launch checkout. The U.K. selects northern Scotland for a future spaceport. European Space Agency chief Jan Worner calls on member states for innovative space transportation proposals.
Human Space Exploration
Q&A: NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine
Roll Call (7/15): In an interview, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine addresses some of the challenges of reaching Mars with human explorers, perhaps in the 2030s. The U.S. must return to the Moon within 10 years, in part to determine whether it can turn lunar ice to rocket fuel for the Mars mission, he explains. Other issues include controlling costs and meeting schedules with the agency’s contractors on major projects. A major incentive for working closer with the commercial sector on achieving NASA’s goals is the promise of space resources that could be valuable to investors, while helping to underwrite the cost of exploration.
Northrop Grumman’s OA-9 Cygnus leaves International Space Station
Coalition Member in the News – Northrop Grumman
Spaceflightinsider.com (7/15): Launched to the International Space Station in May, Northrop Grumman Innovation System’s ninth Cygnus resupply mission spacecraft departed the Station’s U.S. segment early Sunday. During its stay, Northrop Grumman completed its acquisition of Orbital ATK, which launched the Cygnus with a science rich 7,400 pound cargo. The spacecraft, named for the late J.R. Thompson, a longtime NASA and Orbital executive, is to deorbit on July 30, following solo deployments of CubeSats and other engineering objectives.
We’ll never get tired of this video of astronauts falling over on the Moon
Science Alert (7/9): Even in low gravity environments, astronauts must deal with their own body mass, as demonstrated in a video compilation of the Apollo astronauts as they carried out the first human explorations of the Moon. Acclimating could mean the difference between a humorous tumble and injury.
SpaceX’s first space-worthy crew Dragon capsule arrives at Cape Canaveral
Spaceflightinsider.com (7/14): SpaceX’s Dragon 2 spacecraft that is to launch on an uncrewed test flight as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program reached Cape Canaveral, Florida, last week, following ground testing at NASA’s Plum Brook Station in Ohio. Updated launch plans have not been announced.
Meet the unknown immigrant billionaire betting her fortune to take on Musk in space
Forbes (7/12): Eren Ozmen and her husband, Fatih, both billionaires and natives of Turkey, are betting their Sparks, Nevada, enterprise, Sierra Nevada, can open space to the global private sector. Soon, Sierra’s space shuttle like, reusable space plane, Dream Chaser, is to begin launching cargo to the International Space Station under a NASA contract.
Space Science
First global maps of Pluto and Charon show the worlds’ highs and lows
Science News (7/13): NASA’s New Horizons mission team has produced topographical maps of distant Pluto and its moon Charon generated with imagery gathered during New Horizons 2015 flyby.
NASA’s new planet hunter on track to start science work this month
Space.com (7/13): NASA Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, launched into orbit on April 18. The spacecraft’s search for extra solar planets around stars closest to Earth could begin at the end of July.
International News
Bridenstine visits Israel on first foreign trip
SpaceNews.com (7/13): NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine concluded a two day trip to Israel late last week, meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu among others with a goal of strengthening relations on space between the two countries and possibly flying a second Israeli astronaut.
Space: The next south China sea
Maritime Executive (7/13): Reaching destinations like the Moon and Mars is of strategic interest to China, according to Ye Peijian, head of the country’s lunar exploration program. The nations and explorers who learn to manage the risks will be rewarded with access to resources of great value and strategic significance throughout the remainder of the 21st century, he notes.
Lift-off for Scotland: Sutherland to host first U.K. spaceport
Coalition Member in the News – Lockheed Martin
BBC News (7/16): The British government has selected four sites in all for future space launch activities, among them a site in Scotland’s Highlands for vertical rocket launches. Three other sites in the U.K. were selected for horizontal launch activities. The first vertical launch activities are planned for the early 2020s. The announcements include a $31 million grant to Lockheed Martin to establish the vertical launch complex in Scotland’s Sutherland District.
Focus on the future of space transportation: ESA’s call for ideas
ESA (7/16): The European Space Agency Director General Jan Worner has issued a broad call for innovative proposals from the citizens of the agency’s member states to help it shape future space transportation initiatives. The deadline for submissions is September 14. ESA is welcoming commercially viable proposals from space- and non-space-based companies, start-ups, universities and institutions.
Major Space Related Activities for the Week
Major space related activities for the week of July 15 -21, 2018
Spacepolicyonline.com (7/15): Monday marks the 49th anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch with Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins. The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Center will host a gala to commemorate the first Apollo moon landing on Saturday. The U.S. House and Senate are in session this week. The Committee on Space Research, part of the International Council of Science, meets in Pasadena, California, this week. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine is to stop at the Farnborough Air Show in England for a discussion on space and its economic benefits.