Polskie Forum Astronautyczne
Człowiek i Astronautyka => Media => Wątek zaczęty przez: Orionid w Czerwca 06, 2020, 07:24
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The Space Review jest tygodnikiem kosmicznym założonym przez Jeffa Fousta po katastrofie Columbii. Od tamtego czasu ukazało się już 3957 artykułów i recenzji. Co tydzień publikowanych jest 5 tekstów. Założyciel internetowego tygodnika swoje credo przedstawił we wstępnym artykule.
Crew Dragon jest jedną z odpowiedzi na utratę załogi 17 lat temu i pierwszy jego lot załogowy zbiega się z zainicjowaniem cyklicznego zaistnienia TSR na Forum.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Space_Review
https://www.thespacereview.com/archive.html
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001 02.2003 (https://www.forum.kosmonauta.net/index.php?topic=4134.msg146770#msg146770) (2)
002 03.2003 (https://www.forum.kosmonauta.net/index.php?topic=4134.msg146772#msg146772)
003 04.2003 (https://www.forum.kosmonauta.net/index.php?topic=4134.msg146773#msg146773)
004 05.2003 (https://www.forum.kosmonauta.net/index.php?topic=4134.msg146888#msg146888)
005 06.2003 (https://www.forum.kosmonauta.net/index.php?topic=4134.msg146889#msg146889)
006 07.2003 (https://www.forum.kosmonauta.net/index.php?topic=4134.msg146890#msg146890)
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204 01.2020 (https://www.forum.kosmonauta.net/index.php?topic=4134.msg147156#msg147156) (4)
205 02.2020 (https://www.forum.kosmonauta.net/index.php?topic=4134.msg147303#msg147303) (4)
206 03.2020 (https://www.forum.kosmonauta.net/index.php?topic=4134.msg147560#msg147560) (5)
207 04.2020 (https://www.forum.kosmonauta.net/index.php?topic=4134.msg147729#msg147729) (4)
208 05.2020 (https://www.forum.kosmonauta.net/index.php?topic=4134.msg147887#msg147887) (4)
209 06.2020 (https://www.forum.kosmonauta.net/index.php?topic=4134.msg147891#msg147891) (5)
210 07.2020 (https://www.forum.kosmonauta.net/index.php?topic=4134.msg148193#msg148193) (4)
211 08.2020 (https://www.forum.kosmonauta.net/index.php?topic=4134.msg148197#msg148197) (4)
212 09.2020 (https://www.forum.kosmonauta.net/index.php?topic=4134.msg148625#msg148625) (4)
213 10.2020 (https://www.forum.kosmonauta.net/index.php?topic=4134.msg148926#msg148926) (4)
214 11.2020 (https://www.forum.kosmonauta.net/index.php?topic=4134.msg149457#msg149457) (5)
215 12.2020 (https://www.forum.kosmonauta.net/index.php?topic=4134.msg149823#msg149823) (3)
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Time to ask the big questions
Is Columbia the most tragic example of the failure of the space exploration paradigm?
by Jeff Foust Tuesday, February 11, 2003
Anyone with more than a passing knowledge of the history of space has a few dates etched into their brains: October 4, 1957; April 12, 1961; July 20, 1969. Also there, sadly, are January 27, 1967; January 28, 1986, and now, February 1, 2003. The Space Age has given us its share of triumphs and tragedies, and while the tragedies are relatively modest when put into a global perspective — 21 deaths in just under 42 years of human spaceflight — it makes them no less painful.
Despite these tragedies, the US space program has forged ahead. After Apollo 1 NASA quickly worked to determine the cause of the accident, fix that and other problems with the Apollo spacecraft, and was flying again in time land on the Moon before 1970, as President Kennedy had asked. The interregnum after Challenger was longer — there was no space race with the Soviets then — but in time a revamped shuttle fleet was flying again. In both cases there was broad public support for maintaining a slightly modified status quo.
Today, there has been a desire expressed by many people inside and outside of NASA to quickly determine what happened to Columbia, fix the problem, and start flying again. Even if there wasn’t pressure to get the shuttle flying again so that it can support the International Space Station, this desire is an understandable one, even a noble one: a refusal to give up in the face of adversity, just as in the case with past tragedies. As the saying goes, if you get thrown off a horse, you need to get right back on it — presumably, after figuring out why you got thrown off in the first place.
The danger in this approach is that this gives NASA, or the space community in general, little time to reflect on the current state of space exploration and development. The situation in 2003 is different than 1967, when the space program’s goals were clear cut, or even 1986. Even before the Columbia tragedy, it was clear that the space activities in general worldwide — commercial, civil government, and military — were dysfunctional, if not downright broken. Space access, both manned and unmanned, is still too expensive to support more than a few applications. The reliability of space transportation is also a problem, from numerous launch delays to catastrophic failures, such as the recent failures of a Proton/Block DM and an Ariane 5 ECA. There are too many launch vehicles chasing too few payloads, with, paradoxically, even more expendable vehicles under development. Human space flight relies today on only two vehicles: the Space Shuttle, an expensive vehicle that has now suffered two catastrophic failures in 113 flights; and Russia’s Soyuz, which is chronically underfunded. This puts at risk the tens of billions of dollars invested to date in the International Space Station, a project years behind schedule that has yet to live up to even basic expectations.
Space transportation is not the only focus of problems. The commercial space industry is suffering from an overall glut of supply: from launch vehicles to satellite manufacturers to on-orbit communications capacity. The remote sensing business has failed to materialize, and many of the existing companies are now heavily reliant on government business for their survival. The failures of several satellite communications ventures garnered enough publicity that “Iridium” became synonymous in the business world for any hugely expensive failure.
Government space programs are no better than their commercial brethren. While much has been said about NASA’s continual battles for more funding, it is in far better shape than other programs around the world, which must either beg for a tiny fraction of NASA’s budget or, particularly in ESA’s case, endure internecine battles among its member nations regarding even modest programs. While these agencies are pursuing a number of excellent projects, none of them have the goals or the vision to capture the interest and enthusiasm of the general public. Those proposals that seem to have the best prospects of resonating with the general public — notably, human exploration of Mars — are considered either too expensive or too far in the future to be officially adopted by these agencies.
All of these issues are symptoms of fundamental problems with how we approach space today. Many of these problems are rooted in decisions made years, if not decades, ago. Exploring these decisions can be useful, if only to best understand the process that led to those decisions. However, we are forced to cope with the consequences of those past decisions today. If this is the best we can do to explore and develop the final frontier, we may be stuck on Earth for the foreseeable future.
As stated above, there is a temptation to quickly patch the problem that caused the loss of Columbia and press on. Yet it’s clear that the way we approach space today is filled with problems and pitfalls; Columbia is not the only evidence of this, merely the most visible and the most unfortunate. Rather than get right back on that horse, perhaps its time to ask some more fundamental questions. How fast should we be riding? Where should we be going? And should we even be riding a horse?
That is what The Space Review is about: exploring the fundamental issues and the fundamental problems related to the exploration and development of space. The Space Review is not another news publication — there are already plenty of those available online — but instead an online magazine devoted to the past, present, and future of space exploration. In particular, there will be an emphasis on where we should go from here: the goals organizations should set in space, the destinations we should explore, the technologies we need to make it happen, the policies that help or hinder us, and so on.
What should you do, gentle reader? First of all, please come by every week and check out our latest articles: we plan to publish from one to three articles a week, ranging from in-depth studies of specific topics to short essays and book reviews. Give us feedback, about both the articles and the site: everything here is currently “in beta”, to borrow the jargon of the software industry, so your suggestions can be easily incorporated into the site in the coming weeks. If you have an article or essay you’d like to contribute to the site, please send an email to jeff@thespacereview.com. Oh, yes: be sure to tell your friends and colleagues about us too.
It is my hope that The Space Review can become an effective forum for discussing and debating our future in space. Recent events have made it as clear as ever that if we are truly interested in exploring and developing space, we need to reexamine why and how to best do it. We owe that to the crew of the Columbia and the others who have paid the ultimate price in the exploration of the final frontier.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/1/1
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/1/2
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2/II 2003 [2-3]
2) Columbia lost, but not a nation
by S. Alan Stern Monday, February 17, 2003
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The Earth and crescent moon photographed during the STS-107 shuttle mission. (credit: NASA)
The sudden and sad demise of the space shuttle Columbia and her crew on the frontier of space this month provided a sharp reminder of the risks of spaceflight. Simultaneously, the heartfelt national reaction to the accident reminded us of the intimate connection that Americans have with frontiers in general, and space exploration in particular.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/2/1
3) Main engine cutoff
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 17, 2003
Is the American rocket propulsion industry in danger of extinction?
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A Rocketdyne XRS-2200 engine, developed for the X-33, runs during a test firing at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in mid-2001. (credit: NASA)
It has been commonplace in recent years to talk about the problems facing the launch industry as if the industry was a monolithic entity. While the launch industry in general does face serious problems, it is not monolithic. Launch vehicles are made of a variety of components, which in many cases are provided by subcontractors. The health of each of those segments of the industry is critical to the future of the overall launch industry. Some segments of the industry, as it turns out, may be hurting more than others.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3/1
3/II 2003 [4-5]
4) A “Grand Challenge” for NASA
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 24, 2003
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As NASA moves beyond spacecraft like Mars Exploration Rover (above), the agency will need to invest in autonomous navigation and other technologies. (credit: NASA)
It’s unusual for a story about a road race from Los Angeles to Las Vegas to make the front page of the Los Angeles Times, unless there’s great tragedy—and/or famous celebrities—involved. Yet there it was, in the bottom-left corner of the front page of the Times’ Friday, February 21 issue: a story about a vehicle race between the two cities that is not scheduled to take place for over a year.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4/1
5) The Mars train wreck
by Donald F. Robertson Monday, February 24, 2003
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In their search for evidence of life, could future astronauts on Mars do more harm than good? (credit: Pat Rawlings/SAIC for NASA)
Before it even gets underway, human Mars exploration is headed for a political train wreck. The likelihood of trouble is so great that advocates for human exploration of the Solar System probably should look elsewhere—toward a return to Earth’s Moon or asteroid mining expeditions. The problem is life, especially if we find it, but even if we don’t.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5/1
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4/III 2003 [6-7]
6) The silver lining that is the Space Age
by Larry Klaes Monday, March 3, 2003
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The SPACEHAB research module in Columbia’s cargo bay was home to dozens of experiments. (credit: NASA)
When one contemplates the tragic loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia and its crew of seven astronauts, it is often hard for many of us to separate our emotions from the reasons why we send human beings into space and why those people willingly accept these daring and dangerous missions into a realm that can quickly end life from only a few missteps.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/6/1
7) Columbia and the media: a one-month report card
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 3, 2003
How have the print and electronic media handled the Columbia tragedy?
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NASA administrator Sean O’Keefe has been at the center of the media coverage surrounding the Columbia investigation. (credit: NASA)
The month of February 2003 will not be remembered fondly by most people. A plane crash in Iran killed over 270 people. A subway fire in South Korea killed more than 130. In Chicago, 21 people died trying to escape a nightclub, while a few days later nearly 100 perished in a Rhode Island nightclub blaze. A powerful winter storm dumped over half a meter of snow from Washington DC to Boston, while another deposited a glaze of ice in the south-central US. Terrorist alerts prompted runs on plastic sheeting and duct tape throughout America, as the drums of war beat ever louder in Iraq and North Korea became an increasingly-worrisome nuclear wild card.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/7/1
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/7/2
5/III 2003 [8]
8 ) Space entrepreneurship, buy the book
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 10, 2003
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The rollout of Rotary Rocket's Roton ATV prototype in March 1999. (credit: Rotary Rocket Company)
They All Laughed at Christopher Columbus: An Incurable Dreamer Builds the First Civilian Spaceship
By Elizabeth Weil
Bantam Books, 2002
Hardcover, 230 pp.
ISBN 0-553-10886-7
US$24.95/C$37.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0553108867/spaceviews
Making Space Happen: Private Space Ventures and the Visionaries Behind Them
By Paula Berinstein
Medford Press, 2002
Softcover, 490pp.
ISBN 0-9666748-3-9
US$24.95/C$37.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0966674839/spaceviews
The late 1990s have become synonymous with the “dot-com” era, when many tens of billions of dollars in venture capital were poured into thousands of startup companies, each promising to use the Internet in general, and the Web in particular, to generate bounties of riches in vast assortment of ways. What most of these companies lacked, though, were valid business plans that showed how those investments would generate revenues and, eventually, profits. Instead, dot-com startups used bizarre currencies of mindshare, eyeballs, and stickiness. When the stream of VC funding tried up at the turn of the century, the startups realized how worthless their currencies were; most are now defunct.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/8/1
6/III 2003 [9-10]
9) The dangers of “creeping determinism”
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 17, 2003
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Debris recovered from the space shuttle Columbia is stored in a hangar at the Kennedy Space Center for analysis. (credit: NASA/KSC)
It seems so obvious now, many people observing the Columbia investigation are saying. Foam from the external tank hit the leading edge of the left wing during launch, causing one of the reinforced carbon-carbon tiles there to either fall off or become so damaged it could not prevent hot plasma from getting through 16 days later during reentry. That damage eventually led to the structural failure of the wing and the loss of the orbiter. The images, the paper trail of memos and emails, all seem to show concern among engineers that such an incident during the launch could have caused an accident just like the one that befell Columbia on February 1.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/9/1
10) The launch industry depression: when will it end?
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 17, 2003
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A Boeing Delta 4 Medium lifts off from Cape Canaveral on March 10. (credit: Boeing)
Unless you’ve been living in blissful ignorance the last few years, you’re probably painfully aware of the problems the commercial launch industry has been facing. The boom in launch demand in the late 1990s, primarily by geosynchronous (GSO) and nongeosynchronous (NGSO) communications satellites, has gone bust, undone by overcapacity from existing GSO satellites and the stunning business failures of companies like Iridium and Globalstar. The launch vehicle companies, trapped in a cycle of price wars in an effort to capture the few customers available today, are losing money and looking to governments to keep them alive.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/10/1
7/III 2003 [11-12]
11) The Gene and Jack show
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 24, 2003
The last two men to walk on the Moon discuss the past and future
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Gene Cernan, Jan Evans (widow of Ron Evans), and Harrison Schmitt at the National Air and Space Museum on March 18. (credit: J. Foust)
It’s been over 30 years since Eugene Cernan and Harrison “Jack” Schmitt became the eleventh and twelfth—and, to date, last—humans to set foot on the moon. One would think that, over time, public interest in their feat would have waned. Yet, several hundred people turned out at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum March 18 for the museum’s annual Werner von Braun lecture by the two former astronauts.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/11/1
12) The million man and woman march to space
by Clark S. Lindsey Monday, March 24, 2003
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Relatively small groups can have a major influence on policies. (credit: J. Foust)
Imagine the following press release: “Citing the need to unify the nation as it once was, space advocacy groups announce a campaign to press the television industry to restore the variety show, offer at least three Westerns in prime time everyday, and reduce the number of news programs to two half-hour broadcasts each evening.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/12/1
8/III 2003 [13]
13) Space tourism: managing expectations in uncertain times
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 31, 2003
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The Xerus, by XCOR Aerospace, is a proposed suborbital RLV that could serve the space tourism market in the next several years. (credit: XCOR/Space Adventures)
For the last several years, space tourism has made significant progress as a viable industry that may be critical to the continued commercialization of space. As recently as five years ago space tourism suffered from a “giggle factor” as both mainstream society and even some within the aerospace industry and commercial space community dismissed tourism as unrealistic. Events since then, most notably the flights of Dennis Tito in April 2001 and Mark Shuttleworth one year later, have altered those perceptions. Almost no one is laughing at space tourism now; indeed, with the decline of other commercial space markets, such as the launch of telecommunications satellites, space tourism is now seen as perhaps the most viable emerging commercial market for the foreseeable future.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/13/1
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9/IV 2003 [14]
The search for water: picking landing sites for NASA’s Mars rovers
by Henry Bortman Monday, April 7, 2003
[Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared as a pair of articles published last month by Astrobiology Magazine, and is reprinted here with the kind permission of Astrobiology Magazine.]
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Illustration of a Mars Exploration Rover on the surface of Mars. (credit: NASA/JPL)
“Follow the water” is the mantra for NASA’s Mars exploration program. But present-day Mars is so cold, and its atmosphere so thin, that liquid water cannot exist on the planet’s surface. What NASA can look for, though, is evidence that water was present and active on Mars in the distant past. There are strong indications, in images taken by cameras aboard orbiting spacecraft, that features of the Martian landscape have been carved by water. But some scientists argue that these features could have been caused by short-lived torrents of water—flash floods.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/14/1
10/IV 2003 [15-16]
15) John Young’s shuttle secret
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 14, 2003
The commander of STS-1 reveals a little-known incident with present-day implications
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John Young speaking at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC on April 11. (credit: J. Foust)
Most of the people in attendance at the National Air and Space Museum last Friday night for a talk by John Young—paying $15-20 a ticket for the privilege—were already quite familiar with the astronaut’s exploits from Gemini through Apollo to the shuttle program. Yet Young managed to surprise most if not all of them by offhandedly discussing an incident with the first shuttle mission that has connections with the current Columbia accident investigation.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/15/1
16) Suborbital’s ascending trajectory
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 14, 2003
Once dismissed as a dead end, reusable suborbital spacecraft are finally getting respect
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An illustration of TGV Rockets' Michelle-B suborbital vehicle being prepared for launch at a remote mobile site. (credit: TGV Rockets)
It’s one thing for entrepreneurs and space activists to tout the benefits of a particular mode of commercial space transportation. When outside experts and the occasional bureaucrat express support for the idea, its credibility grows. However, you know the idea is finally gaining wide acceptance when a leading elected official, speaking on the record, endorses the concept. Commercial suborbital spaceflight achieved that milestone earlier this year.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/16/1
11/IV 2003 [17]
17) Photo Gallery: SpaceShipOne Rollout
SpaceShipOne suborbital spacecraft on April 18, 2003
https://www.thespacereview.com/gallery/1
Rutan aims for space: A look at SpaceShipOne
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 21, 2003
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SpaceShipOne mounted under the fuselage of the White Knight aircraft. (credit: J. Foust)
There is little in Mojave, California, to recommend to the casual tourist. A town of less than 5,000 people in the windswept high desert 150 kilometers north of Los Angeles, near the foothills of the Tehachapi Mountains, Mojave appears at first glance to be little more than a string of gas stations, fast food restaurants, and motels lining Routes 14 and 58. Yet, in aerospace circles, Mojave is well-known, in part because its airport is home to many dozens of commercial jetliners placed into long-term storage. It’s also the home of Burt Rutan and his company, Scaled Composites, which have developed a number of innovative aircraft from the globe-circling Voyager to the high-altitude Proteus.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/17/1
12/IV 2003 [18]
18) RLV regulation: licensing vs. certification
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 28, 2003
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SpaceShipOne, unveiled earlier this month, will not be flown commercially because of perceived high regulatory costs. (credit: J. Foust)
When Burt Rutan rolled out the SpaceShipOne suborbital spacecraft earlier this month (see “Rutan aims for space: A look at SpaceShipOne”, April 21, 2003), one of the biggest surprises had nothing to do with the vehicle’s unique design or flight profile. Instead, despite the fact that the vehicle seemed ideal to win the X Prize and usher in the era of suborbital space tourism, Rutan made it clear there were no plans to put the vehicle into commercial service. SpaceShipOne would fly under an “experimental research and development glider” license on a series of flights to determine what the operating costs of the vehicle would be.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/18/1
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13/V 2003 [19]
19) Orbital Space Plane: Back to Apollo?
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 5, 2003
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Illustration of an Apollo spacecraft approaching the docking adaptor used for ASTP. Will a direct descendant of Apollo perform similar docking with the International Space Station? (credit: NASA)
When NASA first announced plans to develop the Orbital Space Plane (OSP) last year, most people assumed it would be exactly that: a winged, reusable vehicle—in essence a mini-shuttle—that could serve as both a crew return vehicle (CRV) and crew transfer vehicle (CTV) for the International Space Station. Many of the vehicle designs presented to the public by companies like Boeing and Orbital Sciences Corporation in recent months have indeed been either winged or lifting body vehicles, direct descendants of recent experimental designs like the X-37 or older concepts like the HL-20 and X-24.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/19/1
14/V 2003 [20]
20) The fifth stage of the RLV grieving process
by Jeff Foust Tuesday, May 13, 2003
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/20a.jpg)
Vehicles like the Roton (above) were designed to serve a launch market that since dried up. (credit: XCOR Aerospace)
Nearly 35 years ago Swiss-American psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross wrote On Death and Dying, a book that reshaped how society viewed death and the reactions to it. The book is perhaps best known for its elucidation of the five stages of grief people go through after the death of a friend or loved one. After an initial stage of denial, a person reacts with anger to the loss, then attempts to bargain with God or nature to reverse the loss. This is followed by depression, after which the person finally comes to terms with the loss and presses on.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/20/1
15/V 2003 [21-22]
21) Dave Weldon speaks about space policy
by Dave Weldon Tuesday, May 20, 2003
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Congressman Dave Weldon speaks with the media earlier this year. (credit: Office of Congressman Weldon)
[Editor’s Note: It is rare to get a member of Congress to devote more than a few sound bite-worthy words about space policy. One exception is Congressman Dave Weldon, a Florida Republican whose district includes Cape Canaveral. Weldon spoke last month on a variety of civil, commercial, and military space issues at the 40th Space Congress at Cape Canaveral. An excerpt of his speech is provided below; a complete copy is available on Congressman Weldon’s web site.]
I want to say how impressed I have been with the level of professionalism and dedication everyone at NASA and the contractor community has exhibited since February 1. I am anxious to review the Gehman Report when it is released later this summer. The Congress stands ready to work with NASA to get the Shuttles flying again and to complete ISS.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/21/1
22) The young rocketeer’s guide to range safety
by Jeff Foust Tuesday, May 20, 2003
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A student-built model rocket lifts off during the Team America Rocketry Challenge on May 10. (credit: J. Foust)
The launch started like any other that day. The public address announcer intoned the final seconds of the countdown: “Five, four, three, two, one, ignition!” There was silence for a few seconds, just long enough to make those of us standing nearby wonder if something had gone wrong. Just as those thoughts surfaced, though, the tail of the rocket belched smoke and flame, and an instant later we heard a distinctive whoosh as the rocket soared off the pad.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/22/1
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16/VI 2003 [23]
23) Why is Mars so hard?
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 2, 2003
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NASA’s twin Mars Exploration Rovers are two of the most complex science spacecraft ever developed. (credit: NASA)
This June will see the beginning of the most ambitious exploration of the Red Planet in a quarter-century. If all goes well, three launch vehicles—one Soyuz and two Delta—will lift off this month, placing four spacecraft on trajectories that will bring them to Mars by this December and January. Those spacecraft include the first European Mars orbiter, Mars Express; Beagle 2, the British lander built with a mix of public and private funding; and NASA’s twin Mars Exploration Rovers, perhaps the most advanced Mars spacecraft even built. They will be joined at Mars by Nozomi, a Japanese-built Mars mission launched in 1998 and forced to take the long road to Mars because of thruster problems.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/23/1
17/VI 2003 [24-25]
24) Is NASA’s brain drain a myth?
by A.J. Mackenzie Monday, June 9, 2003
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Congressman Sherwood Boehlert (above) has introduced legislation to help NASA solve what some perceive to be serious problems the agency has hiring and retaining scientists and engineers. (credit: J. Foust)
“One of the greatest problems NASA faces is a huge retirement bulge. Within five years, a quarter of the NASA workforce will be eligible to retire.”
—Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, chairman, House Science Committee, March 6, 2003 (https://www.house.gov/science/press/108/108-030.htm)
For years NASA and its friends in Congress and elsewhere have been beating the drums about problems with the agency’s workforce. Indeed, it’s accepted as a given now that the agency’s technical staff is getting old. If one believes the dire predictions of some, a torrent of workers will soon escape from their cubicles for retirement homes in Florida and Arizona, depriving the agency of its best and brightest at its most critical time.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/24/1
25) The phony space race
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 9, 2003
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An illustration of China’s Shenzhou spacecraft in orbit. (credit: CAST)
If all goes as expected, some time late this year—perhaps November—a Long March 2F booster will lift off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China. Atop this booster will be a Shenzhou spacecraft, similar in design to four previous Shenzhou spacecraft launched between 1999 and 2002. This Shenzhou, though, will be carrying a different payload than the previous four: one or more humans, who are expected to spend anywhere from a day to a week in orbit before returning to Earth. This flight will make China only the third nation, after the United States and the former Soviet Union, to send humans into space.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/25/1
18/VI 2003 [26-27]
26) Review: do we need another book about Apollo?
Monday, June 16, 2003
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Apollo: The Epic Journey to the Moon
By David West Reynolds
Harcourt, 2002
Hardcover, 272 pp.
ISBN: 0151009643
US$35
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0151009643/spaceviews
The Apollo program is easily the most chronicled project in the short history of human spaceflight. Published works about Apollo range from chintzy coffee-table books to comprehensive, elegant tomes like Andrew Chaikin’s A Man on the Moon to astronaut autobiographies. These books have provided all types of perspectives on this program, from technology to policy to its lasting effect on those who traveled to the Moon. Apollo has been covered from almost every angle.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/26/1
27) Watching the CAIB at work
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 16, 2003
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/27a.jpg)
A sparse crowd attends the June 12 CAIB public hearing in Washington. (credit: J. Foust)
Like most people, I have been following the Columbia investigation from a distance, relying on media reports as well as the occasional televised or webcast public hearing and press conference as the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) carried out its work in Houston and Cape Canaveral. However, with the investigation phase of the board’s work winding down, the CAIB has shifted operations from Houston to the Washington DC area as it prepares to complete its report, still scheduled for release in late July.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/27/1
19/VI 2003 [28]
28) The coming space race with China
by Mark R. Whittington Monday, June 23, 2003
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/28a.jpg)
An illustration of China’s Shenzhou spacecraft in orbit. (credit: CAST)
This fall, barring any last minute hitch, China will launch its Shenzhou spacecraft with people inside, thus joining the very exclusive club of nations that have sent humans into space. Chinese government officials have openly spoken of breathtaking ambitions for their country’s nascent space effort. Beyond putting people into low Earth orbit, Chinese officials speak openly of first exploring, then settling the Moon in order to exploit its natural resources.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/28/1
20/VI 2003 [29-30]
29) Review: seeking the ultimate space commercialization guide
Monday, June 30, 2003
Two books take different approaches, but fall short
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/29a.jpg)
Space: The Free-Market Frontier
By Edward L. Hudgins (editor)
Cato Institute, 2002
Softcover, 260pp.
ISBN 1-930865-19-8
US$15
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1930865198/spaceviews
Made In Space: Space Investor’s Guide To The Next Revolution
By Kenneth Schweitzer
1stBooks, 2003
Softcover, 248pp.
ISBN 1-4107-1245-1
US$19.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1410712451/spaceviews
For years space entrepreneurs and enthusiasts alike have been seeking what could be called the “ultimate space commercialization guide”: a description of the benefits and opportunities of commercial space ventures that is so clear and compelling that it convinces investors, regulators, and the media. Writing such a guide, it turns out, has proven as difficult as developing viable commercial space ventures—an obvious conclusion given the current moribund state of many sectors of the industry. This, though, hasn’t stopped people from trying to write such a book, by people both unknown and overexposed. Two recent books approach the problem from opposite directions, but while making valiant attempts to describe the potential of space commercialization, come up short of the mark.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/29/1
30) The promise of amateur suborbital spaceflight
Homebuilt spacecraft could soon take to the skies
by Andrew Case Monday, June 30, 2003
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/30a.jpg)
Illustration of SpaceCub, a proposed homebuilt suborbital spacecraft. (credit: D. Burkhead)
As we approach the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ flight at Kitty Hawk, many people are looking at the early history of aviation as a model for the development of spaceflight. One often-mentioned fact about is that within ten years of the Wright Brothers’ flight hundreds of airplanes had been built and thousands of people had flown. It’s not often noted, though, that many of those airplanes were built by private individuals or groups of private individuals who were seeking nothing more (or less) than the thrill of flight and the challenge of an ambitious project. Companies were springing up all over the landscape, but alongside these companies were clubs dedicated to designing and building airplanes for purely personal use. This observation suggests that we could perhaps see the development of spacecraft built by hobbyists and clubs alongside commercial spacecraft.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/30/1
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21/VII 2003 [31-32]
31) Review: the aftermath of the Space Age
Monday, July 7, 2003
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/31a.jpg)
Rocket Dreams: How the Space Age Shaped Our Vision of a World Beyond
By Marina Benjamin
Free Press, 2003
Hardcover, 242 pp.
ISBN 0-7432-3343-3
US$24/C$38
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0743233433/spaceviews
Countless volumes have been written about the history of the Space Race: the competition between the United States and the Soviet Union to achieve any number of firsts in space, from Sputnik to Apollo 11. Many other books have focused on what has happened in space since then, from the space shuttle to the unmanned exploration of the solar system. Far fewer books, though, have explored the sociological effects of the fast start, and sharp post-Apollo decline, of the Space Age. Marina Benjamin provides such an examination in Rocket Dreams, offering a wide-ranging look at what happened to humanity’s dreams of exploring and settling the space frontier.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/31/1
32) Space science gets big at NASA
The future of NASA’s planetary exploration plans may rest on larger missions and nuclear technologies
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 7, 2003
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/32a.jpg)
Artist’s rendition of the nuclear-powered Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter, a flagship mission of Project Prometheus planned for next decade. (credit: NASA/JPL)
For most of the 1990s—at least from 1992, when Dan Goldin became administrator—the guiding phrase for NASA’s space science programs was the now-famous “faster, better, cheaper.” After a disastrous drought of missions in the 1980s, when NASA focused its energies, and its limited funding, on a few large missions like Magellan and Galileo, the agency changed course and began to support a larger number of smaller missions. The 1990s brought us the Discovery program of planetary science missions, like NEAR and Mars Pathfinder; the Small and Medium-class Explorer programs, including IMAGE and FUSE; and the New Millennium program of technology-demonstration missions, most notably Deep Space One. The Nineties were not without large missions—Cassini was launched in 1997—but that mission dated back to the 1980s, and looked out of place among the fleets of smaller missions.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/32/1
22/VII 2003 [33-34]
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How has traffic been managed in the sky, on waterways, and on the road? Comparisons for space situational awareness (part 1)
by Stephen Garber and Marissa Herron Monday, June 8, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/2663a.jpg)
The growth of both debris in Earth orbit from collisions and explosions as well as active satellites is raising awareness about the need for revised approaches to space traffic management. (credit: ESA)
Disclaimer: the views expressed in this article are solely those of the authors, not of NASA or of the Federal Government.
Most casual observers likely would agree that as the complex space operating environment becomes more crowded with more operating satellites and debris, the topics of space situational awareness (SSA) and space traffic management (STM) deserve more concerted attention. While we’ve had over 60 years of satellites in the large expanse of near-Earth space with only a handful of collisions, this likely will change as space becomes more crowded. To understand what kind of overall STM framework might be both useful and practical, we will examine some of the complexities of current SSA operations. For historical points of comparison, we then will look at literal and figurative “rules of the road” paradigms for traveling on land, sea, and in the air. Curiously, norms and procedures for managing the flights of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), aka “drones”, are evolving faster than those for STM, even though modern drones have flown effectively for fewer years than spacecraft. Some aeronautics researchers have looked at UAS traffic management (UTM) as a possible model for STM.[1] By assessing similarities and differences among how traffic is managed on roads, waterways, and in the air for diverse groups of drivers/pilots, we hope to stimulate careful thought on how inherently global space operations might best be managed in this rapidly evolving era of international capabilities in space, technological change, and commercialization. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3961/1
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Imagining safety zones: Implications and open questions
by Jessy Kate Schingler Monday, June 8, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3962a.jpg)
The scarcity of lunar resources like volatiles illustrates the need to deconflict activities on the Moon in a way that is acceptable by all participants. (credit: NASA)
In May, NASA announced its intent to “establish a common set of principles to govern the civil exploration and use of outer space” referred to as the Artemis Accords.[1,2] The Accords were released initially as draft principles, to be developed and implemented through a series of bilateral agreements with international partners. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3962/1
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Review: Chasing the Dream
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 15, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3963a.jpg)
Chasing the Dream
by Dana Andrews
Classic Day Publishing, 2020
paperback, 350 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-59849-281-1
US$28.95
https://www.retiredrocketdoc.com/shop
The history of spaceflight is littered with concepts that never, literally or figuratively, got off the ground. The recent NASA book After LM described dozens of designs for lunar landers proposed after the Apollo program, up through the cancellation of the Constellation program a decade ago, none of which got even to the hardware production phase of development (see “Review: After LM (https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3958/1)”, The Space Review, June 8, 2020). The same is true, of course, for many other proposed launch vehicles and spacecraft. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3963/1
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How has traffic been managed in the sky, on waterways, and on the road? Comparisons for space situational awareness (part 2)
by Stephen Garber and Marissa Herron Monday, June 15, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/2663a.jpg)
The growth of both debris in Earth orbit from collisions and explosions as well as active satellites is raising awareness about the need for revised approaches to space traffic management. (credit: ESA)
Disclaimer: the views expressed in this article are solely those of the authors, not of NASA or of the Federal Government.
Other traditional “rules of the road”
Taking a step back from the complexities of STM and looking at how traffic historically has been managed in other domains may provide some useful insights. One issue that cuts across land, air, and sea is vehicle worthiness. That is, cars, planes, and boats all need to be registered to ensure their safety, and this may be analogous to the satellite licensing process. Cars go through safety inspections to ensure road worthiness and minimum pollution standards, as well as to ensure we have functioning headlights to see and be seen at night, avoiding collisions. Just as cars, planes, and boats should be visible unless bad weather precludes this, so too should satellites be trackable. The technology for each domain is different, but the goal for all these vehicles is to be identifiable to foster communication and coordination of intended maneuvers. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3964/1
Part 1 https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3961/1
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Hugging Hubble longer
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 15, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3965a.jpg)
The Hubble Space Telescope seen by the last servicing mission, STS-125 in 2009. (credit: NASA)
The future of space-based astronomy is delayed. Again.
Last week, Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA associate administrator, confirmed the inevitable: the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) won’t launch next March, as had been the schedule for the last two years. This time, a slowdown in work on the telescope that started this past March because of the pandemic will delay a launch, something that appeared increasingly obvious given the limited work that could be done and the available schedule reserves. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3965/1
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1/I 2020 [1-5]
1) Review: Dear Neil Armstrong
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 6, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3857a.jpg)
Dear Neil Armstrong: Letters to the First Man from All Mankind
by James R. Hansen
Purdue Univ. Press, 2019
hardcover, 400 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-55753-874-1
US$34.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1557538743/spaceviews
Neil Armstrong gained a reputation in his post-Apollo career of being a recluse. This was not accurate—he was quite active from the end of his time at NASA until his death in 2012—but he was a private person, carefully choosing what he did. Of course, that didn’t stop Armstrong from being flooded with letters over the years, from wellwishers seeking nothing more than an autograph to those offering business and political opportunities.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3857/1
2) Chicken or the egg: space launch and state spaceports
by Roger Handberg Monday, January 6, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3777a.jpg)
Spaceport America is just one of many spaceport projects, of varying stages of development, seeking to get into the launch market in the United States. (credit: J. Foust)
A recent article in The Space Review presents a nice summary of where US state spaceports stand at this point in history (see “How many spaceports are too many?”, The Space Review, December 9, 2019). The concern is that there are too many, meaning that many proposed and actual state spaceports may fail, remaining as white elephants symbolizing the cyclical nature of the space marketplace. The Space Foundation also reported that “around the world, there are 40 active spaceports, 10 in development and at least 13 proposed. The U.S. has five times as many spaceports active, in development, or proposed compared to its nearest competitor, Russia, which currently has five active spaceports and no new known ones in development. China is third with four active spaceports.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3858/1
3) It’s all a matter of timing
by Wayne Eleazer Monday, January 6, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3859a.jpg)
The Boeing CST-100 Starliner after landing in New Mexico, its test flight cut short by a timer problem. (credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
The timing problem that caused the partial failure of the Boeing Starliner’s first mission represents yet another space launch when bad timing—or at least bad synchronization of timing—occurred.
On the first SM-75 Thor IRBM to be launched operationally at Vandenberg Air Force Base, someone forgot to cut the wire that secured the 35mm tape that served to provide electromechanical timing for the flight. As far as the booster was concerned, the plus count never got past T-0. The booster never entered its pitch and roll programs and climbed straight up until the Range Safety Officer at Vandenberg decided he’d better send the destruct signal.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3859/1
4) Strange bedfellows
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, January 6, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3860a.jpg)
The Mapping and Survey System being attached to an Apollo Applications Program “wet workshop” in Earth orbit. This NASA artist illustration from early 1967 demonstrates that MSS was depicted in NASA artwork at the time. Yet reporters never asked many questions about what MSS really was or where it came from. (credit: courtesy David Portree)
In the 1960s, NASA was a big, well-funded government agency with a high profile. In contrast, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) was significantly smaller and it did not officially exist. It was a covert agency, hiding in the shadows, not publicly acknowledged until 1992. Despite this, the two organizations cooperated on several projects throughout the decade. The most important was undoubtedly the UPWARD program.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3860/1
5) The challenges facing Artemis in 2020
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 6, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3861a.jpg)
One near-term challenge for NASA is how to handle development of human-rated lunar landers given the shortfall in funding for the program in 2020. (credit: NASA)
When 2019 started, NASA was going back to the Moon, gradually. The agency had set an internal goal of getting astronauts back onto the surface of the Moon by 2028, after developing the lunar Gateway in orbit around the Moon that would serve as a base camp for such missions, and for other purposes. That all changed in March, though, when Vice President Mike Pence directed NASA to get back to the Moon in the next five years, a timeline later interpreted to be the end of 2024 (see “Lunar whiplash”, The Space Review, April 1, 2019).
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3861/1
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2/I 2020 [6-9]
6) Why improved registration is essential for public and private activities on the Moon
by Dennis O’Brien Monday, January 13, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/2795a.jpg)
As both public and private lunar ambitions increase, there’s a growing need to update agreements about the registration of such missions. (credit: Anna Nesterova/Alliance for Space Development)
At its recent workshop and symposium in Japan, the Moon Village Association (MVA) presented a white paper that asserted that the current Convention On Registration Of Objects Launched Into Outer Space (aka the Registration Convention) is inadequate to support a sustainable human presence on the Moon. After analyzing relevant space treaties and proposed norms, the paper concluded that the Registration Convention should be expanded to include additional topics that have become important since its adoption, but that other institutions or processes might also be needed in order to share information about topics that would not easily fit into the Registration Treaty’s scope or processes.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3862/1
7) China’s space dream on track
by Namrata Goswami Monday, January 13, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3863a.jpg)
The Long March 5 lifts off December 27 on its return-to-flight mission. The vehicle is a key element of much of China’s space plans, including missions to the Moon. (credit: Xinhua)
Last January 3, China dazzled the world with the landing of the Chang’e-4 spacecraft on the far side of the Moon, accomplishing a first for humanity. On December 14, its Yutu-2 rover set the record for longest active rover on the Moon, breaking the record of the erstwhile Soviet Union’s Lunokhod-1 that was active for ten and a half months (November 15, 1970 to October 4, 1971). Yutu-2 has travelled about 345 meters on the lunar surface and is entering its 13th lunar day.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3863/1
8 ) You can’t take the sky from me
by Arwen Rimmer Monday, January 13, 2020
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A stream of Starlink satellites passes overhead during an exposure at the Cerro Tololo International Observatory in Chile in November, shortly after the launch of a second set of 60 satellites. (credit: Clarae Martínez-Vázquez )
Despite the very earnest, practical, and well-informed advice of international space governance experts, outer space is becoming the new Wild West. Astronomers will merely be the first to pay the price, as profit-seeking entities thoughtlessly overpopulate the heavens, countries jockey for position in an orbital arms race, and the Kessler Syndrome becomes a mathematical inevitability. Without strict, universally adhered-to standards for orbital activities, humanity will soon find itself locked in a hothouse with no windows.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3864/1
9) Balancing astronomical visions with budgetary realities
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 13, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3865a.jpg)
The James Webb Space Telescope with its sunshield deployed during a test last fall at a Northrop Grumman facility in California. (credit: NASA/Chris Gunn)
In an alternate timeline, last week’s meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) would have been filled with presentations involving data from the James Webb Space Telescope. In that timeline, JWST would have launched in October 2018 and completed its six-month commissioning phase in the spring of 2019—time for astronomers to start using the telescope and presenting the results, from observations of the solar system to distant galaxies, at one of the biggest astronomy conferences of the year.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3865/1
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3/I 2020 [10-13]
10) Review: Final Frontier: India and Space Security
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 20, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3866a.jpg)
Final Frontier: India and Space Security
by Bharath Gopalaswamy
Westland, 2019
paperback, 274 pp.
ISBN 978-93-89152-24-1
US$12.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/9389152240/spaceviews
On New Year’s Day, K. Sivan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), held a press conference to talk about his agency’s achievements from the past year and plans for the future. That included, of course, discussion about the Chandrayaan-2 mission and its failed lunar lander, and plans to fly a Chandrayaan-3 mission, likely in early 2021, to make a second lunar landing attempt. He also mentioned the selection of the country’s first astronauts, who will soon begin training for a flight in late 2021.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3866/1
11) All these moments will be lost…
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, January 20, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3867a.jpg)
For some people, STS-107 is just history, but for others, that history is deeply personal. (credit: NASA)
On February 1, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia came apart in the skies over Texas, killing all seven crewmembers aboard. Several months later I found myself sitting against the wall of a conference room in Houston, awaiting a briefing about what could have been done to save them. As a civilian investigator for the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB), I had much greater access to many of the board activities and deliberations than most of the other investigators, many of whom were military officers who had been assigned to the investigation when their leaders—some of them generals and admirals—had become board members. Generally, they didn’t attend many meetings unless told to, whereas I went where I needed to go to gather information necessary for my work supporting board member John Logsdon, or writing the sections of the report I was assigned.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3867/1
12) A national treasure turns 90
by Eric R. Hedman Monday, January 20, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3868a.jpg)
Buzz Aldrin speaks at the International Astronautical Congress in Washington in October 2019. (credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky)
Today, January 20, 2020, is Buzz Aldrin’s 90th birthday. It is a milestone birthday for someone who accomplished one of the biggest milestones in human history when he and Neil Armstrong landed on the Moon. I won’t recap his many accomplishments because so many others have done it better, and in more detail, than I could do. What I want to do is say thank you to Buzz Aldrin for what an inspiration he was for me as a little kid growing up fascinated by spaceflight.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3868/1
13) Panchromatic astronomy on a budget
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 20, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3869a.jpg)
NASA will decommission the Spitzer Space Telescope, launched in 2003 as the last of the original four Great Observatories, on January 30. (credit: NASA)
The annual January conference of the American Astronomical Society (AAS), held this year in Honolulu, included many presentations about exoplanets, including new discoveries. One of those discoveries, the subject of a press briefing, was about an Earth-sized exoplanet in a star’s habitable zone discovered by scientists using the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), launched nearly two years ago. The planet, TOI 700 d, is one of three found to orbit an M dwarf star about 100 light-years from Earth.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3869/1
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4/I 2020 [14-17]
14) Review: Leadership from the Mission Control Room to the Boardroom
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 27, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3870a.jpg)
Leadership from the Mission Control Room to the Boardroom: A Guide to Unleashing Team Performance
By Paul Sean Hill
Atlast Press, 2017
paperback, 360 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-9986343-1-9
US$16.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/099863431X/spaceviews
Few groups appear as competent as those who work in Mission Control at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. The controllers there are responsible for operating the International Space Station and other spacecraft in its vicinity, ensuring the safety of those on board and the success of their activities. They’ve demonstrated their technical expertise and leadership over the decades, built on Gene Kranz’s admonition to controllers to be “tough and competent” in the aftermath of the Apollo 1 accident 53 years ago.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3870/1
15) Forty years of revolution, ten years of spaceflight
by Henk H.F. Smid Monday, January 27, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3871a.jpg)
Simorgh, an Iranian space launch vehicle with roots in ballistic missile programs. (credit: MelliunIran)
Last year, the Islamic Republic of Iran commemorated the 40th anniversary of the Iranian revolution that transformed the state into a theocracy, admittedly with a parliament, but where the clergy are ultimately in charge. The country also celebrated last year the 10th anniversary of the launch, with its own resources, of an indigenous, working satellite. Yet, there is currently little to celebrate. Due to economic sanctions, which have resulted in devastating inflation, Iran is on the verge of an economic abyss. The sanctions are the result of the reactions of the United Nations and the United States to Iran’s nuclear and armament policy. This article describes how Iranian spaceflight effort is entangled with this policy.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3871/1
16) Assessing China’s commercial space industry
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 27, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3607a.jpg)
LandSpace is among the more than 20 Chinese commercial space companies pursuing launch vehicles, primarily small launchers. (credit: LandSpace)
One of the more remarkable developments in the space industry in the last decade—arguably just in the last several years—has been the rise of a vibrant, well-funded startup economy. A report issued earlier this month by Space Angels estimated that space companies received $5.8 billion in 2019 in 198 separate rounds. While that dollar figure is dominated by a few large companies, like Blue Origin, OneWeb, and SpaceX, the report concludes $686 million went towards early-stage companies, accounting for about three-fourths of the total investment rounds. Since 2009, Space Angels estimates $25.7 billion has been invested in 535 space companies.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3872/1
17) Target Moscow: Soviet suspicions about the military uses of the American Space Shuttle (part 1)
by Bart Hendrickx and Dwayne A. Day Monday, January 27, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3873a.jpg)
The Soviets took seriously the prospect of a shuttle, launched from Vandenberg, maneuvering to drop a nuclear weapon on Moscow. (credit: USAF/Walt Weible)
The Cold War was often a shadow war, with events and decisions taking place in secret and based upon inaccurate or ambiguous information. The end of that struggle several decades ago has resulted in many fascinating revelations about what actually occurred, sometimes dramatically changing our perception of events, like the revelation about the presence of deployed nuclear weapons in Cuba during the Missile Crisis. Space history has benefitted from the end of the Cold War: thirty years ago, we knew almost nothing about the Soviet program to land cosmonauts on the Moon, but today we know vastly more.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3873/1
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5/II 2020 [18-21]
18) Review: The Contact Paradox
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 3, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3874a.jpg)
The Contact Paradox: Challenging our Assumptions in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
by Keith Cooper
Bloomsbury Sigma, 2020
hardcover, 336 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-4729-6042-9
US$28.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1472960424/spaceviews
While most of the discussion about the House’s new NASA authorization bill revolved around its language regarding the agency’s human spaceflight plans (see “New challenges for NASA’s Moon 2024 goal”, The Space Review, this issue), there was another interesting provision included in the bill. Section 323, titled “Research on Technosignatures,” notes that “research related to the search for life has encompassed nongovernment funded research on and searches for intelligent life.” It therefore allows NASA to, “support, as appropriate, peer-reviewed, competitively-selected research on technosignatures,” defined as evidence of advanced technologies of extraterrestrial origin.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3874/1
19) Suborbital refueling: a path not taken
by Francis Castanos Monday, February 3, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3875a.jpg)
The US Navy has used buddy-buddy refueling for at least 60 years, all the way from Skyhawks to Super Hornets. Suborbital refueling would be very similar, at least in some scenarios involving vehicles and their propellants.
The following paper considers a groundbreaking launch system involving the use of in-flight oxidizer transfer during suborbital flight. It stems from the discovery many years ago of a terra incognita in the land of RLVs, a small breach in the tyranny of the rocket equation that grew larger and larger.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3875/1
20) Target Moscow (part 2): The American Space Shuttle and the decision to build the Soviet Buran
by Bart Hendrickx and Dwayne A. Day Monday, February 3, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3876a.jpg)
How did a report claiming to show that the American shuttle could be used as a bomber influence the development of its Soviet counterpart, Buran?
The old axiom that when all you have is a hammer, every job looks like a nail, also applies to interpreting the actions of adversaries. The authors of an infamous 1976 assessment of the American Space Shuttle program, Dmitry Okhotsimsky and Yuri Sikharulidze, were mathematicians, not intelligence analysts. (See: “Target Moscow: Soviet suspicions about the military uses of the American Space Shuttle (part 1),” The Space Review, January 27, 2020). They began with an assumption that the United States was hostile toward the Soviet Union and this clouded their assessment of the American shuttle program. What may have started them on their quest was a bizarre mystery: the Americans had justified their shuttle by claiming that it could save money for launching satellites into space, but Soviet researchers believed that was impossible and the shuttle would be more expensive. The cost justification, they determined, had to be a lie. What they did not realize was that the lie was not intended for the Soviet Union. Instead, the Americans were lying to themselves.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3876/1
21) New challenges for NASA’s Moon 2024 goal
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 3, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3708a.jpg)
A House bill would push back the “deadline” for returning humans to the Moon to 2028, although the bill’s backers say it does not prevent NASA from getting there as soon as the current plan of 2024. (credit: NASA)
A week from today, the White House will release its fiscal year 2021 budget proposal. For NASA, that will include not just what the agency is seeking in 2021 to carry out its various programs, but also projections for future years—“outyears” in budget jargon—from 2022 to 2025. That will, for the first time, offer an estimate of how much NASA thinks it will cost to carry out the Artemis program through its return of humans to the lunar surface in 2024, a figure long sought by Congress and others in the space field. That estimate could provide new realism for Artemis, or make it the subject of renewed criticism, depending on the cost and how the administration seeks to pay for it.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3877/1
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6/II 2020 [22-25]
22) Review: Rise of the Space Age Millennials
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 10, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3878a.jpg)
Rise of the Space Age Millennials: The Space Aspirations of a Rising Generation
by Laura Forczyk
Astralytical, 2020
paperback, 234 pp.
ISBN 978-1-7344622-0-3
US$17.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1734462205/spaceviews
There does, at times, seem to be something of a generational war going on between Millennials and Baby Boomers. Millennials are often stereotyped by that older generation as being self-centered and spendthrift, “killing” all sorts of industries, products, and services along the way. Boomers, in turn, are seen as out of touch with the changing ways of the world and lecturing their younger cohorts, prompting a millennial rejoinder of “OK, boomer” heard around the world, including in the chamber of New Zealand’s parliament late last year.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3878/1
23) The US Space Force and international law considerations
by Bharatt Goel Monday, February 10, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3879a.jpg)
President Trump signed into law the fiscal year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act in December, which formally established the US Space Force. (credit: US Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Spencer Slocum)
President Trump’s signing of the Fiscal Year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act has put into action the United States’ ambitions of an independent Space Force, ushering its military ascendancy in the outer space and attaching a new facet to its hard power. The US Space Force will formally be the sixth military service branch, absorbing its predecessor, the Air Force Space Command.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3879/1
24) Alternative financing for lunar mining exploration
by Blake Ahadi Monday, February 10, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/2795a.jpg)
The costs and risks associated with lunar mining may require the use of alternative funding mechanisms. (credit: Anna Nesterova/Alliance for Space Development)
The space industry is in the midst of a widespread transformation, as the last decade has seen several young, private companies seek to profit in areas historically dominated by governmental interests. Among these areas is lunar mining, which represents a crucial step for the development of the space economy by enabling the utilization of lunar resources. Though significant opportunities exist for wealth creation and societal benefits, it will require sustained multibillion-dollar investment to develop a vibrant lunar mining industry.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3880/1
25) Starliner software setback
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 10, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3881a.jpg)
Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner after landing on its uncrewed Orbital Flight Test in December. Boeing engineers scrambled during the mission to correct a software problem that a safety panel warned could have led to a “catastrophic spacecraft failure” as it prepared to return to Earth. (credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
The quarterly teleconferences of NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, or ASAP, are enlightening, but rarely exciting. ASAP is an independent committee charged with examining the safety of NASA programs and facilities with a broad mandate, from the International Space Station and crewed spacecraft to the long-term health risks of human spaceflight to terrestrial facilities. The public meetings offer insights into safety issues they see in NASA programs and how the agency is addressing them, but with few surprises.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3881/1
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7/II 2020 [26-29]
26) Review: Fighting for Space
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 17, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3882a.jpg)
Fighting for Space: Two Pilots and Their Historic Battle for Female Spaceflight
by Amy Shira Teitel
Grand Central Publishing, 2020
hardcover, 448 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-5387-1604-5
US$30.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1538716046/spaceviews
By now, most people interested in space have heard of what’s most commonly called the “Mercury 13”: the group of women pilots who underwent medical assessments that demonstrated that they were just as physically capable of spaceflight as the men NASA selected as its first astronauts. None, though, would get to fly in space as NASA argued that it needed the extensive military test pilot experience that those men, and only those men, provided in its race to the Moon.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3882/1
27) Democratizing space exploration with new technologies
by Dylan Taylor Monday, February 17, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/2816a.jpg)
Cubesats are one example of technologies that are democratizing space, expanding access to it to more than just governments and large companies. (credit: NASA)
Emergent technologies have made our world more efficient, engaging, and accessible. We’ve witnessed how innovations like artificial intelligence (AI) have transformed from largely an insider trend of the leading edge of the tech industry into more commercially viable devices, such as Amazon Echo, Siri, and on-demand machine learning from AWS. There tools have democratized the way we interact with the world.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3883/1
28) Why the International Lunar Decade still makes sense
by Vidvuds Beldavs, Bernard Foing, Jim Crisafulli, and Henk Rogers Monday, February 17, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3713c.jpg)
As companies like Blue Origin make plans for a return to the Moon, it opens up new opportunities for public-private partnerships that could be harnessed through an international framework. (credit: Blue Origin)
In his recent commentary “For the United States, a second race to the moon is a second-rate goal,” Louis Friedman strongly rejects US leadership in human lunar missions that depend on commercial involvement. He states:
…the House Science Committee is pushing a policy more directed to Mars and away from commercial participation. That is sensible if you believe that the purpose of human spaceflight is exploration and that its rationale is geopolitical. That has been true for all of the Space Age, and I believe it will remain so.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3884/1
29) Will we hit the snooze button on an orbital debris wakeup call?
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 17, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3885a.jpg)
The Infrared Astronomical Satellite (above) passed within meters of another defunct satellite January 29, offering another example of the potential hazards of orbital debris. (credit: NASA)
On the evening of January 29, about 900 kilometers above Pittsburgh, two satellites approached each other at a relative velocity of nearly 15 kilometers per second. And there was nothing anyone could do about it but watch.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3885/1
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8/II 2020 [30-33]
30) Review: Handprints on Hubble
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 24, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3886a.jpg)
Handprints on Hubble: An Astronaut’s Story of Invention
by Kathryn D. Sullivan
MIT Press, 2019
hardcover, 304 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-262-04318-2
US$26.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0262043181/spaceviews
Two months from today—April 24—will be the 30th anniversary of the launch of shuttle mission STS-31, which deployed the Hubble Space Telescope. The upcoming celebrations of the telescope’s 30 years in space will focus on its scientific legacy, from the discovery of dark energy that won astronomers a Nobel Prize to studies of exoplanets and objects in our own solar system. They will also reflect on the changed public perception of Hubble, from an object of ridicule when its optical flaw was revealed shortly after launch to one of the most famous, and most loved, missions today.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3886/1
31) Passive space debris removal using drag sail deorbiting technology
by Rebecca Hill Monday, February 24, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3887a.jpg)
An engineering unit of the Spinnaker 1 drag sail, which uses a transparent material called CP-1 for the sails. (credit: David Spencer)
There are currently about 22,000 tracked objects in LEO, some of which are smaller than one centimeter. The focus of many current plans has been on the active removal of current debris.
But with a projected 57,000 new satellites expected to launch by 2029, the question becomes: how to prevent new debris? Currently, at Purdue University’s School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, David Spencer and his team are working on a passive debris removal system using drag sail deorbiting technology where these passive deorbiting systems are embedded within a spacecraft for deorbiting at the end of the spacecraft’s lifetime.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3887/1
32) Making the funding case for commercial space stations
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 24, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3888a.jpg)
Axiom Space envisions installing several commercial modules on the International Space Station, which will form the core of a future commercial free-flying space station. (credit: Axiom Space)
When NASA released its fiscal year 2021 budget proposal two weeks ago, most of the attention devoted to it—from politicians, the press, and the public—was on the parts related to the Artemis program for returning humans to the Moon by 2024. That includes more than $3 billion to work on human lunar landers, and the first estimate of the cost of achieving that goal: $35 billion through 2024.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3888/1
33) The United States is losing its leadership role in the fight against orbital debris
by Brian Weeden Monday, February 24, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3847a.jpg)
While the US government makes superficial changes to orbital debris mitigation guidelines, ESA is funding a mission to demonstrate the ability to deorbit debris. (credit: ESA)
After more than a year of effort, the Trump Administration released an update to the US Government Orbital Debris Mitigation Standard Practices in December 2019. The Standard Practices define the standards for minimizing the creation of orbital debris and generally apply to all US government space missions and establish the foundation for rulemaking that applies to commercial space activities licensed by the US government. The updated Standard Practices are a key part of demonstrating how the United States fulfills its national space policy goal of strengthening the safety and sustainability of space activities and establishing a benchmark for other countries to follow.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3889/1
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9/III 2020 [34-37]
34) Review: What Stars Are Made Of
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 2, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3890a.jpg)
What Stars Are Made Of: The Life of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin
by Donovan Moore
Harvard Univ. Press, 2020
hardcover, 320 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-674-23737-7
US$29.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0674237374/spaceviews
The early 20th century was a dynamic time in astronomy and physics, with breakthroughs that reshaped our understanding of the universe and how it works. Many of the scientists who made those discoveries became famous: think of Albert Einstein and relativity, Edwin Hubble and the expansion of the universe, and Erwin SchrĂśdinger’s advances in quantum mechanics, to name just a few.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3890/1
35) EnVision and the Cosmic Vision decision
by Arwen Rimmer Monday, March 2, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3891a.jpg)
An illustration of the proposed EnVision spacecraft orbiting Venus. (credit: VR2Planets - François Civet)
In 2016, the European Space Agency announced a call for medium-size missions within their Cosmic Vision Program. In layman’s terms, “medium-size” means moderate-cost (less than 550 million euros, or $610 million) and low-risk, and this is achieved by keeping payloads small and by using proven, heritage technology for both spacecraft and payload. Alongside these common-sense conditions is a third and less tangible quality, that the project be scientifically robust. But when comparing excellent cases from vastly different fields, the merits of one scientific mission over another can seem subjective. It’s not enough to lament the dearth of data in said field, or to establish how a project will discover this or that, or even to show exactly how said “groundbreaking technology” will work. ESA wants a mission that will stir up an unprecedented level of excitement, support, and interest within the scientific community. Here is how they attempt to measure a project’s relevance.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3891/1
36) Handicapping the megaconstellations
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 2, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3892a.jpg)
OneWeb launched its first large set of satellites February 6 on a Soyuz rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome. (credit: OneWeb)
This year is shaping up to be a critical one for broadband satellite megaconstellations. SpaceX, which launched its first set of Starlink satellites last May, followed by a second set in November, is picking up the pace of deployment of its constellation. Three Falcon 9 launches in January and February placed 180 satellites into orbit, with the next launch scheduled for March 11. Company officials previously talked about performing as many as 24 Starlink launches this year to get the initial phase of its constellation in orbit.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3892/1
37) Racing to where/what/when/why?
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, March 2, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3893a.jpg)
The concept of a “space race” has been around for decades, but has lost its meaning today. (credit: Time)
During the Cold War, Albert Wohlstetter, one of the most well-known American strategic thinkers, earned a reputation for upsetting the status quo when it came to discussing nuclear weapons. Starting in the late 1960s and into the next decade, Wohlstetter, occasionally co-writing with his wife Roberta, began challenging the popular concept of the arms race, and particularly the idea of “arms race spirals,” the theory that the two superpowers would keep building more and more weapons in an action-reaction relationship. As Wohlstetter noted, many Soviet strategic weapons were not deployed in response to any particular American action, and it was difficult to find examples of action-reaction in many of the weapons developments made by both superpowers. What, for instance, was one to conclude when large numbers of weapons such as medium-range bombers were actually eliminated from the American arsenal?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3893/1
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10/III 2020 [38-41]
38) Review: The Vinyl Frontier
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 9, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3894a.jpg)
The Vinyl Frontier: The Story of the Voyager Golden Record
by Jonathan Scott
Bloomsbury Sigma, 2019
hardcover, 288 pp.
ISBN 978-1-4729-5613-2
US$28.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1472956133/spaceviews
Starting today, Earth won’t be able to talk to the Voyager 2 spacecraft in the hinterlands of the solar system. The only antenna both powerful enough to transmit to the spacecraft and able to see it in the sky, a 70-meter dish at a Deep Space Network site in Australia, is being taken offline for the next 11 months for upgrades to prepare it for the armada of Mars missions arriving at the Red Planet in early 2021. That won’t stop the spacecraft from continuing to transmit spacecraft telemetry and space science data during the interim, but will keep controllers from being able to respond if something goes wrong.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3894/1
39) Wasn’t the future wonderful?
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, March 9, 2020
For All Mankind and the space program we didn’t get
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3895a.jpg)
Joel Kinnaman as astronaut Edward Baldwin, who commands America's first moonbase at the lunar South Pole, and discovers that he has company. (credit: Apple TV+)
If you were a kid during the 1960s and watched American astronauts float outside their Gemini capsules, and then stayed up late to watch Neil Armstrong step onto the surface of the Moon, there’s a good chance that you were incredibly excited by these events only to be disappointed, even angered, when they came to an end only a few years later. Space enthusiasts have even applied labels to themselves because of this: “children of Apollo” or even “the orphans of Apollo.” What persists in some of them even today is a sense that America—and they in particular—were robbed of more of it, more missions, more exploration, more inspiration and awe. It was going to happen, they believe; it should have happened, they argue; but somebody took their dream away. Much of the anger you can find directed at NASA on the Internet stems from this sense of betrayal, that we were promised a great big shiny future of space exploration… and then somebody took it away.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3895/1
40) Space reconnaissance and Anglo-American relations during the Cold War
by Aaron Bateman Monday, March 9, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3896a.jpg)
Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher had a close working relationship during the 1980s, one that Thatcher sought to preserve in part by not lobbying the US against pursuing the Strategic Defense Initiative. (credit: Reagan Library)
In March 1983, President Ronald Reagan announced his intention to pursue a capability that would render nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete. This concept became the basis of his Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) that was derisively referred to as “Star Wars.” SDI represented a fundamental shift in American military strategy away from nuclear deterrence, but none of the NATO allies were consulted. When Reagan attempted to garner British support for the program, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was especially annoyed by the fact that London had agreed to upgrade its nuclear deterrent using the American-made Trident submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) system. British support for SDI would have seemed to contradict the need for Trident, which represented the United Kingdom’s long-term commitment to nuclear deterrence. When it became clear that SDI would involve the placement of kinetic-kill weapons in space, many European allies, in addition to the Soviet Union, began to publicly express concerns that the US was weaponizing outer space. Yet ultimately, Thatcher supported both SDI and the American Miniature Homing Vehicle (MHV) anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons program.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3896/1
41) Responsive launch is still not quite ready for prime time
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 9, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3897a.jpg)
Astra’s “Rocket 3.0” on the pad prior to its scrubbed launch attempt from Alaska March 2. (credit: DARPA)
They are the three words—or, more accurately, one word uttered three times—that anyone listening to a launch countdown dreads. On March 2, a small rocket stood on a pad at Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska on Kodiak Island, in the final phases of a countdown for its first attempted orbital flight. Weather, which had been poor the previous several days, had improved, and the rocket finally appeared ready to fly.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3897/1
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11/III 2020 [42-45]
42) Private options, private risks: the future of US spaceflight
by Roger Handberg Monday, March 16, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3881a.jpg)
Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner after landing on its uncrewed Orbital Flight Test in December, a mission cut short by technical problems. (credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
The United States is moving closer to commercial human spaceflight for its International Space Station (ISS) crews. This new flight option has drawn much enthusiasm especially when compared to the multiple failures of NASA to develop a replacement for the now departed space shuttle. Here, a brief discussion of the problem and the hazards of the new approach will be presented.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3898/1
43) Space security: the need for a monitoring mechanism
by Ajey Lele Monday, March 16, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3686a.jpg)
India’s test of an anti-satellite weapon last year. Efforts to stem the development of ASATs through treaties or international agreements have failed so far. (credit: DRDO)
This essay examines one idea for addressing space security. The intention is to learn something from the evolution of an existing structure from the domain of arms control and disarmament. Could a similar structure be developed for the space domain?
Outer space is fast gaining recognition as the possible fourth domain of warfare. Recently, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has identified outer space as an “operational (warfighting) domain.” At the same time, almost everybody is of the opinion that the weaponization of outer space is not in the interest of humanity. However, no rule or treaty mechanism has won widespread acceptance to stop the possible weaponization of space.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3899/1
44) Mars in limbo
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 16, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3900a.jpg)
The launch of the ExoMars mission, featuring a rover named Rosalind Franklin, has been postponed from 2020 to 2022. (credit: ESA)
This year was supposed to be one of the biggest ever for the exploration of Mars. Four missions by four different space agencies were scheduled for launch this summer, arriving at Mars in early 2021. The missions ranged from an orbiter by an up-and-coming space power to a rover that is the beginning of a decade-long effort to collect samples of the Red Planet and return them to Earth.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3900/1
45) When Senator Walter Mondale went to the Moon: the Apollo 1 fire and the myths we create
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, March 16, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3901a.jpg)
NASA leadership, including administration James Webb (second from left) testifying at a Senate hearing about the Apollo 1 accident in 1967. (credit: NASA)
In 1999, in honor of the 30th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, radio station WAMU in Washington, DC, aired a fascinating program about the role of Washington politics in the lunar landing. “Washington Goes to the Moon” was written and produced by Richard Paul and featured interviews with a number of key figures in the story, including CBS anchor Walter Cronkite and former NASA Deputy Administrator Robert Seamans. The program remains an excellent introduction to the subject of politics and Apollo and is worth listening to even 20 years later.
Source: https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3901/1
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12/III 2020 [46-50]
46) Another look at The Vinyl Frontier
by Glen E. Swanson Monday, March 23, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3902a.jpg)
Voyager mission project manager John Casani with the Voyager record, its cover, and a small American flag to be carried by the spacecraft. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Recently TSR ran a brief review on Jonathan Scott’s book (see “Review: The Vinyl Frontier”, The Space Review, March 9, 2020). Glen E. Swanson wrote the following review which originally appeared in the Vol. 26, No. 4 2019 issue of Quest.
1977 was the year Star Wars premiered. Late that summer, as kids waited to watch Luke Skywalker take down the Death Star for the nth time before summer vacation came to a close, a twin set of robotic probes launched into space.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3902/1
47) Magnificent isolation: what we can learn from astronauts about social distancing and sheltering in space
by Deana L. Weibel Monday, March 23, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3903a.jpg)
Apollo 15 astronaut Al Worden, who passed away last week, experienced a unique kind of isolation as he circled the Moon alone. (credit: NASA)
The emergence of the novel coronavirus and its associated disease, COVID-19, has led to a global pandemic and a call for individuals, in the name of overall public health and an attempt to prevent national medical systems from being overwhelmed with too many patients at once, to self-isolate, self-quarantine, and practice social distancing. Many of us are confronted, for perhaps the only time in our lives, with an uncertain span of time in solitude.
Although this is the first time we’ve seen this particular phenomenon, social distancing isn’t a new invention. Humans have always had good reasons to withdraw from society, often for the greater good. Among the champions of isolation and social distancing are astronauts and cosmonauts—including the late Al Worden—whose time in space has often been spent in extended periods of cramped loneliness, away from family and friends. They can serve as inspiration in these difficult times.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3903/1
48) Capsule on fire: An interview with Robert Seamans about the Apollo 1 accident
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, March 23, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3904a.jpg)
The Apollo 1 crew enters their spacecraft in a test in an altitude chamber at the Kennedy Space Center. (credit: NASA)
In January 1967, three astronauts died on the ground in what should have been a routine test. Gus Grissom, Roger Chaffee, and Ed White were slated to launch into space in a few months aboard what was then known as Apollo 204 and would soon become known as Apollo 1. Following the fire, NASA conducted an internal investigation. The US Senate also held hearings and called senior NASA leaders to testify. One of the people at the hearings was NASA Deputy Administrator Robert Seamans, who appeared alongside NASA Administrator James Webb and head of the manned space flight office, George Mueller. They soon found themselves in the sights of a junior senator, Walter Mondale, who knew that there had been a string of problems involving Apollo main contractor North American Aviation. (See: “When Senator Walter Mondale went to the Moon: the Apollo 1 fire and the myths we create,” The Space Review, March 16, 2020.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3904/1
49) Capabilities on the cusp: the impact of a responsive, flexible launch challenge with no winner
by Todd Master Monday, March 23, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3905a.jpg)
Astra prepares its Rocket 3.0 on a bare concrete pad in Kodiak, Alaska, prior to a launch attempt during the DARPA Launch Challenge. (credit: John Kraus/Astra)
Creating a flexible (“launch from anywhere”) and responsive (“launch any time”) space launch capability is a critical need for the Defense Department, with increasing importance as our views on national security space architectures evolve. Space resiliency is critical to our warfighting capability, and space access is its linchpin, as the means for deployment of our satellite systems. Resiliency for space access is directly created by untethering ourselves from one-of-a-kind fixed launch sites, which are subject to range congestion, weather, natural disasters, human-made disasters (like rockets blowing up on pads), and adversary attack. This resiliency is further bolstered by the ability to place in orbit new spacecraft at will, surging new on-orbit capability to provide tactical support to operations from space or rapidly replacing end-of-life, malfunctioning, or damaged spacecraft. Developing launch systems that deliver these capabilities is directly aligned with DARPA’s mission of preventing strategic surprise, and led us to DARPA Launch Challenge.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3905/1
50) Space in uncertain times
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 23, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3906a.jpg)
A SpaceX Falcon 9 after liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center March 18, a launch that went ahead despite the coronavirus pandemic. (credit: SpaceX)
Last month, even as the coronavirus epidemic was ravaging China and making inroads in other nations, the space industry’s concerns were elsewhere. There were debates about a NASA authorization bill in the House that would reshape NASA’s Artemis program even as the agency sought more money for it, the ongoing review into the flawed test flight of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner commercial crew vehicle, renewed concerns about orbital debris after a close call between two defunct satellites, and discussions about the viability and sustainability of satellite constellations like OneWeb and SpaceX’s Starlink as both moved into full-scale deployment.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3906/1
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13/III 2020 [51-55]
51) Review: For All Humankind
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 30, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3907a.jpg)
For All Humankind: The Untold Stories of How the Moon Landing Inspired the World
by Tanya Harrison and Danny Bednar
Mango Publishing, 2020
hardcover, 200 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-64250-096-7
US$19.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1642500968/spaceviews
Most books written about the Apollo program, and the Apollo 11 landing specifically, have an American-centric focus, and for good reason. This was, after all, a program featuring American astronauts flying on American rockets, advocated by American politicians as part of a geopolitical competition the United States was waging against the Soviet Union. The contributions of other countries, like Canadian engineers or Australian ground stations, tended only to play cameos in that story (although the role of German-born engineers, some with Nazi ties, has gotten more scrutiny in recent decades.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3907/1
52) Why a business case for Mars settlement is not required
by John Strickland Monday, March 30, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3908a.jpg)
One concept for a Mars settlement supported by Starship vehicles. (credit: SpaceX)
Some people have claimed that a “business case” for profitable interplanetary trade with a Mars settlement, or at least the identification a saleable product for trade, is required before such a settlement can be established or supported by business or government. But there is no reasonable prospect for trade in any significant mass of physical material from a Mars settlement back to Earth in the near future due to the high transport costs. In his recent article in the National Review, “Elon Musk’s Plan to Settle Mars,” Robert Zubrin makes exactly the same point: a business case based on physical trade is not necessary and makes little sense. Later trade and commerce via non-physical goods such as software is probable once a settlement is fully operational. More significant and interesting economic situations will occur on Mars.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3908/1
53) The decade of Venus: an interview with David Grinspoon
by Arwen Rimmer Monday, March 30, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3909a.jpg)
Venus as seen by Japan’s Akatsuki spacecraft, one of the few missions to the planet in the last two decades. (credit: JAXA)
David Grinspoon is an American astrobiologist, science communicator, and senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute. His research focuses on comparative planetology, with a focus on climate evolution on Earth-like planets and implications for habitability. He is considered one of the top worldwide experts on the planet Venus. He serves as an advisor to NASA on space exploration strategy, and is currently on the DAVINCI+ proposal, one of NASA’s four Discovery-class missions up for selection next year. He was an interdisciplinary scientist on the ESA’s Venus Express mission, and is contributing scientist on Akatsuki with JAXA. Two technical papers he helped author, “Was Venus the first habitable world of our Solar System” and “Venus as a laboratory for exoplanetary science,” have been making waves in the community. Recently, he’s been doing the conference circuit, talking about “The Evolution of Climate and a Possible Biosphere on Venus,” which makes a synoptic plea for more missions. Grinspoon recently attended the Rocky Worlds Conference in Cambridge, where the author was able to arrange this interview.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3909/1
54) And that’s the way it was on the way to the Moon: an interview with Walter Cronkite
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, March 30, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3910a.jpg)
Walter Cronkite during CBS News coverage of the Apollo 11 landing. (credit: CBS)
Walter Cronkite (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Cronkite) was once known as one of the most trusted men in America, a newscaster with a reputation for telling it like it was. Cronkite, who died in 2009 at the age of 92, reported on many subjects during his decades in the news business, including the Apollo program, about which he could not hide his enthusiasm. He was a space buff, clearly relishing the drama and inspiration of the effort to send Americans to the Moon, and getting teary-eyed when Apollo 11 successfully landed on the Sea of Tranquility.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3910/1
55) Stars and Starlink
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 30, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3728a.jpg)
SpaceX says that efforts to darken one Starlink satellite resulted in a “notable reduction” in its brightness, but that may not sufficiently mitigate its effect on astronomy. (credit: SpaceX)
Astronomers may have one less (satellite) constellation to worry about.
Late Friday, OneWeb announced it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a New York court. In a statement, the company said it had been in “advanced negotiations” since the beginning of the year to raise a new round of funding needed to complete its broadband satellite constellation. The company said it was close to completing that deal, but “the financial impact and market turbulence related to the spread of COVID-19” kept it from closing the deal.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3911/1
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14/IV 2020 [56-60]
56) Review: Extraterrestrials
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 6, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3912a.jpg)
Extraterrestrials
by Wade Roush
MIT Press, 2020
paperback, 240 pp.
ISBN 978-0-262-53843-5
US$15.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0262538431/spaceviews
One of the longest-running projects in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) came to an end, at least temporarily, last week. The SETI@home project started in 1999 as a distributed computing effort, allowing participants to use spare time on their home computers to process batches of data collected by radio telescopes. It immediately became popular by people who enjoyed the opportunity to take part in SETI with little more than an Internet-connected computer running a colorful screensaver. But the project announced in early March it was placing SETI@home into “hibernation,” with no new data being distributed after the end of March. “Scientifically, we’re at the point of diminishing returns; basically, we’ve analyzed all the data we need for now,” the project said.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3912/1
57) Space Force: the struggle continues
by Taylor Dinerman Monday, April 6, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3913a.jpg)
Space Force Gen. Jay Raymond (center) swears in Chief Master Sgt. Roger A. Towberman April 3 as Secretary of the Air Force Barbara Barrett looks on. (credit: US Air Force photo by Andy Morataya)
Amazingly, the coronavirus crisis has not had any effect on the political and bureaucratic fight over the new US Space Force. The conflict currently includes issues such as creation of a Space Force National Guard component and a new Space Force intelligence agency.
In spite of efforts to complicate the issue, the National Guard question is simple. A Space Force with a National Guard component has a lot more political independence from the Air Force than does a Space Force without one. Today, Air and Army National Guard units are closely connected with the elected leaders of their respective states. It has been reported that only seven states have units that are eligible to become part of the Space Force National Guard. At the moment the stakes seem low, but if the new service is to become truly independent it will need all the clout it can get.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3913/1
58) The US Space Force’s long war
by John Hickman Monday, April 6, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3914a.jpg)
Space Force Gen. Jay Raymond testifies at a House Armed Services Committee hearing in early March. (credit: US Air Force photo by Wayne Clark)
The US Space Force lost its first skirmish in the campaign to win political legitimacy in the eyes of the American public. Although it was inevitable that comedians would exploit the new armed service’s rollout for material, not the least because it was an idea adopted by the Donald Trump presidential campaign and implemented by his administration, much of the other damage was self-inflicted. If camouflage pattern uniforms and a Starfleet-like logo could be explained away, the silliness of blessing an “official Bible” for the new armed service at the National Cathedral was an avoidable blunder. Elected officials who supported creating the Space Force appear to have been less than well versed in the important talking points. For example, consider Sen. Ted Cruz’s “space pirate” comments.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3914/1
59) What is the future for commercial suborbital spaceflight?
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 6, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3915a.jpg)
Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo, attached to its WhiteKnightTwo aircraft, in front of the main terminal building at Spaceport America after its arrival there in February. (credit: Virgin Galactic)
A couple months ago, it seemed like 2020 might finally be the year that commercial human suborbital spaceflight might finally break out, after years—more than a decade, really—of waiting. Virgin Galactic, freshly capitalized through a merger with Social Capital Hedosophia last fall, said it was in the final phases of testing its SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplane, VSS Unity, with plans to begin commercial flights later this year. Blue Origin, which delayed plans to begin crewed flights of its New Shepard vehicle last year, said it was on track to begin those flights later this year after a couple more test flights without people on board.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3915/1
60) Rashomon’s fire: another perspective on Apollo 1 from NASA official Paul Dembling
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, April 6, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3916a.jpg)
Part of the Apollo 1 capsule seen during the accident investigation. (credit: NASA)
Reality doesn’t happen like the movies. Except sometimes it does.
In January 1967, three astronauts died in a fire on a launch pad in Florida before they ever got the opportunity to reach space. Their spacecraft killed them. Gus Grissom, Roger Chaffee, and Ed White were slated to launch into space in a few months aboard what was then known as Apollo 204 and would soon be commonly known as Apollo 1. Immediately following the fire, NASA conducted an internal investigation that identified numerous problems with the spacecraft. Within a month, the US House of Representatives held hearings on the accident, followed by the US Senate. NASA leaders were called to testify. One of the people who headed up to the Senate—but who was not supposed to testify himself—was Paul Dembling.(...)
Source: https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3916/1
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15/IV 2020 [61-65]
61) Review: Spacefarers
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 13, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3917a.jpg)
Spacefarers: How Humans Will Settle the Moon, Mars, and Beyond
by Christopher Wanjek
Harvard Univ. Press, 2020
hardcover, 400 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-674-98448-6
US$29.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/067498448X/spaceviews
Space enthusiasts have, for decades, struggled to develop compelling rationales for human spaceflight. The Cold War-fueled Space Race with the Soviet Union sustained early efforts through the Apollo landings, but was too costly to maintain over the long term. Since then, advocates have sought to develop other explanations, from national prestige to science to commerce. Their failure is evident by the lack of progress we have seen in human spaceflight in recent decades.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3917/1
62) Hard law or soft law? The debate about the future of space law
by Dennis O’Brien Monday, April 13, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3708a.jpg)
Plans by NASA and others for expanded lunar exploration, and use of lunar resources, is stimulating debate about whether new treaties are required or existing agreements are sufficient. (credit: NASA)
The Cleveland-Marshall College of Law hosted “Returning to the Moon: A Legal Symposium” at Cleveland State University on March 6. Jointly produced by the University’s Global Space Law Center (GSLC) and Global Business Law Review, the conference discussed the current issues in space law and how the private sector can become more involved. The underlying question throughout was whether new international agreements were needed or if the current treaties, with evolving norms and customs, would be sufficient.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3918/1
63) The role of global cooperation in space after COVID-19
by Ajey Lele Monday, April 13, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3919a.jpg)
India’s Gaganyaan human spaceflight program, which will launch on the GLSV Mark III (above), could face a delay of several years because of the pandemic. (credit: ISRO)
The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people across the globe. It is also causing huge damage to the global economy. According to the predictions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), 2020 could be the worst year since the Great Depression in the 1930s, with more than 170 countries likely to experience negative per capita income growth due to the pandemic. Countries are taking different measures to mitigate that economic impact, depending on the situations in their countries. However, the process of overcoming economic crisis is going to be extremely difficult. Few businesses would find it hard even to sustain and there is going to be a significant upsurge in unemployment rates.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3919/1
64) Planning the next decade of planetary science missions
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 13, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3900b.jpg)
The NASA Mars 2020 mission, featuring a rover named Perseverance, emerged from the recommendations of the previous planetary science decadal survey. Its development problems have created budgetary pressures on other parts of NASA’s Mars exploration program. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Had their original plans held up, hundreds of planetary scientists would have filed into a ballroom last month at a hotel in the Houston suburb of The Woodlands, Texas, that was hosting the annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. That town hall meeting there would have formally started the planetary science decadal survey, the once-a-decade effort to chart priorities for the next decade of NASA’s planetary science program.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3920/1
65) Trends in NASA’s robotic planetary exploration program as revealed in a new dataset
by Casey Dreier Monday, April 13, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3320a.jpg)
The planetary exploration budget dataset reveals, among other things, the influence flagship-class missions like Cassini (above) had on NASA’s overall planetary science program. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Last week The Planetary Society released our planetary exploration budget dataset—the most comprehensive public reference of NASA’s investments in robotic planetary exploration to date.
The rich dataset includes the full history of both requested and obligated spending for planetary science missions, research, and related programs. It enables improved inflation calculations for missions, allows for direct comparisons of White House and congressional funding, and supports insights into shifting scientific and political priorities for US investment in planetary science over time.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3921/1
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16/IV 2020 [66-71]
66) Review: John Houbolt: The Unsung Hero of the Apollo Moon Landings
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 20, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3922a.jpg)
John Houbolt: The Unsung Hero of the Apollo Moon Landings
by William F. Causey
Purdue Univ. Press, 2020
hardcover, 374 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-55753-946-5
US$29.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1557539464/spaceviews
Later this month, NASA is expected to announce awards of contracts for its Human Landing System program to develop a human lunar lander for the Artemis program. Several companies will likely get contracts for initial studies, with NASA later selecting one or two for full-scale development. But, whether they involve lander components being aggregated at the lunar Gateway or a single lander docking directly with an Orion spacecraft, they all share something in common: they will all use a version of lunar orbit rendezvous (LOR) like that pioneered in the Apollo program.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3922/1
67) “Space, the final frontier”: Star Trek and the national space rhetoric of Eisenhower, Kennedy, and NASA
by Glen E. Swanson Monday, April 20, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3923a.jpg)
In the original Star Trek television series of the 1960s, creator Gene Roddenberry made use of NASA imagery and the growing national space rhetoric to help sell his show to network executives. (credit: CBS/Paramount/NASA)
“Space… the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise, its five-year mission… to explore strange new words… to seek out new life and new civilizations… to boldly go where no man has gone before.”
These are the words of perhaps the most famous opening lines of narration in all of television history.
The introductory monologue by Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) invited viewers to join the crew of the starship Enterprise to watch a brand-new science fiction television series called Star Trek. Every week, households turned their television dial to NBC, where they witnessed series creator Gene Roddenberry’s vision of life in the 23rd century unfold in living color during the show’s initial three-year run that began on September 8, 1966.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3923/1
68) Cost versus control in the small launch market
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 20, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3924a.jpg)
Virgin Orbit’s 747 aircraft, with a LauncherOne rocket attached to its left wing, climbs during a simulated launch release maneuver during an April 12 test flight. (credit: Virgin Orbit)
The pandemic may have slowed much of the space industry, but some parts of the business are moving ahead. Last week, for example, small launch vehicle developer Rocket Lab announced a new launch contract with Synspective, a Japanese company developing a constellation of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites. Rocket Lab agreed to launch Synspective’s first satellite, StriX-α, on an Electron rocket late this year.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3924/1
69) The President’s space resources executive order: a step in the right direction
by Paul Stimers Monday, April 20, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3925a.jpg)
As NASA prepares to return to the Moon sustainably, it needs assurances it can use lunar resources. (credit: NASA)
In the midst of the pandemic, we may find ourselves thinking of astronauts more as advisors on how to handle isolation than as representatives of a singularly human achievement, our expansion into outer space. But the great work continues: we press toward the Moon—this time to stay—and on toward Mars. So, it is appropriate that, on April 6, President Trump signed an Executive Order on “Encouraging International Support for the Recovery and Use of Space Resources.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3925/1
70) The FCC takes a leadership role in combating orbital debris
by Ian Christensen, Brian Weeden, and Josh Wolny Monday, April 20, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3926a.jpg)
Proposed FCC rules for mitigating space debris are a step in the right direction, but questions remain about larger policy issues. (credit: ESA)
Since 2004, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has required disclosures from applicants for spectrum licenses to operate satellites about how their activities may generate orbital debris and their mitigation efforts to reduce that risk. In November of 2018, the FCC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in which it outlined several proposals to revise and expand the orbital debris mitigation requirements in its licensing process. Earlier this month, the FCC released its final Report and Order on these changes, which are scheduled for a vote by the FCC’s commissioners at the end of the month. As we will argue in this article, we believe that the proposed new requirements put the FCC in a forward-leaning position relative to other government regulators on taking meaningful steps to ensure the long-term sustainability of space activities. However, there are still unanswered questions and having the FCC in that leadership role is not ideal.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3926/1
71) To attack or deter? The role of anti-satellite weapons
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, April 20, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3927a.jpg)
A 1985 test of an anti-satellite missile released from an F-15 fighter. Development of that ASAT stemmed from a policy debate in the 1970s about the utility of ASATs. (credit: USAF)
Last week, Russia conducted another anti-satellite (ASAT) test, apparently one of a series they have been undertaking as part of what increasingly looks to be a broad-ranging ASAT program. This follows a recent statement by the commander of US Space Command, General John Raymond, who acknowledged something that amateur space trackers have noticed for a few months: a Russian satellite appears to be “stalking” USA 245, an American reconnaissance satellite, raising the possibility that the Russian satellite might have offensive capabilities. As Bart Hendrickx noted in a 2018 article in Jane’s Intelligence Review, there was ample evidence that Russia was developing a co-orbital anti-satellite weapon designated “Burevestnik,” although the satellite that may be following USA 245 is probably of a different but related type named “Nivelir.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3927/1
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17/IV 2020 [72-76]
72) The Lunar Development Cooperative: A new idea for enabling lunar settlement
by Michael Castle-Miller, Alfred Anzaldúa, and Hoyt Davidson
Monday, April 27, 2020
Note: additional contributors to this article include Timiebi Aganaba-Jeanty, Jeff Greenblatt, Michelle L. D. Hanlon, Thomas L. Matula, Akhil Rao, and L. Grant Shubin
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/2795a.jpg)
A Lunar Development Corporation could address many of the issues associated with sustainable lunar development and settlement within existing treaties. (credit: Anna Nesterova/Alliance for Space Development)
With the impressive achievements of both private companies and governments over the last decade, it is clear that lunar development will become a reality soon whether we are ready for it or not. The significance and consequences of this event on human history cannot be overstated. How this new settlement occurs will have enormous implications for countless generations.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3928/1
73) Draft Moon Village Association Principles: creating best practices for sustainable lunar activities
by Giuseppe Reibaldi and Mark J. Sundahl Monday, April 27, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3929a.jpg)
The draft principles are intended to help develop best practices for future lunar development. (credit: NASA)
On March 6, the Moon Village Association unveiled a set of 15 draft Moon Village Association (MVA) Principles intended to help facilitate the peaceful settlement of the Moon by establishing best practices for the long-term sustainability of lunar and cislunar activity. The MVA Principles are now published on the MVA website and are open for public comment. The announcement by the president of the MVA, Dr. Giuseppe Reibaldi, took place during a day-long symposium on Returning to the Moon: Legal Challenges as Humanity Begins to Settle the Solar System hosted by the Global Space Law Center at Cleveland State University’s Cleveland-Marshall College of Law (see “Hard law or soft law? The debate about the future of space law”, The Space Review, April 13, 2020).
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3929/1
74) Taking on the challenge of Mars sample return
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 27, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3930a.jpg)
An illustration from a recent NASA presentation showing a Mars Ascent Vehicle, carrying samples collected from the surface, launching those samples into orbit. (credit: NASA)
At the highest level, Mars sample return sounds very straightforward: go to Mars, grab some rocks, and bring them back to Earth. Easy!
Easier said than done, though. While NASA has demonstrated the ability to land on Mars and travel across its surface on several missions, the challenges of gathering samples, putting them into a vehicle that launches them into Martian orbit, and then getting those samples back to Earth, increases the complexity of the endeavor exponentially more than linearly.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3930/1
75) Burevestnik: a Russian air-launched anti-satellite system
by Bart Hendrickx Monday, April 27, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3931a.jpg)
MiG-31BM carrying an ASAT launch vehicle. (credit: ShipSash)
In September 2018, an aircraft photographer noticed something interesting while observing activity at the Gromov Flight Research Institute in Zhukovsky near Moscow, sometimes called the “Russian Edwards Air Force Base.” What caught his attention was a MiG-31BM fighter jet with a large black missile suspended under its belly. While this specific aircraft had been seen before, the rocket was new. The pictures he posted on the Internet baffled observers: it seemed to be too big to be an air-to-air or an air-to-surface missile. It did appear to be the right size for an anti-satellite weapon.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3931/1
76) Putting the White House executive order on space resources in an international context
by Ian A. Christensen and Christopher D. Johnson Monday, April 27, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3291a.jpg)
There will likely be a role for the UN’s Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space in discussions on space resources, but there are also opportunities for bilateral and multilateral agreements. (credit: United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs)
On April 6, the White House released the Executive Order on Encouraging International Support for the Recovery and Use of Space Resources.[1] This executive order, along with the accompanying factsheet,[2] emphatically clarifies the posture of the US government on the use of space resources, including how the United States views existing international rules on the matter, how it will approach the development of any new international rules, and how the United States will foster the commercial utilization of space resources.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3932/1
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18/V 2020 [77-81]
77) Review: Alien Oceans
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 4, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3933a.jpg)
Alien Oceans: The Search for Life in the Depths of Space
by Kevin Peter Hand
Princeton Univ. Press, 2020
hardcover, 304 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-691-17951-3
US$27.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0691179514/spaceviews
Last week, the Government Accountability Office published its annual assessment of cost and schedule major NASA programs. Much of the interest in the report focused on NASA’s exploration programs, which are years behind schedule and billions over budget, but the GAO also cited an issue of a different kind with a planetary science mission, Europa Clipper. That mission is facing a $250 million cost increase because the spacecraft may be ready too soon: because of a congressional mandate to launch the mission on the Space Launch System, Europa Clipper isn’t expected to launch until 2025, even though the spacecraft itself will be ready in 2023. The additional money will be needed to cover spacecraft storage, workforce costs, and other impacts to the mission while it waits for an SLS rocket. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3933/1
78)SPICA: an infrared telescope to look back into the early universe
by Arwen Rimmer Monday, May 4, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3934a.jpg)
The SPICA mission would fly a telescope operating in the far infrared to perform studies supporting everything from solar system science to cosmology. (credit: JAXA/SPICA team)
The ESA’s fifth call for medium-class missions (M5) is in its full study phase. Three finalists, EnVision, SPICA (https://spica-mission.org/), and THESEUS, remain from more than two dozen proposals. A selection will be made in the summer of 2021, with a launch date tentatively set for 2032. In February, the author attended the EnVision conference in Paris, and reported on the progress of that consortium. The THESEUS meeting is meant to be in Malaga, Spain, in May, and the SPICA collaboration was scheduled for March 9–11 in Leiden, The Netherlands. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic intervened and the physical meeting was cancelled. Instead, the group met via Zoom teleconference. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3934/1
79) In the recession, space firms should focus on Earth imagery
by Nicholas Borroz Monday, May 4, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3935a.jpg)
Analysis of satellite imagery can play a major role in the response to the pandemic, such as tracking the number of airliners placed in storage at a California airport. (credit: Planet)
The COVID-19 pandemic will disrupt the space sector. The world is about to enter the worst recession since the Great Depression. More than 30 million Americans have filed for unemployment. China reports its economy contracted by 6.8% in the first three months of 2020. The International Monetary Fund predicts that global growth in 2020 will fall by 3% (https://blogs.imf.org/2020/04/14/the-great-lockdown-worst-economic-downturn-since-the-great-depression/).
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3935/1
80) Commercial crew safety, in space and on the ground
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 4, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3936a.jpg)
NASA astronauts Bob Behnken (background) and Doug Hurley training for their Demo-2 commercial crew mission, now scheduled for launch May 27. (credit: SpaceX)
The last time NASA launched astronauts from the Kennedy Space Center, hundreds of thousands of people showed up to watch the final flight of the space shuttle in July 2011. The expectation, by NASA and others, was that similar crowds would show up when commercial crew flights finally began. The large crowds that showed up for launches like the first Falcon Heavy mission in 2018 or even relatively routine cargo launches appeared to confirm that belief, and NASA was planning for big crowds, not just of the public outside the gates of KSC but also official guests and working media inside, for a historic mission. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3936/1
81) Working in the shadow space program
A General Electric engineer’s work on MOL and other space programs
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, May 4, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3937a.jpg)
Richard Passman, right, during a demonstration of a new spacewalking tether developed by General Electric in the 1960s. (credit: Bill Passman)
Richard Passman, an engineer for General Electric, spent over a decade working on many missile and space programs, including as a senior manager of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) program. Passman passed away April 1 at the age of 94 (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/16/obituaries/richard-passman-dead-coronavirus.html?referringSource=articleShare) due to complications from the coronavirus. This article is based on an interview conducted with him by the author in January. We had planned to do a follow-up interview, but did not get the chance. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3937/1
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19/V 2020 [82-86]
82) Toward a brighter future: Continuity of the Artemis program
by Jamil Castillo Monday, May 11, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3938a.jpg)
The Orion spacecraft built for the Artemis 1 mission after the completion of environmental testing at NASA’s Plum Brook Station in Ohio in March. (credit: NASA/Marvin Smith)
As we navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic, overcoming the immediate crisis is the top priority. Recovery will require thoughtful planning, investment, and patience. At the same time, it is important that we look beyond the crisis toward grand efforts that push boundaries and fuel humanity’s aspirations. That is why we continue to work on Artemis, our nation’s program to send humans forward to the Moon and on to Mars. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3938/1
83) Reinvigorating NASA’s lunar exploration plans after the pandemic
by Ajay P. Kothari Monday, May 11, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3599a.jpg)
A revamped exploration program might preserve NASA’s plans to return to the Moon despite the economic impact of the pandemic, but it will have to forego development of the lunar Gateway. (credit: NASA)
In a recent Washington Post op-ed (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/08/coronavirus-crisis-is-turning-americans-both-parties-against-china/), Josh Rogin argued for the need for a strong American response to China’s perceived mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic: “Americans in both parties increasingly agree that the United States needs a tougher, more realistic China strategy that depends less on the honesty and goodwill of the Chinese government.” Such a strategy should include space, too. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3939/1
84) The launch showdown
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 11, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3940a.jpg)
Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith speaks at a ceremony marking the completion of the company’s rocket engine factory in Huntsville, Alabama, February 17. The factory will build engines for both the company’s own New Glenn rocket, a model of which is on the right, but also ULA’s Vulcan (left). (credit: J. Foust)
On President’s Day back in February—less than three months ago, but feeling like a previous era—a couple hundred people gathered at a new Blue Origin building in Huntsville, Alabama. The attendees, ranging from local business leaders to members of Congress, were there for the formal dedication of the 32,500-square-meter factory, which the company will use to produce rocket engines. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3940/1
85) Astronauts, guns, and butter: Charles Schultze and paying for Apollo in a time of turmoil
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, May 11, 2020 [TSR]
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3941a.jpg)
Charles Schultze, budget director for LBJ, sought to delay the lunar landings into the early 1970s as a budget-cutting measure. (credit: NASA)
By 1966, NASA’s budget had begun to decrease, but was still significantly larger than other major domestic projects. The civilian space program was over $5 billion, compared to the “war on poverty” at $1.8 billion, and approximately $2 billion to improve elementary and secondary education. In early 1966, Charles Schultze, who served as Lyndon Johnson’s Director of the Bureau of the Budget from June 1965 until January 1968, recommended to Johnson that he delay the Moon landing until the 1970s and cancel post-Apollo projects. Schultze had proposed a list of spending cuts to Johnson, and the NASA cuts produced the second-largest savings of the options he presented. But Johnson rejected the NASA cuts at that time. (...)
Source: https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3941/1
86) “Maybe you were put here to be the answer”
Religious overtones in the new Space Force recruitment video
by Deana L. Weibel Monday, May 11, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3942a.jpg)
The end of the first US Space Force ad, whose imagery and messages had religious overtones. (credit: US Space Force)
The American space program has had remarkable religious components from its very beginnings. In its first few decades, the American space program was seen as a challenge to Soviet supremacy in outer space. The Soviet Union was known for its communism and officially atheistic stance, which made the American space program more explicitly religious by default. NASA, for instance, collected the religious affiliations of its astronauts, probably in order to know a person’s preferences in the case of a serious or fatal accident. The crew of Apollo 8 famously read from the book of Genesis while looking back at the Earth from lunar orbit and, in an act not publicized at the time, Buzz Aldrin took communion while he waited to exit the lunar module on July 20, 1969. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3942/1
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20/V 2020 [87-91]
87) Review: The Cosmic Revolutionary’s Handbook
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 18, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3943a.jpg)
The Cosmic Revolutionary’s Handbook: (Or: How to Beat the Big Bang)
by Luke A. Barnes and Geraint F. Lewis
Cambridge Univ. Press, 2020
hardcover, 286 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-108-48670-5
US$22.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1108486703/spaceviews
Every astronomer has received a missive like this, not to mention those working in adjacent fields as well as science journalists. The email arrives from an unfamiliar account, and is often written in a… creative choice of fonts, and with various attachments. The gist of the message is along the lines of “The Big Bang is wrong!” (or, often, “THE BIG BANG IS WRONG!” in the belief that the emphasis that capitalization offers will somehow make it more convincing.) The author then provides his or her own alternative cosmology and a plea to review or publish that alternative approach. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3943/1
88) Explaining China’s space ambitions and goals through the lens of strategic culture
by Namrata Goswami Monday, May 18, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3944c.jpg)
A Long March 5B successfully lifts off May 5 on its first flight, clearing the way for future launches of Chinese space station modules. (credit: Xinhua)
We all need conceptual tools for analysis. Strategic culture is one of them. I define strategic culture as a sum of a nation’s assumptions about its reality (threats, opportunities) based on which certain policy choices are preferred over others. These policy choices are informed by the state’s political culture reflecting both continuity and change over time. Political culture is defined as “a short-hand expression for a ‘mindset’ which has the effect of limiting attention to less than the full range of alternative behaviors, problems (https://support.jstor.org/hc/en-us/articles/360000313328-Need-Help-Logging-in-to-JSTOR) [emphasis added], and solutions which are logically possible.” Strategic culture flows from political culture, and is mostly applicable to the political and military leaders, whose assumptions, preferences, and choices inform their proclivity to adopt a particular military strategy over others: offense/defense, compellence/deterrence. History, myths and metaphor, and state capacity play a critical role in informing these assumptions. Colin Gray captures strategic culture well in his definition, “the persisting (though not eternal) socially transmitted ideas, attitudes, traditions, habits of mind, and preferred methods of operation that are more or less specific to a particularly geographically based security community (https://www.jstor.org/stable/20097575?seq=1) that has had a necessarily unique historical experience. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3944/1
89) When Washington went to the Moon: An interview with Glen Wilson
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, May 18, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3945a.jpg)
During the race to the Moon, President Lyndon Johnson had access to American satellite photography nearly as good as this historical photograph, taken from a helicopter, showing two Soviet N-1 rockets on their pads in Kazakhstan. That intelligence information influenced Johnson’s views on the need to continue or slow down Apollo.
Glen Wilson was a Senate staffer and worked closely with Senator Lyndon Johnson in the 1950s, playing an important role in drafting the legislation that created NASA in 1958. He worked in the Senate throughout the 1960s, when NASA and the increasingly expensive race to the Moon was often a focus of the legislative branch. Wilson had a high opinion of Johnson as a master politician, and knew many of the key people in Washington during the Apollo program, witnessing how the Apollo program played out in the back halls of Congress. (...)
Source: https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3945/1
90) Can NASA land humans on the Moon by 2024?
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 18, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3946a.jpg)
The lunar lander concept by the “national team” led by Blue Origin. (credit: Blue Origin)
Nearly 14 months ago, Vice President Mike Pence spoke at a meeting of the National Space Council in Huntsville, Alabama, and changed the trajectory of NASA’s human spaceflight program. Pence directed NASA to accelerate its schedule for returning humans to the Moon, which at the time called for a landing by 2028. The new goal: land American astronauts on the Moon “within the next five years,” a goal subsequently interpreted to mean by the end of 2024 (see “Lunar whiplash (https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3687/1)”, The Space Review, April 1, 2019.) (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3946/1
91) Worms and wings, meatballs and swooshes: NASA insignias in popular culture
by Glen E. Swanson Monday, May 18, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3947a.jpg)
NASA insignias in popular culture. Kids and adults are shown sporting NASA apparel. The late comedian Bob Hope is pictured ready to kick off his 1983–84 season of NBC specials wearing the NASA worm during a gala salute to NASA in honor of their 25th anniversary. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch vehicle, adorning the NASA worm, is shown ready on the pad at KSC for its upcoming launch that will carry two astronauts to the ISS, the first crewed launch from US soil since the last flight of the space shuttle Atlantis in 2011. (credit: G. Swanson/NBC-TV/NASA/SpaceX)
If all goes well, SpaceX will launch a Dragon spacecraft atop one of its Falcon 9 launch vehicles next week. The spacecraft will carry two humans, the first to be launched from the US since the last shuttle lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in 2011. Emblazoned on the side of the rocket will appear a NASA insignia that was all but retired from the agency nearly 30 years ago. Dubbed the “NASA worm,” the retro, then-ultramodern interpretation of the agency’s logo was first created in 1975 as part of the Federal Graphic Improvement Program of the National Endowment for the Arts. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3947/1
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21/V 2020 [92-96]
92) Review: The View from Space
by Jeff Foust Tuesday, May 26, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3948a.jpg)
The View from Space: NASA’s Evolving Struggle to Understand Our Home Planet
by Richard B. Leshner and Thor Hogan
University Press of Kansas, 2019
paperback, 256 pp.
ISBN 978-0-7006-2832-2
US$29.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0700628320/spaceviews
Human spaceflight has always attracted an overwhelming share of interest in NASA programs. The attention this week to the Demo-2 commercial crew test flight has been understandable, but what NASA does, or proposes to do, with humans in space captures headlines and public imagination, from last year’s announcement of returning to the Moon by 2024 to the first all-woman NASA spacewalk last October. Space science missions also garner attention, from the latest Hubble Space Telescope images to current and future Mars rover missions. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3948/1
93) A new use for InSight’s robotic arm
by Philip Horzempa Tuesday, May 26, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3949a.jpg)
The robotic arm, known as the Instrument Deployment Arm, on the Mars InSight lander as seen during the lander’s development. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Lockheed Martin)
The InSight Mars Lander comes equipped with a very capable robot arm and scoop. After a year of being used to assist the “mole” of the lander’s Heat flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) instrument burrow into the surface, this hardware could be used to produce additional science data. Specifically, the InSight team should consider a program to dig a deep trench to allow direct examination of the subsurface layers near the lander. This excavation may also provide clues regarding why the mole has had problems getting below the surface. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3949/1
94) Cyber security and space security
What are the challenges at the junction of cybersecurity and space security?
by Nayef Al-Rodhan Tuesday, May 26, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/2923a.jpg)
Communications links between ground stations and satellites are in some cases vulnerable to cyberattacks, linking cybersecurity with space security. (credit: Wikimapia)
In 2014, the network of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was hacked by China (https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/chinese-hack-us-weather-systems-satellite-network/2014/11/12/bef1206a-68e9-11e4-b053-65cea7903f2e_story.html). This event disrupted weather information and impacted stakeholders worldwide. Satellites are often highly vulnerable to cybersecurity breaches (https://uk.pcmag.com/news/119996/want-to-hack-a-satellite-it-might-be-easier-than-you-think) as some telemetry links are not even encrypted. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3950/1
95) Space resources: the broader aspect
by Kamil Muzyka Tuesday, May 26, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/2795a.jpg)
Space resources are not just a potential source of profit for space companies, but essential to survival for settlements beyond Earth. (credit: Anna Nesterova/Alliance for Space Development)
Space mining is back on the table. Yes, mining. Putting bucket-wheel excavators on the Moon and bringing back ores with rocket-propelled haulers and thousands of space-suited truckers, miners, and other people living and working in space. Some of them would be possibly brewing “Earthshine.” And the Americans are going to strip mine the whole Moon, hollow it out, and then move to someplace else. Americans will be ruining the Moon for their own profit, like they ruined the Earth. We have to stop them! Or if we can’t block their launch or landing sites, we must force them to share the benefits of space mining, and comply with regulations that would be beneficial for the whole world. We cannot allow their greed to ruin other celestial bodies, right? (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3951/1
96) Commercial crew’s day finally arrives
by Jeff Foust Tuesday, May 26, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3952a.jpg)
Doug Hurley (left) and Bob Behnken pose in front of the Tesla May 23 that will transport them to Launch Complex 39A for a final dress rehearsal before the Demo-2 launch scheduled for May 27. (credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
The commercial crew program has forced NASA to adapt to new ways of doing things as it partners with SpaceX. Ride to the launch pad in a Tesla? Sure, no problem. Adorn that Tesla, along with the Falcon 9 rocket, with both the NASA “worm” and “meatball” logos, contrary to past policy? The more the better. (See “Worms and wings, meatballs and swooshes: NASA insignias in popular culture (https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3947/1)”, The Space Review, May 18, 2020). Ditch the old orange pressure suit shuttle astronauts wore in favor a new, sleek, primarily white suit? Okay, as long as it meets NASA safety standards. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3952/1
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22/VI 2020 [97-101]
97) Astrobiotechnology: molecular steps towards the boundaries of space exploration
by Andrea Camera, Ana Sofia Mota, and Christos Tsagkaris Monday, June 1, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3953a.jpg)
The International Space Station’s Columbus module supports astrobiotech research, particularly for European scientists. (credit: ESA)
The Apollo 11 landing was reported as a small step by a man and a great step for mankind. Since then, there have been many steps in space research and exploration, or SRE. Astrobiotechnology, a relatively new branch of biotechnology developed in the frame and for the sake of SRE, is a field where molecular steps mark new endeavours and pave the way to new paths. (NASA, 2018; NASA, 2019) (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3953/1
98) Is open sourcing the next frontier in space exploration?
by Dylan Taylor Monday, June 1, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3954a.jpg)
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) flew a supercomputer on the ISS to test how terrestrial computing systems could operate in the space environment. (credit: HPE)
Humans are naturally curious. For centuries, we have used that curiosity to collaborate to achieve great things. You only have to look at ancient wonders like the Great Pyramids as well as modern-day engineering marvels like launch vehicles. Such traits help us advance technologically and learn more about the world around and above us. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3954/1
99) The genre-defining astronaut/ex-astronaut autobiographies
by Emily Carney Monday, June 1, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3955a.jpg)
Brian O’Leary wrote about his short tenure as a NASA astronaut 50 years ago.
Books still matter. Throughout the last sixty-plus years of spaceflight, literature chronicling spaceflight history and heritage, which runs the gamut from detailing hardware and rocketry to describing the features of the Moon and various solar system objects, have dazzled and awed readers, often introducing audiences to the subject. However, frequently the books that draw the most interest from readers are about the people: the astronauts, the flight controllers, and the workers. First-person accounts of a particular period can function as a “time machine,” pulling the reader closer into a project’s or program’s orbit (pardon the pun.)
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3955b.jpg)(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3955c.jpg)(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3955d.jpg)
(...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3955/1
100) NASA will not save 2020
by A.J. Mackenzie Monday, June 1, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3956a.jpg)
While the Demo-2 launch was a major milestone for NASA, it’s not going to “save” 2020 any more than Apollo 8 saved 1968. (credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky)
There is a bit a mythology popular among space aficionados about how NASA “saved” 1968. That year was, arguably, one of the worst for the United States in the 20th century. The Vietnam War raged on with no end in sight, civil rights protests turned violent, and leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated. But, around Christmastime that year, NASA launched Apollo 8, the first human mission to orbit the Moon. The success of that daring, unprecedented mission salvaged 1968, just in the nick of time—or, at least, that’s what many space enthusiasts believe. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3956/1
101) A shaky ride to a smooth launch
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 1, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3957a.jpg)
The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, named Endeavour by the two astronauts on board, approaches the ISS May 31. (credit: NASA)
Ordinarily, planning a mid-afternoon launch from Florida during the summer would be inadvisable, especially if there’s no margin for error. The heat and humidity can make for “dynamic” weather conditions (to use a word that came up frequently in forecasts last week) that make it difficult to predict if a launch can proceed. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3957/1
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23/VI 2020 [102-106]
102) Review: After LM
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 8, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3958a.jpg)
After LM: NASA Lunar Lander Concepts Beyond Apollo
by John Connolly
NASA, 2020
ebook, 277 pp.
ISBN 978-0-578-62272-9
Free
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20190031985
When NASA announced the winners of Human Landing System (HLS) awards at the end of April (see “Can NASA land humans on the Moon by 2024? (https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3946/1)”, The Space Review, May 18, 2020), one thing that was immediately obvious was the diversity of designs. SpaceX proposed a version of its Starship reusable launch vehicle, offering a lander far larger than its counterparts, and one so tall that astronauts would descend to the lunar surface not using a ladder but instead on an elevator. Dynetics, by contrast, proposed a lander with a low-slung crew cabin ringed by drop tanks. Only the “national team” led by Blue Origin offered a lander that looked like a descendent of the Apollo program’s Lunar Module, with an ascent stage mounted on top of a descent stage. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3958/1
103) Space alternate history before For All Mankind: Stephen Baxter’s NASA trilogy
by Simon Bradshaw Monday, June 8, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3959a.jpg)
Stephen Baxter’s “NASA trilogy” novels offered different looks at alternative histories, or futures, for NASA. (credit: NASA)
For All Mankind, one of the flagship shows of Apple’s original-content Apple TV+ service (see “Wasn’t the future wonderful? (https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3895/1)”, The Space Review, March 9, 2020), is far from being the first alternate history to reach our screens. Amazon’s adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle is the leading recent example, although the premise has been explored before in series such as Sliders (1995–2000). It is the first such production to specifically take and focus on as its premise an alternate history of human space exploration, overtly diverging from ours in June 1969 when Alexei Leonov becomes the first man on the Moon.[1] (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3959/1
104) Be careful what you wish for
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 8, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3960a.jpg)
President Donald Trump speaks at the Kennedy Space Center Vehicle Assembly Building after the successful Demo-2 commercial crew launch May 30. (credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
For decades, space advocates have sought presidential leadership in space: a commitment by a president and broader administration to make space a priority and take actions accordingly. That belief was rooted in President John F. Kennedy’s public advocacy for NASA and the goal he set of landing humans on the Moon by the end of the 1960s. NASA’s success in achieving that goal cemented that belief, even if, as historical records revealed decades later, that Kennedy personally was not that interested in space. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3960/1
105) How has traffic been managed in the sky, on waterways, and on the road? Comparisons for space situational awareness (part 1)
by Stephen Garber and Marissa Herron Monday, June 8, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/2663a.jpg)
The growth of both debris in Earth orbit from collisions and explosions as well as active satellites is raising awareness about the need for revised approaches to space traffic management. (credit: ESA)
Disclaimer: the views expressed in this article are solely those of the authors, not of NASA or of the Federal Government.
Most casual observers likely would agree that as the complex space operating environment becomes more crowded with more operating satellites and debris, the topics of space situational awareness (SSA) and space traffic management (STM) deserve more concerted attention. While we’ve had over 60 years of satellites in the large expanse of near-Earth space with only a handful of collisions, this likely will change as space becomes more crowded. To understand what kind of overall STM framework might be both useful and practical, we will examine some of the complexities of current SSA operations. For historical points of comparison, we then will look at literal and figurative “rules of the road” paradigms for traveling on land, sea, and in the air. Curiously, norms and procedures for managing the flights of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), aka “drones”, are evolving faster than those for STM, even though modern drones have flown effectively for fewer years than spacecraft. Some aeronautics researchers have looked at UAS traffic management (UTM) as a possible model for STM.[1] By assessing similarities and differences among how traffic is managed on roads, waterways, and in the air for diverse groups of drivers/pilots, we hope to stimulate careful thought on how inherently global space operations might best be managed in this rapidly evolving era of international capabilities in space, technological change, and commercialization. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3961/1
106) Imagining safety zones: Implications and open questions
by Jessy Kate Schingler Monday, June 8, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3962a.jpg)
The scarcity of lunar resources like volatiles illustrates the need to deconflict activities on the Moon in a way that is acceptable by all participants. (credit: NASA)
In May, NASA announced its intent to “establish a common set of principles to govern the civil exploration and use of outer space” referred to as the Artemis Accords.[1,2] The Accords were released initially as draft principles, to be developed and implemented through a series of bilateral agreements with international partners. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3962/1
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24/VI 2020 [107-111]
107) Review: Chasing the Dream
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 15, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3963a.jpg)
Chasing the Dream
by Dana Andrews
Classic Day Publishing, 2020
paperback, 350 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-59849-281-1
US$28.95
https://www.retiredrocketdoc.com/shop
The history of spaceflight is littered with concepts that never, literally or figuratively, got off the ground. The recent NASA book After LM described dozens of designs for lunar landers proposed after the Apollo program, up through the cancellation of the Constellation program a decade ago, none of which got even to the hardware production phase of development (see “Review: After LM (https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3958/1)”, The Space Review, June 8, 2020). The same is true, of course, for many other proposed launch vehicles and spacecraft. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3963/1
108) How has traffic been managed in the sky, on waterways, and on the road? Comparisons for space situational awareness (part 2)
by Stephen Garber and Marissa Herron Monday, June 15, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/2663a.jpg)
The growth of both debris in Earth orbit from collisions and explosions as well as active satellites is raising awareness about the need for revised approaches to space traffic management. (credit: ESA)
Disclaimer: the views expressed in this article are solely those of the authors, not of NASA or of the Federal Government.
Other traditional “rules of the road”
Taking a step back from the complexities of STM and looking at how traffic historically has been managed in other domains may provide some useful insights. One issue that cuts across land, air, and sea is vehicle worthiness. That is, cars, planes, and boats all need to be registered to ensure their safety, and this may be analogous to the satellite licensing process. Cars go through safety inspections to ensure road worthiness and minimum pollution standards, as well as to ensure we have functioning headlights to see and be seen at night, avoiding collisions. Just as cars, planes, and boats should be visible unless bad weather precludes this, so too should satellites be trackable. The technology for each domain is different, but the goal for all these vehicles is to be identifiable to foster communication and coordination of intended maneuvers. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3964/1
Part 1 https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3961/1
109) Hugging Hubble longer
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 15, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3965a.jpg)
The Hubble Space Telescope seen by the last servicing mission, STS-125 in 2009. (credit: NASA)
The future of space-based astronomy is delayed. Again.
Last week, Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA associate administrator, confirmed the inevitable: the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) won’t launch next March, as had been the schedule for the last two years. This time, a slowdown in work on the telescope that started this past March because of the pandemic will delay a launch, something that appeared increasingly obvious given the limited work that could be done and the available schedule reserves. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3965/1
110) The Eagle, the Bear, and the (other) Dragon: US-Russian relations in the SpaceX Era
by Gregory D. Miller Monday, June 15, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3966a.jpg)
A sucecssful SpaceX Crew Dragon mission will allow NASA to end its dependence on Russia for accessing the International Space Station, which brings with it geopolitical implications. (credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
The May 30 launch of two US astronauts aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, the first human launch into orbit from US soil in nearly nine years, raises several questions about the future of US-Russian cooperation in space (Snyder and Kramer; O’Callaghan), but also about US-Russian relations more generally. US astronauts have been launching aboard Russian spacecraft since 1995 (Uri), but with NASA’s retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011, the US human spaceflight program became reliant on Russian launch capabilities. Now that SpaceX showed its ability to perform this task, and plans more launches in the future, one must ask whether this development will help or hinder relations between the U. and Russia. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3966/1
111) Peresvet: a Russian mobile laser system to dazzle enemy satellites
by Bart Hendrickx Monday, June 15, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3967a.jpg)
The trailer-mounted Peresvet laser system as seen in a Russian Ministry of Defense video.
On March 1, 2018 Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered a saber-rattling State of the Union speech that harkened back to the darkest days of the Cold War. He used the occasion to put on a display of new armaments such as nuclear-powered cruise missiles and hypersonic glide vehicles capable of penetrating US missile defenses, underlining they had been developed as a result of the US pulling out of the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty in 2002. Putin also boasted that Russia was “one step ahead” in what he called “weapons with new physical properties”, adding:
“We have achieved significant progress in laser weapons. It is not just a concept or a plan anymore. It is not even in the early production stages. Since last year, our troops have been armed with laser weapons. I do not want to reveal more details. It is not the time yet. But experts will understand that with such weaponry, Russia’s defense capacity has multiplied.” (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3967/1
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25/VI 2020 [112-116]
112) Review: Cosmic Clouds 3-D
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 22, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3968a.jpg)
Cosmic Clouds 3-D: Where Stars Are Born
by David J. Eicher and Brian May
MIT Press, 2020
hardcover, 192 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-262-04402-8
US$40.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0262044021/spaceviews
Earlier this month, the New Horizons mission released the results of a unique experiment. The spacecraft, about seven billion kilometers from Earth, took pictures of two nearby stars, Proxima Centauri and Wolf 359. Project scientists compared them to images of the stars as seen from Earth. The result was a simple but powerful demonstration of parallax: the positions of the two stars were clearly shifted in the spacecraft images compared to the Earth. (Parallax is routinely used to measure distances to nearby stars, by using the Earth’s orbit as the baseline, but the shifts are never as prominent as in these images.) (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3968/1
113) Distributors should unplug the Earth imagery bottleneck
by Nicholas Borroz Monday, June 22, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3969a.jpg)
An image of Lower Manhattan take by Maxar’s WorldView-3 satellite in April. While there is plenty of satellite imagery and related data, getting the right data into the hands of analytics firms remains an obstacle. (credit: ©2020 Maxar Technologies)
In the midst of the pandemic-induced recession, the Earth imagery industry is a bright point in the space sector. Unlike other areas of the space sector, such as those dealing with satellite constellations or new launch vehicles, there is the potential to make relatively quick profits. This is significant because the recession will likely dampen investment in infrastructure projects that require large investments of time and capital to make returns. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3969/1
114) Spaceflight after the pandemic
by Eric R. Hedman Monday, June 22, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3728a.jpg)
The pandemic has created crowing demand for broadband that could be an opportunity for constellations like SpaceX’s Starlink, if they can afford to build and launch their satellites. (credit: SpaceX)
A crisis as big as the coronavirus pandemic can’t help but change the world. The space industry will change. We have already seen changes, like OneWeb filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March. There will be many more changes as this crisis plays out and long afterwards. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3970/1
115) Orbital use fees won’t solve the space debris problem
by Ruth Stilwell Monday, June 22, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3926a.jpg)
Orbital use fees are paid by operators of new satellites, but the collision risk largely comes from debris and inactive satellites. (credit: ESA)
When it comes to space debris, the numbers are repeated often: more than 21,000 objects ten centimeters across or larger, approximately half a million objects between one and ten centimeters in diameter. Across the space community, there is general agreement that space debris is an existing, and worsening, problem. Many point to the free and open access to space, while others argue that proposed “megaconstellations” will take low Earth orbit to the breaking point. In response, some argue that economic disincentives, like orbit fees or taxes, could be used to reduce demand by increasing the cost of a satellite in orbit. Some argue that additional satellites create additional debris risk solely based on the increase in the satellite population. But is this the problem we are trying to solve? (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3971/1
116) Stability and certainty for NASA’s exploration efforts
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 22, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3972a.jpg)
Kathy Lueders, NASA commercial crew program manager, monitors the approach of the Crew Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station May 31. NASA named Lueders as associate administrator for human exploration and operations June 12. (credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky)
For most of the last decade, NASA’s human spaceflight program had stable leadership. Since the establishment of the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate (HEOMD) in 2011, when NASA merged its space operations and exploration directorates, that part of NASA had been led by Bill Gerstenmaier, a veteran of NASA’s shuttle and space station programs. Over the next eight years, Gerstenmaier gained almost universal admiration and respect in the industry for his leadership and expertise during an often-tumultuous time for human spaceflight at the agency. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3972/1
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26/VI 2020 [117-121]
117) Review: The Search for Life on Mars
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 29, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3973a.jpg)
The Search for Life on Mars: The Greatest Scientific Detective Story of All Time
by Elizabeth Howell and Nicholas Booth
Arcade Publishing, 2020
hardcover, 424 pp.
ISBN 978-1-950691-39-5
US$27.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/195069139X/spaceviews
Over the next month the newest flotilla of Mars missions will set sail. Around the middle of July, a Japanese rocket will launch Hope, an orbiter that is the first Mars mission developed by the United Arab Emirates. Sometime in July, or perhaps early August, China will launch Tianwen-1, an ambitious mission that includes an orbiter, lander, and rover, but about which the Chinese space program has said little. Most of the attention, though, will go towards NASA’s Mars 2020 mission, carrying a rover called Perseverance and currently scheduled for launch on July 22. Perseverance will land on March next February and soon start caching samples of Martian rocks, part of an overarching Mars Sample Return effort that will take at least a decade to complete. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3973/1
118) Enhancing space deterrence thought for nuclear threshold threats (part 1)
by Christopher M. Stone Monday, June 29, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3686a.jpg)
Military planners need to consider threats not just from conventional anti-satellite weapons but also alternatives once dismissed as “unthinkable.” (credit: DRDO)
Most governments when asked to choose between war and peace are likely to choose peace because it looks safer. These same governments if asked to choose between getting the first or second strike will very likely choose the first strike…once they feel war is inevitable, or even very probable.
- Herman Kahn, On Thermonuclear War (1960)
Space fighting is not far off. National security has already exceeded territory and territorial waters and airspace and territorial space should also be added. The modes of defense will no longer be to fight on our own territory and fight for marine rights and interests. We must also engage in space defense as well as air defense.
- Teng Jinqun, People’s Liberation Army Analyst (2001) (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3974/1
119) The Artemis Accords: repeating the mistakes of the Age of Exploration
by Dennis O’Brien Monday, June 29, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3975a.jpg)
NASA’s approach to international cooperation, the Artemis Accords, rejects alternatives like the Moon Treaty, and an implementing agreement for it, that could be more viable in the long term. (credit: NASA)
“Space is a warfighting domain… It is not enough to have an American presence in space; we must have American dominance in space.”
- US Vice President Mike Pence, 2018[1]
In the spring of 1493, the King and Queen of Spain sent an envoy to the Pope in Rome. Along with Portugal, Spain had just used its advanced sailing and navigation technology to reach “new worlds,” areas of the Earth that had not been previously discovered by Europeans. But they had a problem: they wanted to establish sovereign property rights in the lands they had discovered, but they weren’t sure they could do so under their own authority. So, they turned to the only international authority in Europe at that time, the Catholic Church, which held sway over governments from Portugal to Poland, from the Arctic to the Mediterranean. If the Church would establish a legal framework that granted them sovereignty, then those nations would be bound to recognize it.[2] (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3975/1
120) THESEUS: a high-energy proposal for a medium-sized mission
by Arwen Rimmer Monday, June 29, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3976a.jpg)
An illustration of THESEUS, a proposed medium-class ESA missions to detect and precisely locate gamma-ray bursts. (credit: ESA)
THESEUS (https://arxiv.org/pdf/1710.04638.pdf) (Transient High-Energy Sky and Early and Universe Surveyor) is a space mission project aimed at detecting and characterizing gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) so as to investigate the early universe and advance multi-messenger and time-domain astrophysics. It is one of three finalists in the ESA’s latest call for medium-sized missions, along with EnVision and SPICA (see “EnVision and the Cosmic Vision decision”, The Space Review, March 2, 2020; and “SPICA: an infrared telescope to look back into the early universe”, The Space Review, May 4, 2020). (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3976/1
121) Sausage making in space: the quest to reform commercial space regulations
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 29, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3977a.jpg)
The new commercial remote sensing regulations should make it easier for synthetic aperture radar satellite companies like Capella Space get licenses for their systems. (credit: Capella Space)
There’s long been a tension between government and industry involving regulations. Companies traditionally want to minimize regulations in order to reduce the cost and other burdens they place on them. Governments, on the other hand, seek regulations in order to support broader priorities, like national security, workplace safety, and the environment. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3977/1
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27/VII 2020 [122-126]
122) Review: The Little Book of Cosmology
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 6, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3978a.jpg)
The Little Book of Cosmology
by Lyman Page
Princeton Univ. Press, 2020
hardcover, 152 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-691-19578-0
US$19.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0691195781/spaceviews
Physics and associated subjects, like cosmology, have plenty of canonical, and massive, books. Many physics students are acquainted with Gravitation, a classic textbook about general relativity whose authors include Nobel laurate Kip Thorne. Weighing in at more than 1,000 pages, the book seems massive enough to warp spacetime on its own. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3978/1
123) Enhancing space deterrence thought for nuclear threshold threats (part 2)
Assessing North Korean nuclear spacepower
by Christopher M. Stone Monday, July 6, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/2262a.jpg)
A North Korean rocket launch in December 2012. The rocket successfully placed a satellite into orbit, but that satellite appeared to be dead on arrival.
Strategic cultures are not like strategic plans. They are the result of political and cultural history and tend to be relatively stable over time. The study of these cultures would be inexpensive and could reduce our uncertainties about how these countries could use their new power.
- Stephen Rosen: Winning the Next War
(...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3979/1
124) “Artemis 8” using Dragon
by Robert Zubrin Monday, July 6, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3957a.jpg)
A SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, like the one approaching the ISS in May on the Demo-2 mission, could be sent around the Moon using a combination of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets. (credit: NASA)
The following memo was sent by the author to NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine and Scott Pace, executive secretary of the National Space Council, on June 30, 2020.
A mission equivalent to Apollo 8—call it “Artemis 8”—could be done, potentially as soon as this year, using Dragon, Falcon Heavy, and Falcon 9. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3980/1
125) It’s (small) rocket science, after all
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 6, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3981a.jpg)
A Rocket Lab Electron rocket lifts off Saturday on its ill-fated launch. (credit: Rocket Lab webcast)
Maybe companies should think twice about launching on US holidays.
To be fair, it was the morning of Sunday, July 5, in New Zealand when an Electron rocket lifted off from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 there. However, back in the United States, where Rocket Lab is headquartered, it was still the afternoon of July 4 when the Electron lifted off on a launch licensed by the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3981/1
126) National spaceports: the past
by Wayne Eleazer Monday, July 6, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3982a.jpg)
An Atlas V launch in August 2019, seen from the author’s home.
The US Air Force, long the operator of the nation’s primary space launch bases, is giving some thought to what “National Spaceports” should be. This analysis should be aided by certain facts.
The launch bases at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (AFS) and Vandenberg Air Force Base (AFB) originally were conceived as test facilities for Air Force Systems Command programs. Systems Command’s main focus was its product centers, the procurement organizations for new Air Force systems. They conducted development and acquisition of new military hardware. Under Systems Command’s highly programmatic focus, the launch centers and all other test ranges were entirely driven by the various procurement program requirements. Program offices almost always greatly dislike even the idea that they could be impacted by the requirements and actions of other programs, and as a result this produced a huge proliferation of range systems and facilities designed to meet specific program requirements, largely without regards to overall efficiency. Tracking systems, communications systems, utilities, and brick-and-mortar support facilities required by programs were installed at the launch bases largely without regard to long-term costs or efficiency. This had the effect of increasing test center capacity: dozens or even hundreds of test support operations were common every day, and even multiple rocket launches in one day were common. On the other hand, no doubt many opportunities were lost that could have reduced costs, or at least been better for future activities. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3982/1
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28/VII 2020 [127-131]
127) Review: The Sirens of Mars
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 13, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3983a.jpg)
The Sirens of Mars: Searching for Life on Another World
by Sarah Stewart Johnson
Crown, 2020
hardcover, 264 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-101-90481-7
US$28.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/110190481X/spaceviews
Move over, Shark Week: it’s Mars Month. From now through (hopefully) the end of the month, three missions are set to launch to go to Mars. The United Arab Emirates’ first Mars mission, an orbiter called Hope, is set to launch Wednesday morning (Tuesday afternoon US time) on an H-2A rocket in Japan. Next week is the likely launch date for Tainwen-1, China’s first full-scale Mars mission that includes an orbiter, lander, and rover. NASA’s Mars 2020 mission, carrying the rover Perseverance, is now scheduled for launch July 30 after some launch vehicle and spacecraft processing issues delayed the launch from July 17. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3983/1
128) Enhancing space deterrence thought for nuclear threshold threats (part 3)
A future defense space strategy for the Second Nuclear Age
by Christopher M. Stone Monday, July 13, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3095d.jpg)
The defense space strategy of the future must acknowledge the connection of space as a “forward region” of homeland defense similar to that of the emergent Asian nuclear-space powers in the second nuclear age environment.
Deterrence theory favors status quo powers, not powers unhappy with the limitations put on them by the existing distribution of power and superior weapons in the hands of others.
— Therese Delpech: Nuclear Deterrence in the 21st Century
(...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3984/1
129) Not so dark skies
by Al Globus Monday, July 13, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3985a.jpg)
In the book Dark Skies (https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0190903341/spaceviews), Daniel Deudney examines space settlement[1] in detail and comes to the conclusion that it is so likely to exterminate humanity or have other serious consequences that it should not be undertaken at all, or at least not for several centuries, giving time to improve homo sapiens’ habits. Deudney comes to his surprising conclusion by applying geopolitics, a part of political science that studies “the practice of states controlling and competing for territory,”[2] among other things, to space settlement, which Deudney describes as “habitat expansionism.” Deudney uses a version of geopolitical theory to generate 12 propositions and then applies them to predict the future, coming to the conclusion that space settlement is an existential threat to humanity and should be viewed in the same category as nuclear war. Dark Skies is a difficult read but it is also a detailed and extensive critique of space settlement that deserves a thoughtful response. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3985/1
130) CSI: Rocket Science
by Jeffrey L. Smith Monday, July 13, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3986a.jpg)
The Castor 600 rocket motor’s nozzle disintegrated during its inaugural test in May 2019, setting off an intense investigation. (credit: Northrop Grumman)
In the failure review process, engineers and technicians work together to perform two separate but equally important tasks: the Investigation to determine the accident’s Root Cause, and the Recovery to implement the Corrective Action.
These are their stories.
(...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3986/1
131) What’s in a name when it comes to an “accord”?
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 13, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3599a.jpg)
While development of the lunar Gateway (above) will be done through an extension of the intergovernmental agreement for the International Space Station, NASA envisions a new approach for further international cooperation in the Artemis program. (credit: NASA)
The cooperation among the nations involved in the International Space Station is governed by what’s known as the Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA), a legal framework that handles the rights and responsibilities of the United States, Russia, Japan, Canada, and various European nations involved in the station. That framework will be extended to cover the lunar Gateway, the facility NASA is developing in lunar orbit as part of the Artemis program with future contributions by Canada, Europe, Japan, and perhaps Russia. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3987/1
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29/VII 2020 [132-135]
132) Review: Once Upon a Time I Lived on Mars
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 20, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3988a.jpg)
Once Upon a Time I Lived on Mars: Space, Exploration, and Life on Earth
by Kate Greene
St. Martin’s Press, 2020
hardcover, 240 pp.
ISBN 978-1-250-15947-2
US$27.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1250159474/spaceviews
While the robotic missions launching to Mars this year have a wide range of science goals, they are widely seen as precursors for eventual human missions to the Red Planet. NASA’s Mars 2020 mission includes an experiment called MOXIE that will demonstrate a way to produce oxygen from the carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere, a capability that will be essential for future human expeditions. NASA’s fiscal year 2021 budget proposal included a request to start work on a Mars Ice Mapper mission, an orbiter that would search for subsurface ice deposits that could be resources for future human expeditions. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3988/1
133) Tracking off-the-books satellites with low perigees
by Charles Phillips Monday, July 20, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3989a.jpg)
A printout of a computer prediction of the reentry of Skylab in 1979, illustrating the hazards of low-perigee objects.
One fascinating study is objects that reenter the atmosphere: watching to see how low an orbit various objects can have and still survive, and where they reenter. My first professional job was in the US Air Force as an orbital analyst and one of the first things I worked on was the reentry of Skylab. It was a lot of fun for a young person. The image above is a plot from our 427M computer that showed predicted reentry time and location; there are probably not many surviving prints from that system. Skylab was an example that large objects that fall from the sky can cause damage and alarm to people below them. I was glad that the US Air Force had taken upon itself the responsibility of alerting the world. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3989/1
134) The pandemic’s effect on NASA science
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 20, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3990a.jpg)
The coronavirus pandemic is partly to blame for the latest James Webb Space Telescope launch slip, a seven-month delay to October 31, 2021. (credit: NASA/Chris Gunn)
When the coronavirus pandemic started affecting NASA operations in March, forcing the agency to close centers (see “Space in uncertain times”, The Space Review March 23, 2020), NASA leadership prioritized some activities, like operation of the International Space Station and other spacecraft missions. NASA also elevated the priority of the SpaceX Demo-2 commercial crew test flight and the launch of the Mars 2020 mission. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3990/1
135) Handshakes and histories: The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, 45 years later
by Asif Siddiqi and Dwayne A. Day Monday, July 20, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3991a.jpg)
The Apollo-Soyuz mission was in many ways intended to be the most visible symbol of a new era of détente between the United States and the Soviet Union. (credit: NASA)
On July 15, 1975, two rockets lifted off their launch pads on other sides of the world. One was a Soyuz spacecraft launching out of the Baikonur Cosmodrome, carrying cosmonauts Alexei Leonov and Valeri Kubasov. The other was an Apollo spacecraft atop the last of the Saturn IB rockets, carrying Thomas Stafford, Vance Brand, and Deke Slayton. Two days later the spacecraft linked up, their space travelers opened their hatches, and they engaged in a symbolic handshake in orbit that was intended to symbolize a thawing of Cold War tensions between two superpowers equipped to annihilate each other in nuclear war. Now, 45 years later, the Russian space agency Roscosmos has released a large trove of declassified documents about the Soviet side of this event which at the time seemed incredibly historic, but in retrospect now looks like a minor footnote in a long and continuing rivalry. Hindsight, it turns out, can be blurrier than we think. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3991/1
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30/VII 2020 [136-140]
136) Review: Promise Denied
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 27, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3992a.jpg)
Promise Denied: NASA’s X-34 and the Quest for Cheap, Reusable Access to Space
by Bruce I. Larrimer
NASA, 2020
ebook, 410 pp., illus.
ISBN 9781626830516
free
https://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/promise_denied.html
If, in 1995, you told people in the space industry that in a quarter-century there would be partially reusable launch vehicles in operation commercially, the news might have been a little bit of a disappointment. The mid-1990s were the heyday for reusable launch vehicle concepts, particularly single stage to orbit (SSTO). The DC-X Delta Clipper, developed by the Pentagon and later transferred to NASA and renamed the DC-XA Clipper Graham, was making test flights in New Mexico, demonstrating vertical takeoff and landing. NASA had ambitions for an even more capable RLV demonstrator, the X-33, that Lockheed Martin won the contract to develop with plans to turn it into a commercial SSTO vehicle, VentureStar. Certainly by 2020 RLVs would be commonplace, flying daily! (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3992/1
137) What you should learn from Comet NEOWISE
by Hariharan Karthikeyan Monday, July 27, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3993a.jpg)
Comet NEOWISE as photographed by the author recently. (credit: Hariharan Karthikeyan)
This was nothing short of a hasty search for the highest point in the city. As the sky dimmed, we drove in separate cars for miles and miles unsuccessfully, finally settling for a rugged trail that branched off of Beatty Drive in El Dorado Hills, California. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3993/1
138) Highway to the Danger Zone: The National Reconnaissance Office and a downed F-14 Tomcat in Iraq
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, July 27, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3994a.jpg)
An F-14 Tomcat from fighter squadron VF-154 “the Black Knights” like the one lost over Iraq in April 2003. (credit: seaforces.org)
It was April 1, 2003, in the opening days of the American invasion of Iraq, known as Operation Iraqi Freedom, when it still seemed like the United States and its coalition partners were going to liberate the country from a brutal dictator, and before the occupation turned into a long, brutal, messy conflict. Lieutenant Chad Vincelette and Lieutenant Commander Scotty “Gordo” McDonald were assigned to squadron VF-154, “the Black Knights,” flying the squadron’s last deployment of the F-14A Tomcat. Their call-sign was “JUNKER 14.” The squadron had been split in two, with most aircraft staying on the USS Kitty Hawk, while five were based ashore, at Al Udeid Air Base, in Qatar. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3994/1
139) National spaceports: the future
by Wayne Eleazer Monday, July 27, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3995a.jpg)
The Space Force offers an opportunity to stop repeating the mistakes of the past when it comes to operating launch sites. (credit: US Navy)
“National spaceports: the past” explained how different organizational inclinations, as well as both Command and Air Force priorities and specific experiences, impacted the way different Air Force commands regarded and managed the Air Force test ranges that have become national spaceports. These attitudes and priorities had significant impacts on the way the spaceports were operated and planned. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3995/1
140) Irregular disorder and the NASA budget
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 27, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3946a.jpg)
The lunar lander concept by the “national team” led by Blue Origin, one of three that NASA is currently supporting through the Human Landing System program. The House version of a fiscal year 2021 spending bill provides NASA with only a fraction of the funding the agency requested for that program. (credit: Blue Origin)
It’s been a long time since there’s been anything like “regular order” in the congressional appropriations process: individual bills passed by the House and Senate, their differences resolved in conference to produce a final version that’s signed into law before the beginning of the fiscal year October 1. Instead, there are usually stopgap funding bills, called continuing resolutions, that extend for weeks or months before a massive omnibus bill, combining up to a dozen different bills, is eventually passed. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3996/1
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31/VIII 2020 [141-145]
141) Sending Washington to the Moon: an interview with Richard Paul
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, August 3, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3997a.jpg)
A celebration of the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 last year in Washington. A radio show two decades earlier examined the political issues behind the program. (credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Recently, the BBC World Service podcast “13 Minutes to the Moon” finished its second season, focusing on the Apollo 13 mission during seven episodes. It has been an outstanding series so far. But this was not the first time that radio has addressed the Apollo program in an interesting and substantive way. Two decades ago there was a two-part radio broadcast that also told a complicated space story involving multiple actors. In 1999, in honor of the 30th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, radio station WAMU in Washington, DC, aired a program about the role of Washington politics in the lunar landing. “Washington Goes to the Moon” (WGTTM) was written and produced by Richard Paul and featured interviews with a number of key figures in the story, from historians to NASA and congressional officials to famed newsman Walter Cronkite. After the radio program aired Paul, the author of We Could Not Fail: The First African Americans in the Space Program, turned transcripts of the interviews over to NASA as historical documents. These transcripts included unaired portions of the interviews. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3997/1
142) Mars race rhetoric
by Ajey Lele Monday, August 3, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3900b.jpg)
NASA launched the Mars 2020 mission, featuring the Perseverance rover, last week, bound for a landing on Mars next February. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Science gets viewed as the search for truth. It helps to remove bias and bring in objectivity. But the intimacy of science and politics is also well-known. Depending upon the purpose, science could have societal, political, economic, and strategic backdrops. Science requires political patronage, mainly for funding. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3998/1
143) Propelling Perseverance: The legacy of Viking is helping NASA get to Mars
by Joe Cassady Monday, August 3, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3999a.jpg)
The same thruster design used for the Viking landers was resurrected for the Curiosity landing (above) and will be used on the Perseverance landing next year. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Much has been written in the past few weeks about the NASA Mars 2020 mission that will carry the rover Perseverance and the helicopter Ingenuity to Mars. But did you know that the transportation system that will deliver these phenomenal machines to the surface of the Red Planet actually owes much to the original Viking landers back in the 1970s? It’s true. This is a tale of tried and true engines and a little bit of perseverance to accomplish the task that the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) liked to proclaim as “Dare Mighty Things!” (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3999/1
144) How the “Department of Exploration” supports Mars 2020 and more
by Paul Dabbar Monday, August 3, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4000a.jpg)
An Atlas V rocket carrying the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover lifts off July 30 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. (credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky)
Rovers can’t rove without persistent sources of power. That’s especially true when it comes to space exploration. And when NASA’s Perseverance rover begins exploring the Red Planet next February after its launch last Thursday, it will do so thanks to power supplied by the Department of Energy (DOE), which may be better dubbed the “Department of Exploration.” (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4000/1
145) Captured flag
by Jeff Foust Monday, August 3, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4001a.jpg)
The Crew Dragon spacecraft Endeavour moments before splashdown August 2 that ended the Demo-2 mission. (credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
During a ceremony on the final space shuttle mission, STS-135 in July 2011, astronauts on the International Space Station spoke with then-President Barack Obama. During the call, the astronauts showed off a small American flag, 10 by 15 centimeters, that has also flown on the first shuttle mission three decades earlier. That flag, they said, would remain on the station until the next crewed American spacecraft arrived at the station. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4001/1
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32/VIII 2020 [146-150]
146) Review: War in Space
by Jeff Foust Monday, August 10, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4002a.jpg)
War in Space: Strategy, Spacepower, Geopolitics
by Bleddyn E. Bowen
Edinburgh University Press, 2020
hardcover, 288 pp.
ISBN 978-1-4744-5048-5
US$110.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1474450482/spaceviews
The latest salvo, if you will, in the debate about a space arms race came last month. US Space Command announced that Russia conducted what it considered an anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons test in orbit when the Kosmos 2543 satellite deployed an object in the vicinity of another Russian satellite. The speed of the deployed object led the US government to conclude this was a test of a kinetic projectile. “This is further evidence of Russia’s continuing efforts to develop and test space-based systems, and consistent with the Kremlin’s published military doctrine to employ weapons that hold US and allied space assets at risk,” said Gen. Jay Raymond, head of both Space Command and the US Space Force, in a statement. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4002/1
147) Orbital space tourism set for rebirth in 2021
by Tony Quine Monday, August 10, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4003a.jpg)
Both Axiom Space and Space Adventures have announced contracts for Crew Dragon missions, either to the International Space Station or a free-flyer mission to a higher orbit. (credit: SpaceX)
Orbital space tourism has been in a holding pattern since 2009, a decade-long hiatus caused, indirectly, by the end of the space shuttle in 2011. However, orbital space tourism is finally due to return in 2021, perhaps on a scale unimaginable back in 2009.
According to media releases from the two main protagonists in the sector, Space Adventures and Axiom Space, up to nine seats to orbit will be available for purchase, by either individuals or organizations, during the final quarter of 2021. These will be spread across three spaceflights, using both the tried and tested Russian Soyuz, and SpaceX’s Dragon, two of which will dock at the International Space Station. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4003/1
148) Virgin Galactic, still awaiting liftoff, spreads its wings
by Jeff Foust Monday, August 10, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4004a.jpg)
The interior of SpaceShipTwo features reclining seats, lots of cameras, and a mirror in the back. (credit: Virgin Galactic)
For the last 15 years, Virgin Galactic has been very clear about its plans: develop a suborbital vehicle, SpaceShipTwo, that will fly customers and payloads to the edge of space on a regular basis. It’s kept a focus on that goal despite extensive delays, testing setbacks, and a fatal test flight accident nearly six years ago. When the company did develop a side business, a small launch vehicle called LauncherOne, it spun that out into Virgin Orbit, a separate business that now shares little with Virgin Galactic other than founder Richard Branson and the “Virgin” in their names. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4004/1
149) After the fire: a long-lost transcript from the Apollo 1 fire investigation
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, August 10, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4005a.jpg)
The crew of Apollo 1 crosses the gantry to the spacecraft on the day of the fire, January 27, 1967. (credit: NASA)
As long as there has been spaceflight, there have been conspiracy theories. There were conspiracy theories about Sputnik in the late 1950s (“their Germans are better than our Germans”) and dead cosmonauts in the early 1960s. Even before some people claimed—on the very day that it happened—that the Moon landing was faked, Apollo had its own conspiracy theories. In those days it was difficult for them to propagate and reach a wide audience, unlike today, when they can spread around the world at the speed of light. One of those Apollo conspiracy theories was about a whistleblower named Thomas Baron, who later died under mysterious circumstances. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4005/1
150) Upgrading Russia’s fleet of optical reconnaissance satellites
by Bart Hendrickx Monday, August 10, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4006a.jpg)
Early concept for a 2.4 m primary mirror scheduled to fly on Russia’s next-generation Razdan reconnaissance satellites. (credit: Kontenant magazine)
Russia currently has only two operational optical reconnaissance satellites in orbit, both of which may already have exceeded their design lifetime. They are to be replaced by more capable satellites carrying a primary mirror about the same size as of those believed to be flown aboard American reconnaissance satellites, but it is unclear when these will be ready to fly. An experimental satellite launched in 2018 likely is the precursor of a constellation of much smaller spy satellites that will augment the imagery provided by the big satellites. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4006/1
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33/VIII 2020 [151-155]
151) Review: Shuttle, Houston
by Jeff Foust Monday, August 24, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4007a.jpg)
Shuttle, Houston: My Life in the Center Seat of Mission Control
by Paul Dye
Hachette Books, 2020
Hardcover, 320 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-316-45457-5
US$28.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0316454575/spaceviews
The recent SpaceX commercial crew mission offered a look at the future of mission control, or at least the concept of mission control. There was the traditional NASA Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, overseeing the operations of the International Space Station. There was also, though, SpaceX’s own mission control center at its Hawthorne, California, headquarters, which handled the Crew Dragon itself. During their trip to the station in May, and back home in August, the NASA astronauts on the spacecraft communicated directly with the SpaceX mission control rather than with JSC. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4007/1
152) Reaching for the stars: structural reform in the private space sector in India
by Anirudh Rastogi and Varun Baliga Monday, August 24, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4008a.jpg)
New privatization initiatives by the Indian government may help space startups in the country, like small launch vehicle developer Skyroot Aerospace. (credit: Skyroot Aerospace)
India has taken steps in quick succession to liberalize its private space industry. In May, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the opening up of the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO’s) facilities to the country’s private sector as part of its COVID-19 special economic stimulus. More recently, the Indian Cabinet approved the setting up of the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) to facilitate private sector participation “through encouraging policies and a friendly regulatory environment.” These are early but laudable steps. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4008/1
153) NASA’s Artemis Accords: the path to a united space law or a divided one?
by Guoyu Wang Monday, August 24, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3975a.jpg)
The Artemis Accords are intended to ensure partners in NASA’s Artemis program agree to a set of principles, but some of those principles may raise international space law issues. (credit: NASA)
On May 15, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine presented the critical points of The Artemis Accords Principles for a Safe, Peaceful, and Prosperous Future (the Artemis Accords) publicly (see “What’s in a name when it comes to an ‘accord’?”, The Space Review, July 13, 2020). The Artemis Accords attempt to clarify basic principles and rule frameworks in international law for the sake of lunar activities which are led by the US, and then to influence and promote the international community to reach a consensus on the legality of space resources activities. It shows that the US carries on the rationale of the Space Resource Exploration and Utilization Act of 2015, along with the Presidential Decree No.13914, and continues to promote the construction of legal and political certainties on space resource activities. In this way, more countries will be attracted to participate in not just the Artemis program, but also future space resources activities on other celestial bodies, such as extracting and utilizing resources on Mars or asteroids. This will have a certain impact not just on the nature of space activities and the relations between spacefaring countries, but also on the discussion of relevant international rules. The main question to be discussed here is whether it will bring to a united space law or a divided one. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4009/1
154) The National Aeronautics and Space and Arms Control Administration (NASACA)?
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, August 24, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4010a.jpg)
A missile during a May Day Parade in Red Square. In 1969, NASA sought a role in arms control negotiations between the US and USSR.
Nineteen sixty-nine was a key turning point for NASA. In July, the agency landed Apollo 11 on the Moon, a stunning achievement that culminated more than eight years of frantic effort. But by that time the agency’s future was already in question. The Nixon administration had begun questioning the agency’s budget and looking for ways to cut it. Advisers had indicated that there were major policy issues to address about what would happen after Apollo landed on the Moon, and soon some in the administration would question if NASA was even necessary. It was in the midst of this uncertain environment that NASA Administrator Thomas Paine made a surprising suggestion that has been classified for 50 years: NASA could become the key US government agency for monitoring arms control agreements. Newly declassified documents are now shedding some light on this previously unknown proposal, but they raise many questions requiring further study. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4010/1
155) Losers and (sore) winners
by Jeff Foust Monday, August 24, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3940b.jpg)
While SpaceX won the Air Force launch competition using its existing Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, it will have to build a mobile servicing tower (right) at LC-39A to allow for vertical processing of payloads, as well as a stretched payload fairing for the Falcon Heavy. (credit: SpaceX)
In April 2014, Elon Musk declared war on the US Air Force. At a press conference in Washington, he announced that he was filing suit against the service, arguing that it had locked SpaceX out of future military launch contracts with a block buy of launches from rival United Launch Alliance. “Essentially, what we feel is that this is not right,” he said at that event. “National security launches should be put up for competition, and they should not be awarded on a sole-source, uncompeted basis.” (See “SpaceX escalates the EELV debate”, The Space Review, April 28, 2014.) (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4011/1
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34/VIII 2020 [156-160]
156) Review: The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking)
by Jeff Foust Monday, August 31, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4012a.jpg)
The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking)
by Katie Mack
Scribner, 2020
hardcover, 240 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-9821-0354-5
US$26.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/198210354X/spaceviews
The end of the universe is probably one of the last things on everyone’s minds these days, given all the problems that make you wonder how we’ll get through just this year. It’s something that is (presumably) very far in the future, and also something we have absolutely no control over. But, perhaps, you are a little curious about how it will all come to an end—whether or not you want to accelerate the process. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4012/1
157) From SSA to space recon: Setting the conditions to prevail in astrodynamic combat
by Maj. James Kirby, US Army Monday, August 31, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4013a.jpg)
The growing concerns about threats to military space assets requires a new mindset, adapted from terrestrial military reconnaissance, to help identify those threats in a timely fashion. (credit: DOD)
Traditional orbital analysis in support of the concept of Space Situational Awareness (SSA) has been historically focused upon the concepts of executing orbit determinations, state vector updates, and close approach analysis to support safety of flight. While these functions will remain foundational, the mindset and culture that has developed these procedures must change in the face of existential threats to our space capabilities. No longer may we be content with a solely a passive awareness of the domain, focused on collision avoidance and safety of flight; rather we must transform our perspective to merge the physics of Newton, Kepler, Lambert, Clohessy, Wiltshire, and Hill, and the reconnaissance principals and culture of Tzu, Buford, and Wellesley into concepts that shape maneuver warfare in this emerging warfighting Area Of Responsibility (AOR). (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4013/1
158) Collaboration is the cornerstone of space exploration
by Dylan Taylor Monday, August 31, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3900b.jpg)
NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover, launched in late July, carried instruments from several companies and is just one example of the importance of international collaboration in space exploration. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
When Neil Armstrong proclaimed that landing on the Moon was “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” the resonance of its message not only alluded to the incredible undertaking that a moon landing entailed, but it also ignited the human imagination and the spirit of invention for what could now be possible. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4014/1
159) Outer space needs private law
by Alexander William Salter Monday, August 31, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3946b.jpg)
NASA’s Artremis program and its proposed Artemis Accords has triggered debate about space governance. (credit: Dynetics)
The Cold War is back, and it’s headed into orbit. American tensions with China and Russia are escalating, especially since Russia’s suspected anti-satellite weapons test. The stakes are nothing less than a peaceful future in space. Operations in orbit and beyond require extraordinary precision and certainty. Any conflict can seriously hinder operational efficiency for both governments and businesses. Fortunately, there’s a solution that can benefit all parties: Giving private law a major role in ordering the cosmos. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4015/1
160) Pick an agency, any agency
by Jeff Foust Monday, August 31, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3926a.jpg)
A report commissioned by Congress affirmed the administration’s choice of the Office of Space Commerce within the Department of Commerce as the lead agency for civil space traffic management. (credit: ESA)
When President Trump appeared at a meeting of the National Space Council at the White House in June 2018, the highlight was his announcement that the administration would seek to establish a Space Force as a separate military branch. It overshadowed his signing of Space Policy Directive (SPD) 3, which focused on space traffic management and assigned responsibilities to the Commerce Department (see “Managing space traffic expectations”, The Space Review, June 25, 2018). (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4016/1
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35/IX 2020 [161-165]
161) Review: The Smallest Lights in the Universe
by Jeff Foust Tuesday, September 8, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4017a.jpg)
The Smallest Lights in the Universe: A Memoir
by Sara Seager
Crown, 2020
hardcover, 320 pp.
ISBN 978-0-525-57625-9
US$28.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0525576258/spaceviews
Science is done by scientists. That may seem like an obvious statement, but it’s something often forgotten in the announcements of discoveries, including in astronomy and related space sciences. Discoveries are often attributed—particularly in news headlines—to the spacecraft or observatories used to make them. But those discoveries are made not by spacecraft and instruments, but by people who operate them and analyze the data they produce. Those researchers, like the rest of us, are people with their own motivations to do such work, and struggles to overcome to achieve those discoveries. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4017/1
162) Walking through the doors of history: unlocking a space tradition
by Kirby Kahler Tuesday, September 8, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4018a.jpg)
The shuttle mission stickers above the double doors at the O&C. (credit: K. Kahler)
In July 2019, I had the unique opportunity to revisit the astronaut walkout doors at the Neil Armstrong Operations & Checkout Building (O&C) at the Kennedy Space Center for the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11. Fifty years ago, I was one of more than 3,500 journalists trying to get the “money shot” of the Apollo 11 astronaut walkout. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4018/1
163) The Artemis Accords: a shared framework for space exploration
by Paul Stimers and Abby Dinegar Tuesday, September 8, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4019a.jpg)
NASA plans to seek international partners for the Artemis lunar exploration program, making an agreement like the Artemis Accords critical. (credit: NASA)
President Trump has made quite a mark on US space policy by announcing the Artemis program to send the first woman and the next man to the Moon in 2024 and creating the Space Force. The recent developments continue the role America has always played in space: a leader and partner in peaceful, cooperative international efforts. This is the spirit that has led to 20 years of continuous human presence in space aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and that sent American astronauts to the Moon a half century ago, not to claim territory, but “in peace for all mankind.” President Trump’s initiatives build carefully and squarely atop a foundation of policy that stretches across decades of bipartisan leadership. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4019/1
164) Making the transition from the ISS
by Jeff Foust Tuesday, September 8, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3888a.jpg)
Axiom Space won a NASA award early this year to add commercial modules to the International Space Station, but NASA has put on hold a similar competition to support a free-flyer commercial station. (credit: Axiom Space)
In less than two months, the International Space Station will reach a milestone. On November 2, 2000, the Soyuz TM-31 spacecraft carrying Russian cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev, and American astronaut Bill Shepherd, docked with the Zvezda module of the International Space Station. Since that day the station has been continuously occupied, meaning that, barring a calamity of some kind in the coming weeks, the station will soon surpass 20 years with people on board. That is a major accomplishment for a program that struggled for years to get off the drawing boards and into orbit. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4020/1
165) The future on hold: America’s need to redefine its space paradigm
by Stephen Kostes Tuesday, September 8, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3200a.jpg)
Constructing a cislunar infrastructure will drive renewed investment in education and training, and it will re-direct investment back into the historical drivers of job creation and economic growth.
A powerful school of economic thought today, led by economists such as Robert Gordon, suggests that, during the 1970s, the focus of technological innovation changed and, as a result, economic growth started to decline and wealth inequality began to rise. While there are many factors involved, it is interesting to note that this coincides with the end of the Apollo era. Along with severe budget cuts, this limited scope of innovation certainly took its toll on the space program. However, it also seems to have short-circuited our economy as well. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4021/1
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36/IX 2020 [166-170]
166) Review: Space Dogs
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 14, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4022a.jpg)
Space Dogs
Directed by Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter
Icarus Films, 2019
91 mins.
https://www.raumzeitfilm.com/spacedogs-kino
Most readers are familiar with the tale of Laika, the first animal in space. A stray picked up off the streets of Moscow, Laika was flown on the second Sputnik satellite in November 1957, claiming yet another first for the Soviet space program. The flight was a one-way mission from the beginning, since Sputnik 2 has no capability to survive reentry. Laika, as later historical research revealed, likely died from overheating just a few hours after launch. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4022/1
167) The West needs bold, sustainable, and inclusive space programs and visions, or else
by Giulio Prisco Monday, September 14, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4023a.jpg)
A Chinese concept for a lunar base. China’s long-term vision for space exploration and utilization poses a challenge to the US and its partners. (credit: CAST)
China is planning an International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) (https://spacenews.com/china-is-aiming-to-attract-partners-for-an-international-lunar-research-station/) in the lunar south pole region, and recently revealed that it is seeking international partners.
I hope there’ll be international ILRS partners, but I guess they’ll play only a token role. Since I’m not too optimistic on the US Artemis lunar program (I’ll come to that), going to the Moon as guests of the Chinese may become the only plausible option for aspiring astronauts in the rest of the world. But of course, foreigners will be kept far from the really important things that China wants. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4023/1
168) Star children: can humans be fruitful and multiply off-planet?
by Fred Nadis Monday, September 14, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4024a.jpg)
A Dutch startup, SpaceLife Origin, proposed a series of missions leading up to a baby being born in orbit, before backing off last year. (credit: SpaceLife Origin)
From his home in Cape Canaveral, Air Force pilot Alex Layendecker explained how he had been drawn to the study of sex and reproduction in space. “I had been immersed in the space environment in the Air Force, assigned to launch duty, and was simultaneously pursuing an M.A. in public health, and then at the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality, and I was looking for a dissertation topic,” he recalled. “I decided that sex and reproduction in space had not received the attention they deserved—if we’re serious about discussions of colonization, having babies in microgravity—on Mars or other outposts of the Earth, then more needs to be learned.” His general recommendation was that because of the squeamishness of NASA to study sex in space, a private nonprofit organization, or Astrosexological Research Institute, should be founded for this research critical to human settlement of outer space. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4024/1
169) Launch failures: fill ’er up?
by Wayne Eleazer Monday, September 14, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4025a.jpg)
A Proton launch in 2010 failed not because it ran out of propellant but instead because it had too much on board. (credit: Roscosmos)
One of the most common causes of airplane accidents is a pilot sitting there and letting the thing run out of gas. This type of mishap is much less common with space launches, but early propulsion system shutdowns due to the vehicle running out of propellant have occurred in some noteworthy cases.
The majority of liquid propellant space boosters ever launched have lacked a system with even as little sophistication as a bewildered pilot staring at a dropping fuel gauge. The engines were tested, the performance noted, and the required amounts of fuel and oxidizer calculated using simple formulas. For vehicles using liquid oxygen (LOX) as the oxidizer, that tank was topped off: a necessity since it kept boiling off until mere seconds before liftoff, when the vent valve was closed. The fuel was loaded based on the calculations, with a bit extra added to provide some margin. Thor, Titan, and Delta all used this approach, as did most foreign vehicles. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4025/1
170) Moon and Mars advocates find peace
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 14, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4026a.jpg)
NASA’s lunar Gateway, part of the agency’s Artemis program, could also be used to support Mars exploration through long-duration crewed missions there. (credit: NASA)
For decades, it seems, space exploration advocates have done battle over the long-term goals of human spaceflight, even as humans remained stuck in low Earth orbit. Some have argued for a return to the Moon, both for its own sake as well as a proving ground for missions beyond. Others, though, have pushed for going to Mars, often as soon as possible, fearing that a lunar return could be a costly, lengthy detour. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4026/1
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37/IX 2020 [171-175]
171) Review: The Last Stargazers
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 21, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4027a.jpg)
The Last Stargazers: The Enduring Story of Astronomy’s Vanishing Explorers
by Emily Levesque
Sourcebooks, 2020
hardcover, 336 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-4926-8107-6
US$25.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1492681075/spaceviews
Two historic observatories were in the news recently, not because of any new discoveries they made but instead due to threats to their existence. Last month, a wildfire in the early days of California’s horrific fire season approached Lick Observatory, on a mountaintop near San Jose. Last week, another fire encroached on Mount Wilson Observatory near Los Angeles, at one point coming within a couple hundred meters of its major telescopes. Fortunately, in both cases firefighters were able to halt the fires, with only minor damage at each observatory. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4027/1
172) Review: Orphans in Space
by Glen E. Swanson Monday, September 21, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4028a.jpg)
Orphans in Space is a two-DVD set with an eclectic collection of little-known space-related films.
Orphans in Space: Forgotten Films from the Final Frontier
DVD
2012, The Orphans Film Project
In early April, while doing research for an article (see “‘Space, the final frontier’: Star Trek and the national space rhetoric of Eisenhower, Kennedy and NASA”, The Space Review, April 20, 2020), I interviewed Megan Prelinger. During that interview, she mentioned that both she and her husband Rick helped assemble a collection of space-themed films that appeared in a DVD set called Orphans in Space: Forgotten Films from the Final Frontier. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4028/1
173) Venus: science and politics
by Ajey Lele Monday, September 21, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4029a.jpg)
An image of the surface of Venus taken by the Soviet Union’s Venera 13 mission.
For many years, the major focus for space exploration has been Mars and the Moon. Of course, the scientific community has been involved in missions elsewhere in the solar system, but the agendas for major space agencies have been dominated by the missions to the Moon and Mars. Now, there exists a possibility that another world could push its way into those agendas.
The discovery
Venus is known as the hottest planet in the solar system, with surface temperatures as high as 470°C. In fact, Venus is even hotter than Mercury because Venus thick atmosphere filled with carbon dioxide, generating a runaway greenhouse effect. Venus is sometimes called the sister planet of the Earth, since it is very similar to the Earth in terms of size and mass. However, the problem is that the temperature and atmosphere of Venus makes it entirely different than the Earth. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4029/1
174) Why the detection of phosphine in the clouds of Venus is a big deal
by Paul K. Byrne Monday, September 21, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4030a.jpg)
The discovery of phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus could be a sign of life, as well as a sign of new life for exploration of thew planet. (credit: European Space Organization/M. Kornmesser & NASA/JPL/Caltech)
[This article was originally published by The Conversation, and is reprinted under a Creative Commons license.]
On September 14, a new planet was added to the list of potentially habitable worlds in the Solar System: Venus.
Phosphine, a toxic gas made up of one phosphorus and three hydrogen atoms (PH3), commonly produced by organic life forms but otherwise difficult to make on rocky planets, was discovered in the middle layer of the atmosphere of Venus. This raises the tantalizing possibility that something is alive on our planetary neighbor. With this discovery, Venus joins the exalted ranks of Mars and the icy moons Enceladus and Europa among planetary bodies where life may once have existed, or perhaps might even still does today. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4030/1
175) Where will Artemis 3 land? And when?
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 21, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4031a.jpg)
Comments last week suggested the Artemis 3 lunar landing might not take place near the lunar south pole, but NASA has since reiterated it still plans to go to the south pole. (credit: NASA)
NASA’s Artemis program faces many challenges to overcome to achieve its goal of landing humans on the Moon in 2024. There are the myriad technical problems that have already occurred, and will likely continue to crop up in the coming years as NASA completes development of the Space Launch System, Orion, one or more human lunar landers, and the lunar Gateway. Funding remains a challenge, as evidenced by a House bill that provides NASA with less than a fifth the funding it sought for the Human Landing System (HLS) program (see “Irregular disorder and the NASA budget”, The Space Review, July 27, 2020). And, there’s the possibility that a change of administrations next year will lead to a slowdown, or even abandonment, of the entire program. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4031/1
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38/IX 2020 [176-180]
176) Review: China in Space
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, September 28, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4032a.jpg)
China in Space: The Great Leap Forward, 2nd ed.
by Brian Harvey
Springer; 2nd ed. 2019
paperback, 564 pages
ISBN-13: 978-3-030-19587-8
US$37.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/3030195872/spaceviews
Brian Harvey has long written about China’s space program as well as the space programs of India and Japan. This is a second edition of his book on China’s expanding space program, successor to the edition published in 2013. It provides a good overview of the breadth of Chinese space activities, as well as what has led up to China’s current projects and their future ambitions. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4032/1
177) Photons and phosphine
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 28, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4033a.jpg)
Rocket Lab’s Photon satellite bus will be used to support the launch of NASA’s CAPSTONE mission to the Moon next year. (credit: NASA)
On August 31, a Rocket Lab Electron rocket lifted off from the company’s launch pad in New Zealand, placing a radar imaging satellite for startup Capella Space into orbit. The launch represented the return to flight of the Electron, which failed in its previous launch less than two months earlier (see “It’s (small) rocket science, after all”, The Space Review, July 6, 2020). An investigation tracked down the cause of the failure to an “anomalous electrical connection” in the rocket’s second stage that had evaded the company’s acceptance testing processes prior to launch. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4033/1
178) Battle of the Titans (part 1)
by Wayne Eleazer Monday, September 28, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4034a.jpg)
What would become the Titan IV faced challenges both before and after the Air Force selected the design for development. (credit: Lockheed Martin)
As has been described in various articles in The Space Review (see “When ‘about time’ equals ‘too late’”, October 11, 2005; “The engine problem”, August 3, 2015; “About those scrapped Atlas ICBMs”, July 6, 2010), the Space Shuttle was developed to be the sole US launch vehicle that would be supported by the US Government. All US government payloads eventually would fly on nothing but the shuttle and that meant American commercial payloads would also. All rocket engine development except that related to the shuttle was stopped in the 1970s and most rocket engine production ended as well. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4034/1
179) Reality bites
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, September 28, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4035a.jpg)
The website for the planned “Space Hero” reality TV show has a countdown clock but little else about the show that would send the winner to the ISS. (credit: spacehero.me)
Two weeks ago, the Hollywood publication Deadline reported an exclusive that sounded a lot like déjà vu all over again:
“Space Hero Inc., a U.S.-based production company founded by Thomas Reemer and Deborah Sass and led by former News Corp Europe chief Marty Pompadur, has secured a seat on a 2023 mission to the International Space Station. It will go to a contestant chosen through an unscripted show titled Space Hero. Produced by Ben Silverman and Howard Owens’ Propagate, the series will launch a global search for everyday people from any background who share a deep love for space exploration. They will be vying for the biggest prize ever awarded on TV.” (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4035/1
180) India’s Mars orbiter completes six years at the red planet, but where is the science?
by Jatan Mehta Monday, September 28, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4036a.jpg)
India’s Mangalyaan spacecraft arrived at Mars six years ago, but the scientific output of the mission has been a disappointment. (credit: ISRO)
September 24 marked six years since ISRO’s Mars Orbiter Mission, or Mangalyaan, spacecraft entered Mars orbit, making India the first Asian country to do so. What is even more impressive is that Mangalyaan was the country’s first interplanetary mission. Combined with the cost effectiveness for which it is lauded, Mangalyaan is often hailed as India’s most successful space mission. But is it? (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4036/1
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39/X 2020 [181-185]
181) Review: Space Is Open for Business
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 5, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4037a.jpg)
Space Is Open for Business: The Industry That Can Transform Humanity
by Robert C. Jacobson
Robert Jacobson, 2020
paperback, 418 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-7342051-0-7
US$32.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1734205105/spaceviews
Despite the economic upheavals in the last year caused by the coronavirus pandemic, interest in space continues largely unabated (see “Commercial space, and space commercialization, weather the pandemic”, The Space Review, this issue). CNBC reported over the weekend on a recent analysis by Bank of America, which projected the global space economy would more than triple over the next decade, to $1.4 trillion in 2030. While the analysis was simplistic—Bank of America simply assumed the average annual growth rate of the last two years, more than 10%, would continue for the next ten—it exemplifies the bullishness the investment community has shown in space in recent years. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4037/1
182) Why addressing the environmental crisis should be the space industry’s top priority
by Loïs Miraux Monday, October 5, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4038a.jpg)
Hurricane Florence as seen from the International Space Station. (credit: NASA)
How can we give meaning to space missions in the context of a global environmental crisis? World Space Week 2020 (October 4–10) and its theme “Satellites Improve Life” will remind us of the numerous benefits that space-based assets bring on Earth. However, as climate change has been largely recognized as an existential threat in the 21st century, some space activities, such as space exploration or space tourism, raise important questions. Some projects continue to promise technological solutions to environmental issues in outer space. They won’t help. The environment should be space industry’s top priority. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4038/1
183) Commercial space, and space commercialization, weather the pandemic
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 5, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4039a.jpg)
A Northrop Grumman Antares rocket lifts off October 2 carrying a Cygnus cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station. Included in the Cygnus was a commercial payload for Estée Lauder. (credit: NASA Wallops/Patrick Black)
The Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft that launched Friday night from Wallops Island, Virginia, bound for the International Space Station, carried a diverse array of cargo. There were science and technology demonstration payloads, ranging from testing cancer treatments to growing radishes in microgravity (yes, scientists said at a pre-launch briefing, the astronauts will be able to eat the radishes.) There were also some nitrogen gas bottles for the station’s air supply as the crew worked to trace the source of a small air leak, now thought to be in the Zvezda module. And there was the Universal Waste Management System, a next-generation space toilet that will be tested on the ISS before it’s used on the Orion spacecraft. (“When the astronauts have to go, we want to allow them to boldly go,” said one member of the team that developed it.) (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4039/1
184) Battle of the Titans (part 2)
by Wayne Eleazer Monday, October 5, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4040a.jpg)
A converted Titan II ICBM launches the Quickscat mission for NASA. (credit: NASA)
It was a matter of national policy that the Space Shuttle would be the only new US launch system, but not everyone in the US Air Force agreed with that philosophy. The Complementary Expendable Launch Vehicle (CELV) procurement that began in 1984 and became the Titan IV program addressed back up launches for three very important Air Force payloads, all to be launched from Cape Canaveral (see “Battle of the Titans (part 1)”, The Space Review, September 28, 2020). Soon after CELV got underway in 1984, some Air Force officers began thinking about the problem of alternative launch capabilities for payloads using polar orbits launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4040/1
185) Mars ain’t the kind of place to take your kid: Netflix’s “Away”
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, October 5, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4041a.jpg)
Netflix’s “Away” is about a crew on a journey to Mars, but much of the story takes place on Earth and feels no different than a typical suburban melodrama on basic cable.
How do we measure what is in the popular culture, what occupies the zeitgeist? Certainly some things are obvious. But what about the subjects that do not overwhelm popular discussion, but nevertheless occasionally rise up above the din? Subjects like Mars. Where is Mars in our popular culture today? (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4041/1
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40/X 2020 [186-190]
186) Review: Neutron Stars
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 12, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4042a.jpg)
Neutron Stars: The Quest to Understand the Zombies of the Cosmos
by Katia Moskvitch
Harvard Univ. Press, 2020
hardcover, 304 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-674-91935-8
US$29.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0674919351/spaceviews
There’s too much gold in the universe. That’s the conclusion of a recent study that compared the abundances of gold measured in our solar system with the known mechanisms for producing gold. The primary way to create it, astronomers believe, is when two neutron stars collide (supernovae don’t help, since any star massive enough to produce gold through fusion will end up as a black hole, trapping the gold within it.) But, the study’s authors noted, neutron star collisions don’t appear to be frequent enough to produce the gold we do see. Either another process creates gold, or neutron star collisions create more gold than astronomers expect. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4042/1
187) Space entrepreneurs need to look to the stars but keep their feet on the ground
by Nicholas Borroz Monday, October 12, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4043a.jpg)
Many get into the space industry seeking to pursue interesting technologies, like reusable rockets; a sustainable business plan is only a secondary concern. (credit: SpaceX)
The space sector is one where technological marvels are widely celebrated. As private firms become more influential in the sector, there has been a veritable explosion of exciting plans for employing next-generation technologies. This creativity is inspiring, but it also has drawbacks. Entrepreneurs should continue pursuing their visions, but they should also make sure to ground their enterprises in reality. They should clearly understand how their activities benefit others. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4043/1
188) In the paler moonlight: the future’s past in “For All Mankind”
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, October 12, 2020
Note: This article contains spoilers for the first and second seasons of For All Mankind.
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4044a.jpg)
“For All Mankind’s” first season ended with an American base on the Moon. In season 2, set in the 1980s, the base has expanded, and become the focus of the Cold War struggle with the Soviet Union.
The second season of Apple TV+’s “For All Mankind” was filming when reality intervened, halting production after eight episodes had been shot, although production resumed late in the summer. For a show about world events to be derailed by a world event is perhaps overly ironic, but despite the delay, the producers did release a trailer for season two, and it indicates that things are heating up on the Moon. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4044/1
189) The three administrators
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 12, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4045a.jpg)
Former NASA administrator Charlie Bolden, seen here at a 2019 conference, joined two of his predecessors in the Aviation Week webinar last week. (credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)
NASA administrators get plenty of advice, solicited and unsolicited, while on the job. Politicians, executives, scientists, and others are more than willing to weigh in on what the agency’s leader should do. The best advice, though, might come from the people who previously held the job—if they’re willing to give it. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4045/1
190) Semantics in lexicon: Moving away from the term “salvage” in outer space
by Michael J. Listner Monday, October 12, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4046a.jpg)
As more efforts get started to repair and revive derelict satellites, the space industry needs to reconsider its use of “salvage” when describing such operations. (credit: Northrop Grumman)
The idea of salvage in outer space is one that evokes fervent discussions about space debris and recovering defunct satellites for possession. The idea of salvage in outer space is misunderstood and mischaracterized by private space enthusiasts, and is one I’ve discussed here before (see “Taking salvage in outer space from fiction to fact”, The Space Review, March 20, 2017). Moreover, I suggested that a form of salvage, akin to contract salvage in the maritime domain, might be an appropriate model for outer space and that a precedent has already laid the groundwork with the recovery of the Palpa B and Weststar VI satellites by NASA and the Space Shuttle.[1] The successful rendezvous and servicing operation performed on Intelsat 901 by the SpaceLogistics Mission Extension Vehicle 1 (MEV-1) earlier this year and a follow-on mission by MEV-2 with the Intelsat 10-02 next year lays the groundwork for opportunities for more of these activities in outer space. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4046/1
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41/X 2020 [191-195]
191) Review: Canadarm and Collaboration
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 19, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4047a.jpg)
Canadarm and Collaboration: How Canada’s Astronauts and Space Robots Explore New Worlds
by Elizabeth Howell
ECW Press, 2020
paperback, 240 pp.
ISBN 978-1-77041-442-6
US$19.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1770414428/spaceviews
For most people in the space field, the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about Canada’s space program is its series of robotic arms (with the possible recent exception of former astronaut/social media personality Chris Hadfield.) Over the last four decades, Canada has become synonymous with those systems, first with the Canadarm on the shuttle and then Canadarm2 and the Dextre manipulator on the space station. The back of the Canadian five-dollar bill includes an illustration of Canadarm2, while a model of a robotic manipulator was visible in the office of new Canadian Space Agency president Lisa Campbell last week when she participated in a virtual signing ceremony for the NASA-led Artemis Accords. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4047/1
192) Is the New Zealand commercial space success story a model for other countries?
by Marçal Sanmartí Monday, October 19, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4048a.jpg)
New Zealand’s Cook Strait viewed from the International Space Station. (credit: NASA)
These remotely located group of islands in the South Pacific with a population of just five million people has a tradition of punching above its weight. New Zealand is a primary industries powerhouse; probably hosts the best known and successful rugby team on Earth, the All Blacks; and is seen internationally as a champion in the fight against COVID-19. The space sector is emerging as another such area—ironic, considering that locals refer themselves as kiwis, the name of a local flightless bird! (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4048/1
193) Rock-solid (Blue) Cube: Galileo and the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake
by Joseph T. Page II Monday, October 19, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4049a.jpg)
The US Air Force Satellite Control Facility circa 1984, located near Sunnyvale, California.
Thirty-one years ago, the United States space program placed a mark in the “win” column amidst a terrible terrestrial tragedy. On October 18, 1989, the shuttle Atlantis lifted off from Cape Canaveral’s Launch Complex 39B, carrying the Jupiter-bound Galileo space probe atop its Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) booster. While the Galileo saga included many epic twists and turns over the decades since its conception, one of the most inspiring stories came from the unlikeliest of places: a non-descript blue building in Sunnyvale, California less than 24 hours before the launch. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4049/1
194) TAG, Bennu, you’re it
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 19, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4050a.jpg)
An illustration of OSIRIS-REx, its sample gathering arm extended, approaching the surface of the asteroid Bennu. (credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona)
Some call it a fist bump. Others, a “boop.” But the formal name is “touch and go,” or TAG, which clearly illustrates what NASA will attempt to do Tuesday.
The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft—one of the more convoluted acronyms in NASA’s history—has been orbiting the asteroid Bennu since late 2018, studying the asteroid while scouting for a landing site. On Tuesday, the spacecraft will descend towards the selected site, dubbed Nightingale, extending a robotic arm with a sampling mechanism, called TAGSAM, on the end. If all goes well, that mechanism will touch down on the surface, collect at least 60 grams, and perhaps up to two kilograms, of material, in just five to ten seconds, before the spacecraft pulls away: touch and go. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4050/1
195) Applied witchcraft: American communications intelligence satellites during the 1960s
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, October 19, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4051a.jpg)
A TOPHAT communications intelligence satellite launched in 1970. This satellite was about the size of a small refrigerator and gathered up Soviet communications from low Earth orbit. (credit: NRO)
During the Battle of Midway in June 1942, Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander in Chief of the US Pacific Fleet, monitored the battle from his command center in Pearl Harbor, picking up snippets of radio traffic from both American and Japanese forces. After hearing that American planes had spotted the Japanese carriers and started their attack, Nimitz and his officers heard nothing more from the Japanese carriers for a long period, but then intercepted a message from the Japanese force seeking the location of the American fleet. After another long silence, the Americans intercepted a coded Japanese message. The call sign on the message was Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, whose flagship was the carrier Akagi. But one of the American naval officers present had become an expert at identifying the styles of the Japanese operators who tapped out coded messages. This message was not tapped out by the Akagi’s heavy-handed warrant officer, but instead by the chief radioman in the cruiser Nagara. The Americans concluded from this small bit of evidence that the Akagi had been damaged too heavily to serve as flagship, and Nagumo had shifted his command to the cruiser. In fact, Akagi was in flames, Nagumo had barely escaped alive by climbing down a rope from the ship’s bridge, and the carrier, which had participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor, would sink within the day. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4051/1
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42/X 2020 [196-200]
196) If we are going forward to the Moon, don’t go back to Apollo
by Christopher Cokinos Monday, October 26, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4052a.jpg)
Aristarchus crater might be a better alternative landing site for the first Artemis missions than an Apollo site, if the south pole of the Moon is ruled out. (credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University)
NASA Administrator James Bridenstine recently surprised the space community by suggesting that the first crewed Artemis surface mission to the Moon, slated for 2024, might not land at the south pole as previously discussed but instead could revisit one of the Apollo landing sites in the easier-to-reach lunar equatorial regions. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4052/1
197) From the Truman Proclamation to the Artemis Accords: steps toward establishing a bottom-up framework for governance in space
by Alfred B. Anzaldúa and Cristin Finnigan Monday, October 26, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4019a.jpg)
Should lunar governance for future exploration and other activities be done in a bottom-up or top-down way? (credit: NASA)
Humanity stands at the doorway of an astounding societal transformation. While many people worldwide pass time attending to urgent personal matters or frivolous entertainments, nation states and private parties harbor serious plans to launch missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond to establish permanent outposts and communities. Such extraterrestrial activity offers vast potential to unleash “infinite opportunity, boundless freedom, and unfettered creativity.”[1] (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4053/1
198) The Artemis Accords take shape
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 26, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4054a.jpg)
Representatives of the US and seven other nations signed the Artemis Accords in a virtual ceremony October 13. (credit: NASA)
It was a signing ceremony for the Zoom era. On the screens of attendees of the virtual International Astronautical Congress October 13, as well as anyone who tuned in to NASA TV, was a three-by-three array of screens, a fancy version of video chats that have become commonplace. In each window, a government official put pen to paper; some matter-of-factly, others proudly showing off the document they signed. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4054/1
199) Swords into plowshares: the top secret PERCHERON project
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, October 26, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4055a.jpg)
One of the last KH-7 GAMBIT-1 reconnaissance satellites was launched in early 1967. General Electric proposed using the successful spacecraft for NASA missions, but ran headlong into secrecy issues, angering officials at the National Reconnaissance Office, which procured and operated GAMBIT. (credit: Peter Hunter Collection)
In the 1960s, NASA had the coolest stuff. They had Mars probes and lunar landers, Gemini spacecraft and spacesuits and the coolest of the cool, the Saturn V rocket. But NASA didn’t have everything. The top secret National Reconnaissance Office, with a budget that was probably only 15% as big as NASA’s, had some powerful camera systems, large high-quality optical mirrors inside spacecraft that the NRO routinely launched into low Earth orbit. NASA had fledgling astrophysics and Earth observation programs that could benefit from the NRO’s technology, but there were policy and secrecy requirements that prevented NASA from acquiring them. Nevertheless, companies that built this equipment for the NRO looked at NASA as another potential customer and sought out ways to sell it to them. And sometimes those efforts went badly. PERCHERON is one of those stories. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4055/1
200) Russia gears up for electronic warfare in space (part 1)
by Bart Hendrickx Monday, October 26, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4056a.jpg)
The Krasukha-4 electronic warfare system is used among other things to interfere with observations of radar reconnaissance satellites (source).
Russia is building up an impressive capability to conduct electronic warfare against foreign satellites. At the center of this effort is the development of a variety of mobile ground-based systems to interfere with the operations of both communications and radar reconnaissance satellites. There is also evidence for plans to perform electronic warfare from space using nuclear-powered satellites. Aside from that, work is underway at various locations in Russia to construct ground-based infrastructure to obtain signals intelligence on foreign satellites and apparently also to protect Russia’s own fleet of satellites against electronic attack from outside. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4056/1
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43/XI 2020 [201-205]
201) Review: Star Crossed
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 2, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4057a.jpg)
Star Crossed: The Story of Astronaut Lisa Nowak
by Kimberly C. Moore
University Press of Florida, 2020
hardcover, 296 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-8130-6654-7
US$28.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0813066549/spaceviews
We’ve come a long way from the earliest days of the US space program, where the Mercury 7 astronauts were placed on a pedestal as clean-cut, All-American men. They, and the astronauts who followed, were far from perfect, as we have since learned: some carousing and unfaithful to their spouses, others suffering from alcoholism and depression. Marriages were shattered and careers derailed because these best-of-the-best had human weakness and frailties, like the rest of us. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4057/1
202) The Green New Deal for space
by S. Mike Pavelec Monday, November 2, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4043a.jpg)
Innovations in spaceflight and space markets can help achieve the goals of a Green New Deal. (credit: SpaceX)
As we approach yet another election in the US, a number of incredibly important issues will be decided. One is the future of American space power, the role of the government, military, and civilian sectors, and ongoing and increasing concern for the future health of the planet. There is an argument for why climate activists, political representatives, and anyone who supports radical change to mitigate global climate change needs to embrace US efforts in space now and into the near future. This argument is based on both the Green New Deal platform as well as current and near-future space capabilities. Environmentalists, politicians, and the population in general should support space exploration and access for the future of the planet and humanity. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4058/1
203) US space missions require bipartisan support for optimal long-term success
by Namrata Goswami Monday, November 2, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4031a.jpg)
If elected, a Biden Administration should press forward with many space initiatives, like a return to the Moon, to keep pace with China’s space ambitions. (credit: NASA)
Missions to explore and develop outer space necessitate long-term resource commitment and policy focus. This kind of long-term strategy formulation and identification of “decades out” space policy goals (2020–2049) and resource commitment is evident in China’s space program. Soon after China landed on the far side of the Moon in January 2019, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced plans to establish a permanent lunar research base by 2036. In February, China’s Tianwen-1 Mars mission, launched July 23 of this year, will attempt to enter into Martian orbit, and later land on the Martian surface and release a rover to carry out a survey of Mars’ surface to include its soil composition. According to Chinese media, the scientific goals of China’s Mars mission are:
Mapping the morphology and geological structure, investigating surface soil characteristics and water-ice distribution, analyzing the surface material composition, measuring the ionosphere and the characteristics of the Martian climate and environment at the surface, and perceiving the physical fields and internal structure of Mars. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4059/1
204) Russia gears up for electronic warfare in space (part 2)
by Bart Hendrickx Monday, November 2, 2020 [Part 1 was published last week]
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4060a.jpg)
A signals intelligence site (code-named 1511/2) under construction near Pionerskiy is intended to intercept signals from foreign satellites (Google Earth image taken on May 22, 2020).
Space-based electronic warfare
Russia may also be working on a capability to perform electronic warfare (EW) from space. Interest in this arose back in the 1980s as part of a large-scale effort to develop countermeasures against America’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), which was aimed at forming a space-based shield against incoming Soviet missiles. One of many projects proposed at the time was a space-based EW system called OREST-02 (an unknown acronym), which is seen in a list of space-based systems intended to attack targets on land, in the oceans and in the air.[1] There are no indications that OREST-02 ever went beyond the proposal stage and the plans were likely shelved after the collapse of the Soviet Union. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4060/1
205) A dynamic ISS prepares for its future, and its end
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 2, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4061a.jpg)
The International Space Station will gain a set of commercial modules later this decade, a precursor for both commercial space stations and the end of the ISS itself. (credit: Axiom Space)
Twenty years ago today, the crew of Expedition 1—Bill Shepherd, Yuri Gidzenko, and Sergei Krikalev—arrived at the International Space Station, kicking off occupation of the station that has continued uninterrupted to this day. NASA and its partners have been celebrating this impending milestone for months, regularly remining the public that there is now a whole generation of people who have no memories of a time when there were not people in orbit. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4061/1
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44/XI 2020 [206-210]
206) Review: Luna Cognita
by Joseph T. Page II Monday, November 9, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4062a.jpg)
Luna Cognita: A Comprehensive Observer’s Handbook of the Known Moon 1st ed. 2020 Edition
by Robert A. Garfinkle
Springer Nature, 2020
hardcover, 1680 pp., illus. (three volume set)
ISBN 978-1-4939-1663-4
US$89.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1493916637/spaceviews
As the closest celestial object in our skies, the Moon has an amazing body of literature surrounding it. Primitive humans looked up into the sky and saw the mysterious orb appear and disappear in a timely (and predictable) manner. As civilization developed, the Moon became a natural target of attention. For the romantics among us, it invokes poetry and mythological lore about supernatural effects on both human and beasts. For scientists, the Moon is a literal playground for chemical and geologic processes that hold clues to our own Earth’s origins. Over the past few centuries, especially since the human exploration missions, the Moon has had a lot written about it. One might wonder, “Is another book about the Moon really needed?” (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4062/1
207) Russia looks for actress to steal Tom Cruise space movie thunder
by Tony Quine Monday, November 9, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4063a.jpg)
An illustration for the movie Vyzov, which will include scenes filmed on the ISS involving an actress selected as part of a competition. (credit: Roscosmos)
Russia’s not-too-subtle effort to upstage Tom Cruise’s plans to film the first ever feature film in Earth orbit have taken a major step forward, with more details announced jointly by the Russian space agency Roscosmos and Channel One TV, from Moscow.
Vague details released in September have now been fleshed out, with the headline grabbing news being the decision to base the Russian movie plot around a woman, meaning that the filmmakers will need to find an actress willing to fly on a Soyuz rocket in October next year. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4063/1
208) How ISRO handled the pandemic
by Ajey Lele Monday, November 9, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4064a.jpg)
An Indian PSLV lifts off November 7 on the first launch by ISRO since last December. (credit: ISRO)
On November 7, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully undertook a ten-satellite launch. ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, in its 51st flight (PSLV-C49), successfully launched EOS-01 along with nine international customer satellites. This was the first launch for ISRO this year. EOS-01 is an Earth observation satellite, intended for applications in agriculture, forestry and disaster management support, and should become operational in the coming days. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4064/1
209) Closing the business case
by Robert G. Oler Monday, November 9, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4065a.jpg)
President-elect Joe Biden faces tough questions about what NASA’s future direction in human spaceflight should be. (credit: Adam Schultz/Biden for President)
The American people have spoken. At noon on January 20, 2021, the Biden-Harris Administration will end four years of chaos passing for governance. The new administration’s underlying goal must be making government work again.
Key to that goal is to regain social trust with both the citizenry of the United States and other governments of the world. Social trust forms when people and organizations accomplish the things that are proposed. In government it means organizations succeeding in making the lives of the people who pay the bills measurably better. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4065/1
210) Moon 2020-something
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 9, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4031a.jpg)
A 2024 human lunar landing, a goal many in the industry treated skeptically even before the election, may now be out of reach. (credit: NASA)
It can be hard to believe, in this era where the pandemic has warped our sense of time, that the centerpiece of NASA’s human space exploration plans isn’t that new. It was only in March 2019, a little more than 18 months ago, that Vice President Mike Pence announced that he was calling on NASA to return humans to the Moon by 2024. Prior to his speech, NASA was working towards a human landing in 2028, after first assembling the lunar Gateway. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4066/1
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45/XI 2020 [211-215]
211) George Low made the hard choices on Apollo: a review of “The Ultimate Engineer”
by Emily Carney and Dwayne A. Day Monday, November 16, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4067a.jpg)
The Ultimate Engineer: The Remarkable Life of NASA’s Visionary Leader George M. Low
by Richard Jurek
University of Nebraska Press, 2019
hardcover: 344 pages, illus.
ISBN 978-0-8032-9955-9
US$32.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0803299559/spaceviews
The Apollo program was an immensely complicated project that some estimates indicate involved nearly 400,000 people working on different aspects of it, spread all across the country. Despite the hundreds of books written about Apollo in the past half century, surprisingly, a number of key officials and aspects of the program have been, if not entirely overlooked, certainly not given the attention they are due. One of these people is George Low, a senior NASA official who made numerous key decisions in the program while based in Houston but frequently traveling to NASA headquarters in Washington, DC. Low has often been relegated to the background in Apollo histories that focus on astronauts and rockets, despite playing a major role in keeping Apollo focused on its goal of beating the Russians to the Moon. Low, for instance, was the main driver of the gutsy decision to send Apollo 8 around the Moon in December 1968. Now, Richard Jurek has written a book focused on Low that gives him his due. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4067/1
212) The need for US leadership in remediating space debris
by Jessica Duronio Monday, November 16, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3847a.jpg)
The US can take the lead in establishing rules for orbital debris remediation, setting a standard for other countries to follow. (credit: ESA)
Some 150 million pieces of debris litter Earth orbit, and outer space is getting more crowded. Discarded rocket bodies, defunct satellites, lost instruments, even chips of paint circle the Earth at up to 25,000 kilometers per hour. They are capable of causing incredible damage.
So far, the international community has failed to address the problem of space junk. There are no rules for the remediation, or removal, of orbital debris, thereby leaving vital US space assets vulnerable to potential accident. The US should promote and uphold the safety and sustainability of outer space by establishing regulatory rules for the remediation of space debris. Those rules should be modeled after the United States Government Orbital Debris Mitigation Standard Practices. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4068/1
213) Lunar commerce: a question of semantics?
by Derek Webber Monday, November 16, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4069a.jpg)
Can some lunar development activities, such as resource extraction, ever be considered a true commercial venture? And if so, when? (credit: Caterpillar)
Many planning professionals are working all over the globe on aspects of returning to the Moon, with an expressed focus this time on sustainability and commercial developments. Most are carrying out the design and development work for the necessary science and engineering technologies. Others are investing considerable thought to the issues of governance and international regulatory protocols. I want to consider here the commercial element, move toward some way of characterizing it, and thereby seek to provide a firm and stable basis for attempting to quantify the elements. We need to reach an understanding of the likely combination, scale, and timing of commercial contributions in developing the Moon. Such an understanding is important in coming to decisions about design, sizing, and costs of various infrastructure elements. There is a direct link between demand forecasts, design architectures, and overall costs. So, even though at present it is difficult to quantify, we must attempt to provide at least a basis for forecasting and budgeting. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4069/1
214) Spooks and satellites: the role of intelligence in Cold War American space policy
by Aaron Bateman Monday, November 16, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3927a.jpg)
A 1985 test of an anti-satellite missile released from an F-15 fighter. Intelligence on Soviet ASAT activities played a role in policy decisions in the 1970s and 1980s that led to the development of this ASAT weapon as well as support for SDI. (credit: USAF)
In 1978, Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) Admiral Stansfield Turner declared that the “Russians can kill us in space.” Shortly thereafter, President Carter approved the Pentagon’s request to test an anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon to place greater pressure on the USSR over ASAT arms control. Reagan Administration officials regularly invoked intelligence on Soviet space activities to justify both the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) and the Miniature Homing Vehicle (MHV) ASAT program. The declassified intelligence record reveals that the US Intelligence Community was less alarmist in its assessments of Soviet military space capabilities than some public statements suggested. Intelligence did, nevertheless, play a direct role in the decisions to develop US ASATs, and later to justify space-based missile defense. Perhaps most interestingly, the Reagan administration systematically released sanitized intelligence on Soviet military capabilities in the publication Soviet Military Power to garner greater support for SDI. Now, with the declassification of relevant national security documents on Soviet space activity, it is possible to better understand the role of intelligence in shaping American space policy during the Cold War. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4070/1
215) From development to operations, at long last
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 16, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4071a.jpg)
A Falcon 9 carrying a Crew Dragon spacecraft with four astronauts on board lifts off November 15 from the Kennedy Space Center. (credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky)
Launches are the aspect of space activities that often attract the most attention, and understandably so: they are dramatic spectacles, controlled explosions that on occasion become uncontrolled. But while important, their glare can blind us to more important issues. The launch industry, for example, is just a small fraction of the overall space industry, with communications and other services provided by satellites generating far more revenue. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4071/1
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46/XI 2020 [216-220]
216) Review: Spacepower Ascendant
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 23, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4072a.jpg)
Spacepower Ascendant: Space Development Theory and a New Space Strategy
By Joshua P. Carlson
independently published, 2020
paperback, 257 pp., illus.
ISBN 979-8655659230
US$19.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B08BWGPR8V/spaceviews
This week’s launch of China’s Chang’e-5 lunar sample return mission will doubtless reinvigorate claims of a space race between the US and China, including those who believe the US is falling behind China in such a competition. The Chinese effort will likely be depicted as part of a grand strategy by China to harness the resources of the Moon (water, rare earth elements, helium-3, etc.), if not seize the Moon itself, to become the dominant power in space and therefore on Earth. If America does not respond, they argue, it risks ultimately being subservient to China.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4072/1
217) In the new spectrum of space law, will Biden favor the Moon Treaty?
by Dennis O’Brien Monday, November 23, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4065a.jpg)
President-elect Joe Biden has said little about space, but his views on the Convention on the Law of the Seas from his time in the Senate could shape plans for the Artemis Accords and space resources. (credit: Adam Schultz/Biden for President)
The full spectrum of space law, from nationalist to internationalist, was on display at the Moon Village Association’s annual symposium earlier this month. But the question on everyone’s mind was, what will be the effect of Joe Biden’s election as the next President of the United States? He has already declared his intent to rejoin the Paris Climate Accords and the World Health Organization. A look at his Senate record gives us a hint concerning his space policy.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4073/1
218) The space resources debate pivots from asteroids to the Moon
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 23, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4074a.jpg)
Over the last five years, the issue of using space resources has shifted from asteroid mining to lunar exploration. (credit: ESA)
Five years ago this week, President Obama signed into law the Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act (CSLCA) of 2015. The bill, as its name suggests, primarily dealt with commercial launch issues, such as extending the indemnification regime for commercial launch liability and establishing a class of spaceflight participants known as “government astronauts” who would be treated differently than their commercial counterparts.
The CSLCA, though, is best known for a section that was once a standalone bill, the Space Resource Exploration and Utilization Act of 2015. That section stated that any US company that extracted resources from asteroids or other celestial bodies beyond Earth would be entitled to them, “including to possess, own, transport, use, and sell the asteroid resource or space resource obtained in accordance with applicable law.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4074/1
219) An iconic observatory faces its demise
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 23, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4075a.jpg)
A satellite image of Arecibo taken November 17, showing the damage to the giant dish caused by two broken cables that support the platform suspended over it. (credit: Satellite image ©2020 Maxar Technologies)
A few astronomical observatories are iconic, in the sense they are distinctive enough to be recognized in the broader culture. The Arecibo Observatory certainly qualifies, with its 305-meter main dish nestled in the terrain of Puerto Rico and a platform hosting receivers suspended above it, connected by cables to three towers. Few people might know much about the astronomy done at Arecibo (beyond, perhaps, its supporting role in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence), but it became famous in movies like Contact and GoldenEye.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4075/1
220) We were heroes once: National Geographic’s “The Right Stuff” and the deflation of the astronaut
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, November 23, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4076a.jpg)
Actor Sam Shepard as Chuck Yeager in the 1983 movie The Right Stuff, an exploration of themes of American masculinity and heroism.
Several years ago, National Geographic ventured out beyond documentaries to start producing scripted dramas. So far none of them have hit a high mark—nothing on the order of “Mad Men,” “Breaking Bad,” “Fargo,” or other prestige television. Most recently they produced “The Right Stuff,” based on Tom Wolfe’s famous book and currently streaming on Disney+. But whereas Wolfe’s book was an exploration of the qualities required of men in a new and highly dangerous job, exploring space, the series is focused on depicting the Mercury astronauts as a bunch of back-biting, egotistical, insecure, argumentative jerks. The differences may be explained by the needs of a multi-episode series, and our changing cultural views of heroism, but the result is unfortunately mediocre.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4076/1
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47/XI 2020 [221-225]
221) Review: Black Hole Survival Guide
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 30, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4077a.jpg)
Black Hole Survival Guide
by Janna Levin
Knopf, 2020
hardcover, 160 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-525-65822-1
US$20.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/052565822X/spaceviews
So, how did you survive Black Hole Friday? That’s right, Black Hole Friday. A few years ago, NASA tried to coopt the post-Thanksgiving shopping “holiday” of Black Friday into an educational event online about black holes, complete with a hashtag: #BlackHoleFriday. It did so again this year, with various social media posts offering facts about black holes. It’s not clear many people paid attention, though, as they negotiated the Black Friday sales online or feasted on Thanksgiving leftovers.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4077/1
222) Chesley Bonestell and his vision of the future
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 30, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4078a.jpg)
Chesley Bonestell: A Brush with the Future
directed by Douglass M. Stewart Jr.
2018, 96 minutes
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7343526/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_2
Most people with even a fleeting familiarity of the early Space Age are familiar with the work of artist Chesley Bonestell, even if they don’t recognize the name. Long before the launch of Sputnik and Explorer 1, let alone the flights of Yuri Gagarin and John Glenn or the footsteps of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, Bonestell painted dramatic landscapes of the Moon and other worlds in our solar system, as well as the rockets and spacecraft that would take people to them. His artwork, along with the words of Willy Ley and the visions of Wernher von Braun, televised by Walt Disney, would shape American perceptions of space at the dawn of the Space Age.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4078/1
223) A 4G network on the Moon is bad news for radio astronomy
by Emma Alexander Monday, November 30, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4079a.jpg)
Radio telescopes like the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank Observatory face threats of radiofrequency interference on Earth, and now from space. (credit: Jodrell Bank Obs./Anthony Holloway)
As you drive down the road leading to Jodrell Bank Observatory, a sign asks visitors to turn off their mobile phones, stating that the Lovell telescope is so powerful it could detect a phone signal on Mars.
Radio telescopes are designed to be incredibly sensitive. To quote the legendary astronomer Carl Sagan, “The total amount of energy from outside the solar system ever received by all the radio telescopes on the planet Earth is less than the energy of a single snowflake striking the ground.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4079/1
224) The case for Apophis
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 30, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4080a.jpg)
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, depicted here at the asteroid Bennu, could have an extended mission visiting another near Earth asteroid, Apophis, when it flies by Earth in 2029. (credit: NASA/GSFC)
On April 13, 2029—a Friday the 13th—the asteroid Apophis will pass remarkably close to the Earth, coming within 31,000 kilometers of the Earth’s surface, or closer than satellites in geostationary orbit. In late 2004, shortly after its discovery, astronomers projected at one point a 1-in-37 chance of a collision in 2029, but additional observations soon ruled out any impact. A small risk of an impact in April 2036 lingered for a few years, particularly if the asteroid passed through a narrow “keyhole” of space near Earth during its 2029 flyby (see “Sounding an alarm, cautiously”, The Space Review, May 31, 2005), but that, too, has since been ruled out.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4080/1
225) Rolling the dice on Apollo: Prospects for US-Soviet cooperation in the Moon program
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, November 30, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4081a.jpg)
President John F. Kennedy viewing the Saturn I launch pad in 1963. NASA Administrator James Webb is at center. (credit: Cecil Stoughton, White House photographer)
On September 20, 1963, President John F. Kennedy gave a speech in front of the United Nations in New York City where he proposed a joint mission to the Moon with the Soviet Union. One year after the two countries had been to the brink of nuclear war, Kennedy wanted to cooperate with the Soviet Union on a major space project. The proposal was a surprise to many, seeming to come out of nowhere, and prompted backlash among Kennedy’s supporters in Congress, who worried that Apollo’s goals were being undermined.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4081/1
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48/XII 2020 [226-230]
226) Review: Operation Moonglow
by Jeff Foust Monday, December 7, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4082a.jpg)
Operation Moonglow: A Political History of Project Apollo
by Teasel Muir-Harmony
Basic Books, 2020
hardcover, 384 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-5416-9987-8
US$32
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1541699874/spaceviews
In July 1962, huge crowds converged on a Tokyo department store for a special event. Over the course of four days, more than 500,000 people stood in long lines—going up nine flights of stairs, zigzagging across the store’s roof, and then going back down nine flights of stairs. What attracted so many people? Not a sale, or a celebrity, but a spacecraft: Friendship 7, the Mercury capsule that John Glenn flew in the first American orbital spaceflight five months earlier, and now on a round-the-world tour.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4082/1
227) Review: The Art of NASA
by Christopher Cokinos Monday, December 7, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4083a.jpg)
The Art of NASA: The Illustrations that Sold the Missions
by Piers Bizony
Motorbooks, 2020
hardcover, 192 pages, illus.
ISBN 978-0-7603-6807-7
US$50
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0760368074/spaceviews
Piers Bizony’s The Art of NASA: The Illustrations that Sold the Missions is an eye-popping, sumptuous coffee table book of full-color art—mostly vintage government and corporate work—that spans the early days of the American crewed space program all the way to present conceptions of orbital and planetary futures. The Art of NASA is a gorgeous, well-designed ode to visions of space flight, focusing on graphic illustrative art that appeared in brochures, newspapers, magazines, and, of late, on the web.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4083/1
228) Learning from Chandrayaan 2 for India
by Ajay P. Kothari Monday, December 7, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3837a.jpg)
An illustration of India’s Vikram lander making its descent to the lunar surface. The spacecraft crashed attempting a landing in September 2019. (credit: ISRO)
Given the recent astounding success (so far) of Chang’e-5, as well as other missions by China and Japan, it might seem harsh to compare them to India’s Chandryaan 2 lunar mission launched last year. But this is not meant as a criticism, only a constructive conjecture. Yes, many aspects of Chandrayaan 2 were successful, for which India and its space agency, ISRO, should be proud. However, it is also apt to learn from what did not work, admit it and improve.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4084/1
229) The cloth of doom: The weird, doomed ride of Ariane Flight 36
by Francis Castanos Monday, December 7, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4085a.jpg)
A version of the Ariane 4 rocket similar to the one lost in a 1990 launch failure caused by a “cloth of doom”. (credit: ESA)
This is a companion piece of sorts to Wayne Eleazer’s excellent series on rocket launch failures, and why they happened. It is a story involving rockets, satellites, an earthquake, and a couple of kitchen accessories. And a lot of bad luck. It all started with a natural disaster, which led to two further disasters, man-made this time.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4085/1
230) The future of Mars exploration, from sample return to human missions
by Jeff Foust Monday, December 7, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4086a.jpg)
An illustration of a Mars Ascent Vehicle, containing samples collected by the Mars 2020 mission, launching into Martian orbit for later return to Earth. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
When an Atlas V lifted off from Cape Canaveral July 30, NASA heralded it as the beginning of a new era of Mars exploration. The rocket was launching NASA’s Mars 2020 mission, which will land the rover Perseverance on the surface of Mars in February. That rover will collect samples for later return to Earth, a long-running goal of scientists.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4086/1
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49/XII 2020 [231-235]
231) Review: How to Astronaut
by Jeff Foust Monday, December 14, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4087a.jpg)
How to Astronaut: An Insider’s Guide to Leaving Planet Earth
by Terry Virts
Workman Publishing Co., 2020
hardcover, 320 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-5235-0961-4
US$27.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1523509619/spaceviews
Most astronaut memoirs describe an unconventional career in a conventional way. They often follow a chronological approach—sometimes flashing back or forward—to describe the career path that person took to becoming an astronaut, the experience of training for and flying missions, and finally how the experience changed them. A few diverge from that path, like Chris Hadfield’s An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth, which used his experience to offer lessons on, as he put it, “how to live better and more happily here on Earth.” (See “Review: An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth”, November 18, 2013.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4087/1
232) More space on the ground: trendy analogues vs. an unpleasant reality
by Ilaria Cinelli Monday, December 14, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4088a.jpg)
Analogue missions are intended to prepare for future human missions to places like the Moon and Mars, but depending on how they are designed may not be that useful.
The astronaut job is probably the only one that is at the same time both the most wanted job in the space sector and one of the silliest expectations someone may have as a career goal. Still, it is a job! There are high hopes for upcoming human spaceflights, and the commercial astronaut job is slowly opening the door to new types of astronauts. However, such a “silly expectation” drives people to find new opportunities to become astronauts no matter what. Thus, the boom of analogue astronauts has started!
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4088/1
233) Beyond Apollo: guiding the next Moon landing
by Alan Campbell Monday, December 14, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4089a.jpg)
The lunar lander under development by the Blue Origin-led “National Team” that includes Draper, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. (credit: Blue Origin)
The Apollo Moon landing is familiar to many. Neil Armstrong looks out the window of the lunar module, adjusts his descent to avoid craters and boulders while keeping an eye on his dwindling fuel supply, and maneuvers to the surface for the first time. While the scene is destined to be repeated, experts agree the next Moon landing will be far different affair.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4089/1
234) Starship contradictions
by Jeff Foust Monday, December 14, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4090a.jpg)
SpaceX’s Starship SN8 vehicle lifts off from the company’s South Texas test site December 9. (credit: SpaceX)
Can a launch that ends in a spectacular explosion be considered a success? Can a company be hailed for being open when it is also far from transparent about its work? Can a development program be described as proceeding at breakneck speed while also being well behind schedule?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4090/1
235) Big bird, little bird: chasing Soviet anti-ballistic missile radars in the 1960s
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, December 14, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4091a.jpg)
Declassified image of the MABELI signals intelligence satellite launched in January 1972 to search for and characterize Soviet anti-ballistic missile radars. MABELI was the latest in a sequence of satellites and special payloads used by the United States to try to determine the extent of the Soviet ABM program. (credit: NRO)
The second bus-sized HEXAGON photo-reconnaissance satellite roared off its California launch pad in January 1972. Inside of its payload shroud atop the Titan III rocket, the HEXAGON looked somewhat like a train locomotive, and tucked along one of its slab sides was a small rectangular box about the size of a suitcase. After the HEXAGON reached its proper orbit and stabilized itself, circling the Earth over its poles, the box detached, pushed off by springs. It started spinning, and then fired a small rocket motor that boosted its orbit a bit higher than the big bird that had delivered it into space. The small satellite began unfolding like an origami crane spreading out, deploying solar panels and numerous antennas, most of them pointed down at the Earth.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4091/1
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50/XII 2020 [236-240]
236) Review: Cosmic Odyssey by Jeff Foust
Monday, December 21, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4092a.jpg)
Cosmic Odyssey: How Intrepid Astronomers at Palomar Observatory Changed our View of the Universe
by Linda Schweizer
MIT Press, 2020
hardcover, 312 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-262-04429-5
US$39.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0262044293/spaceviews
Asked today what is the most influential astronomical observatory, many might say the Hubble Space Telescope, or perhaps the Keck Observatory in Hawaii or the Very Large Telescope in Chile. For most of the latter half of the 20th century, though, the likely response would have been the Palomar Observatory, home to the 200-inch (five-meter) telescope that for decades was the largest in the world. It allowed astronomers to peer deeper into the universe than ever before.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4092/1
237) Creating an inspector “mascot” satellite for JWST
by Philip Horzempa Monday, December 21, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4093a.jpg)
The James Webb Space Telescope recently completed the last deployment test of its sunshield before its October 2021 launch. (credit: NASA/Chris Gunn)
The James Webb Space Telescope has a heritage that stretches back at least half a century. It is a very complex spacecraft that will require numerous deployments to achieve its operational configuration. These will be monitored by instrumentation on the spacecraft, but given that each operation must proceed without error, it would be prudent to send a “Mascot” to monitor them. This would take the form of a cubesat that would ride with JWST after being launched as a secondary payload on the Ariane 5 that launches JWST. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4093/1
238) Candy CORN: analyzing the CORONA concrete crosses myth
by Joseph T. Page II Monday, December 21, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4094a.jpg)
Present-day Concrete Cross. Courtesy of Google Maps.
A few years ago, NPR Morning Edition released a story about spy satellites that caught my attention during a morning commute to work. Reporter Danny Hajek covered a story about mysterious 60-foot-long (18-meter-long) concrete crosses found in the Arizona desert titled, “Decades-Old Mystery Put to Rest: Why Are There X’s in the Desert?” The NPR story details how two adventurers, Chuck Penson and Pez Owen, spotted mysterious crosses while flying cross-country in Owen’s Cessna. The crosses spotted by Penson and Owen were just a handful of targets laid out over a 16-by-16-mile (26-by-26-kilometer) grid across the desert near Casa Grande, Arizona. Wondering what the crosses were for, the pair reached out to the US Army Corps of Engineers, since one of the bronze positioning markers at the center of one crosses stated “Army Map Service” with a date of 1966. According to the story, the US Army Corps of Engineers response made the connection between the concrete crosses and the CORONA program. [1]
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4094/1
239) Twilight for Trump space policy
by Jeff Foust Monday, December 21, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4095a.jpg)
Vice President Mike Pence speaking at the December 9 National Space Council meeting. (credit: White House)
On December 9, the National Space Council met for the eighth and last time in the Trump Administration at the Kennedy Space Center. The event, held in the Apollo/Saturn V Center there, with that rocket above attendees’ heads, was something of a season finale for the council. Cabinet secretaries and other officials spent about an hour recounting the work they had done in space policy in the last four years, from the establishment of the Space Force to commercial space regulatory reforms.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4095/1
240) From TACSAT to JUMPSEAT: Hughes and the top secret Gyrostat satellite gamble
by Dwayne A. Day and Nicholas W. Watkins Monday, December 21, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4096a.jpg)
Photo of Hughes’ HS-308 TACSAT (left) in May 1968 next to their proposal for Intelsat IV based on the HS 312 bus. These are mockups. Intelsat IV had a different antenna farm at top. This basic design led to the JUMPSEAT and Satellite Data System satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office. (credit: Hughes)
Starting in August 1968, the secretive National Reconnaissance Office began launching new intelligence satellites into much higher orbits to accomplish their missions. The first was the CANYON series of communications intelligence satellites, followed in 1970 by the first of the RHYOLITE telemetry interception satellites. In spring 1971, the NRO launched a new and enigmatic satellite named JUMPSEAT, which has remained perhaps the most mysterious of these high-orbit satellites. Each of these satellites pushed the state of the art in terms of payloads, antennas, and satellite design. But JUMPSEAT represented a concerted effort by a civil and commercial satellite designer to break into the top-secret world of satellite intelligence by leveraging a new technology and a military contract to demonstrate that it could perform the mission of both detecting signals from the ground, and spotting missile launches with an infrared telescope.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4096/1
(Editor’s Note: The Space Review will not publish the week of December 28. Our next issue will be January 4, 2021. Happy holidays!)
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Pick an agency, any agency
by Jeff Foust Monday, August 31, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3926a.jpg)
A report commissioned by Congress affirmed the administration’s choice of the Office of Space Commerce within the Department of Commerce as the lead agency for civil space traffic management. (credit: ESA)
When President Trump appeared at a meeting of the National Space Council at the White House in June 2018, the highlight was his announcement that the administration would seek to establish a Space Force as a separate military branch. It overshadowed his signing of Space Policy Directive (SPD) 3, which focused on space traffic management and assigned responsibilities to the Commerce Department (see “Managing space traffic expectations”, The Space Review, June 25, 2018). (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4016/1
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Review: The Smallest Lights in the Universe
by Jeff Foust Tuesday, September 8, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4017a.jpg)
The Smallest Lights in the Universe: A Memoir
by Sara Seager
Crown, 2020
hardcover, 320 pp.
ISBN 978-0-525-57625-9
US$28.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0525576258/spaceviews
Science is done by scientists. That may seem like an obvious statement, but it’s something often forgotten in the announcements of discoveries, including in astronomy and related space sciences. Discoveries are often attributed—particularly in news headlines—to the spacecraft or observatories used to make them. But those discoveries are made not by spacecraft and instruments, but by people who operate them and analyze the data they produce. Those researchers, like the rest of us, are people with their own motivations to do such work, and struggles to overcome to achieve those discoveries. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4017/1
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Walking through the doors of history: unlocking a space tradition
by Kirby Kahler Tuesday, September 8, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4018a.jpg)
The shuttle mission stickers above the double doors at the O&C. (credit: K. Kahler)
In July 2019, I had the unique opportunity to revisit the astronaut walkout doors at the Neil Armstrong Operations & Checkout Building (O&C) at the Kennedy Space Center for the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11. Fifty years ago, I was one of more than 3,500 journalists trying to get the “money shot” of the Apollo 11 astronaut walkout. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4018/1
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The Artemis Accords: a shared framework for space exploration
by Paul Stimers and Abby Dinegar Tuesday, September 8, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4019a.jpg)
NASA plans to seek international partners for the Artemis lunar exploration program, making an agreement like the Artemis Accords critical. (credit: NASA)
President Trump has made quite a mark on US space policy by announcing the Artemis program to send the first woman and the next man to the Moon in 2024 and creating the Space Force. The recent developments continue the role America has always played in space: a leader and partner in peaceful, cooperative international efforts. This is the spirit that has led to 20 years of continuous human presence in space aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and that sent American astronauts to the Moon a half century ago, not to claim territory, but “in peace for all mankind.” President Trump’s initiatives build carefully and squarely atop a foundation of policy that stretches across decades of bipartisan leadership. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4019/1
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Making the transition from the ISS
by Jeff Foust Tuesday, September 8, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3888a.jpg)
Axiom Space won a NASA award early this year to add commercial modules to the International Space Station, but NASA has put on hold a similar competition to support a free-flyer commercial station. (credit: Axiom Space)
In less than two months, the International Space Station will reach a milestone. On November 2, 2000, the Soyuz TM-31 spacecraft carrying Russian cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev, and American astronaut Bill Shepherd, docked with the Zvezda module of the International Space Station. Since that day the station has been continuously occupied, meaning that, barring a calamity of some kind in the coming weeks, the station will soon surpass 20 years with people on board. That is a major accomplishment for a program that struggled for years to get off the drawing boards and into orbit. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4020/1
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The future on hold: America’s need to redefine its space paradigm
by Stephen Kostes Tuesday, September 8, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3200a.jpg)
Constructing a cislunar infrastructure will drive renewed investment in education and training, and it will re-direct investment back into the historical drivers of job creation and economic growth.
A powerful school of economic thought today, led by economists such as Robert Gordon, suggests that, during the 1970s, the focus of technological innovation changed and, as a result, economic growth started to decline and wealth inequality began to rise. While there are many factors involved, it is interesting to note that this coincides with the end of the Apollo era. Along with severe budget cuts, this limited scope of innovation certainly took its toll on the space program. However, it also seems to have short-circuited our economy as well. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4021/1
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Review: Space Dogs
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 14, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4022a.jpg)
Space Dogs
Directed by Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter
Icarus Films, 2019
91 mins.
https://www.raumzeitfilm.com/spacedogs-kino
Most readers are familiar with the tale of Laika, the first animal in space. A stray picked up off the streets of Moscow, Laika was flown on the second Sputnik satellite in November 1957, claiming yet another first for the Soviet space program. The flight was a one-way mission from the beginning, since Sputnik 2 has no capability to survive reentry. Laika, as later historical research revealed, likely died from overheating just a few hours after launch. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4022/1
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The West needs bold, sustainable, and inclusive space programs and visions, or else
by Giulio Prisco Monday, September 14, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4023a.jpg)
A Chinese concept for a lunar base. China’s long-term vision for space exploration and utilization poses a challenge to the US and its partners. (credit: CAST)
China is planning an International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) (https://spacenews.com/china-is-aiming-to-attract-partners-for-an-international-lunar-research-station/) in the lunar south pole region, and recently revealed that it is seeking international partners.
I hope there’ll be international ILRS partners, but I guess they’ll play only a token role. Since I’m not too optimistic on the US Artemis lunar program (I’ll come to that), going to the Moon as guests of the Chinese may become the only plausible option for aspiring astronauts in the rest of the world. But of course, foreigners will be kept far from the really important things that China wants. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4023/1
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Star children: can humans be fruitful and multiply off-planet?
by Fred Nadis Monday, September 14, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4024a.jpg)
A Dutch startup, SpaceLife Origin, proposed a series of missions leading up to a baby being born in orbit, before backing off last year. (credit: SpaceLife Origin)
From his home in Cape Canaveral, Air Force pilot Alex Layendecker explained how he had been drawn to the study of sex and reproduction in space. “I had been immersed in the space environment in the Air Force, assigned to launch duty, and was simultaneously pursuing an M.A. in public health, and then at the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality, and I was looking for a dissertation topic,” he recalled. “I decided that sex and reproduction in space had not received the attention they deserved—if we’re serious about discussions of colonization, having babies in microgravity—on Mars or other outposts of the Earth, then more needs to be learned.” His general recommendation was that because of the squeamishness of NASA to study sex in space, a private nonprofit organization, or Astrosexological Research Institute, should be founded for this research critical to human settlement of outer space. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4024/1
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Launch failures: fill ’er up?
by Wayne Eleazer Monday, September 14, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4025a.jpg)
A Proton launch in 2010 failed not because it ran out of propellant but instead because it had too much on board. (credit: Roscosmos)
One of the most common causes of airplane accidents is a pilot sitting there and letting the thing run out of gas. This type of mishap is much less common with space launches, but early propulsion system shutdowns due to the vehicle running out of propellant have occurred in some noteworthy cases.
The majority of liquid propellant space boosters ever launched have lacked a system with even as little sophistication as a bewildered pilot staring at a dropping fuel gauge. The engines were tested, the performance noted, and the required amounts of fuel and oxidizer calculated using simple formulas. For vehicles using liquid oxygen (LOX) as the oxidizer, that tank was topped off: a necessity since it kept boiling off until mere seconds before liftoff, when the vent valve was closed. The fuel was loaded based on the calculations, with a bit extra added to provide some margin. Thor, Titan, and Delta all used this approach, as did most foreign vehicles. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4025/1
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Moon and Mars advocates find peace
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 14, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4026a.jpg)
NASA’s lunar Gateway, part of the agency’s Artemis program, could also be used to support Mars exploration through long-duration crewed missions there. (credit: NASA)
For decades, it seems, space exploration advocates have done battle over the long-term goals of human spaceflight, even as humans remained stuck in low Earth orbit. Some have argued for a return to the Moon, both for its own sake as well as a proving ground for missions beyond. Others, though, have pushed for going to Mars, often as soon as possible, fearing that a lunar return could be a costly, lengthy detour. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4026/1
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Review: The Last Stargazers
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 21, 2020
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The Last Stargazers: The Enduring Story of Astronomy’s Vanishing Explorers
by Emily Levesque
Sourcebooks, 2020
hardcover, 336 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-4926-8107-6
US$25.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1492681075/spaceviews
Two historic observatories were in the news recently, not because of any new discoveries they made but instead due to threats to their existence. Last month, a wildfire in the early days of California’s horrific fire season approached Lick Observatory, on a mountaintop near San Jose. Last week, another fire encroached on Mount Wilson Observatory near Los Angeles, at one point coming within a couple hundred meters of its major telescopes. Fortunately, in both cases firefighters were able to halt the fires, with only minor damage at each observatory. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4027/1
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Review: Orphans in Space
by Glen E. Swanson Monday, September 21, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4028a.jpg)
Orphans in Space is a two-DVD set with an eclectic collection of little-known space-related films.
Orphans in Space: Forgotten Films from the Final Frontier
DVD
2012, The Orphans Film Project
In early April, while doing research for an article (see “‘Space, the final frontier’: Star Trek and the national space rhetoric of Eisenhower, Kennedy and NASA”, The Space Review, April 20, 2020), I interviewed Megan Prelinger. During that interview, she mentioned that both she and her husband Rick helped assemble a collection of space-themed films that appeared in a DVD set called Orphans in Space: Forgotten Films from the Final Frontier. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4028/1
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Venus: science and politics
by Ajey Lele Monday, September 21, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4029a.jpg)
An image of the surface of Venus taken by the Soviet Union’s Venera 13 mission.
For many years, the major focus for space exploration has been Mars and the Moon. Of course, the scientific community has been involved in missions elsewhere in the solar system, but the agendas for major space agencies have been dominated by the missions to the Moon and Mars. Now, there exists a possibility that another world could push its way into those agendas.
The discovery
Venus is known as the hottest planet in the solar system, with surface temperatures as high as 470°C. In fact, Venus is even hotter than Mercury because Venus thick atmosphere filled with carbon dioxide, generating a runaway greenhouse effect. Venus is sometimes called the sister planet of the Earth, since it is very similar to the Earth in terms of size and mass. However, the problem is that the temperature and atmosphere of Venus makes it entirely different than the Earth. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4029/1
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Why the detection of phosphine in the clouds of Venus is a big deal
by Paul K. Byrne Monday, September 21, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4030a.jpg)
The discovery of phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus could be a sign of life, as well as a sign of new life for exploration of thew planet. (credit: European Space Organization/M. Kornmesser & NASA/JPL/Caltech)
[This article was originally published by The Conversation, and is reprinted under a Creative Commons license.]
On September 14, a new planet was added to the list of potentially habitable worlds in the Solar System: Venus.
Phosphine, a toxic gas made up of one phosphorus and three hydrogen atoms (PH3), commonly produced by organic life forms but otherwise difficult to make on rocky planets, was discovered in the middle layer of the atmosphere of Venus. This raises the tantalizing possibility that something is alive on our planetary neighbor. With this discovery, Venus joins the exalted ranks of Mars and the icy moons Enceladus and Europa among planetary bodies where life may once have existed, or perhaps might even still does today. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4030/1
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Where will Artemis 3 land? And when?
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 21, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4031a.jpg)
Comments last week suggested the Artemis 3 lunar landing might not take place near the lunar south pole, but NASA has since reiterated it still plans to go to the south pole. (credit: NASA)
NASA’s Artemis program faces many challenges to overcome to achieve its goal of landing humans on the Moon in 2024. There are the myriad technical problems that have already occurred, and will likely continue to crop up in the coming years as NASA completes development of the Space Launch System, Orion, one or more human lunar landers, and the lunar Gateway. Funding remains a challenge, as evidenced by a House bill that provides NASA with less than a fifth the funding it sought for the Human Landing System (HLS) program (see “Irregular disorder and the NASA budget”, The Space Review, July 27, 2020). And, there’s the possibility that a change of administrations next year will lead to a slowdown, or even abandonment, of the entire program. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4031/1
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Review: China in Space
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, September 28, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4032a.jpg)
China in Space: The Great Leap Forward, 2nd ed.
by Brian Harvey
Springer; 2nd ed. 2019
paperback, 564 pages
ISBN-13: 978-3-030-19587-8
US$37.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/3030195872/spaceviews
Brian Harvey has long written about China’s space program as well as the space programs of India and Japan. This is a second edition of his book on China’s expanding space program, successor to the edition published in 2013. It provides a good overview of the breadth of Chinese space activities, as well as what has led up to China’s current projects and their future ambitions. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4032/1
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Photons and phosphine
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 28, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4033a.jpg)
Rocket Lab’s Photon satellite bus will be used to support the launch of NASA’s CAPSTONE mission to the Moon next year. (credit: NASA)
On August 31, a Rocket Lab Electron rocket lifted off from the company’s launch pad in New Zealand, placing a radar imaging satellite for startup Capella Space into orbit. The launch represented the return to flight of the Electron, which failed in its previous launch less than two months earlier (see “It’s (small) rocket science, after all”, The Space Review, July 6, 2020). An investigation tracked down the cause of the failure to an “anomalous electrical connection” in the rocket’s second stage that had evaded the company’s acceptance testing processes prior to launch. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4033/1
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Battle of the Titans (part 1)
by Wayne Eleazer Monday, September 28, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4034a.jpg)
What would become the Titan IV faced challenges both before and after the Air Force selected the design for development. (credit: Lockheed Martin)
As has been described in various articles in The Space Review (see “When ‘about time’ equals ‘too late’”, October 11, 2005; “The engine problem”, August 3, 2015; “About those scrapped Atlas ICBMs”, July 6, 2010), the Space Shuttle was developed to be the sole US launch vehicle that would be supported by the US Government. All US government payloads eventually would fly on nothing but the shuttle and that meant American commercial payloads would also. All rocket engine development except that related to the shuttle was stopped in the 1970s and most rocket engine production ended as well. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4034/1
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Reality bites
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, September 28, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4035a.jpg)
The website for the planned “Space Hero” reality TV show has a countdown clock but little else about the show that would send the winner to the ISS. (credit: spacehero.me)
Two weeks ago, the Hollywood publication Deadline reported an exclusive that sounded a lot like déjà vu all over again:
“Space Hero Inc., a U.S.-based production company founded by Thomas Reemer and Deborah Sass and led by former News Corp Europe chief Marty Pompadur, has secured a seat on a 2023 mission to the International Space Station. It will go to a contestant chosen through an unscripted show titled Space Hero. Produced by Ben Silverman and Howard Owens’ Propagate, the series will launch a global search for everyday people from any background who share a deep love for space exploration. They will be vying for the biggest prize ever awarded on TV.” (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4035/1
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India’s Mars orbiter completes six years at the red planet, but where is the science?
by Jatan Mehta Monday, September 28, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4036a.jpg)
India’s Mangalyaan spacecraft arrived at Mars six years ago, but the scientific output of the mission has been a disappointment. (credit: ISRO)
September 24 marked six years since ISRO’s Mars Orbiter Mission, or Mangalyaan, spacecraft entered Mars orbit, making India the first Asian country to do so. What is even more impressive is that Mangalyaan was the country’s first interplanetary mission. Combined with the cost effectiveness for which it is lauded, Mangalyaan is often hailed as India’s most successful space mission. But is it? (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4036/1
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Review: Space Is Open for Business
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 5, 2020
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Space Is Open for Business: The Industry That Can Transform Humanity
by Robert C. Jacobson
Robert Jacobson, 2020
paperback, 418 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-7342051-0-7
US$32.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1734205105/spaceviews
Despite the economic upheavals in the last year caused by the coronavirus pandemic, interest in space continues largely unabated (see “Commercial space, and space commercialization, weather the pandemic”, The Space Review, this issue). CNBC reported over the weekend on a recent analysis by Bank of America, which projected the global space economy would more than triple over the next decade, to $1.4 trillion in 2030. While the analysis was simplistic—Bank of America simply assumed the average annual growth rate of the last two years, more than 10%, would continue for the next ten—it exemplifies the bullishness the investment community has shown in space in recent years. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4037/1
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Why addressing the environmental crisis should be the space industry’s top priority
by Loïs Miraux Monday, October 5, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4038a.jpg)
Hurricane Florence as seen from the International Space Station. (credit: NASA)
How can we give meaning to space missions in the context of a global environmental crisis? World Space Week 2020 (October 4–10) and its theme “Satellites Improve Life” will remind us of the numerous benefits that space-based assets bring on Earth. However, as climate change has been largely recognized as an existential threat in the 21st century, some space activities, such as space exploration or space tourism, raise important questions. Some projects continue to promise technological solutions to environmental issues in outer space. They won’t help. The environment should be space industry’s top priority. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4038/1
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Commercial space, and space commercialization, weather the pandemic
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 5, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4039a.jpg)
A Northrop Grumman Antares rocket lifts off October 2 carrying a Cygnus cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station. Included in the Cygnus was a commercial payload for Estée Lauder. (credit: NASA Wallops/Patrick Black)
The Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft that launched Friday night from Wallops Island, Virginia, bound for the International Space Station, carried a diverse array of cargo. There were science and technology demonstration payloads, ranging from testing cancer treatments to growing radishes in microgravity (yes, scientists said at a pre-launch briefing, the astronauts will be able to eat the radishes.) There were also some nitrogen gas bottles for the station’s air supply as the crew worked to trace the source of a small air leak, now thought to be in the Zvezda module. And there was the Universal Waste Management System, a next-generation space toilet that will be tested on the ISS before it’s used on the Orion spacecraft. (“When the astronauts have to go, we want to allow them to boldly go,” said one member of the team that developed it.) (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4039/1
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Battle of the Titans (part 2)
by Wayne Eleazer Monday, October 5, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4040a.jpg)
A converted Titan II ICBM launches the Quickscat mission for NASA. (credit: NASA)
It was a matter of national policy that the Space Shuttle would be the only new US launch system, but not everyone in the US Air Force agreed with that philosophy. The Complementary Expendable Launch Vehicle (CELV) procurement that began in 1984 and became the Titan IV program addressed back up launches for three very important Air Force payloads, all to be launched from Cape Canaveral (see “Battle of the Titans (part 1)”, The Space Review, September 28, 2020). Soon after CELV got underway in 1984, some Air Force officers began thinking about the problem of alternative launch capabilities for payloads using polar orbits launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4040/1
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Mars ain’t the kind of place to take your kid: Netflix’s “Away”
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, October 5, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4041a.jpg)
Netflix’s “Away” is about a crew on a journey to Mars, but much of the story takes place on Earth and feels no different than a typical suburban melodrama on basic cable.
How do we measure what is in the popular culture, what occupies the zeitgeist? Certainly some things are obvious. But what about the subjects that do not overwhelm popular discussion, but nevertheless occasionally rise up above the din? Subjects like Mars. Where is Mars in our popular culture today? (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4041/1
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Review: Neutron Stars
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 12, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4042a.jpg)
Neutron Stars: The Quest to Understand the Zombies of the Cosmos
by Katia Moskvitch
Harvard Univ. Press, 2020
hardcover, 304 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-674-91935-8
US$29.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0674919351/spaceviews
There’s too much gold in the universe. That’s the conclusion of a recent study that compared the abundances of gold measured in our solar system with the known mechanisms for producing gold. The primary way to create it, astronomers believe, is when two neutron stars collide (supernovae don’t help, since any star massive enough to produce gold through fusion will end up as a black hole, trapping the gold within it.) But, the study’s authors noted, neutron star collisions don’t appear to be frequent enough to produce the gold we do see. Either another process creates gold, or neutron star collisions create more gold than astronomers expect. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4042/1
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Space entrepreneurs need to look to the stars but keep their feet on the ground
by Nicholas Borroz Monday, October 12, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4043a.jpg)
Many get into the space industry seeking to pursue interesting technologies, like reusable rockets; a sustainable business plan is only a secondary concern. (credit: SpaceX)
The space sector is one where technological marvels are widely celebrated. As private firms become more influential in the sector, there has been a veritable explosion of exciting plans for employing next-generation technologies. This creativity is inspiring, but it also has drawbacks. Entrepreneurs should continue pursuing their visions, but they should also make sure to ground their enterprises in reality. They should clearly understand how their activities benefit others. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4043/1
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In the paler moonlight: the future’s past in “For All Mankind”
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, October 12, 2020
Note: This article contains spoilers for the first and second seasons of For All Mankind.
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4044a.jpg)
“For All Mankind’s” first season ended with an American base on the Moon. In season 2, set in the 1980s, the base has expanded, and become the focus of the Cold War struggle with the Soviet Union.
The second season of Apple TV+’s “For All Mankind” was filming when reality intervened, halting production after eight episodes had been shot, although production resumed late in the summer. For a show about world events to be derailed by a world event is perhaps overly ironic, but despite the delay, the producers did release a trailer for season two, and it indicates that things are heating up on the Moon. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4044/1
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The three administrators
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 12, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4045a.jpg)
Former NASA administrator Charlie Bolden, seen here at a 2019 conference, joined two of his predecessors in the Aviation Week webinar last week. (credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)
NASA administrators get plenty of advice, solicited and unsolicited, while on the job. Politicians, executives, scientists, and others are more than willing to weigh in on what the agency’s leader should do. The best advice, though, might come from the people who previously held the job—if they’re willing to give it. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4045/1
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Semantics in lexicon: Moving away from the term “salvage” in outer space
by Michael J. Listner Monday, October 12, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4046a.jpg)
As more efforts get started to repair and revive derelict satellites, the space industry needs to reconsider its use of “salvage” when describing such operations. (credit: Northrop Grumman)
The idea of salvage in outer space is one that evokes fervent discussions about space debris and recovering defunct satellites for possession. The idea of salvage in outer space is misunderstood and mischaracterized by private space enthusiasts, and is one I’ve discussed here before (see “Taking salvage in outer space from fiction to fact”, The Space Review, March 20, 2017). Moreover, I suggested that a form of salvage, akin to contract salvage in the maritime domain, might be an appropriate model for outer space and that a precedent has already laid the groundwork with the recovery of the Palpa B and Weststar VI satellites by NASA and the Space Shuttle.[1] The successful rendezvous and servicing operation performed on Intelsat 901 by the SpaceLogistics Mission Extension Vehicle 1 (MEV-1) earlier this year and a follow-on mission by MEV-2 with the Intelsat 10-02 next year lays the groundwork for opportunities for more of these activities in outer space. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4046/1
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Review: Canadarm and Collaboration
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 19, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4047a.jpg)
Canadarm and Collaboration: How Canada’s Astronauts and Space Robots Explore New Worlds
by Elizabeth Howell
ECW Press, 2020
paperback, 240 pp.
ISBN 978-1-77041-442-6
US$19.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1770414428/spaceviews
For most people in the space field, the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about Canada’s space program is its series of robotic arms (with the possible recent exception of former astronaut/social media personality Chris Hadfield.) Over the last four decades, Canada has become synonymous with those systems, first with the Canadarm on the shuttle and then Canadarm2 and the Dextre manipulator on the space station. The back of the Canadian five-dollar bill includes an illustration of Canadarm2, while a model of a robotic manipulator was visible in the office of new Canadian Space Agency president Lisa Campbell last week when she participated in a virtual signing ceremony for the NASA-led Artemis Accords. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4047/1
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Is the New Zealand commercial space success story a model for other countries?
by Marçal Sanmartí Monday, October 19, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4048a.jpg)
New Zealand’s Cook Strait viewed from the International Space Station. (credit: NASA)
These remotely located group of islands in the South Pacific with a population of just five million people has a tradition of punching above its weight. New Zealand is a primary industries powerhouse; probably hosts the best known and successful rugby team on Earth, the All Blacks; and is seen internationally as a champion in the fight against COVID-19. The space sector is emerging as another such area—ironic, considering that locals refer themselves as kiwis, the name of a local flightless bird! (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4048/1
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Rock-solid (Blue) Cube: Galileo and the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake
by Joseph T. Page II Monday, October 19, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4049a.jpg)
The US Air Force Satellite Control Facility circa 1984, located near Sunnyvale, California.
Thirty-one years ago, the United States space program placed a mark in the “win” column amidst a terrible terrestrial tragedy. On October 18, 1989, the shuttle Atlantis lifted off from Cape Canaveral’s Launch Complex 39B, carrying the Jupiter-bound Galileo space probe atop its Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) booster. While the Galileo saga included many epic twists and turns over the decades since its conception, one of the most inspiring stories came from the unlikeliest of places: a non-descript blue building in Sunnyvale, California less than 24 hours before the launch. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4049/1
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TAG, Bennu, you’re it
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 19, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4050a.jpg)
An illustration of OSIRIS-REx, its sample gathering arm extended, approaching the surface of the asteroid Bennu. (credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona)
Some call it a fist bump. Others, a “boop.” But the formal name is “touch and go,” or TAG, which clearly illustrates what NASA will attempt to do Tuesday.
The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft—one of the more convoluted acronyms in NASA’s history—has been orbiting the asteroid Bennu since late 2018, studying the asteroid while scouting for a landing site. On Tuesday, the spacecraft will descend towards the selected site, dubbed Nightingale, extending a robotic arm with a sampling mechanism, called TAGSAM, on the end. If all goes well, that mechanism will touch down on the surface, collect at least 60 grams, and perhaps up to two kilograms, of material, in just five to ten seconds, before the spacecraft pulls away: touch and go. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4050/1
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Applied witchcraft: American communications intelligence satellites during the 1960s
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, October 19, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4051a.jpg)
A TOPHAT communications intelligence satellite launched in 1970. This satellite was about the size of a small refrigerator and gathered up Soviet communications from low Earth orbit. (credit: NRO)
During the Battle of Midway in June 1942, Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander in Chief of the US Pacific Fleet, monitored the battle from his command center in Pearl Harbor, picking up snippets of radio traffic from both American and Japanese forces. After hearing that American planes had spotted the Japanese carriers and started their attack, Nimitz and his officers heard nothing more from the Japanese carriers for a long period, but then intercepted a message from the Japanese force seeking the location of the American fleet. After another long silence, the Americans intercepted a coded Japanese message. The call sign on the message was Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, whose flagship was the carrier Akagi. But one of the American naval officers present had become an expert at identifying the styles of the Japanese operators who tapped out coded messages. This message was not tapped out by the Akagi’s heavy-handed warrant officer, but instead by the chief radioman in the cruiser Nagara. The Americans concluded from this small bit of evidence that the Akagi had been damaged too heavily to serve as flagship, and Nagumo had shifted his command to the cruiser. In fact, Akagi was in flames, Nagumo had barely escaped alive by climbing down a rope from the ship’s bridge, and the carrier, which had participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor, would sink within the day. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4051/1
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If we are going forward to the Moon, don’t go back to Apollo
by Christopher Cokinos Monday, October 26, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4052a.jpg)
Aristarchus crater might be a better alternative landing site for the first Artemis missions than an Apollo site, if the south pole of the Moon is ruled out. (credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University)
NASA Administrator James Bridenstine recently surprised the space community by suggesting that the first crewed Artemis surface mission to the Moon, slated for 2024, might not land at the south pole as previously discussed but instead could revisit one of the Apollo landing sites in the easier-to-reach lunar equatorial regions. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4052/1
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From the Truman Proclamation to the Artemis Accords: steps toward establishing a bottom-up framework for governance in space
by Alfred B. Anzaldúa and Cristin Finnigan Monday, October 26, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4019a.jpg)
Should lunar governance for future exploration and other activities be done in a bottom-up or top-down way? (credit: NASA)
Humanity stands at the doorway of an astounding societal transformation. While many people worldwide pass time attending to urgent personal matters or frivolous entertainments, nation states and private parties harbor serious plans to launch missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond to establish permanent outposts and communities. Such extraterrestrial activity offers vast potential to unleash “infinite opportunity, boundless freedom, and unfettered creativity.”[1] (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4053/1
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The Artemis Accords take shape
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 26, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4054a.jpg)
Representatives of the US and seven other nations signed the Artemis Accords in a virtual ceremony October 13. (credit: NASA)
It was a signing ceremony for the Zoom era. On the screens of attendees of the virtual International Astronautical Congress October 13, as well as anyone who tuned in to NASA TV, was a three-by-three array of screens, a fancy version of video chats that have become commonplace. In each window, a government official put pen to paper; some matter-of-factly, others proudly showing off the document they signed. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4054/1
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Swords into plowshares: the top secret PERCHERON project
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, October 26, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4055a.jpg)
One of the last KH-7 GAMBIT-1 reconnaissance satellites was launched in early 1967. General Electric proposed using the successful spacecraft for NASA missions, but ran headlong into secrecy issues, angering officials at the National Reconnaissance Office, which procured and operated GAMBIT. (credit: Peter Hunter Collection)
In the 1960s, NASA had the coolest stuff. They had Mars probes and lunar landers, Gemini spacecraft and spacesuits and the coolest of the cool, the Saturn V rocket. But NASA didn’t have everything. The top secret National Reconnaissance Office, with a budget that was probably only 15% as big as NASA’s, had some powerful camera systems, large high-quality optical mirrors inside spacecraft that the NRO routinely launched into low Earth orbit. NASA had fledgling astrophysics and Earth observation programs that could benefit from the NRO’s technology, but there were policy and secrecy requirements that prevented NASA from acquiring them. Nevertheless, companies that built this equipment for the NRO looked at NASA as another potential customer and sought out ways to sell it to them. And sometimes those efforts went badly. PERCHERON is one of those stories. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4055/1
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Russia gears up for electronic warfare in space (part 1)
by Bart Hendrickx Monday, October 26, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4056a.jpg)
The Krasukha-4 electronic warfare system is used among other things to interfere with observations of radar reconnaissance satellites (source).
Russia is building up an impressive capability to conduct electronic warfare against foreign satellites. At the center of this effort is the development of a variety of mobile ground-based systems to interfere with the operations of both communications and radar reconnaissance satellites. There is also evidence for plans to perform electronic warfare from space using nuclear-powered satellites. Aside from that, work is underway at various locations in Russia to construct ground-based infrastructure to obtain signals intelligence on foreign satellites and apparently also to protect Russia’s own fleet of satellites against electronic attack from outside. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4056/1
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Review: Star Crossed
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 2, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4057a.jpg)
Star Crossed: The Story of Astronaut Lisa Nowak
by Kimberly C. Moore
University Press of Florida, 2020
hardcover, 296 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-8130-6654-7
US$28.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0813066549/spaceviews
We’ve come a long way from the earliest days of the US space program, where the Mercury 7 astronauts were placed on a pedestal as clean-cut, All-American men. They, and the astronauts who followed, were far from perfect, as we have since learned: some carousing and unfaithful to their spouses, others suffering from alcoholism and depression. Marriages were shattered and careers derailed because these best-of-the-best had human weakness and frailties, like the rest of us. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4057/1
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The Green New Deal for space
by S. Mike Pavelec Monday, November 2, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4043a.jpg)
Innovations in spaceflight and space markets can help achieve the goals of a Green New Deal. (credit: SpaceX)
As we approach yet another election in the US, a number of incredibly important issues will be decided. One is the future of American space power, the role of the government, military, and civilian sectors, and ongoing and increasing concern for the future health of the planet. There is an argument for why climate activists, political representatives, and anyone who supports radical change to mitigate global climate change needs to embrace US efforts in space now and into the near future. This argument is based on both the Green New Deal platform as well as current and near-future space capabilities. Environmentalists, politicians, and the population in general should support space exploration and access for the future of the planet and humanity. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4058/1
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US space missions require bipartisan support for optimal long-term success
by Namrata Goswami Monday, November 2, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4031a.jpg)
If elected, a Biden Administration should press forward with many space initiatives, like a return to the Moon, to keep pace with China’s space ambitions. (credit: NASA)
Missions to explore and develop outer space necessitate long-term resource commitment and policy focus. This kind of long-term strategy formulation and identification of “decades out” space policy goals (2020–2049) and resource commitment is evident in China’s space program. Soon after China landed on the far side of the Moon in January 2019, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced plans to establish a permanent lunar research base by 2036. In February, China’s Tianwen-1 Mars mission, launched July 23 of this year, will attempt to enter into Martian orbit, and later land on the Martian surface and release a rover to carry out a survey of Mars’ surface to include its soil composition. According to Chinese media, the scientific goals of China’s Mars mission are:
Mapping the morphology and geological structure, investigating surface soil characteristics and water-ice distribution, analyzing the surface material composition, measuring the ionosphere and the characteristics of the Martian climate and environment at the surface, and perceiving the physical fields and internal structure of Mars. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4059/1
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Russia gears up for electronic warfare in space (part 2)
by Bart Hendrickx Monday, November 2, 2020 [Part 1 was published last week]
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4060a.jpg)
A signals intelligence site (code-named 1511/2) under construction near Pionerskiy is intended to intercept signals from foreign satellites (Google Earth image taken on May 22, 2020).
Space-based electronic warfare
Russia may also be working on a capability to perform electronic warfare (EW) from space. Interest in this arose back in the 1980s as part of a large-scale effort to develop countermeasures against America’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), which was aimed at forming a space-based shield against incoming Soviet missiles. One of many projects proposed at the time was a space-based EW system called OREST-02 (an unknown acronym), which is seen in a list of space-based systems intended to attack targets on land, in the oceans and in the air.[1] There are no indications that OREST-02 ever went beyond the proposal stage and the plans were likely shelved after the collapse of the Soviet Union. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4060/1
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A dynamic ISS prepares for its future, and its end
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 2, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4061a.jpg)
The International Space Station will gain a set of commercial modules later this decade, a precursor for both commercial space stations and the end of the ISS itself. (credit: Axiom Space)
Twenty years ago today, the crew of Expedition 1—Bill Shepherd, Yuri Gidzenko, and Sergei Krikalev—arrived at the International Space Station, kicking off occupation of the station that has continued uninterrupted to this day. NASA and its partners have been celebrating this impending milestone for months, regularly remining the public that there is now a whole generation of people who have no memories of a time when there were not people in orbit. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4061/1
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Review: Luna Cognita
by Joseph T. Page II Monday, November 9, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4062a.jpg)
Luna Cognita: A Comprehensive Observer’s Handbook of the Known Moon 1st ed. 2020 Edition
by Robert A. Garfinkle
Springer Nature, 2020
hardcover, 1680 pp., illus. (three volume set)
ISBN 978-1-4939-1663-4
US$89.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1493916637/spaceviews
As the closest celestial object in our skies, the Moon has an amazing body of literature surrounding it. Primitive humans looked up into the sky and saw the mysterious orb appear and disappear in a timely (and predictable) manner. As civilization developed, the Moon became a natural target of attention. For the romantics among us, it invokes poetry and mythological lore about supernatural effects on both human and beasts. For scientists, the Moon is a literal playground for chemical and geologic processes that hold clues to our own Earth’s origins. Over the past few centuries, especially since the human exploration missions, the Moon has had a lot written about it. One might wonder, “Is another book about the Moon really needed?” (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4062/1
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Russia looks for actress to steal Tom Cruise space movie thunder
by Tony Quine Monday, November 9, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4063a.jpg)
An illustration for the movie Vyzov, which will include scenes filmed on the ISS involving an actress selected as part of a competition. (credit: Roscosmos)
Russia’s not-too-subtle effort to upstage Tom Cruise’s plans to film the first ever feature film in Earth orbit have taken a major step forward, with more details announced jointly by the Russian space agency Roscosmos and Channel One TV, from Moscow.
Vague details released in September have now been fleshed out, with the headline grabbing news being the decision to base the Russian movie plot around a woman, meaning that the filmmakers will need to find an actress willing to fly on a Soyuz rocket in October next year. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4063/1
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How ISRO handled the pandemic
by Ajey Lele Monday, November 9, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4064a.jpg)
An Indian PSLV lifts off November 7 on the first launch by ISRO since last December. (credit: ISRO)
On November 7, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully undertook a ten-satellite launch. ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, in its 51st flight (PSLV-C49), successfully launched EOS-01 along with nine international customer satellites. This was the first launch for ISRO this year. EOS-01 is an Earth observation satellite, intended for applications in agriculture, forestry and disaster management support, and should become operational in the coming days. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4064/1
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Closing the business case
by Robert G. Oler Monday, November 9, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4065a.jpg)
President-elect Joe Biden faces tough questions about what NASA’s future direction in human spaceflight should be. (credit: Adam Schultz/Biden for President)
The American people have spoken. At noon on January 20, 2021, the Biden-Harris Administration will end four years of chaos passing for governance. The new administration’s underlying goal must be making government work again.
Key to that goal is to regain social trust with both the citizenry of the United States and other governments of the world. Social trust forms when people and organizations accomplish the things that are proposed. In government it means organizations succeeding in making the lives of the people who pay the bills measurably better. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4065/1
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Moon 2020-something
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 9, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4031a.jpg)
A 2024 human lunar landing, a goal many in the industry treated skeptically even before the election, may now be out of reach. (credit: NASA)
It can be hard to believe, in this era where the pandemic has warped our sense of time, that the centerpiece of NASA’s human space exploration plans isn’t that new. It was only in March 2019, a little more than 18 months ago, that Vice President Mike Pence announced that he was calling on NASA to return humans to the Moon by 2024. Prior to his speech, NASA was working towards a human landing in 2028, after first assembling the lunar Gateway. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4066/1
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George Low made the hard choices on Apollo: a review of “The Ultimate Engineer”
by Emily Carney and Dwayne A. Day Monday, November 16, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4067a.jpg)
The Ultimate Engineer: The Remarkable Life of NASA’s Visionary Leader George M. Low
by Richard Jurek
University of Nebraska Press, 2019
hardcover: 344 pages, illus.
ISBN 978-0-8032-9955-9
US$32.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0803299559/spaceviews
The Apollo program was an immensely complicated project that some estimates indicate involved nearly 400,000 people working on different aspects of it, spread all across the country. Despite the hundreds of books written about Apollo in the past half century, surprisingly, a number of key officials and aspects of the program have been, if not entirely overlooked, certainly not given the attention they are due. One of these people is George Low, a senior NASA official who made numerous key decisions in the program while based in Houston but frequently traveling to NASA headquarters in Washington, DC. Low has often been relegated to the background in Apollo histories that focus on astronauts and rockets, despite playing a major role in keeping Apollo focused on its goal of beating the Russians to the Moon. Low, for instance, was the main driver of the gutsy decision to send Apollo 8 around the Moon in December 1968. Now, Richard Jurek has written a book focused on Low that gives him his due. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4067/1
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The need for US leadership in remediating space debris
by Jessica Duronio Monday, November 16, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3847a.jpg)
The US can take the lead in establishing rules for orbital debris remediation, setting a standard for other countries to follow. (credit: ESA)
Some 150 million pieces of debris litter Earth orbit, and outer space is getting more crowded. Discarded rocket bodies, defunct satellites, lost instruments, even chips of paint circle the Earth at up to 25,000 kilometers per hour. They are capable of causing incredible damage.
So far, the international community has failed to address the problem of space junk. There are no rules for the remediation, or removal, of orbital debris, thereby leaving vital US space assets vulnerable to potential accident. The US should promote and uphold the safety and sustainability of outer space by establishing regulatory rules for the remediation of space debris. Those rules should be modeled after the United States Government Orbital Debris Mitigation Standard Practices. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4068/1
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Lunar commerce: a question of semantics?
by Derek Webber Monday, November 16, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4069a.jpg)
Can some lunar development activities, such as resource extraction, ever be considered a true commercial venture? And if so, when? (credit: Caterpillar)
Many planning professionals are working all over the globe on aspects of returning to the Moon, with an expressed focus this time on sustainability and commercial developments. Most are carrying out the design and development work for the necessary science and engineering technologies. Others are investing considerable thought to the issues of governance and international regulatory protocols. I want to consider here the commercial element, move toward some way of characterizing it, and thereby seek to provide a firm and stable basis for attempting to quantify the elements. We need to reach an understanding of the likely combination, scale, and timing of commercial contributions in developing the Moon. Such an understanding is important in coming to decisions about design, sizing, and costs of various infrastructure elements. There is a direct link between demand forecasts, design architectures, and overall costs. So, even though at present it is difficult to quantify, we must attempt to provide at least a basis for forecasting and budgeting. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4069/1
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Spooks and satellites: the role of intelligence in Cold War American space policy
by Aaron Bateman Monday, November 16, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3927a.jpg)
A 1985 test of an anti-satellite missile released from an F-15 fighter. Intelligence on Soviet ASAT activities played a role in policy decisions in the 1970s and 1980s that led to the development of this ASAT weapon as well as support for SDI. (credit: USAF)
In 1978, Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) Admiral Stansfield Turner declared that the “Russians can kill us in space.” Shortly thereafter, President Carter approved the Pentagon’s request to test an anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon to place greater pressure on the USSR over ASAT arms control. Reagan Administration officials regularly invoked intelligence on Soviet space activities to justify both the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) and the Miniature Homing Vehicle (MHV) ASAT program. The declassified intelligence record reveals that the US Intelligence Community was less alarmist in its assessments of Soviet military space capabilities than some public statements suggested. Intelligence did, nevertheless, play a direct role in the decisions to develop US ASATs, and later to justify space-based missile defense. Perhaps most interestingly, the Reagan administration systematically released sanitized intelligence on Soviet military capabilities in the publication Soviet Military Power to garner greater support for SDI. Now, with the declassification of relevant national security documents on Soviet space activity, it is possible to better understand the role of intelligence in shaping American space policy during the Cold War. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4070/1
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From development to operations, at long last
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 16, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4071a.jpg)
A Falcon 9 carrying a Crew Dragon spacecraft with four astronauts on board lifts off November 15 from the Kennedy Space Center. (credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky)
Launches are the aspect of space activities that often attract the most attention, and understandably so: they are dramatic spectacles, controlled explosions that on occasion become uncontrolled. But while important, their glare can blind us to more important issues. The launch industry, for example, is just a small fraction of the overall space industry, with communications and other services provided by satellites generating far more revenue. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4071/1
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Review: Spacepower Ascendant
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 23, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4072a.jpg)
Spacepower Ascendant: Space Development Theory and a New Space Strategy
By Joshua P. Carlson
independently published, 2020
paperback, 257 pp., illus.
ISBN 979-8655659230
US$19.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B08BWGPR8V/spaceviews
This week’s launch of China’s Chang’e-5 lunar sample return mission will doubtless reinvigorate claims of a space race between the US and China, including those who believe the US is falling behind China in such a competition. The Chinese effort will likely be depicted as part of a grand strategy by China to harness the resources of the Moon (water, rare earth elements, helium-3, etc.), if not seize the Moon itself, to become the dominant power in space and therefore on Earth. If America does not respond, they argue, it risks ultimately being subservient to China.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4072/1
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In the new spectrum of space law, will Biden favor the Moon Treaty?
by Dennis O’Brien Monday, November 23, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4065a.jpg)
President-elect Joe Biden has said little about space, but his views on the Convention on the Law of the Seas from his time in the Senate could shape plans for the Artemis Accords and space resources. (credit: Adam Schultz/Biden for President)
The full spectrum of space law, from nationalist to internationalist, was on display at the Moon Village Association’s annual symposium earlier this month. But the question on everyone’s mind was, what will be the effect of Joe Biden’s election as the next President of the United States? He has already declared his intent to rejoin the Paris Climate Accords and the World Health Organization. A look at his Senate record gives us a hint concerning his space policy.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4073/1
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The space resources debate pivots from asteroids to the Moon
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 23, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4074a.jpg)
Over the last five years, the issue of using space resources has shifted from asteroid mining to lunar exploration. (credit: ESA)
Five years ago this week, President Obama signed into law the Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act (CSLCA) of 2015. The bill, as its name suggests, primarily dealt with commercial launch issues, such as extending the indemnification regime for commercial launch liability and establishing a class of spaceflight participants known as “government astronauts” who would be treated differently than their commercial counterparts.
The CSLCA, though, is best known for a section that was once a standalone bill, the Space Resource Exploration and Utilization Act of 2015. That section stated that any US company that extracted resources from asteroids or other celestial bodies beyond Earth would be entitled to them, “including to possess, own, transport, use, and sell the asteroid resource or space resource obtained in accordance with applicable law.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4074/1
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An iconic observatory faces its demise
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 23, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4075a.jpg)
A satellite image of Arecibo taken November 17, showing the damage to the giant dish caused by two broken cables that support the platform suspended over it. (credit: Satellite image ©2020 Maxar Technologies)
A few astronomical observatories are iconic, in the sense they are distinctive enough to be recognized in the broader culture. The Arecibo Observatory certainly qualifies, with its 305-meter main dish nestled in the terrain of Puerto Rico and a platform hosting receivers suspended above it, connected by cables to three towers. Few people might know much about the astronomy done at Arecibo (beyond, perhaps, its supporting role in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence), but it became famous in movies like Contact and GoldenEye.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4075/1
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We were heroes once: National Geographic’s “The Right Stuff” and the deflation of the astronaut
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, November 23, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4076a.jpg)
Actor Sam Shepard as Chuck Yeager in the 1983 movie The Right Stuff, an exploration of themes of American masculinity and heroism.
Several years ago, National Geographic ventured out beyond documentaries to start producing scripted dramas. So far none of them have hit a high mark—nothing on the order of “Mad Men,” “Breaking Bad,” “Fargo,” or other prestige television. Most recently they produced “The Right Stuff,” based on Tom Wolfe’s famous book and currently streaming on Disney+. But whereas Wolfe’s book was an exploration of the qualities required of men in a new and highly dangerous job, exploring space, the series is focused on depicting the Mercury astronauts as a bunch of back-biting, egotistical, insecure, argumentative jerks. The differences may be explained by the needs of a multi-episode series, and our changing cultural views of heroism, but the result is unfortunately mediocre.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4076/1
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Review: Black Hole Survival Guide
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 30, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4077a.jpg)
Black Hole Survival Guide
by Janna Levin
Knopf, 2020
hardcover, 160 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-525-65822-1
US$20.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/052565822X/spaceviews
So, how did you survive Black Hole Friday? That’s right, Black Hole Friday. A few years ago, NASA tried to coopt the post-Thanksgiving shopping “holiday” of Black Friday into an educational event online about black holes, complete with a hashtag: #BlackHoleFriday. It did so again this year, with various social media posts offering facts about black holes. It’s not clear many people paid attention, though, as they negotiated the Black Friday sales online or feasted on Thanksgiving leftovers.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4077/1
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Chesley Bonestell and his vision of the future
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 30, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4078a.jpg)
Chesley Bonestell: A Brush with the Future
directed by Douglass M. Stewart Jr.
2018, 96 minutes
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7343526/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_2
Most people with even a fleeting familiarity of the early Space Age are familiar with the work of artist Chesley Bonestell, even if they don’t recognize the name. Long before the launch of Sputnik and Explorer 1, let alone the flights of Yuri Gagarin and John Glenn or the footsteps of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, Bonestell painted dramatic landscapes of the Moon and other worlds in our solar system, as well as the rockets and spacecraft that would take people to them. His artwork, along with the words of Willy Ley and the visions of Wernher von Braun, televised by Walt Disney, would shape American perceptions of space at the dawn of the Space Age.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4078/1
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A 4G network on the Moon is bad news for radio astronomy
by Emma Alexander Monday, November 30, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4079a.jpg)
Radio telescopes like the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank Observatory face threats of radiofrequency interference on Earth, and now from space. (credit: Jodrell Bank Obs./Anthony Holloway)
As you drive down the road leading to Jodrell Bank Observatory, a sign asks visitors to turn off their mobile phones, stating that the Lovell telescope is so powerful it could detect a phone signal on Mars.
Radio telescopes are designed to be incredibly sensitive. To quote the legendary astronomer Carl Sagan, “The total amount of energy from outside the solar system ever received by all the radio telescopes on the planet Earth is less than the energy of a single snowflake striking the ground.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4079/1
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The case for Apophis
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 30, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4080a.jpg)
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, depicted here at the asteroid Bennu, could have an extended mission visiting another near Earth asteroid, Apophis, when it flies by Earth in 2029. (credit: NASA/GSFC)
On April 13, 2029—a Friday the 13th—the asteroid Apophis will pass remarkably close to the Earth, coming within 31,000 kilometers of the Earth’s surface, or closer than satellites in geostationary orbit. In late 2004, shortly after its discovery, astronomers projected at one point a 1-in-37 chance of a collision in 2029, but additional observations soon ruled out any impact. A small risk of an impact in April 2036 lingered for a few years, particularly if the asteroid passed through a narrow “keyhole” of space near Earth during its 2029 flyby (see “Sounding an alarm, cautiously”, The Space Review, May 31, 2005), but that, too, has since been ruled out.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4080/1
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Rolling the dice on Apollo: Prospects for US-Soviet cooperation in the Moon program
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, November 30, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4081a.jpg)
President John F. Kennedy viewing the Saturn I launch pad in 1963. NASA Administrator James Webb is at center. (credit: Cecil Stoughton, White House photographer)
On September 20, 1963, President John F. Kennedy gave a speech in front of the United Nations in New York City where he proposed a joint mission to the Moon with the Soviet Union. One year after the two countries had been to the brink of nuclear war, Kennedy wanted to cooperate with the Soviet Union on a major space project. The proposal was a surprise to many, seeming to come out of nowhere, and prompted backlash among Kennedy’s supporters in Congress, who worried that Apollo’s goals were being undermined.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4081/1
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Review: Operation Moonglow
by Jeff Foust Monday, December 7, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4082a.jpg)
Operation Moonglow: A Political History of Project Apollo
by Teasel Muir-Harmony
Basic Books, 2020
hardcover, 384 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-5416-9987-8
US$32
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1541699874/spaceviews
In July 1962, huge crowds converged on a Tokyo department store for a special event. Over the course of four days, more than 500,000 people stood in long lines—going up nine flights of stairs, zigzagging across the store’s roof, and then going back down nine flights of stairs. What attracted so many people? Not a sale, or a celebrity, but a spacecraft: Friendship 7, the Mercury capsule that John Glenn flew in the first American orbital spaceflight five months earlier, and now on a round-the-world tour.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4082/1
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Review: The Art of NASA
by Christopher Cokinos Monday, December 7, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4083a.jpg)
The Art of NASA: The Illustrations that Sold the Missions
by Piers Bizony
Motorbooks, 2020
hardcover, 192 pages, illus.
ISBN 978-0-7603-6807-7
US$50
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0760368074/spaceviews
Piers Bizony’s The Art of NASA: The Illustrations that Sold the Missions is an eye-popping, sumptuous coffee table book of full-color art—mostly vintage government and corporate work—that spans the early days of the American crewed space program all the way to present conceptions of orbital and planetary futures. The Art of NASA is a gorgeous, well-designed ode to visions of space flight, focusing on graphic illustrative art that appeared in brochures, newspapers, magazines, and, of late, on the web.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4083/1
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Learning from Chandrayaan 2 for India
by Ajay P. Kothari Monday, December 7, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3837a.jpg)
An illustration of India’s Vikram lander making its descent to the lunar surface. The spacecraft crashed attempting a landing in September 2019. (credit: ISRO)
Given the recent astounding success (so far) of Chang’e-5, as well as other missions by China and Japan, it might seem harsh to compare them to India’s Chandryaan 2 lunar mission launched last year. But this is not meant as a criticism, only a constructive conjecture. Yes, many aspects of Chandrayaan 2 were successful, for which India and its space agency, ISRO, should be proud. However, it is also apt to learn from what did not work, admit it and improve.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4084/1
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The cloth of doom: The weird, doomed ride of Ariane Flight 36
by Francis Castanos Monday, December 7, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4085a.jpg)
A version of the Ariane 4 rocket similar to the one lost in a 1990 launch failure caused by a “cloth of doom”. (credit: ESA)
This is a companion piece of sorts to Wayne Eleazer’s excellent series on rocket launch failures, and why they happened. It is a story involving rockets, satellites, an earthquake, and a couple of kitchen accessories. And a lot of bad luck. It all started with a natural disaster, which led to two further disasters, man-made this time.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4085/1
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The future of Mars exploration, from sample return to human missions
by Jeff Foust Monday, December 7, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4086a.jpg)
An illustration of a Mars Ascent Vehicle, containing samples collected by the Mars 2020 mission, launching into Martian orbit for later return to Earth. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
When an Atlas V lifted off from Cape Canaveral July 30, NASA heralded it as the beginning of a new era of Mars exploration. The rocket was launching NASA’s Mars 2020 mission, which will land the rover Perseverance on the surface of Mars in February. That rover will collect samples for later return to Earth, a long-running goal of scientists.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4086/1
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Review: How to Astronaut
by Jeff Foust Monday, December 14, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4087a.jpg)
How to Astronaut: An Insider’s Guide to Leaving Planet Earth
by Terry Virts
Workman Publishing Co., 2020
hardcover, 320 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-5235-0961-4
US$27.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1523509619/spaceviews
Most astronaut memoirs describe an unconventional career in a conventional way. They often follow a chronological approach—sometimes flashing back or forward—to describe the career path that person took to becoming an astronaut, the experience of training for and flying missions, and finally how the experience changed them. A few diverge from that path, like Chris Hadfield’s An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth, which used his experience to offer lessons on, as he put it, “how to live better and more happily here on Earth.” (See “Review: An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth”, November 18, 2013.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4087/1
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More space on the ground: trendy analogues vs. an unpleasant reality
by Ilaria Cinelli Monday, December 14, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4088a.jpg)
Analogue missions are intended to prepare for future human missions to places like the Moon and Mars, but depending on how they are designed may not be that useful.
The astronaut job is probably the only one that is at the same time both the most wanted job in the space sector and one of the silliest expectations someone may have as a career goal. Still, it is a job! There are high hopes for upcoming human spaceflights, and the commercial astronaut job is slowly opening the door to new types of astronauts. However, such a “silly expectation” drives people to find new opportunities to become astronauts no matter what. Thus, the boom of analogue astronauts has started!
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4088/1
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Beyond Apollo: guiding the next Moon landing
by Alan Campbell Monday, December 14, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4089a.jpg)
The lunar lander under development by the Blue Origin-led “National Team” that includes Draper, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. (credit: Blue Origin)
The Apollo Moon landing is familiar to many. Neil Armstrong looks out the window of the lunar module, adjusts his descent to avoid craters and boulders while keeping an eye on his dwindling fuel supply, and maneuvers to the surface for the first time. While the scene is destined to be repeated, experts agree the next Moon landing will be far different affair.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4089/1
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Starship contradictions
by Jeff Foust Monday, December 14, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4090a.jpg)
SpaceX’s Starship SN8 vehicle lifts off from the company’s South Texas test site December 9. (credit: SpaceX)
Can a launch that ends in a spectacular explosion be considered a success? Can a company be hailed for being open when it is also far from transparent about its work? Can a development program be described as proceeding at breakneck speed while also being well behind schedule?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4090/1
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Big bird, little bird: chasing Soviet anti-ballistic missile radars in the 1960s
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, December 14, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4091a.jpg)
Declassified image of the MABELI signals intelligence satellite launched in January 1972 to search for and characterize Soviet anti-ballistic missile radars. MABELI was the latest in a sequence of satellites and special payloads used by the United States to try to determine the extent of the Soviet ABM program. (credit: NRO)
The second bus-sized HEXAGON photo-reconnaissance satellite roared off its California launch pad in January 1972. Inside of its payload shroud atop the Titan III rocket, the HEXAGON looked somewhat like a train locomotive, and tucked along one of its slab sides was a small rectangular box about the size of a suitcase. After the HEXAGON reached its proper orbit and stabilized itself, circling the Earth over its poles, the box detached, pushed off by springs. It started spinning, and then fired a small rocket motor that boosted its orbit a bit higher than the big bird that had delivered it into space. The small satellite began unfolding like an origami crane spreading out, deploying solar panels and numerous antennas, most of them pointed down at the Earth.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4091/1
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Review: Cosmic Odyssey by Jeff Foust
Monday, December 21, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4092a.jpg)
Cosmic Odyssey: How Intrepid Astronomers at Palomar Observatory Changed our View of the Universe
by Linda Schweizer
MIT Press, 2020
hardcover, 312 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-262-04429-5
US$39.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0262044293/spaceviews
Asked today what is the most influential astronomical observatory, many might say the Hubble Space Telescope, or perhaps the Keck Observatory in Hawaii or the Very Large Telescope in Chile. For most of the latter half of the 20th century, though, the likely response would have been the Palomar Observatory, home to the 200-inch (five-meter) telescope that for decades was the largest in the world. It allowed astronomers to peer deeper into the universe than ever before.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4092/1
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Creating an inspector “mascot” satellite for JWST
by Philip Horzempa Monday, December 21, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4093a.jpg)
The James Webb Space Telescope recently completed the last deployment test of its sunshield before its October 2021 launch. (credit: NASA/Chris Gunn)
The James Webb Space Telescope has a heritage that stretches back at least half a century. It is a very complex spacecraft that will require numerous deployments to achieve its operational configuration. These will be monitored by instrumentation on the spacecraft, but given that each operation must proceed without error, it would be prudent to send a “Mascot” to monitor them. This would take the form of a cubesat that would ride with JWST after being launched as a secondary payload on the Ariane 5 that launches JWST. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4093/1
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Candy CORN: analyzing the CORONA concrete crosses myth
by Joseph T. Page II Monday, December 21, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4094a.jpg)
Present-day Concrete Cross. Courtesy of Google Maps.
A few years ago, NPR Morning Edition released a story about spy satellites that caught my attention during a morning commute to work. Reporter Danny Hajek covered a story about mysterious 60-foot-long (18-meter-long) concrete crosses found in the Arizona desert titled, “Decades-Old Mystery Put to Rest: Why Are There X’s in the Desert?” The NPR story details how two adventurers, Chuck Penson and Pez Owen, spotted mysterious crosses while flying cross-country in Owen’s Cessna. The crosses spotted by Penson and Owen were just a handful of targets laid out over a 16-by-16-mile (26-by-26-kilometer) grid across the desert near Casa Grande, Arizona. Wondering what the crosses were for, the pair reached out to the US Army Corps of Engineers, since one of the bronze positioning markers at the center of one crosses stated “Army Map Service” with a date of 1966. According to the story, the US Army Corps of Engineers response made the connection between the concrete crosses and the CORONA program. [1]
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4094/1
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Twilight for Trump space policy
by Jeff Foust Monday, December 21, 2020
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Vice President Mike Pence speaking at the December 9 National Space Council meeting. (credit: White House)
On December 9, the National Space Council met for the eighth and last time in the Trump Administration at the Kennedy Space Center. The event, held in the Apollo/Saturn V Center there, with that rocket above attendees’ heads, was something of a season finale for the council. Cabinet secretaries and other officials spent about an hour recounting the work they had done in space policy in the last four years, from the establishment of the Space Force to commercial space regulatory reforms.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4095/1
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From TACSAT to JUMPSEAT: Hughes and the top secret Gyrostat satellite gamble
by Dwayne A. Day and Nicholas W. Watkins Monday, December 21, 2020
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4096a.jpg)
Photo of Hughes’ HS-308 TACSAT (left) in May 1968 next to their proposal for Intelsat IV based on the HS 312 bus. These are mockups. Intelsat IV had a different antenna farm at top. This basic design led to the JUMPSEAT and Satellite Data System satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office. (credit: Hughes)
Starting in August 1968, the secretive National Reconnaissance Office began launching new intelligence satellites into much higher orbits to accomplish their missions. The first was the CANYON series of communications intelligence satellites, followed in 1970 by the first of the RHYOLITE telemetry interception satellites. In spring 1971, the NRO launched a new and enigmatic satellite named JUMPSEAT, which has remained perhaps the most mysterious of these high-orbit satellites. Each of these satellites pushed the state of the art in terms of payloads, antennas, and satellite design. But JUMPSEAT represented a concerted effort by a civil and commercial satellite designer to break into the top-secret world of satellite intelligence by leveraging a new technology and a military contract to demonstrate that it could perform the mission of both detecting signals from the ground, and spotting missile launches with an infrared telescope.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4096/1
(Editor’s Note: The Space Review will not publish the week of December 28. Our next issue will be January 4, 2021. Happy holidays!)
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Review: Stephen Hawking: A Memoir of Friendship and Physics
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 4, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4097a.jpg)
Stephen Hawking: A Memoir of Friendship and Physics
by Leonard Mlodinow
Pantheon, 2020
hardcover, 240 pp.
ISBN 978-1-5247-4868-5
US$25.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1524748684/spaceviews
It’s been nearly three years since Stephen Hawking passed away. At the time of his death in 2018, Hawking had been for decades one of the most famous scientists in the world, even though few people understood his research in topics such as black holes and cosmology. He was, in many respects, a cultural figure, revered for his intelligence and his achievements in spite of the physical limitations imposed by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4097/1
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Why I’m flying to space to do research aboard Virgin Galactic
by Alan Stern Monday, January 4, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3626a.jpg)
SpaceShipTwo ascends to the edge of space during a December 2018 test flight. (credit: MarsScientific.com and Trumbull Studios)
[Editor’s Note: A version of this essay was first published last month by The Hill, and is republished here with permission.]
Unlike researchers in virtually every other field of science, space researchers have long been limited to operating their experiments by remote control. Why? Because for many decades it was simply not possible or not practical to send themselves into space to do their work. This forced us to routinely have to incorporate expensive and often failure-prone automation into our experiments to replace the human operator.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4098/1
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Catalonia’s space ambitions
by Marçal Sanmartí Monday, January 4, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4099a.jpg)
A few weeks after announcing the plans to launch satellites and create a space agency, Jordi Puigneró, Catalan minister of digital policies, announced the creation of a spaceport in Lleida-Alguaire Airport.
In October, the British newspaper The Guardian published an article titled “Catalonia to invest in ‘Catalan NASA’ space agency and satellites.” Many people were surprised as Catalonia is an autonomous nationality inside the kingdom of Spain, not an independent state. And it’s quite small. It measures around 32,000 square kilometres, approximately the size of the state of Maine in the US or slightly bigger than Wales in the UK. If we visit the Catalan government website and check the information provided there, we might conclude that the term “Catalan NASA” is a big exaggeration.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4099/1
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Can space bridge a widening partisan divide?
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 4, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4100a.jpg)
Congress has been able to work on space issues in a bipartisan manner in the past, but will that be possible this year? (credit: J. Foust)
Sunday marked the start of the 117th Congress, with the swearing in of members, a vote for the Speaker of the House (won, as expected, by Nancy Pelosi), and other introductory matters. A new Congress represents a clean slate, clearing out all the legislation that didn’t become law in the previous Congress.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4100/1
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Review: Extraterrestrial
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 11, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4101a.jpg)
Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth
by Avi Loeb
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2021
hardcover, 240 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-358-27814-6
US$27.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0358278147/spaceviews
Last month, the British newspaper The Guardian reported that astronomers involved in the Breakthrough Listen SETI project had detected a signal emanating from the direction of Proxima Centauri, the star closest to our Sun. Initial analysis failed to turn up an obvious source of terrestrial or satellite interference. Yet, even those involved with Breakthrough Listen, like former NASA Ames director Pete Worden, warned that the signals “are likely interference that we cannot fully explain.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4101/1
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Arecibo telescope’s fall is indicative of global divide around funding science infrastructure
by Raquel Velho Monday, January 11, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4102a.jpg)
A satellite image of Arecibo Observatory taken days after the observing platform crashed into the dish below December 1. (credit: satellite image ©2020 Maxar Technologies)
A mere two weeks after the National Science Foundation declared it would close the Arecibo single-dish radio telescope—once the largest in the world—the observatory took a dramatic dying breath and collapsed on December 1, 2020.
While drone footage captured the moment in excruciating detail, in truth, the disintegration of the telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico began far before this cinematic end.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssHkMWcGat4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssHkMWcGat4&feature=emb_title
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4102/1
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What will space security look like in 2021?
by Nayef Al-Rodhan Monday, January 11, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4103a.jpg)
Secretary of the Air Force Barbara Barrett and Chief of Space Operations Gen. John Raymond participate in a ceremony last month to formally transfer NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins, currently on the ISS, from the Air Force to the Space Force. (credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky)
The US Space Force has only been in operation for little more than a year, and it is already heading into a bold and unpredictable horizon. As the new administration takes over in January, how will the terrestrial and space landscape be viewed and what priorities will be undertaken?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4103/1
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European space in a time of transition
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 11, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4104a.jpg)
Europe’s next-generation launch vehicles, the Ariane 6 (left) and Vega C, will enter service this year and next, even as launch operator Arianespace calls in European governments to provide more support to match what the US government offers rivals like SpaceX. (credit: ESA)
After ten months of conferences and meetings that have moved online because of the pandemic, it’s understandable that some want to try to do things a little differently. However, being a little too different can have its problems.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4104/1
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A possible Biden space agenda
by Roger Handberg Monday, January 18, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3297a.jpg)
One issue facing the new administration is the future of the International Space Station and its possible replacement by one or more commercial stations. (credit: NASA)
President Joseph Biden enters office this week with a minimalist position regarding future US space policy. His campaign made no explicit space policy declarations. The Democratic Party platform was generally supportive, but articulated no specific new items regarding space policy. Here, several proposals are put forth as priorities for the new administration. After recent events in Washington, space policy is likely not a priority unless something weird or disastrous happens in that realm; other priorities, such as the pandemic, economy, and security threats, will dominate discussion and focus.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4105/1
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A review of space strategy worldviews (part 1): 2011 National Security Space Strategy
by Christopher M. Stone Monday, January 18, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/2663a.jpg)
A policy intended to deter hostile acts in space, like antisatellite weapons tests, may not have had the desired effect. (credit: ESA)
In 2011, the National Security Space Strategy (NSSS) was released. Its objective, in response to the destructive testing of kinetic energy anti-satellite interceptors by China in 2007, was to “deter the development, testing, and employment of counterspace” weapons by any potential adversary seeking to degrade or destroy American freedom of access and use of space.[1] This document, like other strategies developed by US policymakers since the 1990s, was grounded in a perception of the international political environment. This perception is found within a combined international relations theory of a liberal, constructivist, utopian worldview. This specific worldview believes that rule-making, norm-building, and international institutions are what shapes, preserves, and propagates security and peace within the international system. While this document has been superseded by the 2020 Defense Space Strategy, the undercurrents of the original ideas and worldviews are still active and influential in national security space debates. This paper argues that the NSSS’s view of the international environment, with China as the case study, does not fully explain the international politics surrounding Chinese spacepower development and ultimately meant the NSSS failed to deter China and others from development, testing, and employment of counterspace systems.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4106/1
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Comparing the 2010 and 2020 National Space Policies
by Laura Brady and Charles Ellsey Monday, January 18, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4095a.jpg)
Vice President Mike Pence at the December 9 meeting of the National Space Council, where the new national space policy was announced. (credit: White House)
The US National Space Policy, issued by the White House, is an enunciation of the principles and goals by which the US will engage in space activities. On December 9, the Trump White House issued a National Space Policy (the 2020 policy) to replace the National Space Policy issued by the Obama White House in 2010 (the 2010 policy). A careful analysis of the two policies reveals that the 2020 policy builds upon and expands many of the 2010 policy’s objectives in a natural evolutionary arc, demonstrating that the exploration and utilization of space is truly nonpartisan.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4107/1
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Green Run, yellow light
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 18, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4108a.jpg)
The four RS-25 engines of the SLS core stage fire up at the start of the Green Run static-fire test January 16 at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. (credit: J. Foust)
For a decade, one of the tentpoles of NASA’s human space exploration program has been the Space Launch System, even as what was inside the tent changed: supporting the Asteroid Redirect Mission, returning humans to the Moon in the late 2020s, and now a human return to the Moon as early as 2024. But also for that decade, the SLS has yet to fly, its first launch slipping by several years. (Orion, the other tentpole of that program, is even older, dating back to the Constellation program of the latter half of the ’00s, but at least it has flown once, on a brief orbital test flight in late 2014.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4108/1
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Review: Envisioning Exoplanets
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 25, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4109a.jpg)
Envisioning Exoplanets: Searching for Life in the Galaxy
by Michael Carroll
Smithsonian Books, 2020
hardcover, 224 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-58834-691-9
US$34.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1588346919/spaceviews
More than a quarter of a century after the modern era of exoplanet discovery began, scientists can still only guess what those worlds look like. The tremendous distances and differences in brightness mean that most exoplanets are discovered by indirect means, such as the periodic Doppler shifts in spectral lines of stars caused by the gravitational tug of orbiting planets, or the miniscule drops in brightness of those stars as planets pass in front of them. Those and other techniques have allowed astronomers to measure the sizes and orbits of these planets, and spectroscopy has helped identify the composition of some. But they can only hypothesize what those planets look like.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4109/1
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In memoriam: Kellam de Forest, who gave us Stardates and the Gorn
by Glen E. Swanson Monday, January 25, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4110a.jpg)
Kellam de Forest is shown in his library at CBS with two of his assistants, Rona Kornblum (right) and Charlotte Worth. Photo was taken during the 1963–1964 timeframe. (Photo courtesy the author and CBS Films.)
One of the unsung heroes of the original Star Trek television series passed away. Kellam de Forest (1926–2021) died from complications due to COVID-19 on Tuesday, January 19. He was 94.
In December 2019, I had the good fortune to meet with de Forest and interview him about his work with Star Trek while researching a feature article for the Smithsonian. De Forest was one of two technical advisors that Gene Roddenberry employed during the production of the original Star Trek television series. The other was Harvey Lynn, a physicist that worked for the Research And Development (RAND) Corporation, a privately held think tank based in Santa Monica, California.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4110/1
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Terrain analysis for space warfare
by D. Grant Greffey Monday, January 25, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4111a.jpg)
What lessons can doctrines developed for land warfare offer for space operations? (Michigan National Guard photo by Sgt. 1st Class Jim Downen Jr.)
After reading a recent essay at The Space Review on space reconnaissance (see “From SSA to space recon: Setting the conditions to prevail in astrodynamic combat”, The Space Review, August 31, 2010), I found myself inspired to think about the challenges of intelligence preparation of the battlespace for space warfare. As a young cadet and then Infantry officer, I was taught the mnemonic OCOKA, which apparently was changed in Army field manuals some years ago to OAKOC. OAKOC stands for Observation and Fields of Fire, Avenues of Approach, Key and Decisive Terrain, Obstacles, and Cover and Concealment. Additionally, Weather is also a consideration for assessing the battlespace. This essay will attempt to apply the “OAKOC plus Weather” methodology in the space warfare domain, particularly for combat operations in Earth orbit.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4111/1
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Soyuz plans unclear as the 60th anniversary of Gagarin’s flight approaches
by Tony Quine Monday, January 25, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4112a.jpg)
The presence of NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei (right) alongside Russian cosmonauts training for the next Soyuz mission to the ISS raised questions if NASA might find a way to include Vande Hei on the crew.
This April will mark 60 years since Yuri Gagarin took humankind’s first tentative step into space on board Vostok. This presents a golden opportunity for Russia to celebrate this occasion by not only reflecting on past achievements and influence in human spaceflight, but also to showcase new milestones and to reignite public interest, and enthusiasm, for cosmonautics.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4112/1
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Smallsat launch: big versus small
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 25, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4113a.jpg)
Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne ignites its engine on its successful orbital launch attempt January 17. (credit: Virgin Orbit)
Two competing visions for the future of launching smallsats played out on consecutive Sundays this month.
On January 17, Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne took to the skies on its second test flight, appropriately called Launch Demo 2. The company’s first launch, in May 2019, failed seconds after the company’s LauncherOne rocket released from its Boeing 747 carrier aircraft and ignited its NewtonThree engine. A liquid oxygen propellant line ruptured, depriving the engine of propellant and causing it to shut down (see “It’s (small) rocket science, after all”, The Space Review, July 6, 2020)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4113/1
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What to do with that olde space station
by Eric Choi Monday, February 1, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4061a.jpg)
The International Space Station may continue to evolve over the next decade, such as with the addition of commercial modules by Axiom Space, but eventually the station will reach the end of its life and need to be retied in some way. (credit: Axiom Space)
In the final episode of the 1990s TV series Babylon 5, the titular space station is decommissioned by deliberately overloading its fusion reactors and blowing the place to smithereens. “We can’t just leave it here, it would be a menace to navigation,” an Earthforce commander tells former president John Sheridan, saying the station had “become sort of redundant” and citing recent budget cutbacks. This is a peculiar action because one would think a massive cloud of debris in the Epsilon Eridani system would be an even greater menace to navigation. A more logical decommissioning would have been to crash the station onto Epsilon 3, the planet about which it had orbited, although I suppose Draal and the Great Machine might have taken offense.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4114/1
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A long journey but a short stay on Mars
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 1, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4115a.jpg)
Under a plan for the first human Mars mission that NASA is currently studying, astronauts would spend only 30 days on the Red Planet, with the overall mission lasting two years. (credit: NASA)
On one hand, it seems premature for NASA to start planning for the first human mission to Mars. After all, its much nearer-term plans to return humans to the Moon are facing delays, as the 2024 goal of a human landing fades because of a shortfall of funding and a change of presidential administrations. On the other hand, NASA has for decades developed all kinds of architectures for human Mars missions, although for missions that themselves were decades in the future.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4115/1
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The secret history of Britain’s involvement in the Strategic Defense Initiative
by Aaron Bateman Monday, February 1, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3896a.jpg)
Long before Ronald Reagan offered Margaret Thatcher hundreds of millions of R&D funding associated with SDI, she supported the program, often over the objections of others in the British government. (credit: Reagan Library)
In March 1983, President Ronald Reagan surprised the world when he called upon American scientists to use their talents to render ballistic missiles “impotent and obsolete.” His speech would lead to the establishment of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), derisively called “Star Wars.” It grew into a $30 billion effort to explore the technologies required for a multi-layered missile defense system with land, sea, air, and space-based interceptors. While SDI looms large in Cold War political histories, very little has been actually written about the system itself and how it evolved over time. Even less has been written about the involvement of foreign countries in SDI research and development.[1] Of all the foreign participants, the United Kingdom was the most significant in terms of its political value for the Untied States and its access to highly classified areas of SDI research.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4116/1
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“Space ethics” according to space ethicists
by James S.J. Schwartz and Tony Milligan Monday, February 1, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4117a.jpg)
Discussions of “space ethics” date back to at least the 1980s, as part of analyses of the feasibility of terraforming Mars. (credit: Daein Ballard CC BY-SA 3.0)
Late in 2020 two unexpected space ethics op-eds appeared. Unexpected, because space ethics does not usually command that sort of attention; it is more of a background discourse than a regular part of the political battleground. In one of the op-eds, “Wokeists Assault Space Exploration”, Robert Zubrin argued that the authors of a white paper from NASA’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Working Group (EDIWG) were threatening to “abort space exploration.” Not long after, Joel Sercel (of TransAstra Corporation) and Steve Kwast (a retired Air Force lieutenant general) wrote a more thoughtful piece arguing that “someone needs to create a carefully crafted new field of space ethics.” The former threw shade on space ethics, the latter looked more positively toward its constructive role as an enabling asset for spaceflight—as something that might allow us to do things better by, for instance, avoiding the kind of disasters that have periodically undermined public confidence in the US space program.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4117/1
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Review: The Mission
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 8, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4118a.jpg)
The Mission: A True Story
by David W. Brown
Custom House, 2021
hardcover, 480 pp.
ISBN 978-0-06-265442-7
US$35.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/006265442X/spaceviews
NASA’s Europa Clipper mission is likely getting a new ride. The agency announced last week that it will issue, around the beginning of March, a formal request for proposals for launching the mission in October 2024. Congress had for years dictated that the mission launch on the Space Launch System, ensuring a speedy transit to Jupiter. NASA had objected, arguing it needed those SLS vehicles for the Artemis program and that a commercial launch option could save the agency as much as $1.5 billion. Congress relented in a spending bill passed in December after engineering analyses found potential issues with the vibrational environment the spacecraft will be exposed to during launch. That opens the door to using SpaceX’s existing Falcon Heavy, or potentially Blue Origin’s New Glenn and United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur vehicles yet to make their first launch.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4118/1
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It is very cold in space: Season 2 of “For All Mankind”
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, February 8, 2021
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The second season of the AppleTV+ series “For All Mankind” picks up the story in 1983, depicting a thriving lunar outpost, and increasing tensions in the Cold War. (credit: AppleTV+)
Early in the first episode of the second season of AppleTV+’s series “For All Mankind,” a group of astronauts assembles on the lunar surface to watch the sunrise accompanied by a bit of music that is clearly an homage to Brian Eno’s 1983 album “Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks.” Eno recorded that music as the soundtrack to Al Reinert’s documentary “Apollo,” re-released under the title “For All Mankind.” Reinert’s documentary was a masterpiece, beautifully edited and composed, and the fact that it is referenced in the new series—reappearing in the final episode—is an indication of just how fluent the show’s makers are with the language and the culture of the American space program.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4119/1
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How can you improve the Outer Space Treaty?
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 8, 2021
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While some think the Outer Space Treaty could use some “vitality” to bring it up to date with current space issues, there’s less consensus on how to do so. (credit: United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs)
The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 has long been hailed as the foundation of international space law, the basis for both a series of subsequent treaties and for other agreements. Last year, the US-led Artemis Accords sought to incorporate or “operationalize” many of the principles of that treaty in its agreements with other countries who wish to cooperation of the Artemis program of lunar exploration (see “The Artemis Accords take shape”, The Space Review, October 26, 2020).
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4120/1
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EKS: Russia’s space-based missile early warning system
by Bart Hendrickx Monday, February 8, 2021
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The Tundra missile early warning satellite. Source
In May of last year, Russia launched the fourth of its new-generation missile early warning satellites called Tundra. Flying in highly elliptical orbits, they continuously monitor regions from which missile attacks could potentially be launched against Russian territory. The Tundra satellites are part of the Integrated Space System (EKS), which will also include several satellites in geostationary orbit. With the fourth Tundra launch, EKS is reported to have reached its minimum baseline configuration. This article attempts to shed new light on the system’s technical features and capabilities using a variety of openly available sources.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4121/1
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Review: Cosmic Careers
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 15, 2021
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Cosmic Careers: Exploring the Universe of Opportunities in the Space Industries
by Alastair Storm Browne and Maryann Karinch
HarperCollins Leadership, 2021
paperback, 256 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-400-22093-9
US$19.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1400220939/spaceviews
This may be the best job market in decades for people looking into get into the space industry. Many well-funded startups are hiring engineers and others needed to get their businesses off the ground—figuratively and literally—from launch vehicle companies to satellite manufacturers to those developing services based on data from space systems. SpaceX alone has several hundred job openings on its website; many are engineers and technicians, as you’d expect, but others range from finance managers and customer support staff for its Starlink satellite system to cooks and a barista.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4122/1
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Global navigation satellite systems: a Symbiotic Realist paradigm
by Nayef Al-Rodhan Monday, February 15, 2021
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The UK’s departure from the EU means it will no longer participate in the Galileo satellite navigation system, an example of the geopolitical issues involved with such networks. (credit: ESA)
The UK space sector has been forced to face up to issues of sovereignty, particularly regarding its satellite activity, as Chris Skidmore, the government’s former science minister, highlighted during a Parliamentary debate on the future of the space industry earlier this month. The UK also recently made its final significant industrial contribution to the EU’s Galileo satnav system, as it bid the multi-billion-pound project farewell in another nod to the country’s departure from the European Union.
While space quite literally appears to know no bounds, geopolitical developments on the ground have increasingly brought its geopolitical limitations, as well as questions of sovereignty, regulation, and multilateral relations, into the picture. Despite the UK’s close involvement, the EU ensured that key features of Galileo would only be accessible for bloc members. This raises questions about the exclusive framework that some of these systems operate in, their “global” ubiquitous nature, and how this feeds into the balance between competition and cooperation: what I call a Symbiotic Realist coexistence.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4123/1
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Reflecting core American values in the competition for the final economic frontier
by Josh Carlson Monday, February 15, 2021
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A “Second Space Race” may be emerging between the US and China regarding economic benefits derived from space. (credit: SpaceX)
One motif of space futurism, from some of the earliest examples in the 1860s to the modern day, is the expected timeline for the developments and blossoming space culture that is envisioned. Virtually every one of those predictions has been, in retrospect, too aggressive and unrealized. Bruce Cahan and Dr. Mir Sadat, in “U.S. Space Policy for the New Space Age: Competing on the Final Frontier”, address the missing element that threw those predictions off: economics. While we may have the technology to do most, if not all, of the things described, it is the economic impetus drives civilizations to act and achieve.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4124/1
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Space investors head to the exits, at last
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 15, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4125a.jpg)
Astra, which nearly reached orbit with its Rocket 3.2 launch in December (above), announced this month it will merge with a special-purpose acquisition company, allowing it to raise nearly $500 million and go public. (credit: Astra/John Kraus)
For the last several years, the space startup ecosphere has looked a little like a roach motel: money comes in but it doesn’t come out. Billions of dollars of funding have flowed into launch vehicle, remote sensing, broadband megaconstellation, and other companies, but there have been few exits: opportunities for those investors to collect their return on that investment through either a sale of the company or a public offering of its stock.
That is starting to change. Investors are continuing to put money into space companies, and at an increasing rate. After a brief period of uncertainly last spring because of the pandemic, investors doubled down on the field.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4125/1
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In memoriam: Taylor Dinerman
by Christopher M. Stone Monday, February 22, 2021
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Taylor Dinerman. (credit: Christopher Stone)
Recently, The Space Review lost one of its longtime contributors, Taylor Dinerman. The son of a World War II veteran who was educated in Geneva one of the United Nations’ hubs in Europe, and himself a wounded combat veteran who defended the Jewish home state, Taylor was no stranger to the ways of the world, its diverse cultures and languages, and the many differences of opinion and perspectives that ranged the gambit of his interests in the overlapping studies influencing national and international dynamics. Because of this experience in the political, military, and academic realms, he was motivated to put these observations to pen in various newspapers, journals, and studies through such publications and think tanks as National Review, Gatestone Institute, Hudson Institute, Wall Street Journal, among many others.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4126/1
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The promise of return on investment does not disappear in cislunar space and beyond
by Vidvuds Beldavs Monday, February 22, 2021
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Alternative financing mechanisms may be needed to support development of lunar infrastructure without relying on uncertain government programs. (credit: Anna Nesterova/Alliance for Space Development)
In a recent essay, Josh Carlson discusses the importance of the United States taking a leadership role in commercial space activities (see “Reflecting core American values in the competition for the final economic frontier”, The Space Review, February 15, 2021). The premise of the article that “the economic impetus drives civilizations to act and achieve” can be debated, but political imperatives cannot motivate sustainable space development. Sustainable presence in outer space demands that the large investments required generate returns that are competitive with other investments and that promote further growth.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4127/1
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NASA tests the perseverance of some space enthusiasts
by Svetoslav Alexandrov Monday, February 22, 2021
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An image from the surface of Mars taken by Perseverance and released by NASA the day after landing. The lack of more such images from the mission, a break with past Mars missions, has been a source of frustration for some people. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
In 2016, I wrote an article about the lack of rapid image releases when certain space missions reach their destination (see “Rethinking image release policies in the age of instant gratification”, The Space Review, August 29, 2016.) My article focused on projects such as Rosetta and New Horizons, which adopted more conservative approaches by offering monthly or weekly batches of imagery, in contrast to missions like Cassini, the Mars Exploration Rovers (MERs) Spirit and Opportunity, Phoenix, Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity), and InSight, whose science teams published photos as soon as they were received on Earth. Back then, I never imagined that the next Mars rover would find itself in the midst of a similar controversy. After all, it was mostly Mars surface missions that had their photos available on the web immediately after downlinking.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4128/1
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It only looks easy: Perseverance lands on Mars
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 22, 2021
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An image of the Perseverance Mars rover, dangling beneath the skycrane used to lower the rover to the surface, released by NASA a day after its February 18 landing. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
One of NASA’s most remarkable, if peculiar, skills is its ability to turn the amazing into the mundane. When it landed astronauts on the Moon in 1969 for the first time in human history, the world stopped to watch. By the time it did it for the sixth and final time (to date) in 1972, the world largely ignored it. Most shuttle missions faded into obscurity, gaining attention only when they involved unusual complexity or unfortunate tragedy.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4129/1
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Review: Liftoff
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 1, 2021
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Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX
by Eric Berger
Willam Morrow, 2021
hardcover, 288 pp.
ISBN 978-0-06-297997-1
US$27.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0062979973/spaceviews
Rocket launches are coming back to Kwajalein. On Friday, NASA announced it awarded a contract to Astra to launch a constellation of cubesats called TROPICS that will study the structure of tropical cyclones. Those satellites will be launched on three of Astra’s Rocket 3 vehicles during a 120-day period in the first half of 2022, from Kwajalein Atoll.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4130/1
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Review: Apollo 11: Quarantine
by Christopher Cokinos Monday, March 1, 2021
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Apollo 11: Quarantine
Directed by Todd Douglas Miller
2021, 23 minutes
Available on streaming services from $3.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B08VDTS7VM/spaceviews
Todd Douglas Miller’s restored found-footage film Apollo 11 was rightly hailed as a masterpiece and it was one of the highlights of the 2019 50th anniversary celebration of the first human landing on the Moon (see “Review: Apollo 11”, The Space Review, March 4, 2019). It was even short-listed for an Oscar.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4131/1
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India’s foray into the commercial space market
by Ajey Lele
Monday, March 1, 2021
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An Indian PSLV on the pad before its February 28 launch carrying a Brazilian satellite and 18 secondary payloads. (credit: ISRO)
On Sunday, the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) successfully placed Brazil’s Amazônia-1 satellite, weighing 637 kilograms, into its desired orbit. This is the first Earth observation satellite developed entirely by Brazil. The PSLV also carried 18 secondary payloads placed a different orbit, including two from India. Satish Dhawan Sat (SD SAT) was developed by Space Kidz India to study space weather and radiation, while UNITYsat was the combination of three satellites by students from engineering and technology institutes. (A third Indian satellite, SinduNetra, was launched through a separate commercial arrangement, along with the SAI-1 NanoConnect-2 and 12 SpaceBEE satellites from the US on the rocket.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4132/1
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Don’t move US Space Command
by Matthew Jenkins Monday, March 1, 2021
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US Space Command, formally reestablished in 2019, is temporarily headquartered in Colorado, but the Air Force announced in January plans to move the headquarters to Alabama. (credit: DoD photo by Lisa Ferdinando)
On January 13, the United States Air Force selected Huntsville, Alabama, as the new home for the space domain combatant command, United States Space Command. You would not be alone if you misidentified this as the organize, train, and equip entity, the United States Space Force, but that, like all the other services, is led from the halls of the Pentagon. Space Command was re-established in August 2019. While initially established in 1988, it was deactivated in 2002 and merged with United States Strategic Command, the unified combatant command responsible for the United States nuclear triad’s employment, among other things.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4133/1
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Waiting is the hardest part
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 1, 2021
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Virgin Galactic pilots prepare for a SpaceShipTwo test flight. The company announced last week it was delaying the next powered flight of the vehicle until May to address an electromagnetic interference issue, the latest delay for that program. (credit: Quinn Tucker for Virgin Galactic)
There is one thing that nearly every space-related program has in common, be it launch vehicle or satellite, government or commercial, aerospace giant or young startup. It will run late.
That was made abundantly clear last week when three different programs announced delays, ranging from weeks to a year or more. That difficulty to adhere to schedule is at one level remarkable, and at another hardly surprising.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4134/1
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Review: First Light
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 8, 2021
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First Light: Switching on Stars at the Dawn of Time
by Emma Chapman
Bloomsbury Sigma, 2021
hardcover, 304 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-4729-6292-8
US$28
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1472962923/spaceviews
Astrophysics specializes in some of the most profound, but also puzzling questions. How did the universe form? How will it end? Just what is the universe made of? The simplicity of these questions belies the difficulty scientists have faced answering them, and the implications the answer to one has for others.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4135/1
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The enduring fantasy of space hotels
by A.J. Mackenzie Monday, March 8, 2021
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Voyager Space Station will start accepting gusts for luxury stays starting in 2027, assuming its developer can raise tens of billions of dollars and develop the giant space station on a rushed schedule. Good luck! (credit: Orbital Assembly Corp.)
You probably saw something in the last week about a new space hotel project by a company called Orbital Assembly Corporation. Most of that coverage was in tabloids and blogs, but it also made it to the Washington Post and CNN. That company says it will launch its first space hotel, a massive circular structure 200 meters across, and start hosting tourists there in 2027. Yes, 2027.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4136/1
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The new era of private human orbital spaceflight
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 8, 2021
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A Crew Dragon spacecraft like this one currently docked to the ISS will be used for both an Axiom Space mission to the station next year and the Inspiration4 free-flight mission launching this fall. (credit: NASA)
Back about 15 years ago or so, one might have expected commercial human spaceflight to be relatively commonplace by now. The Ansari X PRIZE had been won, and promised to open a new era of suborbital spaceflight, while tourists were flying regularly on Soyuz mission to the International Space Station. Surely by the early 2020s thousands of people would be flying to space, at least suborbitally, on an annual basis.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4137/1
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Putting the SpaceX-FAA dispute in context
by Wayne Eleazer Monday, March 8, 2021
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The SpaceX Starship SN10 prototype coming in for a landing during a flight March 3 at Boca Chica, Texas. (credit: SpaceX)
On January 25, 1957, the first Thor IRBM launch occurred from Launch Complex 17 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The objectives of that first-ever Thor launch operation were modest: to proceed down through the countdown, load the liquid oxygen, and start the engine. Anything useful that occurred after that was pure gravy. As it turned out, contamination in the liquid oxygen led to a valve failure and Thor 101 barely rose off the launch pad before the engine quit and the vehicle fell back down, creating a massive explosion and damaging the launch pad. Nonetheless, since the objectives of the operation were all met, it was a “success.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4138/1
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Review: Three Sigma Leadership
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 15, 2021
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Three Sigma Leadership: Or, the Way of the Chief Engineer
by Steven R. Hirshorn
NASA, 2019
ebook
free
https://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/three-sigma-leadership_detail
NASA engages in some of the most technically challenging projects, from building and operating the International Space Station to landing a one-ton rover on Mars. For all the complaints about those projects that run behind schedule or run over budget, not to mention to occasional failed mission, what is remarkable is that most of those projects are successful, often far beyond their original expectations. The ISS, for example, has been continuously crewed for more than two decades, and Perseverance is now rolling across the terrain of Jezero Crater on Mars.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4139/1
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Mobility and surface access lessons for the Artemis lunar lander
by Philip Horzempa Monday, March 15, 2021
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A Lockheed Martin concept from the mid-2000s for a Centaur-derived lunar lander.
NASA will soon choose the company or companies that will develop crewed lunar landers for the Artemis program. Mobility and ease of surface access should be key design goals for these new spacecraft. In 2006, Lockheed Martin proposed a lander, based on their veteran Centaur upper stage, which addressed how those goals could be achieved. I will review that concept and highlight some of its advantages. This is not meant to advocate for Lockheed’s specific proposal but, rather, these “concepts are intended to illustrate different design features and provoke further thought.”[1]
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4140/1
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The case for scrapping the Space Launch System
by Ajay Kothari Monday, March 15, 2021
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The Space Launch System has been the subject of heated debates, but what’s the alternative for going to the Moon, Mars, and beyond? (credit: NASA)
Several days after the editorial board of Bloomberg recommended that the Biden Administration cancel the Space Launch System (SLS), Loren Thompson published a rebuttal in Forbes. But I respectfully, if strongly, disagree with Thompson. The future of the SLS is of immense importance to NASA and the country, and thus to the taxpayers, and hence we need to attempt as soon as possible to set the record straight.
Thompson says, “The editorial board at Bloomberg News launched a nonsensical attack on NASA’s human spaceflight program last week. It was full of dubious assertions about alternatives to the Space Launch System.” And yet it is his attack that seems motivated for self-centered reasons, and is full of questionable assertions.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4141/1
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Spaceport traffic management
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 15, 2021
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A Falcon 9 stands on the pad at LC-39A last month as another Falcon 9 lifts off from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral, a sign of the increasing cadence of launches from the Eastern Range. (credit: SpaceX)
Early Sunday morning, just a few hours after clocks sprung ahead to daylight saving time, a Falcon 9 lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. An hour and five minutes later, it deployed its payload of 60 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit.
Those watching the launch could be excused for feeling a sense of déjà vu. Nearly 74 hours earlier, another Falcon 9 lifted off from nearby Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, carrying another set of Starlink satellites, again deployed 65 minutes after liftoff.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4142/1
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Review: Star Settlers
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 22, 2021
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Star Settlers: The Billionaires, Geniuses, and Crazed Visionaries Out to Conquer the Universe
by Fred Nadis
Pegasus Books, 2020
hardcover, 288 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-64313-448-2
US$27.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1643134485/spaceviews
Many industries have visionaries who predict how their companies and technologies will revolutionize life, but space seems to take that to a whole new level. Take, for example, Elon Musk, one of the world’s richest men, who has long talked about making humanity multiplanetary by settling Mars, and soon. Musk, replying Sunday to a tweet describing an architectural firm’s proposal to start building a Mars settlement in 2054, said, “Hopefully will happen this decade.” Then there’s Jeff Bezos, currently the world’s richest man, who many not have the same schedule or destination as Musk, but still talks about a goal of millions of people living and working in space.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4143/1
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The politics of settling space
by Gregory Anderson Monday, March 22, 2021
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A SpaceX vision for a future Mars settlement. Politics will guide when and how settlements beyond Earth develop. (credit: SpaceX)
Around 100,000 years ago, people we refer to as modern humans because they were physically like us began to move out of their African home and into the wider world. Those few humans and their descendants had much to learn, but they learned well enough, and quickly enough, to survive, and multiply, and prosper, not just for a few generations, but to the present day. Intelligence capable of grappling with the cosmos may or may not exist elsewhere, but it exists here, partly because those few people decided to roam.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4144/1
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This woman’s work: “For All Mankind” and women’s pain
by Emily Carney Monday, March 22, 2021
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Danielle Poole contemplates her next step while visiting her old Apollo spacecraft. (credit: AppleTV+)
In February, Apple TV+’s “For All Mankind” debuted its second season (see “It is very cold in space: Season 2 of ‘For All Mankind’”, The Space Review, February 8, 2021), and caught up with the women characters we’ve grown acquainted with during the show’s first season. Perhaps the most notable and unique characteristic of “For All Mankind” is how it depicts its women—astronauts, ground support crew, and wives/mothers—as real people with real issues, similar to how the AMC show “Mad Men” turned the image of the well-coiffed, lipsticked 1960s woman inside out during its seven seasons. In the new episodes of “For All Mankind”, its cadre of women are again front and center, and are all experiencing deep emotional and/or physical pain as the events of the 1980s unfold. “For All Mankind’s” women deny the presence of pain at all, or reveal it only after it’s shoved vividly into the forefront. (Note: this piece contains spoilers of “For All Mankind” Season 1, and the first four episodes of Season 2.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4145/1
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Back to the future
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 22, 2021
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Bill Nelson, at the time a US senator from Florida, speaks at a September 2011 event unveiling the design of the Space Launch System, a vehicle established in a 2010 NASA authorization bill he helped author. Nelson was nominated Friday to be the agency’s next administrator. (credit: NASA/Paul E. Alers)
On Thursday afternoon, the core stage of the Space Launch System roared to life for a second time. Two months after its first test-firing was cut short after a little more than a minute because of what turned out to be “intentionally conservative” limits in software controlling the engines’ hydraulics (see “Green Run, yellow light”, The Space Review, January 18, 2021), the four RS-25 engines this time ignited and ran for a full 500 seconds. “Everything that we’ve seen in the test today looked nominal,” John Honeycutt, NASA SLS program manager, said in a briefing just after the test.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4146/1
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Review: Proxima
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 29, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4147a.jpg)
Proxima
directed by Alice Winocour
2019, 107 minutes
Streaming on Hulu
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7374926/
The European Space Agency is starting its search for a new class of astronauts. ESA will begin accepting applications Wednesday for that astronaut class, continuing through late May. That kicks off a selection process that will end in about 18 months with the agency selecting four to six new career astronauts, eligible for long-duration missions to the International Space Station or, eventually to the Moon. ESA will also select a larger number of “reserve” astronauts who could fly one-off missions, such as taking part in commercial flight opportunities, and will investigate the feasibility of so-called “parastronauts,” or people with physical limitations who would not otherwise ordinarily be considered.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4147/1
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Sustainable space manufacturing and design will help get us to the Moon, Mars, and beyond
by Dylan Taylor Monday, March 29, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4148a.jpg)
In-space manufacturing and assembly can be enabled by the use of technologies to repair and recycle materials. (credit: Made In Space)
Sustainability isn’t merely an initiative that supports life on Earth. It also holds the power to propel the future of the space industry forward. The NewSpace industry and government agencies like NASA are focused on developing the commercial space industry, where technologies and methodologies are lower cost and more accessible in a rapidly growing market.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4148/1
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Space Force sounds like a joke thanks to pop culture: how that could be a problem for an important military branch
by Wendy Whitman Cobb Monday, March 29, 2021
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Mention “Space Force” to many members of the public, and they’ll think of the Netflix series starring Steve Carrell rather than the new military service. (credit: Netflix)
The US Space Force has a serious role to play in the modern world. Its stated mission is to train and equip personnel to defend US interests in space. Given the increasing military and economic importance of space, the Space Force is likely to grow in importance.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4149/1
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The growing case for active debris removal
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 29, 2021
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Astroscale will use the ELSA-d spacecraft, launched March 22, to demonstrate technologies needed for active debris removal. (credit: Astroscale)
There are, unfortunately, plenty of reminders of the growing problem of orbital debris. On March 18, the Space Force’s 18th Space Control Squadron (18 SPCS), responsible for tracking objects in Earth orbit, announced that the retired NOAA-17 polar-orbiting weather satellite had broken up eight days earlier, creating 16 pieces being tracked (and likely more too small to be tracked.) On March 22, 18 SPCS reported that a Chinese satellite, Yunhai 1-02, had broken up four days earlier, creating 21 pieces being tracked.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4150/1
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Review: Lunar Outfitters
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 5, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4151a.jpg)
Lunar Outfitters: Making the Apollo Space Suit
by Bill Ayrey
Univ. Press of Florida, 2020
hardcover, 422 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-8130-6657-8
US$35.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0813066573/spaceviews
Most of the attention NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration program has received has been on its biggest programs: the Space Launch System, Orion spacecraft, lunar Gateway, and the Human Landing System program to commercially develop crewed lunar landers. A smaller yet still critical element of getting boots on the Moon is literally those boots, and the rest of the spacesuits that astronauts walking on the lunar surface will wear. NASA’s Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU) program is developing that suit, building in part upon the lessons of the Apollo program.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4151/1
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NASA revises its low Earth orbit commercialization plans
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 5, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4152a.jpg)
Axiom Space plans to start with commercial modules attached to the International Space Station, but eventually undocking and adding elements to create a standalone commercial station. (credit: Axiom Space)
In June of 2019, NASA rolled out its new low Earth orbit commercialization initiative, an effort to build up both the supply of commercial capabilities in LEO as well as demand for them outside of NASA (see “NASA tries to commercialize the ISS, again”, The Space Review, June 10, 2019.) That initiative features several elements, from setting aside a fraction of International Space Station resources for commercial activities and allowing private astronaut missions to starting the process of supporting both commercial ISS modules and standalone commercial stations that could, eventually, succeed the ISS.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4152/1
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The Paper Chase: declassifying and releasing space history documents from the Cold War
by Dwayne A. Day and Asif Siddiqi Monday, April 5, 2021
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A Soviet Lunokhod lunar rover. In 2020 Roscosmos released a new set of documents about this program, part of a series of document releases about their secretive space program. (credit: Roscosmos)
In recent years, the Russian space agency Roscosmos has begun releasing documents from the history of the Soviet civilian space program, usually corresponding with anniversaries of key achievements in their long history. These have included document releases on the Lunokhod rovers, the Luna 16 mission that returned samples from the Moon, the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, and most recently, the Luna-9 mission, which became the first spacecraft to soft land on the Moon in February 1966. (See: “Handshakes and histories: The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, 45 years later,” The Space Review, July 20, 2020.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4153/1
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The status of Russia’s signals intelligence satellites
by Bart Hendrickx Monday, April 5, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4154a.jpg)
Lotos signals intelligence satellite, part of the Liana project. (source)
In early February, Russia launched the latest in a series of signals intelligence satellites that are part of a project called Liana. Initiated shortly after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the project has suffered significant technical problems and delays over the years and has so far failed to live up to expectations. A new generation of signals intelligence satellites is currently under development, but may take at least several more years to become fully operational.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4154/1
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Review: Institutions That Shaped Modern India: ISRO
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 12, 2021
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Institutions That Shaped Modern India: ISRO
by Ajey Lele
Rupa Publications India, 2021
ebook, 152 pp.
ISBN 9390356563
US$13.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B08RMWKP2K/spaceviews
Since Yuri Gagarin flew to space 60 years ago today, people from dozens of countries have followed on suborbital or orbital missions. Yet, to this day, only three countries have developed human spaceflight capabilities: the United States and the former Soviet Union 60 years ago, and China more than 40 years later. All the space travelers from other countries have flown on American or Russian vehicles.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4155/1
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Why venture? A memo for the Biden Administration
by Derek Webber
Monday, April 12, 2021
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NASA is expected to continue the Artemis program of human lunar exploration under Biden Administration, which could eventually support efforts to utilize space resources for the benefit of humanity. (credit: NASA)
It’s that time again. A new administration reassesses the funding, rationale, and specific projects being undertaken by the various space related departments. This is an inevitable consequence of the political vicissitudes that operate on a four-year time horizon as compared with the much longer timescales involved in space development, at least in these still-early years, when most of the funding still comes from government sources. Of course, there will always be geopolitical and even military considerations, which will vary with the tides of world affairs, but maybe it would be a good idea to re-state those basic rationales that transcend the politics of the moment. Why did Gagarin, Glenn, Armstrong, et al., risk their lives at the onset of the Space Age, and why do today’s astronauts line up for the challenges of the future? Space, above all else, is a global endeavor, and we should therefore be able to understand those common perspectives that all occupants of the planet share about the rationale of space exploration, whether it involves robots or people. In particular, it can be helpful to do this to get a handle on the timescales involved in developing space policy.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4156/1
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A Moonshot to inspire: Building back better in space
by Alan Stern Monday, April 12, 2021
[Editor’s Note: A version of this essay was previous published by The Hill, and is republished here with permission.]
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4157a.jpg)
President Joe Biden watching the landing of NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover from the White House in February. (credit: White House)
Recent Democratic presidents have supported and initiated important, bold, and sustainable robotic and commercial space efforts. But no Democrat since John F. Kennedy has set this nation onto a bold course that resulted in humans exploring new worlds.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4157/1
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For human spaceflight, better late than never
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 12, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4158a.jpg)
SpaceX says the Crew Dragon that will fly the Inspiration4 private mission in September will be equipped with a cupola in place of the docking adapter on the nose of the capsule. (credit: SpaceX)
Anniversaries with nice round numbers tend to serve as prompts for reflection of the past and contemplation of potential futures. But some round numbers are more potent than others, so 40 and 60 tend to lose out to 50 in terms of significance. That means the commemorations today of the 60th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s flight and the 40th anniversary of the first Space Shuttle launch won’t have the impact of, say, Gagarin’s anniversary 10 years ago or, perhaps, the shuttle’s anniversary 10 years from now.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4158/1
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Review: The High Frontier
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 19, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4159a.jpg)
The High Frontier: The Untold Story of Gerard K. O’Neill
directed by Ryan Stuit
2021, 90 mins., unrated
https://thehighfrontiermovie.com/
Among many space enthusiasts, Gerard K. O’Neill has achieved something akin to sainthood. More than 50 years ago, the Princeton physics professor first asked his students there if the surface of a planet was the best place for a technological civilization, a thought experiment that evolved over the course of several years into space colonies. It inspired a generation of space advocates, some of whom dubbed themselves “Gerry’s kids,” to carry forward his vision.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4159/1
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Putting SpaceX’s Starship program in the proper context
by Wayne Eleazer Monday, April 19, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4160a.jpg)
A SpaceX Starship prototype at the company’s Boca Chica, Texas, test site before a recent test flight. (credit: SpaceX)
Where does the SpaceX Starship vehicle fit, anyway? It came out of nowhere, in response to no government RFP or recognized industry-wide need. There is no established market for its capabilities and apparently is being constructed for much the same reasons that people build little airplanes in their garage. It has been created based on the vision of one man. But perhaps the real question is, “Where should the Starship fit in the launch industry?”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4160/1
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Higher burning: The Air Launched Sortie Vehicle of the 1980s
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, April 19, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4161a.jpg)
The air-launched space shuttle in the AppleTV+ series "For All Mankind." From 1980-1983, the US Air Force hired several aerospace contractors including Pratt & Whitney, Rockwell, and Boeing, to study such a concept, although it never reached an advanced design phase. (credit: Apple TV+)
A recent episode of the AppleTV+ series “For All Mankind” featured a big reveal: an advanced space shuttle launched off the back of a C-5 Galaxy, headed for space on a military mission. It is a concept that has been around since the beginning of the shuttle program. In the early 1980s, the United States Air Force sponsored studies of what was initially designated a Space Sortie Vehicle, then renamed the Air Launched Sortie Vehicle, or ALSV. The ALSV would have launched into space off the back of a 747. In one early concept, the 747 would have been equipped with multiple rocket engines in its tail to boost it to launch altitude. Now, newly-acquired information indicates that Boeing conducted several studies of “Trans-Atmospheric Vehicles” in 1983, including a revised variant of the ALSV. This Sortie Vehicle, looking somewhat like a space shuttle orbiter that had been (lightly) stepped on by Godzilla, would have fired its own rocket engines while on top of the 747 and pushed both vehicles higher before separating the spacecraft to head into orbit.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4161/1
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All in on Starship
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 19, 2021
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NASA said it picked SpaceX’s Starship lunar lander, and only SpaceX, becaused on both the quality of the proposals it received and the limited funding available. (credit: SpaceX)
History will show that SpaceX won two contracts last week to land spacecraft on the Moon, but few may remember the first. On Tuesday, Astrobotic announced it selected SpaceX to launch its Griffin lunar lander in 2023. That lander will carry to the south pole of the Moon NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) to search for deposits of water ice there. NASA awarded Astrobotic a contract worth nearly $200 million last year to launch VIPER through the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services Program; Astrobotic did not disclose the terms of its contract with SpaceX, although the Falcon Heavy has a list price of $90 million.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4162/1
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Review: Not Necessarily Rocket Science
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 26, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4163a.jpg)
Not Necessarily Rocket Science: A Beginner's Guide to Life in the Space Age
by Kellie Gerardi
Mango, 2020
hardcover, 256 pp.
ISBN 978-1-64250-410-1
US$19.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1642504106/spaceviews
For decades, the message to students interested in pursuing career in space was simple: study science and math. That was the way to get a job as an engineer or scientist at companies or government agencies involved in space. That’s understandable, given the essential nature of those fields to launching satellites, but it was also something of an exclusionary message: if you weren’t interested in science and math, or just not good at it, then you were out of luck.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4163/1
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Thanks, Dmitry!
by A.J. Mackenzie Monday, April 26, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4164a.jpg)
In 2014, Dmitry Rogozin, Russian deputy prime minister, made threats about access to RD-180 engines and Soyuz seats that prompted a series of changes in the US. Will comments by Russia’s current deputy prime minister about the future of ISS have a similar impact? (credit: Roscosmos)
Russian officials stated last week that Russia could quit the International Space Station as soon as 2025. One of those officials, deputy prime minister Yuri Borisov, claimed “technical malfunctions” were taking place there at an increasing rate, and that Russia should instead build its own national space station, perhaps by 2030.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4164/1
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A message of continuity from NASA’s next administrator
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 26, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4165a.jpg)
Bill Nelson, the Biden Administration’s nominee to lead NASA, talks to his former colleagues on the Senate Commerce Committee during his confirmation hearing April 21. (credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
The last time the Senate Commerce Committee held a confirmation hearing for a NASA administrator nominee, Bill Nelson was not happy. As the top Democrat on the committee, the Florida senator used his opening remarks to make it clear he did not think the nominee, Jim Bridenstine, was the right person for the job. “While your time as a pilot, and your service to our country in the military is certainly commendable,” Nelson told Bridenstine, “it doesn’t make you qualified to make complex and nuanced engineering, safety, and budgetary decisions for which the head of NASA must be accountable.” (See “A contentious confirmation”, The Space Review, November 6, 2017.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4165/1
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With Starship, NASA is buying the Moon, but investing in Mars
by Casey Dreier and Jason Davis Monday, April 26, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4166a.jpg)
NASA’s selection of SpaceX’s Starship to send humans to the Moon could help both organizations go to Mars. (credit: SpaceX)
NASA’s selection of SpaceX’s Starship for a crewed lunar landing is the most consequential decision in the Artemis program to date, not just as a major step toward the Moon, but for the long-term implications of investing in a Mars spacecraft.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4166/1
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Review: A Man on the Moon
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 3, 2021
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A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts
by Andrew Chaikin
The Folio Society, 2021
hardcover, 800 pp. (two volumes), illus.
US$225.00
https://www.foliosociety.com/usa/a-man-on-the-moon.html
The first copy of A Man on the Moon that I bought was when the book came out in 1994, timed to the 25th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing. I got a copy at a Boston bookstore just in time for a talk its author, Andrew Chaikin, gave at Boston University shortly before the book rode a wave of popularity tied to the 25th anniversary and other events, like the movie Apollo 13 that came out a year later, leading to the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4167/1
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Don’t make space harder than it needs to be
by Matthew Jenkins Monday, May 3, 2021
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Space Force Gen. Jay Raymond has made the case for his service to lawmakers, but the Space Force needs to inform the general public about the importance of space in order to win widespread support. (credit: US Air Force photo by Wayne Clark)
In February, White House press secretary Jen Psaki called the Space Force “the plane of today”—a reference to media interest in the paint scheme of the new Air Force One—when asked whether the new administration supported the United States Space Force. The good news is that she later provided a coherent answer. The Biden Administration fully supports the Space Force and is not revisiting its instantiation. Around the same time, the Chief of Space Operations, Gen. Jay Raymond, remark when asked about it that “it is hard to understand the link between what the Space Force does and how it affects U.S. citizens.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4168/1
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The little Mars helicopter that could
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 3, 2021
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The Mastcam-Z camera on the Perseverance rover captured this image of Ingenuity during its second flight on Mars April 22. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS)
In the last decade, drones have become almost ubiquitous. They have found roles from providing aerial photography to delivery services to entertainment. You can go on Amazon and find a low-end quadcopter, with limited range and performance but still sporting high-definition cameras, for less than $100, and maybe under $50.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4169/
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Let’s take down the menace to our space dreams
by Alfred Anzaldúa Monday, May 3, 2021
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The growing problem of space junk requires not just technical solutions for removing debris but also new legal, regulatory, and business models. (credit: ESA/Spacejunk3D, LLC)
In March, the retired NOAA-17 polar-orbiting weather satellite and the Chinese Yunhai 1-02 satellite both broke up in orbit. The former breakup created 16 pieces of trackable objects and the latter 21 pieces. Both were in polar orbits,[1] the most popular orbit in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) band from 200 to 2000 kilometers.[2] These trackable objects joined around 34,000 other trackable objects weighing 8,000 tons[3] larger than 10 centimeters in diameter and at least 128 million smaller pieces of untrackable debris able to shred a spacecraft.[4] Around 10,000 of the fragments were created by more than 250 collisions or explosions in orbit. Only 7% of the objects are functioning satellites.[5]
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4170/1
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Review: Test Gods
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 10, 2021
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Test Gods: Virgin Galactic and the Making of a Modern Astronaut
by Nicholas Schmidle
Henry Holt and Co., 2021
hardcover, 352 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-250-22975-5
US$ 29.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1250229758/spaceviews
When Virgin Galactic first announced its suborbital spaceflight plans in 2004, working in cooperation with Scaled Composites just as that company’s SpaceShipOne was on the cusp of winning the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE, it said it would begin commercial service as soon as late 2007. It’s 2021, and the company has yet to take a paying customer to the edge of space. SpaceShipTwo hasn’t made a trip to suborbital space since February 2019, and a flight in December 2020 was aborted just as its hybrid engine ignited because of a computer malfunction that’s taken months to correct.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4171/1
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To catch a star: the technical and geopolitical arguments for autonomous on-orbit satellite servicing
by Matthew Jenkins Monday, May 10, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4172a.jpg)
An infrared image of Intelsat 10-02 taken by the MEV-2 spacecraft shortly before docking. MEV-2 will remain docked to Intelsat 10-02 for several years, extending the satellite’s mission. (credit: Northrop Grumman)
On April 12, Northrop Grumman’s Mission Extension Vehicle-2 (MEV-2) successfully docked with a geostationary communications satellite, Intelsat 10-02. It is easy to see the applications for this technology. Besides extending the lives of satellites running out of propellant, for example, one can imagine satellites carrying less fuel in the first place, freeing up more weight for payloads. It’s easy to get caught up in the potential applications of this technology. Yet, while this accomplishment is substantial and noteworthy, it is not the first time satellite to have conducted rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO) to service another satellite.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4172/1
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Retaining both space policies and processes
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 10, 2021
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Biden Administration officials have suggested that the National Space Council, under Vice President Harris’s leadership, won’t have the same “big displays” as those by the council under Vice President Mike Pence, like this December 2020 meeting under the Saturn V on display at the Kennedy Space Center. (credit: White House)
When the Biden Administration took office in January, some in the space community were concerned about the future of initiatives started by the Trump Administration. Within a matter of weeks, though, the White House affirmed its support for both the US Space Force (which would have required an act of Congress to undo in any case) as well as NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration program.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4173/1
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Spybirds: POPPY 8 and the dawn of satellite ocean surveillance
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, May 10, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4174a.jpg)
Artist impression of the September 1969 launch of multiple satellites. The four yellow objects at the front represent the POPPY 8 signals intelligence satellites that for the first time had a mission of locating Soviet ships at sea by detecting their radar emissions. POPPY scanned large portions of the electromagnetic spectrum searching for new and unusual signals, and the use of four satellites in a constellation enabled precise location of detected radars. (credit: NRO)
At the end of September 1969, a Thor-Agena rocket roared off its launch pad in California and climbed high over the Pacific Ocean, heading south. The rocket dropped its stubby pencil-like solid booster motors not very long after lifting off and continued its arc. A few minutes later, its first stage, burning a mixture of kerosene and liquid oxygen, ran low on fuel and its engine shut down. The Agena upper stage separated and small motors fired, pushing it away and forcing the fuel in its tanks to settle to the rear, and in moments its Bell rocket engine ignited, pushing it faster and higher. Its bulbous nose cone separated and flew away, revealing a cluster of four shiny, egg-shaped satellites surrounding a small pointy object. Upon reaching orbital velocity the Agena’s engine shut down and the shiny satellites began to pop off, pushed away by springs. Each satellite was about the size of a toddler, and collectively they were known as POPPY 8. They were followed by several other satellites that also separated from the front of the Agena. Moments later, various small satellites were pushed off the rear of the Agena. Then came the finale: at the rear of the Agena, a box-shaped satellite the size of a fat suitcase and named WESTON rotated back on a hinge and was shoved away on springs before firing its solid rocket motor and heading to a higher orbit.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4174/1
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Review: Developing Space and Settling Space
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 17, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4175a.jpg)
Developing Space
by John Strickland with Sam Spencer and Anna Nesterova
Apogee Books, 2021
paperback, 354 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-989044-14-8
US$55.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/198904414X/spaceviews
Settling Space
by John Strickland with Sam Spencer and Anna Nesterova
Apogee Books, 2021
paperback, 398 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-989044-16-2
US$55.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1989044166/spaceviews
For all his talk about wanting to make humanity multiplanetary, Elon Musk hasn’t said much about how he would ensure people would stay alive on another world. Musk is happy to talk about how Starship can make it possible for people to go to the Moon, Mars, and elsewhere in large numbers, including that vision of a million people living on Mars. But exactly what people would do once on Mars, and how they would survive the extreme environment there, is an exercise left for the reader.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4175/1
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Why the China-Russia space alliance will speed up human exploration of Mars
by John Wolfram Monday, May 17, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4176a.jpg)
A Long March 5B rocket lifts off in April carrying the core module of China’s new space station. China and Russia have recently agreed to cooperate on space exploration activities, including missions to the Moon. (credit: Xinhua)
On March 9, the China National Space Administration and the Russian space agency Roscosmos signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the joint construction of a permanent research station on the Moon. Their explicit goal is to make this a base of future space exploration operations, with the implicit goals of planning a crewed mission to Mars and boldly challenging US leadership in space. Could this latest and largest step in the emerging “new space race” ultimately accelerate the landing of humans on Mars?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4176/1
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Build back better
by Robert G. Oler Monday, May 17, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4177a.jpg)
SpaceX’s Starship SN15 on its successful flight May 5, going to an altitude of ten kilometers before landing safely, unlike four previous vehicles. (credit: SpaceX)
History loves ironies and maybe the future will as well. SpaceX stuck the first landing of its Starship prototype on the 60th anniversary of Alan Shepard’s first flight into space. A long road remains, but the event prompts a simple question: “What if Starship works?”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4177/1
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Redundancy now, or redundancy never?
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 17, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4178a.jpg)
Lunar lander concepts by Blue Origin (left) and Dynetics. The two companies have filed protests with the GAO about NASA’s award of a single Human Landing System contract to SpaceX, while a Senate bill would require NASA to select a second company. (credit: Blue Origin/Dynetics)
A month after NASA selected SpaceX for the sole Human Landing System (HLS) award (see “All in on Starship”, The Space Review, April 19, 2021), the reverberations continue. NASA’s decision April 16 to make a single “Option A” award for the development and flight demonstration of lunar lander to SpaceX surprised many in the industry and, given the high stakes of the competition, was one that the losing companies were unlikely to accept easily.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4178/1
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Review: Amazon Unbound and its insights into Blue Origin
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 24, 2021
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Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire
by Brad Stone
Simon & Schuster, 2021
hardcover, 496 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-9821-3261-3
US$30.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1982132612/spaceviews
The good news is that you can now buy a seat on a New Shepard suborbital flight. The bad news is that you probably can’t afford it. Blue Origin announced early this month it would offer a single seat on the first crewed flight of New Shepard, scheduled for July 20, which it would auction off. Last week, the company unsealed the bids it received in the first phase, and moved into a more open bidding phase. As of early May 24, the current high bid was $2.8 million, with the bidding set to conclude with a live auction June 12.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4179/1
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Why the US should ban kinetic anti-satellite weapons
by Matthew Jenkins Monday, May 24, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3686a.jpg)
A proliferation of kinetic anti-satellite weapons to countries like India, which tested one in 2019, raise questions about the long-term sustainability of low Earth orbit. (credit: DRDO)
The United States has long been the world leader in developing and leveraging space-based technology. While the gap between the US and other countries has shrunk in recent years, the United States remains the nation most dependent on space-based capabilities. As of June 2020, the total number of active satellites in orbit was 2,787, of which 1,425 belong to the US, 382 to China, and 172 to Russia. All other states account for the remaining 808.[1] At no time in the history of space exploration has space been more congested, contested, and competitive.[2] Since the 1960s, the global economic system has become increasingly dependent on precision timing provided by space-based capabilities, which facilitate air travel, communications, banking, and numerous other core sectors in the global economy.[3] A guiding objective in the National Space Policy published last December is to preserve the space environment to enhance space activities’ long-term sustainability.[4] Given this emphasis and the particular dependence of the US on space-based technologies, policymakers should lead the global charge to ban the use of kinetic anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons development and testing through international legislation and multilateral cooperation of all nations who have a stake in ensuring the continued use of space for the benefit of all humanity.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4180/1
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Red planet scare
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 24, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4181a.jpg)
An image released last week by the China National Space Administration showing the Zhurong rover on the surface of Mars. (credit: CNSA)
Sometimes a Mars rover is just a Mars rover, but sometimes it’s not.
When China landed its Zhurong rover in the Utopia Planitia region of Mars May 14, many celebrated the technical achievement. China is just the second country, after the United States, to land a spacecraft on Mars and sustain its operations (the Soviet Union’s Mars 3 landed in 1971, but lost contact less than two minutes after touchdown, while Britain’s Beagle 2 may have landed safely in 2004 but never deployed its solar panels and antenna.) Scientists looked forward to what Zhurong’s instruments might reveal, such as its ground-penetrating radar designed to search for subsurface ice deposits.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4181/1
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Necessary but not sufficient: Presidents and space policy 60 years after Kennedy
by Wendy N. Whitman Cobb Monday, May 24, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4182a.jpg)
Sixty years after John F. Kennedy called for landing a man on the Moon by the end of the decade, the influence of presidents on space policy remains important, but alone is not sufficient. (credit: NASA)
On May 25, 1961, still in the first months of his presidency but stung by recent failures at the Bay of Pigs and elsewhere, President John F. Kennedy prepared to address the Congress. Seeking a way to move the United States forward in the Cold War, Kennedy stated:
First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4182/1
Note: Because of the Memorial Day holiday, next week’s issue will be published on Tuesday, June 1.
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Review: Beyond
by Jeff Foust Tuesday, June 1, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4183a.jpg)
Beyond: The Astonishing Story of the First Human to Leave Our Planet and Journey into Space
by Stephen Walker
Harper, 2021
hardcover, 512 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-06-297815-8
US$29.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0062978152/spaceviews
For all the rhetoric in recent months about a new space race developing between China and the United States, there’s little agreement about what exactly constitutes that race. Sending humans (back) to the Moon? Humans to Mars? A base on the Moon? The original Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union was, in retrospect, a little more clear cut, with the two companies striving to be the first to land humans on the Moon, played out in a series of firsts—first satellite, first spacewalk, etc.—from 1957 to 1969.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4183/1
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The revival of the suborbital market
by Sam Dinkin Tuesday, June 1, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4184a.jpg)
“Mannequin Skywalker” occupies a seat on a New Shepard suborbital vehicle earlier this year that, in July, will carry the winner of an ongoing auction to the edge of space. (credit: Blue Origin)
With the bidding for taking the first human-crewed suborbital flight of the New Shepard at $2.8 million, and the bidding not closing until June 12, a healthy market may be available, at least temporarily, for suborbital flights with paying spaceflight participants.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4184/1
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Should India join China and Russia’s Lunar Research Station?
by Ajey Lele Tuesday, June 1, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4185a.jpg)
An illustration of what the proposed China-Russia international lunar research station might one day look like. (credit: CNSA)
Last week, South Korea signed the Artemis Accords, becoming the tenth country to join. It was the latest sign of the ongoing global efforts to study the Moon and beyond, involving both state-centric programs and multilateral collaborations.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4185/1
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An aggressive budget for more than just Earth science
by Jeff Foust Tuesday, June 1, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4186a.jpg)
NISAR, a synthetic aperture radar Earth science mission being jointly developed by NASA and the Indian space agency ISRO, will be a pathfinder for the Earth System Observatory series of missions to follow later in the decade. (credit: NASA)
Even before President Biden took office in January, it was clear that his administration was going to emphasize Earth science at NASA. The Biden campaign had identified climate change as a major priority across the government, and the Democratic party platform last summer included, in its brief discussion of space policy, “strengthening” Earth observation missions at both NASA and NOAA (see “Moon 2020-something”, The Space Review, November 9, 2020).
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4186/1
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Review: Light in the Darkness
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 7, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4187a.jpg)
Light in the Darkness: Black Holes, the Universe, and Us
by Heino Falcke with Jörg Römer
HarperOne, 2021
hardcover, 368 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-06-302005-4
US$27.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/006302005X/spaceviews
Even though the term “black hole” was introduced less than 60 years ago, the phenomenon has long since transcended astrophysics into popular culture. Almost everyone is familiar with the term, associating it not just stars and galaxies but also, more figuratively, with things from which one cannot escape, ravenously consuming everything in its path.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4187/1
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Revisiting the past’s future: ongoing ruminations about “For All Mankind”
by Emily Carney and Dwayne A. Day Monday, June 7, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4188a.jpg)
In the second season of “For All Mankind”, Skylab is the US space station in low Earth orbit, regularly serviced by—and refueling—space shuttles. (credit: AppleTV+)
Apple TV+’s “For All Mankind” finished its second season in April. That season was set entirely in 1983, in an alternate history where NASA builds a moonbase and ends up at the inflection point between peace and nuclear war. Two obsessive fans of the show who haven’t found enough opportunities to discuss it sat down and talked about it some more. Here is their extended commentary and speculation.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4188/1
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Venus is hot again
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 7, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4189a.jpg)
An illustration showing the various phases of the DAVINCI+ probe entering the atmosphere of Venus and descending towards the surface. (credit: NASA GSFC visualization and CI Labs Michael Lentz and colleagues)
Planetary scientists who study Venus went into the competition for NASA’s Discovery program with high hopes. Two Venus mission concepts, an orbiter and an atmospheric probe, were finalists. With NASA having announced its intent to select two missions in this round—a move to space out the competitions and thus reduce the workload on the scientific community of preparing proposals—scientists were optimistic at least one would be selected, ending a long drought of NASA missions to the planet.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4189/1
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Peeking behind the iron curtain: National Intelligence Estimates and the Soviet space program
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, June 7, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4190a.jpg)
The massive N1 rocket being elevated at its pad. American satellites photographed several launch vehicles on the pad during the late 1960s and early 1970s. (credit: Pavel Shubin, “Rocket Space System N1-L3”)
During the Cold War, the US intelligence community had a vast array of intelligence assets collecting information about the Soviet space program, from satellites to listening posts to radars pointed into space. Information was gathered up and processed and combined and then turned into products for decision makers. One of the major focuses at the time was the Soviet manned lunar landing program. American intelligence analysts had determined by around 1967 that the Soviet program, based on its huge N1 rocket, was not competitive with Apollo. Nevertheless, analysts in the US intelligence community maintained close tabs on Soviet space progress and regularly reported their assessments in a regular series of highly secret documents known as National Intelligence Estimates (NIEs). Now, new versions of several NIEs on the Soviet space program produced during the height of the space race have been released, and they shed further light on what the Soviets were doing, as well as some of the sources and methods used by the US intelligence community to keep tabs on their activities.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4190/1
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Review: Losing the Sky
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 14, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4191a.jpg)
Losing the Sky
by Andy Lawrence
Photon Productions, 2021
paperback,150 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-8383997-2-6
US$8.37
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1838399720/spaceviews
At a meeting of the American Astronomical Society last week, astronomers working on the issue of potential interference from satellite megaconstellations had some good news. Observations of the “VisorSat” versions of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites, so named because they’re equipped with visors intended to keep sunlight from hitting reflective surfaces on the satellites, were considerably darker than their unmodified counterparts. The original Starlink satellites had an average visual magnitude of 5 once in their final orbits, while the VisorSats were at magnitude 6.5, four times dimmer.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4191/1
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Sword and shield: defending against an American anti-satellite weapon during the Cold War
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, June 14, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4192a.jpg)
Launch of an ASM-135 anti-satellite missile from an F-15 Eagle in 1985. The missile was equipped with an infrared seeker and minutes later it destroyed an Air Force satellite. Two years before this test, the CIA identified possible Soviet countermeasures to the weapon, estimating that they could be available by the later 1990s. (credit: USAF)
On September 13, 1985, Major Wilbert D. “Doug” Pearson, flying an F-15A fighter aircraft named “Celestial Eagle,” pulled his aircraft into a steep climb and fired a single ASM-135 anti-satellite missile at the sky. Moments later, the missile slammed into the US Air Force’s Solwind P78-1 satellite, blasting it to smithereens—producing both orbital debris and considerable controversy. It was the culmination of an ASAT development program started in the 1970s and dedicated to giving the United States the capability to destroy Soviet satellites. Now, a newly declassified 1983 CIA report indicates that the United States was concerned about how the Soviet Union might defend against the American ASAT weapon. It offers interesting insights into the possible countermeasures that may still be valid today, nearly four decades later.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4192/1
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Giant ferocious steps from Jeff Bezos
by Sam Dinkin Monday, June 14, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3214a.jpg)
Jeff Bezos, seen here at a 2017 Blue Origin event, appears to be devoting more attention to his spaceflight company as he prepares to step down as Amazon CEO. (credit: J. Foust)
The Blue Origin motto is Gradatim Ferociter, Latin for step by step ferociously. In the past month, several of those steps have been revealed to be both giant and ferocious. In some ways Blue Origin’s owner, Jeff Bezos, is like Robert Heinlein’s character D.D. Harriman, who put everything on the line to open space and go there himself. Unlike Harriman, he is relying not only on Blue Origin’s industriousness, but also seeking a major government development contract.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4193/1
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Is a billionaire space race good for the industry?
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 14, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4194a.jpg)
Four people will be on the first crewed flight of New Shepard on July 20, including company founder Jeff Bezos and the person who bid $28 million for a seat in an auction Saturday. (credit: Blue Origin)
At one point in Saturday’s auction for a Blue Origin New Shepard seat, the bidding action slowed, prompting a rally cry of sorts from the auctioneer. “The more you pay for it, the more you enjoy it,” he implored.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4194/1
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Review: My Remarkable Journey
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 21, 2021
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My Remarkable Journey: A Memoir
by Katherine Johnson with Joylette Hylick and Katherine Moore
Amistad, 2021
hardcover, 256 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-06-289766-4
US$25.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0062897667/spaceviews
At a hearing last week by a Senate appropriations subcommittee about NASA’s fiscal year 2022 budget proposal, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) asked NASA administrator Bill Nelson about funding for the agency’s Independent Verification and Validation Facility, located in his state. In 2019, NASA renamed the facility after Katherine Johnson, the Black mathematician who became famous after the publication of the book Hidden Figures and the release of the movie of the same title. Nelson responded he would investigate the funding issue for the facility, then added, “if I might, tell you a story about Katherine Johnson.” He then mentioned the movie version of Hidden Figures.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4195/1
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Why Astrofeminism?
by Layla Martin Monday, June 21, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4196a.jpg)
There are few companies in the space industry founded by women, just one example of the field’s gender gap.
The ancient universal practice of studying the moon, planets and stars from Earth helped to define primordial calendars and shape our earliest conception of gods, spirits, seasons, and tides. Today, space-based assets educate and connect humanity as well as revealing information that furthers efforts to mitigate anthropogenic climate change. At its best, what space offers us is the possibility to evolve the human condition. The power of space has benefited the United States on a global scale for decades, inspiring generations while expanding democratic soft power. To illustrate, in every single place around the world I’ve spent time in, from Akiruno, Tokyo to Zanzibar, Tanzania, I’ve observed local people proudly wearing NASA t-shirts! From a non-scientific perspective, images of space reveal patterns of light and color that are so beautiful it’s difficult to describe them as anything other than magical. Yet, they are in fact, very real!
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4196/1
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A shifting balance of space cooperation?
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 21, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4197a.jpg)
Roscosmos director general Dmitry Rogozin used a conference last week to express support for international cooperation in space exploration, even while continuing to raise questions about the future of the International Space Station. (credit: Roscosmos)
For nearly three decades, cooperation in human spaceflight has been defined by the partnership between the United States and Russia in the International Space Station program. After the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US brought Russia into its space station program with the goal of keeping Russia’s space program engaged in peaceful endeavors rather than producing missiles for Iran or North Korea. (It also had the benefit of providing a new justification for a space station program that, in the US, was facing threats of cancellation.) For better or worse, the two countries have worked together, along with Europe, Japan, and Canada, to build and operate the ISS to this day.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4197/1
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Burning Frost, the view from the ground: shooting down a spy satellite in 2008
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, June 21, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4198a.jpg)
Launch of an SM-3 missile from the cruiser USS Lake Erie in February 2008 on an intercept course with a disabled American reconnaissance satellite. (credit: US Navy)
In February 2008, a missile fired from the Aegis class cruiser USS Lake Erie, several hundred kilometers northwest of Hawaii, blasted high into the sky and a few minutes later destroyed a malfunctioning top-secret American satellite. The operation was known as “Burnt Frost,” and according to American officials, it was undertaken to prevent potentially toxic debris from the satellite from falling on populated areas. The operation occurred only a few months after a heavily criticized Chinese anti-satellite test produced a large amount of orbital debris. The American action was designed to minimize the generation of debris but was nevertheless controversial. Now, a newly published account of the decision-making that led to the American action provides unique insight into how it was made. The author, orbital debris expert and longtime space writer Nicolas Johnson, died in April at age 71, and his article, titled “Operation Burnt Frost: A View From Inside,” was made available free of charge by the journal Space Policy.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4198/1
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Scrutinizing the Russian-Iranian satellite deal
by Bart Hendrickx Monday, June 21, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4199a.jpg)
Signing of a pre-contractual agreement on a Russian-Iranian satellite project by Leonid Makridenko (VNIIEM), Alireza Zolali (Bonyan Danesh Shargh) and Sergei Baskov (NPK Barl) in August 2015. (Source)
On June 11, the Washington Post published an article claiming that Russia is preparing to supply Iran with an advanced remote sensing satellite that will give Tehran an unprecedented ability to track potential military targets across the Middle East and beyond. When asked to comment on the story the following day, President Vladimir Putin dismissed it as “fake news” and “nonsense”. However, plans for the joint satellite project were openly reported in the Russian and Iranian media until several years ago and an analysis of various recent Russian online sources corroborates the Post’s claim that it is not far away from launch.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4199/1
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Review: Project Hail Mary
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 28, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4200a.jpg)
Project Hail Mary: A Novel
by Andy Weir
Ballantine, 2021
hardcover, 496 pp.
ISBN 978-0-593-13520-4
US$28.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0593135202/spaceviews
When The Martian hit bookshelves in 2014 (see “Review: The Martian”, The Space Review, February 17, 2014), it became not just a bestselling novel but also a book embraced by the space exploration community. Andy Weir told a story of a stranded astronaut on Mars that was both thrilling and mostly accurate from science and engineering standpoints. By the time the film version hit theaters in the fall of 2015, even NASA hopped on the bandwagon, cooperating with the film’s production and using it to promote its own human Mars exploration plans (see “The Martian and real Martians”, The Space Review, October 5, 2015.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4200/1
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Global space traffic management measures to improve the safety and sustainability of outer space
by Jamil Castillo Monday, June 28, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4201a.jpg)
Minor damage to the Canadarm2 robotic arm on the International Space Station, presumably from a debris strike, is the latest examine of the hazards posed by space debris. (credit: NASA/CSA)
Relying on space being “big” is no longer an option. More than 3,000 satellites operate in Earth orbit along with hundreds of thousands of pieces of debris. In October 2020, a company that tracks objects in low Earth orbit warned about an old satellite and a rocket’s upper stage, both inoperable, that had a greater than 10% chance of colliding. Inspections in May of this year revealed that a piece of debris had hit Canadarm2, the International Space Station’s robotic arm.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4201/1
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Before you go, Administrator Nelson
by Roger Handberg Monday, June 28, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4202a.jpg)
Astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Thomas Pesquet perform a spacewalk earlier this month to install new solar arrays on the International Space Station. NASA needs to plan now for a successor to the ISS, which may not last beyond 2030. (credit: NASA)
Every NASA administrator has an expiration date when they enter office, just like Major League Baseball managers or NBA coaches. The boundaries on their tenure can come with the end of the appointing president’s tenure: surviving across administrations is possible but usually limited to until a successor is nominated. More likely, the administrator either will leave office when the president does, or earlier due to issues with the administration—especially White House staff—or of their own volition.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4202/1
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Jumpstarting European NewSpace
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 28, 2021
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Thierry Breton, the EU commissioner responsible for space, holds up a signed agreement between the European Commission and European Space Agency after a ceremony Tuesday in Brussels. (credit: ESA)
On June 22, officials from the European Commission and the European Space Agency gathered in Brussels for a signing ceremony. After many months of negotiations, the two sides had finally reached an agreement, formally known as the Financial Framework Partnership Agreement, governing how they will cooperate on programs such as the Galileo navigation satellite constellation and the Copernicus series of Earth observation satellites.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4203/1
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Shipkillers: from satellite to shooter at sea
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, June 28, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4204a.jpg)
The nuclear-powered cruiser Admiral Ushakov (ex-Kirov) next to the Slava-class cruiser Marshal Ustinov. These ships, which entered service in the late 1970s and early 1980s, were bristling with antennas and anti-ship missiles. Their targets were U.S. Navy aircraft carriers. (credit: Wikipedia (US Navy photograph during a port visit in 1992))
In late summer 1973, a US reconnaissance satellite photographed a large warship under construction at Leningrad Shipyard Ordzhonikid 189 on the Baltic. The warship had a distinctive bottom plate and was obviously one of the largest vessels ever built by the Soviet Union. The CIA soon designated it as Baltic Combatant #1, or BALCOM 1 for short. Throughout the 1970s satellites continued to fly overhead as the warship took shape, photographing the shipyard as workers installed a nuclear reactor and large diagonal silos for launching massive cruise missiles.[1] Eventually the ship was named Kirov and arrived in Northern Fleet waters in early October 1980. Late that year, the ship was conducting cruise missile and surface-to-air missile firings. By that time, a second Kirov was under construction and preparing for launch in 1981.[2]
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4204/1
Note: Because of the Fourth of July holiday weekend, next week’s issue will be published on Tuesday, July 6.
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Reviews: Examining the life of John Glenn
by Jeff Foust Tuesday, July 6, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4205a.jpg)
The Last American Hero: The Remarkable Life of John Glenn
by Alice L. George
Chicago Review Press, 2020
hardcover 368 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-64160-213-6
US$30.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1641602139/spaceviews
Mercury Rising: John Glenn, John Kennedy, and the New Battleground of the Cold War
by Jeff Shesol
W.W. Norton & Co., 2021
hardcover, 416 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-324-00324-3
US$28.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1324003243/spaceviews
John Glenn is clearly one of the most famous figures in the history of American spaceflight despite a relatively brief career at NASA. Selected as part of the Mercury 7 class in 1959, he became the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962, providing a much-needed shot of confidence (or, at least, reassurance) for the country after a series of spaceflight firsts by the Soviets. By 1964, though, Glenn was out of NASA, pursuing new careers in business and politics that led to four terms in the Senate, capped by a second flight to space on the shuttle.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4205/1
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Did ancient astronomers set a message in stone for us?
by Sam Dinkin Tuesday, July 6, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4206a.jpg)
A sky chart superimposed on a scene in a pillar from an ancient temple: a depiction of an impact or guide to heaven? (credit: Andrew Collins)
Back in 2003, The Space Review first started repeating the story of the danger of large impacts (“Asteroids are probably a threat. Maybe?” The Space Review, September 9, 2003). It is possible we are recapitulating a tradition that started more than 11,000 years before present (BP). Ancient astronomers may have provided us with a report about what may be “the worst day ever in human history” according to Martin B. Sweatman and Dimitrios Tsikritsis (“Decoding Göbekli Tepe with Archaeoastronomy: What does the fox say?”, 2017).
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4206/1
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The nanosatellite gold rush demands new routes to space
by Steve Heller Tuesday, July 6, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4207a.jpg)
A SpaceX Falcon 9 launched 88 small satellites last week, but rideshare missions like this should be complemented by other means to easily and affordably get smallsats into orbit. (credit: SpaceX)
More than six decades since the launch of Sputnik 1, the first satellite in history, nanosatellites have opened up a new era in private space innovation. They’ve created a wealth of new opportunities for upstart satellite developers, and new challenges to solve for those who seek to help them make their impact.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4207/1
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Flights to Mars, real and LEGO
by Dwayne A. Day Tuesday, July 6, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4208a.jpg)
In 1968, Boeing produced a detailed study of a human mission to Mars. Now somebody has produced the spacecraft using LEGO. Here it is in two different scales. (credit: Joe Chambers)
In early 1968, The Boeing Company delivered to NASA a thick, multi-volume report on how to send humans to Mars. That report, titled “Integrated Manned Interplanetary Spacecraft Concept Definition,” described a large, nuclear-powered spacecraft that would be launched in components atop Saturn V rockets, and after assembly in orbit would head off to the Red Planet. Boeing’s Mars spacecraft design concept was further refined by NASA in 1969 and would become iconic for the next decade and a half, appearing in artwork and on book covers and in the pages of novels until it was replaced by another concept for a human mission to Mars that resulted from the Case For Mars conference and was often referred to as the “Mars Cycler.” That Mars spaceship design entered the zeitgeist for another decade or so. But Boeing’s design has shown remarkable staying power and still appears in artwork decades later. Now, Boeing’s design has been recreated in LEGO form, in three-dimensional plastic glory that you can build yourself.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4208/1
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Ingenuity, InSight, and Ice Mapper
by Jeff Foust Tuesday, July 6, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4209a.jpg)
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter took this image of its shadow on the Martian surface during its most recent flight July 4. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
It is a golden era for rovers on Mars. For the first time, there are now three operating rovers on the Red Planet. Curiosity has been at work for nearly nine years now, working its way up Mount Sharp in the center of Gale Crater and traveling through time as it studies different rock layers there. Perseverance, which landed on Mars in February, is ramping up its science operations in Jezero Crater, including plans for caching samples for later return to Earth. And China’s first Mars rover, Zhurong, is exploring the Utopia Planitia region of the planet, although Chinese officials have provided few details since its May landing beyond some images and videos.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4209/1
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Review: Across the Airless Wilds
by Jeff Foust
Monday, July 12, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4210a.jpg)
Across the Airless Wilds: The Lunar Rover and the Triumph of the Final Moon Landings
by Earl Swift
Custom House, 2021
hardcover, 384 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-06-298653-5
US$28.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0062986538/spaceviews
In late May, Lockheed Martin announced it was partnering with General Motors on concepts for future lunar rovers. Executives with the aerospace and automotive giants said they would combine the best technologies of both companies, such as GM’s work on batteries and autonomous driving, for future NASA competitions to develop lunar rovers for the Artemis program. Beyond that, though, there were few details about how the two companies will work together, in part because NASA has yet to release any requests for proposals to develop lunar rovers.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4210/1
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When it comes to spacewalks, size matters
by Steven Moore Monday, July 12, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4211a.jpg)
NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough (left) and ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet perform a spacewalk outside the space station in June, using suits that have far exceeded their original design life. (credit: NASA)
On June 25, astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Thomas Pesquet successfully completed an almost seven-hour EVA (extravehicular activity, or spacewalk) to install solar panels on the International Space Station, the last in a series of three such EVAs they performed in June. What does it take to don a spacesuit and venture out on such a technical and dangerous mission? Surprisingly, one of the main criteria (besides the years of astronaut training) is body size.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4211/1
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China is using mythology and sci-fi to sell its space program to the world
by Molly Silk Monday, July 12, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4212a.jpg)
The movie The Wandering Earth is one example of how China is using science fiction to shape perceptions of its space ambitions. (credit: Netflix)
On the morning of June 17, China launched its long-awaited Shenzhou-12 spacecraft, carrying three Chinese astronauts, or taikonauts, towards the Tianhe core module. The module itself was launched at the end of April, forming part of the permanent Tiangong space station, which is planned to remain in orbit for the next ten years.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4212/1
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The suborbital spaceflight race isn’t over
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 12, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4213a.jpg)
A view of SpaceShipTwo ascending on its suborbital spaceflight July 11 with six people, including Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson, on board. (credit: Virgin Galactic)
It was never a race, Branson insisted. Not that anyone believed him.
Branson was sitting on a stage in a temporary building adjacent to the main hangar at Spaceport America in New Mexico, a couple of hours after making his long-awaited and highly anticipated suborbital journey on SpaceShipTwo on Sunday. He and other members of the “Unity 22” crew faced the media for a press conference where one reporter, unsurprisingly, asked him what it felt like to beat Jeff Bezos, founder of rival Blue Origin, to space.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4213/1
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Review: Leadership Moments from NASA
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 19, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4214a.jpg)
Leadership Moments from NASA: Achieving the Impossible
by Dave Williams and Elizabeth Howell
ECW Press, 2021
hardcover, 328 pp.
ISBN 978-1-77041-604-8
US$19.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1770416048/spaceviews
Over the course of more than six decades, NASA has provided plenty of examples of leadership, good and bad. Many of those cases are well known even outside the agency, from the successful return of the Apollo 13 astronauts to the losses of Challenger and Columbia. There are, though, many more events within the agency, at large and small scales, that can provide insights on management and leadership.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4214/1
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Assessing and celebrating the global impact of the “First Lady Astronaut Trainees”
by James Oberg Monday, July 19, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4215a.jpg)
Jerrie Cobb (left), one of the “Mercury 13” women, meets with Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space. The Mercury 13 testing effort helped prompt the Soviets to fly Tereshkova.
This month’s “billionaire’s space race” drama portends a very interesting future of more private citizen access to space, first on brief up-and-down hops and soon after on full orbital expeditions. Previous episodic very-high-priced space tourist missions will give way to much more frequent and much less expensive jaunts.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4215/1
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Astronomy flagships, past and future
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 19, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4216a.jpg)
The James Webb Space Telescope undergoes final preparations for shipment to the launch site in French Guiana for a launch on an Ariane 5 now likely to take place in November. (credit: NASA/Chris Gunn)
Sometimes it’s the missions that are behind schedule. Other times it’s the reports about the missions that are behind schedule.
For months, the astronomy community in the United States has been eagerly awaiting the final report of the astrophysics decadal survey, known as “Astro2020.” As the name suggests, the study originally expected to publish its final report in 2020 (the previous astrophysics decadal survey report was released in August 2010.) Even before the pandemic, though, it appeared likely the final report would not be ready until the beginning of 2021, a schedule further delayed by the shift to virtual meetings and deliberations since last spring.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4216/1
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Flattops from space: the once (and future?) meme of photographing aircraft carriers from orbit
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, July 19, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4217a.jpg)
The cover of Jane’s Defence Weekly in 1984 that featured reconnaissance satellite imagery of a Soviet carrier under construction.
In 1984, Samuel Loring Morison, an analyst at the Naval Intelligence Support Center outside of Washington, DC, picked three photos off the desk of a colleague. He clipped the security classification stamps off the sides of the photos and provided them to Jane’s Defence Weekly, which had only recently begun publishing. The photos were taken by a satellite of a Soviet Union military shipyard. Knowing that they had a real scoop, the editors at Jane’s put one of the photos on the cover of the magazine and featured the other two in a short article about the latest Soviet naval developments.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4217/1
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Review: The Burning Blue
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 26, 2021
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The Burning Blue: The Untold Story of Christa McAuliffe and NASA’s Challenger Disaster
by Kevin Cook
Henry Holt and Co., 2021
hardcover, 288 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-250-75555-1
US$27.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1250755557/spaceviews
Depending on your age, the loss of the shuttle Challenger more than 35 years ago can either seem like it happened yesterday or feel like it’s ancient history. If you’re old enough to remember the tragedy, the memories run deep and can come bubbling back to the surface with just the slightest mention. For anyone younger than about 40, though, who lack the first-hand memories of the event, the events lose their visceral, emotional punch.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4218/1
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The case for suborbital scholarships
by A.J. Mackenzie Monday, July 26, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4219a.jpg)
Oliver Daemen, Jeff Bezos, Wally Funk, and Mark Bezos (left to right) pose in front of the booster that launched them on their suborbital spaceflight July 20. (credit: J. Foust)
With the successful suborbital flights this month by Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, space is now wide open to not just professional astronauts but just about anyone. Or, rather, anyone wealthy enough to afford a ticket. And that’s a problem.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4219/1
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John Glenn’s fan mail and the ambitions of the girls who wrote to him
by Roshanna P. SylvestervMonday, July 26, 2021
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John Glenn, seen here in the NASA mailroom after his 1962 spaceflight, received letters from fans of all ages. (credit: John Glenn Archives, The Ohio State University)
Pioneering spacefarer John Herschel Glenn Jr. would have turned 100 on July 18. When Glenn died in 2016, the famed astronaut was lauded as “the last genuine American hero.” NASA, the US Marine Corps, President Barack Obama, and many others posted tributes on social media.
Hundreds of nostalgic fans testified to Glenn’s impact on their own senses of youthful possibility. One woman recalled being a fifth grader in February 1962, listening to coverage of Glenn’s orbital flight at school on a transistor radio: “This was the definition of the future… I wanted to do hard math with slide rules and learn hard languages and solve mysteries. I wanted to be like John Glenn.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4220/1
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Will suborbital space tourism take a suborbital trajectory?
by Jeff FoustvMonday, July 26, 2021
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Jeff Bezos, founder of Blue Origin, celebrates after his suborbital spaceflight on New Shepard July 20. (credit: Blue Origin)
After an extended launch delay, suborbital space tourism is finally ready for liftoff.
Many in the industry thought that was the case nearly 17 years ago, when SpaceShipOne, built by Scaled Composites and funded by billionaire Paul Allen, won the $10 million Ansari XPRIZE. Around the same time, Virgin Galactic announced a deal to license the technology, proposing to start flying people in 2007 or 2008.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4221/1
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Review: America’s New Destiny in Space
by Jeff Foust Monday, August 2, 2021
America’s New Destiny in Space
by Glenn Harlan Reynolds
Encounter Books, 2020
paperback, 54 pp.
ISBN 978-1-64177-182-5
US$9.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1641771828/spaceviews
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4222a.jpg)
The suborbital flights last month of Richard Branson on SpaceShipTwo and Jeff Bezos on New Shepard triggered an avalanche of criticism of the two men specifically and of privately funded spaceflight more generally. Some were outraged at Bezos in particular, the world’s wealthiest person, for spending money on spaceflight rather than on climate change or alleviating poverty or simply improving the wages and working conditions of employees at Amazon—criticism he did little to assuage afterwards by thanking Amazon employees and customers for making his flight possible. Others worried more broadly about giving the private sector too much control over what happens in space, fearing a mostly harmless suborbital race could turn into a high-stakes battle over the heavens.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4222/1
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Six things to think about (besides the price) for prospective space tourists
by Steven Freeland
Monday, August 2, 2021
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Blue Origin’s successful flight last month, along with one by Virgin Galactic days earlier, suggests the era of suborbital space tourism is finally here. (credit: J. Foust)
It’s been a momentous month for space-faring billionaires. On July 11, British entrepreneur Richard Branson’s VSS Unity rocketplane flew him and five fellow passengers about 85 kilometers above Earth. Nine days later, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ New Shepard capsule reached an altitude of 106 kilometers, carrying Bezos, his brother, and the oldest and youngest people ever to reach such a height. Passengers on both flights experienced several minutes of weightlessness and took in breathtaking views of our beautiful and fragile Earth.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4223/1
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Relaunching a lunar lander program
by Jeff Foust Monday, August 2, 2021
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NASA con move ahead with the contract it awarded to SpaceX to develop a lunar lander based on its Starship vehicle after the GAO rejected protests from the two losing bidders July 30. (credit: SpaceX)
No doubt there were some sighs of relief among NASA leadership on Friday afternoon, and they had nothing to do with the situation on the International Space Station.
NASA leadership, including administrator Bill Nelson, had traveled to the Kennedy Space Center in hopes of observing the launch of an Atlas V carrying Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner on a second uncrewed test flight, a rerun of the December 2019 test flight cut short by problems with the spacecraft. But a day earlier, NASA postponed the launch after the station temporarily lost attitude control when the new Russian Nauka module, which docked to the station Thursday morning, started firing its thrusters hours later. Controllers were able to get the station reoriented after about an hour, but the incident led NASA to delay the launch until this week to give the station time to get back to normal.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4224/1
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Little Wizards: Signals intelligence satellites during the Cold War
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, August 2, 2021
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A Titan II rocket on the launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base in 1988. This rocket apparently carried the FARRAH III satellite into orbit, one of the last P-11 signals intelligence satellites launched. According to ground observers, the satellite is still in operation 33 years later. (credit: USAF)
In the early 1960s, somebody at Lockheed Missiles and Space Company—it is not clear who—came up with the idea of putting a small satellite on the back end of an Agena spacecraft and popping it off when the Agena reached orbit. The Agena served as a second stage and also provided stability, power, and communications for numerous military and intelligence payloads, making it both a rocket stage and a spacecraft. There was extra room near the Agena’s engine, and somebody realized that a small satellite could be placed there, getting a free ride to orbit. The deployed satellite could even have a small solid rocket motor that could propel it to a higher orbit.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4225/1
Note: The Space Review is going on a reduced publishing schedule for August. We will not publish the weeks of August 9 and 23. We will publish August 16 and resume our regular weekly schedule August 30.
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Review: The Impact of Lunar Dust on Human Exploration
by Jeff Foust Monday, August 16, 2021
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The Impact of Lunar Dust on Human Exploration
by Joel S. Levine (ed.)
Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2021
hardcover, 303 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-5275-6308-7
GBP64.99 (approx. US$90)
https://www.cambridgescholars.com/product/978-1-5275-6308-7
NASA’s inspector general last week dealt another blow to the agency’s plans to return humans to the surface of the Moon by 2024. A report concluded that the next-generation spacesuits that the astronauts would wear on the moonwalks won’t be ready until at least April 2025, thanks to a mix of technical, funding, and management issues. The spacesuits, called Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Units or xEMUs, will cost about $1 billion to develop.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4226/1
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Is it time to create the designation of non-governmental astronaut?
by Michael Listner Monday, August 16, 2021
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Jeff Bezos and others celebrated the first crewed flight of New Shepard last month, but they may not qualify as “astronauts” under some legal definitions. (credit: Blue Origin)
The flights of Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin with their respective founders has reinvigorated the debate as to what an astronaut is and, specifically, whether non-governmentals are indeed astronauts. Nevertheless, these two flights open a broader discussion as non-governmental space activities increase in measure and scope how they will be looked upon and treated by international law, especially as outer space activities expand.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4227/1
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The little satellite that could
How a vice president’s dream led—after a very long delay—to the DSCOVR spacecraft
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, August 16, 2021
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The first image taken by the DSCOVR satellite from space showing the Earth’s day side. DSCOVR was originally named Triana and conceived by Vice President Al Gore in 1998. It did not launch until 17 years later. (credit: NOAA)
If satellites had personalities, DSCOVR would be a scrappy little fighter: battered, bloody, but always stumbling back to its feet and getting back into the ring to fight some more. This little satellite, about the size of a college dorm room refrigerator, finally launched in February 2015, 16 years after it was first thought up in a dream.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4228/1
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ISRO’s cryogenic conundrum
by Ajey Lele Monday, August 16, 2021
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A GSLV Mark II rocket lifts off August 12, only to suffer a mission-ending malfunction of its cryogenic upper stage five minutes into the flight. (credit: ISRO)
On August 12, the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO’s) GSLV-F10 mission failed. This GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle) was a three-stage rocket carrying the EOS-03 (GISAT-1) Earth observation satellite. The mission took off correctly and the performance of first and second stages was normal. However, ignition of the Cryogenic Upper Stage (CUS) did not happen due to a technical anomaly, resulting in a disastrous failure.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4229/1
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Space exploration and development is essential to fighting climate change
by Alex Gilbert Monday, August 16, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4230a.jpg)
Vice President Kamala Harris has said she will make climate change a priority of the National Space Council, expected to hold its first meeting of the Biden Administration this fall. (credit: White House photo by Cameron Smith)
The recently released Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change presents a worrying scientific consensus: climate change is happening, humans are causing it, even our best efforts cannot prevent negative effects, and reducing emissions now is essential to preventing catastrophic consequences. The Biden Administration recognizes the urgency of addressing this challenge. In continuing as head of the National Space Council, Vice President Kamala Harris has made climate one of her priorities for the interagency White House office. This prioritization rightly reflects the growing capabilities of the public and private space sectors to help our society understand, adapt, and mitigate climate change.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4230/1
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Starliner sidelined
by Jeff Foust Monday, August 16, 2021
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The Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft in July, being prepared for the OFT-2 mission. That mission is now facing an indefinite delay because of problems with valves in its propulsion system. (credit: Boeing)
On the morning of July 29, NASA held a pair of press conferences that marked, in retrospect, the peak of their optimism about the upcoming uncrewed test flight of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft. At the first, agency leadership, including administrator Bill Nelson, talked up the Orbital Flight Test (OFT) 2 mission, scheduled at the time to lift off the next afternoon.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4231/1
Note: The Space Review will not publish the week of August 23. We will resume our normal weekly publication schedule on August 30.
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Review: European-Russian Space Cooperation
by Gurbir Singh Monday, August 30, 2021
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European-Russian Space Cooperation: From de Gaulle to ExoMars
by Brian Harvey
Springer Praxis, 2021
Paperback 391 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-3-030-67684-1
US$34.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/3030676846/spaceviews
The Cold War was primarily the story of the USSR and the USA and their respective allies. By chronicling in meticulous detail European-Russian space cooperation, Brian Harvey has uncovered a strategic relationship between France and the USSR that modulated the larger USSR-USA Cold War relationship that dominated geopolitics between the end of World War II and demise of the USSR in 1991. It is not just about historical events. The final chapter illustrates the same geopolitical forces are at work shaping international cooperation in space today with the turbulent story of ExoMars.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4232/1
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The billionaires compete and the US wins the 21st century space race
by Eytan Tepper Monday, August 30, 2021
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Richard Branson floats through the cabin of SpaceShipTwo during the microgravity phase of his July 11 SpaceShipTwo flight. (credit: Virgin Galactic)
Whoever is declared the winner in the so-called billionaire space race, the US wins the new space race. In the new era of space exploration, where commercial companies are taking the lead, they are mostly US-based. Symbolically, British billionaire Richard Branson, the first in space, launched from Spaceport America in New Mexico, where his company is based.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4233/1
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“Starship to orbit” ought to be a tipping point for policy makers
by Doug Plata Monday, August 30, 2021
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Construction workers between the stages of the Starship while undergoing a stacking test. (credit: SpaceX)
We are watching history in the making.
Starship represents a turning point in human history because it will be the vehicle upon which humans start spreading beyond Earth. When Starship reaches orbit, it will fundamentally bring into question which path forward the United States should take. Given the likelihood that a reusable, very cost-effective, super-heavy-lift vehicle (SHLV) with a high flight rate will become available for the nation to use, we call upon the decision makers in Washington (i.e., the administration, Congress, and NASA) to place Starship at the center of the country’s human spaceflight program after it achieves orbit.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4234/1
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Cooperation, competition, conferences, and COVID
by Jeff Foust Monday, August 30, 2021
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NASA administrator Bill Nelson (fourth from right) speaks during a panel featuring heads of agencies at the 36th Space Symposium August 25. (credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
The largest in-person space event in nearly 18 months was a reminder of what had changed—and what hadn’t—in the industry over that time.
The 36th Space Symposium at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs last week looked, at first glance, like many of its predecessors. There were the usual government officials and industry executives speaking in sessions over three days, an exhibit hall with companies displaying their wares and offering tchotchkes, and side meetings and general networking that often went well into the evening.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4235/1
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The little satellite that could (part 2): from Triana to DSCOVR to orbit
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, August 30, 2021
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The DSCOVR satellite in October 2008 after spending seven years in storage. Originally named Triana, the satellite was renamed the Deep Space Climate Observatory in 2003. (credit: Phil Horzempa)
Triana had been dreamed up by Vice President Al Gore in 1998 and gone through a contentious development process. The original goal had been to launch it into orbit on a space shuttle mission in 2001. But by 2001, with Republican President George W. Bush in the White House, the program was grounded; funding was suspended a little over a week after the inauguration. Officially, NASA indicated that the space agency would eventually launch the spacecraft, which was intended for a unique orbit at the Lagrange 1 point where it would be able to view both the Earth and the Sun. But for the next eight years, NASA did not announce any launch plans, and what little news did emerge about the spacecraft was always followed with longer periods of silence and inactivity. Triana risked becoming what pilots often refer to as a “hangar queen,” sitting in storage, cannibalized for spare parts (see “The little satellite that could (part 1)”, The Space Review, August 16, 2021.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4236/1
Note:Because of the Labor Day holiday, next week’s issue will be published on Tuesday, September 7.
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Review: The Red Planet
by Jeff Foust Tuesday, September 7, 2021
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The Red Planet: A Natural History of Mars
by Simon Morden
Elliott & Thompson, 2021
hardcover, 240 pp.
ISBN 978-1-78396-561-4
US$20.64
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1783965614/spaceviews
Three rovers are traversing the rocky, red surface of Mars today. NASA’s Perseverance rover, which arrived in February, has collected its first sample, NASA announced late Monday, after an initial sampling attempt with another rock a month ago went awry when the rock turned to powder before it could be placed in a sample tube. Curiosity continues its ascent up Mount Sharp in Gale Crater, its instruments probing the changes in the terrain as is goes across different layers and different geological eras. China’s Zhurong rover, meanwhile, continues to explore its landing site after exceeding its planned three-month mission, although Chinese scientists have not offered many details about the rover’s scientific output so far.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4237/1
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The privatized frontier: the ethical implications and role of private companies in space exploration
by Maanas Sharma Tuesday, September 7, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3936a.jpg)
NASA is relying on SpaceX to transport astronauts to the space station, one sign of a growing role for the private sector in spaceflight. (credit: SpaceX)
In recent years, private companies have taken on a larger role in the space exploration system. With lower costs and faster production times, they have displaced some functions of government space agencies. Though many have levied criticism against privatized space exploration, it also allows room for more altruistic actions by government space agencies and the benefits from increased space exploration as a whole. Thus, we should encourage this development, as the process is net ethical in the end. Especially if performed in conjunction with adequate government action on the topic, private space exploration can overcome possible shortcomings in its risky and capitalistic nature and ensure a positive contribution to the general public on Earth.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4238/1
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Wizards redux: revisiting the P-11 signals intelligence satellites
by Dwayne A. Day Tuesday, September 7, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4239a.jpg)
One of the URSULA small signals intelligence satellites of the 1970s. A proposed upgrade was named “DRACULA,” for “Direct ReAdout URSULA,” but the name was rejected because a senior Air Force officer did not want to go to Washington and face jokes about “another blood-sucking program.” (credit: NRO)
September 2021 is the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). For the 50th anniversary, the NRO declassified two major Cold War era photo-reconnaissance satellites named HEXAGON and GAMBIT. Will the NRO do something similar this time? Those who follow the NRO’s history have heard rumors that they might declassify the KH-11 KENNEN near-real-time reconnaissance satellite that first flew in 1976, although that might be a bit of wishful thinking. (See “Intersections in real time: the decision to build the KH-11 KENNEN reconnaissance satellite,” The Space Review, September 9, 2019.) One small step the NRO could take is to finish the declassification of the P-11 signals intelligence satellites that were built and launched from 1963 to 1992.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4239/1
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The making of an Enterprise: How NASA, the Smithsonian and the aerospace industry helped create Star Trek
by Glen E. Swanson Tuesday, September 7, 2021
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The cast and production crew from Star Trek toured NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, California on April 13, 1967. Shown left to right are: Unknown NASA; actor James “Jimmy” Montgomery Doohan who played chief engineer Montgomery Scott or “Scotty;” Walter Matthew “Matt” Jefferies, Jr., art director and production designer for the series; Herbert Schlosser, who at that time, was head of NBC’s programming and oversaw Star Trek’s development during the network’s production of the series; Star’s Trek’s creator Gene Roddenberry; assistant director, production manager and associate producer Gregg Peters; series director Marc Daniels; assistant director and producer Robert “Bob” Harris Justman; actor Jackson DeForest Kelley who played chief medical officer Leonard “Bones” McCoy; director Joseph “Joe” Pevney; and unknown. Shown behind the cast is NASA’s HL-10 experimental lifting body. (credit: NASA)
This month marks the 55th anniversary of the premiere of Star Trek. On Thursday evening, September 8, 1966, beginning at 8:30 pm Eastern, households in the US tuned in to a new type of television show called Star Trek that featured the adventures of Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and the crew of the Starship U.S.S. Enterprise as they traveled throughout the galaxy.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4240/1
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Small launch vehicles face their biggest test
by Jeff Foust Tuesday, September 7, 2021
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An explosion destroys Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha launch vehicle two and a half minutes into its first launch September 2. (credit: J. Foust)
Astrobiology has a concept known as the “Great Filter.” It is an attempt to explain why, despite the hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy, there is currently no evidence of intelligent life beyond Earth. It argues that, somewhere in the progression of factors laid out in the Drake Equation six decades ago from the number of stars to the number of intelligent civilizations, there is a factor that greatly diminishes the prospects of intelligent life to exist.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4241/1
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Review: Asteroids
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 13, 2021
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Asteroids: How Love, Fear, and Greed Will Determine Our Future in Space
by Martin Elvis
Yale University Press, 2021
hardcover, 312 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-300-23192-2
US$30.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/030023192X/spaceviews
It’s been nearly a decade since the first great asteroid mining boom. Planetary Resources announced its plans to prospect and eventually extract resources from asteroids in 2012, followed months later by Deep Space Industries with similar ambitions. The companies raised millions of dollars from sources as diverse as Silicon Valley billionaires and the government of Luxembourg, and stimulated new laws in the United States and elsewhere to ensure they would have the right to own the resources they extracted. But, by the beginning of 2019 both were effectively out of business: Planetary Resources was acquired by a blockchain company, Consensys, which later shut it down, while Deep Space Industries, having pivoted to smallsat development, was acquired by Bradford Space.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4242/1
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Thor the lifesaver?
by Ajay Kothari Monday, September 13, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4243a.jpg)
A model of a molten salt reactor which could use thorium to generate power, offering an alternative to space-based solar power.
Space-Based Solar Power (SBSP) is being touted as a solution to the climate change problem that is currently engaging humanity worldwide, and is apt to occupy this administration even more so in the future. While developing that technology, one should also bear in mind another potential solution that may be simpler, cheaper, and faster to implement, something that could be quicker to take advantage of while we wait for other solutions such as SBSP and controlled fusion. It may also have applications as a distributed power source on the lunar surface and later on Mars. Its potential application to rocket propulsion should also be determined, though is not the focus of this commentary.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4243/1
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The problem with space cowboys
by Layla Martin Monday, September 13, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4244a.jpg)
Jeff Bezos, wearing a cowboy hat, walks across a platform to board the New Shepard suborbital vehicle on his July flight. (credit: Blue Origin)
The “space race” is a good thing. Why? Private-sector competition spurs innovation creating new jobs, substantial price cuts, and progress. Yes, but who is competing? The promise of new jobs to achieve what and based upon whose vision?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4244/1
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Paradigmatic shifts in space?
by Namrata Goswami Monday, September 13, 2021
Space policies of China and India: priorities, long-term focuses, and differences
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3944c.jpg)
China is developing new launch vehicles, spacecraft, and space stations to demonstrate it is a leading nation. (credit: Xinhua)
Space has animated both China and India since ancient times, with mythology and folklore about what lay up there amongst the stars. Chinese mythology has given us folktales like that of Chang’e the Moon goddess, Tianwen or heavenly questions, and the Yuegong-1 or heavenly palace. For India, the mythology of space can be inferred from such ancient mythical invocations like the Navagraha (nine planets), the folklore around eclipses and the invisible planets, and Rahu and Ketu (astrological connotations), which by 499 AD resulted in mathematical calculations by Aryabhatta, and his study of solar and lunar eclipses. Aryabhatta correctly attributed the brightness of the Moon and planets as reflected sunlight. India’s first satellite that was launched in 1975 was named after him. The seven main stars of the cup shaped Ursa Major were viewed as the seven sages (सप्तर्षि-Saptarishi or saptarṣī) in Indian mythology. In Indian epics like Mahabharata (written on events about 5,000 to 3,000 years ago), topics ranging from philosophy, cosmology, statecraft, and ethics were discussed. Steven R. Weisman, writing in The New York Times on “Many Faces of the Mahabharatha”, specified:
Modern India is a country in which a lawyer and teacher will tell you with certainty that references to the cosmic weapons used by a hero in the Mahabharata intentionally prefigured the space-based Strategic Defense Initiative of President Reagan.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4245/1
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The great space company sale
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 13, 2021
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The Satellite 2021 exhibit hall included a wide range of companies, from major operators and manufacturers to small component suppliers. One CEO predicted the wave of newly public space companies will seek to acquire many of those suppliers. (credit: J. Foust)
The exhibit hall at last week’s Satellite 2021 conference in the suburbs of Washington, DC, was a little quiet. Some companies that normally exhibit at the show, one of the major conferences in the commercial space industry, elected to reduce their presence or not exhibit at all, either because of the timing of the conference—it normally takes place in the spring—or because of ongoing pandemic travel restrictions. There was, though, still an assortment of satellite operators, manufacturers, and suppliers of components and related services.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4246/1
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Review: The Wonderful
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 20, 2021
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The Wonderful: Stories from the Space Station
directed by Clare Lewins
2021, 127 mins., not rated
https://www.thewonderfulfilm.com/
The International Space Station, over its more than two decades of continuous occupation, has become something of an institution. Having shifted a decade ago from assembly to full-fledged operations, discussions about the station have focused on getting people to and from the station, the research that goes on there, its upkeep, and, most recently, what its long-term future will be (see “What is the future of the International Space Station?”, The Space Review, this issue.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4247/1
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Astrofeminism as a theory of change: save our planet, not escape from it
by Layla Martin Monday, September 20, 2021
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JAstrofeminism offers a different perspective for looking at spaceflight through different priorities and different participants.
Do you have a $55 million slush fund for a joyride up to the International Space Station (ISS)? Does a settler’s ticket to Mars include a fridge stocked with groceries and someone to feed the dog and help with homework for my family here on Earth? The macho space invasion is seriously lacking a critical assessment and careful consideration of implications. As in, what are some of the costs? Not the price but the cost.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4248/1
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What is the future of the International Space Station?
by Roger Handberg Monday, September 20, 2021
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Commercial space station modules and standalong space stations, like what Axiom Space is proposing to develop, may represent the future after the ISS, but that transition remains uncertain. (credit: Axiom Space)
Time is not a friend for the International Space Station. American efforts to extend its closing until 2030 possibly beyond are dependent upon evaluations of its continued safety and integrity. Materials in space age under the stresses of the space environment and deteriorate over time. Yet, evaluating the possible future for the ISS will not be strictly based upon technical factors. The states participating in the ISS all pursue various agendas. For most, being on the ISS is only part of their space portfolio, albeit a large one in many cases. So, ending the ISS and deorbiting the structure is a dramatic shift in direction for them, especially if terminated earlier than projected. What would replace that endeavor remains unclear.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4249/1
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An inspiration for private human spaceflight
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 20, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4250a.jpg)
The Crew Dragon spacecraft Resilience moments before splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean to complete the Inspiration4 mission. (credit: SpaceX)
The “billionaire space race” this summer was billed as a competition between Blue Origin’s Jeff Bezos and Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson for who would be the first to go to space in their companies’ suborbital vehicles. Branson won that race, going to the fringes of space on SpaceShipTwo nine days before Bezos on New Shepard. But the real winner of the billionaire space race, though, might be someone most people in the space industry hadn't heard of before February of this year.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4250/1
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Review: Diary of an Apprentice Astronaut
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 27, 2021
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Diary of an Apprentice Astronaut
by Samantha Cristoforetti
The Experiment, 2021
paperback, 400 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-61519-842-9
US$17.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1615198423/spaceviews
Next spring, a SpaceX Crew Dragon will launch to the International Space Station on the Crew-4 mission. Among the astronauts on board will be the European Space Agency’s Samantha Cristoforetti, making her second trip to the station. Later in the year she will become commander of ISS Expedition 68, as one might expect for a veteran astronaut like her.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4251/1
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Covid and Mars
by Frank Stratford Monday, September 27, 2021
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The changes in society caused by the pandemic may make human missions to Mars more likely. (credit: SpaceX)
In July 1969, the first two humans walked on the surface of the Moon after a decade of breakthrough developments that proved to be both incredibly costly in dollar terms and lives lost. Yet history was made 52 years ago in a time of international crisis and war. The computing systems that enabled these voyages of discovery were barely enough to power a modern calculator. So many factors argued against the success of the Apollo program at the time it seems impossible to our minds today.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4252/1
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Criticism of space cowboys isn’t enough
by Blake Horn Monday, September 27, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4221a.jpg)
Jeff Bezos, founder of Blue Origin, celebrates after his suborbital spaceflight on New Shepard July 20. (credit: Blue Origin)
Anyone who has ever looked up at the night sky can attest to the mesmerising effect of space. Of being blinded by emptiness, by scale, by possibility. The desire to reach, and to understand, what lies beyond our planet is the closest thing to a universal human goal that we are ever likely to have.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4253/1
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Two directorate heads are better than one
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 27, 2021
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Kathy Luders (right), who now runs the Space Operations Mission Directorate, speaks with Jim Free, the new head of the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, at a town hall meeting September 21. (credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)
In August 2011, weeks after the end of the final shuttle mission, NASA reorganized the management of its human spaceflight programs. It merged the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, which had been responsible for the Constellation program and now had what remained, the Orion spacecraft and the congressionally mandated Space Launch System, with the Space Operations Mission Directorate, which had the shuttle and continued to have the International Space Station. The combined organization would be known as Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, or HEOMD.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4254/1
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Review: Countdown
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 4, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4255a.jpg)
Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space
directed by Jason Hehir
Netflix, 2021
Five episodes, 244 minutes
Rated TV-14
https://www.netflix.com/pl/title/81441273
A new era of commercial human spaceflight means a new era in media relations—and also, perhaps, a return to the earliest days of the Space Age. When Blue Origin conducted its first crewed New Shepard suborbital flight in July, Jeff Bezos and crewmates performed a handful of television interviews the day before the flight and immediately after landing. But, at a post-flight event billed to attending journalists as a press conference, he took questions from just three reporters before moving on. Virgin Galactic, at its flight earlier that month, did take more questions from reporters during a half-hour press conference after its SpaceShipTwo flight. However, it kept journalists at a distance from other attendees earlier in the morning at Spaceport America, even going as far as having a security guard shoo away any guests who had wandered over to the fence separating them from the media section to willingly chat with reporters.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4255/1
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Inspiration4 sent four people with minimal training to orbit and brought space tourism closer to reality
by Wendy Whitman Cobb Monday, October 4, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4250a.jpg)
The Crew Dragon spacecraft Resilience moments before splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean to complete the Inspiration4 mission. (credit: SpaceX)
Just after 8:00 pm EDT September 15, the latest batch of space tourists lifted off aboard a SpaceX rocket. Organized and funded by entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, the Inspiration4 mission touts itself as “the first all-civilian mission to orbit” and represents a new type of space tourism (see “An inspiration for private human spaceflight”, The Space Review, September 20, 2021).
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4256/1 20, 2021).
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Resilience and space situational awareness: an interview with NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 4, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4257a.jpg)
Mike Hopkins signs his name next to the patch for the Crew-1 mission on the International Space Station in April, near the end of his six-month stay there. (credit: NASA)
When the Crew Dragon spacecraft was making its second trip to space last month on the Inspiration4 mission, the commander of the spacecraft’s first flight was in Hawaii, but not on a well-earned vacation.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4257/1
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Five big questions about the International Space Station becoming a movie set
by Alice Gorman Monday, October 4, 2021
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Actress Yulia Peresild (left) and director Klim Shipenko (right) will spend nearly two weeks on the ISS this month to film a movie, launching with Roscosmos cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov (center). (credit: Roscosmos)
On October 5, an unusual crew will fly to the International Space Station. Director Klim Shipenko and actor Yulia Peresild will spend a week and a half on the station shooting scenes for the Russian movie Challenge. Peresild plays a surgeon who must conduct a heart operation on a sick cosmonaut.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4258/1
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Review: Asteroids
by Thomas E. Simmons Monday, October 11, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4259a.jpg)
Asteroids
by Clifford J. Cunningham
Reaktion Books, 2021
hardcover, 190 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-78914-358-4
US$40
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1789143586/spaceviews
The strength of Asteroids lies in its historical studies. The primary thrust of the author’s previous scholarship has also been similarly situated. Thus, the personalities and quirks of 19th and 20th century astronomers take center stage.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4259/1
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The UK looks for its place in space
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 11, 2021
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UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson at Spaceport Cornwall, the future UK base of Virgin Orbit, in June. Enabling British launch vehicles and spaceports is one element of a broader national space strategy unveiled last month. (credit: Virgin Orbit)
It was a line that launched a thousand jokes. When the British government released a national space strategy document September 27, it included a foreword from Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who decided to riff off the concept the government had been pushing of a “Global Britain” in the post-Brexit era.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4260/1
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Lollipops and ASATs
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, October 11, 2021
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Discoverer 28, which carried a CORONA reconnaissance camera, also had two AFTRACK payloads located forward of the Agena upper stage engine. One was for detecting Soviet air defense radars. The other, known as STOPPER, was to detect if the satellite was being tracked in orbit. “Vulnerability payloads” like STOPPER were carried on many American reconnaissance satellites during the 1960s and into the 1970s. (credit: Peter Hunter Collection)
Although most of the secret satellites launched by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) in the 1960s have now been declassified, there are very few photos of the completed spacecraft preparing for launch. Except for a few photos of early CORONA satellites being readied for launch at Vandenberg Air Force Base, there is almost nothing else, even though we would expect at least a few to have been released by now. The reason may be due to systems that the CIA and NRO added to the satellites to protect them from anti-satellite attack. The CIA was worried about possible attack on reconnaissance satellites from the beginning, and some information on early “vulnerability payloads” has been declassified, but there are also hints that as the Soviet ASAT threat grew, so did efforts to protect American reconnaissance satellites that would have been their obvious targets.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4261/1
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Aerostat: a Russian long-range anti-ballistic missile system with possible counterspace capabilities
by Bart Hendrickx Monday, October 11, 2021
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The MIT Corporation is the manufacturer of the Aerostat missile. Composite image showing MIT’s headquarters in Moscow and one of its road-mobile ICBMs. (Source)
Russia has been working for several years on a long-range anti-ballistic missile system named Aerostat. The fact that it is being developed by the country’s sole manufacturer of solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missiles suggests that it may very well have a range allowing it to double as a counterspace system. The oddly named ABM system (“aerostat” is a general term for unpowered balloons and airships) has never been mentioned in the Russian press or openly discussed by Russian military analysts, but its existence and basic design features can be determined through open-source intelligence.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4262/1
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Grimes and space communes
by Layla Martin Monday, October 18, 2021
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When Grimes talkes about space communes, should we take her less serious than when Elon Musk talks about cities on Mars? (credit: Twitter @Grimezsz)
I kept a copy of the Communist Manifesto in the freezer when I lived in Los Feliz. It served as a reminder to slow down and consider the preferences of rational decision makers. Like agreeing to your third margarita in Bangkok, some ideas are good in theory but not in practice. Information asymmetry, and too much tequila, may both lead to epic failures.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4263/1
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The Indian Space Association seeks to broaden commercial interests
by Ajey Lele Monday, October 18, 2021
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At present, the Indian satellite industry is around 2% of the $360 billion global market. However, India wants to make it big. Can India do it? Does India having the technological base to make a difference? Or is India becoming overambitious and trying to punch above its own weight?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4264/1
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Black ugliness and the covering of blue: William Shatner’s suborbital flight to “death”
by Deana L. Weibel Monday, October 18, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4265a.jpg)
A photo 53 years in the making. Left is a clip showing Captain Kirk (center) on the bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise from the original Star Trek third season episode “Spock’s Brain” which first aired in 1968. To the right is William Shatner looking out at the Earth from space while onboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft on October 13, 2021. Photos courtesy CBS and Blue Origin. Photomontage by Kipp Teague and Karl Tate.
Is outer space a horrifying place? It depends on whom you ask. As seen from Earth, clear nights with the Moon, Venus, and the Milky Way ablaze make space seem like a beautiful, unreachable dream. Horror movies, on the other hand, populate the celestial reaches with terrifying aliens that kill human beings or use us to nefarious ends. Most astronauts speak of the beauty of space, especially the gorgeous vision of Earth, whether seen from the Moon or from a much closer orbit. Few have spoken of space as “death,” the way William Shatner put it upon his return from his Blue Origin flight on October 13, 2021.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4265/1
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The normalization of space tourism
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 18, 2021
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The New Shepard crew capsule descends under parachutes near the end of the NS-18 flight last week in West Texas. (credit: Blue Origin)
For a brief moment last Wednesday, there were two professional actors in space at the same time.
On the International Space Station, Russian actress Yulia Peresild was filming scenes for a Russian movie called Vyzov, or Challenge, where she plays a doctor sent to the station to perform surgery on a cosmonaut too ill to return to Earth. Klim Shipenko accompanied her to the station, with actual Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy reportedly playing the role of the ailing cosmonaut (see “Five big questions about the International Space Station becoming a movie set”, The Space Review, October 4, 2021).
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4266/1
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The Artemis Accords after one year of international progress
by Paul Stimers and Audrey Jammes Monday, October 18, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4267a.jpg)
Peter Crabtree, head of the New Zealand Space Agency, and Charge d’Affaires Kevin Cover of the US Embassy in New Zealand pose following an Artemis Accords signing ceremony in May. New Zealand was 11th country to join the Accords. (credit: NASA)
NASA’s Artemis program, which will send the first woman and the first person of color to the Moon, is being closely watched by the rest of the world. The program’s success or failure will answer important questions with strategic implications for US leadership here on Earth: can the United States still achieve great things? Can it still lead by developing international consensus? Can it maintain a long-term effort despite political changes? Can it be a more compelling partner for space exploration than China?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4267/1
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Review: Back to Earth
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 25, 2021
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Back to Earth: What Life in Space Taught Me About Our Home Planet—And Our Mission to Protect It
by Nicole Stott Seal Press, 2021
hardcover, 304 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-5416-7504-9
US$30
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1541675045/spaceviews
Most people in the space industry have heard of the Overview Effect, the change in perspective about the Earth that comes from seeing it from space. It got renewed attention earlier this month when William Shatner went on a Blue Origin suborbital spaceflight, and talked about the experience for what seemed like longer than the flight itself (see “Black ugliness and the covering of blue: William Shatner’s suborbital flight to ‘death’”, The Space Review, October 18, 2021). The topic is likely to come up among some of the astronaut panels at this week’s International Astronautical Congress in Dubai as well.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4268/1
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How space tourism could affect older people
by Nick Caplan and Christopher Newman
Monday, October 25, 2021
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Is space really the final frontier? William Shatner has found out after boldly going where no 90-year-old has gone before. Some 55 years after Captain James T. Kirk hit our screens in the original Star Trek, Shatner recently launched to the edge of space aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard for a ten-minute suborbital flight (see “The normalization of space tourism”, The Space Review, October 18, 2021).
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4269/1
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Is outer space a de jure common-pool resource?
by Dennis O’Brien Monday, October 25, 2021
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The scarcity of lunar resources like volatiles illustrates the need to deconflict activities on the Moon in a way that is acceptable by all participants. (credit: NASA)
As 2021 comes to a close, humanity is facing a historical crisis, when just a slight change will lead to widely different futures. The closest parallel occurred five centuries ago, when countries with advanced technology sought to exploit the resources of “new” worlds. The resulting Age of Imperialism was marked by needless war, suffering, and neglect, whose effects are still being felt today. How close are we to repeating that pattern? What role can space law play in avoiding it?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4270/1
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The battle for Boca Chica
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 25, 2021
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SpaceX is continuing preparations for orbital launches of its Starship/Super Heavy vehicle at Boca Chica, Texas, also called “Starbase”, as the FAA continues its environmental review. (credit: SpaceX)
Few companies in the space industry are as polarizing as SpaceX, and few projects are as polarizing as its Starship vehicle. To advocates, it is humanity’s best hope to become a multiplanetary species, to use the phase frequently invoked by both the company and its supporters. To others, Starship is a high-risk venture, not just for the company and the space industry but also to the people and environment in the corner of Texas where it is being built.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4271/1
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Engineering the arts for space: developing the concept of “mission laureates”
by Christopher Cokinos Monday, October 25, 2021
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NASA’s best-known links to arts is through an arts program that included works by artists like Andy Warhol, but there’s an opportunity to expand the scope of that partnership. (credit: Andy Warhol)
The arts have long been engaged with the night sky, astronomy, and, more recently, with space programs. Consider, in the latter case, NASA’s famed fine arts program that placed painters and illustrators such as Norman Rockwell and Robert Rauschenberg in the middle of launch facilities, training centers and recovery zones. There is a long tradition of “space art,” first popularized by Chesley Bonestell. Fine arts photographers, such as Michael Light, have given their craft over to space imagery. Many writers have turned their attention to space; in the modern era, consider Oriana Fallaci or Margaret Lazarus Dean. As co-editor of Beyond Earth’s Edge: The Poetry of Spaceflight, I know that poets have responded vigorously—if not always enthusiastically—to the Space Age.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4272/1
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.. jednym slowem, kazda misja powinna miec swojego ... Cacofonix-a :) Z powazaniem
Adam Przybyla
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1/I 2019 [1-5]
1) How should Japan’s space agency foster NewSpace?
by Takashi Uchino Monday, January 7, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3631a.jpg)
NASA support led to the development of commercial capabilities like SpaceX’s Dragon. Can it also work in Japan? (credit: NASA)
The role of the private sector in space development and utilization is rapidly increasing, not only in the United States but also in Japan. NASA took an important role in fostering the private sector in US, the most famous example being the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program, which supported SpaceX. What should be the role of space agencies in fostering space startups? How can Japan’s space agency, JAXA, support them?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3631/1
2) Moore’s Law, Wright’s Law and the countdown to exponential space
by Daniel Berleant, Venkat Kodali, Richard Segall, Hyacinthe Aboudja, and Michael Howell Monday, January 7, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3632a.jpg)
Satellite lifespans could be one metric by which to measure the growth of “exponential space.” (credit: Boeing)
Technologies have often been observed to improve exponentially over time (Nagy et al. 2013). In practice this often means identifying a constant known as the doubling time, describing the time period over which the technology roughly doubles in some measure of performance or in performance per dollar. Moore’s law is, classically, the empirical observation that the number of electronic components that can be put on a chip doubles every 18 to 24 months (Moore 1965). Today it is frequently stated as the number of computations available per unit of cost [1]. Generalized to the appropriate doubling time, it describes the rate of advancement in many technologies.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3632/1
3) The asteroid mining bubble has burst
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 7, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3304a.jpg)
Deep Space Industries was founded to pursue asteroid mining, but had focused more on small satellite development prior to ita acquisition. (credit: Bryan Versteeg/Deep Space Industries)
Of all the market being pursued by space startups in the last decade, asteroid mining was perhaps the longest-term, and maybe also the most far-fetched. While space tourism has struggled to get off the ground the business case is clear once companies like Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic start flying—which may finally happen this year. Constellations of small satellites for remote sensing or broadband communications are taking shape now, stimulating demand for new launch vehicles, even if the supply of such vehicles is likely to exceed any reasonable demand forecast. Asteroid mining, though, required the patience to develop technologies to prospect, and then extract, resources like volatiles from asteroids, then find in-space applications for them.
4) The struggle for a practical cislunar transportation system
by John Strickland Monday, January 7, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3634a.jpg)
Three different versions of a reusable lunar ferry: cargo, tanker and crew, with a common propulsion section, will be much more useful than a single lander which has to be launched in three pieces due to politics. (credit: Anna Nesterova)
Although I have written several previous articles covering cislunar issues (see “Why use lunar propellant?” The Space Review, April 2, 2018), events have now clearly reached a whole new phase for all the players: within NASA, in the existing industry, and in NewSpace. This will strongly affect the central part of design and planning for beyond low Earth orbit (LEO) operations, the next major step in space development and operations by NASA and its international partners. This goes beyond the issue of using lunar propellant. Understanding the new situation and part of what may be driving it requires information about several different initiatives.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3634/1
5) A distant flyby
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 7, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3635a.jpg)
The first closeup view of 2014 MU69, aka Ultima Thule, returned by the New Horizons spacecraft. (credit: JHUAPL/SwRI)
Operate enough missions for enough time, and some of those milestones will fall on or near holidays. Sometimes the timing is coincidental and inconvenient at best, like InSight’s landing on Mars the Monday after Thanksgiving, a schedule dictated by orbital mechanics that meant that many people had to spend the holiday at work versus with their families. Sometimes the conjunctions can be a little more fortuitous and even poetic, such as when NASA’s NEAR Shoemaker entered orbit around the asteroid Eros on Valentine’s Day 2000. Or when the Deep Impact mission flew by the comet Tempel 1, firing a projectile that struck the comet, creating a flash of light and fountain of debris, on the Fourth of July 2005.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3635/1
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2/I 2019 [6-10]
6) Review: Safely to Earth
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 14, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3636a.jpg)
Safely to Earth: The Men and Women Who Brought the Astronauts Home
by Jack Clemons
University Press of Florida, 2018
hardcover, 280 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-8130-5602-9
US$24.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0813056020/spaceviews
The 50th anniversary of Apollo is in full swing, with events last month commemorating the Apollo 8 mission and more in the months to come, reaching a crescendo in July for the semicentennial of Apollo 11. The anniversaries will bring with them a bounty of books about the program, the astronauts, and others involved with achieving President Kennedy’s goal of a human lunar landing by the end of the 1960s.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3636/1
7) Small thrusters for small satellites: trends and challenges
by Igor Levchenko, Shuyan Xu, and Kateryna Bazaka Monday, January 14, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3637a.jpg)
A “planetary system of electric propulsion thrusters: four main types of electric propulsion systems currently tested and used on small satellites and cubesats. (credit: Appl. Phys. Rev. 2018, the authors)
For virtually all fields of technology, small is beautiful. From electronics to sensors, as users, we have come to associate small with fast, affordable, and efficient. For industry, small also means profitable, as portable and wearable devices, multifunctional smartphones, and crystal-size computers made possible by miniaturization create enormous new markets.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3637/1
8 ) Bulgarians still dream about space four decades after their first crewed mission
by Svetoslav Alexandrov Monday, January 14, 2019
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The original Soyuz 33 descent module with its parachute, next to Georgi Ivanov’s Sokol-K space suit and Salyut work suit, at the Krumovo Aviation Museum in Bulgaria. (credit: Vislupus via Wikipedia)
There will be several important anniversaries to celebrated by the space communities all over the world in 2019. It will be the 50th anniversary for several Apollo missions, in particular the Apollo 11 lunar landing. Russians will mark 30 years since the arrival at Mars of Fobos 2, the last interplanetary robotic probe designed by the Soviet Union. As for Bulgarians, we will celebrate 40 years since the launch of our first crewed mission: Soyuz-33, with the Soviet cosmonaut and commander Nikolai Rukavishnikov and Bulgarian research cosmonaut Georgi Ivanov. This article will examine past space activities in Bulgaria, as well as what the current state regarding space exploration is.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3638/1
9) Why the Chang’e-4 Moon landing is unique
by Namrata Goswami Monday, January 14, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3639a.jpg)
The Chang’e-4 lunar lander, seen by the Yutu-2 rover, after landing on the Moon earlier this month. (credit: CNSA)
The world is following China’s Chang’e-4 landing on the far side of the Moon as an historic first for humanity. However, missing from most analyses is the rather unique nature of this landing for China’s long-term space ambitions and goals. Most have tended to view this as just another show-off stunt by China, or focused on the probe carrying out abstract science experiments.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3639/1
10) Repairing, and building, future space telescopes
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 14, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3640a.jpg)
An illustration of LUVOIR, one of the large space telescope missions under consideration in the 2020 astrophysics decadal survey. The telescope design is the largest that could be launched from the ground in a single mission. (credit: NASA)
An incident last week provided a reminder of the importance of being able to repair space telescopes. The Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), one of the instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope, malfunctioned January 8. As of the end of last week, the camera remained offline while engineers investigated the problem, although the telescope itself remained operational by using its other three instruments.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3640/1
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3/I 2019 [11-15]
11) A bad start to a great year
by A.J. Mackenzie Monday, January 21, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3641a.jpg)
Just days after Stratolaunch completed a taxi text of its giant aircraft that appeared to signal it was ready for its first flight, the company cancelled work on the launch vehicles it was going to carry. (credit: Stratolaunch)
When 2019 started a few weeks ago, there were optimism about the year ahead. Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic would soon start flying people, many predicted, especially given Virgin’s successful SpaceShipTwo flight last month. Then there’s Boeing and SpaceX, who are scheduled to make their commercial crew test flights this year—just in time for NASA, since the clock is running out on access to Russia’s Soyuz. And then there are all the companies planning small launch vehicles that expect to make their first launches this year.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3641/1
12) Beyond UNISPACE: It’s time for the Moon Treaty
by Dennis C. O’Brien Monday, January 21, 2019
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While critics of the Moon Treaty have argued that it would hinder commercial space activities, like asteroid mining, with the proper implementing agreement it could in fact enable them. (credit: Brian Versteeg/Deep Space Industries)
In 1968, the United Nations convened UNISPACE, the United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. It was the first of a series of UN-sponsored conferences intended to create an international framework of laws to guide humanity’s departure from the home planet. Alas, the effort has failed. The Moon Treaty, along with an Implementation Agreement, now appears to be the best hope for moving humanity forward.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3642/1
13) Mars: Bringer of ennui (part 1)
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, January 21, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3643a.jpg)
The second season of Mars features a clash between a scientific base and commercial prospectors, but one that doesn’t really come together. (credit: National Geographic Channel)
Two years ago, the National Geographic Channel debuted its first scripted television show. Mars had an unusual structure for TV, alternating between documentary segments, expert talking heads, and dramatic segments set during the first human mission to Mars in 2033. (See: “Red Planet blues: popular entertainment and the settlement of Mars, part 2,” The Space Review, December 5, 2016, and “Red zeitgeist: popular entertainment and the settlement of Mars, part 3,” The Space Review, January 16, 2017.) The first season, consisting of six episodes, featured some excellent and insightful documentary segments and commentary, but the drama segments, which were closely tied to the documentary stories, were grim and depressing. Now, two years later, season two has aired. Unfortunately, that same dynamic was repeated: often stunning documentary segments and intelligent commentary interspersed with tedious and uninspiring drama. If National Geographic has a message about the human exploration of Mars, it is that nobody will have any fun.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3643/1
14) Selecting the next great space observatory
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 21, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3644c.jpg)
The Lynx x-ray observatory is one of the four large strategic, or flagship, astrophysics missions being studied for consideration by the 2020 decadal survey. (credit: NASA)
The great space telescope race is on.
In the next few months, the next decadal survey for astronomy and astrophysics—usually called just “Astro2020” by scientists and others involved—will get underway. In late November the National Academies announced the selection of the two co-chairs of the once-every-ten-years study of astronomy research priorities, Fiona Harrison of Caltech and Robert Kennicutt Jr. of the University of Arizona and Texas A&M University. The rest of the committee overseeing the study will be selected by this spring (nominations are open through January 22, but could be extended because of the ongoing partial government shutdown.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3644/1
15) There is no space race
by Roger Handberg Monday, January 21, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3639a.jpg)
The Chang’e-4 lunar lander, seen by the Yutu-2 rover, after landing on the Moon earlier this month. (credit: CNSA)
The landing of Chang’e-4 on the far side of the Moon is a triumph for Chinese space exploration, reflecting technological sophistication in launching a communications satellite to orbit the Moon so that Chang’e-4 could communicate back to Earth. China provided the location of its spacecraft to NASA so that its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter could produce images of exact location where the lunar lander and its rover landed. That exchange, while no big deal technically, was symbolic of the reality that many are unwilling to accept for different reasons: there is no space race.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3645/1
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4/I 2019 [16-20]
16) Review: Interplanetary Robots
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 28, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3646a.jpg)
Interplanetary Robots: True Stories of Space Exploration
by Rod Pyle
Prometheus Books, 2019
paperback, 368 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-63388-502-8
US$18.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/163388502X/spaceviews
The story of the robotic exploration of the solar system is one that has been told over and over, even as that story changes with new missions to new destinations. Some books focus on specific missions, while others devote their attention to places like the Moon and Mars that have been visited by many such missions. A comprehensive overview of six decades of planetary exploration, in a single volume, could only explore the history of that exploration at a high level.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3646/1
17) Weaponization of space will harm the United States more than it gains
by Takuya Wakimoto Monday, January 28, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3131a.jpg)
Any use of weapons in space could drastically increase the space debris environment and degrade some orbits for all users. (credit: AGI)
Developing and deploying weapons in space will ultimately hamper US national interests. President Trump’s recent endeavor to create a “space force” that would oversee the US military’s space activities does not mean that the United States will weaponize space. Rather, whether the United States will deploy weapons in space in the future or maintain outer space as a weapon-free zone is yet to be known. Nevertheless, if the US government leans towards dispatching weapons in space, this decision will only endanger existing US space systems, threaten stability in space, and demean American national prestige.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3647/1
18) Blue’s big year ahead
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 28, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3648a.jpg)
The propulsion module for Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital vehicle after landing on the tenth test flight of overall vehicle program January 23 in West Texas. (credit: Blue Origin)
Last month, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo finally reached space—or, at least, one definition of it—when the VSS Unity spaceplane flew to an altitude of nearly 83 kilometers in the skies above Mojave, California, passing the 50-mile altitude used by US government agencies for awarding astronaut wings (see “SpaceShipTwo finally makes it to space*”, The Space Review, December 17, 2018). Immediately after the flight, Virgin founder Richard Branson said commercial flights would begin some time in 2019 after a few more test flights, a schedule he reiterated last week in a television interview to announce a partnership with athletic apparel company Under Armour to provide uniforms for SpaceShipTwo customers and crew.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3648/1
19) Would a decadal survey work for human space exploration?
by Joseph K. Alexander Monday, January 28, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3289a.jpg)
The decadal survey process, which has recommended missions like Mars 2020 (above), may not be well-suited to human spaceflight. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
The National Research Council decadal science strategy surveys—or more colloquially known as the decadal surveys or just the decadals—are signature products of the National Academies.[1] There is probably no other space science advisory product that has earned the attention and reputation, year after year, or had an impact to rival that of the decadals. If these strategy studies have been so successful for the space sciences, one might logically ask whether the same process could and should be applied to the area of human spaceflight. This article explores the questions of what constitutes a decadal survey and what makes them effective, all in order to consider whether the process is transferable to other areas such as human space exploration.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3649/1
20) Mars: Bringer of ennui (part 2)
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, January 28, 2019
Note: Part 1 was published last week.
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3650a.jpg)
What the second season of Mars illustrated was the challenges of making an economic case for human settlement of the Red Planet. (credit: National Geographic Channel)
One of the problems inherent in depicting humans on Mars is that all of our reference points are here on Earth. Certainly, humans will bring many of their same traits and foibles with them to the Red Planet. But Mars is a different place. The reasons people go, the type of people who go, and the challenges they will encounter there, will be unusual and unique. Other dramas about relatively near-term space exploration, like The Expanse, skip over the early years and jump to more fully-developed societies and economies. But in the early years of human missions to Mars, humans will go in small numbers and will not bring their entire society, culture, or economy to Mars.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3650/1
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5/II 2019 [21-24]
21) The First didn’t last
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 4, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3651a.jpg)
Many had high hopes about The First starring Sean Penn as an astronaut preparing for a Mars mission, but the series failed to deliver the drama that viewers expected. (credit: Hulu)
A mission to Mars got cancelled last month, but not because of cost overruns or technical problems at NASA or another space agency.
The cancellation was not of a spacecraft but rather of a series: The First, whose first—and now only—season appeared on the streaming service Hulu in September. The series premiered with considerable fanfare, given a cast that included Sean Penn and with Beau Willimon, best known as the creator of Netflix’s House of Cards, as its executive producer.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3651/1
22) The ramjet mystery
by John Hollaway Monday, February 4, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3652a.jpg)
Data from decades-old missile tests suggests ramjets could have better performance than expected, which has implications for their use in launch systems.
In an earlier article of mine published here, I discussed the relevance of an old movie, Destination Moon, to the current maneuverings over the question of going to Mars (see “Echoes from the past: the Mars dilemma”, The Space Review, June 6, 2016). I pointed out that the Destination Moon storyline had private business take up the challenge of the first landing on the Moon in order to spur the government to do something about it, and that it rather looked as if this was going to happen with Mars.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3652/1
23) Rethinking satellite servicing
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 4, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3653a.jpg)
DARPA had been working with Space Systems Loral on the Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites program to develop a satellite servicing system, but the company dropped out of the program last week. (credit: DARPA)
In the last few years the idea of satellite servicing has gained interest in the space industry. Part of it has been driven by improved technologies that now make it feasible for robotic spacecraft to dock with other spacecraft to handle stationkeeping or maneuvering, or even perform repairs. Several companies, from established satellite manufacturers to startups, announced plans to develop such systems or technologies to enable them.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3653/1
24) A Space Guard to enable, regulate, and protect national civil and commercial space activities
by Al Anzaldúa and Hoyt Davidson Monday, February 4, 2019
Editor’s Note: the following essay was originally published as a position paper of the National Space Society. A full list of contributing authors is at the end of the paper.
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3520a.jpg)
A Space Guard would be analogous to the Coast Guard in its role of “guardianship,” or the protection and safety of persons and property, and could be created from the existing NOAA Corps. (credit: US Coast Guard)
The National Space Society (NSS) is proposing a transparently operating civil US Space Guard with a national and collaborative international scope of operation. Such a civil Space Guard would initially be established and funded with the capacity and responsibility to: (a) license and regulate US civil and commercial space activities, other than as currently conducted by the Department of Commerce (DoC) space offices for various functions, by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for radiofrequency spectrum, and by the Office of Commercial Space Transportation in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for rocket launches; (b) monitor and guide US civil and commercial space activities pursuant to applicable international treaties; (c) enforce US civil and commercial space regulations; (d) coordinate with US civil and commercial space and aviation offices to enhance efficiency, safety, and space traffic management; and (e) engage the international space community in collaborative efforts to advance space development throughout Earth orbit, cislunar space, lunar surface operations, orbital spaces, solar system planetary bodies, and beyond.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3654/1
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6/II 2019 [25-28]
25) Review: War in Space
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 11, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3655a.jpg)
War in Space: The Science and Technology Behind Our Next Theater of Conflict
by Linda Dawson
Springer Praxis, 2018
paperback, 216 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-3-319-93051-0
US$29.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/3319930516/spaceviews
The last year has seen plenty of attention devoted to growing military activities in space and the threat of conflict there. Much of that has focused on proposals by the Trump Administration to establish a Space Force as a separate military branch (or, perhaps, as a “Space Corps” within the Air Force) to elevate the importance of space within the Pentagon. In addition, a new Missile Defense Review unveiled last month called for development of a new satellite system for monitoring missile launches and a study of space-based interceptors.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3655/1
26) A space-focused alternative to a Green New Deal
by Taylor Dinerman Monday, February 11, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/2915a.jpg)
Visions of space settlements and space-based solar power emerged in the 1970s as a response to the environmental and resource concerns of that era; a similar vision may be needed today to address climate change and other environmental issues. (credit: Rick Guidice/NASA)
In a recent interview in the French magazine Le Nouvelle Observateur, Delphine Batho, a former French Minister of Ecology, said, “L’écologie ne peut pas etre consensuelle.” That roughly translates to, “Environmentalism cannot be consensual.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3656/1
27) A helping hand for giant telescopes
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 11, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3417a.jpg)
The Giant Magellan Telescope will feature seven mirrors, each more tha eight meters in diameter. (credit: GMT Organization)
The decadal review for astrophysics, widely known as “Astro2020,” is ramping up after a bit of a delay because of the recent government shutdown (a deadline for white papers on various science topics to be considered by the survey was recently extended to March 11.) Much of the attention on Astro2020 will be devoted to deliberations on which large-scale strategic, or flagship, mission it will recommend for development later in the 2020s and into the 2030s, with four concepts currently under study (see “Selecting the next great space observatory”, The Space Review, January 21, 2019.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3657/1
28) Building a better booster (part 1)
by Jeffrey L. Smith Monday, February 11, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3658a.jpg)
Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems successfully test fired the new GEM 63 motor on September 20, 2018. (credit: Northrop Grumman)
Normally, the first test of a new rocket engine or motor is a rather secretive affair witnessed only by engineers and top-level customer representatives. While the tension of firing a new rocket was still present, the atmosphere last September 20, when Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems (NGIS) first fired the new GEM 63 solid rocket motor, was much more festive.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3658/1
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7/II 2019 [29-32]
29) Seeking the future: the fragility of the patron
by Roger Handberg Monday, February 18, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3659a.jpg)
Paul Allen funded the development of SpaceShipOne, which won the Ansari X Prize in 2004. But Allen’s death last October has affected another space company he founded, Stratolaunch. (credit: J. Foust)
Pushing out toward the final frontier is difficult both in the physical sense of building vehicles capable of carrying people out into the unknown as well as in the human sense. The former refers to the fact that simply reaching outer space safely and pushing outward from there is expensive, dangerous, and requires a long-term mindset. The lonely tinker working in their garage (e.g. the Wright Brothers) represented one path forward in the early days of human flight, albeit not spaceflight. Spaceflight requires significant resources, which traditionally has meant that the government or other organizations must be persuaded to provide that funding over relatively long periods of time. The Smithsonian, for example, supported Goddard’s early work leading to a liquid fueled launch vehicle albeit small in size.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3659/1
30) Building a better booster (part 2)
by Jeffrey L. Smith Monday, February 18, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3660a.jpg)
Titan IVA with heritage CSD booster motors on other side (left) and Titan IVB with improved Hercules motors (right). Notice the additional horizontal black lines denoting motor segments and the red tank for liquid injection TVC on the Titan IVA. (credit: USAF)
This isn’t the first time a Utah team managed to swipe a marquee rocket program out from under the nose of a California company. But the last time didn’t go so well.
In 1987, the US Air Force was in a bind, and they were looking for a way out. The previous year, the national security community had suffered two body blows in a row with the shuttle Challenger accident in January and, three months later, the loss of a Titan 34D. The Space Shuttle used the same solid rocket motor technology pioneered by the Titan a generation before to assemble large rocket motors like a wedding cake—one layer on top of another—rather than as a single gigantic piece that would be impossible to build or transport to the launch pad. Both of these incidents, though, were traced back to issues with the solid rocket motors. Clearly there were unresolved problems with the technology that had to be address immediately.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3660/1
31) Moon racing
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 18, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3661a.jpg)
Beresheet, the privately funded lunar lander developed by SpaceIL, is scheduled for launch later this week. (credit: SpaceIL)
The Moon is becoming a popular destination once again.
In early January, China landed its Chang’e-4 lander within von KĂĄrmĂĄn Crater on the far side of the Moon, deploying the Yutu-2 rover. The spacecraft was China’s second mission to land on the Moon, after Chang’e-3 five years earlier, and it was the first spacecraft by any nation to touch down on the far side.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3661/1
32) Above Top Secret: the last flight of the Big Bird
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, February 18, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3662a.jpg)
An illustration of a HEXAGON reconnaissance satellite, the last of which launched, unsuccessfully, in 1986.
By the early 1980s, the HEXAGON reconnaissance satellite program was scheduled to end. Only a few more of the heavy, schoolbus-sized spacecraft were under construction. Efforts by senior Air Force officials within the Los Angeles office of the highly classified National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) to either build more spacecraft, or use the Space Shuttle to recover and relaunch one or more of the last satellites, had been rejected as impractical or too expensive. The NRO leadership in Washington instead chose to stretch out the remaining launches, keeping the satellites in orbit longer and taking more images. The HEXAGON had a powerful dual camera system also known as the KH-9 and capable of imaging almost the entire Soviet landmass in a single mission. Because of that, the 20th and last HEXAGON spacecraft, scheduled for launch in spring 1986, became very important to many members of the intelligence community.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3662/1
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8/II 2019 [33-36]
33) Review: Ronald Reagan and the Space Frontier
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 25, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3663a.jpg)
Ronald Reagan and the Space Frontier
by John Logsdon
Palgrave Macmillan, 2019
hardcover, 419 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-3-319-98961-7
US$35
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/3319989618/spaceviews
Ronald Reagan’s legacy as the 40th President of the United States is well-chronicled. Since he left office three decades ago, various books have explored his presidency through the lens of foreign policy, domestic policy, the economy, and so on. Little, though, has been written about his contributions to space, beyond his administration’s advocacy for a space station, Reagan’s role as consoler-in-chief after the Challenger accident, and the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), aka Star Wars.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3663/1
34) A Space Service in support of American grand strategy
by Lamont Colucci Monday, February 25, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3519a.jpg)
President Donald Trump announced his intent to establish a Space Force at the National Space Council meeting at the White House in June, which was recently followed by his signing of Space Policy Directive 4 on the topic. (credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Americans have dreamed of going to the stars for generations. The Apollo missions were thought to be the starting point for the United States to be a spacefaring people, but this dream drifted to the backstage as the political class allowed itself to be captured by the winds of pop-culture and perceived expediency.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3664/1
35) What should be Japan’s strategy for human space exploration?
by Takashi Uchino Monday, February 25, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3599a.jpg)
Taking part in the lunar Gateway could give Japan benefits from foreign policy to space commercialization, and even allow it to become the second nation to have its astronauts walk on the Moon. (credit: NASA)
In Space Policy Directive-1, NASA invited international partners to join its space exploration plans. Although this campaign is open for all countries with interests, construction of the lunar Gateway will be a role primarily for ISS partners.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3665/1
36) Commercial space policy issues for 2019
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 25, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3666a.jpg)
Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo flies to the edge of space on its latest suborbital test flight February 22. Development of voluntary industry safety standards for commercial spaceflight could be one topic the new Congress will look at. (credit: MarsScientific.com and Trumbull Studios)
This year promises a number of major achievements in commercial spaceflight. That includes commercial crew test flights, like SpaceX’s Demo-1 uncrewed test flight now scheduled for no earlier than the very early morning hours Saturday from the Kennedy Space Center. In the suborbital spaceflight arena, both Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic expect to start flying people this year, with Virgin Galactic performing its latest SpaceShipTwo test flight, with three people on board, last Friday.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3666/1
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9/III 2019 [37-40]
37) Review: Review: Apollo 11
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 4, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3667a.jpg)
Apollo 11
Directed by Todd Douglas Miller
93 minutes
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8760684/mediaindex/?ref_=tt_mv_close
The Apollo 11 mission was arguably the best documented voyage of exploration in human history. The three astronauts had film cameras for still and moving images, and live video was able to capture Neil Armstrong’s famous small step in real time for all the world to see. On Earth, a phalanx of media reported on the preparations for the mission and the launch itself, and followed along from Mission Control as the astronauts traveled to and then returned from the Moon. That mission has become a familiar tale because of all that, told over and over again in different ways
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3667/1
38) The Moonrush has begun
by Gerald Black Monday, March 4, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3661a.jpg)
Beresheet, the privately funded lunar lander developed by SpaceIL, marks the beginning of a new “Moonrush” of commercial space ventures. (credit: SpaceIL)
The California gold rush was kicked off in 1848 by the discovery of gold in California. Fortune hunters came in droves. Only a small percentage of the miners became wealthy from this and the other gold rushes of the 19th century. But many others became wealthy by providing the settlers with transportation infrastructure, housing, supplies, and bordellos.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3668/1
39) Denial, disruption, and development in the space launch business
by John Hollaway Monday, March 4, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3428a.jpg)
Despite advances in performance and reusability, rockets like SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy share most of the same fundamental attributes, and limitations, of rockets developed decades ago. (credit: SpaceX)
The two most useful aphorisms for neophytes in the space business are the same as for any corporate environment:
- Never surprise a vice president
- Hell hath no fury like a head office scorned
For the first point, corporate vice presidents do not want their lives, so near the top of the slippery pole, suddenly disrupted by someone from somewhere lower down with unexpected bad news (or even good news when it changes matters dramatically.) And for the second point, his or her myrmidons, when also facing disruption to the even tenor of their corporate existence from an independently-minded outpost, are likely to respond with disproportionate vigor to the threat.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3669/1
40) Commercial crew’s time approaches
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 4, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3670a.jpg)
The first SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft holds its position near an International Space Station docking port shortly before docking with the station March 3. (credit: NASA)
Two forty-nine a.m. is in a demilitarized zone of the clock. It’s very late at night, even for night owls, but also very early in the morning, even for early birds. Orbital mechanics, though, doesn’t care about your sleep cycles.
So, at that hour very early Saturday (or very late Friday night), NASA and SpaceX officials, members of the media, and other spectators gathered at the Kennedy Space Center to watch a Falcon 9 lift off from Launch Complex 39A. What brought them out to the center at that late/early hour was not a typical Falcon 9 launch but instead the start of a critical test flight for the commercial crew program, flying the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft—without a crew on board—for the first time.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3670/1
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10/III 2019 [41-44]
41) Review: The Cosma Hypothesis
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 11, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3671a.jpg)
The Cosma Hypothesis: Implications of the Overview Effect
by Frank White
Morgan Brook Media, 2019
paperback, 296 pp.
ISBN 978-1-7328861-3-1
US$19.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/173288613X/spaceviews
More than three decades ago, Frank White published The Overview Effect, a book that examined the change in worldview that some astronauts experienced upon seeing the Earth the space, one that considers the Earth as a whole, a fragile oasis in the universe. Since then, the Overview Effect has become widely accepted as a relatively common phenomenon experienced by many space travelers, and something of a selling point for future commercial human spaceflight.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3671/1
42) The beginning of the end of commercial crew development
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 11, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3672a.jpg)
The Crew Dragon spacecraft descends under its parachutes shortly before splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean March 8. (credit: NASA/Cory Huston)
There was a lot of celebration a week ago when SpaceX successfully launched its Crew Dragon spacecraft, which docked with the International Space Station a day later (see “Commercial crew’s time approaches”, The Space Review, March 4, 2019.) Getting there, though, was just part of the mission: a vehicle that can safely deliver astronauts to the station must also be able to safely return them to Earth.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3672/1
43) Time for a compromise on space traffic management
by Brian Weeden Monday, March 11, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3673a.jpg)
President Donald Trump shows the signed Space Policy Directive 3 document at a meeting of the National Space Council last June. Progress on implementing that policy has been slowed by disputes regarding which agency should be in the lead for civil space traffic management. (credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Over the last several years, space traffic management (STM) has gone from an obscure topic debated mainly by academics and policy wonks (like myself!) to one at the forefront of US national policy. This is thanks largely to the efforts of Scott Pace and his staff at the National Space Council, who led the interagency efforts that resulted in the first-ever national policy on STM signed by President Trump last June. However, implementation of that policy has stalled, mainly due to disagreements between Congress and the White House over which agency should be in charge. I believe that these disagreements can be overcome and there is enough common ground on which to build a compromise that will yield real benefits for national security, the commercial space industry, and ultimately the American people.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3673/1
44) Red Moon revisited
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, March 11, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3639a.jpg)
The landing of the Chang'e-4 mission has triggered a new round of speculation about China's lunar exploration plans, but much of that is not grounded in reality. (credit: CNSA)
Chinese astronauts were supposed to be walking on the Moon by now. Back in 2005, if you read numerous articles about the Chinese space program, you would have noticed various authors claiming that China was going to land taikonauts on the Moon in 2017, and at least one article claimed this would happen as early as 2010. Two common themes that began appearing in space articles back then were that China had an active human lunar program, and they were in a “race” with the United States to send people to the surface of the Moon, neither of which was true. Articles in The Space Review over a decade ago warned about these distortions.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3674/1
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11/III 2019 [45-48]
45) Pow, right to the Moon
by Eric R. Hedman Monday, March 18, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3675a.jpg)
The international partnerships planned for the lunar Gateway will help protect the program from future cancellation threats. (credit: ESA)
“Pow, right to the Moon!” Most of us who are ancient enough to remember Apollo are familiar with Ralph Kramden in the Honeymooners threatening to send his wife Alice to the Moon one of these days. Over the past half century NASA has promised from time to time that, one of these days, we would return to the Moon. Once again that is what NASA is promising. According to the latest plans from NASA we may have astronauts taking flight to the lunar surface by 2028. The timeline is in a new document published by NASA last month as part of its human lunar lander study effort. This time it is supposed to be to stay.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3675/1
46) NASA’s flawed plan to return humans to the Moon
by Gerald Black Monday, March 18, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3676a.jpg)
NASA’s plans for landing humans on the Moon by 2028 using the Gateway and a three-stage lunar lander system. (credit: NASA)
On February 14, NASA provided long-awaited details about its plan to return humans to the lunar surface. The agency released a Broad Agency Announcement detailing its plan and requesting proposals for Phase A studies. Proposals are due March 25, with awardee selections in May and contract awards in July.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3676/1
47) An enigma behind the curtain: the Tallinn anti-ballistic missile system and satellite intelligence
by Chris Manteuffel Monday, March 18, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3677a.jpg)
Images of a Soviet missile system, taken from an intelligence report, that officials thought in the 1960s were being used as ABMs.
For the first two decades of the Cold War, the Soviet Union was far behind the US in nuclear weapons and relied on deception as its main deterrent. They managed to deceive the US first that there was a bomber gap, then a missile gap, and that the US was falling further and further behind. In 1961, the Soviets had just four intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBMs) launch pads, at a time when the US deployed almost 200, but the Soviets claimed to be building missiles “like sausages from a machine” and that they had outstripped US production.[1] Then American spy technology—the U-2 plane and satellites—proved US stockpiles were massively superior to the Soviet arsenal and the US happily reduced missile production.[2]
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3677/1
48) Rethinking EM-1, and SLS
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 18, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3594a.jpg)
NASA is studying the possibility of flying the EM-1 mission using a pair of commercial rockets instead of the SLS. (credit: NASA)
The big space industry news last week were the comments by NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine at a Senate Commerce Committee last Wednesday that the agency was considering using commercial rockets, rather than the Space Launch System, for the uncrewed Exploration Mission (EM) 1 in mid-2020. But the signs that mission was in jeopardy started to become clear more than a week earlier, in another room in a nearby Senate office building.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3678/1
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12/III 2019 [49-52]
49) Review: Come Fly with Us
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 25, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3679a.jpg)
Come Fly with Us: NASA’s Payload Specialist Program
by Melvin Croft and John Youskauskas
Univ. of Nebraska Press, 2019
hardcover, 456 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-8032-7892-9
US$36.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0803278926/spaceviews
Not all astronauts are created equal—or, at least, perceived equally, even among themselves. For much of the shuttle era, particularly the time before the Challenger accident, missions included both career astronauts, such as pilots and mission specialists, as well as temporary “payload specialists” often representing companies or countries with payloads on those missions. To the average person there was no difference, but within NASA, and its astronaut corps, there certainly was.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3679/1
50) Could suborbital point-to-point really be worth $20 billion a year in 2030?
by Sam Dinkin Monday, March 25, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3680a.jpg)
SpaceX said in 2017 is was considering using its next-generation vehicle, then known as BFR, for point-to-point transportation, although the business case for it may not be as optimistic as one recent report projects. (credit: SpaceX)
How much have we made out of Skyblast Freight and Antipodes Transways?
-Robert Heinlein’s character D.D. Harriman in “The Man Who Sold the Moon”, 1950
Robert Heinlein implied in a short story that suborbital freight and passengers would be a market that would mature well before the first lunar flight. In a sense he was partially right—if you count standby capacity to deliver intercontinental ballistic missiles, which first went operational in 1959. In another sense, commercial lunar transportation may occur with a SpaceX-launched private or NASA passenger flight soon. In another sense, both lunar and suborbital tourism may both comprise a portion of the $3 billion/year market for space tourist flights in 2030, according to a recent estimate by UBS, that have exclusively been orbital flights since Dennis Tito’s flight in 2001. More controversially, UBS estimates that point-to-point suborbital transportation will be potentially a $20 billion/year market.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3680/1
51) Cost challenges continue for NASA science missions
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 25, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3359b.jpg)
For the second year in a row, NASA’s budget request proposes to cancel the WFIRST astrophysics flagship mission. (credit: NASA)
The release of the administration’s fiscal year 2020 budget request for NASA focused a lot of attention on the Space Launch System, given plans to defer work on its Block 1B version and move payloads off the vehicle, scrutiny that only increased when administrator Jim Bridenstine announced days later that the agency was studying alternatives to using the SLS for the next flight of the Orion spacecraft (see “Rethinking EM-1, and SLS”, The Space Review, March 18, 2019.) This week’s meeting of the National Space Council in Huntsville, Alabama, will likely include an update on those studies amid a desire to accelerate NASA’s human spaceflight program.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3681/1
52) Human spaceflight, exploration and the jobs specter
by Roger Handberg Monday, March 25, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3682a.jpg)
NASA emphasizes the value of exploration for its human spaceflight program, but what sustains those key elements, like SLS and Orion, are the jobs they create. (credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)
Going to the Moon or Mars is often explained as a nod toward the human desire to explore the unknown: the endless frontier perspective much cited in explaining why humans go over the next hill to see what is there. Human spaceflight since its beginnings—once shed of the Cold War-derived motivations—has been a constant quest to extend humans’ reach into the unknown. There are gestures toward practicality in the calls for planetary exploration so that we can see why Mars turned into a desert and Venus a hell of intense heat and pressure. Why those planets moved in different directions becomes an intellectual puzzle whose answers may serve as vehicles for surviving a possibly catastrophic future here on Earth. This, in turn, often bolsters the case for pursuing human spaceflight: the Moon or Mars as refuge from a dying Earth. The fight therefore is to keep the space science and other missions running because of their long-term social utility, not necessarily profit in the traditional sense of economic profit and loss.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3682/1
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13/IV 2019 [53-57]
53) Review: Shoot for the Moon
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 1, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3683a.jpg)
Shoot for the Moon: The Space Race and the Extraordinary Voyage of Apollo 11
by James Donovan
Little, Brown and Company, 2019
hardcover, 464 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-316-34178-3
US$30
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0316341789/spaceviews
The calendar says it’s now spring in the Northern Hemisphere, but for the book publishing world it’s also Apollo book season. With the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 less than four months away, publishers are releasing a growing wave of titles about the mission specifically, or the Apollo program and lunar exploration more generally.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3683/1
54) Destination Moon: China’s first mover advantage and America’s second mover advantage
by John Hickman Monday, April 1, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3684a.jpg)
Vice President Mike Pence made clear the administration’s desire for humans on the Moon by 2024 in a speech last week. (credit: White House)
Any remaining doubt that the United States and China are engaged in a new space race drowned in the applause given to Vice President Mike Pence’s March 26, 2019 speech during the fifth meeting of the National Space Council in Huntsville, Alabama. Pence’s choice of words could not have been any more straightforward:
Now, make no mistake about it: We’re in a space race today, just as we were in the 1960s, and the stakes are even higher. Last December, China became the first nation to land on the far side of the Moon and revealed their ambition to seize the lunar strategic high ground and become the world’s preeminent spacefaring nation.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3684/1
55) Déjà vu as space policy
by Roger Handberg Monday, April 1, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3685a.jpg)
Like President George W. Bush’s Vision for Space Exploration, NASA is being directed to return to the Moon, but on a much faster timescale. (credit: White House)
Moving out of low Earth orbit remains a human space exploration quest that remains just out of touch for reasons of policy, capability, and cost. For the United States, this hiatus has become a source of dismay given that 50 years ago the first human, an American, set foot on the lunar surface. Despite this exploit, the United States has not returned to the Moon or any other celestial body. Since at least the George H.W. Bush Administration this has been an aspiration at least rhetorically, one that has waxed and waned over the years.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3685/1
56) The implications of India’s ASAT test
by Ajey Lele Monday, April 1, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3686a.jpg)
India’s test of an anti-satellite weapon has heightened concerns about both harming the space environment and destabilizing the South Asia region. (credit: DRDO)
On March 27, India conducted Mission Shakti, an anti-satellite missile test. This was a technological mission carried out by the Defence Research and Development (DRDO). During this test, India targeted one of its own satellites with a ground-based missile. With this successful demonstration, India becomes the fourth country to test an ASAT after China, Russia, and the United States.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3686/1
57) Lunar whiplash
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 1, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3687a.jpg)
Vice President Mike Pence directed NASA to land humans on the south pole of the Moon by 2024 in a speech last Tuesday in Huntsville, Alabama. (credit: White House)
The rapidly evolving landscape of NASA’s human spaceflight plans was illustrated during a panel discussion last Tuesday afternoon at the National Academies, part of its annual Space Science Week event. David Parker, director of human and robotic exploration at the European Space Agency, showed a chart NASA had released in February illustrating how it could carry out a mission in 2028 to land humans on the Moon using a combination of the Space Launch System, Orion, commercial or international vehicles, and a lunar lander.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3687/1
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14/IV 2019 [58-61]
58) Reviews: Photography and Apollo
by Jeff Foust
Monday, April 8, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3688a.jpg)
The Space-Age Presidency of John F. Kennedy: A Rare Photographic History
by John Bisney and J.L. Pickering
Univ. of New Mexico Press, 2019
hardcover, 224 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-8263-5809-7
US$45.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0826358098/spaceviews
Picturing Apollo 11: Rare Views and Undiscovered Moments
by J.L. Pickering and John Bisney
Univ. Press of Florida, 2019
hardcover, 272 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-8130-5617-3
US$45.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0813056179/spaceviews
The race to the Moon in the 1960s, and the Apollo 11 mission in particular, offers many iconic photographs familiar to those with even just a passing familiarity with the program, like those of Buzz Aldrin standing on the lunar surface. There are, though, many more images, taken by NASA and by other photographers, that offer alternative perspectives or capture lesser-known events during that mission or the broader program.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3688/1
59) India’s ASAT test and changing perceptions of space warfare
by Taylor Dinerman Monday, April 8, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3686a.jpg)
The test of an Indian anti-satellite missile last month, and the reaction to it, suggests that space warfare is something that military planners will have to accept. (credit: DRDO)
India’s reasons for deciding to perform their direct-ascent anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon test, Mission Shakti, no doubt include a desire to send a strong signal to both Beijing and Islamabad that Delhi is not to be trifled with. There is also the Indian need to have a seat at the table when international space governance decisions are being made. Moreover, this is an election year in India and demonstrating national strength in a technologically demanding area won’t hurt the government’s case for remaining in power.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3689/1
60) Astronauts vs. mortals: space workers, Jain ascetics, and NASA’s transcendent few
by Deana L. Weibel Monday, April 8, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3280a.jpg)
The newest NASA astronaut class on stage at the Johnson Space Center for their debut in June 2017. Astronauts, with their exceptional physical and mental skills, are often treated with almost a religious reverence. (credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
The “immortality” of astronauts
As I sat in a lecture hall at the NASA Human Research Project Workshop in January of this year, watching a physician discuss how medical tests are conducted on the International Space Station, I paused in taking my notes to smile. The speaker had put up a slide whose title read, “Astronauts vs Mortals”. Obviously, this was meant to be funny, but I noticed it because I was there doing research on the religious beliefs (or lack thereof) of people involved in space exploration, both in space and on the ground. The idea of comparing astronauts to “mortals,” those of us who live ordinary lives and don’t go floating around in microgravity far above the Earth, was using religious language to describe a secular idea.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3690/1
61) Science, commerce, and the Moon
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 8, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3691a.jpg)
The far side of the Moon as seen by SpaceIL’s Beresheet lander as it entered orbit around the Moon April 4, a week before its scheduled landing. (credit: SpaceIL)
On Thursday, a spacecraft called Beresheet will attempt to land in Mare Serenitatis, or the Sea of Serenity, on the Moon. Launched in February as a 600-kilogram secondary payload on a SpaceX Falcon 9, the Israeli spacecraft performed a series of maneuvers to widen its initial transfer orbit around the Earth, eventually increasing its apogee to more than 400,000 kilometers. Last Thursday, the spacecraft passed close to the Moon and fired its main engine for six minutes, slowing it down enough to enter orbit around the Moon in preparation for that landing attempt.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3691/1
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15/IV 2019 [62-66]
62) Review: Space 2.0
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 15, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3692a.jpg)
Space 2.0: How Private Spaceflight, a Resurgent NASA, and International Partners are Creating a New Space Age
by Rod Pyle
BenBella Books, 2019
paperback, 300 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-944648-45-9
US$21.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1944648453/spaceviews
Space, it seems, has a version control problem. Some in Europe, including the European Space Agency, have adopted the term “Space 4.0” to describe the current era of spaceflight. Intended to parallel “Industry 4.0”—the fourth industrial revolution, another term common in Europe but less so elsewhere—it represents the current era of emerging commercial as well as international partners. (For the record, Space 1.0 is the early study of astronomy, Space 2.0 the initial space age and race to the Moon, and Space 3.0 the international cooperation exemplified by the International Space Station.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3692/1
63) Rationale for a national “astroelectricity” program
by Mike Snead Monday, April 15, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3693a.jpg)
NASA 1976 illustration of a GEO space solar power platform under construction. (Original image credit: NASA. Modified image credit: J. M. Snead)
The “Green New Deal” proposal, as it addresses fossil fuel energy use and the environment, is causing substantial political turmoil because it proposes to do what many Americans believe necessary but proposes to do it in a manner that could produce social and economic chaos. Hence, while it has elevated the public’s desire for effective action to the national political stage, it does not propose an effective engineering plan of what specifically to do.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3693/1
64) If at first you don’t succeed…
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 15, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3694a.jpg)
One of the last images taken by Beresheet before it crashed on the Moon was this “selfie” during descent, showing part of the lander and the lunar surface beneath. (credit: SpaceIL)
The good news last Thursday was that SpaceIL provided a live webcast from its mission control is the Israeli city of Yehud. Viewers were able to see the controllers at their consoles while, on the other side of a giant window, guests that included Israeli prime minister Benjamin Benjamin Netanyahu gathered to follow the landing. People would be able to see in real time what transpired with the historic landing attempt.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3694/1
65) It’s time to speak out about India’s reckless anti-satellite test
by Jessica West Monday, April 15, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3686a.jpg)
There’s been little reaction from other governments about India’s anti-satellite test last month. (credit: DRDO)
India used its advanced anti-ballistic missile defence capability to conduct a kinetic anti-satellite test (“Mission Shakti”) against one of its own satellites on March 27. India became the fourth state, after the United States, Russia, and China, to demonstrate an ASAT capability and only the third to conduct a direct intercept of an object in space.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3695/1
66) Delayed takeoff
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 15, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3696a.jpg)
The Stratolaunch aircarft takes off on its first flight from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California April 13. (credit: Stratolaunch)
The plane, at least, can fly, even if the business may not.
On Saturday, Stratolaunch’s giant aircraft finally took the skies above the Mojave Air and Space Port. Shortly before 7 am local time, the plane rolled down the runway, much as it had in a series of taxi tests dating back more than a year, most recently in January. This time, though, Scaled Composites test pilot Evan Thomas throttled up and pulled back on the stick, and the plane took to the skies for the first time.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3696/1
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16/IV 2019 [67-70]
67) Review: Our Universe
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 22, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3697a.jpg)
Our Universe: An Astronomer’s Guide
by Jo Dunkley
The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2019
hardcover, 312 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-674-98428-8
US$29.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0674984285/spaceviews
Earlier this month, astronomers announced they had, for the first time ever, taken an image of a black hole. A network of radio observatories called the Event Horizon Telescope coordinated observations of the center of galaxy M87, producing an image of the supermassive black hole in the heart of that galaxy, billions of times as massive as the sun. The effort to create the Event Horizon Telescope was described in Einstein’s Shadow, a book published last year prior to the outcome of the observational campaign that produced that historic image (see “Review: Einstein’s Shadow”, The Space Review, December 3, 2018.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3697/1
68) The Notre Dame fire and the space movement
by Jeffrey Liss Monday, April 22, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3698a.jpg)
A satellite image of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris taken April 17, two days after the fire that heavily damaged it. (credit: satellite image ©2019 Maxar Technologies)
The discussion about the hundreds of millions of dollars and euros that have already been pledged to rebuild the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris has ramifications for the space movement. If instead of devoting all those resources to restoring one old building, some ask, what if that money would be used to provide food, health care, housing, and so one for those without it, or even for infrastructure? Where are the priorities?
Similar questions are frequently raised about spending on space efforts, about how there are so many “more pressing needs down on Earth.” There is a particular argument applicable to both Notre Dame and the space movement.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3698/1
69) How safe is safe enough for point-to-point suborbital?
by Sam Dinkin Monday, April 22, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3699a.jpg)
Business travelers are unlikely to fly on point-to-point suborbital flights unless their employers approve. (credit: SpaceX)
With the 737 MAX in the news for being risky, it is timely to remember that airline travel in general is astonishingly safe. As of 2018, the overall risk of death was one fatal accident per three million flights. It will take many decades, at the earliest, for suborbital travel to reach this safety milestone. Regular Mars service may be able to match the safety rate per kilometer traveled (one death per 80 billion passenger-kilometers) with less than 1,500 non-fatal trips in a row given the minimum Earth-Mars distance of 54.6 million kilometers.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3699/1
70) The ghosts of flagships past and future
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 22, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3640a.jpg)
An illustration of LUVOIR, one of the large space telescope missions under consideration in the 2020 astrophysics decadal survey. (credit: NASA)
The good news for astronomers is that they are going into their next decadal survey, known as “Astro2020,” better prepared than ever. Studies of four proposed large missions, laying out their scientific rationale and their technical feasibility, are nearing completion to support the deliberations of the Astro2020 steering committee, whose membership is expected to be announcing in the next few weeks (see “Selecting the next great space observatory”, The Space Review, January 21, 2019). Those studies, astronomers have said, will give the committee confidence that not only can those missions perform “transformational” science, but can be built on their proposed schedule and budget.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3700/1
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17/IV 2019 [71-74]
71) Review: American Moonshot
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 29, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3701a.jpg)
American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race
by Douglas Brinkley
Harper, 2019
hardcover, 576 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-06-265506-6
US$35.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/006265506X/spaceviews
The space community’s opinions of John F. Kennedy have varied over the decades. During the race to the Moon, and the years that followed, Kennedy was seen as a brilliant visionary and passionate advocate for space exploration because of his support for the effort that led to the Apollo lunar landings. He was virtually canonized by space enthusiasts who believed someone like him was needed to enable a return to the Moon or similar feats in space exploration.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3701/1
72) Satellite constellations and radio astronomy
by Adam Kimbrough Monday, April 29, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3702a.jpg)
Radio observatories like the Very Large Array have to increasingly contend with interference from satellites in additional to terrestrial sources. (credit: Adam Kimbrough)
In the San Augustine Plains of central New Mexico, 27 radio telescopes stand tall, operating nearly 24 hours a day, seven days a week, capturing extremely weak signals emitted from all over the universe. This flat and vast land, once a seabed, sits at an altitude of more than 2,100 meters and is surrounded by 360 degrees of mountains. Despite the ideal conditions of this location, listening to these faint radio emissions is becoming increasingly difficult as the Earth becomes “noisier” in the same direction in which these dish antennas are pointed, the sky.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3702/1
73) If the Saturn V went boom: The effects of a Saturn V launch pad explosion
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, April 29, 2019
Note: This is the first in a series of articles about the Apollo program leading up to the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing.
Apollo Revisited
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3703a.jpg)
The explosion of an Antares rocket shortly after liftoff in October 2014. Had a Saturn V rocket suffered a similar fate, the results would have been far more devastating. (credit: NASA)
Early in the evening on October 28, 2014, an Antares rocket lifted off its launch pad on Virginia’s Wallops Island and, only 15 seconds into flight, it started to fall back, then blew up, raining fiery hell on the launch pad below. This spectacular explosion was a reminder that when rocket launches go bad, they can go very, very bad. That was something that was on the minds of those running the Apollo program who had watched dozens of missiles blow up in the 1950s and early 1960s.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3703/1
74) A dark cloud on commercial crew’s horizon
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 29, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3704a.jpg)
A SpaceX Crew Dragon prototype during an earlier test of the vehicle’s SuperDraco thrusters, implicated in the incident at Cape Canaveral April 20. (credit: SpaceX)
It wasn’t clear at first what caused the dark cloud spotted that sunny Saturday afternoon on Florida’s Space Coast, but it couldn’t have been good.
On that afternoon, surfers and other beachgoers, as well as one newspaper photographer, saw a dark, reddish cloud rising from somewhere in the vicinity of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. With no launches or other test activities publicized in advance, what caused it was initially a mystery.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3704/1
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18/V 2019 [75-79]
75) Review: The Mission of a Lifetime
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 6, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3705a.jpg)
The Mission of a Lifetime: Lessons from the Men Who Went to the Moon
by Basil Hero
Grand Central Publishing, 2019
hardcover, 304 pp., illus.
ISBN978-1-5387-4851-0
US$22.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1538748517/spaceviews
Ever since NASA selected the Mercury Seven astronauts six decades ago, they, and the groups of astronauts that followed during the early Space Age, were placed on a pedestal by the agency, the media, and the public. They were heroes of that era who could do no wrong—the personification of American values in the race with the Soviets to the Moon—even though they were, like the rest of us, imperfect.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3705/1
76) Going to the Moon within five years and on the cheap: yes, it is possible
by Dr. Ajay Kothari and Congressman Todd Rokita (ret.) Monday, May 6, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3706a.jpg)
Reusing upper stages for missions to the Moon can dramatically cut costs for human landings.
In the 1960s, President Kennedy successfully challenged us to land an American on the Moon and return him safely to the Earth within a decade. Today, President Trump and Vice President Pence have issued a much greater challenge: do the same in five years, but in a manner that supports “long-term exploration and utilization,” or, in NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine’s words, “this time to stay.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3706/1
77) Present at the creation: debating sending Apollo to the Moon
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, May 6, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3707a.jpg)
While President Kennedy was confident in his September 1962 speech at Rice University, the situation was different at an April 1961 meeting of his advisors that a journalist also attended.
Apollo Revisited
When high-level space policy decisions get made, it is often messy and complex and rarely straightforward. Even John F. Kennedy’s decision to send humans to the Moon in 1961 was somewhat disorderly. But it has also been better recorded and analyzed than other major space policy decisions, like George H.W. Bush’s 1989 Space Exploration Initiative, George W. Bush’s Vision for Space Exploration, or the Obama administration’s decision to cancel the Constellation program and pursue several different initiatives instead.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3707/1
78) NASA’s plan for a human lunar landing in 2024 takes shape
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 6, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3708a.jpg)
NASA is starting to reveal plans for landing humans on the Moon in 2024, but hasn’t disclosed any costs yet. (credit: NASA)
Some time in 2024, a Space Launch System rocket will lift off from the Kennedy Space Center, carrying an Orion spacecraft. That mission, just the third for the SLS/Orion combination, and only the second with astronauts on board, will send the Orion to the vicinity of the Moon. There, it will dock with a vehicle with the grandiose name Gateway, but consisting of just a power and propulsion module and a docking node. Astronauts will then transfer to a lunar module already docked to the Gateway, and from there head down to the south pole of the Moon, becoming the first astronauts to step on the lunar surface since Gene Cernan and Jack Schmitt in 1972.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3708/1
79) Russia’s secret satellite builder
by Bart Hendrickx Monday, May 6, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3709a.jpg)
The CNIIHM building on the outskirts of Moscow (credit: CNIIHM)
Some ten kilometers south of Red Square in Moscow’s Nagatino-Sadovniki District is a drab-looking ten-story building that is unlikely to attract the attention of any casual passers-by. Anyone interested in finding out what goes on inside will learn little more from the name inscribed in a gold-colored plate hanging near the entrance: Central Scientific Research Institute of Chemistry and Mechanics Named After D.I. Mendeleyev (Cyrillic initials ЦНИИХМ, transliterated either as CNIIHM or TsNIIKhM). At first sight, there is nothing to suggest that it has anything to do with the Russian space program. However, plenty of evidence has emerged from open-source intelligence that CNIIHM has become one of the most important satellite builders outside the structure of Roscosmos, specializing in the development of small sĐ°tellites for military purposes, including what likely is a new Russian co-orbital anti-satellite system.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3709/1
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19/V 2019 [80-83]
80) Review: The Case for Space
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 13, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3710a.jpg)
The Case for Space: How the Revolution in Spaceflight Opens Up a Future of Limitless Possibility
by Robert Zubrin
Prometheus Books, 2019
hardcover, 405 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-63388-534-9
US$25.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1633885348/spaceviews
In the event last week in Washington to discuss the Blue Moon lunar lander being developed by Blue Origin, company founder Jeff Bezos used the event to discuss his vision for the future of humanity in space. While he had discussed elements of that in the past, like his desire to see millions of people living and working in space, tapping into the resources of the solar system, he spent much of the hour-long event laying out his thoughts in detail, from moving heavy industry off Earth and tapping into space solar power to the development of space settlements inspired by Gerard K. O’Neill.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3710/1
81) Should India pursue a Space Force?
by Ajey Lele Monday, May 13, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3686a.jpg)
Now that India has demonstrated its ASAT capabilities, it its time for the country to provide military space the attention, and organization structure, needed for any major space power. (credit: DRDO)
On March 27, India successfully conducted an anti-satellite (ASAT) test. India received both praise and flak for undertaking this test. Many nations recognized the rationale for India conducting this test, but some assessments indicated that a few debris pieces reached higher altitudes and would remain there for longer than the government initially claimed.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3711/1
82) Apollo’s shadow: the CIA and the Soviet space program during the Moon race
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, May 13, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3712a.jpg)
By the late 1960s, American reconnaissance satellites were so powerful that they enabled highly-detailed photographs of Soviet rockets to be taken from over 150 kilometers away. These images of Soviet rockets are degraded due to classification requirements, but offer a hint of just how good American intelligence collection about the Soviet space program became by the latter 1960s. (credit: NRO)
Sputnik was not a strategic surprise for the CIA. Unlike Pearl Harbor, the intelligence community had plenty of data about what was happening inside the Soviet Union in the months before October 1957 and, in fact, had warned the White House that the Soviet Union was planning on launching a satellite into Earth orbit very soon. The CIA had also warned that a successful satellite could become a propaganda victory for the Soviet Union. It was not the intelligence community that failed the American government with Sputnik; the failure was the inability of senior American political leadership, notably President Dwight D. Eisenhower, to understand how the American public—and the rest of the world—would respond.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3712/1
83) Blue Moon and the infrastructure of space settlement
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 13, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3713a.jpg)
Jeff Bezos unveils a full-scale mockup of the Blue Moon lunar lander May 9 in Washington. (credit: Blue Origin)
There had to be a lunar lander behind that curtain.
That was the thought most people had last Thursday afternoon as they stepped into a ballroom at the Washington Convention Center for an event by Blue Origin. They had been invited by the company for an event “where we will give you an update on our progress and share our vision” but offered no further details.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3713/1
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20/V 2019 [84-87]
84) Review: Apollo’s Legacy
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 20, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3714a.jpg)
Apollo’s Legacy: Perspectives on the Moon Landings
by Roger Launius
Smithsonian Books, 2019
hardcover, 264 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-58834-689-0
US$27.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1588346498/spaceviews
With two months to go, preparations for the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing are shifting into high gear, including in the publishing world. A wave of books is hitting bookshelves (or their electronic equivalents) on all aspects of the mission and the race to the Moon a half-century ago. Some will simply rehash the well-known history of either the overall Apollo program or Apollo 11 specifically, while others will dive deep into some technical, social, or other aspect of the Moon landing.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3714/1
85) How defense and civil space offices can work together to on space situational awareness and space commerce
by Alfred B. Anzaldua Monday, May 20, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3715a.jpg)
Space traffic management is an increasingly important issue which requires tapping into expertise outside of government to solve. (credit: ESA)
Long-standing technological and cost barriers to space are falling, enabling more countries and commercial firms to participate in satellite manufacturing, launch, space exploration, and human spaceflight. Although these advancements are creating new opportunities, new risks for space-enabled services are emerging. In particular, the number of satellites and debris in orbit is growing, making tracking satellites, discriminating threats from non-threats, and predicting and preventing collisions a daunting challenge. Consequently, state and commercial space actors increasingly depend on information about the space domain to avoid such risks. Therefore, accurate space-based information has become crucial for military, commercial, and civil operations.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3715/1
86) The launch industry prepares for a shakeout
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 20, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3716a.jpg)
SpaceX still expects to perform about 20 launches this year and a similar number next year, not counting launches for its own Starlink satellites. (credit: SpaceX)
There’s a long-running tension in the commercial space industry between launch service providers and their customers, primarily commercial satellite operators. Those customers have sought to encourage more launch companies to enter the market, giving companies more flexibility and lower prices. Launch providers, on the other hand, warn that there’s not enough demand to support more companies, threatening the stability of companies and even their ability to safely launch.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3716/1
87) Have Moonsuit, will travel
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, May 20, 2019
Apollo Revisited
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3717a.jpg)
An x-ray of the glove of Neil Armstrong’s Apollo 11 spacesuit from his historic moonwalk, taken as part of the restoration process. The Apollo astronauts have many lessons to provide to NASA as it works to develop new moonwalking suits. (credit: NASM)
In July, Neil Armstrong’s Apollo Moon suit will go on display in the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum after undergoing extensive renovation. The Apollo Moon spacesuit is practically an iconic object, appearing in hundreds of photos and hours of movie and television footage taken on the Moon. But those spacesuits represented a first try at a planetary spacesuit, and unfortunately, they remain the only proven planetary spacesuits.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3717/1
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21/V 2019 [88-91]
88) Review: Mysteries of Mars
by Jeff Foust Tuesday, May 28, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3718a.jpg)
Mysteries of Mars
by Fabio Vittorio De Blasio
Springer Praxis, 2018
paperback, 204 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-3-319-74783-5
US$29.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/3319747835/spaceviews
This summer is shaping up to be the summer of the Moon. The 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 is the major reason for that interest, although NASA’s accelerated push to return humans to the Moon—now by 2024, rather than 2028—is also playing a key role. The surge of books about the Moon has put even Mars, which has dominated mindshare in recent years thanks to its past as a potentially habitable world and its future as a destination for human exploration, into the background for a change.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3718/1
89) Crew safety during an early lunar return
by John K. Strickland Tuesday, May 28, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3719a.jpg)
The Apollo Lunar Module, an expendable spacecraft shown here on the Moon, can serve as a model for a much safer reusable lunar spacecraft. (credit: NASA)
During the Apollo lunar missions and landings 50 years ago, there was a real risk of losing a crew during each mission. For the launch phase, the risk was relatively small due to an effective launch abort system with an escape tower. During the passage to the Moon, the crew would have had the option of using the Lunar Module’s engine to return to Earth, as was done so successfully during Apollo 13. However, once a crew was in orbit around the Moon, or had landed on the Moon, the risk level was multiplied: a loss of vehicle control or failure of the propulsion system for Earth return or, worse, a failure during descent to or ascent from the lunar surface.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3719/1
90) Secret Apollos
by Dwayne A. Day Tuesday, May 28, 2019
Apollo Revisited
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3720a.jpg)
Apollo 9 in Earth orbit. NASA developed contingency plans if Apollo missions bound for the Moon instead had to remain in Earth orbit, but not everyone was pleased with what the agency proposed to do on those missions. (credit: NASA)
During the Apollo program NASA officials tried to plan for every possible failure that could happen during a mission. Some of the failures might not even be catastrophic: “mission failures” rather than crew fatalities. One such possibility might be the Saturn rocket’s third stage engine not firing to take the crew to the Moon. In that case the spacecraft would be restricted to Earth orbit. The crew could still return, but they could not perform their primary mission. NASA officials sought to find other things that a crew could do so that the mission would not be a complete waste. They wanted to take their lemons and make lemonade. Surprisingly, one of the things they did was plan to conduct reconnaissance operations in Earth orbit, which brought them into contact—and sometimes conflict—with the secretive organization that did that on a regular basis.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3720/1
91) Suborbital space tourism nears its make-or-break moment
by Jeff Foust Tuesday, May 28, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3721a.jpg)
Virgin Galactic’s WhiteKnightTwo aircraft, with SpaceShipTwo attached, takes off from the Mojave Air and Space Port on its latest test flight in February. (credit: Virgin Galactic)
At the Space Symposium, the annual conference held by the Space Foundation in Colorado Springs, it’s easy to get jaded by the high-profile attendees: a space agency leader here, a corporate CEO there, a general over that way, all blending together in their business suits and uniforms.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3721/1
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22/VI 2019 [92-96]
92) Review: The Moon
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 3, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3722a.jpg)
The Moon: A History for the Future
by Oliver Morton
The Economist, 2019
hardcover, 352 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-5417-7432-2
US$28.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1541774329/spaceviews
In this summer of the Moon, the majority of the books being published are mostly backwards-looking, revisiting the Apollo program and the race to the Moon a half-century ago. Some do look ahead at the future of lunar exploration—by NASA, other space agencies, or the private sector—and others focus on the study of the Moon or other ancillary aspects.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3722/1
93) Saving Colonel Pruett
by John B. Charles Monday, June 3, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3723a.jpg)
If astronauts and flight controllers had only known about real-life Apollo contingency procedures, Ironman One wouldn’t have been trapped in orbit, as was the case during the movie Marooned. (credit: Columbia Pictures)
In this 50th anniversary year of the first Apollo lunar landing missions, we can reflect not only on those missions but also on movies, including the reality-based, technically-oriented space movies of that era, that can educate as well as entertain and inspire. One of those is Marooned, the story of three NASA astronauts stranded in low Earth orbit aboard their Apollo spacecraft, call-sign Ironman One—all letters, no numbers, and painted right on the command module (CM), a practice NASA had abandoned by 1965. They were the first crew of Ironman, the world’s first space station, the renovated upper stage of a Saturn rocket as planned for the Apollo Applications Program, predecessor of Skylab.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3723/1
94) A mighty thunderous silence: The Saturn F-1 engine after Apollo
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, June 3, 2019
Apollo Revisited
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3724a.jpg)
Long after the last Saturn V lifted off, NASA and industry studied other uses for the F-1 engines that powered its first stage. (credit: NASA)
The Saturn V’s F-1 engine is probably the most legendary rocket engine ever built. After a problematic early start that destroyed several test stands, the powerful engine went on to send 12 astronauts to the lunar surface. Later, as NASA planned on retiring the Apollo hardware, astute leaders recognized that they might need it again. This resulted in the F-1 Production Knowledge Retention Program. This was a project at Rocketdyne, the company that built the F-1 engine, to preserve as much technical documentation and knowledge about the engine as possible. According to an inventory of records, the Knowledge Retention Program produced 20 volumes of material on topics such as the engine’s injector ring set, valves, engine assembly, and checkout and thermal insulation and electrical cables, among others.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3724/1
95) Defanging the Wolf Amendment
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 3, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3725a.jpg)
A pair of images from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter of the landing site of the Chang’e-4 lunar lander (in middle), with the arrow pointing to the location of the lander's Yutu-2 rover. (credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University)
Later this month the House of Representatives will start consideration of appropriations bills for fiscal year 2020. Those bills will include the commerce, justice, and science (CJS) bill, which the House Appropriations Committee favorably reported May 22.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3725/1
96) The end of the Egolauncher
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, June 3, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3726a.jpg)
Stratolaunch’s giant aircraft on its first, and perhaps only, flight in April. (credit: Stratolaunch)
Making predictions sometimes is not very enjoyable even—or perhaps especially—when they come true.
According to a Reuters article published Friday, Stratolaunch is about to cease operations and close up shop, selling off its assets. Whether this includes selling the record-setting Roc aircraft remains to be seen. It is hard to imagine any buyer for that aircraft, and it may prove too large for any museum. This is a sad end to an interesting project, but many people, myself included, never expected Stratolaunch to ever be successful. Stratolaunch seemed like the pet idea of a billionaire with so much money that he did not need to worry about market viability. When that billionaire, Paul Allen, died late last year, those of us skeptical about the company assumed that Allen’s trustees would finish and fly the aircraft, and then close up shop, and now it’s happening.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3726/1
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23/VI 2019 [97-101]
97) Review: Moon Rush
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 10, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3727a.jpg)
Moon Rush: The New Space Race
by Leonard David
National Geographic, 2019
hardcover, 224 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-4262-2005-0
US$26.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1426220057/spaceviews
Well, that was close.
For a time Friday afternoon, it appeared that President Trump was bringing NASA’s accelerated return to the Moon to a sudden halt. “For all of the money we are spending, NASA should NOT be talking about going to the Moon - We did that 50 years ago,” he tweeted Friday afternoon on his way back from a trip to Europe. “They should be focused on the much bigger things we are doing, including Mars (of which the Moon is a part), Defense and Science!”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3727/1
98) Who speaks for the night sky?
by A.J. Mackenzie Monday, June 10, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3728a.jpg)
Astronomers waited until after the launch of the first Starlink satellites to start worrying about their effects on the night sky. (credit: SpaceX)
SpaceX launched the first of their Starlink communications satellites last month. Within a day of their launch, amateur astronomers reported observing them in a distinct and relatively bright line across the sky. It was a remarkable sight even for veteran the satellite observers who have spent decades scanning the skies for everything from classified NRO satellites to the International Space Station.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3728/1
99) Top man on the Saturn V
by Thomas Frieling Monday, June 10, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3729a.jpg)
David Shomper (circled) and his crew—barely visible—atop the Mobile Service Structure prior to Apollo 11’s launch with the Q-Ball cover in place. (credit: NASA)
David Shomper began working on the Gemini Program right after graduating from Carnegie Tech (later Carnegie Mellon) in 1965 and moved on to the Apollo program, working on pneumatics and hydraulics systems for Boeing at the Kennedy Space Center. He arrived in time to witness the first Saturn V launch on November 9, 1967. He was on console in the Launch Control Center at Launch Complex 39, supporting Apollo 11’s countdown on July 16, 1969.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3729/1
100) Dancing in the pale moonlight: CIA monitoring of the Soviet manned lunar program
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, June 10, 2019
Apollo Revisited
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3730a.jpg)
A CIA model of the Soviet N-1 launch complex, which the CIA labeled “Complex J.” Visible are two N-1 rockets, and a Saturn V and the Washington Monument for scale. (credit: CIA)
During the height of the race to the Moon in the 1960s, the Central Intelligence Agency and the rest of the US intelligence community sought to keep tabs on Soviet progress in reaching the Moon. That story has been discussed here before (see “Webb’s Giant”, The Space Review, July 19, 2004; “A taste of Armageddon (part 1),” The Space Review, January 3, 2017, and Part 2; and “Dagger of the mind,” The Space Review, December 19, 2016.) But the question still remains open: to what extent did CIA monitoring of the Soviet manned lunar program during the 1960s play a role in the Apollo program, particularly its schedule? Several dozen documents, including the “manned lunar file” from the CIA’s reading room, shed some light on this subject.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3730/1
101) NASA tries to commercialize the ISS, again
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 10, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3731a.jpg)
Part of NASA's new low Earth orbit commercialization effort includes offering a docking port on the ISS that could be used by companies to attach commercial modules to the station. (credit: Bigelow Aerospace)
When NASA decided to announce its long-awaited new initiative to support commercial activities on the International Space Station and low Earth orbit, it eschewed NASA Headquarters or its other centers as the venue for its announcement. Instead, the agency went to New York City, holding the announcement at the Nasdaq exchange, a form of stage-setting to argue that the station was open for business.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3731/1
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24/VI 2019 [102-107]
102) Review: Gravity’s Century
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 17, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3732a.jpg)
Gravity’s Century: From Einstein’s Eclipse to Images of Black Holes
by Ron Cowen
Harvard Univ. Press, 2019
hardcover, 192 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-674-97496-8
US$26.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0674974964/spaceviews
Our understanding of the universe changed on May 29, 1919, although no one knew it quite yet. Two teams of astronomers, one in Brazil and the other on the island Principe off the coast of Africa, observed a solar eclipse. Their interest was not with the eclipse itself, but rather with the ability to see stars near the Sun that would otherwise be lost in the Sun’s glare. Months later, the astronomers reported that the positions of the stars had shifted compared to observations taken in the night sky. Those shifts were by the amount expected had the starlight been deflected by the Sun’s gravity as predicted by Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3732/1
103) For All Mankind provides a look into a different space race
by Mark R. Whittington Monday, June 17, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3733a.jpg)
The upcoming series For All Mankind examines an alternative history where the Soviets were the first to land a man on the Moon. (credit: Apple)
Apple recently released the first full trailer of what appears to be its flagship series, For All Mankind, for its upcoming Apple TV+ streaming service. The series is a creation of Ron Moore, a former Star Trek producer who previously created a reboot of Battlestar Galactica and the current time travel romance Outlander.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3733/1
104) Icarus falling: Apollo nukes an asteroid
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, June 17, 2019
Apollo Revisited
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3734a.jpg)
The proposal to deflect Icarus would have used several Saturn V rockets equipped with 100-megaton bombs encased in fairings like that used for the Skylab launch. (credit: NASA)
In the late 1960s, as the Apollo program was in full-swing, a group of engineers in training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology designed a defense against an asteroid heading toward Earth. Their plan would have involved a half-dozen Saturn V rockets carrying some really big bombs, aimed at an asteroid named Icarus.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3734/1
105) Streamlining the space industry’s regulatory streamlining
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 17, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3735a.jpg)
A SpaceX Falcon Heavy lifts off in April. SpaceX is among the companies concerned about provisions in a notice of proposed rulemaking intended to streamline commercial launch regulations. (credit: SpaceX)
One of the hallmarks of the Trump Administration, for better or for worse, has been a zeal for regulatory reform. Throughout the government, the administration has sought to roll back regulations in a variety of areas, arguing that doing so will benefit the economy.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3735/1
106) Doomed from the start: The Manned Orbiting Laboratory and the search for a military role for astronauts
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, June 17, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3736a.jpg)
Simulators like this were the closest astronauts got to flying the MOL. (credit: USAF)
Last week marked the 50th anniversary of the cancellation of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory program. MOL was to be equipped with a powerful and top-secret reconnaissance camera system known as DORIAN. But the program kept slipping in schedule and increasing in cost until, finally, it proved unaffordable for a Nixon administration fighting a costly war in Southeast Asia and trying to fund other major space programs. MOL was facing many challenges, including an identity crisis—what was it supposed to do and why did that matter?—and increasing criticism within the intelligence community.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3736/1
107) A new accounting for Apollo: how much did it really cost?
by Casey Dreier Monday, June 17, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3737d.jpg)
Fifty years after Apollo 11, it's still difficult to calculate just how much the Apollo program cost. (credit: NASA)
Nestled within one of the half-dozen boxes of Apollo budget documents at NASA’s historical reference collection in Washington, DC, is a piece of paper outlining a “loose agenda”—sadly undated[1] —for a meeting intriguingly titled Apollo Cost Consensus. Among the goals stated by the agenda are for “the cost estimating community to reach consensus on Apollo costs.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3737/1
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25/VI 2019 [108-112]
108) Review: One Giant Leap
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 24, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3738a.jpg)
One Giant Leap: The Impossible Mission That Flew Us to the Moon
by Charles Fishman
Simon & Schuster, 2019
hardcover, 480 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-5011-0629-3
US$29.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1501106295/spaceviews
This summer is one of celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, including the series of books about the mission and events around the country, as well as product tie-ins on everything from beer to Oreo cookies. But in the back of minds of many, though, is the realization that while we will celebrate this summer the landing of the first humans on the Moon, in three and a half years we will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the landing of the last humans—to date—on the Moon. Even with the acceleration of NASA’s Artemis program, and private efforts, it’s highly unlikely there will be any humans on the Moon before the 50th anniversary of Apollo 17 in December 2022.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3738/1
109) Inside the mind of the visionary who pioneered wireless power transmission
by Paul Jaffe Monday, June 24, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3739a.jpg)
For reasons not entirely clear, in the spring of 1964 something moved William C. Brown to begin keeping a journal to capture his involvement and developments concerning microwave power transmission. He persisted in writing regular entries for the subsequent 35 years, leaving a technological, sociological, and deeply personal treasure trove of information. The result is a poignant and rich exploration not only of the underpinnings of this potentially revolutionary technology, but of the struggles and mindset of its creator. Anyone with even a passing interest in the philosophy of innovation, the origins of wireless power, or the realities of trying to birth new concepts and paradigms will find this work compelling.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3739/1
110) How low can launch costs go?
by Sam Dinkin Monday, June 24, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3740a.jpg)
A solo flight to orbit will likely continue to cost tens of millions of dollars well after launch costs drop below ten million per launch. But with competing carriers, each launching hundreds of passengers to orbit daily, seats might eventually be available for less than $100,000 per person. (credit: NASA)
A paper published earlier this month by the Reason Foundation had an astonishing back-of-the envelope calculation for the minimum cost of a round-trip ticket to orbit in a mature market. It struck me that if SpaceX’s Super Heavy and Starship meet Elon Musk’s ambitious cost goals, then a mature-market cost may be able to arrive sooner than people think—but not necessarily a mature-market ticket price.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3740/1
111) Going big: catching a Saturn V first stage with a helicopter
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, June 24, 2019
Apollo Revisited
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3741a.jpg)
Hiller’s concept for a giant helicopter that could ferry Saturn V first stages and catch them in midair.
Hiller Aircraft was a helicopter company based in Palo Alto, California, that thrived in the middle of last century, but was denied a U.S. Army helicopter contract as a result of shady—probably illegal—actions taken by Howard Hughes. Hughes’ OH-6A Cayuse—better known as “the Loach”—became the Army’s standard light scout helicopter of the Vietnam War, and although Hughes lost substantial money on the Army deal, the Loach’s descendants proved highly successful. Hiller’s proposal, the OH-5A, lost the Army contract and never succeeded as a commercial helicopter. Hiller was absorbed into Fairchild and eventually the company faded away. Today very few of its products remain flying, and its primary legacy is a small but history-packed museum off Route 101 in Palo Alto.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3741/1
112) Waiting for the future for 15 years
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 24, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3742a.jpg)
Fifteen years ago, Mike Melvill celebrated a successful suborbital spaceflight on SpaceShipOne that, at the time, appeared to herald the beginning of a new era in commercial human spaceflight. (credit: J. Foust)
Sometimes the future takes us by surprise, advancing in different directions or at faster speeds than expected. (Take, for example, the smartphone you might be using to read this article, or the social media post that directed you to it.) Sometimes the future lingers out of reach, its promises unfulfilled for years or decades. Think of flying cars, for example, or fusion power. Or, commercial human spaceflight.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3742/1
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26/VII 2019 [113-118]
113) Reviews: Apollo 11 in graphic detail
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 1, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3743a.jpg)
Apollo
by Matt Fitch, Chris Baker, and Mike Collins
SelfMadeHero, 2018
hardcover, 176 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-910593-50-9
US$24.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1910593508/spaceviews
Moonbound: Apollo 11 and the Dream of Spaceflight
by Jonathan Fetter-Vorm
Hill and Wang, 2019
paperback, 256 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-374-53791-3
US$19.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374537917/spaceviews
The upcoming 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 has generated recollections and reexaminations of the mission across a wide range of media. That includes documentaries, television shows, and traditional nonfiction books. Not to be left out, though, are graphic novels, which offer their own unique examinations of the mission through a mix of text and illustrations for adults.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3743/1
114) Why the next Space Policy Directive needs to be to the Secretary of Energy
by Peter Garretson Monday, July 1, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/2764a.jpg)
Space-based solar power is an idea whose time may have come, at least in the views of some in China, requiring the US to respond appropriately. (credit: NASA)
For the first time in decades, the United States faces a serious challenge. A new space race is upon us to secure the benefits of a vast and expanding space economy. Whether it was grain for horses and soldiers; wind and waterwheels for factories; coal for railroads; coal or oil for steamships; petroleum for cars, tanks, and airplanes; or atomic energy for cities and submarines, energy has been central to both commerce and military power.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3744/1
115) Astronomers and Apollo
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 1, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3745a.jpg)
The McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope observed the Sun by day, but during the Apollo program it was also used at night to give Apollo astronauts unique views of the Moon. (credit: NoobX at English Wikipedia)
Getting two Americans—Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin—on the surface of the Moon 50 years ago this month required the efforts of tens of thousands of others. There were the engineers who designed the launch vehicles and spacecraft, the workers who built them, the staff of Mission Control who oversaw the missions, and those who did all the other support work, from accountants to secretaries to janitors, to make it all possible.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3745/1
116) The Eagle has crashed: the top secret UPWARD program and Apollo disasters
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, July 1, 2019
Apollo Revisited
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3746a.jpg)
The Lunar Mapping and Survey System would have photographed the Moon at high resolution. (credit: G. De Chiara)
During the height of the race to the Moon, NASA considered the possibility that the Apollo 11 Lunar Module with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin aboard could crash on the surface without leaving sufficient telemetry about what had gone wrong. In such a situation, NASA might have to send a high-powered camera, derived from a top-secret reconnaissance satellite, to image the crash site, a sort of secret crash scene investigation. Of course, that never happened, but NASA had nearly finished the hardware to accomplish the mission by the time they canceled the program in summer 1967.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3746/1
117) Déjà vu or sea change? Comparing two generations of large satellite constellation proposals
by Stephen J. Garber and James A. Vedda Monday, July 1, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3728a.jpg)
SpaceX launched its first 60 Starlink satellites in May, with plans to eventally deploy more than 10,000 to provide broadband Internet access. (credit: SpaceX)
Disclaimer: the views expressed in this article are solely those of the authors, not of NASA or of the Aerospace Corporation.
In the mid-to-late 1990s, there was considerable discussion of numerous large “constellations” of spacecraft in low Earth orbit (LEO) that would revolutionize the space industry, lower costs to launch payloads to orbit, and provide worldwide communications on an unprecedented scale. Approximately ten companies with names such as Iridium, Globalstar, and Teledesic each aimed to launch and operate groups of 12 to 840 satellites, potentially “darkening the skies” with spacecraft. Most of these systems either went bankrupt or never got off the ground, either literally or figuratively.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3747/1
118) Top Secret DAMON: the classified reconnaissance payload planned for the fourth space shuttle mission
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, July 1, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3748a.jpg)
The shuttle Columbia launched in June 1982 on the STS-4 mission, but without an NRO reconnaissance payload once planned for it. (credit: NASA)
The first military/intelligence payload ever scheduled to fly aboard the Space Shuttle was a top-secret photographic reconnaissance system code-named DAMON and managed by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). DAMON would have operated inside the shuttle’s payload bay for several days, photographing the Earth below, before the shuttle astronauts brought it back along with its precious cargo of exposed film.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3748/1
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27/VII 2019 [120-124]
120) Review: Chasing the Moon
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 8, 2019
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Chasing the Moon: The People, the Politics, and the Promise That Launched America into the Space Age
by Robert Stone and Alan Andres
Ballatine, 2019
hardcover, 384 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-5247-9812-3
US$32.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1524798126/spaceviews
As the 50th anniversary celebrations of Apollo 11 reach their crescendo this month, television is getting into the act. A number of documentaries and other special programming is scheduled for the coming weeks, such as a version of the Apollo 11 film that appeared in theaters earlier this year (see “Review: Apollo 11”, The Space Review, March 4, 2019) that will be on CNN July 20. PBS, meanwhile, is airing a three-night, six-hour documentary, starting July 8, as part of its American Experience series called Chasing the Moon that examines the events that led up to Apollo 11.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3749/1
121) Apollo 11’s greatest hits and misses: a short reader’s guide
by Thomas J. Frieling Monday, July 8, 2019
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A Man on the Moon and Apollo: The Race to the Moon are among the now-classic accounts of the Apollo program.
Members of the space community are eagerly devouring the spate of new books and documentaries marking the fifty-year Apollo anniversaries, some of them noted here at The Space Review. At the same time for many others, these new accounts represent their introduction to the Apollo story.
Most likely, some of these new contributions to the literature will stand the test of time, while others will end up in the bargain bin.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3750/1
122) When a chimpanzee landed on the Moon: the saga of Boris (part 1)
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, July 8, 2019
Apollo Revisited
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3751a.jpg)
The story of a chimp named Boris landing on the Moon started as a tall tale on the Internet but took on a life of its own.
Right after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon, the Soviet Union landed a spacecraft carrying a chimpanzee named Boris 504. The Soviet plan was to have Boris leave his spacecraft and walk on the Moon right after the American astronauts did, simultaneously mocking and stealing some of the publicity from the American achievement. But despite a successful landing, a malfunctioning hatch prevented Boris from leaving his spacecraft. He died on the Moon when his oxygen ran out, angrily banging a wrench against a faulty hatch.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3751/1
123) The first future MOL
by John B. Charles, Ph.D. Monday, July 8, 2019
Note: An earlier version of this article was previously published in Spaceflight, February 2018.
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3752a.jpg)
This illustration is the one most commonly associated with the Manned Orbiting Laboratory, but is just one of many in historical collections of the Air Force. (credit: USAF)
On a pleasant spring day in 2016, I entered the formidable security of the Pentagon in Washington, DC, to see some space art. A friend of a friend had arranged my visit with the director of operations for the Air Force Art Collection (AFAC):[1] over 10,000 historical and educational paintings featuring aircraft or other related subjects. Since the program’s beginning in 1950, this collection has informed the military and the public of the roles and diverse capabilities of the United States Air Force through the universal language of art. The collection comprises the products of the Air Force Art Program,[2] some of which are displayed on the many, many walls in the Pentagon and on air bases in the US and in other countries.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3752/1
124) One small leap for Orion
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 8, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3753a.jpg)
A refurbished Peacekeeper booster lifts off from Launch Complex 46 July 2, carrying a boilerplate Orion spacecraft and its launch abort system. (credit: NASA/Tony Gray and Kevin O’Connell)
If, five years ago, you were told Orion would fly in 2019, you might imagine the long-awaited (and delayed) first flight of the Space Launch System, sending an uncrewed Orion out into cislunar space. Perhaps, if you were an optimist, you might predict it would be the first crewed Orion flight, sending astronauts beyond low Earth orbit for the first time since 1972.
Instead, the Orion that flew last week lifted off on a very different vehicle from the SLS—and splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean just a few minutes later. Just as NASA planned.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3753/1
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28/VII 2019 [125-129]
125) Review: Eight Years to the Moon
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 15, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3754a.jpg)
Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Mission
by Nancy Atkinson
Page Street Publishing, 2019
hardcover, 240 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-62414-490-5
US$35.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/162414490X/spaceviews
The surge of books published in recent months tied to the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 has typically included similar casts of characters. There’s Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins, of course; John F. Kennedy and other political figures; NASA leadership like James Webb and Wernher von Braun; and some of the other astronauts and engineers involved with the program.
https://www.thespacereview.com/archive33.html
126) Fifty books about the Moon (which aren’t about Apollo)
by Ken Murphy Monday, July 15, 2019
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A sampling of the volumes in this Top 50 list of books about the Moon.
With the 50th anniversary of the greatest human achievement ever rapidly approaching, and the flood of Apollo-related materials appurtenant thereto, I thought it might be helpful to ponder the target of the Apollo program: our Moon. Delving into the Lunar Library, one can find many works that focus on our celestial sister itself, and the many mysteries and wonders thereof.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3755/1
127) When a chimpanzee landed on the Moon: the saga of Boris (part 2)
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, July 15, 2019
Note: Part 1 appeared last week.
Apollo Revisited
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3751a.jpg)
The story of a chimp named Boris landing on the Moon started as a tall tale on the Internet but took on a life of its own.
Padrobnosti Sovietskoy Programmiy Posadki na Lunu Necheloveko Opraznikh
“Details of the Soviet Primate Lunar Landing Program”
The Soviet primate program was secret and very little information on it has been made public, particularly in the West. Early speculation by noted Soviet space experts like Phillip Clark and Jim Oberg was based upon scant evidence. The late Charles Sheldon, of the Congressional Research Service, only devoted a single line in an early 70s congressional report to this program. It has been completely overlooked in most histories of the space race. Jim Hartford’s excellent biography of Korolev, for instance, contains nothing on the primate program, despite the fact that Korolev was its sponsor. However, a recent article in the acclaimed Russian space journal Novosti Kosmonavtiki (“Cosmonautics News”), by Oleg Adulbaz, sheds much more light on this program. Although I don’t speak or read Russian, a colleague of mine provided a rough translation, which I am going to summarize here.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3756/1
128) The NASA-Vatican relationship models a bridge between science and religion
by Deana L. Weibel Monday, July 15, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3757a.jpg)
A copy of the famous “Earthrise” photo given by astronaut Frank Borman to Father Daniel O’Connell, who was the Director of the Vatican Observatory from 1952–1970.
The anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing serves as a reminder that a much of the apparent incompatibility between science and religion is illusory. While the two perspectives may seem opposed, in practice, they are often found side by side. After all, as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin guided the Eagle down onto the lunar surface, the eyes of 600 million[1] people were upon them, and a great many of those eyes saw the event through a religious lens.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3757/1
129) An exploration shakeup
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 15, 2019
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As the nation prepares to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, including a light show on the National Mall, NASA got caught up in issues with its return to the Moon. (credit: NASM)
This is a week NASA planned to focus on its past, not its future, until the present intervened.
This is the week that the 50th anniversary celebrations of Apollo reach their climax. Events around the country will commemorate the launch of Apollo 11 and its landing on the Moon, from the Space Coast of Florida to Seattle’s Museum of Flight. In Washington DC, a series of events are planned at the National Air and Space Museum and on the National Mall, including a light show that will project a full-sized Saturn V rocket onto the Washington Monument.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3758/1
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29/VII 2019 [130-135]
130) Review: Reaching for the Moon
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 22, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3759a.jpg)
Reaching for the Moon: A Short History of the Space Race
by Roger D. Launius
Yale Univ. Press, 2019
hardcover, 256 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-300-23046-8
US$30.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/030023046X/spaceviews
Well, we’ve almost made it: we’re near the end of all the events associated with the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11. The last several days saw the celebrations reach their climax, from a stunning show on the National Mall that projected the Saturn V and other imagery onto the Washington Monument, to events in Florida, Houston, Huntsville, and elsewhere. A few more are planned in the coming days to mark the successful return to Earth of the spacecraft and its three astronauts, but that will be about it for the mission—and for Apollo itself for the most part, since the subsequent missions, with the possible exception of Apollo 13, are unlikely to attract much public attention.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3759/1
131) Advancing the jurisdiction of the US federal court system to address disputes between private space actors
by Michael J. Listner Monday, July 22, 2019
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New commercial space activities will trigger disputes that will present new legal challenges. (credit: Bryan Versteeg/Deep Space Industries)
Not a day goes by without headlines about commercial space, including the vaunted value of the present space economy and the speculative value of resources within celestial bodies, including the Moon. Interspersed within these headlines and in academia is thought about the legal and political issues that will manifest themselves as private space activities increase to include how they will be regulated.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3760/1
132) Why the Space Corps needs to use naval rank
by Brent D. Ziarnick Monday, July 22, 2019
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Former Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson was among those that apeared to want to shape the Space Corps in the mold of the Air Force, rather than have it create its own culture. (credit: U.S. Air Force Photo by Adrian Cadiz)
Regardless of whether the Senate or the House wins on whether it will be called the Space Force or the Space Corps (hereafter referred to as the Space Corps), the sixth military branch of the armed services will be organized like the US Marine Corps (USMC): it will be the junior partner in a military department that manages two services. Like the USMC in the Department of the Navy, the US Space Corps under the Department of the Air Force will need a strong, proud, and fiercely independent sense of identity if it is to succeed in creating a successful military space culture that the President, Congress, and defense leaders demand. Civilian leadership, whether by Congressional or Presidential action, can perform one last great service to the newly-independent military space culture: direct the Space Corps to adopt naval officer rank immediately upon establishment.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3761/1
133) Is ISRO’s “cryogenic curse” finally over?
by Ajey Lele Monday, July 22, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3762a.jpg)
ISRO’s GSLV Mark III rocket lifts off July 22 carrying the Chandrayaan-2 lunar mission. (credit: ISRO)
Just two days after the world celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, India’s second mission to the Moon, Chandrayaan-2, began its 48-day journey to the Moon. Chandrayaan-2, an orbiter and a lander and rover system, launched from Indian soil using an Indian rocket called GSLV Mark III on the afternoon of July 22.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3762/1
134)
The big white bird: the flights of Helo 66
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, July 22, 2019
Apollo Revisited
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3763a.jpg)
Helo 66 was used to recover several Apollo missions, including Apollo 11. (credit: US Navy)
In the recent documentary Apollo 11, there is some wonderful film footage taken on the aircraft carrier USS Hornet as the crew prepared to recover the returning astronauts. In some of the scenes Navy technicians are shown attaching television cameras to the side of a white Sikorsky Sea King helicopter. That helicopter, with a big “66” painted on its side, achieved iconic status in countless newspaper, magazine, and television accounts of the mission. The helicopter did not have a specific name, just a US Navy Bureau Number (like a serial number) and a more notable squadron number—“Helo 66” is only an unofficial nickname.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3763/1
135) And now, the next 50 years
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 22, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3764a.jpg)
Crowds gathered on the National Mall for a show commemorating Apollo 11’s 50th anniversary. But that public interest doesn’t necessarily translate to the agency’s future plans in space exploration. (credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
It was a sight that brought chills on even a muggy night. The National Mall was transformed into a unique outdoor theater to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11. Crowds gathered on a several-block stretch of the Mall, looking west towards the Washington Monument, which was converted into a projection screen that, thanks to the skill of the show’s producers, appeared perfectly suited to host full-sized images of the Saturn V on the pad and in flight. It was an event so unusual it literally required an act of Congress—a resolution that sped through the House and Senate quietly and without opposition, calling upon the Secretary of the Interior to allow such a commemoration—to be possible.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3764/1
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30/VII 2019 [136-140]
136) Review: Escape from Earth
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 29, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3765a.jpg)
Escape from Earth: A Secret History of the Space Rocket
by Fraser MacDonald
PublicAffairs, 2019
hardcover, 384 pp.
ISBN 978-1-61039-871-8
US$30.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1610398718/spaceviews
One of the shows on the CBS All Access streaming service—best known for Star Trek: Discovery and, soon, Star Trek: Picard—is the series Strange Angel. It is a dramatized account of the life of Jack Parsons, an early rocket engineer who helped found both the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Aerojet while also being involved in the occult. In the series’ first episode, for example, Parsons is working at a chemical factory while pursuing rocketry on the side, hoping to win support from Caltech, while also intrigued about a mysterious neighbor and the ceremony he attended.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3765/1
137) Apollo as viewed from a jungle
by Ajay Kothari Monday, July 29, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3766a.jpg)
Fifty years ago, a boy in India listened to the radio as Apollo returned to Earth, and was inspired. (credit: NASA)
I still remember—although details are somewhat cloudy now, the gist of it is still clear as bell —the night when my teen and toddler brother and sisters, my father, some workers on the farm, and I sat around a fire, on a somewhat cold night, in the middle of a jungle, and with an occasional indication of a panther passing through the farm, listening to an old decrepit Phillips radio, battery operated as there was no electricity either. Television was still too far away and we were too poor to afford it even if it was not! It was the late 1960s in Western India, on my father's farm, and we were all very excited.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3766/1
138) The Apollo 11 50th anniversary at EAA AirVenture
by Eric R. Hedman Monday, July 29, 2019
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Charlie Precourt, Joe Engle, and Mike Collins on stage at EAA AirVenture. (credit: E. Hedman)
The 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 has come and gone. I suspect the media attention will fade away quickly. The attention was nice while it lasted and brought back some great memories. At the annual EAA AirVenture event last week in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, the tribute to Apollo 11’s 50th anniversary was held on Friday night at the Theater in the Woods (video embedded below.) It started with a session called, “Designing and Flying the Lunar Module”. It was hosted by Charlie Precourt, the retired astronaut who is also a board member of the Experimental Aircraft Association. The panel was supposed to include James McDivitt of Apollo 9. I’ve discovered it isn’t unusual for guys approaching 90 years old not to be able to make it for one reason or another. He was replaced by Douglas Terrier, the current chief technologist at NASA. The rest of the panel included NASA Chief Historian Bill Barry, space author Robert Godwin, and Dick Smith, who worked on the Lunar Module at Grumman as an engineer.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3767/1
139) How space technology benefits the Earth
by Jeff Greenblatt and Al Anzaldua Monday, July 29, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3548a.jpg)
Reductions in launch costs can open up new space activities, like manufacturing and assembly in space. (credit: NASA)
The purpose of this paper is to clarify and explain current and potential benefits of space-based capabilities for life on Earth from environmental, social, and economic perspectives, including:
1. Space activities having a positive impact today (such as Earth observation for weather and climate)
2. Space activities that could have a positive impact in the next 5 to 20 years (such as communications satellite megaconstellations)
3. Space activities that could have a positive impact in the more distant future (such as widespread space manufacturing and industrialization)
In what follows, we describe nearly 30 types of activities that either confer significant benefits now, or could provide positive impacts in the coming decades.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3768/1
140) A new path for space investment?
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 29, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3626a.jpg)
Virgin Galactic hopes the investment deal will fuel the company into commercial operations and expansion. (credit: MarsScientific.com and Trumbull Studios)
Over the last few years, several billion dollars of investment has flowed into the commercial space industry. A few companies account for the most of it: various rounds by SpaceX and megaconstellation company OneWeb, as well as Jeff Bezos’ annual billion-dollar infusions into Blue Origin. Smaller companies, though, have raised tens to hundreds of millions for launch vehicles, satellite systems, and related applications.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3769/1
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31/VIII 2019 [141-145]
141) Review: Origins of 21st-Century Space Travel
by Jeff Foust Monday, August 5, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3770a.jpg)
Origins of 21st-Century Space Travel: A History of NASA's Decadal Planning Team and the Vision for Space Exploration 1999–2004
by Glen R. Asner and Stephen J. Garber
NASA, 2019
258 pp., illus.
SP-2019-4415
Free
https://www.nasa.gov/history/history-publications-and-resources/nasa-history-series/origins-of-21st-century-space-travel/
For the moment, things have quieted down in the space policy world, at least on the surface. Congress started its August recess last week after passing a budget deal that avoids another rewound of automatic budget cuts, instead lifting spending caps on defense and non-defense discretionary spending. Work is now underway among Senate appropriators to craft spending bills for fiscal year 2020 that fit within those spending caps, which will be debated when senators return after Labor Day and then be reconciled with House bills passed earlier this summer. NASA, meanwhile, is on the hunt for a new leader of its human spaceflight division after the unexpected reassignment last month of Bill Gerstenmaier, and the agency is pressing ahead with various initiatives related to its Artemis program, like procurement of a lunar lander through a public-private partnership.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3770/1
142) The role of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in supporting space property rights
by Wes Faires Monday, August 5, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/2883a.jpg)
Uncertainty in international space law about private property rights in space could be alleviated when taking into account another UN document. (credit: Brian Versteeg/Deep Space Industries)
A long-discussed issue has been the absence of provisions pertaining to private entities under the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. Interpretations in favor of private property rights hold that the purpose of Article II’s ban on “national appropriation” was to place a limitation on member nations’ attempts to exercise territorial and political sovereignty over any part of outer space: to restrict territorial disputes between countries from extending beyond Earth. Without an explicit prohibition of private property rights in the treaty, their development with respect to private entities is unencumbered.
https://thespacereview.com/article/3771/1
143) The International Lunar Decade: A strategy for sustainable development
by Vidvuds Beldavs Monday, August 5, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/2795a.jpg)
International cooperation in lunar exploration could help identify what lunar resources, if any, are truly feasible to support activities in space or on Earth. (credit: Anna Nesterova/Alliance for Space Development)
The Moon is often referred to as the Eight Continent, a chunk of the Earth ejected as a result of a collision of the primeval Earth. The material content of the Moon is largely similar to Earth, raising the question about the value of lunar resources if the same stuff exists on Earth. Part of the value of lunar resources is that they are outside of the Earth’s gravity well and that the cost of launch from Earth could be avoided, if uses can be developed for the materials in space.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3772/1
144) China’s grand strategy in outer space: to establish compelling standards of behavior
by Namrata Goswami Monday, August 5, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3506a.jpg)
China is leveraging its space program, like its planned space station, as tools to influence other nations and establish standards of behavior. (credit: China Manned Space Agency)
Invoking Sun Tzu’s The Art of War to understand China—notwithstanding the fact that the China of today is a polity inspired by German philosopher Karl Marx and his political ideology of Marxism—offers significant insights. Sun Tzu’s advice to the Commander during the Warring Period (476–221 BC) was to imbibe the spirit of a comprehensive grand strategy for success. These includes an understanding of the power of norms (moral legitimacy), heaven, earth (physical conditions), leadership, and finally, method and discipline (assessment of military capability, context, relative power potential/difference, logistics, resources). Once all elements come together, a state can benefit from a grand strategy for success.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3773/1
145) Solar sailing, at long last
by Jeff Foust Monday, August 5, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3774a.jpg)
An image returned from the LightSail 2 spacecraft during deployment of its solar sail July 23. (credit: The Planetary Society)
For decades, The Planetary Society and its founders had sought to demonstrate the viability of solar sailing. The technology offers the opportunity to explore the solar system without the limitations of a conventional propulsion system, able to travel using the power of sunlight alone.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3774/1
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32/VIII 2019 [146-150]
146) Review: Heroes of the Space Age
by Jeff Foust Monday, August 19, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3775a.jpg)
Heroes of the Space Age: Incredible Stories of the Famous and Forgotten Men and Women Who Took Humanity to the Stars
by Rod Pyle
Prometheus, 2019
paperback, 315 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-63388-524-0
US$18.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1633885240/spaceviews
One of the reasons that the Apollo 11 50th anniversary got so much attention last month was often unstated yet quietly understood: it was a goodbye of sorts. Many of the people involved with the lunar landings are still with us today, thanks in part to astronauts who were in their thirties then and flight controllers in their twenties. But you don’t need to consult actuarial tables to know that by the next major anniversary—say, the 60th in 2029—far fewer will still be with us, sadly.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3775/1
147) The future of commercial space transportation
by Dallas Bienhoff Monday, August 19, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3776a.jpg)
The term "commercial space transportation" is evolving from simply launch vehicles like the Atlas 5 (above) to other means to move payloads around in Earth orbit and beyond. (credit: ULA)
Today, commercial space transportation primarily means launch to Earth orbit. In the near future, it will include commercial in-space transportation systems and their support infrastructure. In fact, there are commercial in-space transportation companies now. One can book payload delivery to the Moon on expendable commercial lunar landers today with Astrobotic for $1.2 million per kilogram. In addition, Momentus is offering expendable space tug services in Earth orbit for small payloads. Reusable space tugs and Moon shuttles with propellant depots and on-orbit refueling are coming. Commercial space transportation is evolving to more diverse and more reusable launch systems as well as expanding to encompass orbit transfer vehicles and Moon landers.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3776/1
148) An “operationally ready” spaceport
by Jeff Foust Monday, August 19, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3777a.jpg)
Virgin Galactic’s WhiteKnightTwo flies over Spaceport America and its Gateway to Space building during a media tour August 15. (credit: J. Foust)
New Mexico’s newest upscale restaurant is hard to get into—or to get to.
It’s highly unlikely you can call up Spaceport America and get a reservation for two for the dining facility at Virgin Galactic’s Gateway to Space. It will be limited to the company’s customers and their guests, as well as special visitors to the facility, like a media tour the company arranged of the spaceport last week. That tour featured a lunch that spanned several courses, from an appetizer of shrimp and seared tuna to a dollop of sherbet for dessert.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3777/1
149) Macron’s Space Force: Why now?
by Taylor Dinerman Monday, August 19, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3778a.jpg)
French President Macron, speaking in July, announced plans to establish a space force as part of his country’s armed forces. (credit: Elysee.fr)
For decades France has led Europe’s various space programs. France was the driving force behind the creation of the Ariane series of launch vehicles. Until Elon Musk and SpaceX came along, these rockets dominated the world’s commercial launch services industry. France also pushed hard to compete with the US in building communications satellites and made an all-out effort to control the vital satellite insurance business.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3778/1
150) Turning a corner on Mars
by Van R. Kane and Pat Nealon Monday, August 19, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3779c.jpg)
Concepts for Mars sample return missions, like this, have been around for decades, but there is now new and growing momentum to return samples from the Red Planet. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
In November 2018, NASA Associate Administrator for Science Thomas Zurbuchen announced the selection of Jezero Crater as the landing site of the Mars 2020 rover. Mars 2020—which will most likely be renamed next year to something a bit catchier—will launch in July 2020 and land on Mars on February 18, 2021. It will then rove around Jezero, using a highly sophisticated sampling system to gather pieces of Mars and seal them in tubes each about the size of a pencil. But this isn’t just another Mars mission. Mars 2020 represents the most concrete step in achieving a goal that has been a top priority for American planetary scientists for nearly 50 years: returning samples from Mars. Launching and landing Mars 2020 will not only be an important engineering achievement, but a major psychological one. After decades of false starts and even reversals, the goal of Mars sample return—or MSR as it has long been known in planetary circles—now has real momentum.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3779/1
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33/VIII 2019 [151-154]
151) Review: Spies in Space
by Dwayne Day Monday, August 26, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3780a.jpg)
Spies in Space: Reflections on National Reconnaissance and the Manned Orbiting Laboratory
by Courtney V.K. Homer
Government Publishing Office, 2019
104 pages
GPO Stock Number: 008-000-01348-9
ISBN 978-0-16-095038-4
$21.00
https://bookstore.gpo.gov/user/login?destination=node/16177
In late 1963, the United States Air Force and the National Reconnaissance Office began work on the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) program. MOL quickly evolved into a reconnaissance satellite with a large camera system, soon named DORIAN, that would operate for approximately one month in orbit. Two astronauts would ride inside a Gemini spacecraft at the front of the MOL atop a powerful Titan IIIM rocket launched from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base into a polar orbit. The astronauts would look through spotting scopes at targets on the ground that MOL was about to pass over and feed instructions into a computer that would direct the DORIAN camera to take high-resolution photographs. As MOL progressed, the Air Force selected 17 astronauts to fly aboard it during multiple missions. By mid-1969, however, MOL was behind schedule and over budget and President Richard Nixon canceled it. Although parts of MOL were public, its mission and most of its technology was highly classified. It was not until October 2015 that the NRO declassified a large number of documents about MOL and allowed the surviving MOL astronauts to talk about the program.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3780/1
152) Revectoring the small launch vehicle industry
by Jeff Foust Monday, August 26, 2019
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Vector performed a low-altitude suborbital launch of its Vector-R rocket from the proposed site of Spaceport Camden in Georgia in 2017, but had delayed its first orbital launch to at least late this year prior to its recent financial problems. (credit: Vector)
It’s become conventional wisdom in the industry—accepted with little dispute—that there are far more small launch vehicles under development than even the most optimistic forecasts for demand can support. A shakeout is inevitable, everyone agrees, with the only questions being when it will happen and how many ventures will survive.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3781/1
153) Huge cash prizes and the abdication of public oversight
by Casey Dreier Monday, August 26, 2019
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Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich proposed last week a $2 billion prize for a commercial human lunar mission, but prizes like that may not be the best solution to the problems facing government human spaceflight efforts. (credit: J. Foust)
Newt Gingrich caused a minor stir in the space policy world last week after POLITICO reported he and a small group of space advocates were pitching the idea of a $2 billion prize to the first entity to establish human access to the surface of the Moon. Elon Musk tweeted that it was a “great idea.” But is it?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3782/1
154) The curious case of the transgressing tardigrades (part 1)
by Christopher D. Johnson, Daniel Porras, Christopher M. Hearsey, and Sinead O’Sullivan Monday, August 26, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3783a.jpg)
The Beresheet lunar lander being prepared for launch. Unbeknownst to SpaceIL, the “Lunar Library” payload on the lander provided by the Arch Mission Foundation included tardigrades, setting off a space law controversy when their presence was ultimately disclosed. (credit: IAI)
The Curious Case of the Transgressing Tardigrades is still developing, but this essay (the first of two parts) attempts to collect in one place various perspectives on the issues involved. These perspectives include an international legal context of the situation, domestic regulatory and business perspectives, geopolitical and diplomatic implications, as well as a basic discussion of the astrobiological norms and social considerations which shape and inform the previous topics.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3783/1
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34/IX 2019 [155-158]
155) Review: Space Settlements
by Jeff Foust Tuesday, September 3, 2019
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Space Settlements
by Fred Scharmen
Columbia Books on Architecture and the City, 2019
paperback, 424 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-94133-249-8
US$24.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1941332498/spaceviews
The concept of space colonies (or space settlements, as they’re now more frequently called) has become almost iconic in the space field, even if they’ve advanced little in the last four decades. In the 1970s, there was a burst of energy about developing giant habitats not on the Moon or Mars but instead in free space, like the Earth-Moon L-5 Lagrange point, that could be designed and built to support tens of thousands of people. While NASA support for such studies lasted only briefly, a small but devoted group of space activists continues to carry the torch for space settlements to this day.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3784/1
156) Solving the commercial passenger spaceflight puzzle (part 1)
by Mike Snead, P.E. Tuesday, September 3, 2019
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Illustration of the Orion III spaceliner from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. (credit: J. M. Snead)
In 1968, a year prior to the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon, as a teenager I traveled to New York City for the first time. Growing up in a middle-class suburb in middle America, this was a remarkable experience—almost an alien encounter given the tremendous lifestyle differences between NYC and my quiet suburban city.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3785/1
157) The curious case of the transgressing tardigrades (part 2)
by Christopher D. Johnson, Daniel Porras, Christopher M. Hearsey, Sinead O’Sullivan, and Monica Vidaurri Tuesday, September 3, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3783a.jpg)
The Beresheet lunar lander being prepared for launch. Unbeknownst to SpaceIL, the “Lunar Library” payload on the lander provided by the Arch Mission Foundation included tardigrades, setting off a space law controversy when their presence was ultimately disclosed. (credit: IAI)
The Curious Case of the Transgressing Tardigrades is still developing, but this essay (the second in a series) attempts to collect various perspectives on the issues involved. In part one, after a recitation of the facts (as we know them, based on what is publicly available), we discussed the international legal context and applicable space law, some business perspectives, and basic tenets of astrobiology and planetary protection. In this part, we delve deeper into domestic US regulation via the FAA’s payload review process, and how it might have operated in the Beresheet mission.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3786/1
158) Will LandSpace be China’s SpaceX?
by Chen Lan and Jacqueline Myrrhe Tuesday, September 3, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3787a.jpg)
A test of LandSpace’s 80-tonne methalox engine TQ-12 on May 17 at LandSpace’s test range in the Meinyu Mountains, 20 kilometers from Huzhou. (credit: LandSpace)
On July 25, a Chinese NewSpace company, Interstellar Glory (also known as i-Space or Space Honor), made a successful orbital launch, sending two smallsats into a 300-kilometer orbit. Before that, two other companies, LandSpace and OneSpace, made similar but unsuccessful attempts in October 2018 and March 2019. Interstellar Glory got the glory by winning the race about the first commercial space launch in China. But this was not end of the race. Instead, it marks beginning of a new race: to launch a liquid-propellant medium-class launcher that is able to meet most of the market demand. A small solid launcher is just a ticket to space, while a medium liquid launcher is the key to win the market.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3787/1
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35/IX 2019 [159-162]
159) Review: Atomic Age Declassified: Spies in Space
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, September 9, 2019
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Footage from “Spies in Space” helps convey the size of MOL.
In 2008, seven years before the Manned Orbiting Laboratory program was declassified, PBS produced a documentary called “Astrospies” which dealt both with the MOL program and the Soviet equivalent, named Almaz. Unlike MOL, Almaz flew three times between 1973 and 1976 and also had the novelty of carrying a cannon for attacking American satellites. In retrospect, considering the limitations of the source material—the MOL program had not yet been declassified—“Astrospies” was a reasonably good documentary, and the segments on Almaz were very informative. The documentary can be found streaming online.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3788/1
160) Schrödinger’s lander
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 9, 2019
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The Vikram lander, which carried a small rover called Pragya, being prepared for launch earlier this year. ISRO lost contact with the lander during its descent to the lunar surface Friday. (credit: ISRO)
As it rolled out its plans to support commercial lunar lander missions last year, NASA officials often talked about taking “shots on goal.” The idea was to accept there would be some level of failures: just as not every soccer ball or hockey puck fired at a goal makes it into the net, not every lander will make it to the surface intact. It’s a good way to set expectations and deal with missions that don’t make it—so long as the failure rate isn’t 100 percent.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3789/1
161) Solving the commercial passenger spaceflight puzzle (part 2)
by Mike Snead, P.E. Monday, September 9, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3785a.jpg)
Illustration of the Orion III spaceliner from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. (credit: J. M. Snead)
In 1968, the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey forecast routine and frequent commercial passenger spaceflight to, from, and within space within three decades. Most in the aerospace community likely saw this as a reasonable forecast given the rapid advancement of human spaceflight capabilities in only a decade. Yet, five decades later, such commercial passenger spaceflight remains a puzzling, elusive goal.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3790/1
162) Intersections in real time: the decision to build the KH-11 KENNEN reconnaissance satellite (part 1)
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, September 9, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3791a.jpg)
Recently declassified image of an Iranian rocket launch site produced by a US reconnaissance satellite launched in 2011. Many news sources referred to the satellite as a “KH-11,” but that designation ceased many years ago. It is the descendant of a type of real-time reconnaissance satellites first launched in 1976 after many years of debate and development.
On August 30, the US president released a remarkably detailed photograph of an Iranian rocket launch site. Very quickly, satellite spotters identified the American satellite that took it and numerous internet posts and news articles identified it as a “KH-11” satellite. That designation was discontinued decades ago, but the satellite is almost certainly a direct-line descendant of a satellite series that was first launched nearly 43 years ago and designated the KH-11 KENNEN.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3791/1
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36/IX 2019 [163-167]
163) Review: Fire in the Sky
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 16, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3792a.jpg)
Fire in the Sky: Cosmic Collisions, Killer Asteroids, and the Race to Defend Earth
by Gordon L. Dillow
Scribner, 2019
hardcover, 288 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-5011-8774-2
US$27.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1501187740/spaceviews
Hardly a week goes by without some kind of story about an asteroid making a close approach—relatively speaking—to the Earth. While these specific objects never pose an imminent threat of impact, they are nonetheless sometimes sensationalized in tabloids and websites into a “terror from the skies” kind of story. (This seems especially true these days in British tabloids, perhaps either to provide some relief from stories about Brexit or a desire to end the debate, once and for all.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3792/1
164) Chandrayaan 2’s Moon illusion
by Ajey Lele Monday, September 16, 2019
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The Vikram lander, which carried a small rover called Pragya, being prepared for launch earlier this year. ISRO lost contact with the lander during its descent to the lunar surface earlier this month. (credit: ISRO)
At the time this article is going to press no change has occurred in the status of Chandrayaan 2, India’s second mission to Moon. The last update was on September 10 when the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) website stated that “Vikram lander has been located by the orbiter of Chandrayaan-2, but no communication with it yet. All possible efforts are being made to establish communication with lander.” (Vikram is named after Vikram Sarabhai, the father on India’s space program.) India’s second mission to the Moon started on a cautious note and ended up with limited success. Chandrayaan 2’s journey for 48 days was challenging and demanding and ISRO successfully ensured that the craft would reach safely the Moon’s surface as per the plan.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3793/1
165) The curious case of the transgressing tardigrades (part 3)
by Christopher D. Johnson, Daniel Porras, Christopher M. Hearsey, Sinead O’Sullivan, and Monica Vidaurri
Monday, September 16, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3783a.jpg)
The Beresheet lunar lander being prepared for launch. Unbeknownst to SpaceIL, the “Lunar Library” payload on the lander provided by the Arch Mission Foundation included tardigrades, setting off a space law controversy when their presence was ultimately disclosed. (credit: IAI)
The Curious Case of the Transgressing Tardigrades is still developing, but this week’s essay (the third and hopefully final part) attempts to collect various perspectives on the issues involved. In Part 1, after a recitation of the facts (as we know them, based on what is publicly available), we discussed the international legal context, some business perspectives, and some basic tenets of astrobiology and planetary protection. In Part 2 we delved deeper into domestic US regulation via the FAA’s payload review process and how it might have operated in the Beresheet mission. Part 2 also includes a discussion of US policy issues and choices in the regulation of commercial space.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3794/1
166) Intersections in real time: the decision to build the KH-11 KENNEN reconnaissance satellite (part 2)
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, September 16, 2019
(Note: Part 1 appeared last week.)
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3795a.jpg)
Artist impression of the KH-11 KENNEN satellite. The KH-11 KENNEN was approved in 1971, launched in 1976, and descendants of the satellite still operate today.
In March 1969, President Richard Nixon canceled the HEXAGON satellite program in favor of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) and its DORIAN camera system. By May 1969, influential intelligence advisor Edwin “Din” Land wrote Nixon recommending that he cancel MOL and continue development of a very high resolution camera that exploited DORIAN advances. Land also urged that most reconnaissance R&D be concentrated on near-real-time reconnaissance. He urged the President to start “highest priority” development of a “simple, long-life imaging satellite, using an array of photosensitive elements to convert the image to electrical signals for immediate transmission.” [1] CIA director Richard Helms also appealed to Nixon on behalf of HEXAGON, and Nixon reinstated the program. A few months later Nixon canceled MOL/DORIAN. The next three years proved to be a turbulent time of debate over the development of a near-real-time reconnaissance satellite, with the technology slowly advancing while senior intelligence officials disagreed about the best way to get reconnaissance photos back faster.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3795/1
167) Solving the commercial passenger spaceflight puzzle (part 3)
by Mike Snead, P.E. Monday, September 16, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3785a.jpg)
Illustration of the Orion III spaceliner from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. (credit: J. M. Snead)
Recently, I casually discussed the topic of space with a millennial professional working outside the aerospace community. I related watching the Apollo 11 mission when I had just graduated from high school. After I answered the surprising question of what year that happened, this very nice person wondered out loud about why so little had happened since then. This observation is valid. Fifty years after landing on the Moon, we are still taking “expeditions” to low Earth orbit—the uniqueness of which has long since faded away.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3796/1
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37/IX 2019 [168-171]
168) The long night: Project Van Winkle comes to an end
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, September 23, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3797a.jpg)
Previously unpublished photo of a KH-7 GAMBIT-1 satellite after removal from storage after over 40 years. Two such satellites were placed in storage in the late 1960s with the intent of eventually displaying them in the Smithsonian Institution and the National Museum of the United States Air Force, where they reside today. Source: JP II
People who work in the intelligence community do so with the knowledge that they will probably never be able to tell their friends or family what they do. This is certainly true for those who build and launch and operate highly classified reconnaissance satellites. Right now, across the United States, there is probably a group of engineers sitting in a secure conference room going over the design specs of a new satellite, or a technician attaching circuit boards to an electrical system, or an optical engineer measuring a high precision mirror—in Los Angeles, Denver, Rochester, Mountain View—and yet they cannot tell anybody what they are doing unless that person also has a top security clearance and is in a secure facility.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3797/1
169) America’s incoherent Moon strategy is weakening its space leadership
by Namrata Goswami Monday, September 23, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3395a.jpg)
Since President Trump signed Space Policy Directive 1, formally directing NASA to return humans to the Moon, in December 2017, he has provided mixed messages on the value of the Moon versus going straight to Mars. (credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)
On December 11, 2017, the Trump Administration issued Space Policy Directive 1, where NASA was directed to go back to the Moon. Since then, the US is no better off than it was on December 10, 2017 with regard to the Moon. Vice President Mike Pence stated as much when he lamented in his March 26, 2019, speech at the fifth meeting of the National Space Council in Huntsville, Alabama:
In Space Policy Directive-1, the President directed NASA to create a lunar exploration plan. But as of today, more than 15 months later, we still don’t have a plan in place. But Administrator Bridenstine told me, five minutes ago [emphasis added], we now have a plan to return to the moon…The truth is, despite the dedication of the men and women who are designing and building and testing the SLS [Space Launch System], you all know the program has been plagued by bureaucratic inertia, by what some call the “paralysis of analysis.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3798/1
170) “The slaughter of the innocents” redux
by Roger Handberg Monday, September 23, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3708a.jpg)
Getting astronauts on the Moon by 2024 may be technically feasible, but the cost of doing so could force cuts elsewhere in the agency. (credit: NASA)
The Artemis program is emerging into the sunlight of congressional scrutiny. That has been the critical stage for all new US human space exploration initiatives since the announcement of the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI) in 1989. That program crashed and burned in large measure due to its $400 billion price tag. Congress was uninterested in pursuing such a dream at that price. Space as a realm for human exploration is much touted in the abstract, but asking for money runs into the politics of the federal budget. NASA’s history is one of big dreams and even larger budgets, so congressional hesitation if not hostility is common. A dollar for the Moon means a dollar less for one’s constituents, unless the member has a NASA installation locally. The money must come somewhere, a lesson space scientists have learned bitterly.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3799/1
171) Keeping satellites from going bump in the night
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 23, 2019
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3800a.jpg)
An illustration showing the close approach that ESA’s Aeolus satellite would have made to a Starlink satellite on September 2, which led to ESA performing a maneuver to shift the orbit of Aeolus. (credit: ESA)
The controversy started, like so many these days, with a tweet.
On September 2, the European Space Agency’s operations account announced that ESA’s Aeolus spacecraft, an Earth science mission launched a year earlier, had performed a collision avoidance maneuver earlier that day to avoid a SpaceX Starlink satellite. This was, ESA said, the first such maneuver to avoid a “megaconstellation” satellite.
The maneuver was a success—Aeolus raised its orbit slightly to avoid the Starlink satellite—but the discussion was only starting. “As the number of satellites in orbit increases, due to ‘mega constellations’ such as #Starlink comprising hundreds or even thousands of satellites, today's ‘manual’ collision avoidance process will become impossible,” ESA tweeted.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3800/1
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Steady growth beyond the skies: five trends in outer space from 2021
by Harini Madhusudan Monday, January 10, 2022
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SpaceX launched 31 Falcon 9 rockets in 2021, part of a worldwide surge in orbital launch activity last year. (credit: SpaceX)
Outer space was one of the most successful domains in 2021 amidst fluctuations in politics and industry worldwide. The world observed dynamic growth in space, specifically in the participation of non-state players, while among the government players there was significant institutionalization. There were an estimated 141 orbital launches in the year with 132 successes and up to ten missions that were related to various planetary achievements. The 2020s have seen a significant increase in investment in space, and many of the missions undertaken in the past decade have come to fruition in the past two years. These achievements individually have added a lot of value and have set the ball rolling for a Space Race 2.0. This time, it includes many more contenders than the US or the former USSR, and have expanded to include major corporations competing at an unprecedented scale. What are the highlights of space activities in 2021?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4310/1
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New year, new (and overdue) rockets
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 10, 2022
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The first SLS in the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center, awaiting a first launch some time in 2022. (credit: NASA/Frank Michaux)
In a race to see which will launch first, neither the Space Launch System nor Starship appears to be winning.
Both giant launch vehicles are set to make their first launches early this year. In the case of SLS, that launch comes after years of delays that have had ripple effects on the overall Artemis program. SpaceX’s Starship had also fallen behind the aspirational schedules of its founder, Elon Musk, who in September 2019 predicted that the company would “try to reach orbit in less than six months” (see “Starships are meant to fly”, The Space Review, September 30, 2019).
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4311/1
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Blacker than a very black thing: the HEXAGON reconnaissance satellite signals intelligence payloads
by Dwayne Day Monday, January 10, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4312a.jpg)
HEXAGON satellites had a large forward section that could carry deployable satellites as well as attached "pallets" used for collecting signals intelligence.
On April 18, 1986, a giant Titan 34D rocket roared off its launch pad at California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base and promptly blew itself to smithereens.
The rocket exploded only a few hundred feet above the ground, relatively close to the ocean, and rained pieces of rocket, propellant, and a top secret spy satellite all over the surrounding area. The satellite was a HEXAGON reconnaissance satellite, the last of its type, and its loss was a major blow to the American intelligence community, happening less than a year after another Titan launching from Vandenberg destroyed another reconnaissance satellite called CRYSTAL (originally KENNEN), leaving the United States with very limited reconnaissance capability.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4312/1
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Review: Not Yet Imagined
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 17, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4313a.jpg)
Not Yet Imagined: A Study of Hubble Space Telescope Operations
by Christopher Gainor
NASA, 2021
ebook, 452 pp., illus.
free
The James Webb Space Telescope is, in many respects, unlike any other astrophysics mission launched to date: a massive telescope that required an intricate series of deployments after launch last month to take its final shape, with months of commissioning of its mirrors and instruments still ahead, all to peer deeper into the universe than any previous observatory. Yet, it’s based on the legacy and the institutions of its predecessors, notably the Hubble Space Telescope.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4313/1
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Liability and insurance framework for manufacturers of space objects in India
by Biswanath Gupta, Lavanya Pathak, and Kunwar Surya Pratap Monday, January 17, 2022
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India is working to commercialize its launch and satellite manufacturing sectors, but those efforts require reforms in areas like liability and insurance. (credit: ISRO)
On June 24, 2020, India approved the participation of Non-Government-Private-Entities (“NGPEs”),[1] in end-to-end space activities. This shift from exclusive reliance on a state-owned agency, Indian Space Research Organization (“ISRO”), is likely to boost the economy and allow ISRO to focus on capacity building. Thus, ISRO and New Space India Limited (“NSIL”), a public undertaking, will now outsource work to NGPEs on a demand basis and an autonomous nodal agency will regulate private endeavors.[2]
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4314/1
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When SPACs are attacked
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 17, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4315a.jpg)
Virgin Orbit’s stock got a boost when it put a replica of LauncherOne on display in Times Square earlier this month. But when an actual LauncherOne boosted seven cubesats into orbit less than a week later, the company’s stock fell. (credit: Virgin Orbit)
For publicly traded space companies, it may be better to look good than to feel good.
Take Virgin Orbit, the air-launch company that became the latest in a wave of space companies to go public in the last year when it completed its merger with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) in late December. On January 7, the company took part in a ceremony at Nasdaq’s headquarters in New York, ringing the opening bell. A full-sized mockup of its LauncherOne rocket went on display in Times Square as company executives talked up the company’s prospects for the coming year. It looked good, and the market responded accordingly: the company’s stock closed up nearly 25% after dropping nearly every day since its public debut.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4315/1
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Stealing secrets from the ether: missile and satellite telemetry interception during the Cold War
by Dwayne Day Monday, January 17, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4316a.jpg)
The dishes of the STONEHOUSE site in Ethiopia. STONEHOUSE was used to intercept Soviet deep space signals, such as those emitted by lunar and planetary spacecraft. A site in Turkey was used to intercept the signals that were sent up to the spacecraft. STONEHOUSE was closed in the mid-1970s after civil unrest in Ethiopia made the location unsafe. (credit: NSA)
Atop a mountain in northeast Iran there sit several buildings and some satellite dishes. What they are doing is not clear, but the Iranians have improved the site and added equipment over the past 15 years, indicating that it is active and probably serves as a post for Iran to intercept signals from American and other satellites. That site is notable for another reason: it used to be a CIA facility known as TACKSMAN. TACKSMAN was established in the late 1950s by the CIA to monitor Soviet missile launches from their Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan, the same location where Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin launched into space. It was an important Cold War missile telemetry interception cite. CIA officials sometimes had a knack for applying winking codenames to their projects, and this facility was a classic case, because “tacksman” is a Scottish term for somebody who paid rent to his landlord, usually a clan chief. The United States certainly paid the Shah of Iran for the use of land at his hunting palace, in return for the opportunity to hunt Soviet missiles and rockets.[1]
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4316/1
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Review: Becoming Off-Worldly
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 24, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4317a.jpg)
Becoming Off-Worldly: Learning from Astronauts to Prepare for Your Spaceflight Journey
by Laura Forczyk
Astralytical, 2022
paperback, 255 pp.
ISBN 978-1-7344622-2-7
US$19.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1734462221/spaceviews
Last year finally opened the doors of the space tourism market, after years, if not decades, of anticipation. Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic flew people suborbitally, while SpaceX performed its first commercial Crew Dragon flight to orbit. Even the Russians got back into the space tourism business, flying commercial customers to the International Space Station on Soyuz spacecraft for the first time in more than a decade. More private astronauts are set to fly this year, with Blue Origin expected to conduct several crewed New Shepard flights and Axiom Space sending its first customers to the ISS on a Crew Dragon launching at the end of March.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4317/1
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Cold War Pony Express in the western Pacific
by Mike Beuster Monday, January 24, 2022
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USNS General H.H. Arnold off Adak Island, Alaska. (courtesy of the author)
Recently, The Space Review ran an article about Cold War collection of telemetry from Soviet missiles and satellites. This was done at ground stations in remote places like an Alaskan island, as well as at sea, on both big and small ships equipped with multiple antennas (see “Stealing secrets from the ether: missile and satellite telemetry interception during the Cold War,” The Space Review, January 17, 2022.) During the Cold War, I was one of the relatively few members of the United States Air Force who spent a significant amount of time at sea performing this mission. As a USAF Security Service Electronic Intelligence Operations Operator/Analyst, I earned my sea legs on the USNS General H.H. Arnold during the final months of my Air Force enlistment. The Arnold was a modified World War II-era troop transport, originally named the General R.E. Callan, that in the early 1960s had been equipped to track American ballistic missiles during tests and renamed for the founding general of the Air Force. But the ship was soon pressed into additional duties.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4318/1
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A phoenix dying in Samos ashes: The SPARTAN reconnaissance satellite program
by Dwayne Day Monday, January 24, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4319a.jpg)
The Thrust Augmented Thor Agena became the workhorse for the American reconnaissance satellite program in the early 1960s. In 1963, the National Reconnaissance Office began work on the SPARTAN project to adapt a Samos E-6 camera to use the TAT Agena and a proven CORONA reentry vehicle. (credit: Peter Hunter Collection)
One of the first American efforts to develop a reconnaissance satellite was known as Samos. Several of the Samos projects involved taking photographs using film and returning it to Earth in a reentry vehicle. One of these projects, designated E-6, was a search satellite equipped with two Eastman-Kodak cameras designed to photograph large amounts of territory at medium resolution. The satellite held promise but failed because of reentry vehicle problems. In 1963 the E-6 project was briefly revived as part of a program designated SPARTAN, the proverbial effort to make a silk’s purse out of a sow’s ear.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4319/1
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Space policy, geopolitics, and the ISS
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 24, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4320a.jpg)
The International Space Station as seen bya departing Crew Dragon spacecraft in November. The international partnership that made the station possible is facing its strongest geopolitical challenge to date as Russia threatens to invade Ukraine. (credit: NASA)
On the International Space Station, it is business as usual these days for the seven-person multinational crew. A Dragon cargo spacecraft undocked from the station Sunday, returning experiments and other equipment to Earth after a month-long stay. Last week, the station’s two Russian cosmonauts, Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov, spend seven hours outside the station on a spacewalk working on the Prichal module, added to the Russian segment of the station in November. That spacewalk was covered live on NASA TV, much like those involving NASA and other western astronauts.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4320/1
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Review: Through the Glass Ceiling to the Stars
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 31, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4321a.jpg)
Through the Glass Ceiling to the Stars: The Story of the First American Woman to Command a Space Mission
by Eileen M. Collins with Jonathan H. Ward
Arcade, 2021
hardcover, 368 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-950994-05-2
US$27.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1950994058/spaceviews
Astronauts write memoirs for many reasons, including to stop people from bugging them about writing a memoir. “I wrote this book to stop that pesky question I’ve heard so many times since 1995: ‘Where is your book?’” Eileen Collins writes near the end of her book, Through the Glass Ceiling to the Stars. Even after retiring from NASA 15 years ago, she said, she was too busy raising her children and doing other work to consider writing a book. Only a couple years ago, after being contacted by writer Jonathan Ward, did she believe it was time to tell her life story.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4321/1
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Reconsidering the efficacy of an “Incidents in [Outer] Space Agreement” for outer space security
by Michael J. Listner Monday, January 31, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4288a.jpg)
A simulation of the intercept of the Cosmos 1408 satellite by a Russian ASAT missile in November 15. (credit: COMSPOC)
This author posited in an essay here 13 years ago (see “A bilateral approach from maritime law to prevent incidents in space,” The Space Review, February 16, 2009) that five events in the years preceding 2009 brought the issue of “space weapons” and outer space security to the forefront, including the collision of the Iridium 33 and Cosmos 2251.[1] The author suggested at that time a solution to the burgeoning challenges to outer space security might be had in a bilateral agreement analogous to the Incidents on the High Seas Agreement entered into by the United States and the Soviet Union on May 5, 1972, in the form of an “Incidents in Space Agreement.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4322/1
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Building a commercial space sustainability ecosystem
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 31, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4323a.jpg)
Astroscale launched its ELSA-d mission last year to demonstrate technologies to capture and deorbit defunct satellites and other debris. (credit: Astroscale)
Few would disagree that there’s a growing problem with space debris, particularly in low Earth orbit. The sharply increasing population of active satellites, thanks to megaconstellations like SpaceX’s Starlink, along with defunct spacecraft and other objects result in far more close approaches and risks of collisions.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4323/1
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The NRO and the Space Shuttle
by Dwayne Day Monday, January 31, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4324a.jpg)
The NRO was going to be a major user of the Space Shuttle, including launches of reconnaissance satellites from Vandenberg Air Force Base. (credit: USAF)
One of the few remaining gaps in the history of the space shuttle program is how it was affected and used by the secretive National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). The NRO was involved with the shuttle in several key ways: it influenced the initial design of the shuttle in the early 1970s, it negotiated with NASA over the use of the shuttle during the 1970s and planned for the transition of its own spacecraft to the shuttle when it became operational, and then it used the shuttle during approximately a half dozen missions between 1985 and 1992.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4324/1
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Are space movie studios sci-fi fantasies?
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 7, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4325a.jpg)
Space Entertainment Enterprise said last month it is working with Axiom Space on a spherical module that could be added to Axiom’s future commercial ISS module as an entertainment studio. (credit: SEE)
Remember all the excitement a couple years ago when Hollywood media reported that Tom Cruise planned to film a movie in space? The NASA administrator at the time, Jim Bridenstine, confirmed that NASA was in talks with the famous actor for filming some kind of movie—no one was really sure what it would be about—on the International Space Station, but there’s been little overt progress since then. Cruise remains grounded for the foreseeable future: given the schedule of missions to the ISS, the soonest he could go is early 2023.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4325/1
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What to really worry about when a rocket stage crashes on the Moon
by David Rothery Monday, February 7, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4326a.jpg)
The Falcon 9 that launched the DSCOVR mission in 2015. The upper stage of that rocket will crash into the Moon next month. (credit: SpaceX)
It’s not often that the sudden appearance of a new impact crater on the Moon can be predicted, but it’s going to happen on March 4, when a derelict SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will crash into it.
The rocket launched in 2015, carrying NASA’s Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) probe into a position 1.5 million kilometers from the Earth, facing the Sun. But the expended upper stage of the rocket had insufficient speed to escape into an independent orbit around the Sun and was abandoned without an option to steer back into the Earth’s atmosphere. That would be normal practice, allowing stages to burn up on reentry, thus reducing the clutter in near-Earth space caused by dangerous junk.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4326/1
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FROG: The Film Read Out GAMBIT program
by Dwayne Day Monday, February 7, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4327a.jpg)
Launch of a GAMBIT-3 high-resolution reconnaissance satellite in 1971, around the same time that the Film Read Out GAMBIT (FROG) program was approved. FROG would have used the same optics system as the GAMBIT-3, but would have scanned the film in orbit and relayed it to the ground. (credit: Peter Hunter Collection)
In September of 2021, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) declassified thousands of pages of documents on the development of the first near-real-time electro-optical satellite, the KH-11 KENNEN. The KENNEN was probably the most famous top secret satellite ever, the result of an embarrassing incident soon after it entered service in 1976 when a CIA employee sold a document to the KGB that contained technical details of the satellite. But included in the NRO’s 2021 release was significant information on an obscure and never-flown satellite proposal. KENNEN means “to know” in old English (and German). This other satellite had a less-weighty name: FROG.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4327/1
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Defining European space ambitions
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 7, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4328a.jpg)
ESA is looking to the upcoming space summit to win political support for initiative that include a new human space exploration program. (credit: ESA)
On February 16, European space leaders will gather in Toulouse, France, for what organizers call a “space summit” to discuss potential future space initiatives. It’s a one-day meeting that reflects both Europe’s ambitions in space, but also the complexities in trying to realize those ambitions.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4328/1
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Strategic geographical points in outer space
by Matthew Jenkins Monday, November 1, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4273c.jpg)
Spaceports like Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and the Kennedy Space Center could serve as choke points for space, given the relatively small number of such facilities and their vulnerability to a wider range of threats. (credit: NASA)
Geography has long been a critical factor influencing national strategy, playing a vital role in both international politics and military planning. Captured in history’s stories are countless examples of how geography shaped everything from economics and trade to military conflict. While space can appear both abstract and intimidating, traditional studies of strategy and geography can be successfully applied to the space domain. For example, Halford Mackinder’s heartland theory and Nicholas Spykman’s rimland theory claim that controlling the heartland or rimland, respectively, is the key to controlling the world. The central tenet—states that best understand how to exploit geography create decisive advantages—applies equally well to strategic geographical points in the space domain.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4273/1
How a small, distant space telescope can solve astrophysical mysteries big ones can’t
by Michael Zemcov Monday, November 1, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4274a.jpg)
A small telescope could be incorporated on future missions to the outer solar system and beyond, such as the proposed Interstellar Probe. (credit: JHUAPL)
Dozens of space-based telescopes operate near Earth and provide incredible images of the universe. But imagine a telescope far away in the outer solar system, 10 or even 100 times farther from the Sun than Earth. The ability to look back at our solar system or peer into the darkness of the distant cosmos would make this a uniquely powerful scientific tool.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4274/1
Will SpaceX follow Tesla to a $1 trillion market capitalization?
by Sam Dinkin Monday, November 1, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4275a.jpg)
Starship could enable new business opportunities for SpaceX that could cause its valuation of $100 billion today to grow to $1 trillion or more. (credit: SpaceX)
SpaceX is readying its first test of Starship and Super Heavy, where Starship will splash down about 90 minutes after takeoff 84% of the Earth’s circumference around the world to the east near Kauai. Like launching Elon Musk’s old Tesla roadster beyond Mars orbit, this may result in further proof that Starship may soon reduce the price of access to low Earth orbit substantially more than Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy already have. With its 100-tonne capacity in reusable mode according to its user guide, or 136 tonnes “when fully optimized” and 227 tonnes in expendable mode, according to Musk in a tweet, it has the potential to increase global launch capacity by a giant leap. That would be especially true if Elon Musk devotes his possibly soon-to-be trillion-plus net worth to building extra Starships to settle Mars.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4275/1
The commercial space station race
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 1, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4276a.jpg)
Nanoracks, Voyager Space, and Lockheed Martin are cooperating on a commercial space station called Starlab that could be operational as soon as 2027. (credit: Nanoracks)
The International Astronautical Congress (IAC) returned last week after the pandemic forced last year’s event to move online. An estimated 5,000 people traveled to Dubai for the usual panel discussions and technical sessions on a wide range of space topics.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4276/1
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Review: Holdout
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 8, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4277a.jpg)
Holdout: A Novel
by Jeffrey Kluger
Dutton, 2021
hardcover, 352 pp.
ISBN 978-0-593-18469-1
US$26.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0593184696/spaceviews
NASA astronauts have, by and large, been pretty well behaved on their missions over six decades of spaceflight. Only a few cases stand out, including the disagreements between Apollo 7 commander Wally Schirra and ground controllers on their mission and the so-called “strike” by the crew of the third and final Skylab mission in late 1973 (which, a NASA historical review noted last year, didn’t actually happen.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4277/1
Witch-hunts, power, and privilege from Salem to the stars
by Layla Martin Monday, November 8, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4278a.jpg)
“Space Witch,” an NFT created by the author ©2021
And, stating that sounds absurd. Why don’t we apply that same notion of absurdity to the idea of witches here on Earth? Witches and witch-hunts are an accepted, even celebrated, phenomena below the Kármán line. Yet, in reality there are no witches here on Earth and never have been.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4278/1
For private space travelers, questions of vistas and titles
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 8, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4279a.jpg)
Private astronaut Chris Boshuizen, Emirati astronaut Hazzaa AlMansoori, and NASA astronaut Jessica Meir during a panel of astronauts at the International Astronautical Congress in Dubai October 29. (credit: J. Foust)
One of the selling points of commercial human spaceflight has been the ability to see the Earth from space, including the prospect of the Overview Effect: the shift in perspective that many astronauts have reported experiencing. But would a brief suborbital flight, spending only minutes in space, be long enough to trigger that effect in people?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4279/1
Boldly insure where no one has gone
by Christopher McKeon, Ann Satovich, McKay Simmons, Christopher O’Connor and Brad Barger Monday, November 8, 2021
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The growth of satellite constellations and other commercial space activities create new opportunities, and new risks, for insurers. (credit: OneWeb)
Space today has become big business that will only expand thanks to the excitement and focus driven by the likes of Bezos, Branson, and Musk.
In the last decade, the space sector has seen more than 50% growth in commercial space initiatives. The commercial portion of the space ecosystem saw $200 billion of investment in 1,500 companies.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4280/1
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Review: Bright Galaxies, Dark Matter, and Beyond
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 15, 2021
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Bright Galaxies, Dark Matter, and Beyond: The Life of Astronomer Vera Rubin
by Ashley Jean Yeager
MIT Press, 2021
hardcover, 256pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-262-04612-1
US$24.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0262046121/spaceviews
For several years a major new observatory has been taking shape on a mountaintop in Chile. The 8.4-meter telescope is designed to survey the entire sky visible from the site every few nights, collecting images with a 3.2-gigapixel camera. For much of its development, the observatory was known by the descriptive, if inelegant, name of Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, or LSST. Two years ago, though, an act of Congress renamed the telescope the Vera C. Rubin Observatory.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4281/1
An assessment of EU decarbonization options including astroelectricity
by Mike Snead
Monday, November 15, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4282e.jpg)
The recent COP26 climate change conference saw numerous pledges to decarbonize energy systems, but how feasible are they with current alternative energy sources? (credit: UN)
The European Union (EU), comprised of 27 countries with a total 2019 population of 446.4 million people, is ambitiously hoping to become a climate neutral continent by 2050. From an energy security perspective, decarbonization—meaning the general end of the use of fossil carbon fuels—is a wise policy given the likely end of middle-class affordable fossil carbon fuel supplies in the coming decades. (I first wrote about this in 2008 in The End of Easy Energy and What to Do About It.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4282/1
Musk versus Bezos: a real rivalry or a fake feud?
by Ben Little
Monday, November 15, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4283b.jpg)
Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are viewed as heated rivals in space, but how much of that public posturing is real? (credit: Blue Origin (left) and NASA/Bill Ingalls (right))
Flick through a news feed on your phone and you are likely to scroll across an article discussing the heated rivalries of the new space race. Forget the geopolitical struggles of a cold war. This time, it’s Tesla CEO Elon Musk versus Amazon founder Jeff Bezos: the two richest men in the world duking it out over whether SpaceX or Blue Origin, their respective companies, will be the dominant force in the new industry of private spaceflight.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4283/1
Resetting Artemis
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 15, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4162a.jpg)
NASA and SpaceX can move ahead with their HLS contract after a half year of legal delays that NASA said contributed to tis decision to push back the Artemis 3 mission to no earlier than 2025. (credit: SpaceX)
There are rarely slow weeks at SpaceX, but last week was certainly was not one of them. The company started the week bringing back a Crew Dragon spacecraft from the International Space Station with four astronauts on board who spent more than six months in space. Less than 48 hours after that Crew Dragon splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico, another Crew Dragon launched on a Falcon 9 from the Kennedy Space Center, delivering a new group of four astronauts to the station within 24 hours of liftoff. Early Saturday, a Falcon 9 lifted off from a nearby pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, placing 53 Starlink satellites in orbit. And, amid all that activity in Florida, the company performed a brief static fire of the six Raptor engines in its first orbital Starship vehicle at Boca Chica, Texas, another step towards a launch some time next year.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4284/1
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Review: The Greatest Adventure
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 22, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4285a.jpg)
The Greatest Adventure: A History of Human Space Exploration
by Colin Burgess
Reaktion Books, 2021
hardcover, 368 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-78914-460-4
US$40.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1789144604/spaceviews
There is no shortage of books about human spaceflight. Many dive deep into details about specific programs or missions, or offer biographies (or autobiographies) of those who have flown in space and others than enabled such flights. Nonetheless, there is still a place for an overall history of the subject, one that spans decades of activity to both provide an introduction to newcomers and to put such activities into a broader context.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4285/1
Risk, teamwork, and opportunity: the tale of a Soyuz abort
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 22, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4286a.jpg)
NASA’s Nick Hague (left) and Roscosmos’s Alexey Ovchinin discuss their Soyuz MS-10 abort at the International Astronautical Congress in Dubai October 27. (credit: J. Foust)
The annual International Astronautical Congress (IAC) is a sprawling event, often with dozens of parallel tracks of technical paper presentations or panel discussions. With so much going on over the course of a week and a sometimes confusion alphanumeric notation system for tracks—is this session A2.7 or A7.2?—it’s easy to miss out on some interesting presentations.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4286/1
Tracking unknown satellites
by Charles Phillips and Mykola Kulichenko Monday, November 22, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3926a.jpg)
Some satellites appear in one catalog but not in another, while the identity of others is unknown. (credit: ESA)
Tracking satellites used to be something that only large organizations could do, but today enthusiastic amateurs track many satellites. But to track many of the more interesting satellites it helps to have an observatory with professional support. This is the story of how some people are doing just that, and the contribution to safety in space that they are making.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4287/1
After another ASAT test, will governments finally take action?
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 22, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4288a.jpg)
A simulation of the intercept of the Cosmos 1408 satellite by a Russian ASAT missile in the November 15 test. (credit: COMSPOC)
On November 12, a group of companies and organizations announced an initiative to address the growing population of satellites and debris in orbit, unaware that their efforts were just days away from being undone.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4288/1
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Review: To Boldly Go
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 29, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4289a.jpg)
To Boldly Go: Leadership, Strategy, and Conflict in the 21st Century and Beyond
by Jonathan Klug and Steven Leonard (eds.)
Casemate, 2021
hardcover, 304 pp.
ISBN 978-1-63624-062-6
US$34.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1636240623/spaceviews
Science fiction’s role in shaping the Space Age has long been appreciated. Countless scientists and engineers have cited the inspiration provided by science fiction novels, movies, and TV shows to pursue careers in the industry and work on spacecraft, launch vehicles, and other technologies linked to those accounts. But besides that inspiration—and, of course, entertainment—is there anything else science fiction can offer?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4289/1
Space law hasn’t been changed since 1967, but the UN aims to update laws and keep space peaceful
by Michelle L.D. Hanlon and Greg Autry Monday, November 29, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4288a.jpg)
A simulation of the intercept of the Cosmos 1408 satellite by a Russian ASAT missile in the November 15 test. (credit: COMSPOC)
On November 15, Russia destroyed one of its own old satellites using a missile launched from the surface of the Earth, creating a massive debris cloud that threatens many space assets, including astronauts onboard the International Space Station (see “After another ASAT test, will governments finally take action?”, The Space Review, November 22, 2021). This happened only two weeks after the United Nations General Assembly First Committee formally recognized the vital role that space and space assets play in international efforts to better the human experience – and the risks military activities in space pose to those goals.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4290/1
How America wins the future
by Frank Slazer Monday, November 29, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4291a.jpg)
Vice President Kamala Harris, seen here speaking at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center November 5, will lead the administration’s first National Space Council meeting this week. (credit: NASA/Taylor Mickal)
On December 1, Vice President Kamala Harris will convene the Biden Administration’s first meeting of the National Space Council in Washington. The gathering will provide an opportunity for Harris to refine the Biden Administration’s priorities for space, especially for NASA.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4291/1
A new approach to flagship space telescopes
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 29, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4292a.jpg)
The astrophysics decadal survey recommended a scaled-down version of a space telescope concept called LUVOIR as the first in a line of flagship space observatories to be developed over the next few decades. (credit: NASA/GSFC
For much of this year, the biggest puzzle for astrophysicists had nothing to do with dark matter, dark energy, or discrepancies in the value of the Hubble Constant. Instead, the question at the top of their minds was: when was Astro2020 coming out?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4292/1
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Space at Expo 2020
by Jeff Foust Monday, December 6, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4293a.jpg)
A full-sized replica of a Falcon 9 first stage stands next to the US pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai. (credit: J. Foust)
For some people, trapped in a pandemic-induced time warp, it’s seemed like it’s been 2020 since last March. Sometimes, though, it’s still officially 2020, like the Summer Olympics in Tokyo that were still officially called the 2020 Games even though they were delayed a year. Likewise, Expo 2020 Dubai, the modern-day version of the world’s fair, retained the 2020 name even though its opening was delayed a year to the start of this October.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4293/1
A new era of planetary exploration: what we discovered on the far side of the Moon
by Iraklis Giannakis Monday, December 6, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4294a.jpg)
Data from China’s Yutu-2 rover is helping scientists understand the structure below the surface of the Moon. (credit: CLEP)
Seven months after it was launched, the US robotic rover Perseverance successfully landed on Mars on February 18. The landing was part of the Mars 2020 mission and was viewed live by millions of people worldwide, reflecting the renewed global interest in space exploration. It was soon followed by China’s Tianwen-1, an interplanetary Mars mission consisting of an orbiter, lander and rover called Zhurong.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4294/1
How to clarify human futures beyond Earth
by Joe Carroll Monday, December 6, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4295a.jpg)
Figure 1. Surface gravity clustering in our solar system
Figure 1 above shows a remarkable coincidence: clustering of surface gravity levels in our solar system. All bodies with 9% to 250% of Earth gravity cluster near Earth, Mars, or Moon gravity. Those 3 gravity levels seem like the only levels available for us to live in this solar system. I stumbled onto this only after 34 years in aerospace. [1]
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4295/1
A Biden space policy take shape
by Jeff Foust Monday, December 6, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4296a.jpg)
Vice President Kamala Harris gives opening remarks at the National Space Council meeting December 1. (credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky)
Every presidential administration, through its actions (and, sometimes, inaction) puts its stamp on space policy. The Trump Administration directed NASA to return humans to the Moon in an accelerated fashion and supported the establishment of the Space Force. The Obama Administration cancelled the Constellation program but started the commercial crew program. So, what would the Biden Administration do?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4296/1
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Review: The Apollo Murders
by Jeff Foust Monday, December 13, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4297a.jpg)
The Apollo Murders
by Chris Hadfield
Mulholland Books, 2021
hardcover, 480 pp.
ISBN 978-0-316-26453-2
US$28.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0316264539/spaceviews
It’s not uncommon for retired astronauts to take pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, and write a book. Most are memoirs about how they became astronauts and highlights of astronaut careers. Some turn their attention to other topics, like spaceflight or issues related to or inspired by it. A few even try their hand at fiction, like Buzz Aldrin, who teamed with John Barnes for the sci-fi novels Encounter with Tiber and The Return.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4297/1
Who was missing at COP26 and why it’s a problem
by Layla Martin
Monday, December 13, 2021
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4298c.jpg)
Sustainable Cities winner: Net-zero Transition Photobioreactor, by Simone Tramonte, taken in ReykjanesbĂŚr, Iceland. A photobioreactor at Algalif’s facilities in Reykjanesbaer, Iceland, produces sustainable astaxanthin using clean geothermal energy. Featured at The New York Times Climate Hub, Glasgow (2021).
I attended the United Nations Climate Conference (COP26) this November in Glasgow and observed a lack of participation from the aerospace & defense (A&D) sector. I am in possession of the COP26 attendee list, which is 1,616 pages long. After cross-checking the attendee list, I was unable to confirm any representatives from The Boeing Company, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon Technologies, Virgin Orbit, and SpaceX in attendance at the climate summit. After individually reviewing the physical materials I gathered at the conference against the corporate sponsors, I was unable to confirm one of the preceding A&D companies sponsored COP26. If corporate sponsorship was considered “too green” by the board, why were employees with titles such as “Director of Sustainability” not listed on the roster at COP26?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4298/1
Private space stations are coming. Will they be better than their predecessors?
by Justin St. P. Walsh and Alice Gorman Monday, December 13, 2021
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A Northrop Grumman concept for a commercial space station is one of three that won NASA funding for studies earlier this month. (credit: Northrop Grumman)
A new era of space stations is about to kick off. NASA has announced three commercial space station proposals for development, joining an earlier proposal by Axiom Space.
These proposals are the first attempts to create places for humans to live and work in space outside the framework of government space agencies. They’re part of what has been called “Space 4.0”, where space technology is driven by commercial opportunities. Many believe this is what it will take to get humans to Mars and beyond.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4299/1
Private human spaceflight become more regular, but not routine
by Jeff Foust Monday, December 13, 2021
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The crew capsule of Blue Origin’s New Shepard vehicle descends during the NS-19 mission December 11. (credit: Blue Origin)
In the end, the FAA decided to declare victory and go home.
On Friday, the FAA announced that it would retire its Commercial Astronaut Wings program at the end of this year. The program started in 2004 but, after awarding the first wings to SpaceShipOne pilots Mike Melvill and Brian Binnie that year, it was dormant until 2019, when five SpaceShipTwo crew members got wings for two suborbital flights of that vehicle.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4300/1
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Review: 50 Years of Solar System Exploration
by Jeff Foust Monday, December 20, 2021
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50 Years of Solar System Exploration: Historical Perspectives
by Linda Billings (ed.)
NASA, 2021
ebook, 352 pp., illus.
NASA SP-2021-4705
Free
https://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/50-years-of-solar-system-exploration.html
Some projects take a while: ask those involved with the James Webb Space Telescope, finally launching later this week (barring any last-minute issues) after many years of delays. Even books about space projects can take time to complete. NASA released earlier this month 50 Years of Solar System Exploration, a collection of essays on various topics of NASA’s planetary science program. The book stems from a conference to mark the 50th anniversary of NASA’s first mission to another planet, the Mariner 2 flyby of Venus in 1962. That conference took place in 2012, or nine years ago. Next year will mark the 60th anniversary of that mission.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4301/1
Growing the global space community: onboarding spacefaring nations
by Cody Knipfer Monday, December 20, 2021
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England’s Spaceport Cornwall, located at Cornwall Airport Newquay, plans to start hosting Virgin Orbit LauncherOne missions as soon as 2022. (credit: Spaceport Cornwall)
The space sector is truly going global. The massive influx of private investment into the commercial space sector over the past decade is no longer centered on the United States space startups are now a common fixture of the space ecosystem in regions such as Europe and Asia. Recognizing the many benefits that space capabilities provide, more and more countries across the world are actively developing robust domestic space sectors of their own: standing up dedicated space agencies, crafting forward-looking space strategies, and initiating work on a variety of new space projects.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4302/1
For JWST, the launch is only the beginning of the drama
by Jeff Foust Monday, December 20, 2021
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The Ariane 5 payload fairing is lowered into position around the James Webb Space Telescope last week ahead of its Christmas Eve launch. (credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace)
It’s finally here. A wait once measured in years and months is now best calibrated in days, a moment many in the space community wondered would ever arrive.
On Friday morning—yes, Christmas Eve—at 7:20 am EST, an Ariane 5 is scheduled to lift off from Kourou, French Guiana, carrying the most valuable payload in that rocket’s quarter-century history, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). A $10 billion mission decades in the making, and delayed by many years, will get off the ground at last.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4303/1
Dark side of the Moon: the lost Surveyor missions
by Dwayne Day Monday, December 20, 2021
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NASA Administrator James Webb showing President Lyndon Johnson how Surveyor would be used in support of Apollo landings. After the initial Surveyor missions, NASA planned on using some Surveyor missions to certify specific sites as safe for the Lunar Module to land. Although 17 Surveyor missions were initially planned, only seven ultimately flew, with five successes. (credit: NASA)
It may happen as soon as next year: an American robotic spacecraft may once again set down on the surface of the Moon, for the first time in more than 50 years. The last time that happened was in January 1968, when Surveyor 7 touched down on the outer rim of the giant crater Tycho, the site of the mysterious monolith in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. If American scientists had gotten their wish, Surveyor 7 would have been followed by more robotic missions into the 1970s, some equipped to last much longer than a single lunar day, and some possibly carrying a small rover that could extend exploration efforts beyond the initial landing site. At one point, the Surveyor program planned to send 17 missions to the Moon. But Surveyor was dramatically pared back by the mid-1960s, and although some American scientists apparently held out hope of continued robotic exploration of the Moon after Apollo, those hopes did not flourish.[1] Surveyor had started out as a scientific spacecraft, but the race to the Moon changed its goals and ultimately determined its fate.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4304/1
Note: Happy Holidays! The Space Review will not publish next week. We will return on Monday, January 3, 2022.
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Review: Shatner in Space
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 3, 2022
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Shatner in Space
Amazon Studios, 2021
46 mins, unrated
https://www.amazon.com/Shatner-in-Space/dp/B09NCH5D56/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=shatner+in+space&qid=1641199437&s=instant-video&sprefix=shatner%2Cinstant-video%2C93&sr=1-1
Last year was not only a pivotal year for commercial human spaceflight, but also for television programming regarding those missions. The flights of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo and Blue Origin’s New Shepard nine days apart in July got wall-to-wall coverage, as did the orbital Inspiration4 flight in September. The Inspiration4 flight was also the subject of a five-part Netflix documentary about the training for the flight and the mission itself (see “Review: Countdown”, The Space Review, October 4, 2021.) When former football player, now TV host, Michael Strahan flew on New Shepard last month, the flight got extensive coverage on ABC’s “Good Morning America” worth likely far more to Blue Origin than if it sold the seat to a paying customer.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4305/1
China says Elon Musk’s Starlink is “phenomenal,” but what is the real message?
by Michelle Hanlon and Josh Smith Monday, January 3, 2022
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China claimed it had to move its new space station twice last year to avoid close approaches by SpaceX Starlink satellites. (credit: CMSA)
On December 3, 2021, China used a diplomatic message known as a Note Verbale to inform the Secretary General of the United Nations of a “phenomena” they discovered in outer space that “could constitute a danger to the life or health of astronauts.” The perilous culprit was not a threatening alien spacecraft or even a hazardous field of space debris, as was created by Russia when it tested an anti-satellite weapon in November. No, this danger to life or health was Elon Musk.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4306/1
Blackbirds and black satellites: the A-12 OXCART as a satellite launcher
by Dwayne Day Monday, January 3, 2022
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The A-12 OXCART reconnaissance aircraft was capable of flying in excess of Mach 3. In 1962, Lockheed proposed using this aircraft to launch a rocket with a reconnaissance camera. The vehicle would have completed less than a single orbit around the globe before returning its exposed film for recovery and processing. (credit: CIA)
The history of American aerospace is littered with contractor proposals that never went anywhere. Sometimes these proposals were borderline crazy, often they were dubious: ideas that made little sense, met nonexistent needs, or would have required huge investments to make them work, assuming that they did not violate the laws of physics. But considering that the US Air Force provided extensive funding for ridiculous studies of nuclear-powered airplanes, you cannot blame aerospace contractors for at least trying to pitch every idea they came up with, no matter how unconventional. And if they had an aircraft that already accomplished amazing things, it wasn’t that outlandish for them to push it for other unusual missions.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4307/1
Transfer of tension
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 3, 2022
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The James Webb Space Telescope separating from the upper stage of the Ariane 5 after launch December 25. (credit: Arianespace)
Sure, the James Webb Space Telescope was launching on a rocket with an excellent track record, one that hadn’t suffered a catastrophic failure in nearly two decades. It didn’t mean people weren’t nervous when that rocket finally lifted off on Christmas morning.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4308/1
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Review: Flashes of Creation
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 10, 2022
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Flashes of Creation: George Gamow, Fred Hoyle, and the Great Big Bang Debate
by Paul Halpern
Basic Books, 2021
hardcover, 304 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-5416-7359-5
US$30
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/154167359X/spaceviews
On Saturday, controllers completed the last of the major deployments of the James Webb Space Telescope when the second of two “wings” holding segments of its primary mirror swung into place. Months of work still lie ahead to align the telescope optics and commission the instruments, but astronomers were both relieved the deployments had gone so well and confident the telescope will fulfill its ambitious science goals. “The core science of this telescope was to see the very first light in the universe: the first galaxies that formed, perhaps even the first stars,” said Heidi Hammel, vice president for science at the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, during a press conference Saturday. “That’s why it was built the way it was built.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4309/1
Steady growth beyond the skies: five trends in outer space from 2021
by Harini Madhusudan Monday, January 10, 2022
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SpaceX launched 31 Falcon 9 rockets in 2021, part of a worldwide surge in orbital launch activity last year. (credit: SpaceX)
Outer space was one of the most successful domains in 2021 amidst fluctuations in politics and industry worldwide. The world observed dynamic growth in space, specifically in the participation of non-state players, while among the government players there was significant institutionalization. There were an estimated 141 orbital launches in the year with 132 successes and up to ten missions that were related to various planetary achievements. The 2020s have seen a significant increase in investment in space, and many of the missions undertaken in the past decade have come to fruition in the past two years. These achievements individually have added a lot of value and have set the ball rolling for a Space Race 2.0. This time, it includes many more contenders than the US or the former USSR, and have expanded to include major corporations competing at an unprecedented scale. What are the highlights of space activities in 2021?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4310/1
New year, new (and overdue) rockets
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 10, 2022
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The first SLS in the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center, awaiting a first launch some time in 2022. (credit: NASA/Frank Michaux)
In a race to see which will launch first, neither the Space Launch System nor Starship appears to be winning.
Both giant launch vehicles are set to make their first launches early this year. In the case of SLS, that launch comes after years of delays that have had ripple effects on the overall Artemis program. SpaceX’s Starship had also fallen behind the aspirational schedules of its founder, Elon Musk, who in September 2019 predicted that the company would “try to reach orbit in less than six months” (see “Starships are meant to fly”, The Space Review, September 30, 2019).
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4311/1
Blacker than a very black thing: the HEXAGON reconnaissance satellite signals intelligence payloads
by Dwayne Day Monday, January 10, 2022
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HEXAGON satellites had a large forward section that could carry deployable satellites as well as attached "pallets" used for collecting signals intelligence.
On April 18, 1986, a giant Titan 34D rocket roared off its launch pad at California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base and promptly blew itself to smithereens.
The rocket exploded only a few hundred feet above the ground, relatively close to the ocean, and rained pieces of rocket, propellant, and a top secret spy satellite all over the surrounding area. The satellite was a HEXAGON reconnaissance satellite, the last of its type, and its loss was a major blow to the American intelligence community, happening less than a year after another Titan launching from Vandenberg destroyed another reconnaissance satellite called CRYSTAL (originally KENNEN), leaving the United States with very limited reconnaissance capability.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4312/1
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Review: Not Yet Imagined
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 17, 2022
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Not Yet Imagined: A Study of Hubble Space Telescope Operations
by Christopher Gainor
NASA, 2021
ebook, 452 pp., illus.
free
The James Webb Space Telescope is, in many respects, unlike any other astrophysics mission launched to date: a massive telescope that required an intricate series of deployments after launch last month to take its final shape, with months of commissioning of its mirrors and instruments still ahead, all to peer deeper into the universe than any previous observatory. Yet, it’s based on the legacy and the institutions of its predecessors, notably the Hubble Space Telescope.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4313/1
Liability and insurance framework for manufacturers of space objects in India
by Biswanath Gupta, Lavanya Pathak, and Kunwar Surya Pratap Monday, January 17, 2022
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India is working to commercialize its launch and satellite manufacturing sectors, but those efforts require reforms in areas like liability and insurance. (credit: ISRO)
On June 24, 2020, India approved the participation of Non-Government-Private-Entities (“NGPEs”),[1] in end-to-end space activities. This shift from exclusive reliance on a state-owned agency, Indian Space Research Organization (“ISRO”), is likely to boost the economy and allow ISRO to focus on capacity building. Thus, ISRO and New Space India Limited (“NSIL”), a public undertaking, will now outsource work to NGPEs on a demand basis and an autonomous nodal agency will regulate private endeavors.[2]
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4314/1
When SPACs are attacked
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 17, 2022
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Virgin Orbit’s stock got a boost when it put a replica of LauncherOne on display in Times Square earlier this month. But when an actual LauncherOne boosted seven cubesats into orbit less than a week later, the company’s stock fell. (credit: Virgin Orbit)
For publicly traded space companies, it may be better to look good than to feel good.
Take Virgin Orbit, the air-launch company that became the latest in a wave of space companies to go public in the last year when it completed its merger with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) in late December. On January 7, the company took part in a ceremony at Nasdaq’s headquarters in New York, ringing the opening bell. A full-sized mockup of its LauncherOne rocket went on display in Times Square as company executives talked up the company’s prospects for the coming year. It looked good, and the market responded accordingly: the company’s stock closed up nearly 25% after dropping nearly every day since its public debut.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4315/1
Stealing secrets from the ether: missile and satellite telemetry interception during the Cold War
by Dwayne Day Monday, January 17, 2022
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The dishes of the STONEHOUSE site in Ethiopia. STONEHOUSE was used to intercept Soviet deep space signals, such as those emitted by lunar and planetary spacecraft. A site in Turkey was used to intercept the signals that were sent up to the spacecraft. STONEHOUSE was closed in the mid-1970s after civil unrest in Ethiopia made the location unsafe. (credit: NSA)
Atop a mountain in northeast Iran there sit several buildings and some satellite dishes. What they are doing is not clear, but the Iranians have improved the site and added equipment over the past 15 years, indicating that it is active and probably serves as a post for Iran to intercept signals from American and other satellites. That site is notable for another reason: it used to be a CIA facility known as TACKSMAN. TACKSMAN was established in the late 1950s by the CIA to monitor Soviet missile launches from their Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan, the same location where Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin launched into space. It was an important Cold War missile telemetry interception cite. CIA officials sometimes had a knack for applying winking codenames to their projects, and this facility was a classic case, because “tacksman” is a Scottish term for somebody who paid rent to his landlord, usually a clan chief. The United States certainly paid the Shah of Iran for the use of land at his hunting palace, in return for the opportunity to hunt Soviet missiles and rockets.[1]
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4316/1
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Review: Becoming Off-Worldly
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 24, 2022
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Becoming Off-Worldly: Learning from Astronauts to Prepare for Your Spaceflight Journey
by Laura Forczyk
Astralytical, 2022
paperback, 255 pp.
ISBN 978-1-7344622-2-7
US$19.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1734462221/spaceviews
Last year finally opened the doors of the space tourism market, after years, if not decades, of anticipation. Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic flew people suborbitally, while SpaceX performed its first commercial Crew Dragon flight to orbit. Even the Russians got back into the space tourism business, flying commercial customers to the International Space Station on Soyuz spacecraft for the first time in more than a decade. More private astronauts are set to fly this year, with Blue Origin expected to conduct several crewed New Shepard flights and Axiom Space sending its first customers to the ISS on a Crew Dragon launching at the end of March.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4317/1
Cold War Pony Express in the western Pacific
by Mike Beuster Monday, January 24, 2022
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USNS General H.H. Arnold off Adak Island, Alaska. (courtesy of the author)
Recently, The Space Review ran an article about Cold War collection of telemetry from Soviet missiles and satellites. This was done at ground stations in remote places like an Alaskan island, as well as at sea, on both big and small ships equipped with multiple antennas (see “Stealing secrets from the ether: missile and satellite telemetry interception during the Cold War,” The Space Review, January 17, 2022.) During the Cold War, I was one of the relatively few members of the United States Air Force who spent a significant amount of time at sea performing this mission. As a USAF Security Service Electronic Intelligence Operations Operator/Analyst, I earned my sea legs on the USNS General H.H. Arnold during the final months of my Air Force enlistment. The Arnold was a modified World War II-era troop transport, originally named the General R.E. Callan, that in the early 1960s had been equipped to track American ballistic missiles during tests and renamed for the founding general of the Air Force. But the ship was soon pressed into additional duties.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4318/1
A phoenix dying in Samos ashes: The SPARTAN reconnaissance satellite program
by Dwayne Day Monday, January 24, 2022
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The Thrust Augmented Thor Agena became the workhorse for the American reconnaissance satellite program in the early 1960s. In 1963, the National Reconnaissance Office began work on the SPARTAN project to adapt a Samos E-6 camera to use the TAT Agena and a proven CORONA reentry vehicle. (credit: Peter Hunter Collection)
One of the first American efforts to develop a reconnaissance satellite was known as Samos. Several of the Samos projects involved taking photographs using film and returning it to Earth in a reentry vehicle. One of these projects, designated E-6, was a search satellite equipped with two Eastman-Kodak cameras designed to photograph large amounts of territory at medium resolution. The satellite held promise but failed because of reentry vehicle problems. In 1963 the E-6 project was briefly revived as part of a program designated SPARTAN, the proverbial effort to make a silk’s purse out of a sow’s ear.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4319/1
Space policy, geopolitics, and the ISS
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 24, 2022
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The International Space Station as seen bya departing Crew Dragon spacecraft in November. The international partnership that made the station possible is facing its strongest geopolitical challenge to date as Russia threatens to invade Ukraine. (credit: NASA)
On the International Space Station, it is business as usual these days for the seven-person multinational crew. A Dragon cargo spacecraft undocked from the station Sunday, returning experiments and other equipment to Earth after a month-long stay. Last week, the station’s two Russian cosmonauts, Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov, spend seven hours outside the station on a spacewalk working on the Prichal module, added to the Russian segment of the station in November. That spacewalk was covered live on NASA TV, much like those involving NASA and other western astronauts.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4320/1
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Review: Through the Glass Ceiling to the Stars
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 31, 2022
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Through the Glass Ceiling to the Stars: The Story of the First American Woman to Command a Space Mission
by Eileen M. Collins with Jonathan H. Ward
Arcade, 2021
hardcover, 368 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-950994-05-2
US$27.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1950994058/spaceviews
Astronauts write memoirs for many reasons, including to stop people from bugging them about writing a memoir. “I wrote this book to stop that pesky question I’ve heard so many times since 1995: ‘Where is your book?’” Eileen Collins writes near the end of her book, Through the Glass Ceiling to the Stars. Even after retiring from NASA 15 years ago, she said, she was too busy raising her children and doing other work to consider writing a book. Only a couple years ago, after being contacted by writer Jonathan Ward, did she believe it was time to tell her life story.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4321/1
Reconsidering the efficacy of an “Incidents in [Outer] Space Agreement” for outer space security
by Michael J. Listner Monday, January 31, 2022
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A simulation of the intercept of the Cosmos 1408 satellite by a Russian ASAT missile in November 15. (credit: COMSPOC)
This author posited in an essay here 13 years ago (see “A bilateral approach from maritime law to prevent incidents in space,” The Space Review, February 16, 2009) that five events in the years preceding 2009 brought the issue of “space weapons” and outer space security to the forefront, including the collision of the Iridium 33 and Cosmos 2251.[1] The author suggested at that time a solution to the burgeoning challenges to outer space security might be had in a bilateral agreement analogous to the Incidents on the High Seas Agreement entered into by the United States and the Soviet Union on May 5, 1972, in the form of an “Incidents in Space Agreement.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4322/1
Building a commercial space sustainability ecosystem
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 31, 2022
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Astroscale launched its ELSA-d mission last year to demonstrate technologies to capture and deorbit defunct satellites and other debris. (credit: Astroscale)
Few would disagree that there’s a growing problem with space debris, particularly in low Earth orbit. The sharply increasing population of active satellites, thanks to megaconstellations like SpaceX’s Starlink, along with defunct spacecraft and other objects result in far more close approaches and risks of collisions.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4323/1
The NRO and the Space Shuttle
by Dwayne Day Monday, January 31, 2022
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The NRO was going to be a major user of the Space Shuttle, including launches of reconnaissance satellites from Vandenberg Air Force Base. (credit: USAF)
One of the few remaining gaps in the history of the space shuttle program is how it was affected and used by the secretive National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). The NRO was involved with the shuttle in several key ways: it influenced the initial design of the shuttle in the early 1970s, it negotiated with NASA over the use of the shuttle during the 1970s and planned for the transition of its own spacecraft to the shuttle when it became operational, and then it used the shuttle during approximately a half dozen missions between 1985 and 1992.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4324/1
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Are space movie studios sci-fi fantasies?
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 7, 2022
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Space Entertainment Enterprise said last month it is working with Axiom Space on a spherical module that could be added to Axiom’s future commercial ISS module as an entertainment studio. (credit: SEE)
Remember all the excitement a couple years ago when Hollywood media reported that Tom Cruise planned to film a movie in space? The NASA administrator at the time, Jim Bridenstine, confirmed that NASA was in talks with the famous actor for filming some kind of movie—no one was really sure what it would be about—on the International Space Station, but there’s been little overt progress since then. Cruise remains grounded for the foreseeable future: given the schedule of missions to the ISS, the soonest he could go is early 2023.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4325/1
What to really worry about when a rocket stage crashes on the Moon
by David Rothery Monday, February 7, 2022
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The Falcon 9 that launched the DSCOVR mission in 2015. The upper stage of that rocket will crash into the Moon next month. (credit: SpaceX)
It’s not often that the sudden appearance of a new impact crater on the Moon can be predicted, but it’s going to happen on March 4, when a derelict SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will crash into it.
The rocket launched in 2015, carrying NASA’s Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) probe into a position 1.5 million kilometers from the Earth, facing the Sun. But the expended upper stage of the rocket had insufficient speed to escape into an independent orbit around the Sun and was abandoned without an option to steer back into the Earth’s atmosphere. That would be normal practice, allowing stages to burn up on reentry, thus reducing the clutter in near-Earth space caused by dangerous junk.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4326/1
FROG: The Film Read Out GAMBIT program
by Dwayne Day Monday, February 7, 2022
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Launch of a GAMBIT-3 high-resolution reconnaissance satellite in 1971, around the same time that the Film Read Out GAMBIT (FROG) program was approved. FROG would have used the same optics system as the GAMBIT-3, but would have scanned the film in orbit and relayed it to the ground. (credit: Peter Hunter Collection)
In September of 2021, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) declassified thousands of pages of documents on the development of the first near-real-time electro-optical satellite, the KH-11 KENNEN. The KENNEN was probably the most famous top secret satellite ever, the result of an embarrassing incident soon after it entered service in 1976 when a CIA employee sold a document to the KGB that contained technical details of the satellite. But included in the NRO’s 2021 release was significant information on an obscure and never-flown satellite proposal. KENNEN means “to know” in old English (and German). This other satellite had a less-weighty name: FROG.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4327/1
Defining European space ambitions
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 7, 2022
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ESA is looking to the upcoming space summit to win political support for initiative that include a new human space exploration program. (credit: ESA)
On February 16, European space leaders will gather in Toulouse, France, for what organizers call a “space summit” to discuss potential future space initiatives. It’s a one-day meeting that reflects both Europe’s ambitions in space, but also the complexities in trying to realize those ambitions.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4328/1
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Review: Picturing the Space Shuttle: The Early Years
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 14, 2022
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Picturing the Space Shuttle: The Early Years
by John Bisney and J.L. Pickering
Univ. of Florida Press, 2021
hardcover, 288 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-68340-205-3
US$45.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1683402057/spaceviews
Fifty years ago last month, President Richard Nixon gave his formal approval for the Space Shuttle program. That decision set in motion a program whose effects continue to be belt to this day, more than a decade after the final shuttle mission ended. Shuttle-era hardware is currently in the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center, this time in the form of the first Space Launch System rocket set to lift off—hopefully—some time this spring.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4329/1
America’s moral obligation to develop astroelectricity
by Mike Snead Monday, February 14, 2022
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Providing people with freedom from want can be a reason to develop astroelectricity.
Over the last two centuries, non-renewable energy-powered industrialism has created a prosperous American middle class. While not extravagantly rich, these Americans live comfortably through earnings from their talents and labors. This path to middle class prosperity through industrialization has been widely embraced worldwide and is now considered to be an inalienable human right.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4330/1
Nuclear thermal propulsion is key to keeping peace in space
by Alex Gilbert Monday, February 14, 2022
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DARPA is pursuing a nuclear thermal propulsion project called DRACO that could be ready for tests in cislunar space as soon as 2025. (credit: DARPA)
In mid-January, the Mitchell Institute released a landmark report on the “strategic mandate for nuclear propulsion” of US satellites and space-based assets to evade the growing threat from Russia and China’s anti-satellite weapons. The report’s analysis and conclusions are sound and timely, but nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) has broader applicability in space, including commercial and “soft power” uses. The US should pursue a concerted, sustained whole-of-government approach to it. Beyond achieving a first-mover advantage, this will allow the US to develop norms and solidify rules of the road espoused by the UN last fall, rules aimed at preventing war in the heavens.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4331/1
Starship status check
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 14, 2022
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A fully stacked Starship vehicle stands on the pad next to its launch tower at Boca Chica, Texas, last week. Flying in the background are two jets affiliated with Jared Isaacman, who announced February 14 he is flying a series of missions with SpaceX that includes the first crewed Starship launch. (credit: John Kraus/Polaris Program)
The series of updates by SpaceX founder Elon Musk about the development of what would become known as Starship has become something of a cultural phenomenon in the space community. When Musk spoke at the 2016 International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico, SpaceX fans lined up hours in advance and rushed in as soon as the doors opening, peppering Musk in a later Q&A session with questions and requests that were, well, unusual. Musk returned to the IAC the following year in Adelaide, Australia, where organizers learned the lessons from that event and strictly controlled access—and also didn’t include any Q&A.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4332/1
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Building Musk’s path to Mars
by John K. Strickland Monday, February 21, 2022
What have Elon and his team built and what will they be able to do with it?
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A Mars development base showing a fuel production area with direct excavation of shallow water ice and conversion to propellants. Cryogenic tanks are inside a covered depot for shade. (credit: Anna Nesterova)
This path is supported by a mixture of pure determination, massive cooperation and support, and the solid mathematics of significantly improving designs and increasing production rate of vehicles. The numbers are like bacteria multiplying in a Petri dish: in a few days the individually invisible cells become a visible colony, overwhelming some others in sheer numbers.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4333/1
Smallsat launch and the real world
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 21, 2022
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Astra’s Rocker 3.3 lifts off February 10 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The rocket failed to reach orbit when its upper stage tumbled out fo control immediately after stage separation. (credit: Astra Space/NASASpaceFlight.com)
Most conference panels are fairly anodyne affairs. Participants, even competitors in the same field, stick to their talking points and, at most, only politely disagree with one another. It often requires prodding from the panel’s moderator, or audience questions, to bring differences among the panelists into sharper focus.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4334/1
Front line on the TELINT Cold War
The Tell Two missions collecting rocket and satellite telemetry during the 1960s
by Dwayne Day Monday, February 21, 2022
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An RB-47E(TT) Tell Two signals intelligence aircraft during the 1960s. The large antennas on either side of the fuselage were used to intercept Soviet missile and satellite telemetry. They were later replaced with smaller antennas. (credit: Robert S. Hopkins III)
In March 1965, Alexei Leonov made the first spacewalk, exiting his Voskhod spacecraft for twelve minutes to achieve a historic first. Far below Voskhod 2, a specially equipped United States Air Force B-47 aircraft was gathering signals from his craft, using its antennas and electronic equipment to collect and record the telemetry the spacecraft was sending to a Soviet ground station. The aircraft was part of the highly secretive “Tell Two” program. Now, due to the diligent work of a retired military pilot and historian, Tell Two is becoming less mysterious.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4335/1
Arms control in outer space won’t work
by Brian Britt Monday, February 21, 2022
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A simulation of the intercept of the Cosmos 1408 satellite by a Russian ASAT missile in a November 15, 2021 test. (credit: COMSPOC)
It was early evening in Washington on January 11, 2007, when an SC-19 ballistic missile took off from the Sichuan province in the People's Republic of China.[1] The missile climbed 860 kilometers before releasing a 600-kilogram payload that slammed into the defunct Chinese FengYun 1C weather satellite.[2] The test generated an estimated 35,000 pieces of orbital debris spanning 3,540 vertical kilometers, the largest debris-creating event to date that would threaten private, civil, and international assets in space, including the International Space Station.[3]
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4336/1
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Review: Discovering Mars
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 28, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4337a.jpg)
Discovering Mars: A History of Observation and Exploration of the Red Planet
by William Sheehan and Jim Bell
Univ. of Arizona Press, 2021
hardcover, 744 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-8165-3210-0
US$30.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0816532109/spaceviews
Earlier this month, NASA marked the first anniversary of the successful landing of the Perseverance rover on the surface of Mars. Since that landing the rover has explored part of the floor of Jezero Crater, collecting several samples intended to be returned to Earth on future missions, and is heading towards the remains of a river delta. The Ingenuity helicopter, a technology demonstration that NASA planned to fly up to five times last spring just completed its 20th flight, having become an aerial scout for the rover.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4337/1
The Starlink-China Space Station near-collision: Questions, solutions, and an opportunity
by Chen Lan Monday, February 28, 2022
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China claimed it had to move its new space station twice last year to avoid close approaches by SpaceX Starlink satellites. (credit: CMSA)
Last December, China filed a note verbale to the UN claiming that two SpaceX Starlink satellites made close encounters to the China Space Station (CSS) and the latter had to perform emergency maneuvers to avoid a catastrophic collision. Now, the US side has finally responded with another note verbale to the UN, as reported by SpaceNews on February 15.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4338/1
Prophets of the High Frontier
by Dwayne Day Monday, February 28, 2022
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Advocates have promoted space-based solar power for half a century, with little progress. (credit: NASA)
How long is long enough to wait for a vision to come true?
Gerard K. O’Neill, although no longer in the wider public consciousness, was at one time the most well-known advocate for a human future in space. In the 1970s, O’Neill’s vision of giant cities in space was briefly in the zeitgeist. He made television appearances and gave talks and even spawned a pro-space movement with the formation of the L-5 Society. O’Neill’s vision was tied to the concept of space-based solar power, an idea that was even evaluated by NASA and big aerospace companies around the same time. And yet here we are, half a century later, and these visions of cities in space and giant space solar power stations have not become reality. Does that mean they are false, or just premature? Is there even a way to distinguish false prophecies and those that simply have not come true?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4339/1
What would FDR do?
by Robert G. Oler Monday, February 28, 2022
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The time may have come to reconsider the International Space Station partnership. (credit: NASA)
Imagine it’s the start of World War II in Europe and the US and The Third Reich have a mutual science base. We are not in active combat, but the Third Reich is gobbling up Poland. Would then President Franklin D. Roosevelt have kept that association?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4340/1
The ending of an era in international space cooperation
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 28, 2022
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A Soyuz rocket on the launch pad in French Guiana. Russia said February 26 it is suspending cooperation on future Soyuz launches there in response to European sanctions, but the facility’s long-term future was already uncertain. (credit: ESA - S. Corvaja)
Three decades ago, the collapse of the Soviet Union promised to usher in a new era of cooperation between the West, particularly the United States, and Russia. With the Cold War in the rearview mirror, the combination of American resources and Russian expertise promised new opportunities in space, from the International Space Station to rockets powered by Russian engines.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4341/1
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Review: Impact
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 7, 2022
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Impact: How Rocks from Space Led to Life, Culture, and Donkey Kong
by Greg Brennecka
William Morrow, 2022
hardcover, 304 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-06-307892-5
US$28.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0063078929/spaceviews
The threat posed by asteroids to the Earth has gotten plenty of attention in recent years, possibly to the point of being overhyped: harmless flybys of asteroids a few million kilometers from the Earth now become fodder for clickbait articles in tabloids. Yet space rocks—tiny ones—hit the Earth every day. Rather that pose a threat to humanity, these meteorites provide a wealth of knowledge about the solar system to scientists, and occasionally wealth to the meteorite hunters who find, buy, and sell them.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4342/1
Guarding Gateway’s goodness: protecting a steppingstone’s genuine utility
by Bob Mahoney Monday, March 7, 2022
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NASA’s Gateway Architecture as originally envisioned. (credit: NASA)
Whisper the word “Gateway” to any random spaceflight fan passing on the sidewalk and you’ll likely receive one of three reactions: unbridled enthusiasm, abject disdain, or disengaged disinterest. (At least all can quietly rejoice at the name’s vernacular pruning.)[1]
Putting aside (for now) those not interested, count me among the enthusiastic, despite my harboring a profoundly serious concern.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4343/1
A FAB approach to Mars exploration
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 7, 2022
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A quarter-century after Mars Pathfinder demonstrated the potential for low-cost Mars landers, scientists and engineers are proposing a new line of such missions that can use new technologies and new commercial partnerships. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
This week, many planetary scientists are focused on the annual Lunar and Planetary Sciences Conference (LPSC), a hybrid event taking place both in the Houston suburbs and online to discuss the latest findings across the solar system. Lurking in the background, though, is perhaps a bigger event: the upcoming release of the planetary science decadal survey, expected to be public by the middle of April. (Original plans projected the release of the survey at LPSC, but not even reports are immune to schedule slips, especially during a pandemic.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4344/1
The moral equivalent of war: a new metaphor for space resource utilization
by Jack Reid Monday, March 7, 2022
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For all the discussion about the importance of using space resources, there’s been little action. Is a better argument needed? (credit: ESA)
While science fiction and the popular consciousness about space often focus on human exploration and settlement of outer space (see Elon Musk’s goal of settling Mars), the exploitation and utilization of space resources in order to benefit those living on Earth are hardly lacking boosters at the moment.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4345/1
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1/ III 2022
Review: Imaging Our Solar System
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 14, 2022
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Imaging Our Solar System: The Evolution of Space Mission Cameras and Instruments
by Bernard Henin
Springer, 2022
paperback, 293 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-3-030-90498-2
US$37.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/3030904989/spaceviews
It is easy to take for granted the torrent of images that come from planetary probes. Long-lived orbiters and rovers can generate huge volumes of images over the years to the delight of scientists as well as hobbyists, who are encouraged to do their own analysis and remixing of images from those publicly funded missions.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4346/1
Red Heaven: China sets its sights on the stars (part 1)
by Jason Szeftel Monday, March 14, 2022
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SpaceX’s development of Starship may render many other launch vehicles obsolete, and has led China to revamp its own approach to launch vehicle development and exploration. (credit: John Kraus/Polaris Program)
At a conference in Hong Kong on July 24, 2021, China revealed an overhauled design for its most important future rocket: the Long March 9. Earlier images of this upcoming super-heavy-lift rocket showed a launch vehicle with a few engines at the bottom and four solid rockets strapped to its side. But Chinese rocket scientists were now showing off a very different rocket. The new Long March 9 design envisioned one larger, taller rocket with a single cluster of 16 engines at the base. With little fanfare China had just unveiled a complete transformation of its most powerful and advanced rocket, the country's key to the heavens and to competing with the United States.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4347/1
Regulatory issues for a growing launch industry
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 14, 2022
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A SpaceX Falcon 9 lifts off on one of 13 FAA-licensed commercial launches so far this year as of March 14. (credit: SpaceX)
Nearly every presentation about the commercial launch industry today mentions the just how much more active it is than a decade ago. In 2012, the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation, or AST, licensed seven commercial launches. At the time of publication of this article, there had been 13 FAA-licensed commercial launches so far this calendar year, mostly by SpaceX but also including Astra, Rocket Lab, and Virgin Orbit.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4348/1
Missions to Mercury: From Mariner to MESSENGER
by Dwayne Day Monday, March 14, 2022
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If all goes to plan, the European Space Agency’s BepiColombo spacecraft will arrive at Mercury in December 2025. BepiColombo consists of two spacecraft that will circle the planet, one focusing on Mercury’s surface and the other, supplied by Japan, studying its magnetosphere. The spacecraft is named after Giuseppe “Bepi” Colombo, an Italian scientist, mathematician, and engineer at the University of Padua in Italy who calculated how to get a spacecraft into a resonant orbit with Mercury enabling multiple flybys. His technique was used for the successful NASA Mariner 10 mission that flew past Mercury in 1975.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4349/1
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2/ III 2022
Reviews: Space films at SXSW
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 21, 2022
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SXSW attendees line up to attend a screening of Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood in Austin, Texas, March 13. (credit: J. Foust)
Space has had a growing presence in recent years at South by Southwest (SXSW), the annual film, music, and technology festival in Austin, Texas. That presence has largely been limited to the technology conference sessions, with panels on topics from space commercialization to the search for life beyond Earth. This year’s SXSW earlier this month—the first in-person festival since 2019 because of the pandemic—included a two-day “Space Rush Summit” with two tracks of panel discussions, as well as some other scattered space-related events.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4350/1
Financing space-derived data as commodities
by Lucien and Paul Rapp Monday, March 21, 2022
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The growth of commercial satellite systems raises questions about how to finance them, and what to do with the assets when a company defaults. (credit: OneWeb)
The once-exclusive place—still dominant today—of states in civil and military space activities has for a long time concealed the difficulties of their financing. The opening to competition of a real market of space activities, whose economic operators are no longer only public or para-public entities, highlights them today.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4351/1
Red Heaven: China sets its sights on the stars (part 2)
by Jason Szeftel
Monday, March 21, 2022 Part 1 was published last week.
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China has fostered the development of dozens of space launch startups like LandSpace. (credit: LandSpace)
Spaceflight China: Imitation is the highest form of praise
Five years after NASA issued the first commercial spaceflight contracts, China decided to cultivate its own private rocket industry. In 2014, it designated space a domain for civil innovation, prompting companies across the country to get to work on new engines, rockets, and other systems for its space sector. By the end of 2020 China had more than 160 commercial space companies, at least 25 of which were actively developing new launch vehicles. Only the United States has seen anything close to this level of activity.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4352/1
SLS crawls towards its first launch
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 21, 2022
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The SLS emerges from the fog March 18 at Launch Complex 39B, hours after completing its rollout to the pad for a countdown test. (credit: J. Foust)
For the Space Launch System, even the photo ops are delayed.
NASA advised media to show up at the Kennedy Space Center press site between 6:45 and 7 am Friday morning for an opportunity to see the first SLS on the pad at Launch Complex 39B. But when journalists showed up, it was clear that was not going to happen on schedule because it was not clear: fog had rolled in, making it impossible to see the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) across the street, let alone the launch pad several kilometers away.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4353/1
3/ III 2022
Launch failures: fairings
by Wayne Eleazer Monday, March 28, 2022
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One of the most infamous payload fairing failures involved the docking target for the Gemini 9 mission, creating the “Angry Alligator.” (credit: NASA)
An Astra launch failed on February 10 when the payload fairing failed to separate, preventing proper deployment of the second stage. Fairing-related mission failures don’t occur very often, although they are unusual in that they are among the few that have repeated the exact same failure mode with the same type of vehicle.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4354/1
Red Heaven: China sets its sights on the stars (part 3)
by Jason Szeftel Monday, March 28, 2022
Part 2 was published last week.
Starship: The state of the art
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An illustration of what a proposed China-led international lunar research station might one day look like. (credit: CNSA)
As it stands China is two generations behind SpaceX, and therefore the United States, in terms of launch technology. To catch up, China is trying to emulate American advances in both its old state organizations as well as in its new private, or at least quasi-private, companies. On the state side, it plans to catch up with the Falcon 9 by making its new Long March 8 rocket reusable. The aspirational date for this achievement is 2025. This is an optimistic but not entirely unreasonable timeline. Rocket landings already feel routine and by 2025 the reusable Falcon 9 will be a decade old. That is more than enough time to copy and imitate its systems.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4355/1
The launch market squeeze
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 28, 2022
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A Soyuz rocket launches a batch of OneWeb satellites in late 2021. With Soyuz no longer available, OneWeb has had to turn to a competitor, SpaceX, to launch its satellites. (credit: Arianespace)
If politics makes strange bedfellows, then geopolitics makes strange business relationships, as OneWeb and SpaceX revealed last week.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4356/1
Dark clouds: The secret meteorological satellite program (part 1)
by Dwayne Day Monday, March 28, 2022
The RAND Corporation and cloud reconnaissance
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This Lockheed illustration from 1959 shows the possible uses of a photographic satellite. Although the reproduction is poor, it illustrates that in addition to military reconnaissance, such a satellite could also be used for monitoring crops and forests, and weather prediction. (credit: Lockheed via the NRO)
Amrom Katz was a short, energetic, outspoken physicist who worked for the RAND Corporation in the 1950s. RAND was located in the Los Angeles oceanside suburb of Santa Monica, California. It was a “think tank” where engineers, scientists, and policy experts studied advanced technologies and ideas for the US Air Force. At lunch, RAND’s thinkers would sip margaritas at a beachside bar and then return to their offices to think about nuclear war, earning the moniker “wizards of Armageddon.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4357/1
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1/ IV 2022
Review: Voyager: Photographs from Humanity’s Greatest Journey
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 4, 2022
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Voyager: Photographs from Humanity’s Greatest Journey
by Jens Bezemer, Joel Meter, Simon Phillipson, Delano Steenmeijer, and Ted Stryk
teNeues, 2020
hardcover, 304 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-3-96171-291-5
US$65.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/3961712913/spaceviews
The new documentary It’s Quieter in the Twilight examines the Voyager missions as they approach their end, tended to by a small group of employees, some of whom have been working on the spacecraft for decades. At this point, the mission is almost forgotten, and when most of the documentary was filmed in 2019 and 2020, the Voyager team was exiled to an office building off the campus from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (see “Reviews: Space films at SXSW”, The Space Review, March 21, 2022).
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4358/1
Effective altruism, corporate responsibility, and space sustainability
by Layla Martin Monday, April 4, 2022
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Effective space sustainability requires thinking differently from the approaches that led to the climate crisis. (credit: ESA/Spacejunk3D, LLC)
The maxim, or general rule, is that we pick and choose which ethical rules to follow. Culture, religion, law, and the desire to stay out of prison, inform our preferences. While I may want to get into trouble at an epic party in Phuket, steering clear of the Bangkok Hilton overrides my fleeting preference to test the effectiveness of Thai law enforcement.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4359/1
Keep space dialogue going, astronautics federation says
by Philippe Cosyn Monday, April 4, 2022
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IAF President Pascale Ehrenfreund said that despite the “current tragedy unfolding in Ukraine” she hopes the organization could continue to be a forum for space cooperation. (credit: IAF)
At the 70th anniversary celebration of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF), held in Paris March 26, leaders of the world’s foremost space organizations called for a “continued dialogue” among the world’s space actors in the wake of the “tragic events unfolding in Ukraine.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4360/1
Space travelers by any other name
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 4, 2022
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The Ax-1 crew of (from left) Mark Pathy, Larry Connor, Michael López-Alegría, and Eytan Stibbe. Connor says he consideres his crew private astronauts, a distinction separate from suborbital space tourists. (credit: Axiom Space)
The space industry has struggled to come up with a common term for people who fly to space on commercial vehicles who are not part of the flight crew. There’s space tourists, private astronauts, and spaceflight participants, the last option having the advantage of being the term used in federal law and regulations (but the disadvantage that is sounds, well, bureaucratic.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4361/1
Dark clouds: The secret meteorological satellite program (part 2)
The Radio Corporation of America and the Army’s reconnaissance satellite
by Dwayne Day Monday, April 4, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4362a.jpg)
The Tiros weather satellite evolved from a rejected proposal by the Radio Corporation of America to the Air Force for a reconnaissance satellite. RCA pitched the idea to the Army, which was not allowed to develop a reconnaissance satellite and instead decided to develop a weather satellite. Tiros was transferred to NASA in 1958 and launched in 1960. (credit: NASA)
In late 1955, following the RAND Corporation’s Feed Back report, the US Air Force conducted a competition to select a contractor to build a television-based reconnaissance satellite. Three companies submitted proposals: Lockheed Aircraft, the Radio Corporation of America, and the Glenn L. Martin Company. Air Force officials considered the Martin proposal to be poor. The Air Force officers evaluating the other two proposals considered both of them to be impressive. Indeed, some felt that technically, the RCA proposal was the better of the two. But according to one participant, RCA’s presentation of its proposal was a disaster: the person who delivered it was unprepared and nobody from RCA’s senior management was there to state that the company valued such a relatively small contract.[1]
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4362/1
2/ IV 2022
Review: NASA Missions to Mars
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 11, 2022
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NASA Missions to Mars: A Visual History of Our Quest to Explore the Red Planet
by Piers Bizony
Motorbooks, 2022
hardcover, 196 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-7603-7314-9
US$50
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0760373140/spaceviews
As NASA publicizes milestones in its Artemis program to return humans to the Moon—the rollout and testing of the Space Launch System rocket ahead of its first launch, an upcoming competition to select a second company to develop a crewed lunar lander—agency officials emphasize their long-term goal remains on Mars.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4363/1
Review: Return to Space
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 11, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4364a.jpg)
Return to Space
directed by Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi
128 minutes, rated TV-MA
streaming on Netflix
https://www.netflix.com/pl/title/81111324
Last Friday, a Falcon 9 lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center and placed into orbit a Crew Dragon spacecraft called Endeavour. The spacecraft docked to the International Space Station less than 24 hours later, delivering four private astronauts on the Ax-1 mission for Axiom Space. Shortly after Endeavour returns from its ten-day mission, another Crew Dragon, named Freedom, will launch on the Crew-4 mission for NASA, delivering American and European astronauts for a five-month stay.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4364/1
What is China doing at the lunar distant retrograde orbit?
by Kristin Burke Monday, April 11, 2022
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An illustration of the Chang’e-5 orbiter and sample return capsule hearing back to Earth from the Moon in 2020. The orbiter is now in a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon, perhaps to prepare for the next phase of China’s lunar exploration plans. (credit: CNSA)
China’s Chang’e 5 (CE-5) orbiter, which as of January 2022 has likely moved to the lunar distant retrograde orbit (DRO), is probably conducting enabling telemetry, tracking and control and Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) tests to support Chinese preparations for the next stage of China’s Lunar Exploration Program (CLEP), according to Chinese government information and Chinese academics.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4365/1
Red and black: The secretive National Reconnaissance Office finally faces the budgeteers
by Dwayne Day Monday, April 11, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4366a.jpg)
Jimmie Hill, front center, was the Deputy Director of the National Reconnaissance Office from 1982 to 1996. A few months before assuming that position, he gave a classified and very candid interview where he discussed his relationship with the Office of Management and Budget and increased oversight of the NRO. Here Hill is accompanied by members of the NRO Staff, which oversaw the secret organization's operations in the Pentagon. Hill was not a fan of the OMB. (credit: NRO)
When it was created in the early 1960s, the National Reconnaissance Office was so secretive that even its name was classified. There was no nameplate on its door in the Pentagon, and those who worked for it would never mention the acronym “NRO” outside of secure rooms that had been swept for eavesdropping devices.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4366/1
A megaconstellation megadeal
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 11, 2022
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The Amazon deal includes 38 launches of Vulcan Centaur rockets, more than all the previous orders for the vehicle combined. (credit: ULA)
Megaconstellations need mega rockets. Or, rather, mega amounts of rockets.
Last week, Amazon outlined its launch plans for a broadband constellation called Project Kuiper. The company received an FCC license in July 2020 for the system, which will place 3,236 satellites into low Earth orbit.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4367/1
3/ IV 2022
Review: Never Panic Early
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 18, 2022
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Never Panic Early: An Apollo 13 Astronaut’s Journey
by Fred Haise with Bill Moore
Smithsonian Books, 2022
hardcover, 216pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-58834-713-8
US$29.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1588347133/spaceviews
Fifty-two years ago yesterday, Apollo 13 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, safely returning three astronauts after an explosion on their way to the Moon crippled their spacecraft and put their lives in jeopardy. The story of the mission has been told many times, as well as the life of its commander, Jim Lovell. The mission’s command module pilot, Jack Swigert, died of cancer in 1982 before he could tell his life story. One would think surely that the mission’s lunar module pilot, Fred Haise, alive and well today at age 88, would have written about his life, like so many other astronauts.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4368/1
How solar storms can destroy satellites with ease
by Piyush Mehta Monday, April 18, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4369a.jpg)
A Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) image of the Sun showing an active region near the limb. (credit: NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams)
On February 4, SpaceX launched 49 Starlink satellites, most of which burned up in the atmosphere days later. The cause of this more than US$50 million failure was a geomagnetic storm caused by the Sun.
Geomagnetic storms occur when space weather hits and interacts with the Earth. Space weather is caused by fluctuations within the Sun that blast electrons, protons, and other particles into space. I study the hazards space weather poses to space-based assets and how scientists can improve the models and prediction of space weather to protect against these hazards.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4369/1
Investing in these innovations will get us to Mars and beyond
by Dylan Taylor Monday, April 18, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4370a.jpg)
A NASA experiment called LOFTID will test an inflatable heat shield, a technology that could enable heat shields much larger than what can fit inside rockets today. (credit: NASA)
Last year was historic for Mars exploration. While humans have been exploring the planet in some capacity for 50 years, 2021 marked several firsts in space exploration, including the first time probes from three countries arrived at the Red Planet.
Progress is partially due to the convergence of many exciting trends that are helping to advance space innovations within the sector. Startups have flocked to the space industry to bring sophisticated technologies like quantum computing, phased array radar, artificial intelligence, cubesats, and other services. Along with NASA, the NewSpace sector is working to transform innovations that can help us reach and settle Mars.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4370/1
A second chance at the Moon
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 18, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4089a.jpg)
In the original HLS competition, a “National Team” led by Blue Origin proposed a lunar lander. The new competition may feature both a different design for the lander and different partners for Blue Origin. (credit: Blue Origin)
Companies rarely get second chances at competitions they lose. Unless a contract is overturned by a protest or other legal action, bidders who lose out on government contracts have to lick their wounds and try again on a future program.
But for the companies that lost out in the Human Landing System (HLS) competition to SpaceX last year, an effort that prompted both unsuccessful protests with the Government Accountability Office and a lawsuit rejected in federal court, there will be a second chance to offer landers capable of taking astronauts to and from the lunar surface. That second chance, though, doesn’t mean a repeat of the same teams offering the same landers.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4371/1
4/ IV 2022
Review: The End of Astronauts
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 25, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4372a.jpg)
The End of Astronauts: Why Robots Are the Future of Exploration
by Donald Goldsmith and Martin Rees
Belknap Press, 2022
hardcover, 192 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-674-25772-6
US$25.95
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4372/1
Last week, a committee of the National Academies released the decadal survey for planetary science and astrobiology, the once-per-decade report outlining priorities for planetary science missions for NASA to pursue. The latest report recommended NASA continue its Mars Sample Return campaign and also two new flagship missions, one to the planet Uranus and another to orbit and land on Saturn’s moon Enceladus, which has a subsurface ocean that is potentially habitable.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4372/1
Space blocs: The future of international cooperation in space is splitting along lines of power on Earth
by Svetla Ben-Itzhak Monday, April 25, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4373a.jpg)
Representatives of the governments of Singapore and the United States, including NASA deputy administrator Pam Melroy (second from right) at a ceremony March 28 where Singapore signed the Artemis Accords, becoming the 18th nation to join. (credit: Ministry of Communications and Information, Singapore)
Even during times of conflict on the ground, space has historically been an arena of collaboration among nations. But trends in the past decade suggest that the nature of cooperation in space is shifting, and fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has highlighted these changes.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4373/1
A small ban of ASATs, a giant leap for space security?
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 25, 2022
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Vice President Kamala Harris announced the ban on ASAT testing in an April 18 speech at Vandenberg Space Force Base. (credit: US Space Force photo by Michael Peterson)
When the office of Vice President Kamala Harris announced earlier this month she would visit Vandenberg Space Force Base in California and given remarks there, it appeared at first to be a routine visit, an opportunity to visit the base while in her home state. It might also be a reminder of her role as chair of the National Space Council, which has kept a low profile in the current administration since a public meeting in early December (see “A Biden space policy takes shape”, The Space Review, December 6, 2021).
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4374/1
War at sea, seen from above
by Dwayne Day Monday, April 25, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4375a.jpg)
Photo of the guided missile cruiser Moskva burning, taken by a sailor on one of the vessels that went to its assistance. The cruiser was struck amidships by two Neptune missiles and was still burning the next day. A fire boat is behind the Moskva spraying water. The ship's life rafts are missing.
Less than two weeks ago, the world was stunned when a Russian warship, the guided missile cruiser Moskva, was struck by two Ukrainian missiles and sent to the bottom of the Black Sea—the largest warship sunk in combat since World War II. For some, it evoked memories of an event almost exactly 40 years earlier, when an Argentine cruiser was sunk by a British submarine. That conflict had a space component that is only slowly—very slowly—being revealed. It poses an interesting contrast to how much has changed when it comes to space assets and war at sea.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4375/1
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Maj rozpoczynają 4 artykuły powiązane z załogowymi lotami kosmicznymi: od przeszłości ku przeszłości. Pierwsza część opracowania poświęcona jest w dużej mierze japońskiej polityce lotów załogowych. Mimo rosnących wydatków JAXA na załogową astronautykę, tak jak w przypadku innych agencji kosmicznych, możliwości aktywności na wielu polach są ograniczone przez znaczące wydatki na ISS.
1/ V 2022
Review: The Sky Above
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 2, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4376a.jpg)
The Sky Above: An Astronaut’s Memoir of Adventure, Persistence, and Faith
by John Casper
Purdue University Press, 2022
hardcover, 306 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-61249-716-7
US$27.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1612497160/spaceviews
In retrospect, the 1990s were something of a golden age for the shuttle program. At the beginning of the decade, the shuttle was getting back up to speed after recovering from the Challenger accident. By the end of the decade, it was flying regularly, having demonstrated the key capabilities needed for assembling the International Space Station, along the way doing research missions while also deploying and servicing the Hubble Space Telescope.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4376/1
Raising the flag on the Moon and Mars: future human space exploration in Japan (part 1)
by Makusu Tsuizaki Monday, May 2, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4377a.jpg)
A Japanese HTV cargo spacecraft departing the International Space Station, an example of the capabilities Japan has developed that could support future human exploration programs. (credit: NASA)
Japan has progressed in the development and utilization of space over the past 50 years. During this time, space activity has grown from academic research and technology interests to civil and industrial interests. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has been the single national organization for aerospace and space research, technology development, and performing launch of satellites, resulting from the 2003 merger of three previously independent organizations.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4377/1
Act now on contingencies for Russian non-participation in ISS
by Srikanth Raviprasad and Steve Hoeser Monday, May 2, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4378a.jpg)
NASA needs to develop and share plans to keep the ISS operational even if Russia exits the partnership. (credit: NASA)
The International Space Station (ISS) has for decades been a pinnacle of human scientific, technological and political achievement. It remains the sole example of how an international team can productively and successfully cooperate over the course of decades in space.[1] Yet recent demands from Russia threaten the safety of ISS, people on Earth, and the cooperative mission objectives, including the transition to commercial space facility operations.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4378/1
Lessons from a new era of destinations
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 2, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4379a.jpg)
A Crww Dragon spacecraft splashes down off the Florida coast April 25 to end the Ax-1 private astronaut mission to the ISS. (credit: SpaceX)
A delayed flight home is usually a bad thing—unless, perhaps, you’re in space.
The four private astronauts on Axiom Space’s Ax-1 mission arrived at the International Space Station April 9 on a Crew Dragon spacecraft for what was supposed to be an eight-day stay. Instead, the four remained on the station for more than 15 days before departing late April 24, safely splashing down the next day off the coast from Jacksonville, Florida.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4379/1
2/ V 2022
Review: The Universe: A Biography
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 9, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4380a.jpg)
The Universe: A Biography
by Paul Murdin
Thames & Hudson, 2022
hardcover, 304 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-500-02464-5
US$34.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0500024642/spaceviews
There’s no shortage of biographies in the space field. There are biographies of astronauts and cosmonauts, of engineers and administrators, and of scientists and businesspeople. But none, by definition, can be as expansive as a biography as the universe.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4380/1
Raising the flag on the Moon and Mars: future human space exploration in Japan (part 2)
by Makusu Tsuizaki Monday, May 9, 2022 [Editor’s note: Part 1 was published last week.]
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4381a.jpg)
Japan’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) is one of several Moon and Mars exploration initiatives underway by the country. (credit: JAXA)
International cooperation
1) Lessons learned from ISS
In terms of human space exploration, five states have coordinated ISS development and utilization for about 30 years. These states have managed sharing costs based on an international cooperation agreement. It has been suggested that such an “international cooperation” scheme also functioned as motivation for gaining and keeping domestic budgets in some cooperating countries.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4381/1
Anti-satellite weapons: the US has sworn off tests, and Australia should follow suit
by Cassandra Steer Monday, May 9, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4382a.jpg)
Australia’s military recently established a Space Command, which has led to media speculation about its plans in space. (credit: Royal Australian Air Force)
When United States Vice President Kamala Harris was at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California last month, she said the US would not conduct tests of destructive, direct-ascent anti-satellite missiles (see “A small ban of ASATs, a giant leap for space security?”, The Space Review, April 25, 2022).
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4382/1
The future of Mars science missions
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 9, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4383a.jpg)
A concept of a sample retrieval lander that would take samples cached by the Perseverance rover and launch them into orbit for return to Earth. (credit: NASA)
The first, and inevitable, reaction to the planetary science decadal survey were jokes, or dread about the inevitable jokes. Not only was the decadal recommending that NASA send a mission to Uranus, it was endorsing a Uranus orbiter and probe.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4383/1
3/ V 2022
Kosmos 482: questions around a failed Venera lander from 1972 still orbiting Earth (but not for long)
by Marco Langbroek Monday, May 16, 2022
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A museum replica of the Venera 8 descent craft that is in a decaying orbit around the Earth. (credit: NASA)
Fifty years ago, on March 31, 1972, just days after the launch of Venera 8, the Soviet Union made an attempt to launch yet another Venera probe. While it was meant to fly to Venus, something went wrong and it got stuck in Earth orbit instead. It subsequently was post-designated Kosmos 482 by the Soviets. Half a century later, one object associated to this launch is still on orbit, but it won’t be for long anymore. This object is 1972-023E, the Kosmos 482 Descent Craft, ostensibly the landing module of the Venera in its approximately one-meter protective shell.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4384/1
All the myriad worlds
by Dwayne Day Monday, May 16, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4385a.jpg)
Triton’s surface is relatively smooth, with few craters. This indicates that it has been resurfaced and is geologically young. Before Voyager 2 flew past it in the late 1980s, conventional models of the solar system predicted that these outer moons should have been geologically uninteresting rocks. Not worlds with wind, ice, geysers, and possibly subsurface oceans. (credit: NASA)
The other day I was having dinner with a prominent planetary scientist when I mentioned that I had a list of my five favorite moons. You do? He asked, surprised. Sure. Don’t you? He studies Venus, and Venus, like Vulcan, has no moon, so he didn’t have his own list of favorite moons but asked me to name mine.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4385/1
“Times are changing”: NASA looks to move beyond the traditional contract
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 16, 2022
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NASA administrator Bill Nelson told Senate appropriators May 3 that traditional cost-plus contracts were a “plague” for the agency. (credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
When NASA administrator Bill Nelson appeared before Senate appropriators May 3 to discuss the agency’s fiscal year 2023 budget proposal, most expected him to explain and defend the agency’s request for nearly $26 billion released in late March. That request included nearly $1.5 billion for the Human Landing System program, days after the agency announced its intent to hold a competition to select a second company to develop a lander alongside the existing award to SpaceX (see “A second chance at the Moon”, The Space Review, April 18, 2022).
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4386/1
Chinese military thinking on orbits beyond GEO
by Kristin Burke Monday, May 16, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4365a.jpg)
Chinese literature on missions like Chang’e-5 helps reveal military thinking about activities beyond GEO. (credit: CNSA)
“We already regard space, out to at least GEO, as part of our legitimate military theater of operations. Strategic vision compels us to continually expand our perspective. We will soon need to consider all of cislunar space, and we should begin to think about operations throughout the inner solar system.[1]”
–The Fairchild Papers, USAF, 2002
“A base on the Moon can fulfil not only scientific and military tasks. Since science and physics are developing rapidly, new goals appear and we can only contemplate them today… a base can be used for constant monitoring of the Earth's surface.”[2]
–Russian Academician Boris Chertok, 2007
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4387/1
4/ V 2022
Review: Space Forces
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 23, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4388a.jpg)
Space Forces: A Critical History of Life in Outer Space
by Fred Scharmen
Verso, 2021
hardcover, 272 pp.
ISBN 978-1-78663
US$26.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1786637359/spaceviews
Later this week, space enthusiasts will gather in Crystal City, Virginia—a mystical name for a mundane neighborhood of commercial and residential high-rises near Washington’s Reagan National Airport—for the National Space Society’s International Space Development Conference (ISDC), the first in-person edition of the conference since 2019. As in past years, this year’s ISDC will have a track on space settlement, along with a student space settlement competition and a new “Rothblatt Space Settlement in Our Lifetime Prize Business Plan Competition.” (The conference also includes tracks on space elevators and space solar power, completing the holy trinity of unrealized but unwavering dreams of space advocates.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4388/1
How the India and France Space Strategic Dialogue can address multi-dimensional concerns in 2020s
by Harini Madhusudan Monday, May 23, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4389a.jpg)
French President Emmanuel Macron (left) and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during their May 4 meeting in Paris. (credit: Indian Embassy to France)
On May 4, during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Paris, France and India decided to create a strategic dialogue to address challenges related to outer space. This dialogue aims to bring together experts from defense agencies, space agencies, specialized space ecosystems, and their respective administration to discuss political, economic, and security challenges; revisit principles and norms; and bring forth newer areas of cooperation applicable to outer space.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4389/1
Barnstorming the Moon: the LEM Reconnaissance Module
by Philip Horzempa Monday, May 23, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4390aa.jpg)
Early in the Apollo program, NASA considered converting the Lunar Module into a reconnaissance spacecraft to scout landing sites. (credit: NASA)
The Recon LEM mission was designed to scout landing sites for Project Apollo. At that time, nothing was known of the small-scale characteristics of the Moon’s surface. We had no idea if there would be areas smooth enough to allow a landing by Apollo’s Lunar Module. Gaining that information was just as critical as building the machines that would land a pair of astronauts on the Moon. This was the first time that humanity needed to get serious about certifying landing zones on an alien world. But, how to do that?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4390/1
For Starliner, better late than never
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 23, 2022
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ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti took this image of Starliner approaching the station just before its docking May 20. (credit: ESA/NASA)
Two and a half year ago, Boeing and NASA were excited about the first uncrewed test flight of the company’s CST-100 Starliner commercial crew vehicle. The company pulled out all the stops for the Orbital Flight Test (OFT) mission for media at the Kennedy Space Center, erecting a large tent at the press site for briefings and other events in the days leading up to the launch and even showing off its “AstroVan II” it developed with Airstream to transport astronauts to the launch pad for later crewed flights.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4391/1
Note: Because of the Memorial Day holiday, we will publish next week’s issue on Tuesday, May 31.
5/ V 2022
Boeing’s commercial crew vehicle is finally (almost) ready for crew
by Jeff FoustvTuesday, May 31, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4392a.jpg)
Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner descends under parachutes, its landing airbags inflated, just before touching down at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico May 25. (credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
During a press conference a few hours after Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner touched down in the New Mexico desert Wednesday, a reporter asked Mark Nappi, Boeing’s commercial crew program manager, to rate the just-completed Orbital Flight Test (OFT) 2 mission on a scale of one to ten.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4392/1
How Ukraine could help Europe boost its space sector
by Viktor Serbin Tuesday, May 31, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4393a.jpg)
SETS, which makes electric propulsion systems, is among the Ukrainian space companies that could help support European space ambitions. (credit: SETS)
While Ukraine is paying a high price for its independence and recognition, Ukrainian industries, the space industry among them, are under a heavy toll. Many of the core space facilities and companies are in the areas that were or are still actively being bombed by the Russian air forces. But it seems the ongoing war in Ukraine can offer new opportunities for the space industry, especially considering the high chances for Ukraine of joining the EU.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4393/1
National Reconnaissance Program crisis photography concepts, part 1: A six-pack of Corona
by Joseph T. Page IIvTuesday, May 31, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4394a.jpg)
Six-Pack Corona Orbital Vehicle Concept. (credit: NRO)
In the latter half of the 20th Century, one of the most terrifying political crises brought the world to the brink of nuclear war in the span of 13 days. During the days of the Cuban Missile Crisis (October 15–28, 1962), however, the ability of National Reconnaissance Program (NRP) imagery satellites to pivot to a short-term (“crisis”) mode—with either a rapid launch or film return—was near zero.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4394/1
Cubesats to the Moon
by Jeff Foust Tuesday, May 31, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4395a.jpg)
CAPSTONE, a cubesat weighing 25 kilograms at launch, will test the stability of the near-rectilinear halo orbit NASA plans to use for Artemis missions, while also demonstrating autonomous positioning technologies. (credit: NASA/Daniel Rutter)
On the evening of Monday, June 13, in New Zealand, a Rocket Lab Electron rocket is scheduled to lift off from the company’s Launch Complex 1. That launch will look like many others by the company except for a prominent white NASA “worm” logo on the side of the booster, an indication that the launch is being performed for the space agency. (As this article was being prepared for publication, NASA announced the launch had slipped to June 13 from June 6 in order to provide more time for final readiness checks.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4395/1
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Pierwsze artykuły z czerwca.
Warto zapoznać się z recenzją książki o badaniach przyrodniczych prowadzonych w warunkach mikrograwitacji w okresie
1980-2004, również o tych które pozostały tylko w sferze planowania. Wg mnie marne są niestety perspektywy zainteresowania się książką polskiego wydawcy.
https://4kidsbooks.indielite.org/book/9781683402602
A co z Rosalind Franklin ? Może dopiero w 2028 łazik zostanie wyniesiony w kierunku Marsa.
1/VI 2022/47
Review: Life in Space
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 6, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4396a.jpg)
Life in Space: NASA Life Sciences Research during the Late Twentieth Century
by Maura Phillips Mackowski
Univ. of Florida Press, 2022
hardcover, 392 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-68340-260-2
US$35
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/168340260X/spaceviews
In an upcoming launch from the Kennedy Space Center, a Falcon 9 will send a cargo Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station. The spacecraft will be carrying its usual variety of research payloads, some of which the agency discussed at a briefing last week. They include experiments to study wound healing in microgravity, aging of the immune system and behavior of soil microbes.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4396/1
What the Voyager space probes can teach humanity about immortality and legacy
by James Edward Huchingson Monday, June 6, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4397a.jpg)
The Voyager spacecraft and their Golden Records might outlast humanity, providing us with a sense of immortality. (credit: NASA)
Voyager 1 is the farthest human-made object from Earth. After sweeping by Jupiter, Saturn, and the outer solar system, it is now almost 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth in interstellar space. Both Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, carry little pieces of humanity in the form of their Golden Records. These messages in a bottle include spoken greetings in 55 languages, sounds and images from nature, an album of recordings and images from numerous cultures, and a written message of welcome from Jimmy Carter, who was US president when the spacecraft left Earth in 1977.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4397/1
Our Mars rover mission was suspended because of the Ukraine war: here’s what we’re hoping for next
by Andrew Coates Monday, June 6, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4398a.jpg)
The Rosalind Franklin rover was weeks away from being shipped to the launch site when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine led ESA to call off the launch. Its next chance to launch may not come until 2028. (credit: ESA)
Just a few months ago, we were confidently expecting to launch our rover, Rosalind Franklin, to Mars in September as part of the ExoMars mission, a collaboration between Europe and Russia. The landing was planned for June 2023. Everything was ready: the rover, the operations team, and the eager scientists.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4398/1
Will the economy deflect the trajectory of space startups?
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 6, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4399a.jpg)
SpaceX launched dozens of smallsat payloads on the Transporter-5 rideshare mission last month, heling further the growth of the space industry despite the potential for a downturn. (credit: SpaceX)
For the last few years, it had been something of a space industry parlor game to predict when there would be a shakeout among the growing number of startups. After all, there were far too many companies working on small launch vehicles, each needing to raise tens to hundreds of millions of dollars, than most reasonable forecasts of the market could support. Then there were the LEO constellations, needing in some cases billions of dollars, for demand that might be filled by only a couple such systems.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4399/1
2/VI 2022
Review: Far Side of the Moon
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 13, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4400a.jpg)
Far Side of the Moon: Apollo 8 Commander Frank Borman and the Woman Who Gave Him Wings
by Liisa Jorgensen
Chicago Review Press, 2021
hardcover, 336 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-64160-606-6
US$30.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1641606061/spaceviews
The personal toll that the Apollo program had on the families of the astronauts went to the Moon, kept out of public view during the program itself, has increasingly come to light through memoirs and other accounts. As Liisa Jorgensen notes in the opening pages of her book Far Side of the Moon, of the 29 Apollo astronauts who flew, 19 of them had marriages than ended in divorce.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4400/1
The Russian space threat and a defense against it with guardian satellites
by Matthew Mowthorpe Monday, June 13, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4401a.jpg)
A bodyguard satellite could detect potential attacks against the satellites its protecting and defend against them
Russia has a long history of developing space weapons. It has demonstrated a capability to kinetically intercept satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) from space and more recently from the ground in late 2021. Additionally, it can use ground-based lasers to dazzle satellites in LEO. Russia can conduct radiofrequency (RF) jamming from mobile platforms against communication satellites in LEO. This article examines Russia’s ASAT concepts and places them in the context of military space doctrine that threatens both US and NATO allies’ satellites. The increasing threat to satellites has led to the development of the concept of a bodyguard satellite.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4401/1
Learning to let go of space missions
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 13, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4402a.jpg)
Dust accumulating on InSight’s sollar arrays has drastically reduced the power they can produce, meaning the mission will likely end in a matter of months. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
The end of InSight is in sight.
At a press conference last month, NASA officials acknowledged what had long been feared: dust accumulating on the solar panels of the lander was diminishing their output to the point where, soon, the spacecraft will not generate enough power to operate its instruments. And, by late this year, the panels won’t generate enough power to keep the spacecraft alive at all.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4402/1
Dark Clouds: The secret meteorological satellite program (part 3)
The National Reconnaissance Office finally builds top secret weather satellites
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, June 13, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4403a.jpg)
Artist illustration of the top secret Program 35/Program 417 weather satellite. Smaller than NASA’s Tiros satellite, it had only one vidicon camera compared to Tiros’ two cameras. Visible near the bottom of the satellite are the wires holding de-spin weights used to reduce the satellite’s rotation rate upon reaching orbit. (credit: NRO)
On Vandenberg Space Force Base, a couple of kilometers up from the cragged coast of the Pacific Ocean along the dusty Delphy Road—named for a Navy destroyer that sank just offshore in 1923—is a flat patch of compressed ground. The buildings, infrastructure, and cabling are all gone, and there’s no longer any indication that this used to be Space Launch Complex 5, the site of several highly classified rocket launches. SLC-5—or “Slick-5” as it was called—used to be a Scout rocket launch site, and in the early 1960s, Air Force officers watched the long, skinny Scouts rise up from this location, arc out over the water, and far too often splash their top secret payloads into the Pacific Ocean. Some of the early rockets launched from that site carried highly classified weather satellites designed to support other equally secret reconnaissance satellites launched from locations just a few kilometers north of SLC-5. Putting the satellites in orbit proved to be difficult to accomplish in those early days, and the Air Force officers responsible for the Scout’s secret payloads cursed the NASA rocket they were forced to use, vowing to find a better alternative. But they also persevered in their mission to orbit weather satellites that they considered vital to collecting intelligence on the Soviet Union.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4403/1
3/VI 2022
Review: The Sky Is for Everyone
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 20, 2022
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The Sky Is for Everyone: Women Astronomers in Their Own Words
by Virginia Trimble and David A. Weintraub (eds.)
Princeton Univ. Press, 2022
hardcover, 504 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-691-20710-0
US$29.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0691207100/spaceviews
Last week, the American Astronomical Society (AAS) held its first in-person meeting since January 2020. The organization, which holds conferences twice a year, had three meetings turned into virtual events because of the pandemic while the fourth, planned to be an in-person event in Salt Lake City in January of this year, was canceled on short notice because of the omicron surge of the COVID pandemic. (The bags and badge lanyards produced for that conference were instead used for last week’s conference, creating a bit of confusion and amusement.) While technically a hybrid event, with the ability to participate remotely, most registrants traveled to Pasadena, California, to be there in person.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4404/1
Gaia mission: five insights astronomers could glean from its latest data
by Adam McMaster and Andrew Norton Monday, June 20, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4405a.jpg)
The latest release of data from ESA’s Gaia spacecraft could support research ranging from the expansion of the universe to the discovery of moons of asteroids. (credit: ESA)
The European Space Agency’s Gaia mission has just released new data. The Gaia satellite was launched in 2013, with the aim of measuring the precise positions of a billion stars. In addition to measuring the stars’ positions, speeds, and brightness, the satellite has collected data on a huge range of other objects.
There’s a lot to make astronomers excited. Here are five of our favorite insights that the data might provide.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4405/1
NASA to launch three rockets from Northern Territory in boost for Australian space efforts
by Melissa de Zwart Monday, June 20, 2022
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Australia’s Arnhem Space Centre will host three launches of NASA sounding rockets over the next month, a sign of the growth of the country’s space industry. (credit: ESA)
Over the next month, NASA will launch three rockets from the Arnhem Space Centre in the Northern Territory (NT) on the Dhupuma Plateau, near Nhulunbuy. The rockets are 13-meter sounding rockets that will not reach orbit but will take scientific observations.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4406/1
A step closer for Starship
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 20, 2022
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An FAA environmental review cleared launches of SpaceX’s Starship/Super Heavy vehicle from Boca Chica, but with dozens of mitigations, large and small, required. (credit: SpaceX)
For months, Starship advocates, opponents, and those simply interested in SpaceX’s heavy-lift launch vehicle have been circling dates on their calendars, only to cross them off.
Last fall, the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation projected it would complete the environmental assessment for Starship/Super Heavy launches from SpaceX’s Boca Chica, Texas, test site—aka Starbase—by the end of the year. But in late December, the agency said it was moving the completion date to the end of February, citing work needed to review some 18,000 public comments and coordinate with other agencies.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4407/1
4/VI 2022
Every single contribution counts
by Timo Pesonen Monday, June 27, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4408a.jpg)
The aerospace and defense industries in Europe are paying more attention to diversity in its workforce. (credit: Airbus)
We need more diversity in the aerospace and defense workforce.
The sector has a high percentage of highly skilled and specialized professionals but the gender gap is considerable: only around 20% of employees are women. This is similar to other tech sectors in Europe, whose talent pool consists mainly of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics graduates. It nevertheless causes shortages and mismatches, affecting the smooth functioning of its supply chains and its worldwide competitiveness.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4408/1
Why the space industry needs a space college
by Dylan Taylor and Keith Cowing Monday, June 27, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4409a.jpg)
Attendees of the latest summer session of the International Space University. While that university has offered space-related programs for decades, it’s not sufficient to meet the growing demands of the space industry. (credit: ISU)
According to the Space Foundation's annual report, the global space economy netted $447 billion in 2020. Commercial space activity alone rose to nearly $357 billion, representing 80% of the total space economy. Launch attempts, which totaled 145, were the highest in history.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4409/1
Escaping Gravity and the struggle to reshape NASA
by Rand Simberg Monday, June 27, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4410a.jpg)
Bill Nelson, at the time a US senator, and Lori Garver, at the time NASA’s deputy administrator, at a 2012 event for the Orion spacecraft. Garver recalls in her new book a difficult working relationship with Nelson, then a critic of commercial crew. (credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett)
On September 16, 2021, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket ascended into space with a crew capsule atop it, carrying four private citizens—two men and two women. It was the first orbital spaceflight in history without a government employee aboard. More recently, in April of 2022, another milestone was achieved, with the first fully private flight to the International Space Station, in which the four-man crew performed research there for more than two weeks before returning to Earth.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4410/1
NASA rents the runway for its new spacesuits
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 27, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4411a.jpg)
An illustration of the spacesuit that Collins Aerospace plans to develop for NASA Artemis missions under a services contract NASA awarded nearly a month ago. (credit: Collins Aerospace)
On March 23, NASA astronaut Raja Chari and ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer conducted a spacewalk outside the International Space Station, spending nearly seven hours outside the station to conduct routine maintenance work. The two were able to complete all their major objectives, although some secondary tasks were put off for a future spacewalk.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4411/1
Dark Clouds: The secret meteorological satellite program (part 4)
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, June 27, 2022
The Air Force finally gets its weather satellite
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4412a.jpg)
The first Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Block 5D-1 satellite was launched in September 1976. It was far larger and more complex than its predecessor, and also two years behind schedule. (credit: Peter Hunter Collection
On the evening of July 14, 1980, a Thor-Burner rocket lifted off from its pad only a few hundred meters from the rocky Pacific coast at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. It arced out over the ocean, heading south. As it climbed, at least for awhile, all looked fine. Soon its first stage shut down and the second stage started to separate.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4412/1
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1/VII 2022/48
Rosja opracowuje naziemne systemy laserowe do oślepiania satelitów, co może mieć zastosowanie przeciwko wojskowym satelitom rozpoznawczym jak i komercyjnym satelitom obrazowania optycznego.
Review: The Elephant in the Universe
by Jeff Foust Tuesday, July 5, 2022
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The Elephant in the Universe: Our Hundred-Year Search for Dark Matter
by Govert Schilling
Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press, 2022
hardcover, 376 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-674-24899-1
US$29.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0674248996/spaceviews
Astronomy has made great strides in improving our understanding of the universe, particularly in the last century. We now know our galaxy of a few hundred billion stars is just one of billions of galaxies in a universe that started some 13.7 billion years ago in the Big Bang. It is a universe populated with exotica like pulsars and neutrons stars, but also countless planets, some of which might be hospitable to life, like Earth.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4413/1
Boozy Chimps in Orbit and intoxicating Saturns: Where space pop meets Tiki culture
by Deana L. Weibel Tuesday, July 5, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4414j.jpg)
“Sloshed in Space” by Thor (Tom Thordarson), an example of space-themed “Tiki” items. Photo used with permission of artist.
In July 2018, a year before the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 flight, I began looking for Tiki mugs that had some connection to astronauts, spaceflight, or the Moon. According to Tiki expert Sven Kirstin, Tikis—“idols of wood and stone” based on the Polynesian depiction of the first man, a “demigod named Tiki”—were a sensation in the United States of the 20th century and by the 1950s “became the pop-culture icon of this America yearning for an earthly paradise” (2014, 11). My husband and I were getting increasingly interested the kitschy appeal of the playful, nostalgic, and deeply unrealistic world of Tiki while I, at the same time, had begun focusing my anthropological research on religious aspects of space exploration. Glen and I both enjoyed space history (he is a former chief historian at the Johnson Space Center) and had a fondness for pop culture depictions of space from the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. A space-themed Tiki mug seemed just the thing.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4414/1
The perils of planetary rideshares
by Jeff Foust Tuesday, July 5, 2022
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The Janus smallsat mission to study binary asteroids was to fly as a rideshare on the Falcon Heavy launching Psyche, but is now on hold after Psyche missed its launch window this year. (credit: Lockheed Martin)
Smallsat developers have long known the benefits and challenges of rideshare launch opportunities. Such opportunities can offer a much cheaper ride to space than a dedicated launch. However, it requires finding a suitable launch to hitch a ride on, and being subject to the whims of the primary payload that drives the launch schedule and other mission parameters.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4415/1
Kalina: a Russian ground-based laser to dazzle imaging satellites
by Bart Hendrickx Tuesday, July 5, 2022
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Kalina’s laser telescope. (Source)
There is strong evidence that a space surveillance complex in Russia’s northern Caucasus is being outfitted with a new laser system called Kalina that will target optical systems of foreign imaging satellites flying over Russian territory. Initiated in 2011, the project has suffered numerous delays, but recent Google Earth imagery shows that construction is now well underway. Kalina will complement a mobile laser dazzler known as Peresvet that has been operational since late 2019.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4416/1
2/VII 2022/
Review: Escaping Gravity
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 11, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4410b.jpg)
Escaping Gravity: My Quest to Transform NASA and Launch a New Space Age
by Lori Garver
Diversion Books, 2022
hardcover, 304 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-63576-770-4
US$28.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1635767709/spaceviews
There is no shortage of memoirs and biographies about NASA astronauts. Many of them want to tell the story of their dreams to fly in space and how they realized them after years of effort while overcoming various setbacks along the way. There are far fewer such books, though, about the people who led the agency: administrators, deputy administrators, and other senior officials. These people, after all, helped shape the programs that allowed those astronauts to fly to space and decided who would on them.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4417/1
Space and America’s future
by Frank Slazer Monday, July 11, 2022
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More funding for NASA could enable the agency to increase the rate of Artemis missions to the Moon, with benefits for both NASA and the country. (credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky)
In about three years, NASA plans to land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon as part of its Artemis program. The agency is also exploring technologies that could eventually allow humans to travel to Mars, and beyond, in future missions.
These efforts are encouraging. But they could be too bold to accomplish, given NASA’s meager budget. Of the $6.6 trillion the federal government spent in 2020, just 0.3% went to NASA.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4418/1
An ICAO for the Moon: It’s time for an International Civil Lunar Organization
by Peter Garretson Monday, July 11, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4419a.jpg)
As more countries and companies lay out plans to go to the Moon, an ICAO-like organization would be best suited to establishing standards and best practices for enable such activities to continue safely. (credit: ESA)
The United States has an opportunity to lead in the responsible, peaceful, and sustainable exploration and use of outer space through the opportunity to lead centers around the projected increase in activity on and near the Moon. According to the State of the Space Industrial Base 2021, a variety of nations and their companies are planning more than 100 missions to the Moon in the next decade, and noted that more than 140 companies have “lunar” or “cislunar” in their business plans. More recently, Citigroup has estimated that by 2040, Moon mining could be worth $12 billion in annual sales. As noted by the recent World Economic Forum report, the space sector has reached an inflection point where commercialization is beginning to outpace governance.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4419/1
JWST and the future of large space telescopes
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 11, 2022
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With JWST now operational, some astronomers want to push ahead with a new generation of large space telescopes that will one day succeed it. (credit: NASA/Adriana Manrique Gutierrez)
On Tuesday, NASA and its Canadian and European partners will unveil a set of images and data that represent the early release observations of the James Webb Space Telescope. While not the first images from the telescope—NASA has been releasing engineering images from the telescope and its various instruments over the last several months as part of the commissioning process—these represent the first science-quality observations from the telescope, demonstrating its various capabilities. (One of the images, it turns out, was released Monday at a White House event, a development announced late Sunday.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4420/1
3/VII 2022
Review: Apollo 11 Flight Plan: Relaunched
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 18, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4421a.jpg)
Apollo 11 Flight Plan: Relaunched
relaunch.space, 2022
hardcover, 400 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-6678-4082-6
US$59.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1667840827/spaceviews
This week marks the 53rd anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing. It is a milestone that is not particularly round (it’s prime, in fact) so it will not get much fanfare beyond some events linked with a new International Moon Day on and around July 20. It comes at the tail end of the celebrations of the overall 50th anniversary of the Apollo program, with that anniversary of the final Moon landing mission, Apollo 17, coming up in December.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4421/1
ASATs and space law: quo vadis?
by Leia-Maria Lupu and Maira Sophie Müller Monday, July 18, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4288a.jpg)
A simulation of the intercept of the Cosmos 1408 satellite by a Russian ASAT missile in the November 2021 test. (credit: COMSPOC)
On June 17, 2022, the International Space Station had to maneuver to avoid an imminent collision with space debris caused by an ASAT mission conducted by Russia in 2021. This calls attention to the overall safety of ASAT missions in light of the growing risk of space debris.
Antisatellite (ASAT) weapons are space weapons created to destroy other satellites such as through a shoot-down mechanism, with the explosion of the targeted satellite producing tons of space debris ranging from one millimeter to ten centimeters in size. Currently, there are two types of ASATs: co-orbital and direct-ascent. While the former is a weapon sent into orbit to destroy a target satellite in close proximity, the latter is a missile launched from the surface of the Earth targeting a satellite in orbit.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4422/1
Not necessarily for the NRP: Final thoughts on the Casa Grande crosses
by Joseph T. Page II Monday, July 18, 2022
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Present-day Concrete Cross. Courtesy of Google Maps.
After the publication of the previous article on the Casa Grande concrete crosses (see “Candy CORN: analyzing the CORONA concrete crosses myth,” The Space Review, December 21, 2020), and the heap of TLDR (too long, didn’t read) comments on Reddit and other online forums that still insisted the Arizona concrete crosses were somehow linked to the Corona photo-reconnaissance satellites, I made one final push into the research realm for a definitive answer to either prove or refute any connection to the National Reconnaissance Program (NRP).
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4423/1
The transformation of JWST
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 18, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4424a.jpg)
An image of the Carina Nebula taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, part of the early release observations published last week. (credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI)
For all the anticipation about the first images from the James Webb Space Telescope, and the expectation that those images would be both aesthetically and scientifically stunning, the last thing you think you would need to get people hyped about the release of those images is a pep rally.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4424/1
4/VII 2022
Will NASA rename the James Webb Space Telescope?
A space expert explains the Lavender Scare controversy
by Alice Gorman Monday, July 25, 2022
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NASA Administrator James Webb with John F. Kennedy at Cape Canaveral in 1963. The agency’s decision two decades ago to name a space telescope after Webb is controversial today because of allegations he participated in the “Lavender Scare” in the 1950s. (credit: NASA)
The first images from the James Webb Space Telescope are astounding. With its deep infrared eyes, the telescope is illuminating regions of the Universe with never-before-possible clarity.
The telescope is a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. More than 300 universities, companies, space agencies and organizations are involved.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4425/1
Advanced Gambit and VHR
by Philip Horzempa Monday, July 25, 2022
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Advanced Gambit Option A with 2 SRV capsules. (credit: NRO)
Newly declassified documents from the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) have revealed a previously unknown member of the Gambit reconnaissance satellite family. This was referred to as the Advanced Gambit-3 (AG3), though it is quite different from the standard Gambit-3 vehicles. It is so different from previous models that it could, and should, be referred to as Gambit-4. The AG3 included a camera that resembled the KH-10 from the Dorian Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) program.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4426/1
The rebirth of NASA
by Roger Handberg Monday, July 25, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4427a.jpg)
NASA is finally near the first flight of the Space Launch System, the rocket the agency says it needs to return humans to the Moon, but its development suggests NASA may be better off handing launch operations over to the private sector. (credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky)
NASA is amid a rebirth: a return to the agency’s origins as a research and development agency rather than as an operator of systems. This change positions NASA to have a continuing impact on US and, by extension, global space programs. Two ongoing events herald this impending change: the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Space Launch System (SLS), both are at critical stages in the arc of their development and operation. Both struggled with delays and funding issues created by the slowness of progress toward operational status.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4427/1
Billionaires and backlash: suborbital spaceflight a year after Branson and Bezos
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 25, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4428a.jpg)
Blue Origin’s New Shepard lifts off on a June mission, just the fourth to carry people since company founder Jeff Bezos flew to space a year ago. (credit: Blue Origin)
A year ago, the space community watched a marathon end with a sprint. After many years of development, and many years of delays, both Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic finally flew their founders to space days apart. Richard Branson went on Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo nine days before Jeff Bezos went on the first crewed flight of Blue Origin’s New Shepard. It marked the end the lengthy development phase of commercial human suborbital spaceflight and the promise of a new era of operational flights that would give many more people a chance to briefly experience expansive views and microgravity (see “Will suborbital space tourism take a suborbital trajectory?”, The Space Review, July 26, 2021).
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4428/1
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1/VIII 2022/49
Why the molten salt reactor should be our next big step for terrestrial and off-planet needs
by Ajay Kothari Monday, August 1, 2022
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A new type of nuclear reactor could help advance efforts to develop space nuclear propulsion and power systems (credit: NASA)
Addressing climate change, especially reducing carbon dioxide emissions while at the same time producing needed energy, is engaging humanity worldwide, and is apt to occupy the Biden Administration and its successors ever more so. While developing various technologies, one should also bear in mind another potential solution that is much simpler, cheaper, and faster to implement, while we wait for other solutions such as controlled fusion. Within the past year France and some countries in the EU announced their intention to pursue nuclear for their energy needs. China also prepared to test a thorium-fueled nuclear reactor in September 2021, although no test results information has been available since.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4429/1
What is space development?
by John K. Strickland Monday, August 1, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4252a.jpg)
NASA and others need to carefully define what is considered “space development” to enable efforts like bases on Mars. (credit: SpaceX)
The current NASA program of space “exploration” consists primarily of developing its own heavy-lift transport system, using commercial providers for its existing launch needs, operating a scientific space station in low Earth orbit, and designing, building and operating a large variety of robotic spacecraft throughout the solar system and beyond. It is planning to land payloads on the Moon in the near future, along with an occasional short human visit to cislunar space and the Moon. Eventually there are hopes (but no concrete plans) to establish a lunar base and visit Mars in the more distant future. Space development activities, though, can only occur at permanents bases and facilities. Current NASA plans would only start this phase sometime in the mid-2030’s.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4430/1
A review of Chinese counterspace activities
by Matthew Mowthorpe and Markos Trichas Monday, August 1, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4431f.jpg)
Maneuvers by China’s SJ-21 in GEO, including moving a Beidou satellite out of the belt, is just one of the many Chinese space activities with counterspace implications. (credit: ExoAnalytic Solutions)
China has a long history of developing space weapons. It has demonstrated a capability to kinetically intercept satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) from the ground. Earlier this year China demonstrated a new capability to hide in the “graveyard” beyond geostationary orbit (GEO) and re-emerge to grapple a satellite in GEO. Additionally, it has the ability to use ground-based lasers to dazzle satellites in LEO. China has the ability to conduct radiofrequency (RF) jamming from mobile platforms against communication satellites in LEO. This article examines China’s ASAT concepts and places them in the context of their respective military space doctrines which threatens both US and NATO allies’ satellites.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4431/1
ISS in the balance
by Jeff Foust Monday, August 1, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4432a.jpg)
NASA wants to keep the ISS operational to 2030 before shifting to commercial space stations, but those plans face several challenges. (credit: NASA)
Last Tuesday, hundreds of people gathered for the first International Space Station Research and Development Conference to take place in person in three years, having gone virtual in 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic. But just as they were settling into their seats in a ballroom at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, coffee and pastries in hand for the opening plenary, came word that the ISS might soon be ending.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4432/1
Note: The Space Review is on a reduced publication schedule this month and will not publish the week of August 8. We will be back on Monday, August 15.
2/VIII 2022/49
Review: A History of Near-Earth Objects Research
by Jeff Foust Monday, August 15, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4433a.jpg)
A History of Near-Earth Objects Research
by Erik M. Conway, Donald K. Yeomans, and Meg Rosenburg
NASA, 2022
ebook, 394 pp., illus.
free
https://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/history-of-neo-research.html
Six weeks from today, Earth strikes back against the asteroids. At 7:14 pm EDT on September 26, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft will collide with the small asteroid Dimorphos, which orbits a larger asteroid, Didymos. The impact will change the period of Dimorphos’ orbit as a test of one technique to deflect the trajectory of a potentially hazardous asteroid.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4433/1
Roe v. Wade: the space case
by Vanessa Farsadaki Monday, August 15, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4115a.jpg)
Long-duration missions, like trips to Mars, present new challenges for reproductive rights. (credit: NASA)
Roe v. Wade was a landmark case that posited that it is a woman’s right to choose, as protected under the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution. With the recent overturn of that legal precedent by the US Supreme Court, the entire country is considering the implications for this controversial issue. As an expert in space medicine and a future astronaut, I find myself asking similar questions regarding the implications of this change to the future of human spaceflight. How should the law evolve once we leave the boundaries of Earth? How will nations manage a woman’s right to choose or what can and cannot happen with a woman’s body when that person is living and working in space? And how should the ethics be shaped when this issue surfaces in relation to mission assurance for space flights?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4434/1
Small launchers struggle to reach orbit
by Jeff Foust Monday, August 15, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4435a.jpg)
India’s Small Satellite Launch Vehicle lifts off August 7 on its inaugural, but unsuccessful, flight. (credit: ISRO)
On the morning of August 7, a crowd gathered in the control room at India’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre, the country’s main launch site. They were there to see the long-awaited inaugural launch of the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV), a rocket designed to place up to 500 kilograms into low Earth orbit. It was the newest of a dizzying array of new small launchers being developed worldwide to serve the burgeoning smallsat market.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4435/1
Chief communicator: How Star Trek’s Lieutenant Uhura helped NASA
by Glen E. Swanson Monday, August 15, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4436a.jpg)
Nichelle Nichols is shown in NASA’s Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center in March 1977. (credit: NASA)
With the recent death of Nichelle Nichols, the number of surviving principal cast members of Gene Roddenberry’s original Star Trek television series shrank again. There now remain only three regular crew members of the Starship Enterprise: Ensign Chekov (Walter Koenig), Lieutenant Sulu (George Takei) and Captain Kirk (William Shatner) to help remind us of the pioneering television series that originally aired on NBC from 1966 to 1969.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4436/1
3/VIII 2022/49
Review: A Portrait of the Scientist as a Young Woman
by Jeff Foust Monday, August 22, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4437a.jpg)
A Portrait of the Scientist as a Young Woman: A Memoir
by Lindy Elkins-Tanton
William Morrow, 2022
hardcover, 272 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-06-308690-6
US$29.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0063086905/spaceviews
Had everything gone according to plan, Lindy Elkins-Tanton would be celebrating a launch this month. Elkins-Tanton is principal investigator for NASA’s Psyche spacecraft, a Discovery-class mission to the metallic main-belt asteroid of the same name. By early May, the spacecraft was at Cape Canaveral for final preparations for a launch on a Falcon Heavy scheduled for early August that would have the spacecraft arrive at Psyche in 2026.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4437/1
War in Ukraine highlights the growing strategic importance of private satellite companies, especially in times of conflict
by Mariel Borowitz Monday, August 22, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4438a.jpg)
High-resolution imaging satellites, like the Skysat series operated by Planet, have had a major effect on the war in Ukraine. (credit: Maxar)
Satellites owned by private companies have played an unexpectedly important role in the war in Ukraine. For example, in early August 2022, images from the private satellite company Planet Labs showed that a recent attack on a Russian military base in Crimea caused more damage than Russia had suggested in public reports. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy highlighted the losses as evidence of Ukraine’s progress in the war.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4438/1
The time has finally come for Artemis 1
by Jeff Foust Monday, August 22, 2022
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NASA’s Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft on the pad for the Artemis 1 launch, scheduled for the morning of August 29. (credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky)
For more than a decade, the Space Launch System has been in something of a liminal state. It was a very real program, with real hardware being built and tested around the country, and consuming more than $2 billion a year for much of that time. But, as a rocket itself, it was still theoretical, years behind schedule and yet to even attempt to lift off. Until it rolled out to the pad for the first time in March, NASA could only offer illustrations of the rocket, in liveries that changed over the years, and animations of it blasting off from Launch Complex 39B.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4439/1
The origins and evolution of the Defense Support Program (part 1)
Infrared for missile warning
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, August 22, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4440a.jpg)
The fourth Defense Support Program satellite on the cover of Aviation Week and Space Technology in 1985. This satellite was launched in 1973. Due to classification, few photos and illustrations of the spacecraft were released for the first two decades of operations.
In January 2020, American forces in the Middle East were on high alert, expecting an attack from Iran in response to an American attack that killed a senior Iranian general. Intelligence information indicated that a missile attack was likely, and so the United States Space Force used its Space Based Infrared Satellites (SBIRS) to monitor Iran’s missile launch sites. Staring sensors on the satellites in geosynchronous and highly elliptical orbits were focused on the launch locations, and when they spotted the infrared signatures of missiles, they were able to precisely track them and predict their targets, providing that information to American forces in Iraq with enough warning time for them to take cover.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4440/1
Note: The Space Review is on a reduced publication schedule this month and will not publish the week of August 29. We will be back on Tuesday, September 6, after the Labor Day weekend.
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Review: The Milky Way
by Jeff Foust Tuesday, September 6, 2022
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The Milky Way: An Autobiography of Our Galaxy
by Moiya McTier
Grand Central Publishing, 2022
hardcover, 256 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-5387-5415-3
US$27
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1538754150/spaceviews
If galaxies could talk, what would they say? It’s a strange question, to be certain. However, it’s also an interesting thought exercise, particularly as science writers try to find new ways to discuss topics, like astrophysics, to broader audiences. How would a galaxy tell its story of its birth, development, and eventual demise?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4441/1
Frank Drake has passed away but his equation for alien intelligence is more important than ever
by David Rothery Tuesday, September 6, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4442b.jpg)
Frank Drake with the equation he developed to estimate the number of detectable civilizations in the galaxy. (credit: The SETI Institute)
How many intelligent civilizations should there be in our galaxy right now? In 1961, the US astrophysicist Frank Drake, who passed away on September 2 at the age of 92, came up with an equation to estimate this. The Drake equation, dating from a stage in his career when he was “too naive to be nervous” (as he later put it), has become famous and bears his name.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4442/1
The origins and evolution of the Defense Support Program (part 2)
DSP gets an upgrade
by Dwayne A. Day Tuesday, September 6, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4443a.jpg)
DSP Flight 5 was launched in December 1975 and was the first of the Phase II satellites with upgrades to be placed in orbit. “F-5”, as it was known, was actually the seventh satellite built. But a few days after reaching orbit it suffered a failure and spun out of control and was lost. (credit: USAF)
The first Defense Support Program (DSP) satellite was launched in 1971, and by June 30, 1973, the four barrel-shaped spinning DSP satellites in orbit had detected a total of 1,014 missile launches as their large infrared telescopes swept the face of the Earth every ten seconds.[1] They had proven quite successful in their mission and had relieved some of the tension that was always present during the Cold War by dramatically reducing the chances of a Soviet surprise attack. (See “The origins and evolution of the Defense Support Program (part 1): Infrared for missile warning”, The Space Review, August 22, 2022.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4443/1
Of hydrogen and humility
by Jeff Foust Tuesday, September 6, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4444a.jpg)
The Space Launch System during its second attempt to launch on the Artemis 1 mission September 3, which was scrubbed by a liquid hydrogen leak. (credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky)
NASA went into the first attempts to launch the Space Launch System last week with a high level of confidence in the vehicle. One needed only to look at the preparations the agency made for that first launch attempt August 29. NASA’s televised coverage of the launch was to include celebrities like Jack Black and Chris Evans, with Josh Groban and Herbie Hancock performing the national anthem. Vice President Kamala Harris would fly in to watch the launch, then tour the Kennedy Space Center and give a speech on US leadership in space.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4444/1
2/IX 2022/50
Unwinding a conflict of treaties
by Paul Costello Monday, September 12, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3908a.jpg)
A legal precedent much older than the Outer Space Treaty could support property rights claims for future Moon and Mars settlements. (credit: SpaceX)
Contrary to long held beliefs misguidedly premised upon 1967’s Outer Space Treaty (OST), answers to questions like “who owns the Moon,” or, for that matter, Mars, will be decided under much older legal precedence, called Doctrines of Capture and Conquest. The latter, Doctrine of Conquest, is the focus of this essay.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4445/1
Lunar mining, Moon land claims, and avoiding conflict and damage to spacecraft
by Michelle L.D. Hanlon Monday, September 12, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4162a.jpg)
Future lunar landers, like SpaceX’s giant Starship, could kick up large amounts of dust that could post hazards to other operations on the lunar surface. (credit: SpaceX)
It’s been 50 years since humans last visited the Moon, and even robotic missions have been few and far between. But the Earth’s only natural satellite is about to get crowded.
At least six countries and a flurry of private companies have publicly announced more than 250 missions to the Moon to occur within the next decade. Many of these missions include plans for permanent lunar bases and are motivated in large part by ambitions to assess and begin utilizing the Moon’s natural resources. In the short term, resources would be used to support lunar missions, but in the long term, the Moon and its resources will be a critical gateway for missions to the broader riches of the solar system.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4446/1
A substantive National Space Council meeting
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 12, 2022
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Vice President Kamala Harris (center) chaired the September 9 National Space Council meeting, with participants that included Alondra Nelson (left) of OSTP and NASA administrator Bill Nelson. (credit: NASA)
Most meetings of the National Space Council since it was revived five years ago have paid at least some attention to optics and visuals. The first, in October 2017, was held at the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center, with the nose of the shuttle Discovery as the backdrop. (The council returned there nearly two years later, this time at the other end of the orbiter.) Many others have used space hardware of some kind as background, a visual reminder that this is the National Space Council.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4447/1
A darker shade of blue: The unknown Air Force manned space program
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, September 12, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4448a.jpg)
The Air Force was prohibited from having a man-in-space program competing with NASA’s Mercury program in the early 1960s. Air Force officials became interested in the Gemini spacecraft as a means of gaining early human spaceflight experience. (credit: NASA)
In 1958, before the creation of NASA and the start of the Mercury program, the Air Force sponsored a project named Man-In-Space-Soonest, or MISS. As part of MISS, aerospace contractor Lockheed proposed a spacecraft five feet (1.5 meters) diameter to carry a single astronaut into orbit. The proposed spacecraft was the same diameter as the Agena upper stage spacecraft. Lockheed’s manned spacecraft would have been smaller than Mercury and would have ridden atop an Atlas-Agena launch vehicle.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4448/1
3/IX 2022/50
Harpoons, robots, and lasers: how to capture defunct satellites and other space junk and bring it back to Earth
by Ralph Cooney Monday, September 19, 2022
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A Swiss company, ClearSpace, will attempt to grapple and remove a launch vehicle payload adapter from orbit in 2025 on an ESA-funded mission. (credit: ClearSpace)
More than half of the thousands of satellites in orbit are now defunct, and this accumulation of floating space debris has been described as a “fatal problem” for current and future space missions and human space travel.
An estimated 130 million objects smaller than one centimeter and 34,000 larger than ten centinmeters are travelling in orbit at speeds of thousands of kilometers per hour, according to the European Space Agency (ESA). A report presented at this year’s European conference on space debris suggests the amount of space junk could increase fifty-fold by 2100.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4449/1
Return to panic: How two iconic NASA astronauts survived the 1970s and beyond
by Emily Carney Monday, September 19, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4450a.jpg)
Astronaut Fred W. Haise Jr., lunar module pilot of the Apollo 13 lunar landing mission, participates in water egress training in a water tank in Building 260 at the Manned Spacecraft Center (credit: NASA)
“Songs are as sad as the listener,” author Jonathan Safran Foer wrote in the novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Indeed, perspective—and time—are things that color one’s thoughts, particularly when times get tough. Two NASA astronauts who perhaps had the most challenging times of all during the 1970s were Buzz Aldrin, Gemini 12 veteran and Apollo 11 moonwalker, and Fred Haise, who just missed the Moon during 1970’s Apollo 13. Within two years of triumphantly becoming one of the first humans ever to walk upon the lunar surface, Aldrin graduated from being feted by world leaders to being hospitalized for worsening clinical depression and alcoholism. Within three years of surviving Apollo 13’s oxygen tank explosion and tumultuous return, Haise was entangled in yet another fight for his life—this one somehow magnitudes worse than weathering numerous technical failures in deep space.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4450/1
Europe seeks to stay in the space race
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 19, 2022
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A model of an Ariane 6 greets visitors to the International Astronautical Congress in Paris this week. Keeping that vehicle on track is one of the priorities of the upcoming ESA ministerial council meeting that will fund agency programs for the next three years. (credit: J. Foust)
The 73rd International Astronautical Congress (IAC) started in Paris not on a Monday, as is traditionally the case, but instead on Sunday. The shift was reportedly a scheduling issue: the pandemic that delayed the 2020 IAC in Dubai to 2021 also delayed the 2021 IAC in Paris to 2022, and the only dates available at the convention center that straddles the Boulevard Périphérique, several kilometers from the heart of Paris, required the event to start over the weekend.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4451/1
4/IX 2022/50
Review: First Dawn
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 26, 2022
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First Dawn: From the Big Bang to Our Future in Space
by Roberto Battiston, translated by Bonnie McClellan-Broussard
MIT Press, 2022
hardcover, 216 pp.
ISBN 978-0-262-04721-0
US$29.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0262047217/spaceviews
In contrast to astronauts, many of whom have written memoirs, few space agency leaders write books about their time in office or other topics, like former NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver in Escaping Gravity. An exception to this is Roberto Battiston, a physicist who spent four years as the president of the Italian space agency ASI and has written numerous essays and books on space and science topics. The latest, First Dawn, is now available in English.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4452/1
An analysis of Chinese remote sensing satellites
by Henk H.F. Smid Monday, September 26, 2022
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A Long March 2D rocket launched a Yunhai-1 military weather satellite September 21. (credit: Xinhua)
As was to be expected, the answer from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to the political visit of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a Democratic congressional delegation to Taiwan in August was in the form of threatening military operations and drills executed against Taiwan. The maneuvers took place in the waters and skies near Taiwan and included the live-firing of ballistic missiles in the Taiwan Strait. Undoubtedly, the use of the formidable Chinese satellite remote sensing assets made clear to the American military involved that the ability to deploy warships or aircraft with impunity, and even to operate safely from bases in the region, was no longer the case as it was during the mid-1990s. At that time a crisis erupted over Taiwan’s president visiting the US, prompting an angry reaction from Beijing. Reacting, the US Navy sent warships through the Taiwan Strait and there was nothing the PRC could do about it. Now, the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier group just remained in the region to “monitor the situation.” The greatly improved Chinese satellite surveillance capabilities and inherent intelligence of the last two decades made the difference for the most part.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4453/1
Space for (mostly) all
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 26, 2022
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Leaders of five space agencies—NASA, ESA, CSA, JAXA and ISRO—participate in a panel at the International Astronautical Congress in Paris September 18. Officials from China and Russia, previously announced to also be on the panel, were absent. (credit: IAF)
The theme of last week’s International Astronautical Congress (IAC) was “Space for All”, or, as written, “Space for @ll”, the at-sign an apparent nod to a digital component that was largely absent at a conference that required one to be there in person to see all of the major sessions. But plenty of people did show up in person: when the IAC closed on Thursday, the International Astronautical Federation said more than 9,300 people registered—a record—from 110 countries.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4454/1
Aiming too high: the Advent military communications satellite
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, September 26, 2022
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Engineering test vehicle for the Advent communications satellite under construction at a General Electric facility, probably in early 1962. Advent was a large three-axis stabilized satellite intended for geosynchronous orbit. It fell behind schedule and went over budget before being canceled. It was not until 1974 that a three-axis stabilized geosynchronous communications satellite was demonstrated in space. (credit: San Diego Air and Space Museum)
Over the seven decades of the space age, a common theme has been spacecraft programs that are so ambitious that they fall victim to cost overruns, schedule delays, requirements creep, and often outright cancellation. There are numerous civilian and military examples, including current, ongoing efforts. But this phenomenon is in no ways new and has existed since the earliest days of the space program. An example is the long-forgotten US Army/Air Force Advent communications satellite, which experienced many of those problems before it was canceled in 1962. Although a victim of its own ambition, Advent also suffered from being a little too soon, locked into a technology that was quickly obsolete. Despite its name, Advent proved to be a dead-end in terms of technology, goals, and ambitions for military satellite communications.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4455/1
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Review: The Whole Truth
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 3, 2022
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The Whole Truth: A Cosmologist’s Reflections on the Search for Objective Reality
by P. J. E. Peebles
Princeton University Press, 2022
Hardcover, 264 pp.
ISBN 978-0-691-23135-8
US$27.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0691231354/spaceviews
Three years ago, cosmologist Jim Peebles won a share of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics for “theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology,” as the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences described it. Peebles spent his career working on models to explain the formation of the universe, from the cosmic microwave background to the roles played by dark matter and dark energy. His work, the announcement of the prize stated, “laid a foundation for the transformation of cosmology over the last fifty years, from speculation to science.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4456/1
Sputnik’s effect on Vanguard
by Richard Easton Monday, October 3, 2022
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A replica of the Vanguard satellite. The launch of Sputnik caused engineers working on Vanguard to turn their attention to tracking the satellite. (credit: National Air and Space Museum)
Sputnik 1 was launched on October 4, 1957. The strong reaction from the West showed Soviet dictator Nikita Khrushchev that space could contribute to soft power competition in the Cold War.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4457/1
NASA-SpaceX study opens final chapter for Hubble Space Telescope
by Christopher Gainor Monday, October 3, 2022
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The Hubble Space Telescope after release on the final shuttle servicing mission in 2009. NASA and SpaceX are studying the feasibility of sending a Crew Dragon mission to reboost the telescope. (credit: NASA)
This year the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has dominated astronomical news as it went through its commissioning process and then began producing its first images and other data from around the universe. In the eyes of many people the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), now in its 33rd year of operations, has moved into the shadow of JWST.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4458/1
Applied planetary science: DART’s bullseye
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 3, 2022
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A illustration made before last week’s impact showing DART about to collide with Dimorphos, with the larger asteroid Didymos in the foreground. (credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL)
For a time last month it appeared NASA was going to have an unusual doubleheader. The agency was working towards a September 27 launch of the Space Launch System and Orion on the Artemis 1 mission, after a tanking test confirmed that they had resolved a hydrogen leak and after getting approval from the Eastern Range for the rocket’s flight termination system, which exceeded its 25-day certification earlier in the month.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4459/1
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Review: A Traveler’s Guide to the Stars
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 10, 2022
A Traveler’s Guide to the Stars
by Les Johnson Princeton Univ. Press, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4460a.jpg)
hardcover, 240 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-691-21237-1
US$27.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0691212376/spaceviews
Tucked away on the inside of the adapter that connects the Orion spacecraft to the upper stage of the Space Launch System are ten cubesats, patiently awaiting launch on the Artemis 1 mission. One of those ten is Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) Scout, a NASA cubesat that will, after deployment, unfurl a solar sail and use that to send the spacecraft on a flyby of a near Earth asteroid in two years. NEA Scout was intended as a technology demonstrator for larger solar sails, explained Les Johnson, principal investigator for the solar sail part of the mission at NASA Marshall, during a talk at the Conference on Small Satellites in Utah in August.
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0691212376/spaceviews
Making a modern military service
The US Space Force knows it needs to be fast, lean, and agile, but how?
by Coen Williams and Peter Garretson Monday, October 10, 2022
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Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond, the first chief of space operations of the Space Force, speaking at a conference in September. (credit: US Air Force photo by Eric Dietrich)
The Space Force needs new individual and organizational frameworks. Simply applying the tools of the last century will not be effective. This means recreating the space-minded joint warfighter as the Guardian-Designer, enabling increased freedoms to make changes to software, hardware, and operations. Advancing US Space Force (USSF) organizations through the OADE Loop is critical to the creation of the nation’s first 21st century military branch. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4461/1
Commercial space stations: labs or hotels?
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 10, 2022
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Voyager Space used the IAC to announce research partnerships for its Starlab commercial space station, but also an agreement with Hilton to design accommodations for it. (credit: Voyager Space)
One of the more unusual side events associated with last month’s International Astronautical Congress (IAC) took place not at the Paris Convention Center but instead several kilometers away at the historic Paris Observatory. The purpose of the event was not related to astronomy—although one could look through telescopes there on the clear fall evening—but instead something quintessentially French: champagne.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4462/1
Arms control and satellites: early issues concerning national technical means
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, October 10, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4463a.jpg)
Richard Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev signing the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks Interim Agreement, or SALT I, and the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty in May 1972. The satellites operated by the National Reconnaissance Office were used to monitor the treaties. They were euphemistically known as “national technical means.” (credit: Richard Nixon Library, White House Photo Office Collection)
In 1972, the United States and Soviet Union signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and the Interim Agreement, collectively known as SALT I. A phrase that appeared in the treaty is “national technical means of verification.” This was an agreement by the two parties that they would verify the treaty without on-site inspections, using their own assets. Both sides also agreed not to interfere with these “national technical means.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4463/1
3/X 2022/51
Review: Boldly Go
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 17, 2022
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Boldly Go: Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder
by William Shatner with Joshua Brandon
Atria Books, 2022
hardcover, 256 pp.
ISBN 978-1-6680-0732-7
US$28
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1668007320/spaceviews
One year ago, Blue Origin’s New Shepard performed its second crewed flight, taking four people just beyond the Kármán Line on a ten-minute suborbital flight. The most famous person on that flight was William Shatner, Captain Kirk from the Star Trek television series and subsequent movies. He had, as widely reported at the time, a very emotional reaction to the flight immediately after landing, comparing the Earth to life and the blackness of space to death (see “Black ugliness and the covering of blue: William Shatner’s suborbital flight to ‘death’”, The Space Review, October 18, 2021).
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4464/1
#MeToo in space: We must address the potential for sexual harassment and assault away from Earth
by Maria Santaguida, Judith Lapierre, Simon Dubé, and Emily Apollonio Monday, October 17, 2022
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4465a.jpg)
For humankind to safely take its next steps into the universe, the culture of space exploration must change. (credit: CH W/Unsplash)
A new dawn of space exploration is upon us. NASA aims to land the first woman and person of color on the Moon by the end of 2025 and send a crew on a year-and-a-half-long mission to Mars in the 2030s.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4465/1
FOBS, MOBS, and the reality of the Article IV nuclear weapons prohibition
by Michael Listner Monday, October 17, 2022
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The Outer Space Treaty faced a challenge months after its 1967 signing when the Soviet Union tested a FOBS weapon. (credit: UN Photo)
Author Note: This essay is based on some of the research and analysis from a Special Issue of the author’s space law and policy briefing letter discussing the PRC FOBS test, which was distributed to subscribers October 21, 2021. Citations to documents and illustrations from the LBJ Library are from the digital collection of the Lyndon B. Johnson Library.
The Defense Policy Board held a classified meeting September 6 and 7 to discuss the development of fractional orbital bombardment systems (FOBS) by the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China as well as to consider options to a demonstrated FOBS capability. The meeting drew media attention and comes a year after Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall announced the test of FOBS with a hypersonic glide vehicle that could carry a nuclear warhead. The test of the FOBS reignited the question of whether such a test or deployed weapon system violates the Outer Space Treaty. This is a knee-jerk issue where contemporary interpretation of the Outer Space Treaty assumes Article IV prohibits the presence of nuclear weapons in general in outer space and even their very existence. This essay will discuss FOBS, multiple orbit bombardment systems (MOBS), and other nuclear weapons that could potentially intersect outer space and discuss the operational realities and realpolitik of the interpretation of Article IV and its effect on nuclear weapons in space.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4466/1
Who wants to fly around the Moon?
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 17, 2022
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A full Starship vehicle—Ship 24 and Booster 7—on the pad at Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, last week, for testing. At some point in the future, another Starship vehicle may launch Dennis and Akiko Tito, among others, on a flight around the Moon. (credit: SpaceX)
More than 20 years ago, Dennis Tito was a pioneer in commercial human spaceflight. Tito flew on a Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station in April 2021, becoming the first non-government astronaut to visit the station and the first self-funded individual to go to space (previous non-government astronauts had been sponsored by governments or corporations.) It opened the door for a new era of space tourism, although one that did not open as wide as first thought given the slow pace of visitors to the station and a long gap than only recently ended.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4467/1
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Screens and spaceships: inside the renovated National Air and Space Museum
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 24, 2022
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The revamped main entrance to the National Air and Space Museum, featuring one of Robert Goddard’s early rockets. (credit: J. Foust)
When I moved to Washington, DC, more than 20 years ago, one of the things I looked forward to was to be able to visit the National Air and Space Museum regularly. I had been to the museum a few times before during trips to DC, but now it was just a Metro ride away. And indeed, in the years that followed I visited the museum many times, sometimes for special events other times just to kill time between meetings downtown.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4468/1
Recycling in the ultimate high ground
by Ben Ogden Monday, October 24, 2022
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Satellite life-extension and servicing technologies being developed commercially by companies like Northrop Grumman open up new possibilites for the US military to support operations in Earth orbit and beyond. (credit: Northrop Grumman)
Eight months before the Soviet launch of Sputnik in 1957, Air Force Major General Bernard Schriever made an ominous prediction: “Several decades from now the important battles may not be sea battles or air battles, but space battles.” It took the United States 60 years to follow through on Schriever’s vision and declare space a separate warfighting domain. However, despite this acknowledgement, the Department of Defense (DoD) has not fully embraced Schriever’s idea. The dominant view remains that space technology is meant to revolutionize terrestrial conflict rather than for use in its own right on the orbital battlefield. Fortunately, the commercial space sector has presented a window of opportunity through the advent of reusable technology that the DoD can pursue to ensure victory in these inevitable battles.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4469/1
The space investment crunch
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 24, 2022
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Astra’s Rocket 3.3 tips and begins to drift sideways seconds during a launch in August 2021. Astra’s share price has fallen by more than 95% from July 2021 and the company received a delisting warning from Nasdaq earlier this month. (credit: Astra/NASASpaceFlight.com)
First came the space industry stock listings as companies went public in the last two years. Soon may come the delistings.
Astra, a company best known for small launch vehicle development, announced that it received a delisting notice from the Nasdaq exchange, where the company’s stock had been traded since going public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) in mid-2021. Astra’s stock had closed below $1 per share for 30 consecutive business days, triggering the notice. The company now has six months to get the stock up above that $1 threshold for at least ten straight days or be taken off the exchange.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4470/1
Aiming for the Moon, crashing on Earth: The rise and fall of the 1989 Space Exploration Initiative (part 1)
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, October 24, 2022
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President George H.W. Bush in July 1989 announcing a bold new plan to return humans to the Moon and send them on to Mars. It was not successful. (credit: NASA)
NASA is currently planning on returning humans to the Moon this decade. This is not the first time the agency has had this goal. In fact, it is the third. In 2004, President George W. Bush announced the Vision for Space Exploration, which ended by 2010 and a new administration. Before that, on July 20, 1989, while marking the 20th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing, President George H.W. Bush stood in front of a giant American flag at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, and proposed a bold new program of human exploration of space. America should return to the Moon to stay and send humans to Mars, Bush said, citing destiny and America’s need to lead the free world.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4471/1
5/X 2022/51
ISRO’s LVM3-M2 mission: an expansion of India’s commercial activities
by Ajey Lele Monday, October 31, 2022
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An Indian LVM3 rocket, also known as GSLV Mark III, lifts off October 23 carrying three dozen OneWeb satellites. The launch was the first commercial mission for that rocket, India’s largest. (credit: ISRO)
On October 23, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched 36 satellites on a mission called LVM3-M2 for a UK-based company, OneWeb. This company, in which the UK government is a minority shareholder, is partnering with India’s Bharti Group to provide broadband connectivity for government and commercial customers from space.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4472/1
The debate about who should regulate new commercial space activities
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 31, 2022
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Companies developing new space services, like satellite life extension, are seeking certainty about which government agency or agencies will regulate them. (credit: Astroscale)
A small step towards reducing the growth of debris in low Earth orbit could trigger a much bigger debate about who in the federal government regulates space activities.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4473/1
Aiming for the Moon, crashing on Earth: The rise and fall of the 1989 Space Exploration Initiative (part 2)
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, October 31, 2022
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The cover of the July 1989 issue of Popular Science. At the time of the 20th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, there was public discussion that NASA needed an organizing mission to regain momentum and meaning.
In summer 1989, President George H.W. Bush announced a new initiative to return Americans to the Moon and eventually send them to Mars. NASA was charged with responding to this sudden new plan. NASA’s response was the “90-Day Study,” which came with a substantial price tag. Although the impetus for the new mission had largely come from the Space Council’s staff, some members of the National Space Council—in addition to the staff—were shocked by NASA’s response to Bush’s challenge.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4474/1
Russia and Iran expand space cooperation
by Bart Hendrickx Monday, October 31, 2022
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Hassan Salarieh, the head of the Iranian Space Agency, poses next to a model of the Russian-built Khayyam remote sensing satellite.
Russia and Iran are gradually expanding their cooperation in space, but doing so without much fanfare. Last August, a Russian-built remote sensing satellite for Iran was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome and three more are expected to follow in the coming years. There is also compelling evidence that a Russian company is building a communications satellite for Iran that will be placed into geostationary orbit in 2024. Russia’s efforts to keep the details of these projects under wraps, though, have been largely ineffective.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4475/1
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1/XI 2022/52
Review: Good Night Oppy
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 7, 2022
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Good Night Oppy
directed by Ryan White
105 mins., not rated
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1668007320/spaceviews
On the surface of Mars, a spacecraft is dying. NASA’s InSight spacecraft is nearing the end of its extended mission as its power levels drop due to dust accumulating on its solar arrays. The agency has been warning for months that the spacecraft would soon see its power levels drop below the minimum needed to keep it operational. In a release last week, JPL said it would declare the mission over when the spacecraft misses two consecutive communications passes. “There will be no heroic measures to re-establish contact with InSight,” JPL said, adding that the mission will likely reach that end in the next few weeks.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4476/1
Does the Moon mean Mars is next?
by Roger Handberg Monday, November 7, 2022
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NASA has its sights set on the Moon with the Artemis program as part of a long-term effort to send humans to Mars, even though exactly when, and how, humans will get there remains highly uncertain. (credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky)
The American Artemis program and the Chinese lunar program embody the promise that, after reaching the lunar surface, the next logical step for human spaceflight will be proceeding onward to Mars. The time frame for that to occur is likely several decades, not immediate. The Cold War and the Apollo program, which drove space for several generations, are long dead except as historical icons and actual memories for a dwindling number of people. The suggestion here is that the time frame now may prove much longer than currently projected, never mind the dash to Mars by 2029 advocated by Elon Musk. This new date represents a delay from Musk’s earlier predictions, the last being 2026. Funding this Mars mission would in fact come from the government; building on the similar process through which SpaceX was able to develop and fly its Falcon 9 launch vehicle while relying on contracts from NASA.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4477/1
In the shadows of lunar landers
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 7, 2022
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A Starship vehicle is lifted into place on top of its Super Heavy booster at Boca Chica, Texas, for testing ahead of a first orbital launch attempt as soon as December. SpaceX conducts such work out in the open, but shares few details about the testing activities or why it’s conducting them. (credit: SpaceX)
Near the point where the Rio Grande flows into the Gulf of Mexico, SpaceX is building what may be the future of spaceflight. The company released last week a promotional video for its Starbase site in Boca Chica, Texas, showing off not just the work being done on the Starship launch system but other aspects of the facility, from mission control to a coffee bar and even a sea turtle rescue effort. Company fans pored over the video, looking for hidden details and other clues about what SpaceX is up to.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4478/1
Buccaneers of the high frontier: Program 989 SIGINT satellites from the ABM hunt to the Falklands War to the space shuttle
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, November 7, 2022
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The Argentine aircraft carrier ARA Veinticinco de Mayo was a major target for British forces during the 1982 Falklands War. There is new evidence indicating that a British plan to attack the carrier may have included targeting data from an American satellite. (source: Wikipedia)
In May 1982, the Royal Air Force developed a rather ballsy plan: launch two Buccaneer strike aircraft from Ascension Island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, fly them 5,000 kilometers in the dark, refueling multiple times, and then approach the Argentine coast. They would launch anti-ship missiles at the aircraft carrier ARA Veinticinco de Mayo in Argentine territorial waters, sinking it or at least damaging it enough to remove it from Argentina’s ongoing effort to defend the Falkland Islands that they had seized from the United Kingdom in April. The Buccaneers would have received intelligence on the location of the Veinticinco de Mayo from a Royal Air Force Nimrod long-range patrol aircraft. The Nimrod crew would obtain an estimated search area from “collateral intelligence,” according to a declassified Royal Air Force document, which also stated that “It cannot be overstressed that location and identification by a third party is essential to the completion of the task successfully.”[1]
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4479/1
2/XI 2022/52
Review: Space Craze
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 14, 2022
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Space Craze: America’s Enduring Fascination with Real and Imagined Spaceflight
by Margaret A. Weitekamp
Smithsonian Books, 2022
hardcover, 304 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-58834-725-1
US$29.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1588347257/spaceviews
The reopened wing of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum includes many artifacts from the real history of space exploration, but also imagined histories (see “Screens and spaceships: inside the renovated National Air and Space Museum”, The Space Review, October 24, 2022). The model of Star Trek’s Starship Enterprise remains in place near the main entrance, but now is joined by a full-size model of an X-wing fighter from one of the more recent Star Wars movies, handing from the ceiling near the planetarium and with a placard giving its technical specifications. In another gallery devoted to solar system exploration, there are a couple of smaller, but still well-known, sci-fi artifacts: Vulcan ears worn by Leonard Nimoy as Spock, and a tribble.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4480/1
Evaluating America’s green energy options including astroelectricity (part 1)
by Mike Snead Monday, November 14, 2022
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Space-based solar power can play a key role in the transition from fossil fuels to green energy sources. (credit: ESA/Andreas Treuer)
In 1959, American anthropologist Leslie White wrote “No culture can develop beyond the limits of its energy resources.” White based this observation on his studies of food energy production per person in ancient cultures. To grow and expand, the available food energy produced per unit of human effort had to be increased. The great Egyptian civilization created 4,000 years ago, exploiting the tremendous food producing potential of the Nile River, is a testimony to this truism.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4481/1
A pivot point for space startups
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 14, 2022
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In the fall of 2021, Terran Orbital announced it would build a giant satellite factory at the Kennedy Space Center. A year later, the company abandoned those plans to instead expand an existing California factory. (credit: Terran Orbital)
The concept of the pivot is almost as central to the folklore of startups as starting a company in a garage. Silicon Valley is replete with stories of companies that made significant changes in direction—new products and new markets—after their original plans suffered setbacks or the founders discovered new, more lucrative opportunities. All pivots are efforts to stay alive; not all succeed.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4482/1
A mystery, wrapped in an enigma, surrounding an explosion: US intelligence collection and the 1960 Nedelin disaster
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, November 14, 2022
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In October 1960, a new ICBM exploded on its launch pad in Kazakhstan, killing dozens of people, including the head of the Soviet Strategic Rocket Forces. Information on the explosion became public by December. Five years later the CIA produced a report summarizing what the agency knew about the event. (credit: Russian archival footage)
In October 1960, at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, a missile blew up. It was a spectacular explosion that killed dozens of men, including the commander of the Soviet Rocket Forces, Mitrofan Nedelin. Western intelligence forces learned of this disaster, but it took many years before they were able to assess its importance and impact on the Soviet Union’s missile programs. A recently declassified CIA report from 1965 provides a snapshot of what the US intelligence community believed happened, and why they thought it was important.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4483/1
3/XI 2022/52
Review: The Art of the Cosmos
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 21, 2022
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The Art of the Cosmos: Visions from the Frontier of Deep Space Exploration
by Jim Bell
Union Square & Co., 2022
hardcover, 224 pp., illus.
ISBN 9781-4549-4608-3
US$35.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1454946083/spaceviews
There’s no shortage of books published over the years that have illustrated the beauty of the universe. Often they’re large-format books with glossy pages and colorful images of galaxies, nebulae, planets, and moons, attracting the reader. The imagery is beautiful—like works of art—but they’re intended primarily to illustrate the science of the solar system or the universe.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4484/1
Evaluating America’s green energy options including astroelectricity (part 2)
by Mike Snead Monday, November 21, 2022
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Space-based solar power can play a key role in the transition from fossil fuels to green energy sources. (credit: ESA/Andreas Treuer)
Recognizing that fossil carbon fuels are non-sustainable, America will need to successfully transition to abundant, robust, affordable, environmentally acceptable, and sustainable energy—“green energy”—this century if our children and grandchildren are to remain free, at peace, energy secure, and prosperous. Obviously, this will be a demanding undertaking, requiring careful consideration and a well-organized plan. Unfortunately, at this time, the United States does not have a carefully developed national energy security strategy to guide America’s transition to green energy. As a consequence, for decades, America has been limping along, jumping from one ineffective transition “plan” to the next while substantially remaining dependent on fossil carbon fuels. The purpose of this four-part article is to evaluate America’s green energy options to determine what can practicably be used to meet America’s future energy needs. To move beyond just rhetorical handwaving, this article quantitatively delves into details to bring needed understandings to the forefront.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4485/1
Lessons from a university’s first cubesat
by Fergus Downey Monday, November 21, 2022
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Binar-1 was one of three cubesats deployed from the Internation Space Station last October. (credit: JAXA)
Last month marked a milestone for Western Australia’s Binar Space Program as its first satellite Binar-1 lived up to its name.
Binar is the word for “fireball” in the Noongar language spoken by the Aboriginal people of Perth. Binar-1 became a real “Binar” as it re-entered Earth’s atmosphere in early October. Although the chance of it being seen over Australia was low, with the right amount of luck it would have appeared as a shooting star in the night sky.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4486/1
SLS showed up, at last
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 21, 2022
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The Space Launch System lifts off early November 16 on the long-anticipated, and long-delayed, Artemis 1 mission. (credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
For a time as late Tuesday night became Wednesday morning, it appeared the hydrogen demon had returned to delay another Space Launch System launch attempt.
Ever since the second Artemis 1 launch attempt was scrubbed in early September because of hydrogen leaks during fueling of the core stage, NASA worked to find solutions to the problem (see “Of hydrogen and humility,” The Space Review, September 6, 2022). That ranged from replacing damaged seals in the hydrogen fuel lines to creating what officials called a “kinder, gentler” approach to fueling. In mid-September, NASA went through a tanking test, filling the core stage with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, this time without any leaks.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4487/1
4/XI 2022/52
Review: Back to the Moon
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 28, 2022
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Back to the Moon: The Next Giant Leap for Humankind
by Joseph Silk
Princeton University Press, 2022
hardcover, 304 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-691-21523-5
US$29.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0691215235/spaceviews
NASA is one small step closer to returning humans to the surface of the Moon with the successful launch of the Artemis 1 mission earlier this month (see “SLS showed up, at last”, The Space Review, November 21, 2022). Orion entered a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon after a brief maneuver Friday, where it will remain for several days before departing to swing by the Moon and return to Earth December 11. Orion, NASA officials say has been performing well other than a few minor glitches.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4488/1
Assembly lines in space
Enabling construction of rotating space settlements
by John K. Strickland, Jr. Monday, November 28, 2022
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The jig factory: a cutaway view of rail supply lines from docking area to ring trusses with robot workstations. (credit: Anna Nesterova)
To be able to efficiently and rapidly fabricate large rotating space settlements in microgravity and in a hard vacuum, we will need in-space assembly lines staffed with lots of assembly line robots. We do not want construction of one settlement to take a decade or more, since a shorter assembly period will make it easier to get funding for settlement construction.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4489/1
Evaluating America’s green energy options including astroelectricity (part 3)
by Mike Snead Monday, November 28, 2022
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Space-based solar power can play a key role in the transition from fossil fuels to green energy sources. (credit: ESA/Andreas Treuer)
Many American political, financial, and social leaders are pushing America to rapidly “go green”. The result—through legislation, regulation, judicial decisions, and intense social obedience pressure—has been the adoption of a menagerie of efforts trying to rapidly reduce the use of non-sustainable fossil carbon fuels through the use of green energy technologies. However, little real progress has been made. From 1977 to 2020, US reliance on fossil carbon fuels has only declined from 91% to 79% with much of this decline due to the construction of now-obsolete nuclear power plants in the 1970s and 1980s.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4490/1
For ESA, a good enough budget
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 28, 2022
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Representatives of ESA’s 22 member states, along with associated states and other observers, attend the opening session of the 2022 ministerial meeting November 22 in Paris. (credit: ESA/P. Sebirot)
As officials arrived in Paris last week for the triennial ministerial council meeting of the European Space Agency, the agency’s leadership was confident despite the turmoil on the continent. Earlier in the fall, ESA put forward an ambitious plan calling for a 25% budget increase over the last ministerial in 2019 even amid challenges facing European nations that include high inflation, an energy crisis and the ongoing war in Ukraine (see “Europe seeks to stay in the space race,” The Space Review, September 19, 2022.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4491/1
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1/XII 2022/53
The growing importance of small satellites in modern warfare: what are the options for small countries?
by Donatas Palavenis Monday, December 5, 2022
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A small satellite being assembled by Lithuanian company NanoAvionics, one of several in the country involved in smallsats in some way. (credit: NanoAvionics)
The very first satellites launched into orbit were small, such as Sputnik-1 (USSR) which was 58 centimeters in diameter and weighed 83 kilograms, and Vanguard-1 (US), 16 centimeters in diameter and weighing only 1.6 kilograms. The size of the first satellites was determined by the technical capacity of the available rockets and the desire to receive a radio signal from space, so they were not very complicated. Over time, systems improved, and user needs and expectations changed, so satellites grew and reached unprecedented sizes. Most of the large satellites were launched during the Cold War like the reconnaissance satellite Hexagon (US), whose length was 16.2 meters and mass was more than 13 tons.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4492/1
Europe selects new astronauts as it weighs its human spaceflight future
by Jeff Foust Monday, December 5, 2022
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The new class of 17 ESA astronauts, including career and reserve astronauts and one “parastronaut” study participant, are revealed during an event in Paris November 23. (credit: ESA/S. Corvaja)
When European space officials gathered in Paris last month, it was for a two-fer. The business of the two-day meeting at the Grand Palais Éphémère was to set the budget for the European Space Agency for the next three years (see “For ESA, a good enough budget”, The Space Review, November 28, 2022). ESA member states ultimately approved 16.9 billion euros ($17.8 billion) for the agency, a 17% increase over the previous budget in 2019.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4493/1
Evaluating America’s green energy options including astroelectricity (part 4)
by Mike Snead Monday, December 5, 2022
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Space-based solar power can play a key role in the transition from fossil fuels to green energy sources. (credit: ESA/Andreas Treuer)
Part 1 of this article opened with the following observation by American anthropologist Leslie A. White:
No culture can develop beyond the limits of its energy resources, and the cultures of primitive man would have been circumscribed by the boundary of human energy for ages without end had not some means been developed for augmenting energy resources for culture building by harnessing solar energy in a new way and in a new form. This was accomplished by the domestication of animals and by the cultivation of plants, especially the cereals. (Leslie A. White, The Evolution of Culture: The Development of Civilization to the Fall of Rome, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1959. Emphasis added.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4494/1
Analyzing the deployment of BlueWalker 3
by Brad Young Monday, December 5, 2022
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The BlueWalker 3 satellite, with its array fully deployed, during ground testing. Now in orbit, the satellite’s brightness has alarmed astronomers. (credit: AST SpaceMobile)
I have the pleasure of being a member of the International Astronomical Union Center for the Protection of Dark and Quiet Skies (CPS). The main purpose of this group is to monitor and advise on the megaconstellations of satellites that are being launched by several entities. The concern in the astronomical community began with the launch of the Starlink satellites. With these and other launches, the number of satellites in low Earth orbit have increased dramatically over the past few years, with no sign of slowing.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4495/1
2/XII 2022/53
Review: Before The Big Bang
by Jeff Foust Monday, December 12, 2022
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Before The Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe and What Lies Beyond
by Laura Mersini-Houghton
Mariner Books, 2022
hardcover, 240 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-328-55711-7
US$27.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1328557111/spaceviews
Last week, NASA announced that astronomers, using spectroscopic data from the James Webb Space Telescope, had confirmed that some early galaxies the telescope had detected dated back to just 350 million years after the Big Bang. That makes the galaxies the oldest detected to date as astronomers seek to push back the curtain shrouding the early universe.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4496/1
The first photograph of the entire globe: 50 years on, Blue Marble still inspires
by Chari Larsson Monday, December 12, 2022
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The “Blue Marble” image from Apollo 17 is one of the most iconic images in history. (credit: NASA)
December 7 marked the 50th anniversary of the Blue Marble photograph. The crew of NASA’s Apollo 17 spacecraft—the last human mission to the Moon—took a photograph of Earth and changed the way we visualized our planet forever.
Taken with a Hasselblad film camera, it was the first photograph taken of the whole round Earth and is believed to be the most reproduced image of all time. Up until this point, our view of ourselves had been disconnected and fragmented: there was no way to visualize the planet in its entirety.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4497/1
Launching with cost-plus, landing with fixed-price: the financial underpinnings of a lunar return
by Tarak Makecha Monday, December 12, 2022
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The Space Launch System , seen here before the Artemis 1 launch, used cost-plus contracts to fund its development, but such contracts may not be appropriate going forward. (credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett)
NASA’s attempt to return to its ambitious traditions and establish a long-term presence on the Moon kicked off on November 16 with the launch of the Space Launch System (SLS). That launch was the first step in NASA’s Artemis program that should ultimately set the stage for a human mission to Mars. It is not off to a good start.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4498/1
All’s well that finally begins well
by Jeff Foust Monday, December 12, 2022
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The Orion crew capsule descending under its parachutes just before splashdown December 11. (credit: NASA)
December 11, 1972, featured a landing that marked the beginning of an ending. The Apollo 17 Lunar Module, Challenger, touched down on the surface of the Moon in the Taurus-Littrow region, delivering astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt for the sixth and most ambitious—but also final—Apollo lunar landing mission. The astronauts would spend the next three days on the Moon, conducting three moonwalks that, to this day, mark the last time humans have walked on the lunar surface.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4499/1
3/XII 2022/53
Satellite bombs, gliders, or ICBMs? Krafft Ehricke and early thinking on long-range strategic weapons
by Hans Dolfing Monday, December 19, 2022
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Kraft Ehricke posing with spacecraft models in 1957, the same year he wrote a memo about tradeoffs among missiles and other long-range weapons concepts. (credit: San Diego Air and Space Museum Archives)
During recent historical research at the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) Archives, I located a document as part of the Krafft Ehricke Papers titled “Basic Analysis of Global Weapon Systems & Space Weapon Systems” from 1957.[1] At that time, ICBMs were still under development and satellites had not yet flown. There were questions on how to achieve the best deterrence to protect the United States. There were even questions regarding whether and how to position nuclear bombs in orbit. This newly discovered memo provides an interesting perspective on these issues.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4500/1
Starship, Twitter, and Musk
by Jeff Foust Monday, December 19, 2022
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A unique perspective on a SpaceX Starship static fire test last week in Boca Chica, Texas. While those tests continue, it’s not clear when SpaceX will finally be ready for its first orbital launch attempt. (credit: SpaceX)
By most accounts, 2022 has been an incredibly successful year for SpaceX. It has performed 59 launches so far in the year, nearly double the number it conducted last year, with one or two more launches planned before the end of the year. Those launches have ranged from commercial communications satellites to NASA science missions, from a private astronaut mission to the International Space station to a commercial Japanese lunar lander. More than a quarter of all Falcon 9 launches, dating back to the vehicle’s introduction in 2010, took place this year.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4501/1
The secret payloads of Russia’s Glonass navigation satellites
by Bart Hendrickx Monday, December 19, 2022
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The fourth-generation Glonass-K2 navigation satellites are expected to host two new military payloads. Source (https://www.ferra.ru/news/techlife/kogda-rossiya-zapustit-novyi-navigacionnyi-sputnik-glonass-k2-27-04-2022.htm)
Aside from their primary mission, Russia’s Glonass navigation satellites are being used for a number of little publicized secondary objectives. Instruments to detect nuclear explosions have been flown on Glonass satellites since early this century and two new payloads are expected to be introduced on the next generation of satellites in 2023. One will help locate and rescue military personnel in distress and the other likely is part of a signals intelligence system that will provide targeting data for sea-launched cruise missiles. Despite the secretive nature of these payloads, a significant amount of information on them can be gathered from publicly available sources.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4502/1
Apollo 21: Upgrading the Lunar Module for advanced missions
by Dwayne A. Day and Glen E. Swanson Monday, December 19, 2022
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In the late 1960s, Grumman Aerospace studied various Lunar Module (LM) upgrades that could be flown for later Apollo missions, including dual-launch missions. Here a Taxi LM sets down near a Shelter LM.
On December 19, 1972, the Apollo 17 astronauts splashed down in the Pacific Ocean and were recovered aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga. It has now been more than 50 years since Americans walked on the Moon. NASA had planned for three more lunar landing missions that were canceled. Those were the only missions actively considered by the space agency. If NASA had continued missions beyond Apollo 20, they undoubtedly would have added increased stay times on the lunar surface, longer traverses, and more scientific equipment.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4503/1
Note: Happy Holidays! The Space Review will not publish the week of December 26. We will be back on Tuesday, January 3, 2023.
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1/I 2023 [1-4]
1) Space resilience and the importance of multiple orbits
by Matthew Mowthorpe Tuesday, January 3, 2023
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The OneWeb constellation, an example of a proliferated LEO system.
A LEO constellation is hugely expensive to build and maintain, with much shorter lifespans than GEO satellites. While the US and EU have a scale that can potentially justify such sovereign constellations, most nations can’t justify this level of expense, which is likely to mean using one of the commercial providers, such as OneWeb or SpaceX. This puts a reliance in supporting the mission into the hands of a commercial operator, potentially reducing freedom of action. This is still of value to de-risk operations through diversification, but for resilience and to meet the threat requirement it still requires sovereign GEO satellites at the core.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4504/1
2) The critical importance of resiliency for US missile warning satellites
by Brian Chow Tuesday, January 3, 2023
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As the US military shifts from existing SBIRS missile-warning satellites to a new architecture, it cannot overlook the importance of resilience amid growing ASAT threats. (credit: Lockheed Martin)
The first force design from the Space Warfighting Analysis Center (SWAC) includes a transition to a proliferated missile-warning (MW) & missile-tracking (MT) architecture. Thus far, announcements about the design have been focused on the promise of resilience in the new architecture, while little is known about the more urgent and important resilience during the transition to the new architecture. Let’s hope that the center will soon shed light on how to make the currently vulnerable MW constellation resilient during the transition, which will persist throughout this decade and likely into the 2030s. Otherwise, China, our pacing challenger, will have plenty of opportunities, including seizing Taiwan even without firing a shot well within this decade.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4505/1
3) M is for MONSTER ROCKET: the M-1 cryogenic engine
by Dwayne A. Day Tuesday, January 3, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4506a.jpg)
The M-1 was a powerful hydrogen/oxygen engine under development in the first half of the 1960s. Had it been pursued to flight test, the rockets it powered would have dwarfed the Saturn V. (credit: NASA)
By the mid-1960s NASA was on a roll. The agency was consuming nearly four and a half percent of the federal budget—compared to less than half a percent today—and going full-bore to build Apollo and its required infrastructure in time to meet President Kennedy’s deadline for landing men on the Moon by the end of the decade.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4506/1
4) After all, it’s rocket science (and bureaucracy)
by Jeff Foust Tuesday, January 3, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4507a.jpg)
The Vega C on the pad before its ill-fated launch December 20. (credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/Optique vidéo du CSG - JM Guillon)
Last year was the most active one ever for spaceflight, in terms of launch activity. There were 186 orbital launch attempts worldwide in 2022, of which 179 were successful. That’s more than double five years ago, when there were 86 successful launches out of 90 attempts. That increase is thanks primarily to China and SpaceX: the country went from 18 orbital launch attempts in 2017 to 64 in 2022, while the company went from 18 to 61 launches in the same span.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4507/1
2/I 2023 [5-8]
5) Review: A Brief History of Black Holes
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 9, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4508a.jpg)
A Brief History of Black Holes: And Why Nearly Everything You Know About Them Is Wrong
by Becky Smethurst
Macmillan, 2022
hardcover, 288 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-5290-8670-6
US$29.95
Black holes probably exist. That was the conclusion of a study publicized last week that examined whether the phenomena widely believed to be black holes might instead be an ultracompact object formed of exotic matter, dubbed a “boson star”. The analysis, though, concluded that such a boson star would last for only a fraction of a second before exploding into a less dense object or collapsing into—you guessed it—a black hole.
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1529086701/spaceviews
6) A COTS-like alternative for planetary exploration
by Louis Friedman Monday, January 9, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4509a.jpg)
Concepts like Rocket Lab’s private Venus mission might be a way to get around the budget pressures on NASA’s planetary science program. (credit: Rocket Lab)
The recent projection presented by Dr. Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s planetary science division, at the Fall Meeting of the AGU was sobering and should serve as both a warning and a call for action to the planetary science community. She projected a flat budget for planetary science to at least late this decade, despite the growing requirements for the two flagship missions, Mars Sample Return and Europa Clipper, and the broader infrastructure issues raised by the Psyche program delay and post-pandemic supply chain issues. Already we have delays initiated in the smaller, but still large, planetary programs in Discovery and New Frontiers.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4509/1
7) To go to Mars, do a backflip at Venus
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 9, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4510a.jpg)
While a human mission to fly by or orbit Venus would be designed to gain experience for a future human mission to Mars, there is also significant science it could do, such as teleoperating vehicles on the surface and in the atmosphere of the planet. (credit: JHUAPL/Caleb Heidel)
NASA has made clear its long-term human spaceflight aspirations in recent years. The agency’s Artemis campaign will fly a series of crewed missions to the Moon that will become increasingly ambitious: larger crews, longer stays, and more infrastructure. Those missions, along with experience built up on the International Space Station and commercial successors in Earth orbit and on the lunar Gateway orbiting the Moon, will enable human missions to Mars, perhaps as soon as the late 2030s. The schedule and the specifics have yet to be worked out, but the framework is in place.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4510/1
8 ) Moon denied: the 1993 Early Lunar Access proposal
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, January 9, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4511a.jpg)
In January 1993, General Dynamics unveiled its Early Lunar Access proposal for returning Americans to the Moon. The company hoped that a new presidential administration would embrace its cheaper method of returning humans to the Moon using existing launch vehicles. But the Clinton administration was already skeptical of NASA's space station program and wary of new civil space expenditures. General Dynamics' study demonstrated that it was difficult to repeat Apollo without much larger launch vehicles. (credit: General Dynamics)
Getting to the Moon is hard.
It has been more than half a century since the last humans walked on the lunar surface, or even ventured beyond low Earth orbit. Since that time there have been many proposals to do it again. In January 1993—30 years ago this week—there was a proposal known as Early Lunar Access, and it was an attempt to demonstrate that the Moon could be reached faster, and at less cost, than other proposals during that time period.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4511/1
3/I 2023 [9-12]
9) Review: Dinner on Mars
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 16, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4512a.jpg)
Dinner on Mars: The Technologies That Will Feed the Red Planet and Transform Agriculture on Earth
by Lenore Newman and Evan D.G. Fraser
ECW Press, 2022
paperback, 232 pp.
ISBN 978-1-77041-662-8
US$19.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1770416625/spaceviews
Most of the focus on human exploration of Mars has been how to get people there and back: rocket engineers, after all, like to talk about rocket engineering. Far less has been said, though, about how people will live and work there, particularly as initial expeditions evolve into permanent settlements.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4512/1
10) China’s new space station opens for business in an increasingly competitive era of space activity
by Eytan Tepper and Scott Shackelford Monday, January 16, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4513a.jpg)
China’s space station serves as both a research outpost and a geopolitical symbol. (credit: China Manned Space Engineering Office)
The International Space Station is no longer the only place where humans can live in orbit.
On November 29, 2022, the Shenzhou 15 mission launched from China’s Gobi Desert carrying three taikonauts, the Chinese word for astronauts. Six hours later, they reached their destination, China’s recently completed space station, called Tiangong, which means “heavenly palace” in Mandarin. The three taikonauts replaced the existing crew that helped wrap up construction. With this successful mission, China has become just the third nation to operate a permanent space station.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4513/1
11) From the sand to the stars: Saddam Hussein’s failed space program
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, January 16, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4514a.jpg)
The Al-Ta’ir satellite built by Iraqi scientists and engineers between 1988 and 1990. The satellite would have conducted communications experiments. (credit: Sarmad D.S. Dawood)
During the 1980s, the government of Saddam Hussein sought to develop an indigenous space program and then ran head first into external political roadblocks that made this impossible. Although more than three decades have passed since the end of the Iraqi space program, and Saddam has been dead since 2006, there is still relatively little information available on the Iraqi space program. This article summarizes what is publicly known.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4514/1
12) Unlocking the next great observatories
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 16, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4308c.jpg)
The success of JWST, exceeding requirements in nearly every way, allows NASA to focus now on development of future large space telescopes. (credit: NASA GSFC/CIL/Adriana Manrique Gutierrez)
When astronomers gathered in Seattle last week for the 241st Meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS), one of the largest conferences of astronomers, there was a celebratory mood among many there. The meeting was the first by the AAS since the release last July of the first science images from the James Webb Space Telescope that marked the start of a new era in the field after years—decades, really—of anticipation.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4515/1
4/I 2023 [13-16]
13) Mawu and Artemis: Why the United States should make Africa a priority for space diplomacy
by Nico Wood Monday, January 23, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4516a.jpg)
Officials from Rwanda and Nigeria sign the Artemis Accords during the US-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington in December. (credit: NASA)
The Artemis missions represent the most ambitious human spaceflight program in history, demanding international contributions and coordination. As a prerequisite for participation, member countries are obligated to sign the Artemis Accords, a broad-based set of principles and guidelines to advance peace, transparency, and responsibility in space. Representatives from Rwanda and Nigeria signed the Artemis Accords in December 2022, becoming the first African nations to join the international program. The economic, social, and geopolitical potentials of the African continent pose a major opportunity for US space diplomacy, yet the United States has not adequately engaged with African nations. This diplomatic vacuum stems from a general lack of US prioritization of Africa and leaves it open to competition by China and Russia. By pursuing more African nations as partners in the Artemis Accords, the United States can capitalize on Rwanda and Nigeria’s momentum, demonstrate a sustained presence on the continent, and inspire a new generation of Africans through space.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4516/1
14) What the United States should do regarding space leadership?
by Namrata Goswami Monday, January 23, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4517a.jpg)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi signed a space cooperation framework agreement January 13 at NASA Headquarters, but the two countries have offered different strategic visions for space. (credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)
The domain of space is changing fast. Once the realm of elite astronauts and space scientists who had access based on state sponsorship or university-funded programs, today space is truly democratizing, being adopted by almost anyone with a passion and an inclination to do space, creating companies, networks, and investing in the development of space. Look no further than countries like India or Japan, long dominated by elite state-sponsored space institutions but now creating enabling structures, be it in regard to new organizations, regulations, and investment opportunities for private citizens to develop space capacities and collectively take their societies forward.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4517/1
15) Not-so ancient astronauts and Area 51: the Skylab Incident
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, January 23, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4518a.jpg)
This photo of the secretive Groom Lake facility in the Nevada desert was taken by the Skylab 4 astronauts—who were instructed to not photograph the facility. Its existence created a stir within the US Intelligence Community in 1974. (credit: NASA)
[Editor’s Note: This is an extensively revised and updated version of “Astronauts and Area 51: the Skylab Incident” from January 9, 2006.]
On April 19, 1974, someone in the CIA sent the Director of Central Intelligence, William Colby, a memorandum regarding a little problem.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4518/1
16) Persistent cooperation on the space station
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 23, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4519a.jpg)
A robotic arm inspects the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft after the Soyuz suffered a coolant leak December 14. (credit: NASA TV)
Ever since Russia started an all-out invasion of Ukraine last February, the space community has wondered what it would mean for the future of the International Space Station. Russia is an essential partner on the station, but at the same time Russia and the West were rapidly unwinding cooperation elsewhere, from commercial launch to the Russian-European ExoMars mission.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4519/1
5/I 2023 [17-20]
17) Review: Apollo’s Creed
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 30, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4520a.jpg)
Apollo's Creed: Lessons I Learned from My Astronaut Dad Richard F. Gordon, Jr.
by Traci Shoblom
G&D Media, 2023
paperback, 196 pp.
ISBN 978-1-7225-0640-7
US$19.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1722506407/spaceviews
Most astronaut biographies and memoirs follow a similar trajectory. Such accounts start with childhood and, perhaps, the first inklings of desire for traveling to space. That’s followed by pursuing a career in military, industry, or academia that sets the stage for applying to become an astronaut. Then there’s the astronaut selection and training process and the mission or missions they fly. At the end, perhaps, is a discussion of life after being an astronaut.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4520/1
18) Our solar system is filled with asteroids that are particularly hard to destroy
by Fred Jourdan and Nick Timms Monday, January 30, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4521a.jpg)
An image of the asteroid Dimorphos captured by NASA's DART mission minutes before impact last September, revealing it to be another “rubble pile” asteroid. (credit: NASA/JHUAPL)
A vast amount of rocks and other material are hurtling around our solar system as asteroids and comets. If one of these came towards us, could we successfully prevent the collision between an asteroid and Earth?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4521/1
19) Space-to-ground capabilities are the answer to deterring invasion of Taiwan
by Christopher Stone Monday, January 30, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4522a.jpg)
An illustration of a Chinese hypersonic glide vehicle. Such a vehicle, combined with a FOBS system, could pose a major threat to US forces in the Pacific and beyond. (credit: Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance)
In September 2022, the Defense Policy Board met for “classified deliberations” on how China’s “fractional orbital bombardment systems and space-to-ground weapons could impact U.S. deterrence and strategic stability.” These systems were demonstrated in August 2021 when China launched a hypersonic glide vehicle, designed to defeat US missile tracking and defense systems, into an orbital path and then de-orbited to hit a target at a test range in China. While the board considered US response options, one option likely not included was the rapid development and deployment of a superior US equivalent space-to-ground weapon as a means of deterrence. This response option should be the direction the Defense Department pursues if the US intends to keep its defense treaty commitments to friends and allies in the Indo-Pacific and, indeed, plan to keep air and sea force projection capabilities as options in an anti-access fight.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4522/1
20) Human spaceflight safety in a new commercial era
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 30, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4523a.jpg)
NASA administrator Bill Nelson lays a wreath during ceremonies last week at Arlington National Cemetery as part of NASA’s annual Day of Remembrance. (credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)
Every year in late January, NASA reflects on its tragedies. The annual Day of Remembrance ceremonies across the agency commemorate the three human spaceflight fatal accidents that clustered in the same place in the calendar despite being spread out over decades.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4523/1
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6/II 2023 [21-24]
21) Review: The New Guys
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 6, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4524a.jpg)
The New Guys: The Historic Class of Astronauts That Broke Barriers and Changed the Face of Space Travel
by Meredith Bagby
William Morrow, 2023
hardcover, 528 pp.
ISBN 978-0-06-314197-1
US$40
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0063141973/spaceviews
Other than perhaps the original Mercury Seven astronauts, no astronaut class was more influential than what NASA formally called Group 8, announced in 1978. Until that group, nearly all of NASA’s astronauts were pilots with military experience; all were white men. The 35 members of Group 8—dubbed TFNG for “Thirty-Five New Guys” (with a more explicit alternative)—included the first women and people of color, as well as many more researchers and doctors, as reflecting changing expectations for the spaceflight with the impending introduction of the shuttle as well as a desire, if not an imperative, to have the astronaut corps be more representative of society.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4524/1
22) Comparing the NASA Advisory Council and NASA’s external advisory bodies
by Joseph K. Alexander Monday, February 6, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4525a.jpg)
Les Lyles, chairman of the NASA Advisory Council (left) and NASA administrator Bill Nelson meet virtually with members of the NASA Advisory Council last February. (credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
As one looks across NASA’s history, the roles and the operating styles of the agency’s internal and external advisory bodies have been distinctly different in some ways but alike in others. This article examines the principal internal advisory entity, the NASA Advisory Council (NAC) and its committees, versus a major external advisory body, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (the Academies)â to explore those differences, all from the historical perspective of advice on NASA’s science programs.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4525/1
23) National Reconnaissance Program crisis photography concepts, part 2: PINTO
by Joseph T. Page II Monday, February 6, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4526a.jpg)
PINTO camera configuration (courtesy of the NRO)
This is the second part in a series on early National Reconnaissance Program satellite concepts for crisis management.
On January 27, 1971, the National Reconnaissance Program (NRP) Executive Committee held a meeting at the Pentagon to discuss conceptual adjuncts or alternatives to the development of an Electro-Optical Imaging (EOI) system. The concepts discussed included both National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) funded conceptual studies (Film Read-Out Gambit, SPIN SCAN) and independently developed contractor ideas (PINTO, FASTBACK, AXUMITE) to bridge the capability gap between Corona and Gambit film-based satellites and the next generation digital (EOI) satellite program.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4526/1
24) What is the environmental impact of a supercharged space industry?
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 6, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4527a.jpg)
A Falcon 9 heads to orbit. Launch emissions like carbon soot are a concern to some atmospheric scientists as launch rates increase. (credit: SpaceX)
There has been a surge in the number of launches, and of satellites launched, in the last several years, thanks to the rise of megaconstellations and less expensive launch options. Last year set a record for orbital launches, with 186 attempts worldwide. This year is on a similar pace, with 16 orbital launch attempts in January alone.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4527/1
7/II 2023 [25-28]
25) Galactic dissonance for the Space Force
by Matthew Jenkins Monday, February 13, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4528a.jpg)
The Space Force is studying new initiatives, like tracking objects in cislunar space, even as there are gaps in its existing capabilities. (credit: AFRL)
In the early days of airpower, foresighted theorists like Billy Mitchell petitioned hard to demonstrate the value that airpower could bring to the warfighting abilities of the United States. Ardently campaigning, Mitchell got permission from Congress to illustrate this capability when in July 1921, his airmen sank the captured German ship Ostfriesland. It was, without question, a defining moment in the infancy of airpower that would pave the way for the eventual creation of an independent Air Force.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4528/1
26) India’s space security policy, part 1: history’s second cut
by Pranav R. Satyanath Monday, February 13, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3686a.jpg)
India tested an aSAT in 2019 after decades of support for efforts to ban ASATs. (credit: DRDO)
How does India think about the international security of outer space? India has been a spacefaring nation for more than 40 years. Its ambitions and interests have reached beyond Earth orbit. More importantly, the country has developed counterspace capabilities to defend these growing interests. Understanding India’s space security policy, therefore, is critical to reaching a consensus on any outer space arms control and risk reduction measures negotiated in international fora.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4529/1
27) Trends in NASA authorization legislation
by Alex Eastman and Casey Dreier Monday, February 13, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4530a.jpg)
President Trump signs the NASA Transition Authorization Act of 2017, the last standalone NASA bill enacted. A NASA authorization was included as part of the larger CHIPS and Science Act in 2022. (credit: NASA)
NASA authorization legislation has become less frequent and grown significantly longer since the early 1980s. This represents a marked departure from the first two decades of NASA’s history, in which Congress passed annual authorizations of consistent length. We suggest that this reflects increasing political polarization in Congress, which reduces the frequency of non-critical legislation. Other factors likely driving growth are the legislative response to disasters, such as the loss of Challenger and Columbia, and the growing scope of the space program itself.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4530/1
28) Too many or two few? The launch industry’s conundrum
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 13, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4531a.jpg)
ABL Space Systems launched its first RS1 rocket January 10. Seconds after liftoff, though, the vehicle lost power and crashed in an explosion that damaged its launch pad. (credit: ABL Space Systems)
After months of anticipation, the first orbital launch from UK soil took off from Spaceport Cornwall in southwestern England late in the evening of January 9. Virgin Orbit’s “Cosmic Girl” 747 aircraft, with a LauncherOne rocket slung under its left wing, headed out over the Atlantic for its mission. The event attracted a large crowd despite the late hour and the fact that there was little for them to see other than the airplane’s takeoff, since the release of the rocket and its climb to orbit would take place off the coast of southern Ireland, far out of view. (Attendees were entertained by other things, including a “silent disco” where they could dance away to tunes played on wireless headphones.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4531/1
8/II 2023 [29-33]
29) Review: Wild Ride
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 20, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4532a.jpg)
Wild Ride: A Memoir of I.V. Drips and Rocket Ships
by Hayley Arceneaux
Convergent Books, 2022
hardcover, 208 pp.
ISBN 978-0-593-44384-2
US$26.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0593443845/spaceviews
The future of commercial human spaceflight involves a lot of governments. A week ago, the Saudi government announced the two astronauts who will go to space as soon as May on Axiom Space’s Ax-2 mission, commanded by former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson with one commercial customer, John Shoffner, rounding out the crew. It was widely believed that Saudi Arabia would fly astronauts on that mission after signing an agreement with Axiom last September, although neither the company nor the country would confirm those plans until last week. Moreover, Axiom Space CEO Michael Suffredini said in a recent call with reporters that its next two missions after Ax-2 will primarily fly government astronauts from various countries, with perhaps a single private customer.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4532/1
30) Making something from the great balloon incident: space policy at the fringes
by Roger Handberg Monday, February 20, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4533a.jpg)
sailors recover the remnants of a Chinese balloon shot down off the South Carolina coast. Heightened awareness and tracking of balloons could provide data for use understanding unidentified aerial phenomenon. (credit: Petty Officer 1st Class Tyler Thompson)
The events around the shooting down of a Chinese surveillance balloon may prove to be boon for those who are searching for evidence of alien life coming to the planet Earth. UFOs, or unidentified flying objects—or, now, unidentified aerial phenomenon (UAP)—have been the subject of public interest mostly at the periphery of public attention due to the persistent lack of hard evidence. The US Air Force released a report (declassifying years of reports of unidentified objects) called the Project Blue Book covering the years 1947 to 1969 when that program was terminated. There were 12,618 sightings reported to Project Blue Book; 701 remained “unidentified.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4533/1
31) Will a five-year mission by COPUOS produce a new international governance instrument for outer space resources?
by Dennis O’Brien Monday, February 20, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3291a.jpg)
The UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space has started a five-year effort to develop an international regulatory framework for space resource utilization. (credit: United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs)
During its 2022 session, the Legal Subcommittee (LSC) of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) created a Working Group on the Legal Aspects of Space Resource Activity and gave it a five-year mandate to gather information, study the current legal framework, and “assess the benefits of further development of a framework for such activities, including by way of additional international governance instruments.” (emphasis added). A survey was sent to the LSC’s member states and official observers, with a response due by December 30.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4534/1
32) Trials and tribulations of planetary smallsats
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 20, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4415b.jpg)
Lunar Trailblazer is now scheduled to launch later this year after cost overruns prompted a NASA review last year. (credit: Lockheed Martin)
The growing adoption of smallsats is best known through constellations of communications and remote sensing satellites or the seemingly ubiquitous use of cubesats by schools and startups alike. But small satellites have been adopted in science as well, with cubesats and somewhat larger smallsats gaining use in Earth science and heliophysics in particular. Even in astronomy, where large telescopes would seem to be preferred, astronomers have developed small satellites for focused investigations.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4535/1
33) India’s space security policy, part 2: getting space security right
by Pranav R. Satyanath Monday, February 20, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4536a.jpg)
India’s space policy should account for the capabilities of small satellites and responsive launch, and not just anti-satellite weapons, when considering space security. (credit: ISRO)
How should India shape its space security in the near future? The first part of the essay provided an overview of India’s existing policy on space security. Further, it also analyzed how the current policy shaped India’s decision to abstain from voting on the United Nations (UN) resolution to ban debris-creating direct-ascent anti-satellite (DA-ASAT) testing. This essay asks a different question: how should India’s decision-makers think about their nation’s space security?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4536/1
9/II 2023 [34-37]
34) Assessing NASA advisory activities: What makes advice effective
by Joseph K. Alexander Monday, February 27, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4537a.jpg)
Effective outside advice played a role in both developing the Hubble Space Telescope and conducting a final servicing mission of it decades later. (credit: NASA)
NASA inherited a culture of inviting outside advice from its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), and that culture has persisted to this day. The long history of interactions between NASA and its scientific advisory bodies provides a rich experience base from which to examine how and why some advisory efforts have been successful and why others have flopped. This article draws on a review of more than 50 case studies[1] of advisory activities that were conducted by both standing and ad-hoc panels created by NASA or by entities that were formally established under the auspices of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (the Academies). We ask what common attributes or recurring themes can one discern that help distinguish between effective efforts and run-of-the-mill communications?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4537/1
35) Three rules for peace in orbit in the new space era
by Brian G. Chow and Brandon W. Kelley Monday, February 27, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3926a.jpg)
An increasingly congested space environment is driving interest in space traffic management regimes, but those proposals need to ensure they don’t undermine space security for nations who participate. (credit: ESA)
The United States and its partners clearly recognize the need for a space traffic management (STM) regime capable of managing 21st-century space security challenges. Expectations are high ahead of the United Nations Summit of the Future in September 2024. Policymakers and diplomats are hard at work preparing the ground, partly via unilateral policy changes but also through sessions of the Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) and the upcoming preparatory ministerial meeting this September.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4538/1
36) New rockets spring to life
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 27, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4539a.jpg)
Relativity Space has scheduled a March 8 launch for its first Terran 1 rocket. (credit: Relativity Space/Trevor Mahlmann)
Spring is approaching in the Northern Hemisphere, bringing with it the promise of new life and renewal. That traditionally involves plants and animals (and, perhaps, baseball) but this year it extends to launch vehicles.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4539/1
37) Journey to a cold and curious moon
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, February 27, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4540a.jpg)
A view of Triton and Neptune taken by Voyager 2. The Trident mission could have observed Triton both in sunlight and bathed in “Neptuneshine”. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Jason Major)
Four hours and six seconds after they had been taken at Neptune, the images from Voyager 2 reached Earth in August 1989, and they showed something weird. Triton, a large moon that orbits Neptune backwards, opposite the direction that most of the other moons in the solar system do, had some dark splotches on its cold icy surface. Planetary scientists enhanced them and processed them and saw what looked like plumes of gas geysering up from the moon and then bending at a 90-degree angle as they hit upper-level winds. Triton, which by all means should have been a cold, dead icy rock at the edge of the solar system, was active; way more active than anybody would have ever thought.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4540/1
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10/III 2023 [38-41]
38) Review: Original Sin
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 6, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4541a.jpg)
Original Sin: Power, Technology and War in Outer Space
by Bleddyn E. Bowen
Oxford Univ. Press, 2023
hardcover, 256 pp.
ISBN 978-0-19-767731-5
US$29.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0197677312/spaceviews
Last week, Air Vice-Marshal Catherine Roberts, the head of Australia’s year-old Defence Space Command, told reporters that the country was pursuing an anti-satellite capability of sorts: a “soft-kill” system intended to disable satellites without creating debris, like a kinetic ASAT would. “I think it’s a really important part of where we're going to is just looking at how we can have that electronic warfare capability to allow us to deter attacks, or certainly interfere,” she said.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4541/1
39) The Falcon 9 achieves the shuttle’s dreams
by Francis Castanos Monday, March 6, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4542a.jpg)
A Falcon 9 lifts of on its most recent launch March 3. SpaceX has already performed 15 launches this year as it seeks to fly up to 100 times in 2023. (credit: SpaceX)
One fascinating way of looking at Falcon 9 is to compare it to the late Space Shuttle. While completely different from a technical standpoint, they nonetheless have three basic objectives in common:
partially reusable: check
places up to 23 tons into orbit: check
launches once a week: check.
The last point is worth closer examination.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4542/1
40) Managing ocean sustainability from above: leveraging space capabilities to combat illegal fishing
by Cody Knipfer Monday, March 6, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4543a.jpg)
Satellite data, such as synthetic aperture radar imagery provided by satellites like Radarsat-2, can help identify illegal fishing. (credit: CSA)
The oceans are integral to our global ecosystem. As a source of nutrition and livelihood for much of the world’s population,[1] ocean health is critical for UN development goals.[2] Activities that jeopardize the sustainability of marine resources, particularly illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing,[3] are therefore a major international issue. Fortunately, space capabilities such as satellite radar[4] and multispectral imaging[5] are making it easier for the international community to track, characterize, and combat illegal fishing.[6]
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4543/1
41) Suborbital spaceflight’s next chapter
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 6, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4544a.jpg)
VMS Eve, the carrier aircraft for Virgin Galactic's suborbital spaceplane, returned to Spaceport America in New Mexico last week as the company prepared to begin commercial operations in the second quarter. (credit: Virgin Galactic)
The last time the suborbital research field gathered in the Denver suburbs for the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference (NSRC) three years ago, the field seemed to be on the verge of a new era amid ominous shadows of the looming pandemic. At the meeting, officials with both Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic said they were preparing to soon start flying people after years of anticipation, which meant that, soon, researchers could fly with their experiments: a goal of conference organizers since the first such meet a decade earlier (see “What is the future for commercial suborbital spaceflight?”, The Space Review, April 6, 2020).
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4544/1
11/III 2023 [42-45]
42) Suborbital spaceflight and the Overview Effect
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 13, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4545a.jpg)
Sara Sabry, who became the first Egyptian in space on a New Shepard flight in August 2022, said the flight showed her the interconnectedness of Earth and space. (credit: Blue Origin)
One of the selling points for commercial human suborbital spaceflight over the last two decades has been the opportunity to experience what’s known as the Overview Effect: the change in perspective that comes from seeing the Earth in space that many professional astronauts have reported after going into orbit or to the Moon. The question, though, has been whether the brief flight, going no more than about 100 kilometers high, would be enough to trigger it.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4545/1
43) Building a catalog to track the trash around the Moon
by Vishnu Reddy Monday, March 13, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4546a.jpg)
The Orion spacecraft spent only a few weeks in cislunar space on last year’s Artemis 1 mission, but debris from other missions could linger in this region for decades. (credit: NASA)
Scientists and government agencies have been worried about the space junk surrounding Earth for decades. But humanity’s starry ambitions are farther reaching than the space just around Earth. Ever since the 1960s with the launch of the Apollo program and the emergence of the space race between the US and Soviet Union, people have been leaving trash around the Moon, too.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4546/1
44) Searching for life and grappling with uncertainty
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 13, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4547a.jpg)
As astronomers discovery more potentially habitable exoplanets, like TOI 700 e (illustrated above), other scientists see a growing pool of worlds to test hypotheses about the development of life. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Robert Hurt)
One of the biggest developments of the last few decades in astronomy has been the explosion of exoplanet discoveries. The first planet orbiting a Sun-like star was discovered only in 1995 (a few had been found earlier orbiting pulsars). Today, the number of known exoplanets exceeds 5,000, with many more potential worlds awaiting confirmation.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4547/1
45) Russia returns to the Moon (maybe)
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, March 13, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4548a.jpg)
Russia has been preparing its Luna-25 mission for over seven years. Luna-24 was launched in the 1970s and was the culmination of a series of impressive lunar missions. However, Soviet and Russian planetary science missions have had a poor track record for decades. (credit: Lavochkin)
The Russian space agency Roscosmos recently announced that it plans to launch its long-delayed Luna-25 mission to the Moon in July of this year. Maybe, just maybe, they will launch the robotic spacecraft this summer, but it seems doubtful that the mission will succeed at its ambitious goal of landing at the Moon’s south pole.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4548/1
12/III 2023 [46-49]
46) Review: NACA to NASA to Now
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 20, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4549a.jpg)
NACA to NASA to Now: The Frontiers of Air and Space in the American Century
by Roger Launius
NASA, 2023
ebook, 292 pp., illus.
free
https://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/naca-to-nasa-to-now.html
There is no shortage of histories of NASA. Some are high-level overviews of NASA’s activities since the start of the Space Age in the 1950s, while others dive deep into specific programs, missions, or careers. Do we really need another overview of the agency?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4549/1
47) A solution to the growing problem of satellite interference with radio astronomy
by Christopher Gordon De Pree, Christopher R. Anderson, and Mariya Zheleva Monday, March 20, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4550a.jpg)
While the Green Bank Observatory is located in a radio quiet zone to shield it from terrestrial interference, it and other radio telescopes facing growing interference from satellites. (credit: Green Bank Observatory/Jee Seymour)
Visible light is just one part of the electromagnetic spectrum that astronomers use to study the universe. The James Webb Space Telescope was built to see infrared light, other space telescopes capture X-ray images, and observatories like the Green Bank Telescope, the Very Large Array, the Atacama Large Millimeter Array and dozens of other observatories around the world work at radio wavelengths.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4550/1
48) Space storm rising
by Joseph Horvath and Christopher Allen Monday, March 20, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4551b.jpg)
As SpaceX and other companies in the industry continue to grow, companies struggle to hire and retain workers. (credit: SpaceX)
There is a storm coming for the space industry. The workforce is not large enough to support the needs of the current commercial and government landscape. Without quality talent entering the space workforce quickly, the near vertical trajectory of economic growth will drastically miss estimates. In fact, the storm is already here, as most organizations are consistently competing for the same talent, rather than investing in new professional development models capable of creating sustainable talent pipelines. Stuck in an outdated paradigm for learning and professional development, the space industry must grow out from under this to solve this problem.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4551/1
49) The hard truths of NASA’s planetary program
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 20, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4189b.jpg)
NASA postponed the launch of the VERITAS mission to orbit Venus by at least three years because of budget pressures and institutional problems, rather than anything with the mission itself. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
One of the biggest scientific findings from last week’s Lunar and Planetary Sciences Conference (LPSC) came from decades-old data.
Scientists announced at the conference that they had found the most compelling evidence yet of recent volcanic activity on Venus based on observations by NASA’S Magellan orbiter in the early 1990s. Two radar images of a region, taken eight months apart, showed changes in a volcanic vent consistent with an eruption.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4552/1
13/III 2023 [50-53]
50) Review: Comet Madness
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 27, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4553a.jpg)
Comet Madness: How the 1910 Return of Halley’s Comet (Almost) Destroyed Civilization
by Richard J. Goodrich
Prometheus, 2023
hardcover, 282 pp.
ISBN 978-1-63388-856-2
US$27.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1633888568/spaceviews
There is a steady stream of stories, in at least some parts of the media, about asteroid close calls and potential impacts. Over the weekend, for example, an asteroid called 2023 DZ2 passed less than half the distance of the Moon from the Earth. NASA noted the asteroid posed no impact threat. A few weeks earlier, a similarly designated asteroid, 2023 DW, was found to have a very small chance of hitting the Earth on Valentine’s Day 2046.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4553/1
51) Space policy: why a step-by-step plan matters
by Namrata Goswami Monday, March 27, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4554a.jpg)
A US National Space Council meeting in December 2021. While the processes countries follow to develop space policy differ, they follow a similar series of steps. (credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky)
We want to go to space! Escape Earth’s gravity, get to orbit, and then travel to cislunar space, establish a presence on the Moon, and utilize the Moon as our eighth continent before we venture out into our solar system. It appears as a dark void, and yet the unknown does call to us. Earth itself is a spaceship, which for now, is the only habitable planet in our solar system. We may discover Earth-like planets that might sustain life in other solar systems, but even if we do, we might not be able to ever know or visit them given the enormous distances.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4554/1
52) Europe contemplates a space revolution
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 27, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4555a.jpg)
An independent committee commissioned by ESA says Europe should develop an ambitious human spaceflight program, one with a goal of an ”independent and sustainable” European human lunar landing in a decade. (credit: ESA/Olivier Pâques)
The current head of the European Space Agency has made clear his interest in giving Europe an independent human spaceflight capability, rather than relying on partners like the United States. “I’m restarting the debate on whether Europe should have such a capability,” Josef Aschabcher said shortly after ESA’s ministerial meeting last November where the agency also unveiled its new class of astronauts (see “Europe selects new astronauts as it weighs its human spaceflight future”, The Space Review, December 5, 2022.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4555/1
53) Indian ASAT: Mission Shakti should be a comma, not a full stop
by Ajey Lele Monday, March 27, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/3686a.jpg)
Four years after India tested a direct-ascent ASAT, questions remain about India’s space deterrence strategy and what other ASAT capabilities the country’s military may be developing. (credit: DRDO)
On March 27, 2019, India tested an anti-satellite weapon (ASAT) during an operation codenamed Mission Shakti. Now four years have passed since India emerged as the fourth state in the world to achieve such capabilities after the US, Russia, and China. This could be an opportune time to do some kind of audit about India’s effort towards evolving a space deterrence mechanism. On the face of it, no significant activity has been observed by India to take any next steps towards developing an effective space deterrence mechanism since the test. Here, it is important to give some margin to the scientific community and policymakers since not only India but the entire world had faced unforeseen challenges owing to Covid-19 crisis, which ended up delaying various programs, including in India.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4556/1
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14/IV 2023 [54-57]
54) Review: Reclaiming Space
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 3, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4557a.jpg)
Reclaiming Space: Progressive and Multicultural Visions of Space Exploration
edited by James S.J. Schwartz, Linda Billings, and Erika Nesvold
Oxford University Press, 2023
hardcover, 392 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-19-760479-3
US$49.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/019760479X/spaceviews
The rise of commercial space ventures, and the people running them, has been remarkably divisive. Some see those companies and their founders as leaders opening a new era of opportunity to explore space and harness its resources; other see them as profiteers despoiling the cosmos, be it through filling the sky with satellites or mining the Moon, while exacerbating inequalities on Earth.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4557/1
55) Exploitation beyond our planet: the risks of forced labor in space mining
by Julia Muraszkiewicz Monday, April 3, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4074a.jpg)
Future plans to mine resources from the Moon or asteroids raises questions about who will do that work. (credit: ESA)
I work in two subjects: human trafficking (or modern slavery, as that increasingly seems to be the preferred term) and space law (here, last time I checked it is still called space law). Currently, they are dominated by two issues that link the two fields together: forced labor and mining.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4558/1
56) Sustainability lessons from Artemis: How SLS and Orion succeeded
by Frank Slazer Monday, April 3, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4559a.jpg)
SLS and Orion had to survive a variety of political changes to make it to the launch of Artemis 1 last November. (credit: NASA/Isaac Watson)
In the wake of NASA’s November 2022 Artemis 1 mission success, it’s worth examining how its two major elements, the Orion and Space Launch System programs, have endured despite two changes in the White House, several changes in party control of the House and Senate, and efforts by the Obama Administration to cancel them. If any NASA program is a study in sustainability, it’s Artemis, and in our politically divided time, its lessons of stability are needed now more than ever.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4559/1
57) Robotic Mars exploration after sample return
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 3, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4560a.jpg)
New missions are needed not just for science but also to maintain relay capabilities as spacecraft like Mars Odyssey, launched in 2001, near the end of their missions. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
For the Mars science community, all eyes are on Mars Sample Return (MSR), the campaign of missions by NASA and ESA to collect Martian rock samples to be returned to Earth in the early 2030s. At last month’s Lunar and Planetary Sciences Conference (LPSC) outside Houston, scientists celebrated the recent completion of a sample cache by the Perseverance rover as the rover headed up the delta in Jezero Crater to collect more samples.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4560/1
15/IV 2023 [58-61]
58) Review: Off-Earth
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 10, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4561a.jpg)
Off-Earth: Ethical Questions and Quandaries for Living in Outer Space
by Erika Nesvold
MIT Press, 2023
hardcover, 304 pp.
ISBN 978-0-262-04754-8
US$27.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0262047543/spaceviews
A session at last month’s annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) was devoted to the ethics of space. One person on the hour-long panel examined the ethics of exploration, while a second focused on planetary defense issues, such as the ethics of using a weapon of mass destruction—a nuclear weapon, whose use in space is prohibited by the Outer Space Treaty—to deflect an incoming asteroid.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4561/1
59) How satellites and space junk may make dark night skies brighter
by Jessica Heim Monday, April 10, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4562a.jpg)
An increase in satellites and debris in orbit could add more than $20 million to the cost of one survey at the Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile. (credit: Todd Mason, Mason Productions Inc. / LSST Corporation)
Since time immemorial, humans around the world have gazed up in wonder at the night sky. The starry night sky has not only inspired countless works of music, art, and poetry, but has also played an important role in timekeeping, navigation, and agricultural practices in many traditions.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4562/1
60) The spaceport bottleneck
by Tom Marotta Monday, April 10, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4563a.jpg)
Two Falcon 9 rockets on neighboring pads in Florida for launches last year. The growing pace of launches and limitations of current spaceport infrastructure is becoming a bottleneck. (credit: SpaceX)
Why does the United States have so many unused spaceports?
Interstate 95 in Northern Virginia is regularly congested with traffic. The source of the problem is a short section of the highway that abruptly narrows from five lanes to three. Fast-moving highway traffic slows to a crawl resulting in snarled commutes, missed deliveries, and ruined vacations.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4563/1
61) First four
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 10, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4564a.jpg)
The Artemis 2 crew of (from left) Jeremy Hansen, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, and Christina Koch on stage at Ellington Airport in Houston April 3 after being named as the crew of Artemis 2. (credit: NASA/James Blair)
There were two big events in Houston last Monday, and both involved the number four.
Over the weekend, Houston’s NRG Stadium hosted the Final Four, the conclusion of the NCAA men’s college basketball playoff. Monday night was the final, pitting the University of Connecticut against San Diego State University to wrap up a tournament that lived up to its “March Madness” moniker.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4564/1
16/IV 2023 [62-65]
62) Review: The Space Economy
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 17, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4565a.jpg)
The Space Economy: Capitalize on the Greatest Business Opportunity of Our Lifetime
by Chad Anderson
Wiley, 2023
hardcover, 256 pp.
ISBN 978-1-119-90372-7
US$30.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1119903726/spaceviews
It is far from the best of times for the entrepreneurial space field. Earlier this month, Virgin Orbit filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after running out of money, a situation exacerbated, but not directly caused, by its launch failure in January (see “Go big or go home”, The Space Review, this issue). It, like many other space companies that went public in the last two years through mergers with special-purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), raised far less money than expected and saw their share prices plummet. Another launch company, Astra, said last week it won a 180-day extension from Nasdaq to get its share price above $1 or else be delisted from the exchange; as of the end of last week, it was trading at 38.6 cents per share.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4565/1
63) Internet of Things: the China perspective
by Henk H.F. Smid Monday, April 17, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4566a.jpg)
China could start launching later this year a satellite constellation that would support its efforts to be a world leader in Internet of Things technologies. (credit: CNSA)
The interconnection of physical and virtual things through information and communication technologies, the Internet of Things (IoT), is emerging as the next front in global network infrastructure, impacting a wide range of applications and services. Due to its potential application in virtually all economic sectors, analysts expect the IoT to grow exponentially in the coming years, eventually involving billions of connected devices and dozens or more verticals around the world. However, pressing questions about the operation, safety, and security of the IoT have yet to be answered. Which international standards will guide the development of IoT technologies and supporting infrastructure, such as 5G networks and the necessary satellite networks? How secure is the IoT and what are the risks of the vulnerabilities? How is consumer data used and protected?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4566/1
64) Go big or go home?
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 17, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4567a.jpg)
Virgin Orbit’s last launch was from Spaceport Cornwall in England in January; its failure exacerbated existing financial problems. (credit: Virgin Orbit)
In the end, the air-launch company ran out of runway.
In the early morning hours of April 4, Virgin Orbit announced it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in federal court in Delaware. The company, which days earlier had laid off 85% of its staff, said the filing would help expedite a sale of the company after months of efforts to raise money failed.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4567/1
65) The truth is up there: American spy balloons during the Cold War
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, April 17, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4568a.jpg)
The Chinese reconnaissance balloon designated Killeen-23 by the US intelligence community, photographed from a U-2 aircraft in early February. Balloons, high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft like the U-2, and satellites, all collected intelligence during the Cold War, and developed technology that was shared among them. (credit: US Department of Defense)
In early February, the US military tracked a Chinese intelligence collecting balloon that it had designated Killeen-23, named after a notorious murderer, before eventually shooting it down off the East Coast. An early assessment by the US intelligence community indicated that the balloon’s payload was sophisticated and may have included a radar, among other intelligence collecting systems, and sent its data back to China via a satellite link. Balloons, aircraft, and satellites have long been used by the United States for intelligence collection. But they have also been intertwined when it came to technology development, with balloons perfecting technology that was later adopted for both aircraft and satellite intelligence use, and occasionally being promoted as a means to cover gaps in American satellite intelligence collection.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4568/1
17/IV 2023 [66-69]
66) Review: The Space Law Stalemate
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 24, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4569a.jpg)
The Space Law Stalemate: Legal Mechanisms for Developing New Norms
by Anja Nakarada Pečujlić
Routledge, 2023
paperback, 244 pp.
ISBN 978-1-032-30072-6
US$48.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1032300728/spaceviews
A recent essay published by Foreign Policy made a provocative claim: China was attempting to do an end-run around the Outer Space Treaty. The basis of that argument was an announcement earlier this year that a Chinese company, Hong Kong Aerospace Technology Group, had signed an agreement to build a spaceport in the African nation of Djibouti for launches of Chinese vehicles. Because Djibouti is not a signatory to the Outer Space Treaty and related accords, the essay argued, “China may see this new partnership as an opportunity to enable a potentially rogue actor and reshape global expectations of responsible behavior in space.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4569/1
67) Is the US in a space race against China?
by Svetla Ben-Itzhak Monday, April 24, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4023a.jpg)
A Chinese concept for a lunar base. Despite extensive rhetoric, any race to the Moon between China and the US is a one-sided race. (credit: CAST)
Headlines proclaiming the rise of a new “space race” between the United States and China have become common in news coverage following many of the exciting launches in recent years. Experts have pointed to China’s rapid advancements in space as evidence of an emerging landscape where China is directly competing with the US for supremacy.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4570/1
68) India’s space policy and national security posture: what can we expect?
by Namrata Goswami Monday, April 24, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4571a.jpg)
An Indian PSLV launch of two satellites for Singapore April 22, days after the release of a new national space policy that encourages commercialization. (credit: ISRO)
India is a major space power in Asia. With its independent launch systems, satellites, spaceport, and long-standing space agency called the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), India has launched hundreds of Indian and foreign satellites since 1975, and sent missions to the Moon and Mars. India’s space program has long been a state-funded and state-led enterprise led by ISRO not only in research and development (R&D) but also in manufacturing of space systems.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4571/1
69) Grading on a suborbital curve
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 24, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4572a.jpg)
SpaceX’s first integrated Starship vehicle lifts off April 20 from Boca Chica, Texas, on a brief test flight. (credit: SpaceX)
For most launches, determining success or failure is fairly straightforward. If the rocket places its payload (or payloads) into its desired orbit (or orbits), then the launch is a success. If the rocket fails to reach orbit, it’s a failure. The only shades of gray emerge in those occasional cases where the rocket places a payload into something other than a desired orbit. There, the degree of partial success depends on how the payload can be salvaged and the effects on it on its mission, a debate that involves the launch provider, customers, insurers, and their lawyers, among others.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4572/1
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18/V 2023 [70-73]
70) Review: The Possibility of Life
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 1, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4573a.jpg)
The Possibility of Life: Science, Imagination, and Our Quest for Kinship in the Cosmos
by Jaime Green
Hanover Square Press, 2023
hardcover, 304 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-335-46354-8
US$32.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1335463542/spaceviews
Prospects for life beyond Earth have varied wildly between two extremes. On the one hand, discoveries ranging from the thousands of exoplanets in our galaxy to extremophile life on Earth make it seem, for many, that life may be commonplace in the universe provided the right combination of ingredients—organic compounds, water, and energy—is present. On the other hand, we have yet to find any evidence of extraterrestrial life, including decades of searches for radio signals and other technosignatures of intelligent life.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4573/1
71) Starship after the dust settles
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 1, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4574a.jpg)
The first integrated Starship launch “was roughly sort of what I expected,” Elon Musk said, despite its early end and the mess it made of the pad and surrounding landscape. (credit: SpaceX)
In the days after SpaceX’s Starship/Super Heavy vehicle finally took flight for the first time on an abbreviated launch (see “Grading on a suborbital curve”, The Space Review, April 24, 2023), there were celebrations by the company’s fans and debate among others about how successful this launch was. There was far less information, though, about exactly what happened on that April 20 launch from Boca Chica, Texas, including the issues that ultimately doomed the rocket.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4574/1
72) Building telescopes on the Moon could transform astronomy, and it’s becoming an achievable goal
by Ian Crawford Monday, May 1, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4575a.jpg)
The LuSEE-Night mission to the far side of the Moon is one example of the astronomy enabled by lunar exploration. (credit: NASA)
Lunar exploration is undergoing a renaissance. Dozens of missions, organised by multiple space agencies—and increasingly by commercial companies—are set to visit the Moon by the end of this decade. Most of these will involve small robotic spacecraft, but NASA’s ambitious Artemis program aims to return humans to the lunar surface by the middle of the decade.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4575/1
73) The Moon is harsh on missteps
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 1, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4576a.jpg)
Executives with Japanese company ispace watch an animation of the company’s first attempt at an ultimately unsuccessful landing on the Moon last week. (credit: ispace webcast)
The scene was both familiar and disappointing. A crowd had gathered in the middle of the night at a Tokyo museum to watch HAKUTO-R M1, the first spacecraft by Japanese company ispace, attempt a soft landing on the Moon. The lander, launched in December, had entered orbit around the Moon in March after following a low-energy trajectory, and was now making its descent towards Atlas Crater.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4576/1
19/V 2023 [74-77]
74) Review: Photographing America’s First Astronauts
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 8, 2023
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Photographing America’s First Astronauts: Project Mercury Through the Lens of Bill Taub
by J.L. Pickering and John Bisney
Purdue Univ. Press, 2023
hardcover, 340 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-61249-856-0
US$44.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1612498566/spaceviews
Last Friday marked the 62nd anniversary of Alan Shepard’s suborbital spaceflight that made him the first American in space, a milestone that went largely unnoticed. Over the years there have been halfhearted attempts to make May 5 a holiday of sorts, but the fact there’s no agreement on even what to call the day—National Space Day, International Space Day, and National Astronaut Day have all been proposed—shows the limited success of those efforts. For most Americans, May 5 is Cinco de Mayo, an excuse to eat tacos and drink Corona.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4577/1
75) How government and industry should reshape the business of space
by Adam Routh and Brett Loubert Monday, May 8, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4578a.jpg)
Development of satellite servicing and other advanced services in space requires improved coordination between government and industry. (credit: Northrop Grumman)
America’s space industry continues to reach new heights. The public and private sectors are making significant investments in space, and technological innovations are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. But despite recent optimism and momentum, the space industry cannot count solely on new technology to guarantee a bright future. To grow the space industry, government and industry stakeholders must also catalyze the business of the space.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4578/1
76) Strategizing planetary defense
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 8, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4579a.jpg)
Both the White House and NASA planetary defense strategies support efforts to improve the rate of discoveries of near Earth objects (NEOs) through missions like NEO Surveyor. (credit: NASA/JPL)
It can seem like planetary defense—protecting Earth from asteroid impacts—is now a solved problem. NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission successfully collided with a moon orbiting a near Earth asteroid last September (see “Applied planetary science: DART’s bullseye”, The Space Review, October 3, 2022) and in the months since, planetary scientists have concluded that the impact was even more effective than expected in altering the moon’s orbit.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4579/1
77) Stonehouse: Deep space listening in the high desert
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, May 8, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4580a.jpg)
The STONEHOUSE National Security Agency listening post in Ethiopia (now Eritrea) was operational from 1965 to 1975 and intercepted signals from Soviet lunar, planetary, and communications spacecraft. It also had a secondary role of communicating with US intelligence spacecraft, probably intelligence collection spacecraft in geosynchronous orbit. (credit: NSA via Cryptologic Quarterly)
During the Cold War it became common for the United States’ National Security Agency (NSA) to establish listening posts around the world to listen in on the communications of America’s adversaries. When the Soviet Union began launching satellites into space, the NSA sought to intercept their signals, building antennas that pointed up rather than across a border. These stations had to be located in spots where they were most likely to intercept signals coming down from Soviet missiles, rockets, and satellites, and one of the most specialized and unique of these stations was designated STONEHOUSE.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4580/1
20/V 2023 [78-81]
78) Review: When the Heavens Went on Sale
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 15, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4581a.jpg)
When the Heavens Went on Sale: The Misfits and Geniuses Racing to Put Space Within Reach
by Ashlee Vance
Ecco, 2023
hardcover, 528 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-06-299887-3
US$35.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0062998870/spaceviews
Many in the public perceive the space industry as being filled with, well, boring people. Engineers and scientists have reputations for being introverted nerds, after all. Anyone who has spent some in the industry, though, or has gone to conferences or other events knows that caricature doesn’t hold up. The field is full of characters, much like any other, with unconventional backgrounds and quirks that are sometimes beneficial and other times destructive.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4581/1
79) Falcon Heavy to the rescue
by Ajay Kothari
Monday, May 15, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4582a.jpg)
A Falcon Heavy lifts off last month. The vehicle could serve as a stopgap for NASA’s lunar exploration plans while SpaceX works on Starship. (credit: spaceX)
It may take SpaceX some time to surmount all the legal challenges involving its Starship vehicle as well as proving that it is satisfactorily reliable. It will happen, eventually, but it may take a while. But all is not lost.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4582/1
80) Congress must reject the Defense Department’s hope-based strategy in space
by Christopher Stone Monday, May 15, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4583a.jpg)
Pentagon officials like John Plumb (above), assistant secretary of defense for space policy, have discussed the threat posed by China, but there are disagreements about how to deal with it. (credit: Space Foundation)
In the last few years, the Space Force has established itself as a separate military service made from separate and longstanding parts of the Department of Defense (DoD). Having its own command structures and budget demonstrate that the service is moving toward the vision Congress had for it upon establishment in late 2019.[1] Unfortunately, the service continues to be fettered by the policy and strategic frameworks instituted decades ago. More troubling is the current administration’s misguided understanding of China’s strategy in space, as well as DoD’s continuing, inaccurate understanding of what makes a space deterrent credible. As a result, the Space Force is stuck implementing a deterrent strategy based on “hope” and not on warfighting capabilities.[2] If not corrected by Congress soon, this threat will continue to imperil our nation’s critical space infrastructure and vital national interests.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4583/1
81) A vastly different approach to space stations
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 15, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4584a.jpg)
A Crew Dragon spacecraft approaching Haven-1, the space station Vast said last week it could launch as soon as August 2025. (credit: Vast)
Fifty years ago Sunday, NASA launched its first space station, Skylab. In a single Saturn V launch, it placed into orbit a full-fledged space station with everything needed to support three missions by three-man crews, lasting from a month to nearly three months each. No assembly required—or, at least, none intended; damage Skylab suffered during its launch necessitated emergency repairs by the first crew to visit it.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4584/1
21/V 2023 [82-85]
82) Review: Destination Cosmos
by Jeff Foust
Monday, May 22, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4585a.jpg)
“Destination Cosmos” can at times make it looks you’re on, or near, the Sun. (credit: J. Foust)
Destination Cosmos
at Hall des Lumières, New York
through June 4
$25 per adult
https://www.halldeslumieres.com/
There has been a wave of “immersive” experiences related to space in recent years that have gone on display in museums and other locations. They’ve even showed up on smaller scales. At last September’s International Astronautical Congress in Paris, a portion of the large NASA exhibit was a room where images from the James Webb Space Telescope were projected on the walls: “a moment of zen,” one person staffing the exhibit said. It was indeed a welcome respite from the exhibit hall crowds.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4585/1
83) The dawn of the age of DART
by Daniel Deudney Monday, May 22, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4459a.jpg)
A illustration showing DART about to collide with Dimorphos last September. Demonstration of the ability to redirect asteroids opens new possibilites for humanity, both good and bad. (credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL)
Within the cascade of wondrous–sometimes astounding–space discoveries and activities, the recent successful NASA DART mission can plausibly make claim to marking a new threshold of epochal historical magnitude, not just for the often painfully slow human movement into outer space, but to the larger prospects for the survival of the human species.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4586/1
84) A lunar lander makeover
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 22, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4587a.jpg)
Blue Origin won a $3.4 billion NASA award to develop this new version of its Blue Moon lunar lander to carry astronauts to the lunar surface, starting on Artemis 5 at the end of the decade. (credit: Blue Origin)
Two years ago, NASA surprised many in the space industry when it selected SpaceX, and only SpaceX, for its Human Landing System (HLS) program, awarding the company $2.9 billion to develop a lunar lander version of its Starship vehicle to carry astronauts to the lunar surface on Artemis 3 (see “All in on Starship”, The Space Review, April 19, 2021). That prompted the two losing bidders, teams led by Blue Origin and Dynetics, to file a protest with the Government Accountability Office (GAO). When the GAO rejected the protest three months later, Blue Origin then went to federal court, only to have the Court of Federal Claims rule against the company that November (see “Resetting Artemis”, The Space Review, November 15, 2021.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4587/1
85) Saving Skylab the top secret way
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, May 22, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4588a.jpg)
The Skylab orbital work shop, photographed by the crew that came to repair it. One of the two main solar panels was completely torn away, and the other was partially deployed, as seen here. A top secret reconnaissance satellite photographed the station shortly before the launch of the rescue mission, confirming the damage. (credit: NASA)
On May 14, 1973—50 years ago last week—NASA launched Skylab atop its last Saturn V. During liftoff, the workshop’s meteoroid shield broke loose and ripped off one of its two main solar panels. Problems were immediately apparent to NASA technicians monitoring the launch.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4588/1
Note: Because of the Memorial Day holiday, next week’s issue will be published on Tuesday, May 30.
22/V 2023 [86-90]
86) China’s spaceplane returns: is this a new weapon in their counterspace arsenal?
by Ajey Lele Tuesday, May 30, 2023
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Many Western observers speculate that China’s spaceplane is similar in both design and its use to the Space Force’s X-37B, sene here after its latest flight. (credit: US Space Force/Staff Sgt. Adam Shanks)
On May 8, China’s reusable spaceplane touched down at the Lop Nor military base. It was a flight lasting 276 days, launching last August from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The vehicle is known to have released an object in space in late October, which possibly could be a small satellite. This was the second spaceplane launch by China, after a brief flight in September 2020. Chinese sources had revealed that this system is known as Chongfu Shiyong Shiyan Hangtian Qi, which means a Repeat-Use Test Spacecraft.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4589/1
87) Navigating space bioethics
by Vanessa Farsadaki Tuesday, May 30, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4590a.jpg)
Human spaceflight, including extended exposure to microgravity and other aspects of the space environment, poses biomedical and ethical issues. (credit: NASA)
The topic of space medicine acquires utmost relevance as humanity continues to push the bounds of exploration and journeys further into space. The fascinating nexus between bioethics and space travel raises interesting issues and concerns. In this opinion piece, I wish to investigate the ethical issues that occur in this uncharted territory and dig into the complex web of bioethics surrounding space medicine.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4590/1
88) The case for space ethics
by Magdalena T. Bogacz Tuesday, May 30, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4591a.jpg)
The Defense Department has released its list of tenets for responsible behavior in space, without defining the ethical basis for being “responsible”. [larger version] (credit: Defense Department)
While conceiving of space as human destiny, space settlement advocates often use rhetoric on behalf of all life on Earth. Space enthusiasts provide multiple reasons why we must categorically expand our civilization into space, ranging from the biological—to ensure the survival of the species in the event of a natural catastrophe or scarcity of resources—to the ethical or otherwise spiritual: to achieve our destiny.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4591/1
89) Red planet reality
by Dwayne A. Day Tuesday, May 30, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4592a.jpg)
“Stars on Mars” was filmed in the Australian desert. A group of celebrities lived in this habitat and each week they voted somebody out the airlock. (credit: Fox)
Here we go. All over again.
On June 5, Fox premieres a new reality show called “Stars on Mars.” The premise is that a group of C-list celebrities are stuck together in a simulated Mars habitat and go on various missions in fake spacesuits to compete for prizes. William Shatner—Captain Kirk himself—is back in “mission control,” overseeing the entire effort. This is the latest in a long list of space-themed reality shows, most of which never blasted off.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4592/1
90) Death of a launch company
by Jeff Foust Tuesday, May 30, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4593a.jpg)
Virgin Orbit hoped a bankruptcy auction would bring in a new investor to rescue LauncherOne. Instead, its assets were bought by several companies. (credit: Virgin Orbit)
LauncherOne made its public debut, like so many other things associated with Richard Branson, in a blaze of publicity. Branson and Virgin Galactic used the Farnborough International Airshow in England in July 2012 to announce the company’s plans to develop a small launch vehicle that would use the same WhiteKnightTwo plane developed for its SpaceShipTwo suborbital space tourism vehicle. (It switched a couple years later to a Boeing 747.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4593/1
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23/VI 2023 [91-95]
91) Review: For the Love of Mars
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 5, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4594a.jpg)
For the Love of Mars: A Human History of the Red Planet
by Matthew Shindell
University of Chicago Press, 2023
hardcover, 248 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-226-82189-4
US$27.50
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0226821897/spaceviews
It should be little surprise that humanity’s perceptions of Mars have changed over the years, centuries, and millennia. Our knowledge of the planet has changed, from a wandering red star in the night sky to a world with its own geological history and potential for life. At the same time, humanity’s knowledge of the broader universe, and the place of Mars within it, has changed.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4594/1
92) A review of Japan’s space policy after the H3 launch vehicle failure
by Junji Miyazawa Monday, June 5, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4595a.jpg)
The first H3 lifts off March 7 on its ill-fated mission. (credit: JAXA)
On March 7, 2023, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) tried and failed to launch the first H3 launch vehicle. The H3 is Japan’s first new major rocket in 12 years and is expected to replace the current H-2A launch vehicle in terms of high-cost performance and flexibility. The main reason for its failure was that the second-stage engine did not ignite due to electrical problems. JAXA is working to determine the problem’s cause and resolve it immediately. However, the next launch date has yet to be set. This article discusses the losses suffered by Japan due to this failure and some of the contributing causes of these losses. Finally, a mechanism for ensuring a better balance of costs and risks for all Japanese space stakeholders is discussed for a positive way ahead.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4595/1
93) Cultural considerations in space exploration: Insights for NASA’s Artemis 2 mission
by Deana L. Weibel Monday, June 5, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4596c.jpg)
The Artemis 2 astronauts will see things through their own eyes that no human has since the last Apollo mission to the Moon. (credit: NASA/James Blair)
NASA missions tend to be thought of as celebrations of hardware and technology but those missions that include crews also, and unavoidably, contain a human element. As a cultural anthropologist who has spent many years studying the human aspects of space exploration, including religion, socialization, and other astronaut perspectives and experiences, I have a few suggestions for things that NASA personnel and the people journeying to the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years should keep in mind.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4596/1
94) Whither Starliner?
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 5, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4597a.jpg)
Boeing said Thursday it was delaying its first crewed flight of Starliner, which had been scheduled for July 21, because of parachute and wire harness tape problems. (credit: Boeing/John Grant)
The gaping chasm between the two companies NASA selected nearly nine years ago to develop commercial crew vehicles was clearly illustrated last week.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4597/1
95) Barbarian in space: the secret space-laser battle station of the Cold War
by Dwayne A. Day and Robert Kennedy Monday, June 5, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4598a.jpg)
The Skif-DM experimental weapons system was launched from Baikonur in May 1987. The large black cylinder attached to the Energia rocket contained a system for pointing and controlling a laser weapon. This spacecraft did not carry the laser, but was equipped with pressurized tanks to test the system that would eventually power the laser with CO2. Although the rocket performed as planned, the Skif-DM did not reach orbit. “Mir-2” was painted on its side. “Mir” means “peace” in Russian, and there were future plans to use Energia to launch a follow-on Mir space station. (credit: buranarchive.space)
The night skies over Kazakhstan lit up on May 15, 1987 as a powerful rocket roared off its pad at the Soviet launch complex at Baikonur. The Energia launch vehicle consisted of a core stage with four engines and four liquid-fueled strap-on booster rockets. A long cylinder mounted on the side of the rocket contained the payload, a massive spacecraft with “Polyus,” or “pole”—as in north or south pole—painted in Russian on its side, and “Mir-2” painted on its front. “Mir” means “peace” in Russian, a name that was possibly advertising, a cover story, or an ironic joke.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4598/1
24/VI 2023 [96-99]
96) Review: After Apollo
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 12, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4599a.jpg)
After Apollo: Cultural Legacies of the Race to the Moon
by J. Bret Bennington and Rodney F. Hill (editors)
University Press of Florida, 2023
hardcover, 210 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-68340-357-9
US$90.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1683403576/spaceviews
The 50th anniversary of the Apollo landings on the Moon was an opportunity for historical reflection and reassessment as well as thinking about the future. But surely, six months after the golden anniversary of the last Apollo landing, Apollo 17, that opportunity has passed.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4599/1
97) A case for space in the Caribbean: a historic and strategic perspective
by Kaylon J. Paterson Monday, June 12, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4600a.jpg)
A view of part of the Caribbean taken from the International Space Station. (credit: NASA)
The dawn of the new space economy has brought with it ample opportunity for the private sector to participate in what was originally a government-dominated race for space supremacy. Where large nations—mainly the US, Russia, and the European Union—dominated the industry for decades, we find that the new space age has made room for emerging powers like China, India, and middle powers like Japan, Canada, and North and South Korea to take front stage. With this, even nations with little to no previous space ties have found their footing in the industry, including the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Kenya, and various other nations across the African and Asian continents.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4600/1
98) Mars 2033: can we do this?
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 12, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4601a.jpg)
An earlier Boeing concept for a Mars transport. Even with time running out, some Mars advocates still think a 2033 crewed mission to orbit or fly by Mars is feasible. (credit: Boeing)
It’s a slogan that not only could fit on a bumper sticker, it was a bumper sticker.
For several years, Ed Perlmutter, a congressman who served on the House Science Committee, pushed NASA and others to accelerate plans for a human mission to Mars. At many hearings, the Colorado Democrat would brandish a bumper sticker with an image of Mars and the words “2033: We Can Do This,” the “this” being a human mission to Mars.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4601/1
99) Why laws and norms matter in space
by Senjuti Mallick Monday, June 12, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4602a.jpg)
Growing numbers of satellites and debris illustrate the need for laws and norms to ensure safe space operations. (credit: ESA)
Space may be the final frontier and at times may feel like the untamed Wild West, but it is not outside the purview of the law. Consider that, at the outset of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russian-state actors launched a cyberattack against ViaSat’s KA-SAT commercial satellite network, disabling thousands of modems across Ukraine and Europe. Subsequently, SpaceX stepped up to provide Starlink services to Ukraine, which was instrumental in the Ukrainian military’s ability to defend itself. Failing in their attempts to jam Starlink, intelligence indicates that Russia planned to target Starlink through kinetic means. This gives rise to the question as to whether Russia could legally use this clandestine weapon to target Starlink. The brief answer is no.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4602/1
25/VI 2023 [100-103]
100) Review: From the Earth to Mars
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 19, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4603a.jpg)
From the Earth to Mars: The Surprising History of the Rocket Pioneers Who Launched Humanity Into Space
by Jeffrey Manber
Multiverse Media, 2023
paperback, 106 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-960119-67-4
US$23.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1960119672/spaceviews
The Space Age is conventionally defined as starting with the launch of Sputnik in 1957. There was, of course, an extensive history leading up to that launch, with some preferring to define the era as starting with the first successful suborbital V-2 launch almost exactly 15 years earlier. But even before that there had been decades of development and dreaming about rockets for space travel.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4603/1
101) The implications of the UK’s National Space Strategy on special operations
by Jack Sharpe, Fotios Moustakis, Markos Trichas, and Damian Terrill Monday, June 19, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4604a.jpg)
The United Kingdom is focusing more on both civil and military space, including establishing a UK Space Command. (credit: UK Space Command)
Space capabilities have become an integral part of our daily lives, yet their significance often goes unnoticed by many. While space has captivated generations and driven nations to push technological boundaries, it remains an unsung enabler of modern life. The National Space Strategy (NSS) of the British Government is a testament to the criticality and potential opportunities presented by space. This document positions Great Britain as a pioneering force within the international spacefaring community, showcasing the UK government’s commitment to space exploration, technology, and research. However, the NSS falls short in terms of signaling increased capital expenditure, setting concrete milestones, and establishing realistic outcomes. This article will discuss the NSS, its potential impacts for UK special operations, and why UK Defence must integrate space with special operations planning and activity.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4604/1
102) A chaotic trajectory for NASA’s budget
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 19, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4605a.jpg)
NASA administrator Bill Nelson made his case for the agency’s 2024 budget proposal to House appropriators in April, who are now considering significant cuts in their spending bills. (credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
The federal appropriations process is never easy, but some years are more difficult than others. This year appears to be shaping up to be one of the more difficult ones, particularly for NASA.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4605/1
103) From the sky to the mud: TENCAP and adapting national reconnaissance systems to tactical operations
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, June 19, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4606a.jpg)
The Tactical User Terminal was used to process electronic intelligence data from Program 989 satellites during the 1980s. This was part of the larger Tactical Exploitation of National CAPabilities (TENCAP) program. (credit: US Army)
Throughout the 1960s, the United States invested billions of dollars in developing various intelligence satellites to collect imagery and signals data on the Soviet Union and its allies. From the start, this data was intended to serve “national” level leaders, starting with the president, his senior advisors, the Central Intelligence Agency, and other parts of the intelligence community. It was also intended for the National Command Authority and strategic forces by providing images, maps, and electronic data for bomber and submarine crews to increase their ability to perform their missions. The US Air Force’s Strategic Air Command was a major customer for the signals intelligence as well as imagery produced by these national-level systems.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4606/1
26/VI 2023 [104-107]
104) Review: Under Alien Skies
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 26, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4607a.jpg)
Under Alien Skies: A Sightseer’s Guide to the Universe
By Phil Plait
W. W. Norton & Company, 2023
hardcover, 336 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-393-86730-5
US$30.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393867307/spaceviews
Astronomers provided a bit of disappointing news last week about an exoplanet. Observations of TRAPPIST-1 c, one of seven planets known to orbit a red dwarf star, led astronomers to conclude the Earth-sized planet either has a tenuous atmosphere of carbon dioxide or no atmosphere at all. Before the James Webb Space Telescope observations, astronomers suspected the planet, while unlikely to be habitable, might have a dense Venus-like atmosphere. That could mean more distant planets could also lack atmospheres, if they formed in the same environment.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4607/1
105) How artificial photosynthesis may be key to sustained life beyond Earth
by Katharina Brinkert Monday, June 26, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4608a.jpg)
Artificial photosynthesis could be an alternative to traditional environmental control and life support system (ECLSS) technologies like this hardware. (credit: NASA)
Life on Earth owes its existence to photosynthesis, a process that is 2.3 billion years old. This immensely fascinating (and still not fully understood) reaction enables plants and other organisms to harvest sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide while converting them into oxygen and energy in the form of sugar.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4608/1
106) A veteran astronaut adjusts to a new era of private spaceflight
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 26, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4609a.jpg)
Peggy Whitson spent 665 days in space on three long-duration ISS missions before a much shorter visit in May commanding the Ax-2 private astronaut mission. (credit: Axiom Space)
Peggy Whitson is America’s most experienced astronaut, having spent 665 days in space on three long-duration missions to the International Space Station in 2002, 2008, and 2016–2017. But returning to the station as a private astronaut, commanding Axiom Space’s Ax-2 mission in May, still required some adjustments.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4609/1
107) India joins the Artemis Accords
by Ajey Lele Monday, June 26, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4610a.jpg)
Taranjit Sandhu (second from right), India’s ambassador to the US, signs the Artemis Accords June 21 as NASA Administrator Bill Nelson looks on. Also participating are Nancy Jackson, deputy assistant secretary of state for India, and Krunal Joshi, ISRO space counsellor. (credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Collaboration in space between India and the United States has some six decades of history. It is often mentioned as collaboration between two powers who share values like vibrant democracies and open society. The Indian space program was born in 1963 with the launch of Nike-Apache sounding rockets from the India’s first spaceport, the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station. In the first few years this relationship was thriving, with joint collaborations between NASA and ISRO like the Satellite Instrumental Television Experiment (SITE). Under this program, satellites beamed educational content to television sets for more than 2,000 remote Indian villages.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4610/1
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27/VII 2023 [108-111]
Nie tylko LIGO, ale i martwe gwiazdy mogą służyć do detekcji fal grawitacyjnych
108) A subtle symphony of ripples in spacetime
by Chris Impey Monday, July 3, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4611a.jpg)
Gravitational waves create ripples in spacetime that alter the precise timing of pulsars that are then detected by astronomers. (credit: Aurore Simonnet for the NANOGrav Collaboration)
Astronomers use dead stars to measure gravitational waves produced by ancient black holes
An international team of astronomers has detected a faint signal of gravitational waves reverberating through the universe. By using dead stars as a giant network of gravitational wave detectors, the collaboration, called NANOGrav, was able to measure a low-frequency hum from a chorus of ripples of spacetime.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4611/1
109) What does the People’s Republic of China’s space program mean for Great Britain and the West?
by Jack Sharpe, Fotios Moustakis, Markos Trichas, and Damian Terrill Monday, July 3, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4612a.jpg)
Growing Chinese military and civil space capabilities create challenges and opportunities for the West. (credit: Xinhua)
Despite its relative infancy operating in space, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has become increasingly successful in launching satellites and has become the only country to successfully launch a space vehicle to the far side of the Moon (Jones, 2021). These achievements have consolidated the PRC’s reputation as a spacefaring nation. Speaking in 2021, President Xi Jinping stated “to explore the vast cosmos, develop the space industry and build China into a space power is our eternal dream” (China’s Space Programme: A 2021 Perspective, 2022).
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4612/1
110) Regulating a maturing commercial spaceflight industry
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 3, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4613a.jpg)
VSS Unity glides overhead on its way back to Spaceport America during the Galactic 01 flight June 29. (credit: J. Foust)
For a change, the significance of the flight was bigger than the spectacle.
Compared to nearly two years ago, when Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson got his long-awaited suborbital spaceflight just days before rival Jeff Bezos (see “The suborbital spaceflight race isn’t over”, The Space Review, July 11, 2021), the atmosphere at Spaceport America last week was relatively subdued. There were no huge crowds of media or invited gusts, no celebrities or musical performances. Even Branson himself appeared to be absent, at least not making any public appearances at the spaceport.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4613/1
111) Spinning towards the future: crisis response from space
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, July 3, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4614a.jpg)
SPIN SCAN was a satellite studied from 1967-1970 and intended to provide imagery to the ground within 24 hours. The satellite would spin edge toward the ground while imaging, and then edge-on while recharging its batteries. SPIN SCAN was rejected in spring 1971, and it was not until late 1976 and the advent of the KH-11 KENNEN satellite that the United States acquired a near-real-time reconnaissance capability. (credit: NRO)
In the early morning of June 5, 1967, hundreds of Israeli aircraft took off from their bases and headed out over the Mediterranean and the Red Sea before turning toward Egypt. They attacked multiple Egyptian airbases, and soon more than 300 Egyptian aircraft were smoking wrecks with their airfields torn to shreds. Shortly thereafter, the Six-Day War was over.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4614/1
28/VII 2023 [112-115]
112) Review: Matariki: The Star of the Year
by Joseph T. Page II Monday, July 10, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4615a.jpg)
Matariki: The Star of the Year
by Rangi Matamua
Huia Publishers, 2017
paperback, 128 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-77550-325-5
US$36.50
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1775503259/spaceviews
Since the Northern Hemisphere contains the largest portion of Earth’s human population, general astronomical texts tend to focus on the stars viewable by these peoples. One focus area that does not receive much attention outside of hard-core astronomy books are those star groupings viewable from the Southern Hemisphere, and the mythologies surrounding them.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4615/1
113) Reality is underrated: Fox’s “Stars on Mars” takes off
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, July 10, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4616a.jpg)
The summer space-themed reality show “Stars on Mars” sends its participants on missions inspired by the 2015 movie The Martian. The show is more clever and watchable than you would expect. It airs Monday nights on Fox and streams on Hulu. (credit: Fox Television)
I was wrong.
Five weeks ago, I wrote about the Fox space-themed “reality” TV show “Stars on Mars” and predicted that it would be awful. I based that assessment on the commercials and the advertising, and my biases against reality television, most of which is—to borrow a trope from one of the more notorious examples—garbage. I expected to hate-watch the show.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4616/1
114) Don’t jeopardize national security in the name of competition
by Jonathan Ward Monday, July 10, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4617a.jpg)
While the Space force is looking to provide opportunities for new launch providers, like Blue Origin and its New Glenn rocket, a Senate proposal to accelerate that process could create national security risks. (credit: Blue Origin)
The establishment of the US Space Force marked a significant milestone in America's commitment to maintaining its dominance in space. As the guardians of the final frontier, it is imperative that the Space Force maintains the highest standards when it comes to the launch of mission-critical satellites. The Senate Armed Services Committee’s recent proposed changes to the launch services procurement process, however, risk undermining the Space Force’s ability to deploy our most crucial space-based defense assets.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4617/1
115) A crisis and an opportunity for European space access
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 10, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4618a.jpg)
An Ariane 5 lifts off for the 117th and final time July 5 from French Guiana. (credit: ESA-CNES-Arianespace/Optique video du CSG/P. Piron)
Two launches this month illustrated the current state of European access to space.
Last Wednesday, an Ariane 5 lifted off from Kourou, French Guiana. It was, in many respects, a typical Ariane 5 launch, carrying two communications satellites bound for geostationary orbit. One, Heinrich-Hertz-Satellit, was built by German company OHB for the German government to test advanced communications technologies. The other, Syracuse 4B, was built by a consortium of Airbus Defence and Space and Thales Alenia Space to provide communications for the French military.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4618/1
29/VII 2023 [116-119]
116) Could a 500-year-old treaty hold the key to peace in space?
by Daniel Duchaine Monday, July 17, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4619a.jpg)
As more countries pursue exploration of the Moon and Mars, it creates increasing opportunities for geopolitical conflict in space. (credit: CNSA)
Space is changing again. Much has been made about the “Second Space Age” where launch costs are cheaper and more countries have access. This is all correct, of course and we are right to think about it. We are not there yet, but the discourse around space is changing from merely a support system for Earth to providing value by itself.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4619/1
117) The Chandrayaan-3 mission to the Moon is underway
by Ajey Lele Monday, July 17, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4620a.jpg)
An LVM3 rocket successfully launched India’s Chandrayaan-3 lunar lander mission July 14. (credit: ISRO)
On July 14, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) started its latest mission to the Moon. For India, this is an important mission because an earlier mission Chandrayaan-2, launched four years earlier, was only a partial success. That mission had two elements: an orbiter and a lander and rover system. ISRO was successful with the orbiter, but the lander crashed attemping a soft landing in September 2019.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4620/1
118) For Mars Sample Return, more serious repercussions
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 17, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4621a.jpg)
A conceptual illustration of NASA’s current plans to implement the Mars Sample Return program in cooperation with ESA. NASA is facing new pressure to get the costs of the program down. (credit: NASA)
An event in Washington last Thursday evening marked the first anniversary of the release of the first science images from the James Webb Space Telescope, a declaration that the nearly $10 billion telescope was ready to deliver on the promises made over its decades of development (see “The transformation of JWST”, The Space Review, July 18, 2022.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4621/1
119) Smashing satellites as part of the Delta 180 Strategic Defense Initiative mission
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, July 17, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4622d.jpg)
Declassified photo of the Delta 180 spacecraft launched in September 1986 as part of the Strategic Defense Initiative. This was the first in-space test for SDI and it was successful, possibly bolstering the resolve of President Reagan one month before the Reykjavik Summit. The mission was classified until after it was successful, and was clearly intended to impact public perception of the prospects of the “Star Wars” anti-ballistic missile program. (credit: SDIO)
In September 1986, two American satellites smashed into each other high in the skies over the Pacific Ocean, creating a spectacular shower of sparks and streaks, and making a powerful statement. This was no accident, but a deliberate test as part of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)—nicknamed “Star Wars” by opponents and the media—and one of the most impressive examples of rapid spacecraft development of the Cold War.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4622/1
30/VII 2023 [120-123]
120) Access to Venus
by John Strickland Monday, July 24, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4623a.jpg)
Images of the surface of Venus taken from the Venera 13 mission. (credit: NASA)
Venus is the opposite of Mars in regard to terraforming. In fact, you would practically have to terraform Venus before you could land humans on it. It has a planetary surface almost as large as the Earth’s. However, removing the 90 atmospheres of carbon dioxide, even at the very high volatile transfer rates proposed for terraforming Mars, would probably take many millennia and an enormous amount of energy. A low energy, faster alternative would be to build a 15,000-kilometer-wide sunshade for Venus which would cause the carbon dioxide atmosphere to collapse into a liquid carbon dioxide ocean or frozen dry ice layer, at Antarctic-like temperatures.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4623/1
121) Another technique to identify “unknown” satellites
by Charles Phillips Monday, July 24, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4624e.jpg)
The three CERES satellites, seen here before launch, are among those whose orbital elements are not included in public catalogs. (credit: Airbus)
A long-time interest of mine has been to look at satellite catalogs and see what is in them—and what is not.
The (default world official) satellite catalog is maintained by the US Space Force. They assign numbers to each known satellite and they assign the “COSPAR” designator (see below for a little more about that), which is one way that the international community labels satellites. They normally do an adequate job; the satellite catalog is at Space Track and many organizations and people use it.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4624/1
122) The value of public interest in spaceflight
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 24, 2023
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Despite the success of, and attention surrounding, the Artemis 1 mission, only a small percentage of those polled thought returning humans to the Moon was a top priority for NASA. (credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
The space community has long had an interest, bordering on an obsession, with public opinion of space initiatives. That interest can be healthy and necessary: publicly funded space projects, like those of NASA, do require some degree of public support to continue. But it also at times can become a mania: if only more people knew what NASA was doing and supported it, advocates argue, NASA could get the budget increases it needs to carry out those ambitions.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4625/1
123) The new era of heavy launch
by Gary Oleson Monday, July 24, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4626a.jpg)
SpaceX’s next Super Heavy booster on the pad last week for tests ahead of a launch later this year. Vehicles like Starship/Super Heavy have the potential to reshape the industry based on their price and performance. (credit: SpaceX)
Three new commercial heavy launch vehicles with test launches scheduled during the next year may usher in a new age of space, depending on which succeed. The new heavy launchers are the Vulcan by United Launch Alliance (ULA), New Glenn by Blue Origin, and Starship-Super Heavy by SpaceX.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4626/1
31/VII 2023 [124-128]
124) Review: Unknown: Cosmic Time Machine
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 31, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4627a.jpg)
Unknown: Cosmic Time Machine
directed by Shai Gal
Netflix, 2023
64 minutes, TV-14
https://www.netflix.com/pl/title/81473680
It’s been more than a year since the release of the first science images from the James Webb Space Telescope, demonstrating that the $10 billion spacecraft has met, if not exceeded, the expectations of astronomers who waited decades to use it. The 12 months that followed have only reinforced those conclusions as the telescope has trained its mirror on the distance universe and worlds in our solar system, generating a cascade of discoveries with only a few minor technical glitches.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4627/1
125) Is China’s rise in space over? Indexing space power for the next space age
by Daniel Duchaine Monday, July 31, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4628a.jpg)
China has emerged as a major space power in part because of its rapidly increasing launch rate, but will the country cotinue to rise at the expense of other nations? (credit: Xinhua)
We will soon enter an age where space is not merely a domain to support Earth but another region, with regional great power competition. As space becomes a true region, international relations tools will become increasingly more enlightening. In this paper, I seek to introduce a way to track “Space Power” by creating an index showing which countries are great powers in space, which countries hold the greatest share of this power in space, and tracking this over time and into the future. Understanding these dynamics is vital for understanding the most likely sources and periods of conflict and cooperation.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4628/1
126) Should the loss of the Titan submersible impact space tourism?
by Dale Skran Monday, July 31, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4629a.jpg)
The loss of a submersible with five people on board has drawn parallels to commercial spaceflight and the risks people flying on such vehicles face. (credit: Blue Origin)
With the recent loss of the Titan submersible on a voyage to visit the Titanic, voices have been raised suggesting that the nascent space tourism industry requires immediate regulation. Before jumping on this bandwagon, let’s take a minute to compare the space tourist “industry” with the usage of submersibles and submarines for tourist voyages.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4629/1
127) The highs and lows of extreme tourism: The Titan accident and commercial expeditions to space and the deep sea
by Deana L. Weibel Monday, July 31, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4630a.jpg)
The loss of the Titan submersible with five people on board has triggered discussions about the differences between deep-sea and space travel, and between tourism and research. (credit: OceanGate)
On June 18, 2023, the OceanGate submersible Titan imploded in the midst of an expedition to view the remains of the Titanic, the famous ocean liner that sank after striking an iceberg on April 15, 1912. Between the Titan’s demise and the discovery of the submersible’s debris on June 22, speculation spread far and wide about the fate of the five participants. They were OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Action Aviation chair and recent Blue Origin astronaut Hamish Harding, Pakistani business executive and SETI Institute trustee Shahzada Dawood, and Dawood’s 19-year-old son, university student Suleman Dawood. Conversations proliferated across news stations and social media about whether the five might be stuck in the submersible with a dwindling oxygen supply or whether some or all had of the passengers had already died.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4630/1
128) Nuclear space gets hot
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 31, 2023
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Lockheed Martin and BWXT will develop a nuclear thermal propulsion demonstration spacecraft for NASA/DARPA’s DRACO program. (credit: Lockheed Martin)
Many in the space community had long recognized the value that nuclear power provides, particularly for missions beyond Earth orbit. It can generate electricity regardless of the distance from, or visibility of, the Sun, useful for both missions to the distance solar system or the Moon and its two-week lunar night. Nuclear propulsion, either thermal or electric, offers much higher efficiencies than chemical systems, and nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) in particular can significantly shorten travel times for crewed Mars missions.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4631/1
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32/VIII 2023 [129-133]
Książka o publicznym wizerunku kosmonautów.
129) Review: Cosmonaut: A Cultural History
by Jeff Foust Monday, August 7, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4632a.jpg)
Cosmonaut: A Cultural History
by Cathleen S. Lewis
University of Florida Press, 2023
hardcover, 324 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-68340-370-8
US$38.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1683403703/spaceviews
The impact of American astronauts on society has been documented since the announcement of the Mercury 7 astronauts nearly 65 years ago, as some rose to prominence while others carried out their spaceflight careers out of the limelight. What is less well known, though, is the cultural impact of their Russian counterparts. Yuri Gagarin rose to international prominence, as did, to a lesser extent, Valentina Tereshkova, but how were they perceived by the Soviet public and used by the Soviet government?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4632/1
130) Meanwhile, on Mars…
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, August 7, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4633a.jpg)
“Stars on Mars” requires the celebronauts to work together to solve problems loosely (very loosely) analogous to those that astronauts would encounter on Mars. The problem-solving aspects of the show are its greatest strength. (credit: Fox)
We’re in the waning days of the long, hot summer of 2023. The Hollywood writers and actors are on strike, movie debuts are being delayed and, while some new shows are still debuting on streaming services, there will not be much of a fall television season other than game shows and maybe some new cartoons. But “Stars on Mars” is still chugging along.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4633/1
131) Effect of upgrades to Starlink Generation 2 satellites on visual brightness
by Brad Young and Jay Respler Monday, August 7, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4634a.jpg)
A recent Falcon 9 launch of Starlink satellites. Astronomers have been tracking how effective SpaceX has been in reducing the brightness of those satellites. (credit: SpaceX)
The rise of large constellations of small communication satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) over the last four years has, with it, led to concerns about the effect on space situational awareness, ground-based visual and radio astronomy, and the effect on the health and well-being of the natural world, including humans. Several studies have published the measurable effects of these concerns, and several more studies are ongoing. The issue has brought efforts, including new laws, to retool the licensing process for LEO in a new era of hundreds of thousands of small satellites instead of hundreds of large objects.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4634/1
132) Debate and hopes for consensus at UN space resource meetings
by Dennis O’Brien Monday, August 7, 2023
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Themeeting hall in Vienna that has hosted UN COPUOS meetings, including on space resources. (credit: UN)
The United Nations’ Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) recently hosted closed meetings of the Legal Subcommittee’s Working Group on Space Resource Activity at its headquarters in Vienna. The Working Group has just completed the first year of its five-year mandate to review the regulation of such activity, including possible “additional international governance instruments.” Although it had planned to meet only during the Legal Subcommittee’s annual two-week session earlier this year, the Working Group failed at that time to agree on even a preliminary statement.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4635/1
133) Minding the space station gap
by Jeff Foust Monday, August 7, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4636a.jpg)
A Cygnus cargo spacecraft arrives at the International Space Station August 4. As the ISS hits its stride in research, concerns about its retirement and transition to commercial stations ar eon the minds of government and industry. (credit: NASA)
Attendees at last week’s International Space Station Research and Development Conference in Seattle got a small goodie bag of trinkets: pens, stickers, and notepads. It also included a small tape measure designed to fit on a keychain, one emblazoned with a logo representing plans to operate the ISS through 2030.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4636/1
Note: The Space Review is on a reduced schedule this month and will not publish an issue the week of August 14. Our next issue will be August 21.
33/VIII 2023 [134-138]
134) Review: How Space Physics Really Works
by Jeff Foust Monday, August 21, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4637a.jpg)
How Space Physics Really Works: Lessons from Well-Constructed Science Fiction
by Andrew May
Springer, 2023
paperback, 157 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-3031339493
US$24.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/3031339495/spaceviews
Scientists, engineers, and others in the space community usually have one of two reactions when they see bad science or engineering in a sci-fi movie or TV show. One is to simply let it go: it’s entertainment, after all, not a documentary. The other, of course, is to loudly complain about it on social media. When the movie 65 made its way to Netflix recently after a brief flyby of movie theaters, curious people tuned in—space and dinosaurs, after all—only to quickly complain that the movie was messing up its portrayal of spaceflight or asteroids (never mind aliens that, 65 million years ago, looked and acted just like humans.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4637/1
135) 1569 and 2023
by Bob Werb Monday, August 21, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4638a.jpg)
Just as Mercator’s map ushered in a new era of geography, society is ready for a new understanding and appreciation of space. (credit: Peter Thorpe)
The NewSpace community loves to use historical analogies and, as a charter member of that community, I’ve compared opening the space frontier to the European conquest and settlement of the Americas, Lewis and Clark’s travels, Roman road building, and probably others I don’t remember. Now, approaching my twilight years, I’m ready to admit that while these may well have been rhetorically useful, all are pretty weak analogies. There is, however, one historical analogy that I think is quite strong and compelling, as well as useful.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4638/1
136) The fault in our Mars settlement plans
by Isabella Cisneros Monday, August 21, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4639a.jpg)
Popular visions of humans living on Mars often overlook serious technical and social challenges. (credit: SpaceX)
Think about the first human settlement on Mars. A constellation of images from science fiction, NASA, or SpaceX likely spring to mind: white cylindrical habitation units dotting a rusted desert landscape; an astronaut donning a futuristic skintight spacesuit to perform an EVA; inside, a botanist tending to a Martian greenhouse teeming with fruit and vegetables. But what aren’t we thinking of? Even with all our plans for Mars there are problems we’re stubbornly avoiding, like the dangers of radiation, the ethics and perils of reproduction in space, and handling of settlement resources. We imagine things working out because there are parts of the challenge we haven’t considered. We’re long overdue for a Red Planet reality check. In 1967, following the fatal Apollo 1 fire, NASA astronaut Frank Borman blamed the tragedy on “a failure of imagination.” NASA hadn’t fully considered the possible problems with their new spacecraft and paid a heavy price. Today, when it comes to Mars, our imaginations appear to be failing us again.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4639/1
137) For smallsats, two ways to orbit
by Jeff Foust Monday, August 21, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4640a.jpg)
A Falcon 9 launches a Transporter rideshare mission in 2022. Such launches have become a leading way for companies and organizations to get smallsats into orbit. (credit: SpaceX)
This month’s annual Small Satellite Conference was the biggest yet. Nearly 4,000 people descended on the Utah State University campus for the event, packing the student center, field house, and various other buildings for nearly a week of presentations, meetings, and exhibits about the state of the field. It showed that the smallsat industry was as vibrant as ever, from increasingly ambitious student cubesat projects to new developments in larger commercial and government missions.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4640/1
138) Despite the Luna-25 failure, Russia is not a declining space power
by Daniel Duchaine Monday, August 21, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4641a.jpg)
An image returned from the Luna-25 spacecraft days before a malfunction caused it to crash on the Moon. (credit: Roscosmos)
In the aftermath of the Luna-25 failure, a cacophony of voices from major news outlets and space pundits have been quick to paint Russia as a great power in decline. This viewpoint, while emotionally satisfying given Russia’s abhorrent actions in Ukraine, is not based in reality. But it is vital, both for understanding and for strategy, that we refrain from making sweeping conclusions based on isolated events. In the last decade, Russia has rebuilt and reinvested in its military space capabilities and has stabilized its share of space power.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4641/1
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Note: The Space Review is on a reduced schedule this month and will not publish an issue the week of August 28. We will return to our regular weekly schedule on Tuesday, September 5.
34/IX 2023 [139-143]
139) The international community is not prepared for a future in space
by Austin Albin Tuesday, September 5, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4635a.jpg)
Mechanisms like the United Nations and its space-related committees can’t keep up with the growing challenges of spaceflight. (credit: UN)
International politics is undergoing a seismic shift. China is challenging the United States for global leadership, Russia is haphazardly asserting itself through reawakened imperial ambition, and states like India seek to go from regional to world powers. This competition is progressively spreading into space, as governments and their citizens increasingly depend on space for vital services such as telecommunications, navigation, and banking. Space has become foundational to modern society and will be key to future prosperity. As such, states and ambitious corporations are jostling for access to space and pushing outwards to distant celestial bodies like the Moon and Mars.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4642/1
140) It’s not easy being a Martian
by Dwayne A. Day Tuesday, September 5, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4643a.jpg)
The 2015 movie The Martian has led to a number of television shows about humans living on Mars. Many of them have been grim, but the recently-concluded “Stars on Mars” was more fun. Even so, the show had some interesting lessons about the difficulties of sending humans to the Red Planet. (credit: Twentieth Century Fox)
For years, Popular Science magazine compiled its list of the worst jobs in science. Many of them involved the collection and analysis of disgusting samples. But one of the surprises on their list was astronaut. Yes, being weightless seems like a dream, and the ability to stare out the window at the blue Earth sounds romantic. But there are severe drawbacks to the job, from the inherent danger, intense training, separation from family, deleterious effects on the body and, of course, hygiene (the most common question people ask astronauts is how they go to the bathroom in space, and the answer is never pleasant.) It’s not easy being a spaceperson. That has been a theme of Fox’s recently concluded reality TV show “Stars on Mars”. You can stream it on Hulu, or watch it online. What looked like the kind of show that would cause space enthusiasts to roll their eyes has turned out to be entertaining, visually interesting, and provides some useful lessons about what it could be like living on the Red Planet.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4643/1
141) The opportunities and challenges for science at NASA and ESA
by Jeff Foust Tuesday, September 5, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4644a.jpg)
Nicola Fox, named NASA associate administrator for science in February, says she is working to lower the boundaries to science at NASA while also dealing with budgetary challenges. (credit: NASA/Keegan Barber)
Earlier this year, two women from the United Kingdom took over as leaders of the science divisions of the two largest Western civil space agencies just days apart. In late February, NASA announced it selected Nicola Fox as associate administrator for science after serving for several years as director of the agency’s heliophysics division. She took the post just days before Carole Mundell started on the job at the European Space Agency as its new director of science. She had been a professor of astrophysics at the University of Bath and chief scientific adviser for the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4644/1
142) India is on the Moon, but needs to avoid the “Moon Race” trap
by Ajey Lele Tuesday, September 5, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4645a.jpg)
The Vikram lander of India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission on the surface of the Moon, as seen by its Pragyan rover. (credit: ISRO)
The North–South divide in a global context is well-known. The Global South gets viewed as a grouping of states that are classified by low income, inadequate infrastructure, and large populations. This grouping is known to constitute the developing countries in the world. But today, one of them has reached the Moon!
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4645/1
143) Soviet television reconnaissance satellites
by Bart Hendrickx Tuesday, September 5, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4646a.jpg)
A television reconnaissance satellite studied by the Chelomei design bureau in the 1960s. (Source)
Starting in the early 1960s, the Soviet Union launched hundreds of photoreconnaissance satellites that returned exposed film back to Earth in capsules. It was not until 1982 that the country orbited its first electro-optical reconnaissance satellite, capable of sending imagery back to Earth in near real time. As a stopgap measure, proposals were tabled in the 1960s and 1970s for achieving the same goal by using reconnaissance satellites carrying television cameras. Such cameras were ultimately flown on two uncrewed versions of the Almaz military space station in the late 1980s/early 1990s, but by that time the technology was already outdated. While some information on these projects has emerged in the past 20 years or so, the details remain sketchy.[1]
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4646/1
35/IX 2023 [144-147]
144) Review: Interstellar
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 11, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4647a.jpg)
Interstellar: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life and Our Future in the Stars
by Avi Loeb
Mariner Books, 2023
hardcover, 256 pp.
ISBN 978-0-06-325087-1
US$28.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/006325087X/spaceviews
Some authors mark the release of a new book with a book tour or magazine profile to gain publicity. Avi Loeb published a scientific paper. The Harvard astrophysicist led a team that published a preprint August 29 summarizing efforts to find pieces of a potential interstellar meteor that fell into the Pacific Ocean in 2014. That work, which involved dredging a portion of the ocean floor off the coast from Papua New Guinea, yielded five spherules whose composition, they concluded, was so different from terrestrial materials that it could be best explained if they were from an object, designated IM1, that came from outside the solar system based on its high atmospheric entry speed.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4647/1
145) Key issues for the Japanese government regarding exploration and development of space resources
by Akira Saito Monday, September 11, 2023
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LUPEX, a joint mission of India and Japan, will send a rover to the Moon to look for water ice deposits. (credit: JAXA)
In June 2021, Japan enacted the “Act on the Promotion of Business Activities for the Exploration and Development of Space Resources (Space Resources Act).” This act includes provisions on the ownership of space resources. Japan is the fourth country to have a space resources act, following the United States, Luxembourg, and the United Arab Emirates, which have similar acts.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4648/1
146) Putting the private into private spaceflight
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 11, 2023
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Virgin Galactic waited until after its VSS Unity spaceplane landed on the Galactic 03 mission to annouce the three customers who had been on board. (credit: Virgin Galactic)
After years of waiting, Virgin Galactic has finally gotten into a rhythm of suborbital spaceflights. The company’s latest flight of its VSS Unity spaceplane, Galactic 03, took place September 8, and was the third flight in a little more than two months, after the inaugural commercial flight, Galactic 01, June 29 (see “Regulating a maturing commercial spaceflight industry”, The Space Review, July 3, 2023) and Galactic 02 August 10. The company had vowed to conduct monthly flights of its SpaceShipTwo vehicle and, so far, it is sticking to that cadence, with the next tentatively scheduled for early October.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4649/1
O nadużyciu art. V Traktatu o przestrzeni kosmicznej przez Chiny w odniesieniu do satelitów Starlink.
147) China, Article V, Starlink, and hybrid warfare: An assessment of a lawfare operation
by Michael J. Listner Monday, September 11, 2023
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How China responded to alleged close approaches of Starlink satellites to the Tiangong space station may be more telling that the incident itself. (credit: CMSA)
“To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.”[1]
An odd event occurred on December 6, 2021 when the People’s Republic of China (PRC) filed a notification with UN Secretary General under Article V of the Outer Space Treaty. Specifically, the PRC complained on two occasions Starlink satellites, belonging to the non-geostationary satellite orbit system being deployed by SpaceX, allegedly nearly collided with the PRC’s space station. The notification was unprecedented in that such a notification had never been previously invoked and curious given the PRC used Article V to address its concern to the Secretary General directly instead of engaging with the authorizing state directly.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4650/1
36/IX 2023 [148-151]
148) Review: The Six
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 18, 2023
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The Six: The Untold Story of America's First Women Astronauts
by Loren Grush
Scribner, 2023
hardcover, 432 pp.
ISBN 978-1-9821-7280-0
US$32.50
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1982172800/spaceviews
More than 45 years ago, NASA announced a new class of astronauts, the first chosen for the shuttle era. Those 35 people included, famously, NASA’s first six women selected to the astronaut corps, who became instant celebrities as they made history, subject to countless articles, news stories, and other accounts over the decades since their selection. Is there more to add to that historical account?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4651/1
149) How to land a space gig
by Daniel Duchaine Monday, September 18, 2023
My “lessons learned” from more than 60 informational interviews
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Those looking for non-technical careers in the space field often involve working on Capitol Hill or in government affairs for companies or organizations. (credit: J. Foust)
Over the last three months, I met with more than 60 leaders, doers, thinkers, experts, and newcomers in the space community. I interviewed space policy think-tank researchers and civil space bureaucrats. I connected with prime contractor space business strategists. I sat down with “new space” visionaries.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4652/1
150) SpaceX launches a debate on monopolies
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 18, 2023
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As SpaceX continues to launch its own Starlink constellation, such as this launch late Friday, it says it remains willing to launch satellites for competing companies. (credit: SpaceX)
Last week, a store window in Smith & Son, an English-language bookstore in the heart of Paris, featured copies of Walter Isaacson’s new biography of Elon Musk. Some showed the front cover and others the back, which displayed a Starship vehicle on the pad at Boca Chica, Texas. The store also printed an enlarged copy of the front cover, a photo of a pensive Musk, along with perhaps the question of our time: “Genius or Jerk?”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4653/1
151) Live, from orbit: the Manned Orbiting Laboratory’s top-secret film-readout system
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, September 18, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4654a.jpg)
MOL carried a high-resolution camera whose film could be returned to Earth on the attached Gemini, but the NRO also studied ways to transmit images using film-readout systems. (credit: NRO)
What good is warning of enemy attack that arrives after the attack has occurred? That was one of the dilemmas facing the operators of American intelligence satellites during the 1960s. The satellites used film, which had to be returned to Earth, processed, and analyzed, which could often be a week or more after the photograph was taken. Some members of the satellite reconnaissance community sought to reduce that time, to get the images to the ground faster. This was the subject of a subsystem for the expensive and complicated Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) of the 1960s, but this aspect of the program has been overlooked since MOL was declassified eight years ago.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4654/1
37/IX 2023 [152-155]
152) Security dimensions of space economics and finance
by Jana Robinson Monday, September 25, 2023
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Chinese and Russian space efforts may be supported by private equity and other financing from Western sources, particularly Europe.
As of May 2023, there were more than 5,400 active satellites on orbit, and almost 3,000 of those are commercial. Some experts predict over 100,000 active satellites by 2030.[1] This, together with a significantly greater number of public and private actors in space, will lead to much greater pressure to keep the space environment viable and safe for commercial, civilian, and military activities.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4655/1
153) Hiding in plain sight: Is China’s spaceplane a co-orbital ASAT in disguise?
by Carlos Alatorre Monday, September 25, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4656a.jpg)
Little is known publicly about China’s spaceplane development, but its activities in orbit suggest it is testing capabilities that could be used as a co-orbital ASAT.
On August 4, 2022, a Chinese reusable autonomous spaceplane was launched into orbit from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on a Long March 2F (CZ-2F/T) rocket. Several weeks later, on August 26, a second spaceplane launched on a suborbital flight. Although the suborbital flight was relatively short, the orbital spaceplane flew a mission that lasted 276 days before returning to Earth on May 8, 2023. During its flight, the spaceplane, known as Shenlong, released an object that moved in coordination with its orbit.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4656/1
154) Honoring and dishonoring the dead in outer space
by Deana L. Weibel Monday, September 25, 2023
How a Virgin Galactic spaceflight sparked a scandal in anthropology
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Customers on a Virgin Galactic flight float in the cabin. Among them is Timothy Nash, who brought with him hominid fossils. (credit: Virgin Galactic)
On September 8, Timothy Nash, a South African billionaire, flew to the edge of space in a Virgin Galactic suborbital spacecraft, the VSS Unity. Virgin Galactic began operating tourist flights in earnest this past summer and Nash participated in the company’s most recent excursion. Nash’s flight was not without scandal, however.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4657/1
155) A capsule’s fall marks the start of Asteroid Autumn
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 25, 2023
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The OSIRIS-REx capsule and its parachute shortly after landing at the Utah Test and Training Range on Sunday. (credit: NASA/Keegan Barber)
Most scientists leading planetary science missions attend the launch of their spacecraft, seeing them off on journeys across the solar system. Few scientists, though, are present for those missions’ landings.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4658/1
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38/X 2023 [156-160]
156) Review: Elon Musk
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 2, 2023
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Elon Musk
by Walter Isaacson
Simon & Schuster, 2023
hardcover, 688 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-9821-8128-4
US$35.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1982181281/spaceviews
It’s hard to imagine, at this point in time, anyone not having an opinion of Elon Musk. That is, in part, because of his growing profile, from SpaceX and Tesla to last year’s acquisition of the social media network Twitter (which Musk has since renamed X.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4659/1
157) How orbital refueling will unlock humanity’s potential in space
by Manny Shar Monday, October 2, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4660a.jpg)
In-space refueling of satellites can extend spacecraft lifetimes and enable new capabilities. (credit: Orbit Fab)
The last half century has witnessed unprecedented growth in our understanding of space, both as a frontier and a domain of endless opportunities. Yet, as with any frontier, there are challenges and barriers that must be overcome. One such challenge is the current limitation of space vehicle endurance and mobility. The solution? In-space refueling.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4660/1
158) An ambitious decadal survey for research in space
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 2, 2023
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NASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara work on the Cold Atom Lab research payload on the ISS, one of the key facilities there for supporting physical science research in space. (credit: NASA)
In other space-related scientific disciplines, the decadal surveys used to guide planning for research and investment have often recommended ambitious missions. Past astrophysics decadals backed what would become the James Webb Space Telescope, which is now delivering on that promise after extensive delays and cost overruns. Planetary science decadals recommended Mars Sample Return, which is facing its own cost and schedule challenges even as scientists continue to advocate for its importance.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4661/1
159) Secrets of ExoMars
by Brian Harvey Monday, October 2, 2023
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ESA decided to cancel cooperation with Roscosmos on ExoMars just days after the invasion of the Ukraine, and weeks before the Rosalind Franklin rover was due to ship to Russia for launch. (credit: ESA)
When we think of the secrets of Mars, we think of life there, possibly hidden below its surface. A European-Russian rover, ExoMars, was built to go there. It was due to land on June 10, 2023, and might even have found signs of life there by now. Instead, its secrets remain locked up—but on Earth.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4662/1
160) Crisis in space: The 1973 Yom Kippur War and “crisis reconnaissance”
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, October 2, 2023
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A burning ammunition storage site photographed by an SR-71 Blackbird during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. This was some of the very limited reconnaissance the United States had during the conflict. This is a poor photocopy of the original photograph, which has not been released. (credit: CIA)
On October 6, 1973, tanks from Syria and Egypt rolled on Israeli-occupied territory as artillery bombarded Israeli military targets. At the same time, aircraft from these countries launched multiple strikes. The attack came during the Yom Kippur holiday, catching the Israelis—and America’s political leaders—by surprise.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4663/1
39/X 2023 [161-164]
161) Review: A Million Miles Away
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 9, 2023
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A Million Miles Away
directed by Alejandra Márquez Abella
Amazon Prime Video, 2023
121 minutes, rated PG
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21940010/?ref_=tt_mv_close
We are used to a steady, if low volume, stream of astronaut memoirs. People who became NASA (or sometimes ESA or CSA) astronauts describe their journeys to space, recounting the paths they took to realize dreams, often dating from childhood, about becoming astronauts. The individual stories are unique even if they share common traits and characteristics, like perseverance and persistence.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4664/1
162) With a tweet, America has joined the race to develop astroelectricity—hopefully!
by Mike Snead
Monday, October 9, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4665a.jpg)
As the European Space Agency and other governments fund space solar power initiatives, the US government may be showing renewed interest. (credit: ESA)
In a September 21 tweet, US Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Jennifer Granholm suggested that space(-based) solar power (SSP) was now a part of the clean energy mix DOE is pursuing. This off-the-cuff announcement followed preliminary work begun last year by NASA—for the third time—to study SSP.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4665/1
163) NASA’s Mars rovers could inspire a more ethical future for AI
by Janet Vertesi Monday, October 9, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4666a.jpg)
Mars rovers like Perseverance show how artificial intelligence can augment, not replace, human capabilities. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Since ChatGPT’s release in late 2022, many news outlets have reported on the ethical threats posed by artificial intelligence. Tech pundits have issued warnings of killer robots bent on human extinction, while the World Economic Forum predicted that machines will take away jobs.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4666/1
Trwa tworzenie systemu koordynacji ruchu w przestrzeni kosmicznej TraCSS (Traffic Coordination System for Space).
TraCSS będzie w porównaniu z obecnym systemem skanował niebo w celu identyfikacji bliskich podejść satelitów lub potencjalnych kolizji dwa razy częściej (co 2 godziny) niż obecnie.
System będzie składał się z 3. elementów (OASIS, SKYLINE, HORIZON).
164) Getting a new civil space traffic management system on track
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 9, 2023
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The growth in both active satellites and debris emphasizes the need for improved space traffic management systems. (credit: ESA)
More than five years ago, the White House released Space Policy Directive 3, which established a national policy for space traffic management (see “Managing space traffic expectations”, The Space Review, June 25, 2018). One key element of the policy was direction that the Commerce Department take over the responsibility for providing civil space traffic management (STM) services, like warning satellite operators of potential close approaches, or conjunctions, with other objects.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4667/1
40/X 2023 [165-168]
165) Maybe space shouldn’t be for all
by A.J. Mackenzie Monday, October 16, 2023
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The International Astronautical Federation held its annual conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, this month despite concerns about the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh. (credit: IAF)
Space advocates have for decades been trying to expand the audience for their broad vision of a bold a future for humanity in space or for specific programs and projects. At one level, it’s a laudable effort. Getting more people interested in space helps build support for programs, particularly when trying to get funding. Broadening support also helps expand the pool of potential scientists, engineers, and others who seek to work on them.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4668/1
166) The brave new world of space
by Aditya Chaturvedi Monday, October 16, 2023
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The increase in space access enabled by SpaceX and others is reshaping views of what can be done in space, and also how it should be regulated. (credit: SpaceX)
“Who controls low Earth orbit, controls near Earth space. Who controls near-Earth space dominates Terra. Who dominates Terra, determines the destiny of humankind.”
— Everett Dolman, Author of Astropolitik: Classic Geopolitik in the Space Age, and Professor, Strategy, US Air Force War College
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4669/1
167) Commercial lunar landers prepare for liftoff
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 16, 2023
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Intuitive Machines showed off its IM-1 lunar lander at its new Houston headquarters before shipping it to Florida for launch as soon as mid-November. (credit: J. Foust)
Houston Spaceport is not a spaceport in the traditional sense of the term. While the spaceport, located at the city’s Ellington Airport, has an FAA spaceport license, it has yet to host a launch or landing, and no companies have announced firm plans to carry out launches from its modest runways in the suburbs not far from NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Instead, the focus has been on turning the airport into an aerospace business hub, including a new business park that’s home to companies like Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4670/1
168) Roads not taken in satellite photo-reconnaissance: Part 1, the 1960s
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, October 16, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4671a.jpg)
An Atlas-Agena launch in the 1960s carrying a KH-7 GAMBIT reconnaissance satellite. During the decade there were numerous proposals for reconnaissance satellites that were never built, including some that would have used GAMBIT hardware. (credit: USAF)
Today digital cameras are everywhere and most people under 30 will have no concept of what a film camera was. But film was a powerful storage medium for more than a century, and from the late 1950s to the mid-1980s American reconnaissance satellites depended upon it. During this period, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), which oversaw the procurement and operation of American reconnaissance satellites, studied numerous alternative reconnaissance satellite designs to meet new requirements.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4671/1
41/X 2023 [169-174]
169) Phil Pressel
Monday, October 23, 2023
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Phil Pressel, one of the designers of the HEXAGON reconnaissance camera, standing next to the engineering mockup of the satellite in 2011. (credit: Roger Guillemette)
Philip Pressel passed away on October 18 at the age of 86. Phil was among the designers of the reconnaissance cameras carried aboard the HEXAGON reconnaissance satellite from 1971 to 1986. In addition, he worked on other national security programs during his long career at Perkin-Elmer Corporation. He was an immigrant and Holocaust survivor.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4672/1
170) ISRO prepares for human spaceflight
by Gurbir Singh Monday, October 23, 2023
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Liftoff of the TV-D1 mission October 21 to demonstrate the crew escape system for the Gaganyaan spacecraft. (credit: ISRO)
In 2025, India is planning its first crewed spaceflight, carrying astronauts on an Indian launch vehicle, launched from India. On October 21, ISRO conducted an uncrewed in-flight abort test. One minute into the flight, the Crew Escape System fired for just over two seconds, pulling the crew module away from the launch vehicle. The momentum took the crew module to an altitude of 17 kilometers, where the Crew Escape System itself separated from the crew module.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4673/1
171) ISRO develops its agenda for the future
by Ajey Lele Monday, October 23, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4674a.jpg)
The Gaganyaan capsule prototype used in the abort test is recovered from the ocean after splashdown. (credit: ISRO)
On October 21, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully tested the Crew Escape System (CES), part of its progress on the human space travel program called Gaganyaan. ISRO will be analyzing the data generated during the entire mission and is expected to undertake three more such tests to validate various technologies required to ensure the crew safety.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4674/1
172) My suborbital life, part 1: Childhood’s end, perseverance pays
by Alan Stern Monday, October 23, 2023
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Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo on ascent to space. (credit: Virgin Galactic)
Late next week, I’m scheduled to launch aboard Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity on a suborbital spaceflight. I’m not flying as a private astronaut, though, as most Virgin Galactic customers are, but as a researcher, headed to work in space.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4675/1
173) My suborbital life, part 2: Objectives, timeline, training
by Alan Stern Monday, October 23, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4676a.jpg)
Inside the VG VSS Unity cabin in flight, where my work will take place. (credit: Virgin Galactic)
Late next week I’ll be undertaking my first spaceflight, flying a training and “risk reduction” mission funded by my employer, the Southwest research Institute (SwRI). This flight is in preparation for a NASA-SwRI suborbital research mission that is coming up for me as well, hopefully next year. That research flight will feature two experiments: one to assess the efficacy of the spacecraft for doing suborbital astronomy, and one to take physiological data on an experimenter undergoing suborbital spaceflight.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4676/1
174) The launch industry strains launch licensing
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 23, 2023
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SpaceX is continuing pad tests of its second integrated Starship/Super Heavy vehicle as it awaits an updated FAA launch license. (credit: SpaceX)
There is always some degree of tension between companies and regulators in almost any industry. That tension can be healthy as both companies and government agencies seek the right balance between ensuring safety and allowing progress.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4677/1
42/X 2023 [175-180]
175) My suborbital life, part 3: The suborbital revolution is here
by Alan Stern Friday, October 27, 2023
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A Virgin Galactic suborbital spaceship at release from its carrier aircraft for ascent to space. (credit: Virgin Galactic)
As I write this blog, I’m about to leave on a business trip to Boston, to lead a science team meeting of the NASA New Horizons mission, which I serve as Principal Investigator (PI) for. The meeting is a typical business trip, one of over a thousand that I’ve made in my career.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4678/1
176) My suborbital life, part 4: My research spaceflight training countdown to launch
by Alan Stern Saturday, October 28, 2023
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The central hub of Spaceport America in New Mexico. (credit: Spaceport America)
It’s just T-5 days to launch on my first space mission, which is set for liftoff on Thursday, November 2, from Spaceport America in southern New Mexico. Spaceport America is Virgin Galactic’s operations base for commercial suborbital missions.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4679/1
177) Review: Deep Sky
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 30, 2023
Deep Sky
directed by Nathaniel Kahn
IMAX, 2023
40 minutes, unrated
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt28370567/
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4680a.jpg)
It was inevitable, perhaps, that a very big space telescope would end up on a very big screen. Once it was clear that the James Webb Space Telescope was both a technical and scientific success, putting its dramatic images on an IMAX screen was something close to a no-brainer. “It has to be on an IMAX screen because only that giant screen is making you fully immersed in these worlds,” said Nathaniel Kahn at a National Academies event in July.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4680/1
178) Shaking up the commercial space station industry
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 30, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4681a.jpg)
Northrop Grumman is joining forces with Voyager Space on the Starlab space station (above), dropping plans to develop its own. (credit: Voyager Space)
The early years of a new industry can be a bit chaotic. A wave of new entrants rush in, far more than can be reasonably supported by demand. The companies compete vigorously for customers and investment, while also forming—and breaking up—partnerships with one another. Ultimately, only a few will survive, with the rest subsumed by the winners or disappearing entirely.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4681/1
179) Roads not taken in satellite photo-reconnaissance: Part 2, the 1970s
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, October 30, 2023
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4682aa.jpg)
The HEXAGON program lasted from 1971 until the loss of the last vehicle in April 1986. Throughout the life of the program there were various proposals to launch and/or retrieve it using the Space Shuttle. (credit: NRO)
Throughout the 1960s, American aerospace companies proposed and/or studied various reconnaissance satellites that were never put into development. These were intended to fulfill various requirements, often not very well-defined, to improve ground resolution, area coverage, or timeliness. (See part 1 here.) That continued into the 1970s. The early part of the decade included numerous proposals for satellites to produce imagery on a much quicker basis—a day or less—than existing systems.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4682/1
43/X/XI 2023 [180-185]
180) My suborbital life, part 5: Hi Five!
by Alan Stern Tuesday, October 31, 2023
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Virgin Galactic’s patch for the upcoming Galactic 05 mission. (credit: Virgin Galactic)
Virgin Galactic’s Galactic 05 suborbital mission I am flying on, still set for November 2, is the fifth commercial suborbital revenue mission for Virgin Galactic.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4683/1
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181)My suborbital life, part 6: Anticipation
by Alan Stern Wednesday, November 1, 2023
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Spaceship Unity on a recent Virgin Galactic flight. (credit: Virgin Galactic)
My rookie spaceflight is so close now that it’s hard to believe that its time is really here. We plan to fly on Thursday, launching aboard Virgin Galactic’s Unity spacecraft. As the flight nears, I’m hearing from a lot of friends and colleagues, with both questions and good wishes for the mission, which I really love.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4684/1
182) My suborbital life, part 7: Of risk and reward
by Alan Stern Thursday, November 2, 2023
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The Earth from space. (credit: NASA)
My reflections for today, launch day, are on risk and reward.
In my view, both are integral parts of what it means to be human. Risk and reward are also sides of a single coin comes up in so many ways across the days of our lives.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4685/1
183) My suborbital life, part 8: Welcome to space!
by Alan Stern Saturday, November 4, 2023
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Virgin Galactic 05, nicknamed “High 5,” initiating the climb uphill to space on November 2. (credit: Virgin Galactic)
On Thursday I flew to space, and what a ride it was!
From the hurtling ascent, to the jam-packed three minutes of otherworldly microgravity to get our real work done, to the washboard deceleration of entry, and then the steep glide to a greased landing, it was simultaneously thrilling, fulfilling, and enchanting. And, there’s no contest, it was the single best work day I have ever had!
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4686/1
184) The FCC’s authority in regulating orbital debris
by Leighton Brown and Paul Stimers Monday, November 6, 2023
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The FCC fined DISH for failing to move a satellite at least 300 kilometers above the geostationary belt as outlined in the company's orbital debris mitigation plan. (credit: ESA/ID&Sense/ONiRiXEL)
In a first for space debris enforcement, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently announced that it had entered into a negotiated Consent Decree with DISH Operating LLC (DISH) to resolve an investigation into whether DISH had failed to properly deorbit its direct broadcast satellite service EchoStar-7 geostationary orbit satellite. During the course of that investigation, the FCC determined that DISH had violated the Communications Act, the FCC’s rules, and the terms of DISH’s license by relocating the EchoStar-7 satellite at its end of mission to a disposal orbit below the elevation specified in its orbital debris mitigation plan and required by the terms of its license.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4687/1
Problematyczne staje się użycie SLS do dużych misji naukowych.
Mimo rozważania użycia SLS do wyniesienia sondy Europa Clipper to ostatecznie zostanie zastosowana FH.
Na razie nie odrzuca się opcji użycia tej rakiety do MSR.
185) Big rockets for big science?
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 6, 2023
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Scientists working on future large missions are turning to vehicles like SpaceX’s Starship to provide more capability at lower costs. (credit: SpaceX)
For the last few years, a handful of scientists have asked their colleagues to consider designing missions to take advantage of a new generation of very large launch vehicles. Those vehicles offer greater mass and volume at potentially lower per-kilogram prices, opening up opportunities for things like large space telescopes or missions to the outer regions of the solar system.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4688/1
44/XI 2023 [186-189]
186) My suborbital life, part 9: Anticipation, revealed
by Alan Stern Tuesday, November 7, 2023
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Left: Myself and Kellie Gerardi on flight day, just before boarding spaceship Unity. Right: Myself during pre-flight parachute donning a few minutes later. (credits: Virgin Galactic)
This is the ninth and next to last essay I’ll write surrounding my inaugural spaceflight, which took place as a research and training mission that flew last week on Virgin Galactic.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4689/1
187) Review: A City on Mars
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 13, 2023
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A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?
by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith
Penguin Press, 2023
hardcover, 448 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-9848-8172-4
US$32.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1984881728/spaceviews
Perhaps the first sign that A City on Mars would not be the typical spaceflight book was its dedication page. Rather than brief comments thanking spouses, parents, or other friends and family, Kelly and Zach Weinersmith thanked the “space settlement community,” but with a disclaimer: “We worry that many of you will be disappointed by some of our conclusions, but where we have diverged from your views, we haven’t diverged from your vision of a glorious human future.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4690/1
188) A small step forward for space-based solar power technology
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 13, 2023
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An image from Caltech’s SSPD-1 mission, showing arrays for transmitting (right) and receiving wireless power mounted on the Vigoride-5 bus. (credit: Caltech SSPP)
Space-based solar power (SBSP) is one of those concepts endlessly debated without little obvious progress or resolution of those debates. For more than half a century, advocates have described SBSP as a solution to growing energy demands while also serving as a source of green energy in an era of growing alarm about climate change. Critics describe the severe technological challenges and costs that make large-scale SBSP unrealistic to them.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4691/1
189) Something goes boom in the night: the explosion of a Cold War secret
by Dwayne A. Day and Asif Siddiqi Monday, November 13, 2023
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The famous launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome that was the launch site for Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin. It was the site of a fiery on-pad explosion in 1983 that nearly killed two cosmonauts. American satellites spotted the rocket on the pad and later the damage from the explosion. It was photographed over two decades earlier by a U-2 reconnaissance plane. (credit: CIA)
In the fall of 1983 American reconnaissance satellites spotted preparations for a space launch at the sprawling Soviet missile and space launch range known as the Baikonur Cosmodrome, then popularly called “Tyuratam.” The satellites photographed activity at what the CIA labeled “Launch Site A1.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4692/1
45/XI 2023 [190-193]
190) My suborbital life, part 10: Looking Up, WAY Up
by Alan Stern Tuesday, November 14, 2023
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Burt Rutan and Richard Branson unveiling the initial design for Virgin Galactic’s suborbital spaceship, 2008. (credit: Virgin Galactic)
Years ago, whenever I got an email from Burt Rutan, the legendary airplane designer and the mastermind behind the foundational spaceship designs at Virgin Galactic, Burt would always close with, “Looking up, WAY up!” Today, having finally flown to space myself just under two weeks ago in a spaceship that Rutan first conceived, I find myself thinking a lot about “Looking up, WAY up.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4693/1
191) Why you should care about life beyond Earth
by Tyler Bender Monday, November 20, 2023
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Space settlements could ensure a future for life beyond Earth in the event of natural or human-made catastrophes. (credit: Blue Origin)
Life on Earth has faced five mass extinctions over the past 500 million years. Ensuring the long-term survival of life as we know it will require humanity learning how to migrate the myriad species of Earth off their home planet, because, as its long history shows, this planet can sometimes be a very dangerous place for life to be.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4694/1
192) Starship flies again
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 20, 2023
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SpaceX’s Starship/Super Heavy vehicle lifts off on its second test flight November 18. (credit: SpaceX)
The plume had not yet dispersed from Saturday’s launch of SpaceX’s Starship/Super Heavy vehicle on its second test flight when the debates began about how to grade the outcome. Many hailed the launch as a success, demonstrating advances over the first flight seven months ago.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4695/1
193) Olimp and Yenisei-2: Russia’s secretive eavesdropping satellites (part 1)
by Bart Hendrickx Monday, November 20, 2023
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A Proton-M rocket stands poised to launch the Luch/Olimp satellite from Baikonur in September 2014. (credit: Roscosmos)
On March 12 this year, a Proton-M rocket blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, punching its way through a dense layer of fog that only thickened the veil of secrecy surrounding the launch. Although Baikonur is now a civilian launch site that is no longer used for military launches, Roscosmos did not stream the launch live and afterwards reported only that a satellite named Luch-5X had been placed into orbit to test “advanced relay and communication technology.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4696/1
46/XI 2023 [194-197]
194) Oxygen for Mars
by John K. Strickland Monday, November 27, 2023
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Terraformed Mars being greened with a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere. (credit: Kevin Gill)
There is a lot of attention in our community on creating a backup location for humanity and, along with pressurized in-space settlements, Mars is one of the best locations for that. But along with the human race and its civilization, we should also include the important requirement that we need a backup for life itself.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4697/1
195) Searching for the ice hidden on the Moon
by Paul Hayne Monday, November 27, 2023
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India’s Chandrayaan-3 lander detected sulfur at its landing site, which could provide clues for the origins of water ice at the lunar poles. (credit: ISRO)
Building a space station on the Moon might seem like something out of a science fiction movie, but each new lunar mission is bringing that idea closer to reality. Scientists are homing in on potential lunar ice reservoirs in permanently shadowed regions, or PSRs. These are key to setting up any sort of sustainable lunar infrastructure.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4698/1
196) Olimp and Yenisei-2: Russia’s secretive eavesdropping satellites (part 2)
by Bart Hendrickx Monday, November 27, 2023
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The FSB’s Military Unit 51952 near Chekhov may be part of the ground infrastructure for Olimp and Yenisei-2. (Google Earth, September 2018)
As outlined in part 1, Russia is operating two satellites in geostationary orbit that have been parked close to various non-Russian commercial communications satellites with the apparent goal of eavesdropping on them. They were launched in September 2014 and March 2023 under the official names Luch and Luch-5X.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4699/1
197) Europe turns to competition to improve its launch industry’s competitiveness
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 27, 2023
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An Ariane 6 test model during a static-fire test November 23. ESA member states agreed earlier in the month to support that rocket while opening the door to future competition. (credit: ESA/M. Pedoussaut)
European officials have acknowledged for months that the continent is in a “launcher crisis” caused by problems with new rockets like the Ariane 6 and Vega C (see “A crisis and an opportunity for European space access”, The Space Review July 10, 2023). But sometimes it seems like any mode of transportation in Europe is fraught with difficulty.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4700/1
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47/XII 2023 [198-201]
198) Review: Dreamland
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, December 4, 2023
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Dreamland: The Secret History of Area 51
by Peter W. Merlin
Schiffer Military History, 2023
hardcover, 560 pages, illus.
ISBN 978-0-7643-6709-0
US$75.00
Area 51 has been a mythological place for decades now. It is a remote, secure, government-owned area in the Nevada desert that includes Groom Lake, a dry lakebed that has since the 1950s been the site of classified aircraft research.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4701/1
199) Enter India, the fifth great space power
by Daniel Duchaine Monday, December 4, 2023
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Even as ISRO continues development of a human spaceflight program, like this abort test in October, its achievements at the Moon have vaulted it into the league of great space powers. (credit: ISRO)
With the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3, India cements its status as the fifth-ever great space power. This seismic shift will disrupt the very foundation of the global space order. The fate of the domain depends on whether policymakers can adapt to this evolving international order.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4702/1
200) All-UK astronaut mission shows that private enterprise is vital to the future of space exploration
by Simonetta Di Pippo Monday, December 4, 2023
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Tim Peake has retired from ESA’s astronaut corps after a single mission to the ISS, but could return to space on an all-UK private astronaut mission. (credit: NASA)
The UK Space Agency signed an agreement in October with a US company called Axiom Space to develop a space mission carrying four astronauts from the UK. The flight would most likely use the SpaceX Crew Dragon vehicle and travel to the International Space Station (ISS).
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4703/1
201) Europe’s tentative step towards human spaceflight
by Jeff Foust Monday, December 4, 2023
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The Exploration Company, a European startup, was already working on a cargo vehicle called Nyx when ESA announced its commercial cargo initiative. (credit: The Exploration Company)
In March, the European Space Agency released a report prepared by an independent High-Level Advisory Group on human spaceflight. That report called on ESA to embark on a bold new direction in the field, developing its own capabilities to transport astronauts to orbit and beyond, lest Europe fall behind China and the United States (see “Europe contemplates a space revolution”, The Space Review, March 27, 2023.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4704/1
48/XII 2023 [202-205]
202) Review: The Future of Geography
by Jeff Foust Monday, December 11, 2023
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The Future of Geography: How the Competition in Space Will Change Our World
by Tim Marshall
Scribner, 2023
hardcover, 288 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-6680-3164-3
US$28
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1668031647/spaceviews
The “space race” hype is as strong today as ever—or, at least, since the original Space Race of the 1960s. Commentaries frequently assert that the United States is in a new space race, primarily with China, in topics ranging from military space activities to lunar exploration.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4705/1
203) Four key points regarding Saudi Arabia’s withdrawal from the Moon Agreement
by Michael J. Listner Monday, December 11, 2023
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Saudi Arabia’s growing space program may have prompted the country to reverse its support for the Moon Agreement. (credit: Axiom Space)
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia announced its intention to withdraw from the Moon Agreement in a filing to the United Nations on January 5, 2023. The notification, which is required by Article 20[1] of the Moon Agreement, is interesting given Saudi Arabia acceded to the Moon Agreement in 2012. Saudi Arabia’s withdrawal from the Moon Agreement is significant as this is the first time a member of any of the five space law treaties has withdrawn.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4706/1
204) Creating a Venus exploration program
by Jeff Foust Monday, December 11, 2023
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While NASA has pushed back the launch of the VERITAS mission to Venus by three years, the project is seeking at least a partial reprieve. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
This week, planetary scientists will join their earth and space science colleagues in San Francisco for the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, or AGU. (The conference is officially called the Fall Meeting, a vestige from a time when the AGU also had a smaller conference each spring.) There will be dozens of sessions on topics ranging from studies of the Moon and Mars to the first results from analysis of samples returned from the asteroid Bennu by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4707/1
205) Diamonds and DORIANS: The Soviet Union’s Almaz and the United States’ Manned Orbiting Laboratory military space stations (part 1)
by Bart Hendrickx and Dwayne A. Day Monday, December 11, 2023
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Part of the Transportnyi Korabl Snabzheniya, or Transport Supply Spacecraft—“TKS” for short. This spacecraft was developed to support the Almaz military space station. One of these was photographed in orbit by an American reconnaissance satellite. (credit: Wikimedia Commons)
In the early 1980s, inside a secure US Air Force facility known as the Blue Cube and located not far from the 101 Freeway in Silicon Valley in Northern California, there was a large photograph hanging on a wall. It was in black and white and showed an ungainly-looking spacecraft, a cylinder with solar panels and a conical nose at one end.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4708/1
49/XII 2023 [206-210]
206) Review: Moonshot
by Jeff Foust Monday, December 18, 2023
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Moonshot: A NASA Astronaut’s Guide to Achieving the Impossible
by Mike Massimino
Hachette Go, 2023
hardcover, 224 pp.
ISBN 978-0-306-83264-2
US$28
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/030683264X/spaceviews
To the general public, astronauts can seem like the closest thing to perfect people. They are physically fit individuals with backgrounds ranging from science and engineering to being military test pilots, with NASA picking a handful of the very best out of an applicant pool of more than 10,000 for each class. But astronauts, of course, are people that make mistakes like the rest of us, from misplacing tomatoes being harvested on the International Space Station for eight months to losing a tool bag on a recent space station spacewalk.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4709/1
207) Space sensemaking and space domain understanding: enabling data-centric AI for space flight safety
by Brien Flewelling Monday, December 18, 2023
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The growing population of space objects requires satellite operators to take action more quickly to potential threats. (credit: ESA)
During his keynote speech at the AMOS conference in 2010, Gen. William Shelton, commander of Air Force Space Command, stressed that in a future war in space he would need automated space situational awareness with humans out of the loop.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4710/1
208) SpaceX Starship in lunar development
by Thomas L. Matula Monday, December 18, 2023
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SpaceX’s Starship could be useful not just for transporting cargo to the Moon but also for providing infrastructure. (credit: SpaceX)
The November 18 test flight of Elon Musk’s Starship that was launched from Boca Chica on the Texas Gulf Coast suggests the day is ever closer this mega-rocket, in its future iterations, will be available for missions to the Moon.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4711/1
209) An extended mission for authorization
by Jeff Foust Monday, December 18, 2023
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Under a House bill, commercial space stations like Orbital Reef would be authorized by the Commerce Department, but a White House proposal would instead place them under the Transportation Department. (credit: Blue Origin)
For the better part of a decade, US companies proposing novel space activities have faced regulatory uncertainty. While communications, remote sensing, and launch and reentry were overseen by the FCC, NOAA, and the FAA, respectively, companies planning applications that did not fit neatly in those categories—satellite servicing, commercial space stations, and commercial lunar landers, among others—did not know who had the authority to say yes, or no, to their plans.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4712/1
210) Diamonds and DORIANS: The Soviet Union’s Almaz and the United States’ Manned Orbiting Laboratory military space stations (part 2)
MOL and Almaz enter active development
by Dwayne A. Day and Bart Hendrickx Monday, December 18, 2023
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The Douglas building where MOL would undergo final assembly prior to shipment to Vandenberg Air Force Base. (credit: NRO)
The American story
The Manned Orbiting Laboratory was initially started by the US Air Force in late 1963, studied throughout 1964, and received presidential authorization by summer 1965. Contract definition, proposal evaluations, and contract negotiations occurred thru late 1966, but by early 1967 it was clear that there was insufficient budget to proceed on the planned schedule and timeline and contract adjustments followed (see “Diamonds and DORIANS: the Soviet Union’s Almaz and the United States’ Manned Orbiting Laboratory military space stations (part 1),” The Space Review, December 11, 2023.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4713/1
Note: The Space Review will not publish the week of December 25. We will return on Tuesday, January 2, 2024. Happy Holidays!
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1/I 2024 [1-4]
1) Review: Inside the Star Factory
by Jeff Foust Tuesday, January 2, 2024
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Inside the Star Factory: The Creation of the James Webb Space Telescope, NASA's Largest and Most Powerful Space Observatory
by Chris Gunn with Christopher Wanjek
MIT Press, 2023
hardcover, 188 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-262-04790-6
US$44.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/026204790X/spaceviews
For the last year and a half, the James Webb Space Telescope has dazzled scientists and the general public alike with stunning images (see “The transformation of JWST”, The Space Review, July 18, 2022.) Those images, besides their aesthetic value, have demonstrated the performance of the telescope and its instruments, and their ability to achieve their scientific goals.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4714/1
2) The longstanding mystery of the moons of Mars and the mission that could solve it
by Ben Rider-Stokes Tuesday, January 2, 2024
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Japan’s MMX mission, scheduled to launch as soon as September, is designed to return samples from the Martian moon Phobos that could determine its origins. (credit: JAXA)
The two small moons of Mars, Phobos (about 22 kilometers in diameter) and Deimos (about 13 kilometers in diameter), have been puzzling scientists for decades, with their origin remaining a matter of debate. Some have proposed that they may be made up of residual debris produced from a planet or large asteroid smashing into the surface of Mars (#TeamImpact). An opposing hypothesis (#TeamCapture), however, suggests the moons are asteroids that were captured by Mars’s gravitational pull and were trapped in orbit.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4715/1
3) The year new launch vehicles finally lift off
by Jeff Foust Tuesday, January 2, 2024
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ULA’s Vulcan Centaur rocket, without a payload attached, during testing ahead of its first launch scheduled for as soon as January 8. (credit: ULA)
Last year features the most orbital launches of any year since the start of the Space Age. There were 221 orbital launch attempts worldwide, excluding the two Starship test flights that, strictly speaking, were intended to be suborbital had they gone as planned. That was far higher than the 186 from last year and more than double the 102 launches in 2019.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4716/1
Przegląd argumentów nad realizacją programu MOL. Była również propozycja wersji bezzałogowej.
4) Diamonds and DORIANS: program troubles, operations, cancellation, and legacy (part 3)
by Bart Hendrickx and Dwayne A. Day Tuesday, January 2, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4717x.jpg)
The MOL program received presidential approval in summer 1965. Within a year, the program had added an “Unmanned MOL” capability. This not only increased costs (the program now had to develop systems to operate MOL without astronauts), it called into question the reason for including astronauts in the first place. (credit: NRO)
As both the United States’ Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) and the Soviet Union’s Almaz programs progressed, they naturally ran into problems common to large, complicated space projects. But the MOL program faced an identity crisis from the start: if most of the mission could be performed robotically, why were astronauts needed at all?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4717/1
1/I 2024 [5-8]
5) Review: Orbital
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 8, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4718a.jpg)
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0802161545/spaceviews
by Samantha Harvey
Atlantic Monthly Press, 2023
hardcover, 224 pp.
ISBN 978-0-8021-6154-3
US$24
You may have seen in recent weeks trailers for a movie simply called I.S.S. (with “International Space Station” sometimes added below it) due in theaters later this month. The premise of the movie is that, after war breaks out on Earth, the American and Russian crew of the station are pitted against each other to control it. The movie promises plenty of microgravity action, but perhaps not much else. That may be why it’s coming out in January, rarely a time when quality movies are released.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4718/1
6) NewSpace, satcom, and heavy rockets
by Aditya Chaturvedi Monday, January 8, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4719a.jpg)
India’s NSIL selected SpaceX’s Falcon 9, seen here launching a commercial satellite last week, for its GSAT-20 satellite launching later this year. (credit: SpaceX)
New Space India Limited (NSIL), ISRO’s commercial wing, has signed a contract with SpaceX for the launch of a communication satellite, GSAT-20, in mid-2024, aboard a Falcon 9. The satellite weighs around 4,700 kilograms, exceeding the 4,000-kilogram capability of ISRO’s GSLV Mark 3. It aims to boost connectivity across India.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4719/1
7) India’s mission for understanding the dynamics of the Sun
by Ajey Lele Monday, January 8, 2024
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The Aditya-L1 spacecraft before its launch last September. (credit: ISRO)
On January 6, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully completed halo-orbit insertion of its solar observatory spacecraft, Aditya-L1. (In Sanskrit, Aditya means Sun.) It took 127 days for this craft to reach its final destination, the Lagrangian point 1 (L1) of the Sun-Earth system, around 1.5 million kilometers from the Earth. That is now where this spacecraft will operate for around five years, with an uninterrupted view of the Sun.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4720/1
8 ) Success and setbacks
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 8, 2024
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The first Vulcan Centaur lifts off early Monday carrying Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander. (credit: ULA)
The first launch of a new rocket is a risky endeavor, with historical success rates on the order of 50%. Last year, for example, saw the first flights of ABL Space Systems’ RS1 and Relativity Space’s Terran 1 fail to reach orbit; the first integrated test flight of SpaceX’s Starship failed spectacularly as well. Lunar landers are also risky, with a historical success rate of less than 50%. Last year India succeeded with its Chandrayaan-3 lander but Japanese company ispace failed with its HAKUTO-R M1 mission.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4721/1
2/I 2024 [9-12]
9) Review: The Little Book of Aliens
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 15, 2024
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The Little Book of Aliens
by Adam Frank
Harper, 2023
hardcover, 240 pp.
ISBN 978-0-06-327973-5
US$27.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0063279738/spaceviews
The search for evidence of life beyond Earth has followed several, often intertwined, paths. One involves the search for biosignatures, from microfossils on Mars to excess concentrations of oxygen on distant exoplanets, that are evidence of past or present life. That field of astrobiology has grown significantly in the last few decades and is now arguably driving projects like the Habitable Worlds Observatory, a multibillion-dollar next-generation space telescope.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4722/1
10) A unified theory of suborbital docking and refueling
by Francis Chastaing Monday, January 15, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4723a.jpg)
Combining concepts proposed for Black Horse (above) with another proposed spaceplane offers insights into suborbital docking and refueling. (credit: USAF)
In 1994, Mitchell Burnside Clapp briefly considered suborbital refueling as part of the development of the Black Horse, calling it “a speculative idea.” In 2004 and 2005, Allan Goff wrote two papers related to suborbital docking, proposing FLOC, for Fleet Launched Orbital Craft.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4723/1
11) How we’re searching for alien life at previously unexplored frequencies
by Owen Johnson Monday, January 15, 2024
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The LOFAR radio telescope at Birr, Ireland, used for a SETI survey at low frequencies. (credit: Wikipedia)
Is there life beyond Earth? The question has turned out to be one of the hardest to answer in science. Despite the seemingly boundless expanse of the universe, which implies there’s potential for abundant life, the vast distances between stars render the search akin to locating a needle in a cosmic haystack.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4724/1
12) Twenty years of chasing the Moon
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 15, 2024
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Twenty years after President George W. Bush set a goal of a human lunar return by 2020, NASA has yet to return to the lunar surface, but is making progress. (credit: NASA)
On January 14, 2004, President George W. Bush went to NASA Headquarters and delivered a speech outlining what would become known as the Vision for Space Exploration. That strategy called for retiring the Space Shuttle after it completed assembly of the International Space Station at the end of the decade, restarting robotic exploration of the Moon by 2008, and returning astronauts to the lunar surface as soon as 2015, and no later than 2020 (see “Looking beyond vision”, The Space Review, January 19, 2004).
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4725/1
3/I 2024 [13-16]
13) Review: Things That Go Bump in the Universe
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 22, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4726a.jpg)
Things That Go Bump in the Universe: How Astronomers Decode Cosmic Chaos
by C. Renée James
Johns Hopkins University Press
hardcover, 304 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-4214-4693-6
US$29.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1421446936/spaceviews
Astronomers have, over the last several years, shown a growing interest in a topic known professionally as time domain and multimessenger astrophysics, or TDAMM. The topic has emerged as astronomers grapple with a universe that is far more dynamic than once thought.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4726/1
14) What do Australians think about space?
by Tristan Moss, Aleksandar Deejay, Cassandra Steer, and Kathryn Robison Hasani Monday, January 22, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4727a.jpg)
Australia is increasing its space activities, including work on a lunar rover, but many in the Australian public aren’t aware of those efforts. (credit: Australian Space Agency)
If someone were to ask you how space technologies impact your daily life, or how much Australia should invest in space, would you have an immediate answer or would you wonder why these questions were even being asked?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4727/1
15) Turnover and retention: an unspoken cost center affecting space companies
by Joseph Horvath Monday, January 22, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4728a.jpg)
As space companies scale up, they are often chasing the same small number of “unicorn” workers while missing out on talent in adjacent industries. (credit: SpaceX)
The space industry has two major pain points, and they are not related to systems, capabilities, or public excitement about the future. The biggest hurdles facing companies today are workforce availability and capital resources. While slightly different challenges, they are related in how they impact a space company’s ability to grow and remain competitive.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4728/1
16) The phases of lunar lander success
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 22, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4729a.jpg)
JAXA’s SLIM spacecraft did land on the Moon last week, but likely not the orientation depicted in this illustration. (credit: JAXA)
The launch industry has gotten comfortable with—or at least grudgingly accepted—the concept of partial success and the importance of setting expectations. It acknowledges there is a gray area between total mission success and failure, like on last month’s launch of an Alpha rocket by Firefly Aerospace that placed its payload into orbit, but not the desired orbit because of an upper stage malfunction.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4729/1
4/I 2024 [17-20]
17) Review: Good Luck Have Fun
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 29, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4730a.jpg)
Good Luck Have Fun: Relativity’s Journey to Launch the First 3D Printed Rocket to Space
by Relativity Space
Relativity Space, 2024
paperback, 224 pp., illus.
ISBN 979-8-9895039-0-2
US$50
https://store.relativityspace.com/collections/all/products/good-luck-have-fun-the-book
Since the beginning of last year, several rockets have made their first launches. Some have been unquestionably successful, like Vulcan Centaur’s debut earlier this month; others, not so much. Somewhere in between was the first launch of Relativity Space’s Terran 1 rocket last March.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4730/1
18) Space-related incidents during Taiwan’s elections
by Ajey Lele Monday, January 29, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4731a.jpg)
A Chinese launch of a science spacecraft days before Taiwan’s elections prompted missile warnings on the island because of the rocket’s flight path. (credit: Xinhua)
On January 13, 2024, Taiwan held elections for its presidency. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate William Lai won these elections. His party is not known to be a pro-China party. During the entire process of the elections, there was an intense debate about the possibility of China influencing them through various tactics.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4731/1
19) The ingenuity of technology demos
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 29, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4732a.jpg)
The Ingenuity helicopter, intended to make no more than five flights, instead flew 72 times, racking up more than two hours in the air and covering 17 kilometers. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
On a Friday morning last month, a small ceremony took place at the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center in northern Virginia. In one corner of the museum, in the shadow of one of the museum’s most famous artifacts—the shuttle Discovery—a much smaller flying machine sat on a table.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4732/1
20) The sacred Moon: Navigating diverse cultural beliefs in lunar missions
by Deana L. Weibel Monday, January 29, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4733a.jpg)
The presence of payloads on the Peregrine carrying cremated remains prompted criticism from the Navajo Nation. (credit: ULA)
On January 8, 2024, United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket successfully lifted off into space. Among its payloads was the Peregrine lunar lander, a spacecraft built by Astrobotic Technology. This was to be the first lunar landing not sponsored by a government agency, although the lander did carry some NASA payloads (Wall 2019) as well as a number of commercial payloads.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4733/1
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5/II 2024 [21-24]
21) Review: NASA’s Discovery Program
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 5, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4734a.jpg)
NASA’s Discovery Program: The First Twenty Years of Competitive Planetary Exploration
by Susan M. Niebur with David W. Brown, Editor
NASA, 2023
ebook, 444 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-62683-076-9
Free
https://www.nasa.gov/history/nasas-discovery-program-book/
At last week’s meeting of NASA’s Small Bodies Assessment Group, a group devoted to issues of exploration of asteroids, comets, and other small solar system bodies, a question came up: when will NASA issue its next call for proposals for missions in the Discovery program?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4734/1
22) The case for a fleet of Martian helicopters
by Ari Allyn-Feuer Monday, February 5, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4732c.jpg)
While NASA is studying sending one or two helicopters on a Mars Sample Return lander, a fleet of such craft could conduct new kinds of sciece. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
The riotous success of the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars suggests the potential for an entirely new kind of Mars exploration mission: a swarm of hundreds or thousands of similar small helicopters landing and exploring all over Mars, all at once.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4735/1
23) The Missing Link: Found
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, February 5, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4736a.jpg)
The large radio telescope at Jodrell Bank in England was built to observe the universe, but during the Cold War it was occasionally used to detect signals from Soviet spacecraft. According to a new podcast, the United States’ National Security Agency used it to detect a secret signal known as “the missing link” used by the Soviets to send video images to the ground. (credit: Mike Peel; Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, University of Manchester, Wikimedia Commons.)
Jodrell Bank Observatory is a research facility south of Liverpool in the center of England. It was first established after World War II and gradually expanded to include a number of radio telescopes, the most prominent being a 76-meter (250-foot) dish, the third largest steerable radio telescope in the world.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4736/1
24) Did a NASA study pull the plug on space solar power?
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 5, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4737a.jpg)
A NASA illustration of two kinds of space-based solar power systems it studied, comparing their cost and environmental impact with alternative energy sources. (credit: NASA)
For more than a year and a half, the small community of researchers studying, and enthusiasts supporting, space-based solar power had been eagerly anticipating a report NASA was preparing on the subject. The study, announced at the International Space Development Conference in May 2022, was intended to reexamine the economics of SBSP based on technological advances and declining launch costs. It was the first study of SBSP sponsored by NASA in more than a decade.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4737/1
6/II 2024 [25-28]
25) Review: Dark Star
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 12, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4738a.jpg)
Dark Star: A New History of the Space Shuttle
by Matthew H. Hersch
The MIT Press, 2023
paperback, 328 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-262-54672-0
US$45.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0262546728/spaceviews
In a chamber at NASA’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility west of Cleveland, a spaceplane is being tested ahead of its first launch. Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser is a lifting body that will launch inside the payload fairing of a ULA Vulcan Centaur rocket later this year, but will glide back to a runway landing after completing a mission to the International Space Station.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4738/1
26) Lunar science is entering a new active phase with commercial launches of landers
by Jack Burns Monday, February 12, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4739a.jpg)
The IM-1 lander, scheduled to land on the Moon on February 22 if it launches this week, is carrying several NASA science and technology demonstration payloads. (credit: Intuitive Machines)
For the first time since 1972, NASA is putting science experiments on the Moon in 2024. And thanks to new technologies and public-private partnerships, these projects will open up new realms of scientific possibility. As parts of several projects launching this year, teams of scientists, including myself, will conduct radio astronomy from the south pole and the far side of the Moon.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4739/1
27) Nuclear Transit: nuclear-powered navigation satellites in the early 1960s
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, February 12, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4740a.jpg)
Launch of the first Transit 5BN satellite on September 28, 1963 at Vandenberg Air Force Base. This was the first nuclear-powered satellite, although it had solar panels to power a backup transmitter. Although it successfully reached orbit, it deployed upside down, with its transmitters pointing toward space, and was only partially successful. (credit: Peter Hunter Collection)
Technology goes through phases of acceptance. What starts out as interesting, novel, unique, and amazing eventually becomes ubiquitous, boring, accepted, even ignored and invisible. Two decades ago, when GPS navigation was first appearing in cars, the people who used it were surprised, and although very few people who used it probably understood how it worked, most of them probably knew that it was made possible by satellites.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4740/1
Zwolnienia w JPL (ok. 500 osób).
Misja MSR zagrożona.
Powołano komisję do zbadania alternatywnych opcji (tańszych) MSR.
Obciążenie kadr obowiązkami było wysokie, więc jeśli nie dojdzie do powrotu pracowników do pracy, to trudno wyobrazić sobie realizację dotychczasowych zadań.
28) MSR at serious risk
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 12, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4741a.jpg)
Uncertainty about the funding for MSR and how the program wil be restructured is raising new questions about the program’s future. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Last Tuesday’s announcement was shocking yet not entirely unexpected. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced it would lay off 530 employees, or about 8% of its total workforce, along with 40 contractors. Employees were notified Wednesday, after virtual meetings with managers (most employees were told to work from home “so everyone can be in a safe, comfortable environment on a stressful day”) if they were among the unlucky ones. The layoffs took effect immediately for most, but affected employees will receive pay and benefits for 60 days. (...)
A couple months later, the IRB report made clear that Mars Sample Return, as currently designed, had no chance of fitting into that cost cap. The report, released in September, concluded MSR had “a near zero probability” of launching a sample retrieval lander and Earth return orbiter by 2028 as currently planned. It also estimated the total cost of the program at between $8 billion and $11 billion. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4741/1
7/II 2024 [29-32]
29) Review: The Space Race
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 19, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4742a.jpg)
The Space Race: The Untold Story of the First Black Astronauts
Directed by Lisa Cortes and Diego Hurtado de Mendoza
91 minutes, not rated
Streaming on Disney+ and Hulu
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27390817/
Just after midnight Eastern time on March 1, a Crew Dragon spacecraft is set to launch to the International Space Station on the Crew-8 mission. Among the astronauts on board will be Jeanette Epps, a Black woman who was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2009 but is only now making her first flight.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4742/1
30) The evolution of India’s weather satellite programs
by Ajey Lele Monday, February 19, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4743a.jpg)
A GSLV Mark 2 rocket launched the INSAT-3DS weather satellite February 17. (credit: ISRO)
On February 17, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully launched the GSLV-F14 mission. It was the tenth flight of ISRO’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) with an indigenous cryogenic upper stage and the seventh operational flight of GSLV with such a stage. This launch placed India’s INSAT-3DS satellite into a geosynchronous transfer orbit.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4743/1
31) From Southwest Regional Spaceport to Spaceport America
by Thomas L. Matula Monday, February 19, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4744a.jpg)
New Mexico’s Spaceport America, developed with Virgin Galactic as the anchor tenant, is far different than what was earlier proposed as the Southwest Regional Spaceport. (credit: Spaceport America)
As a space economist with a long interest in commercial spaceports, I was among hundreds of spectators parked along the tracks of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad in southern New Mexico on May 22, 2021. We came to witness the first crewed flight into suborbital space from Spaceport America.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4744/1
32) Delivering a business case for rocket cargo
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 19, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4745a.jpg)
A notional illustration of the “Rocket Cargo” concept being studied by the US Air Force for the rapid delivery of cargo. SpaceX’s Starship is the most likely vehicle to be able to perform such services in the near term. (credit: USAF)
Even in an era where the landing and reuse of rocket boosters has become commonplace (at least for one company), the idea seems a little, well, out there. Launch a rocket and have it land, 60 or 90 minutes later, halfway around the world, carrying tens of tons of cargo needed for military operations, humanitarian relief, or other purposes where time is of the utmost essence.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4745/1
8/II 2024 [33-36]
33) Review: The Battle Beyond
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 26, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4746a.jpg)
The Battle Beyond: Fighting and Winning the Coming War in Space
by Paul Szymanski and Jerry Drew
Amplify Publishing, 2024
hardcover, 400 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-63755-071-7
US$35.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1637550715/spaceviews
Earlier this month, Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), chair of the House Intelligence Committee, warned fellow House members of a “serious national security threat” that he called on the White House to declassify. Within hours, various reports indicated that threat came from a Russian anti-satellite weapon of some kind, but details of which were unclear.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4746/1
34) Cybersecurity for satellites is a growing challenge
by Sylvester Kaczmarek Monday, February 26, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4747a.jpg)
Protecting space assets from cyberattacks is becoming an urgent issue.
In today’s interconnected world, space technology forms the backbone of our global communication, navigation, and security systems. Satellites orbiting Earth are pivotal for everything from GPS navigation to international banking transactions, making them indispensable assets in our daily lives and in global infrastructure.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4747/1
35) The middle of No and Where: Johnston Island and the US Air Force’s nuclear anti-satellite weapon
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, February 26, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4748g.jpg)
Johnston Island, located hundreds of kilometers from Hawaii, was the location of an American nuclear-armed anti-satellite program for approximately a decade. The island was small and offered no protection from weather or rocket launch accidents. The island is now abandoned. (credit: USAF)
Recently there was a flurry of media attention about Russia’s reported development of a nuclear-armed anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon. Soon after the space age began in the late 1950s, both the United States and Soviet Union began studying and then developing and deploying ASATs. From 1962 to 1975 the United States Air Force operated the nuclear-armed Program 437 ASAT from a remote location in the Pacific Ocean known as Johnston Island. Johnston was not only remote, it was small.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4748/1
36) The phases of lunar lander success, revisited
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 26, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4749a.jpg)
An image from the Intuitive Machines IM-1 lunar lander mission after the spacecraft entered orbit around the Moon. (credit: Intuitive Machines)
Once again, the space community is grappling with how to characterize something less than undisputed, 100% perfection in a mission. That was the case last year when SpaceX launched its Starship vehicle on its first two test flights, both failing to complete their mission profiles but providing valuable experience for the company ahead of its next test flight, as soon as March (see “Grading on a suborbital curve”, The Space Review, April 24, 2023.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4749/1
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9/III 2024 [37-40]
37) Ode to Engle and Truly
by Emily Carney Monday, March 4, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4750a.jpg)
Astronauts Joe H. Engle, left, and Richard H. Truly greet reporters upon their return to Ellington Air Force Base near NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC), from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) after learning their flight (STS-2) has been postponed a week. (credit: NASA)
“Nostalgia—it’s delicate, but potent… It’s a twinge in your heart far more powerful than memory alone. This device isn’t a spaceship; it’s a time machine. It goes backwards and forwards… it takes us to a place where we ache to go again.” – Don Draper, Mad Men.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4750/1
38) Taking stock of the US space program
by Namrata Goswami Monday, March 4, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4721a.jpg)
The first Vulcan Centaur launched in January, one sign of the strength of the US space program even as it has weaknesses elsewhere. (credit: ULA)
In 2023, a paradigmatic shift occurred regarding government space programs that was perhaps missed by the global space community. Euroconsult’s 2023 Government Space Program report highlighted that shift: defense-related space expenditures ($59 billion) exceeded civil space budgets ($58 billion) in 2023 for the first time.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4751/1
39) Squinting at the universe
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 4, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4752a.jpg)
A notional design for the Habitable Worlds Observatory space telescope presented at a recent meeting. NASA and the science community is only beginning the work to determine the real design of the spacecraft, expected to launch in the 2040s. (credit: NASA)
Last week, many astronomers got bad news about a good thing. The Space Telescope Science Institute, which operates the James Webb Space Telescope, announced the selections for the next round of JWST observations, called Cycle 3 and set to begin this summer. The institute said it selected 253 proposals for 5,500 hours of “prime time” observations from solar system objects to the distant universe.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4752/1
40) A North Korean satellite starts showing signs of life
by Marco Langbroek Monday, March 4, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4753a.jpg)
Kim Jong Un and his daughter visiting a Malligyong assemblage facility in May 2023. A Malligyong satellite (or mock-up thereof) can be seen in the background (credit: KCNA)
Three and a half months ago, on November 21, 2023, North Korea launched its first military reconnaissance satellite, Malligyong 1. A Chollima-1 rocket launched from Sohae inserted Malligyong-1 (international designator: 2023-179A) into a Sun-synchronous orbit of 512 by 493 kilometers and an inclination of 97.4 degrees. Within days of the launch, North Korea claimed that the satellite is taking imagery of targets of interest.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4753/1
10/III 2024 [41-44]
41) Review: The New World on Mars
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 11, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4754a.jpg)
The New World on Mars: What We Can Create on the Red Planet
by Robert Zubrin
Diversion Books, 2024
hardcover, 320 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-63576-880-0
US$28.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1635768802/spaceviews
As soon as this Thursday, SpaceX will launch its Starship/Super Heavy vehicle on its third integrated test flight, after launches last April and November. On this flight SpaceX hopes, beyond avoiding the explosive ends of those earlier flights, to test a payload bay door and transfer propellant within Starship, key capabilities needed for that vehicle’s early missions to launch Starlink satellites and land humans on the Moon for NASA.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4754/1
42) The psychological challenges of a long voyage to Mars
by Nick Kanas Monday, March 11, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4755a.jpg)
The four-person crew of NASA’s CHAPEA experiment enter their simulated Mars habitat last summer for a year-long Mars analog mission. (credit: NASA/Josh Valcarcel)
Within the next few decades, NASA aims to land humans on the Moon, set up a lunar base, and use the lessons learned to send people to Mars as part of its Artemis program.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4755/1
43) India unveils its first set of Gaganyaan astronauts
by Jatan Mehta Monday, March 11, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4756a.jpg)
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi greets the four Gaganyaan astronauts at a February 27 event. (credit: Press Information Bureau)
After four years of secrecy, the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on February 27 the first four astronauts selected to fly on the country’s initial set of human spaceflight missions mid-decade via ISRO’s ambitious Gaganyaan program. The selectees are all test pilots and Group Captains: Prashanth Nair, Angad Prathap, Ajit Krishnan, and Shubhanshu Shukla. They have received extensive training in India and Russia, and at least one of them will receive advanced training in the US at NASA facilities sometime this year. The announcement of Gaganyaan astronauts is a great time to review India’s progress in putting people in space.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4756/1
44) The difficult early life of the Centaur upper stage
by Trevor Williams Monday, March 11, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4757a.jpg)
A Centaur V upper stage being hoisted into position to be integrated with a Vulcan rocket ahead of the Vulcan’s first launch. (credit: ULA)
On January 8, the first Vulcan rocket by United Launch Alliance successfully placed the Peregrine lander on a trajectory bound for the Moon. This lander then experienced propulsion problems that prevented a lunar landing attempt, but the Vulcan had performed its task perfectly. The upper stage of the Vulcan, the Centaur V (V signifying 5, not Vulcan), is a high-energy upper stage that contributes to the Vulcan’s impressive performance for planetary missions and others.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4757/1
11/III 2024 [45-48]
45) Review: Space: The Longest Goodbye
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 18, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4758a.jpg)
Space: The Longest Goodbye
directed by Ido Mizrahy
87 minutes, not rated
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt24082558/
NASA is offering people a chance to go to Mars—or, rather, “Mars.” The agency announced last month they were accepting applications for its second year-long mission in its Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA) project.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4758/1
46) “A rose, by any other name”: Proposing a national naming competition for our lunar exploration program (part 1)
by Cody Knipfer Monday, March 18, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4759a.jpg)
NASA has used a variety of naming conventions for both crewed and robotic spacecraft throughout its history. (credit: NASA)
What’s in a name?
For Shakespeare’s Juliet Capulet, it is the embodiment of forbidden love. The last name of her amour, “Montague,” bears significance—in her and Romeo’s case, the tragic implications of a familial rivalry. Much the same, names have weight in the real world, especially so for the real-world explorers of yesteryear and today.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4759/1
47) Texas Space Commissions, from Conestoga to Starship
by Thomas L. Matula Monday, March 18, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4760a.jpg)
Texas hosted the first launch of a privately developed rocket more than 40 years ago but soon lost any first-mover advantage. (credit: Celestis)
The Lone Star State once again has a Texas Space Commission thanks to a bill signed into law on June 14, 2023, by Governor Greg Abbott.[1] The former Texas Aerospace Commission, which ceased operations in 2003, started out as the Texas Space Commission in 1987, spurred on by the launch of the first commercial rocket into space five years before.[2]
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4760/1
Trzeci test odbył się po trajektorii suborbitalnej przy uzyskaniu prędkości orbitalnej.
http://lk.astronautilus.pl/n240301.htm#10
https://www.forum.kosmonauta.net/index.php?topic=5664.msg190176#msg190176
48) Accelerating Starship
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 18, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4761a.jpg)
Starship/Super Heavy lifts off March 14 from SpaceX’s Starship site in South Texas. (credit: SpaceX)
When Starship lifted off Thursday morning from SpaceX’s launch site at Boca Chica, Texas, the one question on most people’s minds was this: how far would it get this time? Its first flight, nearly 11 months earlier, ended four minutes after liftoff when the tumbling Starship/Super Heavy stack was detonated by a flight termination system; the liftoff had, in the process, made a mess of the pad because of the lack of a water deluge system (see “Grading on a suborbital curve”, The Space Review, April 24, 2023).
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4761/1
12/III 2024 [49-52]
49) “For All Mankind”: space drama’s alternate history constructs a better vision of NASA
by Val Nolan Monday, March 25, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4762a.jpg)
Masha Mashkova and Joel Kinnaman in the fourth season of “For All Mankind”. (credit: Apple TV+)
Great art is often difficult to quantify. The Apple TV+ series “For All Mankind” is a case in point, running the risk of being too sci-fi for drama fans (rockets, moon bases, Mars) and having too much naturalistic drama for sci-fi aficionados (jealousy, divorce, institutional politics).
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4762/1
50) Preventing a “Space Pearl Harbor”: Rep. Turner leads the charge
by Brian G. Chow Monday, March 25, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4431f.jpg)
Maneuvers by China’s SJ-21 in GEO, including moving a Beidou satellite out of the belt, is just one of the many Chinese space activities with counterspace implications. (credit: ExoAnalytic Solutions)
Accolades are due to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner and the White House for a quick and amicable settlement of Russia’s developing space threat. It involved a balancing act between the American public’s need to know and the Biden Administration’s need for secrecy.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4763/1
51) “A rose, by any other name”: Proposing a national naming competition for our lunar exploration program (part 2)
by Cody Knipfer Monday, March 25, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4764a.jpg)
A naming contest that went a bit awry led to a treadmill on the International Space Station being named for Stephen Colbert, complete with a custom patch. (credit: NASA)
[Part 1 was published last week.]
“By any other name…”: On naming competitions and outreach
Public consultation can take many forms: invited expert input, advisory committees, informal and formal “requests for information”—and write-in competitions.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4764/1
52) Lessons from the first CLPS lunar landing missions
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 25, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4765a.jpg)
An image of the IM-1 landing, showing one of the lunar lander legs breaking as the spacecraft hit the surface faster than it was designed to. (credit: Intuitive Machines)
The IM-1 lunar lander mission officially came to an end Saturday. As the Sun dipped below the horizon on February 29, nearly a week after landing, flight controllers at Intuitive Machines put the lander, known as Odysseus or “Odie,” into a mode so that, when sunlight returned to the lander in a few weeks, it could wake up and start transmitting—if it managed to survive bitterly cold conditions.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4765/1
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13/IV 2024 [53-56]
53) Review: Our Moon
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 1, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4766a.jpg)
Our Moon: How Earth’s Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Are
by Rebecca Boyle
Random House, 2024
hardcover, 336 p., illus.
ISBN 978-0-593-12972-2
US$28.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0593129725/spaceviews
Next Monday, all eyes will turn skyward along a path stretching from Mazatlán, Mexico, to Gander, Newfoundland, including a stretch from Texas to Maine, to watch a total solar eclipse (or try to, weather permitting.) NASA, for example, has planned multiple events across the country for the eclipse, all part of a “Heliophysics Big Year” to promote the agency’s work studying the Sun. But, as the agency’s planetary scientists point out, you can’t have a solar eclipse without the Moon.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4766/1
54) Strategic implications of China winning the space rescue race (part 1)
by Benjamin J. Johnis and Peter Garretson Monday, April 1, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4767a.jpg)
A futuristic Space Guard rescue scenario. (credit: James Vaughan, used with permission)
Several times in its history, the United States has proven unprepared for personnel recovery due to outdated policy that failed to anticipate novel personnel recovery challenges. Trend studies demonstrate the United States adjusts its personnel recovery policies after a major crisis or event occurs. The US government must break this reactive personnel recovery policy and investment cycle or America is at risk of losing its leadership role to China in cislunar space. Only a proactive national approach will ensure the United States remains the leader in space.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4767/1
55) Touching space
by Lisa Pettibone Monday, April 1, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4768a.jpg)
The piece “Fingertip Galaxy” was included on the Euclid spacecraft launched last July. (credit: ESA)
In July 2023, I was eagerly awaiting the launch of European Space Agency’s Euclid Mission in Florida. Ten years in development, the Falcon 9 rocket would send a telescope, with one of the most powerful cameras in space and two sensitive instruments, to explore the nature of dark matter and dark energy. But the spacecraft was also dispatching another kind of invaluable instrument.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4768/1
56) A space telescope’s cloudy future
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 1, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4769a.jpg)
Astronomers are concerned proposed budget cuts for the Chandra X-Ray Observatory could lead to its cancellation. (credit: NASA)
NASA has a long-standing process for evaluating whether to continue science missions. About every three years, each of NASA’s science divisions conducts a “senior review” of missions that have reached the end of their prime mission but are still operating. The reviews are intended to examine the performance of the missions and the science they are conducting to determine if NASA should keep funding their operations and what changes may be needed, such as efficiencies that can reduce their costs.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4769/1
14/IV 2024 [57-60]
57) Review: The Music of Space
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 8, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4770a.jpg)
The Music of Space: Scoring the Cosmos in Film and Television
by Chris Carberry
McFarland, 2024
paperback, 304 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-4766-8897-8
US$39.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1476688974/spaceviews
In space, no one may hear you scream, but at least you’ll get a soundtrack. Science fiction movies and television shows, particularly those about space, are known for their distinctive soundtracks, from orchestral to electronic. They set the mood for the shows and can have an impact that goes far beyond the big or small screen, in some cases becoming instantly recognizable cultural artifacts in and of themselves.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4770/1
58) Strategic implications of China winning the space rescue race (part 2)
by Benjamin J. Johnis and Peter Garretson Monday, April 8, 2024
[Part 1 was published last week.]
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4767a.jpg)
A futuristic Space Guard rescue scenario. (credit: James Vaughan, used with permission)
Relationships between personnel recovery and policy
Event history analysis of policy changes
Recent conflicts between the United States and China regarding multi-domain strategies are trending towards a “Grey Rhino” event. Most have heard of a “Black Swan” event where high-impact incidents occur that are nearly impossible to predict.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4771/1
59) A North Korean satellite starts showing signs of life (part 2)
by Marco Langbroek Monday, April 8, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4772a.jpg)
Kim Jong Un with a globe, an image evoking Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator”. (credit: KCNA)
In a previous article (see “A North Korean satellite starts showing signs of life”, The Space Review, March 4, 2024), I briefly presented evidence that the new North Korean military reconnaissance satellite Malligyong-1 (2023-179A) had performed a series of small orbit raising maneuvers in late February of 2024. In this follow-up analysis, I will be looking at the specific moments these maneuvers were initiated. They match passes over North Korea, it turns out.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4772/1
60) GAMBIT vs KENNEN: The persistence of film reconnaissance in the digital age
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, April 8, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4773a.jpg)
The GAMBIT satellite program used film to take high resolution images. GAMBIT continued in service until 1984, even though the KENNEN digital imagery satellite entered service in late 1976. GAMBIT still had advantages over KENNEN in the short term. Here a GAMBIT satellite is launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in 1968. (credit: Peter Hunter Collection)
One of the mysteries of the American reconnaissance satellite program during the Cold War was why, after the KENNEN digital near-real-time reconnaissance satellite entered service in late 1976, the United States continued to operate film-return reconnaissance satellites well into the 1980s.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4773/1
15/IV 2024 [61-64]
61) Nukes in space: a bad idea in the 1960s and an even worse one now
by Michael Mulvihill Monday, April 15, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4774a.jpg)
Photograph taken from Honolulu of the aurora created by Starfish Prime. (credit: US government archive)
The US and Japan are sponsoring a resolution for debate by the United Nations Security Council which, if passed, will reaffirm international commitments to the 1967 Outer Space Treaty (OST) forbidding the deployment and use of nuclear weapons in space.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4774/1
62) Zero-gravity regulations
by David Gillette and Emma Rohrbach Monday, April 15, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4775a.jpg)
The commercial spaceflight industry has benefited from a limited regulatory regime that offers lessons for other industries. (credit: Virgin Galactic)
Journalists have filled headlines about the “ultrarich” taking costly field trips to outer space. The issue of space tourism, seemingly frivolous to some, provides important insights into US regulations on innovation (see “The normalization of space tourism,” The Space Review, October 18, 2021.) For 20 years, the US government took a laissez-faire approach to regulating space tourism.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4775/1
63) FARRAH, the superstar satellite
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, April 15, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4776a.jpg)
Half-sized model of the FARRAH signals intelligence satellite in the restoration hangar at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles International Airport outside Washington, DC. The first FARRAH satellite was launched in 1982 and used to detect ground, and possibly sea-based radars. The way the satellite appears here is similar to how it would orbit the Earth, with the direction of flight for the rotating satellite to the left. The satellite spun at greater than 50 revolutions per minute, sweeping its antennas across the face of the Earth below. (credit: author’s photo)
The Smithsonian’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, located near Dulles International Airport outside of Washington, DC, has a large viewing gallery overlooking its restoration hangar. Whereas some museum artifacts spend years in the restoration hangar, many others cycle through quickly for a cleaning and minor repair work before returning to storage or display.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4776/1
64) Lunar rover racing
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 15, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4777a.jpg)
The Lunar Dawn rover, proposed by a team led by Lunar Outpost, is among the three selected by NASA for its Lunar Terrain Vehicle program. (credit: Lockheed Martin)
When NASA returns astronauts to the Moon later this decade, they will be hoofing it. On the Artemis 3 and, perhaps, Artemis 4 missions, the astronauts will be limited like the early Apollo missions to terrain they can access on foot. That also means they will be limited in the equipment they can carry, and the samples they can gather, to what they can hold in their hands.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4777/1
16/IV 2024 [65-68]
65) Review: Still As Bright
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 22, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4778a.jpg)
Still As Bright: An Illuminating History of the Moon, from Antiquity to Tomorrow
by Christopher Cokinos
Pegasus Books, 2024
hardcover, 448 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-63936-569-2
US$35
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1639365699/spaceviews
Early in his new book Still As Bright, Christopher Cokinos writes that, like so many boys in the early Space Age, he dreamed of becoming an astronaut after first becoming an Air Force pilot, even joining the Civil Air Patrol. “To this day, I remember Miss Hawk literally pulling me out of advanced algebra, though I don’t know why,” he writes, “and by the next class I was in remedial math, resigned, overnight, to never having wings pinned on a uniform.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4778/1
66) Tintin, the first man in space and on the Moon
by Anusuya Datta Monday, April 22, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4779a.jpg)
April 12 is a historic day for the space industry. On this day back in 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. Not to be left behind, the United States sent its first man into space in less than a month—Alan Shepard on May 5—thus sparking the famous space race between the two Cold War superpowers.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4779/1
67) NASA’s strategy for space sustainability
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 22, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4780a.jpg)
NASA’s TIMED spacecraft came within ten meters of a defunct Russian satellite in February, narrowly avoiding a collision that would have created thousands of pieces of debris in low Earth orbit. (credit: Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben)
At about 1:30 am EST on February 28, NASA’s Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics Mission (TIMED) spacecraft passed close to a defunct Russian satellite, Cosmos 2221.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4780/1
68) The ongoing triumph of Ingenuity
by William Pomerantz Monday, April 22, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4781a.jpg)
The Ingenuity Mars helicopter performed 72 flights over nearly three years. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU)
This is my love letter to Ingenuity.
I remember when I first heard about the concept of a small helicopter designed to catch a ride with a rover bound for the Martian surface. At the time, my wife worked as part of the “Mars Mafia” at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory: a wonderful job that meant she got to bring intriguing ideas and fascinating discoveries home from work regularly.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4781/1
17/IV 2024 [69-72]
69) Review: Who Owns the Moon?
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 29, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4782a.jpg)
Who Owns the Moon?: In Defence of Humanity’s Common Interests in Space
by A. C. Grayling
Oneworld Publications, 2024
hardcover, 224 pp.
ISBN 978-0-86154-725-8
US$26.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/086154725X/spaceviews
The current unfortunate state of space diplomacy was on display last week during a session of the United Nations Security Council. Japan and the United States, with more than 60 nations as co-sponsors, put forward a resolution they billed as the first devoted to space security to be considered by the council.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4782/1
70) China’s interest in the far side of the Moon: scientific, military, or economic?
by Carlos Alatorre Monday, April 29, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4783a.jpg)
An illustration of Chang’e-6 on the surface of the lunar farside. (credit: CNSA)
On January 3, 2019, China achieved the first successful landing on the far side of the Moon with the Chang’e-4 probe. Twelve hours after touching down in the Von Karman Crater near the Moon’s south pole, the accompanying Yutu-2 rover began an exploration of the crater, a region that neither the United States nor the Soviet Union had explored before. This achievement was announced, gaining much fanfare within China as the first nation to deliver a probe to the far side.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4783/1
71) Lazy Cat on a mountaintop
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, April 29, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4784a.jpg)
Cold War era artist impression of a Soviet high-powered laser. In the 1970s, the CIA became concerned that Soviet lasers could attack American satellites. (credit: Defense Intelligence Agency for Soviet Military Power)
In the last days of the rule of the Shah of Iran, the CIA installed a new dome atop a mountain next to a field of equipment used to gather information from inside the Soviet Union. But before the intelligence service could put it into operation in 1978, the Shah fell and the CIA hastily abandoned the site.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4784/1
Ciąg dalszy opowieści o perturbacjach związanych z misją MSR
72) NASA looks for an MSR lifeline
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 29, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4785a.jpg)
A selfie taken by the Perseverance rover showing one of its sample tubes on the ground. NASA is still working to figure out how to get those samples back to Earth effectively. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)
For more than half a year, dark clouds have hovered over NASA’s Mars Sample Return (MSR) program. Last September, an independent panel concluded that the current approach to returning samples being collected by the Perseverance rover was behind schedule and far over budget, with cost estimates as high as $11 billion. That prompted an internal NASA reassessment of the MSR program that, coupled with uncertainty about spending levels for the program in 2024, led to slowing work on much of MSR and, in February, laying off 8% of the staff at JPL, the lead center for MSR (see “MSR at serious risk”, The Space Review, February 12, 2024). (...)
The main technical difference was the inclusion of a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) on the lander, which previously was solar powered, to make lander operations more robust. (Including the RTG, the report noted, made little change to its price but it meant there would be no room for helicopters based on Ingenuity; those were intended to fetch samples from a cache on the surface as a backup to getting them directly from Perseverance.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4785/1
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18/V 2024 [73-76]
73) Review: The Asteroid Hunter
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 6, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4786a.jpg)
The Asteroid Hunter: A Scientist’s Journey to the Dawn of our Solar System
by Dante S. Lauretta
Grand Central Publishing, 2024
hardcover, 336 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-5387-2294-7
US$30
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1538722941/spaceviews
Many people can identify a particular point where they found their purpose in life. It can be an event of some kind, either celebratory or traumatic; a chance encounter with someone; or maybe a book. For Dante Lauretta, it was an ad in a student newspaper.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4786/1
74) The rising flood of space junk is a risk to us on Earth
by Thomas Cheney Monday, May 6, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4787b.jpg)
The ISS was the source of a piece of debris that hit a Florida home in March. (credit: NASA)
A piece of space junk recently crashed through the roof and floor of a man’s home in Florida. NASA later confirmed that the object had come from unwanted hardware released from the International Space Station.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4787/1
75) Boeing’s Starliner, an important milestone for commercial spaceflight
by Wendy N. Whitman Cobb Monday, May 6, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4788a.jpg)
Starliner is set to launch as soon as Monday night on its first crewed flight. (credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky)
If all goes well late on May 6, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will blast off into space on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. Launching from the Kennedy Space Center, this last crucial test for Starliner will test out the new spacecraft and take the pair to the International Space Station for about a week.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4788/1
76) Europe looks to end its launcher crisis
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 6, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4789a.jpg)
The first Ariane 6 is taking shape at the spaceport in French Guiana for a launch as soon as this summer. (credit: ESA/ArianeGroup/Arianespace/CNES)
In the early morning hours of April 28, the European Space Agency and European Commission celebrated the launch of the latest two Galileo navigation satellites. But in the announcements of the launch and confirmation that the two satellites were working well in orbit, there was something missing: just how the satellites got into orbit.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4789/1
19/V 2024 [77-80]
77) Review: Alien Earths
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 13, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4790a.jpg)
Alien Earths: The New Science of Planet Hunting in the Cosmos
by Lisa Kaltenegger
St. Martin’s Press, 2024
hardcover, 288 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-250-28363-4
US$30
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1250283639/spaceviews
In a paper published last week, astronomers reported the detection of an atmosphere around a rocky “Earth-like” exoplanet, a first. The problem with the announcement, though, was that the exoplanet in question, 55 Cancri e, didn’t seem much like Earth: a diameter twice the size of Earth and a temperature of more than 1,500 degrees Celsius. (“To describe 55 Cancri e as ‘rocky,’ however, could leave the wrong impression,” a press release stated, noting its surface is likely molten.) Combine that with an atmosphere made of carbon monoxide and/or carbon dioxide, and 55 Cancri e doesn’t appear to be particularly hospitable to life.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4790/1
78) Spaceplanes: why we need them, why they have failed, and how they can succeed
by John Hollaway Monday, May 13, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4791a.jpg)
Despite the failures of dozens of past efforts, companies like Radian Aerospace continue to pursue spaceplanes. (credit: Radian Aerospace)
“Rockets are terribly inefficient and expensive.” This admission can be found here in NASA’s own educational piece on the equation that governs rocket performance, also known as Tsiolkovsky's equation. But what is the alternative?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4791/1
79) Is it time for space to come out from under the FAA’s wings?
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 13, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4792a.jpg)
The growth of commercial launch and reentry activity had been led by SpaceX, such as with this Falcon 9 launch May 6 from Florida. (credit: SpaceX)
Spaceflight is not routine in the same way as other modes of transportation, but it is becoming more commonplace. Through less than four and a half months of this year, there have been more than 90 orbital launches worldwide. Commercial launches, predominantly by SpaceX, have driven that growth, far offsetting declines by some other countries and companies.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4792/1
80) Russian research on space nukes and alternative counterspace weapons (part 1)
by Bart Hendrickx Monday, May 13, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4793a.jpg)
Computer-simulated views of high-altitude nuclear explosions produced at the Institute of Computer-Aided Design (IAP) in Moscow. (Source)
In February, White House officials asserted that Russia is developing a space-based anti-satellite system that would violate the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which prohibits the deployment of weapons of mass destruction in orbit. They later confirmed media speculation that the system in question is a nuclear weapon. Part 1 of this article summarizes what has been revealed about the alleged weapon so far and attempts to chart academic and laboratory research on nuclear explosions in space done in Russia in recent years.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4793/1
20/V 2024 [81-84]
81) Review: Weapons in Space
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 20, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4794a.jpg)
Weapons in Space: Technology, Politics, and the Rise and Fall of the Strategic Defense Initiative
by Aaron Bateman
MIT Press, 2024
paperback, 336 pp.
ISBN 978-0-262-54736-9
US$60.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0262547368/spaceviews
One of the most divisive military space programs was the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). To its advocates, SDI offered a way to protect America from nuclear attack and even, in the vision of President Ronald Reagan, render nuclear weapons obsolete. To critics, SDI was derided as “Star Wars,” an effort that was wasteful and ineffective as well as potentially destabilizing.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4794/1
82) Assigning an identification to a satellite
by Charles Phillips Monday, May 20, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4795g.jpg)
Launches of multiple payloads, like this Falcon 9 rideshare mission in April, share a characteristic that links those payloads together. (credit: SpaceX)
This is another article about a useful technique to analyze satellite’s orbits, a technique that should be used to avoid mistakes in tracking these satellites. This technique should be useful to verify that a satellite is the same if it has not been tracked for a year or so, and I think that it has other uses that I am still developing.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4795/1
83) Architecting lunar infrastructure
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 20, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4796a.jpg)
Commercial lunar infrastructure could benefit startups like Interlune, which proposes to harvest helium-3 on the Moon. (credit: Interlune)
You may have heard in recent weeks a two-word phrase whose individual words were very familiar but which, until now, had been rarely combined: lunar railroad. Earlier this month, NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC), the agency program that funds work on early-stage technologies, awarded a Phase 2 grant for a project called Flexible Levitation on a Track (FLOAT) to create a maglev railroad of sorts on the Moon and other planetary bodies. “We want to build the first lunar railway system, which will provide reliable, autonomous, and efficient payload transport on the Moon,” explained Ethan Schaler of JPL, who is leading work on FLOAT.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4796/1
Działa plazmowe jako broń antysatelitarna
84) Russian research on space nukes and alternative counterspace weapons (part 2)
by Bart Hendrickx Monday, May 20, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4797a.jpg)
The “Krot” plasma chamber in Nizhniy Novgorod is possibly being used for research on directed-energy counterspace weapons. (Source)
Part 1 summarized recent Russian academic literature on the effects of high-altitude nuclear explosions. The bulk of the research in this field seems to be taking place at Rosatom’s Federal Nuclear Center – All-Russian Scientific Research Institute for Experimental Physics (RFYaTs-VNIIEF) in Sarov and the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Computer-Aided Design (IAP) in Moscow. Both these organizations, as well as several others, also appear to be engaged in research on weapon systems that would mimic some of the effects of nuclear explosions in space without having the same devastating consequences.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4797/1
Note: Because of the Memorial Day holiday, next week’s issue will be published on Tuesday, May 28.
21/V 2024 [85-88]
85) Why planetary protection matters to the future of space exploration
by Dylan Taylor Tuesday, May 28, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4798a.jpg)
Sample tubes cached by the Perseverance Mars rover for later return to Earth, an effort that requires following planetary protection protocols for both forward and backward contamination. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)
The hiker’s motto you often hear cited when it comes to dealing with forays into the wilderness is, “leave only footprints, take only memories.” As humanity spreads outward into space we need to try and adopt something similar —perhaps adding, “take only memories, readings, and bring back a few samples.” We are moving outward to study worlds beyond our own. As such, it behooves us to do our best to not alter the very thing that we have gone out to study—if studying these places is why we go there in the first place, which it is.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4798/1
86) Ed Dwight: The first Black astronaut?
by John M. Logsdon Tuesday, May 28, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4799a.jpg)
Ed Dwight emerges from the New Shepard capsule May 19 after his suborbital spaceflight, more than 60 days after he was identified as a potential astronaut. (credit: Blue Origin)
Ninety-year-old Ed Dwight was one of six people aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard vehicle when it made its suborbital trip into space on May 19, 2024. In reporting on this flight, The New York Times identified Dwight as “the first Black astronaut.” Many other news accounts described him, more correctly, as “the first Black astronaut candidate.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4799/1
87) Columbia retold, and untold
by Dwayne A. Day Tuesday, May 28, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4800a.jpg)
The crew of the Columbia. At the Columbia Accident Investigation Board offices, a large photo of the crew hung in the main meeting room, reminding the board members and investigators of the people who lost their lives, and why finding the causes of the accident was so important. (credit: NASA)
Last month, CNN aired a four-part documentary about the Columbia accident that is the most comprehensive retelling of the events two decades ago that shocked the American public and changed the course of the American space program. Space Shuttle Columbia, the Final Flight was co-produced by BBC and Mindhouse Productions, and aired in Britain several months earlier. But despite its extensive interviews and over three-hour running time, the documentary was also incomplete, and distorted the history of what happened after the tragic accident that took seven lives.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4800/1
88) Starlink’s disruption of the space industry
by Jeff Foust Tuesday, May 28, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4801a.jpg)
A Falcon 9 lifts off May 28 as SpaceX continues a high cadence of missions to deploy Starlink satellites. (credit: SpaceX)
Like many five-year-olds, Starlink celebrated its birthday with a big candle. In its case, it was a Falcon 9 that lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A on May 23, placing 23 Starlink satellites into orbit. That launch took place five years—almost to the minute—after another Falcon 9 lifted off from nearby Space Launch Complex 40 and put 60 Starlink satellites into orbit, the first dedicated launch for the broadband megaconstellation.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4801/1
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22/VI 2024 [89-92]
89) Review: USS Hornet Chronological Pictorial History
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, June 3, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4802a.jpg)
USS Hornet Chronological Pictorial History: Volume III and Volume IV
CVA-12 – CVS-12
Keeping the Peace 1953 – 1970
A William Ballenger Collection
Presented by The USS Hornet Sea, Air & Space Museum
Dennis de Freitas
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B094T5KGHV/spaceviews
Recovering astronauts in the middle of the ocean during the 1960s was a complicated, resource-intensive, and expensive operation. The US Navy provided substantial support for Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions, usually an aircraft carrier and other naval vessels. Today, several of the carriers used in these operations—Hornet, Intrepid, and Yorktown—are museum ships, and feature displays about their role in the space program. There are books about the recovery efforts, notably Moon Men Return by Scott Carmichael, and Hornet Plus Three by Bob Fish.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4802/1
90) Space Resources 2024: In search of the Grand Bargain
by Dennis O’Brien Monday, June 3, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4074a.jpg)
Harvesting resources from the Moon or other bodies raises questions about how those activities can and should be governed. (credit: ESA)
The United Nations sponsored two meetings of space resource experts this spring, one in Luxembourg in March and the other in Vienna in April. The meetings were part of public outreach by the new Working Group on the Legal Aspects of Space Resource Activity (Working Group), created by the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS). The experts were selected by the member states of COPUOS. Although there was a wide spectrum of opinion on many topics, the possibility of an agreement still seems within reach, a grand bargain that will support the private sector while protecting essential public policies.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4803/1
91) Power politics transcends space security
by Ajey Lele Monday, June 3, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4804a.jpg)
The UN Security deadlocked in a May 20 debate on a Russian resolution to ban weapons in space, weeks after Russia vetoed a resolution regarding nuclear weapons in space. (credit: UN Photo/Manuel ElĂas)
For some years now the mockery of space security has been on display at various international forums, particularly at the United Nations (UN). Recently, the UN Security Council (UNSC) voted against a resolution presented by Russia and China that would ban member states from placing weapons of any kind in outer space. Before this, the US-Japan resolution specifically to ban the deployment of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) was vetoed in the UNSC by Russia.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4804/1
Załoga przygotowuje się do trzeciej próby startu.
Wyciek (helu) w granicach normy.
Przy okazji wykryto nieoptymalne rozwiązanie konstrukcyjne związane z systemem silników deorbitacyjnych, czemu zaradzono tymczasowo poprzez modyfikację procesu jego działania.
92) Star-crossed liner
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 3, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4805a.jpg)
Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner atop its Atlas 5 rocket before a May 6 launch attempt. NASA astronaut Suni Williams is at right, in the tower near the crew access arm. (credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky)
Sometime in the near future—perhaps as soon as Wednesday morning—an Atlas 5 will finally lift off from Cape Canaveral, carrying Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on board. (...)
Boeing and NASA concluded that Starliner could fly as-is: the leak was not a major risk, and replacing the seal would have required extensive repair work. “If we were to remove the seal completely,” Nappi said, “the leak rate would not exceed our capability to manage that leak. That made us comfortable that, if this leak were to get worse, it would be acceptable to fly.”
Other work conclude that the damaged seal was not a systemic problem, with no evidence of problems with any other seals in the spacecraft’s propulsion system. “This is really not a safety-of-flight issue for ourselves, and we believe that we have a well-understood condition that we can manage,” Nappi concluded. (...)
As it turned out, there was something to be concerned about. The review turned up what he called a “design vulnerability” with Starliner’s propulsion system that had not been recognized. Starliner’s service module has four areas called “doghouses” spaced 90 degrees apart that host both larger Orbital Maneuvering and Attitude Control (OMAC) thrusters and smaller reaction control system (RCS) thrusters. If two adjacent doghouses failed for some reason, though, it would prevent the spacecraft from doing a deorbit burn even though the spacecraft is designed with multiple ways to carry out the deorbit burn using combinations of OMAC and RCS thrusters.
“It’s a pretty diabolical case,” Stich said of that scenario, which he and Nappi emphasized was rare, occurring in less than one percent of the potential combinations of failures in the propulsion system. “You would lose two helium manifolds in two separate doghouses, and they have to be next to each other.”
NASA and Boeing developed another approach to doing the deorbit burn using four RCS thrusters, splitting the deorbit maneuver into two separate burns. But the late discovery of this design vulnerability prompted questions about why it was found only now, after years of development and scrutiny—particularly since it came two months after the agency and the company made the case their reviews had not missed anything. (...)
NASA had hoped to start flying astronauts to the station on Starliner early next year, a mission designated Starliner-1, alternating missions with SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, but it’s not clear now if the certification work can be completed in time to support that schedule. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4805/1
23/VI 2024 [93-96]
93) Prospects for orbital data centers
by Lawrence Furnival Monday, June 10, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4806a.jpg)
A terrestrial data center. The business case for orbital data centers might close witha modest reduction in launch costs. (credit: KKR)
In the near future, orbital data centers could prove to be an important new revenue stream for launch providers and cloud services. As this article describes, if the price of a Falcon 9 was $20 million instead of $67 million, it would make sense to operate data centers in orbit with their current cost and weight. This goal could be moved significantly closer if space optimized data center systems were available—primarily shielding and cooling systems. Moreover, near-future launch costs per kilogram to low Earth orbit for SpaceX’s next rocket are thought to be about 10% of that of the current Falcon 9.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4806/1
94) Challenges for India’s emerging commercial launch industry
by Jatan Mehta Monday, June 10, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4807a.jpg)
Agnikul launched a small suborbital rocket May 30 to test technologies for a future orbital launcher. (credit: Agnikul)
After persevering through four scrubbed launch attempts over a month, Chennai-based space startup Agnikul launched its first rocket demonstrator mission called “Suborbital Tech Demonstrator” (SOrTeD) on May 30. Unlike what many national and international media reports have implied though, and which tweets from the company or ISRO don’t actively clarify against, the single-stage SOrTeD vehicle was not intended to reach space. It was not just a suborbital mission but a squarely sub-space one, unlike competitor Skyroot’s 2022 launch of Prarambh, which achieved an apogee of 89.5 kilometers, versus the less than 10 of SOrTeD.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4807/1
95) Hubble limps along
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 10, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4808a.jpg)
The Hubble Space Telescope at the end of the final shuttle servicing mission to it in May 2009. (credit: NASA)
For months, one of the three remaining working gyroscopes on the Hubble Space Telescope, designated Gyro 3, has been malfunctioning. A problem with the gyro would trigger a safe mode, taking the telescope offline for days while engineers worked to get the gyro working again, allowing observations to resume.
“Gyro 3, to be frank, has always performed a little bit out-of-family on orbit,” said Patrick Crouse, project manager for Hubble at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, during a media telecon last week. “It’s been ongoing work since 2018 on the operations team to learn to live with this gyro and make the best of it.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4808/1
96) National Reconnaissance Program crisis photography concepts, part 3: Axumite
by Joseph T. Page II Monday, June 10, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4809a.jpg)
A typical F-4 Phantom II. The NRO studied using the fighter jet as an air-launch platform for a crisis reconnaissance system. (credit: National Archives)
On November 3, 1970, the Deputy Director of the NRO, Dr. Fumio Robert “Bob” Naka, gave a series of presentations to the staff of Mr. Ray S. Cline, the Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research at the State Department. The presentations briefed capabilities within the National Reconnaissance Program (NRP) to monitor the Middle East Cease Fire Zone, established during the War of Attrition (1967–1970), with KH-8 Gambit systems and future capabilities such as KH-9 Hexagon. Additionally, Dr. Naka briefed concepts for future crisis reconnaissance systems, based upon the likelihood of further military action with little or no warning.[1]
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4809/1
24/VI 2024 [97-100]
97) Reviews: space documentaries of the past and present
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 17, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4810a.jpg)
Apollo 13: Survival
directed by Peter Middleton
2024, 96 mins.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31852716/
Wild Wild Space
directed by Ross Kauffman
2024, 93 mins.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32258850/
The DC/DOX documentary film festival, held over the weekend in Washington, included two films on space topics. The subjects and filmmaking approaches are very different, but the two perhaps have more similarities than one might think.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4810/1
98) The rush to return humans to the Moon and build lunar bases could threaten opportunities for astronomy
by Martin Elvis Monday, June 17, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4811a.jpg)
The same commercial capabilities enabling new science at the Moon, like the LuSEE-Night radio astronomy experiment, could also jeopardize that research. (credit: NASA/Firefly Aerospace)
The 2020s have already seen many lunar landing attempts, although several of them have crashed or toppled over. With all the excitement surrounding the prospect of humans returning to the Moon, both commercial interests and scientists stand to gain.
The Moon is uniquely suitable for researchers to build telescopes they can’t put on Earth because it doesn’t have as much satellite interference as Earth or a magnetic field blocking out radio waves. But only recently have astronomers like me started thinking about potential conflicts between the desire to expand knowledge of the universe on one side and geopolitical rivalries and commercial gain on the other, and how to balance those interests.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4811/1
99) Artemis Accords lift off
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 17, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4812a.jpg)
Mkhitar Hayrapetyan, Minister of High-Tech Industry of the Republic of Armenia, signs the Artemis Accords June 12 as (from left) Acting Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs Jennifer Littlejohn, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, and Ambassador of the Republic of Armenia to the United States Lilit Makunts look on. (credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky)
At the end of 2022, more than two years after the rollout of the Artemis Accords, 23 nations had signed the document outlining best practices for sustainable space exploration. Since eight of the countries had signed the Accords at once at an unveiling event in October 2020, it meant that 15 nations had joined since then.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4812/1
100) Things that almost go boom
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, June 17, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4813d.jpg)
Discoverer One was launched in February 1959, a little over a month after the Discoverer Zero accident. The Air Force announced that it was in orbit, but those involved in the launch concluded that it most likely fell over Antarctica, and the spacecraft was never tracked in orbit. Discoverer suffered a string of failures before achieving success in summer 1960 and making possible the first reconnaissance satellites. (credit: Peter Hunter Collection)
According to the US Air Force, the first military satellite launch attempt at Vandenberg Air Force Base took place on February 28, 1959, with the successful orbiting of Discoverer 1. As usual, the reality is more complicated. Discoverer 1 most likely never made it into orbit, falling to Earth over Antarctica. Discoverer 1 had been preceded over a month earlier by another operation which was not publicly acknowledged and was known to a small community as “Discoverer Zero,” and nearly ended in tragedy.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4813/1
25/VI 2024 [101-104]
101) Review: The People’s Spaceship
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 24, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4814a.jpg)
The People’s Spaceship: NASA, the Shuttle Era, and Public Engagement after Apollo
by Amy Paige Kaminski
University of Pittsburgh Press, 2024
hardcover, 336 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-8229-4766-0
US$60.00
https://www.amazon.com/?asc_source=01HEJFKGGQJ5VG7C2WE1AR8Y5M&tag=namespacepl-21
NASA today embeds public outreach in nearly every aspect of its activities. “Slow Your Student’s ‘Summer Slide’ and Beat Boredom With NASA STEM” declares a recent NASA release, explaining how agency resources can keep kids entertained and educated during summer vacation. (“Finally, summer isn’t complete without a sweet treat, so bake some sunspot cookies. Real sunspots are not made of chocolate, but in this recipe, they are!” it states.) People can also register to virtually “attend” for this week’s scheduled launch of the GOES-U weather satellite, giving people access to mission updates as well as “curated mission resources.” The unstated rationale for the mission updates, educational activities, and even cookie recipes is to build and maintain public support for the agency and its programs.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4814/1
102) The mirage at the core of space commerce, space stations, and other options
by Roger Handberg Monday, June 24, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4815a.jpg)
As companies work to develop commercial successors to the ISS, an open question is what markets they will serve. (credit: NASA)
Space commerce is repeatedly described as entering an era of tremendous economic expansion, one where the future is bright. Such assertions are now driven by the explosion in launches carrying humans and satellites into orbit. These satellite constellations and other events demanded a dramatic expansion in the launch capacity from the governments and corporations. SpaceX, with its reliable and less costly launches, is critical for fueling these expansive views of space economics. As other launch vehicles come into service, more launches translate into more satellites entering orbit at lower costs. The problem becomes that these spacecraft may enter a marketplace that is becoming saturated. Whether this situation can be sustainable is the unknown haunting the industry.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4815/1
103) The little rocket that could: Thor in the early days at Vandenberg (part 1)
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, June 24, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4816a.jpg)
The US Air Force developed the Thor launch vehicle from an intermediate range ballistic missile. Throughout the 1960s and into the early 1970s, Thor was a workhorse, carrying numerous classified payloads into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. (credit: Douglas Aircraft Company brochure)
In the mid-1950s, as the United States Air Force first began considering how it would launch satellites into orbit, the obvious choice was the Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile then under development. Atlas was expected to have the required performance to put a good-sized payload—several thousand kilograms—into low Earth orbit. But Atlas was relatively expensive and difficult to use, and bigger than many missions required. Fortunately, the Air Force had under development a smaller missile that could also loft a payload into orbit, the Thor intermediate range ballistic missile. Thor’s lower cost and easier handling made it a more useful rocket for the Air Force, and by the late 1950s, Thor was assigned to carry an increasing number of satellites to orbit, including the CORONA reconnaissance satellites and growing families of military and civilian satellites. When Thor was withdrawn from its missile role, many vehicles were freed up for conversion to launch satellites. Thor evolved over the next several decades into Thor-Delta and eventually the Delta II rocket, and was referred to by some in the space program as the workhorse rocket of the early American space program.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4816/1
104) Suborbital spaceflight’s crossroads
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 24, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4817a.jpg)
Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity, attached to its VMs Eve mothership aircraft, takes off June 8 on its final commercial suborbital flight. (credit: J. Foust)
If one tried to compile a list of key locations in the history of commercial human spaceflight, launch sites immediately come to mind. They include Mojave Air and Space Port, which hosted SpaceShipOne’s first suborbital spaceflight 20 years ago this month, as well as Blue Origin’s and Virgin Galactic’s commercial spaceports in West Texas and New Mexico, respectively. Then there’s Cape Canaveral, where SpaceX is launching commercial Crew Dragon missions for NASA and private customers.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4817/1
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26/VII 2024 [105-108]
105Review: Space Feminisms
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 1, 2024
Space Feminisms: People, Planets, Power
by Marie-Pier Boucher, Claire Webb, Annick Bureaud, and Nahum (eds.)
Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2024
hardcover, 260 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-350-34632-1
US$120
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1350346322/spaceviews
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4818a.jpg)
The space community has become more diverse as it has grown in recent years both in the people who are a part of it and the opportunities to do different activities in space. That diversity is welcome, but it is not without conflict. Some want to move faster, seeking to right historical wrongs, while others are puzzled or even threatened by these changes.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4818/1
106) The overlap between the space and longevity industries
by Dylan Taylor Monday, July 1, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4819a.jpg)
Research on the ISS can help both improve the health of astronauts on long-duration missions and extend the lives of people on Earth. (credit: NASA)
As the nascent space sector takes off, commercialization and space tourism are expected to grow increasingly prominent. To prepare for long-term spaceflight, we need to better understand how the human body responds to unusual environments encountered during space travel. The answer to solving these problems may lie at the intersection between space medicine and human medicine—specifically, longevity—back here on Earth.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4819/1
107) The little rocket that could: Thor in the early days at Vandenberg (part 2)
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, July 1, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4820a.jpg)
The Discoverer 3 launch vehicle being prepared for launch in June 1959 at SLC-1 West. Discoverer was the cover story for the CORONA reconnaissance satellite program. This spacecraft carried mice that died before liftoff. (credit: Peter Hunter)
The Thor rocket served as the workhorse for the American military and civil space programs for the first decade of the space age, evolving into the Thor-Delta and finally the venerable Delta II. Many launches were conducted from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the California coast, boosting classified payloads into orbit. Relatively few photographs of these early Vandenberg operations have been seen because national security secrecy suppressed the history. Now, more images of Thor operations at Vandenberg have become available, providing a glimpse of what it was like to prepare the workhorse and launch it into space. (See “The little rocket that could: Thor in the early days at Vandenberg (part 1),” The Space Review, June 24, 2024.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4820/1
Można odnieść wrażenie, że im mniej informacji, tym bardziej mogą je zastępować spekulacje.
Ciąg dalszy opery, ze Starlinerem w roli głównej.
108) Starliner struggles (https://www.forum.kosmonauta.net/index.php?topic=3848.msg192266#msg192266)
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 1, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4821a.jpg)
Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner docked to the International Space Station. Originally planned to spend as little as eight days there, the spacecraft may remain there for more than a month while engineers study thruster and helium leak issues. (credit: NASA)
If you have to repeatedly state that the astronauts you launched to the International Space Station are not “stranded” there, then maybe you have a problem with either your spacecraft or your communications strategy. Or both. (...)
NASA waited nearly a week, until the afternoon of June 28, for another update on Starliner. At that briefing, the agency said it would further delay Starliner’s return so that it could perform ground testing of a Starliner RCS thruster to try to duplicate the conditions seen by the thrusters that malfunctioned during the approach to the station. Those tests, scheduled to start this week, will last at least a couple weeks.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4821/1
27/VII 2024 [109-112]
109) Remembering Starfish Prime
by Ajey Lele Monday, July 8, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4774a.jpg)
Photograph taken from Honolulu of the aurora created by Starfish Prime. (credit: US government archive)
Starfish Prime was a high-altitude nuclear test conducted by the United States on July 9, 1962. It was reported that the blast had disabled some satellites (around two dozen satellites were operational at the time), including a British bird called Ariel 1, the first ever satellite launched by the United Kingdom. The nuclear test by the US in outer space had created radioactive particles in space, which impacted the functioning of this satellite. The solar panels of Ariel 1 sustained some damage and the timer system of the satellite got disabled. Luckily, there was no major impact on the functioning of the satellite.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4822/1
110) Welcome to the age of space skepticism and a growing revolt against elites
by Tony Milligan Monday, July 8, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4823a.jpg)
The role of billionaires like Richard Branson (left, with Galactic 07 crew) have created a backlash towards space among some parts of the public. (credit: J. Foust)
Over the past decade, a new form of skepticism about human activities in space has emerged. It seems to be based exclusively in the Western world, and centered around the idea that increasingly ambitious space plans will damage humanity and neglect the Earth.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4823/1
111) The little rocket that could: Thor in the early days at Vandenberg (part 3)
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, July 8, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4824a.jpg)
Hundreds of top secret missions were launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in the 1960s, but very few photos of the vehicles and launches were released. This February 1963 photo shows a CORONA reconnaissance satellite being prepared for launch atop a Thrust-Augmented Thor-Agena rocket. Pad workers are working on the three solid rocket boosters that were added to the Thor to increase performance. (credit: Peter Hunter Collection)
In the late 1990s, Qantas captain Peter Hunter regularly flew a 747 from Sydney to Los Angeles and back. Regulations required that he have several days of rest after landing in the United States before making the return flight in what Hunter called his “office.” But he had a hobby. He drove down to San Diego where he had been given access to a vast corporate trove of photographs of Atlas, Thor, and Delta rockets. The photographs were not public or archived, but Hunter obtained permission to scan them to create collections with the goal of obtaining a photo of every Thor, Delta, and Atlas rocket launched.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4824/1
112) Coping with Starship
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 8, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4825a.jpg)
Ariane 6 on the pad ahead of its inaugural launch. European officials say they remain upbeat about the vehicle’s prospects despite competition from companies like SpaceX. (credit: ESA/L. Bourgeon )
This week, Europe’s Ariane 6 is slated to make its long-awaited inaugural launch, carrying a set of smallsat payloads on a test flight. Europe has pinned its future in space in large part on the rocket, ending a “launcher crisis” that has temporarily deprived Europe of independent access to space (caused in part by years of delays in Ariane 6 itself.) It will provide a means for European government satellites to get to space and serve commercial customers, like Amazon’s Project Kuiper.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4825/1
28/VII 2024 [113-116]
113) The significance of Bulgaria joining the Artemis Accords
by Svetoslav Alexandrov Monday, July 15, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4826a.jpg)
NASA administrator Bill Nelson and Minister of Innovation and Growth for Bulgaria, Milena Stoycheva, as a signing ceremony fot the Artemis Accords in November 2023. (credit: NASA/Keegan Barber)
In November 2023, Bulgaria signed the Artemis Accords, becoming the 32nd country to do so. In this article I will explain why this was important for us and how it helps us break free from nostalgia’s grip, leaving the ghosts of Interkosmos behind.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4826/1
114) Taking the thumb off the scale: Chevron Deference, its repeal, and the effect on regulation of orbital debris
by Michael Listner Monday, July 15, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4827a.jpg)
The Supreme Court ruling striking down “Chevron Deference” could have implications for regulation of commercial space activities. (credit: Joe Ravi, CC-BY-SA 3.0)
The US Supreme Court issued a seminal decision on the power of federal agencies to regulate in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo on June 28, 2024.[1] Loper challenged a regulation by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration that mandated fishers to pay for at-sea monitoring programs via the Magnuson-Stevens Act even though the act is silent on the matter.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4827/1
115) Carriers from space (part 1)
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, July 15, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4828a.jpg)
Possibly the earliest photo of aircraft carriers taken by a reconnaissance satellite. An American CORONA satellite overflew Norfolk, Virginia, the day after Christmas 1963 and imaged the sprawling Navy base, revealing four aircraft carriers there, including the nuclear-powered USS Enterprise and two World War II-era anti-submarine carriers. (credit: NRO via Harry Stranger)
In December 1963, a spy satellite flew high over Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia, the largest US naval facility on the East Coast, and in fact the largest naval facility in the world. Peering through a thin layer of clouds, its camera photographed the base facilities and docks and the ships moored there. One day after Christmas, the satellite hit the jackpot, spotting several of the US Navy’s fleet of aircraft carriers: three of them at Navy piers and a fourth anchored in the broad James River. One ship was the World War II-era USS Intrepid, one of the venerable Essex-class carriers, now converted to anti-submarine duty.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4828/1
116) When a workhorse falters
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 15, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4829a.jpg)
A Falcon 9 launched a Turkish communications satellite last Monday, the last successful flight of the rocket before an upper-stage anomaly on a launch Thursday night. (credit: SpaceX)
Last week was not shaping up to be a great week for launch vehicles even before Thursday night. On Wednesday, a small Chinese commercial rocket, the Hyperbola-1 from iSpace (not to be confused with Japanese lunar lander developer ispace) failed to reach orbit when the fourth stage of the solid-fuel rocket suffered an unidentified anomaly. It was the fourth failure in seven flights for that rocket.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4829/1
29/VII 2024 [117-120]
117) Review: Challenger
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 22, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4830a.jpg)
Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space
by Adam Higginbotham
Simon & Schuster, 2024
hardcover, 576 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-982176-61-7
US$35
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/198217661X/spaceviews
Nearly four decades later, Challenge remains seared in the collective consciousness of the space community, a reminder of all that can go tragically wrong in space. In seconds, the shuttle was enveloped in a fireball that destroyed the vehicle and killed the seven astronauts on board. But while the conflagration was instantaneous, it was the culmination of decades of decisions that created a flawed vehicle and processes that allowed it to fly unsafely.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4830/1
118) The threat from China and Russia’s space-based SIGINT satellites
by Matthew Mowthorpe Monday, July 22, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4831j.jpg)
A 2021 launch of a set of Yaogan-31 satellites believed to be used for naval reconnaissance. (credit: CASC)
China and Russia have extensive space-based sigint capabilities, which can geolocate transmissions from the radars of UK and NATO allies’ navies. This tracking information is then linked to land and naval-based missiles to ensure that they can target the UK and US Navy.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4831/1
119) Staying on course: The vital role of GPS backup systems
by Lauren Miller Monday, July 22, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/2886a.jpg)
GPS jamming has become a growing concern in many sectors, including aviation. (credit: US Air Force)
Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) refers to the constellations of satellites that provide position, navigation, and timing (PNT) information to users around the globe. The unique characteristics of GNSS have enabled it to be the PNT solution of choice in a wide range of applications, including Critical National Infrastructure (CNI).
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4832/1
120) Snakebit rover
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 22, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4833a.jpg)
NASA’s VIPER rover is all dressed up but now with almost no chance to fly. (credit: NASA)
At NASA’s Johnson Space Center, a robotic lunar rover sits, effectively complete and ready for environmental testing after years of work and hundreds of millions of dollars spent on it. But it may never fly to space.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4833/1
30/VII 2024 [121-125]
121) Review: Creature Comforts in Space
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 29, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4834a.jpg)
Creature Comforts in Space: Designing Enjoyment and Sustainability for Off-World Living
by Samuel M. Coniglio, IV
BookBaby, 2024
Paperback, 162 pp., illus.
ISBN 979-8-21824-640-2
US$33
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0D47TB237/spaceviews
In May, the Space Tourism Conference took place just before the start of the International Space Development Conference in Los Angeles. The one-day event focused less on the technology of space tourism—spacecraft and space stations—than on the experience, with sessions on entertainment, dining, and space “lifestyle brands.” The session offered a very forward-looking view of people traveling to space, and one not that different from might have been presented 10 or 20 years ago, given the slow pace of progress in commercial human spaceflight.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4834/1
122) No more space for the press?
by Brian Harvey Monday, July 29, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4835a.jpg)
The IAC is held around the world, such as in Bremen, Germany, in 2018 (above), but only this year has become more restrictive about the media it accredits. (credit: B. Harvey)
The International Astronautical Federation (IAF) is one of the oldest and best known organizations in the space world, most famous for its annual congresses, which attract up to 10,000 people. It’s also one of the most publicity-hungry, which is why it’s surprising that this year it’s closing the door on the press. Well, some press.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4835/1
123) For the ISS, to be or not to be?
by Ajay Kothari Monday, July 29, 2024
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The International Space Station is scheduled to be deorbited around 2030, but some want to instead boost its orbit to preserve it. (credit: Maxar)
An op-ed in SpaceNews by Jean-Jacques Dordain, former ESA director general, and Michael D. Griffin, former NASA administrator, recommends postponing the International Space station deorbit decision for now and to leave it in the hands of future generations. It is not just “passing the buck”. This is the right approach, especially with unknown future technology developments that could make this deorbit decision very shor-sighted. And indeed it is.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4836/1
124) Cleaning up the mess in LEO
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 29, 2024
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A model of the Resurs P1 satellite that broke up in low Earth orbit in June. (credit: Vitaly V. Kuzmin CC BY-SA 4.0)
For a moment, many in the space industry feared the worst. U.S. Space Command reported June 27 that a defunct Russian satellite, Resurs P1, had broken up in low Earth orbit the previous day. One company, LeoLabs, reported that its radars had detected at least 180 pieces of debris from the satellite. The event prompted International Space Station controllers to instruct crews to go into the “safe havens” of their docked spacecraft as a precaution; they were able to return to the station after an hour.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4837/1
Z politycznego i technologicznego punktu widzenia brak współpracy w kosmosie między USA a Chinami wydaje się pożądany.
125) Is the United States doing enough to engage with China on space policy?
by Mariam Kvaratskhelia Monday, July 29, 2024
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Chinese astronauts on a recent spacewalk outside the Tiangong space station. Should the US do more to work with China on topics like human spaceflight and exploration? (credit: Xinhua)
While Beijing has accused the United States of turning outer space into “a weapon and a battlefield,”[1] it has no less history of doing the same. China has been interested in counterspace capabilities for years now, developing multiple anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons, such as ground-based directed energy weapons (DEWs), satellite jammers, and ASAT missiles targeting low-Earth orbit satellites. The principal goal of these endeavors remains “…asymmetrically disrupting U.S. space operations,”[2] and matching or surpassing the US capabilities in space, according to the Intelligence Community’s Annual Threat Assessment.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4838/1
Note: The Space Review will not publish next week as part of a reduced publication schedule in August. We will be back on Monday, August 12.
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31/VIII 2024 [126-129]
126) The case for an International Space Artifacts Museum
by Madhu Thangavelu Monday, August 12, 2024
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The International Space Artifacts Museum at the Earth-Moon L1 Lagrange point would house the decommissioned space stations and observatories, sparing their fiery destruction. (credit: M. Thangavelu)
What to do with the International Space Station (ISS) when the facility is retired is the question hovering over us right now. NASA's report on the rationale for ISS decommissioning suggests that the agency imagination (and budget) seem to be running dry.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4839/1
127) The Military Test Space Station (MTSS)
by Hans Dolfing Monday, August 12, 2024
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Figure 1: Space station early 1960s concept [9]
The US Air Force started a series of contractor studies in the late 1950s to look ahead and explore anything related to space. Rockets, rocket planes, short- and long-term stays in space, logistics to supply outposts in space, and weapons; the works. These studies were titled the System Requirement (SR) studies to prepare US Air Force long-range plans. The Air Force made essentially no restrictions on the scope and content of the SR studies. In 1960, ten such studies were active. [2] More than six decades later, the SR studies remain mostly classified and only minimal content is known. [7,11,12]
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4840/1
128) Carriers from space (part 2): Contemporary use of satellite imagery for open source intelligence
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, August 12, 2024
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Five American aircraft carriers at Bremerton, Washington, photographed by an American HEXAGON reconnaissance satellite in October 1983. Four of these ships were retired by that time and only USS Constellation was still in service. Hornet became a museum, Oriskany was sunk off the Florida coast, and both Bennington and Bonhomme Richard were scrapped. The United States has more extensive carrier aviation experience than any other country, but China is beginning to build a fleet of aircraft carriers, and its latest one is larger than any other non-American warship. (credit: NRO via Harry Stranger)
During the Cold War, American reconnaissance satellites monitored Soviet aircraft carrier construction at the Mykolaiv shipyard in the Black Sea. By the 1980s, intelligence analysts looking at the photographs back in Washington noted that the Soviet Union was struggling to build large ships, with the fourth vessel of the Kiev-class taking almost twice as long to build as the first. By the 1990s, new Russian ship construction was almost nonexistent. It recovered slowly, but remains problem-plagued.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4841/1
NG-21 i Starliner - anomalie, a polityka informacyjna.
Decyzja zw. ze Starlinerem ma zostać podjęta w przyszłym tygodniu.
129 Starliner’s uncertain future
by Jeff Foust Monday, August 12, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4842a.jpg)
Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner remains docked to the ISS, more than two months after its arrival, as NASA determines if the spacecraft can safely return with astronauts on board. (credit: NASA)
A spacecraft launched to the International Space Station but experienced thruster problems shortly after reaching orbit. It made it to the station, but questions remained about what exactly happened as the company that built the spacecraft downplayed the incident.
This is, of course, an account of what happened to… the NG-21 Cygnus cargo spacecraft. It launched atop a Falcon 9 August 4 and was deployed as planned 15 minutes after liftoff. Hours passed, though, with no updates from NASA or spacecraft owner Northrop Grumman about the status of the mission, other than communications between mission control and the ISS crew that said the spacecraft had failed to perform its scheduled orbit-raising maneuvers, putting its arrival at the station into question. (...)
Stich acknowledged that the White Sands tests may have raised more questions about thrusters than they answered. “The testing at White Sands and the discovery that the poppet Teflon was extruding after the testing was a bit of a surprise to us,” he said. “That, I would say, upped the level of discomfort.”
That discomfort led NASA to acknowledge at the briefing what had been rumored in recent weeks: it was considering alternative ways of bringing back Williams and Wilmore. Stich said the agency decided to give itself some more time to decide what to do when it announced, a day before the briefing, that it was delaying the launch of the Crew-9 mission to the station on a SpaceX Crew Dragon from August 18 to no earlier than September 24. (...)
That decision of whether Wilmore and Williams will return in the coming weeks on Starliner or early next year on Crew Dragon is coming soon. “I don’t think we’re too far away from making that call,” said Ken Bowersox, NASA associate administrator for space operations, said on the call. Stich said later a decision by mid-August is needed to perform training and other preparations should NASA choose the contingency scenario. (As this article was being prepared for publication August 12, NASA announced the decision on Starliner’s return would be made next week, not later this week.)
That decision could come from the top of the agency. “The administrator ultimately takes responsibility,” Bowersox said. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4842/1
32/VIII 2024 [130-133]
130) Galactic governance: From the Outer Space Treaty to modern regulations
by Roger Quinland Monday, August 19, 2024
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Soviet Ambassador Anatoly F. Dobrynin, UK Ambassador Sir Patrick Dean, US Ambassador Arthur J. Goldberg, US Secretary of State Dean Rusk, and US President Lyndon B. Johnson at the signing of the Outer Space Treaty on January 27, 1967 in Washington. (credit: British Pathé)
Space law, which governs human activities in outer space, has evolved significantly since the Space Age began. As humanity’s presence in space grows, the legal framework has adapted to new challenges and opportunities. This article traces the historical development of space law, starting with the foundational Outer Space Treaty and moving on to modern regulations.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4843/1
131) An alternative Mars Sample Return program
by Dale Skran Monday, August 19, 2024
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NASA’s existing architecture for Mars Sample Return is facing cost and schedule pressures, leading for some to argue for a radical rethink of the program. (credit: NASA)
There have been many reports in the news lately about the growth of the Mars Sample Return (MSR) budget in publications like Science and SpaceNews, with widespread fear that either the ballooning MSR budget eviscerates the other NASA planetary programs, or that MSR will eventually be cancelled and the money transferred to Artemis. This situation has resulted in a number of re-dos of the MSR architecture, which appear to have done little to lower costs or create improved results. More recently, NASA has initiated a series of layoffs at JPL that mainly impact MSR, apparently in anticipation of significant budget cuts, leading to further alarm among supporters of space exploration. NASA recently solicited industry input on alternative approaches to MSR under the title “Rapid Mission Design Studies for Mars Sample Return,” selecting several companies in June for short mission concept studies.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4844/1
132) Outgrowing smallsats
by Jeff Foust Monday, August 19, 2024
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A fieldhouse at Utah State University was converted into an exhibit hall for the Smallsat conference to accommodate the event’s growth in recent years. (credit: J. Foust)
Nearly four decades ago, a small group of advocates of small satellites started gathering annually in Logan, Utah, on the campus of Utah State University. At the beginning, a single room was sufficient to handle everyone.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4845/1
133) The new Moon race: Assessing Chinese and US strategies
by James Clay Moltz Monday, August 19, 2024
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International partnerships, illustrated by the NASA and ESA logos on the Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft, can give the US-led Artemis effort an edge over China. (credit: NASA)
China’s recent advances in cislunar space have spurred US fears. As a report by an influential defense think tank argues, “The contest over cislunar space could dominate the course and outcome of terrestrial conflict as well as control of the Earth-Moon system.” Analysts in influential US military journals have argued that China is “racing ahead” and point to China’s ambitious (and seemingly inevitable) plans to be the first to mine the Moon’s regolith for water ice and rare helium-3, while establishing a so-called International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) by 2035. With slipping deadlines for certain missions and technologies critical to the US-led Artemis Program, many experts and even some officials seem to believe that the United States is losing this important race for 21st-century space power.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4846/1
Note: we are now moderating comments. There will be a delay in posting comments and no guarantee that all submitted comments will be posted.
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33/IX 2024 [134-137]
134) Review: Accidental Astronomy
by Jeff Foust Tuesday, September 3, 2024
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Accidental Astronomy: How Random Discoveries Shape the Science of Space
by Chris Lintott
Basic Books, 2024
hardcover, 320 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-5416-0541-1
US$30
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1541605411/spaceviews
People are usually taught a very formal, structured approach to science: researchers develop hypotheses based on existing data and then conduct experiments or observations to verify them. Reality, unsurprisingly, is messier: scientists make mistakes, experiments go awry, unexpected findings reshape an entire field. That is particularly true in astronomy, where the universe can throw observers a curveball, from a supernova explosion to an asteroid impact, without warning.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4847/1
135) To guard against cyberattacks in space, researchers ask “what if?”
by Patrick Lin Tuesday, September 3, 2024
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Space cybersecurity has traditionally focused on ground stations and intercepting signals, but there is a wide range of potential cyberattack scenarios to consider. (credit: NASA/JPL)
If space systems such as GPS were hacked and knocked offline, much of the world would instantly be returned to the communications and navigation technologies of the 1950s. Yet space cybersecurity is largely invisible to the public at a time of heightened geopolitical tensions.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4848/1
136) Measuring the depth of India’s space program
by Namrata Goswami Tuesday, September 3, 2024
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One weakness in Indian space capabilities is the lack of a heavy-lift rocket: the LVM-3 (above) can place only about 10 tons into orbit. (credit: ISRO)
India is emerging as a major Asian powerhouse with respect to space capabilities because of its great power ambition and domestic necessity. In 2024, India became the fifth largest economy in the world in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at $3.94 trillion. Towards developing this economy, and aspiring for deeper sustainable growth factors, India has identified several technologies as vital to its path to greatness by 2047, the hundred-year celebration of the establishment of an independent democratic India from nearly two hundred years of British colonial rule.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4849/1
137) Polaris’s dawn
by Jeff Foust Tuesday, September 3, 2024
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The Polaris Dawn crew of (from left) Anna Menon, Kidd Poteet, Jared Isaacman, and Sarah Gillis pose after arriving at the Kennedy Space Center August 19 for final launch preparations. (credit: J. Foust)
A handler boarded the bus at the Kennedy Space Center carrying reporters and photographers with an update: they were 18 miles out and so would be here in just a few minutes.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4850/1
34/IX 2024 [135-138]
135) Review: The Wrong Stuff
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 9, 2024
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The Wrong Stuff: How the Soviet Space Program Crashed and Burned
by John Strausbaugh
PublicAffairs, 2024
hardcover, 272 pp.
ISBN 978-1-5417-0334-6
US$30.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1541703340/spaceviews
On Wednesday, a Soyuz rocket is scheduled to lift off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, sending the Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft to the International Space Station. It is a routine crew rotation mission to the station, but the launch itself is not: it will be just the tenth orbital launch so far this year by Russia. China has performed four times as many launches this year and the United States about ten times as many. Russia is on a pace for its lowest launch total in decades this year.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4851/1
136) NASA and safety: more is better
by Roger Handberg Monday, September 9, 2024
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Recovery teams work on the Starliner crew capsule after it landed at White Sands, New Mexico, late Friday night without a crew on board. (credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)
The ongoing crisis with the Starliner has moved in the direction of making crew safety the prime driver. As an organization, NASA has learned that minimizing risks can be disruptive and resisted by some but after three incidents involving loss of crew—the Apollo 1 pad fire, the Challenger loss during liftoff, and the most recent loss of the Columbia during reentry—the agency is no longer willing to take the chance. The previous losses occurred due to identifiable hazards: the warnings were ignored, never came, or were pushed aside by NASA leadership in pursuit of larger organizational goals. Recovery from those disasters took time and a refocus on crew safety.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4852/1
137) Starliner stranding: commercial space partnerships and international law
by Matthew Ormsbee Monday, September 9, 2024
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Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are staying busy on the International Space Station as their stay there is extended until early next year. (credit: NASA)
In low Earth orbit, where human ingenuity first meets the unforgiving vacuum of space, government and commercial actors have created a situation that tests not only technological capabilities but also the legal frameworks governing space exploration. US astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore find themselves in an unprecedented predicament aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4853/1
138) Whither Starliner?
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 9, 2024
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The Starliner crew capsule descends under parachutes before landing at White Sands, New Mexico, late Friday night. (credit: NASA)
For some people in northwestern Mexico and parts of southern Arizona and New Mexico, Starliner appeared as a streak in the evening sky Friday, returning to Earth after more than three months in space. For those watching online on the agency’s new streaming service, NASA+ (the decades-old NASA TV channel having recently been retired), Starliner appeared in infrared camera views, descending under its three parachutes to the desert floor at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico, touching down at a minute after midnight Eastern time Saturday.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4854/1
35/IX 2024 [139-142]
139) Mercantilism in outer space: discussing a political-economic approach for the Global South
by Aritra Ghosh Monday, September 16, 2024
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Emerging space powers in the Global South, like India, need to look after their own interests as more advanced powers take on bigger roles in space. (credit: ISRO)
This essay focusses on the political-economic impact of the utilization of outer space on economically capable Global South states. A frontier that was predominantly accessed by the Global North has since seen the rise of developing countries, such as India, who are taking an active interest in the economic and security concerns on the use of space as they themselves have become spacefaring nations. States, specifically actors from the global south, benefit from taking a mercantilist approach to outer space.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4855/1
140) Framing the success of the Polaris Dawn mission
by Ajey Lele Monday, September 16, 2024
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Jared Isaacman emerges from the Crew Dragon hatch on the first commercial spacewalk September 12 during the Polaris Dawn mission. (credit: SpaceX)
Frame one: Spacewalk and commercial success
Walking in space is a dream. It was the Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov who went through a process of “living a dream” for around 12 minutes when he undertook a spacewalk on March 18, 1965. Since then, a few hundred humans have undertaken walks in space, and 12 individuals have also walked on the lunar surface. Almost six decades after the first spacewalk, on September 12, two private astronauts conducted the first-ever commercial spacewalk. This happened during SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission. This mission is a collaboration between SpaceX and Jared Isaacman, an American billionaire entrepreneur. Isaacman performed the spacewalk with Sarah Gillis, an engineer from the SpaceX.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4856/1
141) Still waiting for liftoff in the UK
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 16, 2024
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The first stage of the RFA ONE rocket burning in a static-fire test that went awry in August at SaxaVord Spaceport. (credit: RFA)
Tucked away in a corner of one of the sprawling exhibit halls at the Farnborough International Airshow in July was the show’s “Space Zone,” a collection of booths of space companies. That included Lockheed Martin, which showed off its role in space in the United Kingdom with displays that included a scale model of an ABL Space Systems RS1 rocket that featured the logos of both Lockheed Martin and the UK Space Agency.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4857/1
Australia w obliczu rosnących startów z USA może stać się atrakcyjnym miejscem startów i lądowań kosmicznych.
142) Navigating new frontiers: Assessing the opportunity for US entities to launch and return space missions in Australia
by Brett Loubert, Byron Riessen, Arthur Anglin, and Adrian Young Monday, September 16, 2024
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A technology safeguards agreement between the US and Australia provides new opportunities for facilities like Australia’s Arnhem Space Centre to host American launches. (credit: Equatorial Launch Australia)
Spaceflight has never been more common than it is now. If satellite demand remains strong and the frequency of launches continues to accelerate, so too will the need for increased capacity at spaceports. To date, US launch demand has largely been filled by domestic spaceports. Going forward, there may be new options abroad. Similarly, potential increases in payload return operations could also create new opportunities for international spaceports. (...)
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4858b.jpg)
Global Orbital Launch Attempts in 2023 by Country. Source: Krebs, Gunter D., “Orbital Launches of 2023”. Gunter’s Space Page. Retrieved August 5, 2024.
(...) Until recently, the regulatory environment between the US and Australia was complex, particularly with respect to maintaining control of technologies like rockets and spacecraft with national security implications. In July 2024, however, the US-Australia Technology Safeguards Agreement (TSA) was fully ratified, establishing a clearer legal framework for US entities seeking to launch or return space assets in Australia. The TSA aims to streamline the regulatory processes and remove barriers while safeguarding sensitive technology. (...)
Some of the potential benefits of international expansion include:
Greater agility enabled by diversified supply chains and redundant infrastructure
Less congestion at existing spaceports (especially those with multiple tenants)
Flexible access to different orbital regimes
Closer proximity to regional demand hubs for launch customers/payloads
Even if these dynamics play out and US firms seek capacity at spaceports abroad, the question arises: why Australia? There are several factors unique to Australia that make it an interesting prospect.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4858/1
36/IX 2024 [143-146]
143) What will happen in the first space hostage crisis?
by JD Cole, Marc Feldman, and Hugh Taylor Monday, September 23, 2024
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Development of commercial space stations like Orbital Reef (above) could open up new possibilities for “threat actors” to attack and create the first space hostage crisis. (credit: Blue Origin)
Hostage taking for profit is as old as humanity. More than 2,000 years ago, Julius Caesar was kidnapped for ransom by pirates. Now, with plans for hotels in space, space tourism, and space as a corporate work environment, a reasonable person might wonder: what will happen when there is a hostage crisis in space?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4859/1
144) Isle of Wight aerospace: flying boats, rocket interceptors, hovercraft, and launch vehicles (part 1)
by Trevor Williams Monday, September 23, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4860a.jpg)
The Isle of Wight photographed from the International Space Station. Two key rocketry locations: Saunders-Roe factory in East Cowes, on right-hand side of notch at top center of island; High Down test site, on southern coast at far left. (credit: Chris Hadfield)
The Isle of Wight lies just off the south coast of the English mainland, near the naval port of Portsmouth and the commercial port of Southampton. Cruise ships pass to the north of it, up the Solent strait, on the way to their Southampton terminals. The 390-square-kilometer island, about two-thirds of which is farmland and with a population of around 140,000, has about 90 kilometers of attractive coastline ranging from chalk cliffs to beaches.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4860/1
145) “Pending regulatory approval”: launch companies struggle with licensing
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 23, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4861a.jpg)
the Starship vehicle for the next test flight is ready for launch, SpaceX says, but the company may need to wait two more months for a launch license. (credit: spaceX)
On Saturday, SpaceX posted phots of a Starship vehicle being installed on top of its Super Heavy booster at the company’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas. “Starship stacked for Flight 5 and ready for launch, pending regulatory approval,” the company stated.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4861/1
146) HEXAGON vs. Kirov: American satellite reconnaissance and the Soviet Union’s most powerful warship
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, September 23, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4862a.jpg)
The Kirov-class battlecruisers that began entering service in 1980 were the most powerful surface warships afloat, equipped with large anti-ship missiles mounted in launch cells below deck, along with anti-aircraft missiles and guns. This is the second ship of the class, Frunze. (credit: DOD)
In early 1974, American reconnaissance satellites spotted something unusual on a large shipway at a Leningrad shipyard—the first signs of a new major surface warship. Over the next several years they photographed the ship as it took shape, noting that it would be the Soviet Union’s first nuclear-powered warship.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4862/1
37/IX 2024 [147-150]
147) Review: Sharing Space
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 30, 2024
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Sharing Space: An Astronaut’s Guide to Mission, Wonder, and Making Change
by Cady Coleman
Penguin Life, 2024
hardcover, 272 pp.
ISBN 978-0-593-49401-1
US$28.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0593494016/spaceviews
To the average person, an astronaut—a professional trained to fly to space—presumably spends much of their time in space. Those in the space community, though, know otherwise. Early in her book Sharing Space, former NASA astronaut Cady Coleman notes her career at NASA spanned exactly 8,888 days, or more than 24 years. She spent just half a year, 180 days, in space, on two shuttle flights in the late 1990s and a long-duration flight on the International Space Station in 2010–11.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4863/1
148) Isle of Wight aerospace: flying boats, rocket interceptors, hovercraft, and launch vehicles (part 2)
by Trevor Williams Monday, September 30, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4864i.jpg)
Successful liftoff of Black Arrow R3 from Woomera, Australia. (credit: GKN Aerospace)
As described in Part 1 of this article, in the 1940s and 1950s the small Saunders-Roe company[1] produced a succession of innovative aerospace vehicles, starting with the largest all-metal flying boat ever built, proceeding to high-speed interceptors powered by a combination of turbojet and rocket engines, and then to the first hovercraft. Unfortunately though, although technically impressive, none of these met with lasting success.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4864/1
149) “Not quite the plan, but here we are”: NASA ritual and the reintegration of the Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts
by Deana L. Weibel Monday, September 30, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4865a.jpg)
Oleg Kononenko shakes hands with Suni Williams during a change of command ceremony on the ISS on September 22. (credit: NASA+)
On September 22, 2024, a strange rupture in the normal activities of the International Space Station (ISS) and its constantly changing crew came to an official close with a traditional “change of command ceremony.” (Dinner 2024) The circumstances leading to this ceremony, however, were anything but traditional. The Expedition 71 crew had arrived on April 6, 2024, and Oleg Kononenko took his place as the ISS commander.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4865/1
150) Getting space traffic coordination on track
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 30, 2024
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The Traffic Coordination System for Space, or TraCSS, will ultimately take over civil space traffic coordination work from the Defense Department. (credit: Office of Space Commerce)
On Monday morning, a new era in space traffic coordination began with all the pomp and circumstance of… a press release.
The Office of Space Commerce, a small office with NOAA, itself part of the Department of Commerce, announced in a statement it had turned on its long-awaited civil space traffic coordination system, called Traffic Coordination System for Space, or TraCSS (pronounced “tracks.”) The initial “phase 1.0” version of TraCSS was now up and running, just meeting a goal of having it in place by the end of September.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4866/1
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38/X 2024 [151-154]
151) Cubesats are changing the way we explore the solar system
by Mustafa Aksoy
Monday, October 7, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4867a.jpg)
ESA’s Hera asteroid mission will deploy two cubesats (right) to help it study the asteroid Didymos and its moon Dimorphos. (credit: ESA)
Most cubesats weigh less than a bowling ball, and some are small enough to hold in your hand. But the impact these instruments are having on space exploration is gigantic. Cubesats—miniature, agile and cheap satellites—are revolutionizing how scientists study the cosmos.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4867/1
152) Sixty-five years since the first lunar farside images
by Trevor Williams Monday, October 7, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4868a.jpg)
On October 4, 1959, the second anniversary of the launch of Sputnik, the Soviet Union launched Luna 3 on a mission to image the far side of the Moon. This was an ambitious goal for so early in the Space Age, requiring numerous technical advances in spacecraft design and operation. For instance, Luna 3 had to spin throughout most of the mission for thermal control but then be three-axis stabilized while taking photos. It had to process the images onboard and then transmit them to the ground when closer to the Earth.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4868/1
153) Cosmonaut exploitation: the CIA and Gherman Titov’s 1962 visit to the United States
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, October 7, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4869a.jpg)
Cosmonaut Gherman Titov, the second person to orbit the Earth, during a visit to the White House in May 1962. A recently declassified document indicates that the CIA cooperated with NASA on the cosmonaut’s “exploitation” during his multi-city visit to the United States. (credit: JFK Library)
In a 1992 episode of the TV show “Northern Exposure,” a semi-retired KGB agent shows up in the sleepy Alaska town of Cicely and seeks out Maurice, the wealthiest resident and former Mercury astronaut, offering to sell him his KGB file. Maurice buys it and learns that a woman he spent a drunken night with in the early 1960s was actually a spy, to whom he divulged secrets about the Atlas missile.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4869/1
154) Gaining confidence in new launch vehicles
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 7, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4870a.jpg)
ULA’s Vulcan Centaur rocket lifts off October 4 on the Cert-2 mission. (credit: ULA)
At a briefing last week, ULA CEO Tory Bruno expressed confidence about the upcoming second flight of his company’s Vulcan Centaur. That confidence, he said, was rooted in the performance of the rocket on its inaugural flight in January, a mission called Cert-1 by ULA.
“I am supremely confident, having had a very clean Cert-1 mission,” he said. That first flight, he said, was the “cleanest first launch” in his career. “So, as I come up on Cert-2, I’m pretty darn confident I’m going to have a good day on Friday, knock on wood.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4870/1
39/X 2024 [155-158]
155) Review: Reentry
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 14, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4871a.jpg)
Reentry: SpaceX, Elon Musk, and the Reusable Rockets that Launched a Second Space Age
by Eric Berger
BenBella Books, 2024
Hardcover, 400 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-63774-527-4
US$31.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1637745273/spaceviews
SpaceX has had an eventful last few weeks—or even last few days. Its Falcon 9 rocket, the workhorse not just for the company but the Western space industry, was grounded two weeks ago for the second time in less than three months when its upper stage suffered in anomaly on a deorbit burn at the end of the Crew-9 mission. The FAA announced late Friday it would allow all Falco 9 launches to resume (it granted an exemption for one launch of ESA’s Hera mission) after SpaceX resolve the problem, which the company later said was caused when the upper stage’s engine burned a half-second longer than expected.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4871/1
156) Space isn’t all about the “race”: rival superpowers must work together for a better future
by Art Cotterell Monday, October 14, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4185a.jpg)
An illustration of what the proposed China-Russia international lunar research station might one day look like. (credit: CNSA)
In recent years, a new “space race” has intensified between the United States and China. At a recent campaign rally, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump invoked this rivalry when declaring the US will “lead the world in space”, echoing Democratic counterpart Vice President Kamala Harris.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4872/1
157) The trials and tribulations of Hera
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 14, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4873a.jpg)
A Falcon 9 lifts off October 7 carrying ESA’s Hera spacecraft. (credit: SpaceX)
Every major space project goes through its share of problems getting to the launch pad, but those who worked on the Hera mission might feel especially unlucky. They struggled for years to win funding for the mission from the European Space Agency and its member states, only to find they had to work on the mission on a tight schedule just before the pandemic hit. And then, just as they were getting ready to launch, they faced the double whammy of a grounded rocket and a major hurricane.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4873/1
Inicjatywa SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative), a współczesne wyzwania obrony przeciwrakietowej.
158) Ronald Reagan and a goal far, far away: Star Wars and the Strategic Defense Initiative in Simi Valley
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, October 14, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4874a.jpg)
President Ronald Reagan delivering a speech in March 1983 where he warned of the Soviet defense build-up and proposed his Strategic Defense Initiative, a layered shield to defend the United States against the threat of thousands of Soviet nuclear missile warheads. (credit: Reagan Library)
In April, Iran launched hundreds of drones and ballistic missiles at Israel, which shot most of them out of the sky (with American help), rendering the attack ineffective. Soon afterwards, the Wall Street Journal published an op-ed giving credit for the successful defense to President Ronald Reagan, who in 1983 had started the Strategic Defense Initiative, labeled “Star Wars” by its critics, which was intended to defend the continental United States against thousands of nuclear warheads fired from the Soviet Union.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4874/1
40/X 2024 [159-161]
159) Reviews: Spaceflight skeptics
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 21, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4875a.jpg)
Astrotopia: The Dangerous Religion of the Corporate Space Race
by Mary-Jane Rubenstein
The University of Chicago Press, 2022
hardcover, 224 pp.
ISBN 978-0-226-82112-2
US$24.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0226833380/spaceviews
Ground Control: An Argument for the End of Human Space Exploration
by Savannah Mandel
Chicago Review Press, 2024
hardcover, 224 pp.
ISBN 978-1-64160-992-0
US$28.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1641609923/spaceviews
Last week was one of the big weeks of the year for spaceflight, or at least discussions about it. The International Astronautical Congress (IAC) attracted a record crowd of more than 11,200 delegates to the convention center in Milan for plenaries, panels, and presentations on a vast array of topics in civil and commercial space development and exploration from dozens of nations (the most notable absence was Russia.) The event was, as the International Astronautical Federation stated with a healthy dose of hyperbole in a release after the conference ended last Friday, “one of the most diverse gatherings of space people in our galaxy.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4875/1
160) Weighing overall societal benefit: Case studies on deciding when to deorbit satellites (part 1)
by Marissa Herron Monday, October 21, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4876c.jpg)
NASA’s EO-1 is an example of a mission that will not comply with guidelines for deorbiting spacecraft within 25 years of the end of their lives. (credit: NASA)
This paper was inspired by the 2019 Orbital Debris Mitigation Standard Practices (ODMSP) update and, in particular, the enthusiastic debate surrounding the disposal rule. The programmatic and societal perspectives that NASA frequently encounters were not included in the discussions. Programmatic impacts are most simply described as the technical, cost, and schedule impacts, but do not immediately convey the unintended consequences. For example, mandating propulsive capabilities could significantly increase the costs of small satellites and severely challenge the continuation of science programs, or broader societal benefits from a satellite's data could justify an extended lifetime. This paper does not state a recommendation on the disposal rule, but instead seeks to encourage additional perspectives from which to design future disposal rules.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4876/1
161) Britain in the early history of the James Webb Space Telescope
by Harley Thronson Monday, October 21, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4877a.jpg)
Cover of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory’s 75-page Edison 1992 architecture for a large-aperture, radiatively/mechanically cooled IR space observatory. This “proof of concept” was submitted to support a funding proposal to ESA. This artist’s conception shows the observatory in a halo orbit around the Sun-Earth L2 point with its deployed multi-layer radiation shields. These shields were positioned with respect to the solar radiation to keep the observatory in deep shade, thus enabling effective radiative cooling.
The decade from roughly 1985 to 1995 was a notable period in astronomical exploration from space, perhaps most memorably with the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) by NASA in April 1990. Operating at ultraviolet and visible wavelengths, HST even today remains a stunning success, continuing to demonstrate the advantages of astronomy possible only from space.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4877/1
41/X 2024 [162-166]
162) Review: Infinite Cosmos
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 28, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4878a.jpg)
Infinite Cosmos: Visions From the James Webb Space Telescope
by Ethan Siegel
National Geographic, 2024
hardcover, 224 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-4262-2382-2
US50.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/142622382X/spaceviews
Out of sight, out of mind. For more than two decades, development of the James Webb Space Telescope dominated discussions and debate about space-based astronomy and—particularly given its cost and schedule challenges—management of big NASA programs. But with its successful launch at the end of 2021 and beginning of science operations in mid-2022 from its location 1.5 million kilometers away, it has faded somewhat into the background. It is, of course, still delivering tremendous amounts of data and a regular set of public image releases, but with only modest attention and publicity.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4878/1
163) Weighing overall societal benefit: Case studies on deciding when to deorbit satellites (part 2)
by Marissa Herron Monday, October 28, 2024
[Editor’s Note: Part 1 was published last week.]
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4879a.jpg)
NASA’s Earth Fleet missions (blue circle) in the 2020 Senior Review (credit: NASA)
NASA’s Senior rReview process
Each of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Division’s pursue a Senior Review process. This process considers whether or not to continue the operations of ongoing missions that have reached the end of their primary mission. The process is done in response to the NASA Authorization Act, which requires biennial reviews of each of SMD’s divisions “to assess the cost and benefits of extending missions that have exceeded their planned operational lives.” The results of the Senior Review are publicly available and describe the parameters considered and the reasoning for the decisions concluded upon.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4879/1
164) Planning for the future of continuous human presence in LEO
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 28, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4880a.jpg)
In its final form, Haven-2 will feature eight modules attached to a larger core module. (credit: Vast)
It is not clear that the sprawling exhibit hall at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) earlier this month in Milan had a center, with exhibitors split into two halls with a tent-like temporary structure connecting the two. But, certainly, one the exhibits at the heart of the hall, based on the activity there, was commercial space station company Vast. The company’s large booth features VR experiences of its proposed station and a model of its “patent-pending signature sleep system” that it says will allow for a better night’s sleep for future astronauts on its station.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4880/1
165) Mysterious MOL concepts
by Hans Dolfing Monday, October 28, 2024
Long forgotten manned military space station ambitions
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4881a.jpg)
Figure 1: MOL concept with Gemini B on top of a crew cabin cylinder.
The year 1963 was a year of turmoil in the United States. On the military side, the US Air Force had left the Army and Navy behind with efforts on military manned space flight. In the tug-of-war between civilian and military spaceflight goals, the Military Orbital Space Station (MODS) was cancelled and discussion on a more national space station picked up steam. At the same time, the US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, during his seven years in office, exercised influence to de-emphasize military manned spaceflight in favor of civilian space exploration. On the civilian side, just as NASA and the Apollo program were picking up speed to go to the moon, the visionary John F. Kennedy was murdered and Lyndon B. Johnson took over.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4881/1
166) Vandenberg and the space shuttle (part 1)
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, October 28, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4882a.jpg)
In the 1980s, the Air Force was planning to launch the space shuttle from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Shuttle contractors distributed models painted blue, such as this one given to astronaut Joe Engle. (credit: EAA)
In the early 1980s, excitement was rapidly building at Vandenberg Air Force Base and its surrounding areas on California’s Central Coast as the Air Force began construction of numerous new facilities to support the space shuttle. In addition to major reconstruction of the SLC-6 launch pad, work began on orbiter, booster, and payload processing buildings and other support infrastructure with the expectation that shuttles would regularly be roaring aloft from Vandenberg. But after the January 1986 Challenger accident, plans to launch shuttle from the West Coast were halted, then canceled completely. The decision was a major setback to the local economy and the base.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4882/1
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42/XI 2024 [167-170]
167) The case for space policy stability in the next administration
by Thomas G. Roberts Monday, November 4, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4883a.jpg)
President Donald Trump speaking after the launch of the Demo-2 commercial crew mission in May 2020. (credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
The next president of the United States could be the first in that office to accept a phone call from the Moon and hear a woman’s voice on the line. To do so, they’ll first need to make a series of strategic space policy decisions. They’ll also need a little luck.
Enormous government investment supports outer space activities, so the US president has an outsized role in shaping space policy during their time in office.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4883/1
168) Comparing Harris and Trump on space policy
by Jonathan Coopersmith Monday, November 4, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4884a.jpg)
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a December 2023 meeting of the National Space Council. (credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky)
Space exploration and development will shift very few voters in this week’s presidential election between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. Space policy has historically been a bipartisan area which presidential campaigns have largely ignored. Indeed, contra the argument recently made by former US Representative Bob Walker, both candidates’ platforms support space commercialization and innovation, returning astronauts to the Moon, and continuing American leadership in space.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4884/1
169) NASA’s infrastructure crossroads
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 4, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4885a.jpg)
An image, circa 2000, of key facilities at the Kennedy Space Center. NASA is grappling with aging infrastructure that hindres its ability to carry out future missions, a recent report concluded. (credit: NASA)
The next administration will have its share of challenges involving NASA to deal with. There may be scrutiny of NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration campaign, including both its technical approach and its schedule. It will have to examine if NASA’s plans to replace the International Space Station with commercial stations are feasible and on a schedule that will permit the ISS’s retirement in 2030. NASA’s science programs are also facing budget challenges, and the next administration could revisit whatever the agency decides in the coming months on a new approach to the Mars Sample Return program.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4885/1
Interesujący przykład ilustrujący postęp w szybkości dostarczania zobrazowań satelitarnych na Ziemię.
https://x.com/planet/status/1852040614185230466
https://x.com/planet/status/1852758749041312023
https://x.com/NASAEarth/status/1852329874746114343
170) Satellite reconnaissance and the Falklands War
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, November 4, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4886a.jpg)
The Royal Fleet Auxiliaries Sir Galahad and Sir Tristram were attacked by Argentine A-4 Skyhawks on June 8, 1982, during the Falklands War. Both ships were hit, with heavy loss of life on Sir Galahad, which was still burning on June 13 when an American HEXAGON satellite took this photo. The war ended June 14 with the surrender of Argentine forces on the islands. Satellite photo via Harry Stranger.
On June 8, 1982, Lieutenant Carlos Cachon was leading a flight of A-4 Skyhawk jets at low level over the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic. Argentine forces had invaded the islands in April, prompting the United Kingdom to send a naval and amphibious force to retake them. The war had gotten bloody in May, with significant troop and ship losses on both sides. Now it was about to get even worse for the British. (...)
On June 13, a HEXAGON reconnaissance satellite overflew the islands. The weather was usually bad for overhead reconnaissance during the war, but on this day portions of the islands were clear. The HEXAGON photographed broad swaths of the islands. The HEXAGON could cover immense amounts of territory in a single image. Five days after the two ships had been successfully attacked, Sir Galahad was still burning, its smoke plume visible in one of the satellite’s images. But the downside of HEXAGON’s impressive capabilities was that it achieved them using film, and that film sat inside the satellite until the reentry vehicle that carried it was ejected on June 15 and recovered over the North Pacific. Then it had to be recovered, transported to Rochester, New York for development, and sent to Washington for imagery interpretation. The war ended on June 14; by the time the film showing the burning Sir Galahad reached an interpreter’s desk on June 24, the war had been over for ten days. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4886/1
43/XI 2024 [171-175]
171) Review: Going Beyond
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 11, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4887a.jpg)
Going Beyond: The Space Exploration Initiative and the Challenges of Organizational Change at NASA
by John M. Logsdon
NASA, 2024
ebook, 102 pp., illus.
free
https://www.nasa.gov/history/going-beyond/
Thirty-five years ago this summer, on the 20th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, President George H.W. Bush announced what would become the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI), an attempt to reinvigorate human spaceflight, and NASA, by planning a human return to the Moon followed by expeditions to Mars. SEI, infamously, floundered, undone by a lack of Congressional support and infighting between NASA and the White House’s National Space Council that culminated in the firing of NASA administrator Richard Truly.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4887/1
172) Repurposing nuclear reactors used in space propulsion for high-density power on the Moon and Mars
by Ajay Kothari Monday, November 11, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4631a.jpg)
Lockheed Martin and BWXT will develop a nuclear thermal propulsion demonstration spacecraft for NASA/DARPA’s DRACO program. (credit: Lockheed Martin)
In the recent NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate Shortfall Ranking Report, “High Power Energy Generation on Moon/Mars” is rated #2 of 187 considered in the overall list. But rather than just transporting a fission reactor to Moon, what if we use it for propulsion to the Moon and landing on the lunar surface, and then repurpose it for energy on the lunar surface for habitats? This could provide a two-in-one solution.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4888/1
173) The new space race must be run together
by Aline Spyrka Monday, November 11, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4889a.jpg)
Representatives of Artemis Accords signatories met in Milan during the International Astronautical Congress in October to discuss progress on implementing the various principles of the Accords. (credit: UAE Space Agency)
Sixty years ago, the United States embarked on a great space race with the Soviet Union. The new space race is different this time. China, Russia, and the US are the frontrunners, joined by emerging space states who want a say in the future of space exploration.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4889/1
174) A step forward in space export control reform
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 11, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4890a.jpg)
The export control revisions would include license exceptions for certain civil space programs, like the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. (credit: NASA/GSFC)
A decade ago, the commercial space industry in the United States celebrated a hard-fought victory in efforts to reform export controls. After years of effort, the State Department enacted changes to move many space technologies off the US Munitions List (USML), subject to the more restrictive export control rules known as International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) to the less-restrictive Commerce Control List. That made it easier for American companies to see those technologies, from components to full satellites, to foreign customers (see “Export control reform (almost) reaches the finish line”, The Space Review, May 27, 2014.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4890/1
175) Vandenberg and the space shuttle (part 2)
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, November 11, 2024
[Part 1 was published October 28.]
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4891a.jpg)
Tests of the non-flying shuttle Enterprise were conducted at Vandenberg Air Force Base (now Space Force Base) in 1985, about a year before the planned first launch. Vandenberg required major construction and new infrastructure to support the complicated shuttle vehicle. After the January 1986 Challenger accident, plans to use Vandenberg for the shuttle were canceled. (credit: USAF with retouching by Harry Stranger)
During the 2000s, rocket launches at Vandenberg Air Force Base were so few—falling into the single digits—that the base became almost sleepy. In recent years, launches have increased substantially, and several new launch companies have taken over dormant facilities, adding greater energy to what is now a Space Force Base on California’s central coast. But even today the activity on the base does not match the early 1980s when major construction was underway both at the southern part of the base, at Space Launch Complex-6, as well as on the main base. The construction was in support of the Space Shuttle, which was planned to begin launches from California by the mid-1980s. Recently, this author acquired many images of the proposed shuttle facilities that were created from 1978 to 1980 when construction was first proposed. Although it is easy to see what was built at Vandenberg, these illustrations show the plans before construction began (see “Vandenberg and the space shuttle (part 1)”, The Space Review, October 28, 2024.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4891/1
44/XI 2024 [176-179]
176) Review: How to Kill an Asteroid
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 18, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4892a.jpg)
How to Kill an Asteroid: The Real Science of Planetary Defense
by Robin George Andrews
W. W. Norton & Company, 2024
Hardcover, 336 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-324-05019-3
US$29.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1324050195/spaceviews
A guardian of the skies is no more. On the evening of November 1, the NEOWISE spacecraft reentered the Earth’s atmosphere. That destructive reentry came three months after NASA formally retired the aging spacecraft, whose full name was Near-Earth Object Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, scanning the night skies at infrared wavelengths. It discovered more than 200 near Earth objects and 25 comets: a modest haul, although the spacecraft was not designed for that particular mission. It was launched in 2009 as simply WISE, carrying out a general all-sky infrared survey, and repurposed into NEOWISE in 2013 after it ran out of the helium coolant needed for that original mission.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4892/1
177) Blue Streak: Missile in search of a mission
by Trevor Williams Monday, November 18, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4893a.jpg)
Blue Streak Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile. (credit: British Aerospace)
In the 1950s, the British independent nuclear deterrent was provided by the V-bomber force, so called because its aircraft types were the Valiant, Vulcan, and Victor. But, in April 1957, the British government produced a White Paper on future defense policy [1] that essentially stated that the day of piloted fighters and bombers was over, and that future warfare would be conducted solely using missiles. There was therefore a need for a missile that would be capable of providing an independent nuclear deterrence capability for the British Isles: this became the Blue Streak Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM). Blue Streak was eventually cancelled as a military project before making a single flight, which led to consideration of its use as the first stage for various launch vehicle designs, both all-British and European. This article will examine the resulting complicated history of Blue Streak, which is intertwined with those of the rockets produced by the small Saunders-Roe company [2], namely the Black Knight sounding rocket and Black Arrow orbital launch vehicle.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4893/1
178) The Woomera Manual on military law in space
by David A. Koplow Monday, November 18, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4894a.jpg)
The Woomera Manual outlines the rules applicable to national security activities in space. (credit: Oxford Univ. Press)
The international legal regime applicable to outer space contains several unusual, even startling, provisions. For example, there are unique rules dealing with the regime of civil torts, such as when a satellite crashes into another satellite in space or plummets to Earth and inflicts damage on the ground. Other remarkable provisions deal with the complicated legal linkages between a particular satellite and one or more countries—far more intricate and multiple than the relationships between aircraft or oceangoing vessels and the countries whose flags they may fly.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4894/1
Starship w górę, a polityka kosmiczna na zakręcie.
https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/space-policy-issues-second-trump-term
179) Starships and space policy
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 18, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4895a.jpg)
The next Starship test flight is scheduled for as soon as November 19. (credit: NASA/GSFC)
On Tuesday afternoon, SpaceX will attempt the next test flight of its Starship vehicle. It will be similar to one that took place just a month ago, which featured a “catch” of the Super Heavy booster back at the launch tower, a key milestone in demonstrating the ability to reuse the vehicle. The flight will feature a few changes, such as relighting a Raptor engine on Starship during its suborbital coast, proving the vehicle can place itself into orbit and then deorbit.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4895/1
45/XI 2024 [180-183]
180) Review: Waiting for Spaceships
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 25, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4896a.jpg)
Waiting for Spaceships: Scenes from a Desert Community in Love with the Space Shuttle
by Ted Huetter
Fonthill Media, 2024
paperback, 96 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-62545-135-4
US$24.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1625451350/spaceviews
I saw my first shuttle landing long before my first shuttle launch. While a student at Caltech in the early 1990s, our student group (a chapter of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, or SEDS) was able to get car passes from JPL for an official guest viewing area at Edwards Air Force Base for shuttle landings. We would carpool up the 210 and 14 freeways, almost always in the middle of the night, to the base in time to see early morning landings. It would be a decade before I saw a shuttle launch, at a distance, and only in the final years did I get a closeup view at the KSC Press Site.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4896/1
181) The space station reckoning, or, one day in the life of the ISS crew
by Aditya Chaturvedi Monday, November 25, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4718a.jpg)
Orbital won the Booker Prize for best novel this month.
The American writer Tom Wolfe was intrigued by what it takes for a human to be put aboard a space shuttle and hurled upwards with blazing thrust and mind-numbing velocity. But what is it that astronauts think while hovering in orbit at 25,000 kilometers per hour, conducting laboratory experiments or collecting samples, and looking at the terra firma below from the vantage point of the low Earth orbit?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4897/1
182) The search for a commercial lunar economy
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 25, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4898a.jpg)
Intuitive Machines is developing a series of lunar lander missions, like the upcoming IM-2 mission (above), with NASA as the predominant customer. (credit: Intuitive Machines)
If there is one company that exemplifies the concept of the lunar economy, it is Intuitive Machines. The Houston-based company made its name with lunar landers, flying its first Nova-C lander to the Moon in February on the IM-1 mission. That is just part of a broader strategy that includes plans for a lunar communications and navigation network and a lunar rover that could support both NASA Artemis missions and other applications.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4898/1
183) National Reconnaissance Program crisis photography concepts, part 4: FASTBACK and FASTBACK-B
by Joseph T. Page II Monday, November 25, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4899a.jpg)
Figure 1: Cutaway view of FASTBACK crisis reconnaissance system (credit: NRO)
The fourth system introduced in this series on National Reconnaissance Program crisis photography concepts is an intriguing—yet fundamentally dangerous—way to send a reconnaissance satellite system into orbit. As presented to the NRO in the early 1970s by Martin Marietta, the FASTBACK system concept envisioned a refurbished LGM-30 Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) placing a relatively small, quick-reaction photographic satellite into low earth orbit (LEO) within 24-hours of launch decision.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4899/1
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46/XII 2024 [184-187]
184) Review: A Most Extraordinary Ride
by Jeff Foust Monday, December 2, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4900a.jpg)
A Most Extraordinary Ride: Space, Politics, and the Pursuit of a Canadian Dream
by Marc Garneau
Signal, 2024
hardcover, 328 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-7710-1621-9
US$30
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0771016212/spaceviews
A military officer is selected as part of his country’s first group of astronauts. He later becomes the first person from that country to orbit the Earth. Later in his life, he turns to politics, becoming a legislator and even, unsuccessfully, seeking to lead his party. To American ears, that sounds like the story of John Glenn, the Mercury 7 astronaut who later became a senator and made an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4900/1
185) Donald Trump’s approach to US space policy could throw up some surprises, especially with Elon Musk on board
by Bleddyn Bowen and P.J. Blount Monday, December 2, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4901a.jpg)
SpaceX’s Starship lifts off on its sixth test flight November 19, a launch attended by both Elon Musk and President-elect Donald Trump. (credit: SpaceX)
What can be expected of a second Trump Administration on space policy? In short, a mixture of continuity and change. There will be much continuity across military, civil, and industrial space policy as these rarely diverge between political parties. Changes usually involve minor or incremental bureaucratic shifts.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4901/1
186) Tollways in space: from sci-fi to saving grace
by Polina Shtern Monday, December 2, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4902a.jpg)
Orbital tollways won’t have toll booths but could offer a mechanism for funding debris cleanup.
As we enter the next era of space exploration, the focus is shifting from launching missions to constructing advanced in-space infrastructure, with one major obstacle standing in the way: the growing threat of space debris. The billion-dollar question of who bears the cost of space debris cleanup has been a longstanding issue, directly tied to uncertainty about liability and the lack of incentives. Over the past decades, this issue has been a game of hot potato between governments, space agencies, and the industry with marginal progress.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4902/1
187) Europe weighs its future in space
by Jeff Foust Monday, December 2, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4903a.jpg)
Even as Vega C returns to flight this week, some in Europe see the need to invest further in launch to avoid continued dependence on the US. (credit: ESA/P. Carril)
Nearly a month after Donald Trump won a second term as president, the US space community is still analyzing what that means for government and commercial space efforts (see “Starships and space policy”, The Space Review, November 18, 2024). The incoming administration has offered few details so far in terms of policy or personnel; only last week did it sign a delayed agreement to allow agency review teams to start operating at various federal agencies.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4903/1
47/XII 2024 [188-191]
188) How astrobiologists are coming up with a framework to study how complex systems evolve
by Chris Impey Monday, December 9, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4904a.jpg)
A notional spectrum of an Earth-like world with key constituents like water, oxygen, and carbon dioxide needed for life. But what would that life be like? (credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Joseph Olmsted (STScI))
We have only one example of biology forming in the universe: life on Earth. But what if life can form in other ways? How do you look for alien life when you don’t know what alien life might look like?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4904/1
189) How to test artificial gravity
by Joe Carroll Monday, December 9, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4905a.jpg)
An illustration of an artifical gravity test involving a Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 second stage.
But first: Why does artificial gravity (“AG”) matter?
Most people interested in human expansion beyond Earth suggest settling the Moon or Mars first. But we don’t know how much gravity we will need, to avoid the novel health issues we keep finding after long stays in microgravity.[1-7] Many of those problems were found only after 6- to 12-month stays in microgravity, so it seems prudent to test human health at both gravity levels, possibly eventually in multi-year tests.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4905/1
190) What do we need astronauts for?
by Joe Carroll Monday, December 9, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4906a.jpg)
What is the most effective use of astronauts in the future?
The key space exploration challenge to US astronauts is not foreign astronauts, but robotic spacecraft. They travel farther, arrive earlier, survive far worse conditions, and deliver far more data far longer. And they cost less, and don’t trade crew safety versus cost.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4906/1
191) Artemis reentry
by Jeff Foust Monday, December 9, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4907a.jpg)
The Orion heat shield from the Artemis 1 mission, whose erosion led to a lengthy investigation that has significantly delayed Artemis 2. (credit: NASA)
In January, NASA announced delays in the next Artemis missions to the Moon. Artemis 2, which had been scheduled to launch by the end of the year, was pushed back to September 2025, which resulted in a similar slip in Artemis 3 to September 2026. NASA blamed the delay on several technical issues with the Orion spacecraft, including unexpected erosion of the heat shield seen on the Artemis 1 mission in late 2021 (see “Twenty years of chasing the Moon”, The Space Review, January 15, 2024.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4907/1
48/XII 2024 [192-195]
192) Review: Alcohol in Space - The Movie
by Jeff Foust Monday, December 16, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4908a.jpg)
Alcohol in Space - The Movie
Directed by Sam Burbank
2024, 50 mins.
Available to rent and own on Amazon Prime Video
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0DJQZGLG2/spaceviews
Alcoholic beverages, in their various forms, are key parts of society, and as that society expands into space, it’s natural that alcohol will come along in some way. That has traditionally been limited in government space programs, which often become skittish to even consider the possibility that people might want to have a drink while in space.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4908/1
193) Canada’s first moon rover will soon have a name as it prepares to explore a hostile lunar region
by Gordon Osinski Monday, December 16, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4909a.jpg)
A description of the lunar rover being developed by Canada and whose name is the topic of an ongoing contest. (credit: CSA)
The Canadian Space Agency announced a competition last month to name Canada’s first-ever rover mission to the Moon. This robotic mission will explore the south polar region of the Moon to search for water ice and explore its unique geology.
I am a professor and planetary geologist. I am also the principal investigator for Canada’s first rover mission to the Moon and a member of the science team for the upcoming Artemis 3 mission, the first human landing on the Moon since 1972.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4909/1
194) Countering threats to US commercial space systems
by Marc Berkowitz Monday, December 16, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4910f.jpg)
The use of Starlink in the Ukraine war shows the growing use of commercial space capabilities in combat and the threats those systems now face. (credit: Ukraine Military Center)
The reemergence of threats to US national interests in outer space is a byproduct of the renewed geopolitical competition between the United States and other great powers. A new entente of powers led by autocratic regimes with revisionist or irridentist political aspirations seek to alter the international order. To achieve that aim, China and Russia are acting independently as well as collaborating with each other, Iran, and North Korea at the expense of the security of the United States, our allies, and international partners.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4910/1
Misja MSR obecnie jest w trakcie koncepcyjnego przedstawiania nowych, tańszych propozycji.
Raport nt przyszłej eksploracji Marsa proponuje więcej, ale tańszych misji.
W maju NASA przyznała 12 małych kontraktów dziewięciu firmom, aby zbadać, w jaki sposób komercyjne podmioty mogłyby dostarczać ładunki na Marsa, a także zapewniać komunikację i obrazy.
https://spacenews.com/nasa-releases-long-term-strategy-for-robotic-mars-exploration/
195) The future of robotic Mars exploration
by Jeff Foust Monday, December 16, 2024
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4911a.jpg)
The Ingenuity Mars helicopter after its final landing, which snapped its four rotor blades. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/CNRS)
In January, the Ingenuity Mars helicopter lifted off for the 72nd time, a simple “pop up” flight for the tiny vehicle to get its bearings after making a rough emergency landing on its previous flight. But on the flight, the vehicle’s navigation system, which uses images from a downward-facing camera to lock onto rocks and other surface features to determine where it is and how it is moving, struggled in the featureless sandy terrain in that portion of Jezero Crater. (...)
Rather than a few large missions, costing in some cases more than a billion dollars, the plan envisions more, smaller missions focused on specific science questions. Many of those missions will cost between $100 million and $300 million, carrying potentially a single instrument or a small suite of instruments. They would be augmented by a few “medium-class” missions with bigger price tags, potentially over $1 billion, along with missions of opportunity to fly an instrument on another space agency’s mission. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4911/1
Note: The Space Review will take an end-of-year holiday break and not publish on the weeks of December 23 and 30. We will be back on Monday, January 6, 2025.
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1/I 2025 [1-4]
1) Review: Star Bound
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 6, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4912a.jpg)
Star Bound: A Beginner’s Guide to the American Space Program, from Goddard’s Rockets to Goldilocks Planets and Everything in Between
by Emily Carney and Bruce McCandless III
University of Nebraska Press, 2025
hardcover, 296 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-4962-4139-9
US$34.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1496241398/spaceviews
A lot is going on in space this year. As soon as this Friday, Blue Origin will attempt the first launch of its long-awaited, and long-delayed, New Glenn rocket. That may take place the same day as the next test flight of SpaceX’s Starship vehicle, with more to follow that will include the first orbital flights of Starship and tests of propellant transfer needed for its later use on lunar landing missions. Three robotic lunar landers are set to launch early this year as well as signs of continued interest in the Moon and growing commercial capabilities.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4912/1
2) Moonraker revisited
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, January 6, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4913a.jpg)
In 1979, James Bond went into space, two years before the space shuttle flew. Now a new magazine and soundtrack revisit the movie, which long held the Bond franchise box office record. (credit: MGM)
James Bond is in a bit of a rut. According to The Wall Street Journal, Bond producer Barbara Broccoli does not trust Amazon, which owns MGM and has the rights to the Bond movies, and she won’t agree to another Bond movie. Broccoli was reportedly unhappy with turnover at the studio and, following her late father’s advice, she allegedly said, “Don’t have temporary people make permanent decisions.” The last straw for her was apparently when an Amazon executive referred to James Bond as “content.” For her it’s personal, not business, and she is apparently unwilling to let Amazon’s entertainment algorithm grind up James Bond and extrude it like it does so much of the rest of Amazon’s content.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4913/1
3) Planning for space rescue
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 6, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4842a.jpg)
The Starliner saga has helped highlight the need to develop practices and procedures for space rescue. (credit: NASA)
The Starliner astronauts will spend even more time in orbit. Last month, NASA announced that it was postponing the launch of the Crew-10 mission to the International Space Station from late February to late March, giving SpaceX more time to complete the new Crew Dragon spacecraft—the fifth and final one in the company’s fleet—that will fly the mission. That will push back the departure of the Crew-9 Crew Dragon to perhaps early April.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4914/1
4) The (not quite) definitive guide to the legal construct of “space resources”
by Michael J. Listner Monday, January 6, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4074a.jpg)
The concept of “space resources” remains the subject of legal debate. (credit: ESA)
Of all the outer space ventures inspired by futurism, perhaps the most alluring is that of mining the resources within celestial bodies, including the Moon and asteroids. Indeed, real property rights are the holy grail of future visions of not only settlement but also space mining. The sticking point has been and continues to be the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which prevents a claim of a real property interest to create an exclusive mining claim. This lack of a right to claim a real property interest creates a legal barrier that seems insurmountable unless the Outer Space Treaty is amended or withdrawn from.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4915/1
2/I 2025 [5-8]
5) Review: Manned and Unmanned Flights to the Moon
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 13, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4916a.jpg)
Manned and Unmanned Flights to the Moon
by Terry C. Treadwell
White Owl, 2024
hardcover, 208 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-3990-3927-7
US$42.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/139903927X/spaceviews
Later this week, two lunar landers will head to the Moon on the same launch. A Falcon 9, currently scheduled to lift off shortly after 1 am EST Wednesday from the Kennedy Space Center, will carry Blue Ghost 1, the first lunar lander by Firefly Aerospace, and HAKUTO-R M2 or Resilience, the second lander by Japanese company ispace. Blue Ghost 1 is carrying ten NASA experiments for the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program along with a few commercial payloads, while Resilience is carrying a set of commercial payloads.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4916/1
6) The civilization survival scale: A biological argument for space settlement
by Thomas L. Matula Monday, January 13, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4639a.jpg)
The ability for humans to live beyond Earth may be critical to the survival of civilization. (credit: SpaceX)
Space advocates have long argued that humans must become a spacefaring civilization to ensure the survival of humanity. They point out that as long as we are restricted to a single planet there is a risk that a planet-wide catastrophe like a nuclear war, an asteroid impact, or major volcanic eruption could destroy global society and put humanity on the road to extinction. The only way for humanity to avoid that fate is to expand beyond the Earth, first to the solar system and then the galaxy beyond.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4917/1
7) Returning humans to the Moon without SLS and NRHO
by Ajay Kothari Monday, January 13, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4918f.jpg)
Several Falcon Heavy launches could send an Orion and lunar lander to the Moon. (credit: SpaceX)
Recent media reports suggest that the incoming Trump Administration may seek to cancel the Space Launch System. We must then look at other options to put Americans on the Moon as soon as possible. One method described here may be the least costly and the safest, with margins, and be the quickest method to counter China.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4918/1
8 ) Two (or more) ways to get samples back from Mars
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 13, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4919a.jpg)
JPL developed an approach that allowed the use of the proven “sky crane” technology for MSR. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
In April, NASA announced it was shaking up its Mars Sample Return (MSR) program after concluding the existing architecture would cost too much and take too long to bring back to Earth the samples that the Perseverance rover has been collecting. NASA said it would solicit studies from both within and outside the agency on ways to do MSR faster and cheaper. The goal was to decide on an alternative approach by the end of the year. (See “NASA looks for an MSR lifeline”, The Space Review, April 29, 2024.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4919/1
3/I 2025 [9-12]
9) India demonstrates space docking
by Ajey Lele Monday, January 20, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4920a.jpg)
An illustration of the two spacecraft for ISRO’s Space Docking Experiment (SpaDeX) mission. (credit: ISRO)
On December 30, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully launched its PSLV-C60 mission. The primary objective of this launch was to test docking technology with two satellites, as part of the Space Docking Experiment (SpaDeX) mission. SpaDeX carried two satellites, each weighing 220 kilograms, into a circular low Earth orbit. One satellite, designated the Chaser (SDX01), and the other, the Target (SDX02), were involved in the docking experiment. On January 16, ISRO successfully achieved the docking, thus making India only the fourth country in the world after the United States, Soviet Union (Russia), and China to possess this capability.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4920/1
10) Surveyor sample return: the mission that never was
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, January 20, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4921a.jpg)
In 1961, General Motors’ Defense Systems Division in California submitted a proposal for a lunar sample return payload based upon the Surveyor lander built by Hughes. Norman J. James was a GM industrial artist who worked with the design team to develop the proposal. (credit: Norman J. James via GM Media Archive)
Early on the morning of January 15, a rocket lifted off from Florida carrying two small lunar landers. A NASA-sponsored mission called Blue Ghost 1 is scheduled to land on the Moon a month and a half from now as the United States seeks to make robotic Moon landings a routine occurrence. The last time that happened was in the mid-1960s with the Surveyor program. Surveyor started out as an ambitious project that included a lander, orbiter, a rover, and possibly even a sample return mission. That sample return proposal has been overlooked in histories of early American space exploration.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4921/1
11) Tales of two rockets
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 20, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4922a.jpg)
Blue Origin’s New Glenn lifts off early January 16 on its inaugural mission. (credit: Blue Origin)
The pace of space launch activity in the last few years has grown significantly. Until a few years ago, it was rare to have more than 100 orbital launches in a single year; last year, there were more than 250 such launches. That meant there were days with two or more launches, sometimes by the same company (SpaceX, usually), a sign spaceflight is becoming a bit more commonplace.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4922/1
12) The satellite eavesdropping stations of Russia’s intelligence services (part 1)
by Bart Hendrickx Monday, January 20, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4923a.jpg)
GRU satellite eavesdropping station in Toivorovo in the St.-Petersburg region. Source: Google Earth.
Russia’s intelligence services operate an impressive series of ground stations to eavesdrop on foreign satellites. Most, if not all, of the targets are communications satellites. There are two separate networks, one operated by the GRU (the country’s military intelligence agency) and the other by the FSB (one of the descendants of the KGB). Most of these facilities were set up back in the days of the Soviet Union and have since been modernized. Several stations located in former Soviet republics had to be abandoned after the collapse of the USSR, but this loss has at least partially been compensated by the establishment of new sites on the Russian mainland and in the annexed Crimean peninsula. Some have been targets of Ukrainian drone attacks in recent months, a clear sign that they are believed to play a considerable role in Russia’s intelligence collection efforts.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4923/1
4/I 2025 [13-16]
13) Phasing out the SLS and Orion programs and embracing Starship
by Gerald Black Monday, January 27, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4924a.jpg)
Space Launch System with Orion (left) and Starship. (credit: NASA/SpaceX)
Two space transportation systems are being developed for human exploration of the Moon and Mars. The Space Launch System (SLS) and the Orion spacecraft comprise the first transportation system, while the second transportation system consists of SpaceX’s Starship. The NASA plan is to use both space transportation systems to return humans to the lunar surface. This feat would be accomplished with the Artemis 3 mission, currently scheduled for mid-2027.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4924/1
14) Titan’s spinners: the FARRAH satellites
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, January 27, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4925a.jpg)
This unidentified satellite mockup has sat outside an aviation museum in the city of Santa Maria, California, for many years. It is a boilerplate/mockup of a FARRAH signals intelligence satellite, first launched in 1988. Three were built and launched on Titan II rockets from Vandenberg Air Force Base. The satellites collected signals from radar systems. (credit: D. Day)
Behind an industrial building on the edge of the small airport of the modest city of Santa Maria, California, sits an oddly-shaped black-painted object, about three meters high and two meters in diameter. It is not labeled, but at one time it went by the nickname “Pathfinder.” It is leftover equipment from the Cold War, and a case of a secret program hiding in plain sight.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4925/1
15) The satellite eavesdropping stations of Russia’s intelligence services (part 2)
by Bart Hendrickx Monday, January 27, 2025
[Part 1 was published last week.]
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4926a.jpg)
Multiple beam torus antenna at the GRU station in Klimovsk. Source
Antenna systems
All of the GRU and KGB eavesdropping stations have a wide variety of parabolic dish antennas. Some details are available on the antennas built in the Soviet days for the GRU’s Zvezda network. [1] The first Zvezda station near Ventspils in Latvia featured three antennas: a 32-meter antenna called TNA-400, a 16-meter antenna named TNA-110, and an 8-meter antenna designated TNA-97. These were also installed at the Zvezda site near Yakovlevka in the country’s Far East, although one source gives the diameter of the TNA-97 there as 12 meters. Another antenna, measuring 25 meters in diameter, was known as TNA-210. The antennas were also named after planets of the solar system (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Pluto), but there is conflicting information on which antenna had which name.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4926/1
Rozpoczął się okres przejściowy w NASA.
Janet Petro jest pierwszą kobietą pełniącą obowiązki administratora.
16) A tumultuous start to a new administration at NASA
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 27, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4927a.jpg)
NASA acting administrator Janet Petro speaks at a NASA Day of Remembrance event at Arlington National Cemetery January 23. (credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Around the time Donald Trump took the oath of office to serve as the 47th President of the United States on January 20, visitors to NASA’s website would see that the agency’s associate administrator, Jim Free, was named acting administrator. This was not surprising: in the previous three presidential transitions (Obama in 2009, Trump in 2017, and Biden in 2021), the acting administrator stepped in to serve as acting administrator for a few months to, in the case of Robert Lightfoot in the first Trump Administration, more than a year. The website also noted that Cathy Koerner, associate administrator for exploration systems development, had stepped as acting associate administrator; her deputy, Lori Glaze, filled in for Koerner.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4927/1
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5/II 2025 [17-20]
17) Review: Lunar: A History of the Moon in Myths, Maps, and Matter
by Christopher Cokinos Monday, February 3, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4928a.jpg)
Lunar: A History of the Moon in Myths, Maps, and Matter
by Matthew Shindell (consultant editor)
University of Chicago Press, 2024
hardcover, 256 pages, illus.
ISBN: â 978-0-226-83651-5
US$55
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0226836517/spaceviews
As we move closer to the return of humans in cislunar space—and on the Moon itself—and as the pace of robotic missions to the Moon increase, writers are paying attention. A spate of books has been recently published. Joining this new lunar library is Lunar: A History of the Moon in Myths, Maps and Matter.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4928/1
18) Review: Sally
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 3, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4929a.jpg)
Sally
directed by Cristina Costantini
103 minutes, not rated
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31193771/
Two years ago, NASA’s history office published a short article on its website marking the 45th anniversary of the selection of the 1978 astronaut class, the first to include women, Black, and Asian-American candidates. The article was a high-level, straightforward account of that class and what they accomplished during and after their time as astronauts (Fred Gregory became NASA deputy administrator, for example, and Kathy Sullivan served as NOAA administrator.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4929/1
19) The lifecycle of space telescopes
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 3, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4930a.jpg)
The Roman Space Telescope takes shape at the Goddard Space Flight Center for a launch as soon as the fall of next year. (credit: NASA/Chris Gunn)
For astronomers, it is dreams come true. NASA now has, in operation or development, four flagship-class space telescopes operating in optical or infrared light, from the venerable Hubble Space Telescope launched in 1990 to the Habitable Worlds Observatory, just beginning work towards a launch in the 2040s. Hubble and the James Webb Space Telescope are among the telescopes in greatest demand among astronomers, who expect the same revolutionary science from HWO and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launching in a few years.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4930/1
20) Of Firebirds and lunar rovers
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, February 3, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4931a.jpg)
In the mid-1960s, General Motors worked on various designs for large pressurized lunar rovers for the Moon. This was part of extensive work the company did during the 1960s trying to gain a foothold in the NASA lunar exploration program. (credit: Norman J. James via GM Media Archive)
In the mid-1960s, NASA landed five Surveyor spacecraft on the Moon. They took photos and tested the soil characteristics of their landing sites, providing data for future Apollo landings, including Apollo 12, which set down very close to Surveyor 3. But NASA had dramatically scaled back the Surveyor program both in the concept stage and later while it was underway. Instead of 17 planned missions, the agency only flew seven and succeeded with five. Surveyor also never carried drilling equipment, as scientists wanted, or a small rover, despite rover prototypes that were developed and underwent limited testing. Other than the flown Surveyor missions, much less is known about the program’s development and planning. But there are still untapped sources of information about the rover program and its connection to other NASA astronaut rover projects of the 1960s, including the role the American automotive industry played in the space program (see “Dark side of the Moon: the lost Surveyor missions,” The Space Review, December 20, 2021.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4931/1
6/II 2025 [21-24]
21) Review: A Crack in Everything
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 10, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4932a.jpg)
A Crack in Everything: How Black Holes Came in from the Cold and Took Cosmic Centre Stage
by Marcus Chown
Head of Zeus, 2025
hardcover, 352 pp.
ISBN 978-1-80454-432-7
US$30
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1804544329/spaceviews
Black holes have an attractive force that goes beyond their intense gravitational fields. Scientists and science writers alike can’t seem to resist examining these peculiar objects, not to mention the countless works of science fiction that have made black holes part of their plots. Light may not be able to escape the event horizon of a black hole, but books flow freely.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4932/1
22) What makes a lunar landing mission “successful”?
by Jatan Mehta Monday, February 10, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4933e.jpg)
NASA and Intuitive Machines considered the IM-1 mission last year to be a success despite a hard landing that broke a lander leg and caused the spacecraft to topple. (credit: Intuitive Machines)
The Moon lander duo from ispace Japan and US-based Firefly Aerospace were launched by SpaceX on January 15 as a shared Falcon 9 ride to space. One thing that is notable about both ispace’s and Firefly’s public communications is that they have clearly laid out the milestones and success criteria of their respective missions—(ispace, Firefly)—in terms of specific events.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4933/1
23) The spaceport conundrum
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 10, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4934a.jpg)
One Falcon 9 launches from Cape Canaveral while another stands on the pad at the Kennedy Space Center in August 2024. (credit: SpaceX)
Near the end of the annual Spaceport Summit by the Global Spaceport Alliance (GSA) in Orlando two weeks ago, attendees engaged in a sort of brainstorming exercise. While a panel discussed how spaceports could become an “economic powerhouse” in their regions, the audience was encouraged to submit their ideas for what businesses spaceports could support, submitted though a webpage that allowed people to upvote ideas submitted by others.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4934/1
24) Redirecting NASA’s focus: why the Gateway program should be cancelled
by Gerald Black Monday, February 10, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4935a.jpg)
An illustration of the completed lunar Gateway. (credit: Thales Alenia Space/Briot)
The Gateway, a small space station intended to orbit the Moon, has been an integral part of NASA’s Artemis program to return astronauts to the lunar surface and establish a permanent presence on the Moon. However, it has become increasingly clear that the Gateway is a poor use of our limited resources for space exploration. This article delves into the reasons why the Gateway program should be cancelled, with the Gateway funding redirected to the Artemis program and to landing the first humans on Mars.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4935/1
7/II 2025 [25-28]
25) Review: Pillars of Creation
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 17, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4936a.jpg)
Pillars of Creation: How the James Webb Telescope Unlocked the Secrets of the Cosmos
by Richard Panek
Little, Brown and Company, 2004
hardcover, 256 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-316-57069-5
US$29
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0316570699/spaceviews
In just a few short years, the James Webb Space Telescope has become an essential tool for astronomers studying objects from within our solar system to the dawn of the universe. In one talk at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) held over the weekend, Adam Reiss, who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe, discussed how JWST was helping refine measurements of the Hubble constant. “It’s the biggest improvement I have seen in my research career just by changing instruments,” he said.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4936/1
26) A bold frontier: Advancing America’s space leadership and economic power
by Karlton D. Johnson Monday, February 17, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4937a.jpg)
A static-fire test of a SpaceX Starship vehicle ahead of its next launch. (credit: SpaceX)
As a new administration takes the helm, the United States faces a critical opportunity to reassert its leadership in space exploration. The National Space Society (NSS) calls on President Trump and his team to craft a bold strategy that prioritizes American strength and innovation, counters rising global competition, and ensures that space becomes a driver of economic prosperity.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4937/1
27) Czars versus councils: Organizing space in the new administration
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 17, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4938a.jpg)
A public meeting of the National Space Council in December 2023. The new Trump Administration may not continue the council despite reviving it in its first term. (credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky)
Early in its first term, the Trump Administration revived the long-dormant National Space Council, chaired by the vice president and with many federal agencies participating. The council was remarkably active during the administration, leading the development of a series of space policy directives on topics from exploration and regulation to space traffic management to space cybersecurity.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4938/1
28) Power lifting: Cold War satellite reconnaissance and the Buran space shuttle
by Dwayne A. Day and Harry Stranger Monday, February 17, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4939a.jpg)
A US photo-reconnaissance satellite took this photo of the Soviet flight test facility located outside Moscow in June 1982. In the center of the photo is a large crane used for picking up components of the Energia launch vehicle or the Buran space shuttle and placing them on top of a carrier aircraft for transport to the Baikonur launch site, where a similar crane was used to remove them. An unidentified object is located underneath the crane. (credit: HEXAGON photo via Harry Stranger)
The Soviet Union developed the N1 rocket to race the United States to the Moon but by 1972, after the fourth N1 launch failure, the Soviets mothballed the launch site and discontinued the program. American satellites regularly flew over the sprawling Baikonur launch complex in Kazakhstan, and by 1974 intelligence analysts determined that the heavy-lift rocket had been abandoned.
Four years later, American satellites detected new construction and modification of existing facilities at Baikonur, determining that the Soviet Union was beginning work on a new heavy-lift launch vehicle, and soon concluding that the Soviet Union was also developing a space shuttle equivalent to NASA’s shuttle. Now, recently declassified satellite imagery from the 1980s provides some indications of what the CIA was detecting and how this may have informed their conclusions about the pace of the Soviet space shuttle program.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4939/1
8/II 2025 [29-32]
29) Review: Space to Grow
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 24, 2025
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Space to Grow: Unlocking the Final Economic Frontier
by Matthew Weinzierl and Brendan Rosseau
Harvard Business Review Press, 2025
hardcover, 320 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-64782-716-8
US$32
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1647827167/spaceviews
At Blue Origin, the company with the motto “Gradatim ferociter” or “step by step ferociously,” the steps have been a little more ferocious so far this year. The company finally conducted its first New Glenn orbital launch in January, a mission that was mostly successful other than a failed booster landing. Earlier this month, the company launched its New Shepard suborbital vehicle, demonstrating the ability to provide simulated lunar gravity for the payloads inside for about two minutes. This week, the company will launch another New Shepard carrying six private astronauts.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4940/1
30) Remote sensing and the international law of space
by Richard M. Carson Monday, February 24, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4941a.jpg)
The growth of the commercial remote sensing industry using satellites like Planet’s Pelican (above) raises a range of legal issues. (credit: Planet)
Remote sensing has become an integral component of global observation, spanning scientific, commercial, and security applications. From high-resolution imagery to AI-powered geospatial intelligence, the capabilities of modern remote sensing satellites have introduced profound legal and policy questions. As space continues to evolve into a domain of economic and strategic importance, policymakers must address the challenges posed by an increasingly privatized and technologically advanced remote sensing industry.[1]
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4941/1
31) Space literacy: Environmental education for a spacefaring civilization
by Beverly B. Bachelder and Robert S. Bachelder Monday, February 24, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4687a.jpg)
A lack of awareness of the value of space among the public, amid threats to the space environment about orbital debris, shows the need for a “space literacy” campaign. (credit: ESA/ID&Sense/ONiRiXEL)
Our spacefaring civilization could benefit from the experience and wisdom of Theodore Roosevelt, the “conservation president.” The rapid development of key Earth orbits and their impending exhaustion presents a challenge similar to one he effectively addressed over a century ago.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4942/1
O potencjalnych opcjach wykorzystania Starshipa
32) What Starship can, and can’t, do
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 24, 2025
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The Super Heavy booster for the next Starship mission heading to the launch pad for tests earlier this month. (credit: SpaceX)
As soon as this Friday, SpaceX will perform another test flight of its Starship/Super Heavy vehicle from its Starbase test site in Boca Chica, Texas. The flight will be the first since one in mid-January that ended in the destruction of the Starship upper stage, raining debris over the Caribbean, including some on the Turks and Caicos Islands (see “Tales of two rockets”, The Space Review, January 20, 2025.) SpaceX said shortly after the incident that a propellant leak caused a fire and that it would take steps to prevent such a fire from happening again.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4943/1
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9/III 2025 [33-36]
33) Evolving intelligent life took billions of years, but it may not have been as unlikely as many scientists predicted
by Daniel Brady Mills, Jason Wright, and Jennifer L. Macalady Monday, March 3, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4944a.jpg)
There are exoplanets that may be similar to Earth, but could any life there evolve to become intelligent? (credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech)
A popular model of evolution concludes that it was incredibly unlikely for humanity to evolve on Earth, and that extraterrestrial intelligence is vanishingly rare. But as experts on the entangled history of life and our planet, we propose that the coevolution of life and Earth’s surface environment may have unfolded in a way that makes the evolutionary origin of humanlike intelligence a more foreseeable or expected outcome than generally thought.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4944/1
34) US space resources law needs clarification by Congress
by Camisha L. Simmons Monday, March 3, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4945a.jpg)
AstroForge, an asteroid mining startup, launched its Odin spacecraft (above) last week to fly by an asteroid it may later attempt to mine. (credit: AstroForge)
On January 20, during his inaugural address, President Trump proclaimed that we (the US) “will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars.”[1] The proclamation was bold. The certain vision is even bolder. However, in contrast, what’s not so certain is the law that will enable robust commercial activity and eventual human settlement in outer space.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4945/1
35) Mystery solved! The CALSAT satellite
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, March 3, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4946a.jpg)
Declassified image of a satellite that was never secret, but was associated with many other top secret satellites of the 1960s. CALSAT was developed for calibrating satellite tracking networks. It was built but never flown, and in the early 1970s was donated to the National Museum of the United States Air Force, where it was displayed without explanation. (credit: NRO)
In the 1970s, the National Museum of the United States Air Force put a satellite on display with little fanfare and little explanation. It has taken 50 years to finally figure out what it is.
Starting in 1963, the Air Force began deploying a series of suitcase-sized satellites off larger satellites launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The satellites were classified at the time, and it was not until recently that the National Reconnaissance Office, which was responsible for overseeing their development, declassified a significant amount of information about them. The satellites, initially part of Program 11 and nicknamed P-11s, were covered with antennas and spun in their near-polar orbits, gathering up radar and sometimes other signals over the Soviet Union before transmitting them down to ground stations. Nearly two dozen of them were launched during the 1960s, with a wide range of radar targets.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4946/1
36) Firefly lands on the Moon
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 3, 2025
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An image from Blue Ghost 1 taken shortly after its March 2 landing, casting a shadow on the lunar surface with the Earth in the distance. (credit: Firefly Aerospace)
There’s no shortage of live music options on a Saturday night in Austin, Texas. That included, last Saturday, one venue in the suburb of Cedar Park where someone arriving late in the evening would have found a packed parking lot and a crowd inside, enjoying the music and availing themselves of the bar.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4947/1
10/III 2025 [37-40]
37) Bennu asteroid reveals its contents to scientists with clues about how the building blocks of life on Earth may have been seeded
by Timothy J. McCoy and Sara Russell Monday, March 10, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4948a.jpg)
Some of the material from the asteroid Bennu returned by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission. (credit: NASA/Erika Blumenfeld & Joseph Aebersold)
A bright fireball streaked across the sky above mountains, glaciers and spruce forest near the town of Revelstoke in British Columbia, Canada, on the evening of March 31, 1965. Fragments of this meteorite, discovered by beaver trappers, fell over a lake. A layer of ice saved them from the depths and allowed scientists a peek into the birth of the solar system.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4948/1
38) The European Space Tug 1970–1972
by Hans Dolfing Monday, March 10, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4949a.jpg)
Figure 1 : MBB presentation. (credit: © Airbus Heritage [1])
The story of the reusable European space tug studies goes back to at least 1969, even before Apollo 11 landed on the Moon. At the direction of new American President Richard Nixon, the Space Task Group (STG) was tasked with a study on NASA’s post-Apollo future between February and September 1969. An Integrated Program Plan (IPP), also named Space Transportation System (STS), was presented which included tugs and shuttles and a lot more. However, with declining budgets, the plan was in jeopardy from the beginning.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4949/1
39) A whole other spacefaring country
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 10, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4950a.jpg)
Funding from the Texas Space Commission will help Starlab Space develop test facilities for its proposed commercial space station. State officials have suggested they could later help finance development of commercial stations like Starlab’s. (credit: Starlab Space)
Speaking on a panel late last month at the AIAA’s ASCENDxTexas conference, held in a hotel near NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Greg Bonnen recalled comments he made at another event at the same venue a few weeks earlier. “There are a couple countries that are going to be landing on the Moon in this calendar year,” he said. “Japan and Texas.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4950/1
40) Stars in the sky: The top secret URSALA, RAQUEL, and FARRAH satellites from the 1970s to the 21st century
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, March 10, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4951a.jpg)
Twenty HEXAGON satellites were launched from California between 1971 and 1986, with one failure. HEXAGON was a big photo-reconnaissance satellite, but often carried Program 989 subsatellites that were deployed in orbit. (credit: Peter Hunter)
In 1963, the Air Force launched the first “hitchhiker” off the side of a larger satellite. This began a secretive program that lasted more than 40 years under a variety of names and designations. The satellites, about the size of a large suitcase, were festooned with antennas and spun rapidly as they orbited the Earth, sweeping their antennas over the ground and gathering radar and other signals, so-called electronic intelligence, or ELINT. They usually recorded the signals for later transmission to the ground, but occasionally directly re-transmitted them to a ground station.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4951/1
11/III 2025 [41-44]
41) Review: Lunar Commerce
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 17, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4952a.jpg)
Lunar Commerce: A Primer
by Derek Webber
Springer, 2024
hardcover, 208 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-3-031-53420-1
US$39.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/3031534204/spaceviews
Commercial activities are off to a shaky start on the Moon. So far only one company can claim a fully successful (or reasonably close) lunar landing: Firefly Aerospace, whose Blue Ghost 1 lander signed off Sunday night shortly after sunset at its Mare Crisium landing site. Israel’s SpaceIL and Japan’s ispace crashed attempting to landing on the Moon (a second ispace lander is enroute for a landing in June), Astrobotic’s Peregrine suffered a propulsion malfunction that kept it from attempting a landing, and Intuitive Machines’ two landers both landed on the Moon but ended up on their sides, with its second mission earlier this month causing the mission to end barely 12 hours after landing.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4952/1
42) ATLAC and the early emergence of lunar governance
by Dennis O’Brien Monday, March 17, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4947a.jpg)
The development of commercial capabilities like Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost 1 lander is providing new urgency to efforts to coordinate and even govern such activities on the Moon. (credit: Firefly Aerospace)
At its February meeting, the United Nations Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) formally created ATLAC, the Action Team on Lunar Activities Consultation. In doing so, it may have provided the missing piece in the evolving framework of governance for the Moon, and perhaps beyond. ATLAC’s mandate, along with the efforts of the Working Group on Legal Aspects of Outer Space Resources, give us an early glimpse into how the international community will govern activity on the Moon.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4953/1
43) Is the Moon in America’s future?
Monday, March 17, 2025
Unpacking the strategic debate by Bhavya Lal
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4954a.jpg)
Exploring the Moon has value on its own, and can also help accelerate missions to Mars. (credit: NASA)
As the current administration contemplates America’s future in human spaceflight, it faces a crucial strategic choice: should we return to the Moon first, or push directly for Mars? This critical decision will shape not just the future of space exploration, but humanity’s path to bringing the solar system into our sphere. Climate change, pandemics, and other existential risks make expanding beyond Earth increasingly critical. Yet reasonable observers disagree sharply on the best path forward.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4954/1
44) The new wave of asteroid mining ventures
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 17, 2025
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AstroForge’s Odin spacecraft before launch as a secondary payload on the IM-2 mission. The spacecraft suffered technical problems after launch that will keep it from prospecting a near Earth asteroid. (credit: AstroForge)
For Matt Gialich, being scared wasn’t just acceptable. It was a requirement.
“I told everybody in the company that, if you’re not scared when we launch, we went too slow,” Gialich, cofounder and CEO of AstroForge, said in an interview a month before the launch of the company’s Odin spacecraft.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4955/1
12/III 2025 [45-48]
45) Review: Space Piracy
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 24, 2025
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Space Piracy: Preparing for a Criminal Crisis in Orbit
by Marc Feldman and Hugh Taylor
Wiley, 2025
hardcover, 256 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-394-24020-3
US$30
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1394240201/spaceviews
The term “space piracy” most likely brings to mind science fiction, and probably not great science fiction at that (such as the mid-80s movie The Ice Pirates.) The authors of the new book Space Piracy acknowledge that and even embrace it, but they are very serious about the subject. “Space piracy is a future problem that is starting to show itself in small-scale hacks,” they write, but add that “the probability of space piracy and crime becoming serious issues facing space industry and national security organizations” means it’s time to start planning for it.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4956/1
46) 3D printing will help space pioneers make homes, tools, and other stuff they need to colonize the Moon and Mars
by Sven Bilén Monday, March 24, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4957a.jpg)
One concept for Martian habitats that could be built using 3D printing technologies. (credit: Team SEArch+/Apis Cor)
Throughout history, when pioneers set out across uncharted territory to settle in distant lands, they carried with them only the essentials: tools, seeds, and clothing. Anything else would have to come from their new environment.
So, they built shelter from local timber, rocks, and sod; foraged for food and cultivated the soil beneath their feet; and fabricated tools from whatever they could scrounge up. It was difficult, but ultimately the successful ones made everything they needed to survive.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4957/1
47) Boeing’s early lunar base concept of 1959
by Hans Dolfing Monday, March 24, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4958a.jpg)
Figure 1: Boeing’s early lunar base concept (credit: Copyright © Boeing 2025 [22])
In the late 1950s after Sputnik, America went head over heels into the space race: rockets, space stations, winged spacecraft, logistics, the works. Everything was studied from a military point of view as well through civilian eyes via a fledgling NASA.
To obtain the ultimate high ground, the US Air Force studied the what, how, and when of military lunar bases. One of the System Requirement (SR) studies to prepare USAF long-range plans was SR-183. On November 13, 1957, Gen. Bernhard Schriever (AFBMD) ordered preparation of a plan for a 10- to 15-year program leading to development of man-carrying vehicle systems for space exploration.[21] Meanwhile, the bill to create NASA as a civilian space agency was drafted and submitted to Congress on April 2, 1958.[20]
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4958/1
Lot astronautów został rekordowo wydłużony.
Misja o dynamicznej fabule przeszła do historii.
48) A final twist in the Starliner saga
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 24, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4959a.jpg)
The Crew Dragon spacecraft Freedom splashes down off the Florida coast March 18 to conclude the Crew-9 mission. (credit: NASA/Keegan Barber)
Their return to Earth, at least from a technical point of view, was all but flawless.
The Crew Dragon spacecraft Freedom undocked from the International Space Station in the early morning hours last Tuesday. More than 16 hours later, it reentered the atmosphere, deploying two drogue chutes, followed by four main parachutes, in clear blue skies. A drone captured stunning high-definition video of the descending capsule as it splashed down off the Florida coast south of Tallahassee. About a half-hour later, the capsule was aboard the SpaceX recovery ship, a process monitored not just the ships’ crews but also a pod of dolphins in the water, evidently curious about the ruckus. (...)
Musk has repeated the claim that he offered the Biden Administration a plan for an earlier return of the two astronauts, but has not provided any details such as who he contacted at the White House and when, as well as what the plan was itself. Also unclear was why Musk would directly go to the White House, given his poor relationship with the Biden Administration at the time, rather than contact NASA. Former agency leaders, such as administrator Bill Nelson and deputy administrator Pam Melroy, said they were unaware of any proposals Musk might have made to the White House. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4959/1
13/III 2025 [49-52]
49) Review: The Moonwalkers and a Kennedy Center space festival
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 31, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4960a.jpg)
An audience is treated to a Saturn V launch in The Moonwalkers at the Kennedy Center. (credit: J. Foust)
Even more than 50 years after Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt lifted off from the Moon, the appetite for Apollo nostalgia is unsated. There continues to be films, books, and more about the original race to the Moon even as a new one shapes up involving the United States and China, one that promises to finally return humans to the lunar surface late this decade, perhaps.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4960/1
50) Preparing for the EU Space Act and its potential influence on the future of space traffic management
by Michael P. Gleason Monday, March 31, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4961a.jpg)
The European Commission, including Andrius Kubilius (second from left), commissioned for defense and space, plan to pushing an EU Space Act in the coming weeks. (credit: EC - Audiovisual Service)
The European Union (EU) expects to release the first EU Space Act in the second quarter of 2025.[1] It will likely require non-EU commercial space companies providing satellite services within the EU marketplace, including US companies, to comply with the law and regulations it will impose.[2]
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4961/1
51) Europe’s launch challenge
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 31, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4962a.jpg)
Isar Aerospace’s Spectrum lifts off on its inaugural flight March 30. (credit: Brady Kenniston/Isar Aerospace)
On Sunday at 12:30pm local time, a rocket lifted off from a seaside pad called Andøya Spaceport in northern Norway into blue skies. With a snow-covered mountain in the background, the Spectrum rocket developed by Isar Aerospace slowly ascended. The launch appeared to be going well enough one could take a second to appreciate a scenic view far different than Cape Canaveral or Baikonur. So far, so good.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4962/1
52) Fate is in the stars: the PARCAE ocean surveillance satellites
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, March 31, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4963a.jpg)
Launch of an Improved PARCAE atop a Titan IV rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in 1993 ended in failure. The failure was reported to cost over $800 million, although it is unclear if this cost also included the Titan IV. (credit: Peter Hunter)
On April 30, 1976, an Atlas F rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base carrying a new type of satellite into space. Upon reaching its orbit of approximately 1,050 by 1,150 kilometers, the satellite dispenser ejected three suitcase-sized satellites that deployed solar panels and a boom that used gravity to orient them towards the Earth. They were placed into a triangular cluster separated by 30 to 240 kilometers from each other, and their orbits inclined 63 degrees to the Equator maximized their travel over the Earth’s oceans.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4963/1
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14/IV 2025 [53-56]
53) Review: Mars and the Earthlings
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 7, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4964a.jpg)
Mars and the Earthlings: A Realistic View on Mars Exploration and Settlement
by Cyprien Verseux, Muriel Gargaud, Kirsi Lehto, and Michel Viso (eds.)
Springer, 2025
hardcover, 452 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-3-031-66880-7
US$179.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/3031668804/spaceviews
To say that opinions about exactly when humans will make to Mars widely vary is an understatement. At one end is Elon Musk, who has argued that Starship could be ready to send people to Mars as soon as the end of the decade, once the vehicle has proven its ability to perform robotic landings, quickly building up a large presence. At the other end are those skeptical that humans will ever be able to live in significant numbers there given its hostile conditions (as an essay in The Atlantic put it several years ago, “Mars Is a Hellhole.”) NASA has fallen somewhere in between, suggesting human missions might be feasible in 2040s as part of its Moon to Mars Architecture.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4964/1
54) The best space telescope you never heard of just shut down
by Laura Nicole Driessen Monday, April 7, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4965a.jpg)
Artist’s impression of the Gaia spacecraft in front of the Milky Way. (credit: ESA/ATG medialab; background: ESO/S. Brunier)
On Thursday 27 March, the European Space Agency (ESA) sent its last messages to the Gaia spacecraft. They told Gaia to shut down its communication systems and central computer and said goodbye to this amazing space telescope.
Gaia has been the most successful ESA space mission ever, so why did they turn Gaia off? What did Gaia achieve? And perhaps most importantly, why was it my favorite space telescope?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4965/1
55) Anything but expendable (part 1)
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4966a.jpg)
Figure 1. The launch of Intelsat-708 aboard the Long March CZ-3B launch vehicle on February 15, 1996. In these stills taken from the CCTV video, the rocket can be seen veering off course seconds after liftoff. (credit: CCTV)
A history of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) Secondary Payload Adapter (ESPA)
Prologue: The grim ’90s
It was Valentine’s Day 1996: launch day at Space Systems Loral’s headquarters building overlooking San Francisco Bay. Members of the Intelsat-708 mission team had assembled to view its launch aboard a “Long March” CZ-3B rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan, China, from a series of monitors.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4966/1
56) Space policy: The Moon and Mars simultaneously
by Doug Plata, MD, MPH Monday, April 7, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4967a.jpg)
With fleets of reusable ships, large and growing international bases could be established on both the Moon and Mars. (credit: SpaceX)
In a nutshell, this article proposes that America’s human spaceflight (HSF) policy be directed to go both to the Moon and Mars simultaneously for exploration and the development of permanent bases. This is based upon accepting the likelihood of the emergence of multiple heavy-lift commercial transportation systems that will be far more cost-effective than NASA’s current plans. The idea that we cannot go to Mars without establishing a base on the Moon is not obviously true and something that SpaceX certainly does not believe.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4967/1
15/IV 2025 [57-60]
57) Space commerce: face the risk, seize the opportunities
by Norm Mitchell Monday, April 14, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4968a.jpg)
A new era of space commercialization opens up opportunitites on the Moon and elsewhere. (credit: ESA/P. Carril)
Imagine it’s 1625 and you’re an ambitious young entrepreneur. The world’s most powerful nations have pushed wooden shipbuilding technology to unprecedented heights. The oceans are no longer the barrier to commerce that they once were. New continents have been discovered. Known continents are more accessible because traders can avoid rugged, dangerous overland routes.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4968/1
58) Anything but expendable (part 2)
by Darren A. Raspa Monday, April 14, 2025
A history of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) Secondary Payload Adapter (ESPA)
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4969l.jpg)
ESPA ring schematics, from âESPA: EELV Secondary Payload Adapter with whole-spacecraft isolation for primary and secondary payloadsâ Maly, Haskett, et al.
[Part 1 was published last week.]
Part 2: A new hope for space launch innovation
In New Mexico, the defense space organizational infrastructure and physical footprint were growing. In 1993 at the Air Force Phillips Lab’s Space and Missile Technology and Space Experiments Directorates on Kirtland Air Force Base, construction began on a new headquarters building that would also be a test lab for space structures and prove pivotal to the EELV program. The space defense presence on the west side of Kirtland was growing. The previous summer, the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) had consolidated four separate reporting units and stood up the Space Experimentation Program Office. The newly aligned programs included the Rocket Systems Launch Program (RSLP), the Space Test Program (STP), the Research and Development Space and Missile Operations (RDSMO) program, and Test & Evaluation functions located at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Beginning in June of 1993, SMC’s Research, Development, Test & Evaluation activities at Los Angeles Air Force Base (STP), Onizuka Air Station (RDSMO), and San Bernardino (RSLP) were moved to collocate beside the Phillips Lab on Kirtland.[1]
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4969/1
59) Lessons learned from critical reviews of Gen. Saltzman’s “Competitive Endurance”
by Brian G. Chow Monday, April 14, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4970a.jpg)
Gen. B. Chance Saltzman speaks at the 40th Space Symposium last week. (credit: Space Foundation)
Two years ago, Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, Chief of Space Operations (CSO) of the US Space Force, called on both government insiders and external experts to “think deeply and critically” about his proposed theory of success for the Space Force, Competitive Endurance. In response, critical reviews have been published, fostering a broader exchange of ideas and feedback that are essential for refining the theory as it remains in the proposal stage.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4970/1
60) All of the above, or none?
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 14, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4971a.jpg)
Jared Isaacman speaks at his April 9 Senate confirmation hearing on his nomination to be NASA administrator. (credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Since Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election, and especially since he was sworn in nearly three months ago, the space community has wondered what the administration would do with NASA. Trump’s comments about his desire to have astronauts plant the American flag on Mars raised questions about his commitment to continue the Artemis lunar exploration campaign. Rumors of proposed major cuts to NASA science programs also created concerns.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4971/1
16/IV 2025 [61-64]
61) Review: Planetary Defenders
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 21, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4972a.jpg)
Planetary Defenders
directed by Scott Bednar and Jessie Wilde
75 min., not rated
https://plus.nasa.gov/video/planetary-defenders/
Last year, NASA officially entered the streaming era. The agency retired its long-running NASA TV linear television channel, best known for coverage of missions, briefings, and related events, interspersed with documentaries, educational shows, and other historical programming. In its place was a streaming service called (what else?) NASA+. No longer would you have to go through the weekly listings for NASA TV (something very few people likely ever did) to see if and when a program would be airing; you could watch it when you wanted.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4972/1
62) Anything but expendable (part 3)
by Darren A. Raspa Monday, April 21, 2025
A history of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) Secondary Payload Adapter (ESPA)
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4973e.jpg)
Original PDR ESPA concept schematic.
[Part 2 was published last week.]
Part 3: Building the ring
Conor Johnson started CSA Engineering with a vision to bring company ownership to its employees. “We were totally poor and young,” he recalls. “Every year that we made money, we gave that money back as bonuses to our employees.” Johnson came armed with a PhD from Clemson and a background in structural dynamics as a former Air Force officer and experience at a San Francisco Bay Area materials and engineering firm. With only a few dozen employees, Johnson had been known to work alongside his technicians solving a mechanical challenge. CSA had proven themselves supporting Phillips Lab programs and SMC/STP missions in the 1990s; their partnership with the follow-on Air Force Research Lab would change the face of the entire US space launch enterprise into the 21st century. They were quickly awarded a Phase I SBIR contract in the amount of $78,000 to design a multi-port secondary payload adapter.[1]
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4973/1
63) Space weather and spaceflight
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 21, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4974a.jpg)
Space weather created increased atmospheric drag that shortened the lives of Capella Space’s Whitney series of radar imaging satellites. (credit: Capella Space)
At the same time the White House delivered bad news to NASA’s science programs in the form of its near-final “passback” budget proposal for fiscal year 2026 (see “All of the above, or none?”, The Space Review, April 14, 2025), it was offering its own radical changes to NOAA. That included major changes to the GeoXO line of next-generation weather satellites, proposing to cut between two to four of the five instruments planned for those satellites because they were deemed to focus more on climate rather than weather.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4974/1
64) “A bonafide frigging flight”: How NS-31 broke spaceflight norms and created an online uproar
by Deana L. Weibel Monday, April 21, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4975a.jpg)
The six women who flew on Blue Origin’s New Shepard NS-31 mission April 14: Kerianne Flynn, Katy Perry, Lauren Sánchez, Aisha Bowe, Gayle King, and Amanda Nguyen (credit: Blue Origin)
Introduction: a joyful disruption
On Monday morning, April 14, I found myself rushing across the parking lot to my office. I wanted to catch the Blue Origin flight, New Shepard-31, on my desktop computer screen rather than settling for the small screen of my phone. I didn’t realize until that morning what a joy it would be to see women being recognized and celebrated for going into space after several weeks of NASA’s successes with diversity being increasingly obscured. I was enjoying the feeling of seeing a barrier broken, even if, as some have suggested, the whole thing was nothing more than part of an oligarchical plot to let women have a minor win so we’d be quiet for a while.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4975/1
16/IV 2025 [65-68]
65) Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence
by Chris Impey Monday, April 28, 2025
An astronomer explains how much evidence scientists need to claim discoveries like extraterrestrial life
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4976a.jpg)
Astronomers claim to have detected a molecule in the atmosphere of an exoplanet they consider to be a biosignature, but many others are not convinced. (credit: A. Smith/N. Mandhusudhan)
The detection of life beyond Earth would be one of the most profound discoveries in the history of science. The Milky Way galaxy alone hosts hundreds of millions of potentially habitable planets. Astronomers are using powerful space telescopes to look for molecular indicators of biology in the atmospheres of the most Earth-like of these planets.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4976/1
66) Isaacman revisited
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 28, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4977a.jpg)
Jared Isaacman followed up on his April 9 confirmation hearing with written answers to additional questions from senators. (credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
On Wednesday, the Senate Commerce Committee is scheduled to take up Jared Isaacman’s nomination to be NASA administrator, voting whether to advance the nomination to the full Senate for a later confirmation vote. That confirmation is now all but inevitable, given no public Republican opposition to him. The main question will be how many Democratic senators, if any, also vote in favor of his nomination in committee or the full Senate.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4977/1
67) The real space race: China will send a crew to orbit Mars by 2050
by Kristin Burke Monday, April 28, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4978c.jpg)
The Long March 10, a rocket being developed to support China’s plans for landing humans on the Moon, will likely play a tole in plans for human missions to Mars as well. (credit: CCTV)
The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC’s) scientific community established China’s broad timelines for crewed Moon and Mars missions simultaneously in 2009. At that time, the Chinese Academy of Science’s (CAS’s) 40-year technology forecast called Space Science & Technology in China: A Roadmap to 2050 was largely seen as unofficial and aspirational.[1] However, the scientists’ forecast for a crewed Moon landing “around 2030” has turned out to be an accurate prediction, assuming all goes to plan.[2] This report examines CAS’s second prediction for “crewed Mars exploration around 2050.”[3]
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4978/1
Aktywność inspekcyjna Rosjan na orbicie.
68) Project Nivelir: Russia’s inspection satellites (part 1)
by Bart Hendrickx Monday, April 28, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4979a.jpg)
The Kosmos-2558 satellite photographed in orbit. Source
Two Russian satellites launched in 2022 and 2024 have been monitoring two big American electro-optical reconnaissance satellites orbiting several dozen kilometers above them. Their missions are reminiscent of two others launched in 2017 and 2019. All that Russia has officially revealed about their objectives is that they are intended for Earth remote sensing and inspection of other satellites in orbit. However, the two first satellites each deployed a small subsatellite that in turn released a high-speed object which the Pentagon believes is an anti-satellite weapon. While the latest two satellites have so far not ejected any subsatellites, they are undoubtedly being closely watched. After the launch of the latest satellite last year, US Space Command called it “a likely counterspace weapon presumably capable of attacking other satellites in low Earth orbit”.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4979/1
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17/V 2025 [69-72]
69) Some doubts about Jared Isaacman
by A.J. Mackenzie Monday, May 5, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4971a.jpg)
Jared Isaacman speaks at his April 9 Senate confirmation hearing on his nomination to be NASA administrator. (credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Sometime this month, barring an unforeseen event, Jared Isaacman will become NASA’s next administrator. That became clear when the Senate Commerce Committee voted to send his nomination to the full Senate, with every Republican—and a few Democrats—voting in favor of it. The only question is when the Senate will find time to take up the nomination: maybe this week, maybe next, but certainly not too long from now.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4980/1
70) Playing catchup
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 5, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4981a.jpg)
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V lifts off April 28 carrying the first set of 27 operational Project Kuiper satellites for Amazon. (credit: ULA)
Last Monday evening, an Atlas V lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. If you hadn’t been paying close attention to the launch, you might think it was a classified mission. Shortly after the Centaur upper stage separated and ignited its RL10 engine, United Launch Alliance wrapped up its webcast of the launch at the request of the customer. ULA provided a few brief updates afterwards, but no details until more than 90 minutes after liftoff when it announced payload separation.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4981/1
71) Project Nivelir: Russia’s inspection satellites (part 2)
by Bart Hendrickx Monday, May 5, 2025
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Optical telescope likely installed aboard the Nivelir parent satellites. Source: TsNIIKhM website
Optical payloads
As explained in part 1, the goals of NPO Lavochkin’s 14F150 satellites are both Earth remote sensing and long-distance space surveillance, while TsNIIKhM’s 14F162 subsatellites appear to be designed for close-up inspections of satellites and, if necessary, their destruction. Although the payloads needed for the observations largely remain shrouded in mystery, some information on them can be gleaned from open sources.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4982/1
72) Dark territory: the National Reconnaissance Office, satellite inspection, and anti-satellite weapons in the early 1970s
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, May 5, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4983a.jpg)
Launch of a Program 437AP (Alternate Payload) inspection spacecraft in the mid-1960s from Johnston Island in the Pacific. The 437AP and its nuclear-armed ASAT variant were both limited in capabilities, and Johnston Island facilities were vulnerable to storms. The ASAT was put in standby mode in the early 1970s and retired by 1974. (credit: USAF)
In the early 1970s, the super-secret National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) considered taking on a new mission—satellite inspection. This would have required an American satellite to closely approach another satellite to photograph it and take other measurements. Even if such an action was not considered a direct threat, it would demonstrate an American capability to rendezvous with and destroy other satellites. The policy questions associated with doing this were huge: not only the international implications, but whether an agency dedicated to gathering intelligence about adversaries on the ground and at sea should also become involved in close operations against other satellites.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4983/1
18/V 2025 [73-76]
73) Review: Extraterrestrial Life
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 12, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4984a.jpg)
Extraterrestrial Life: We Are Not Alone
by Antonino Del Popolo
Springer, 2025
paperback, 156 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-3-031-83496-7
US$37.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/3031834968/spaceviews
It’s a familiar trajectory for astrobiology stories. Scientists announce the discovery of a biosignature, or at least a potential biosignature, on another world in our solar system or beyond. The announcement is made at a conference, or in a paper provided to media under embargo, resulting in a surge of stories touting the discovery. Then other scientists step in and poke holes in the original discovery: a flaw in the methodology, perhaps, or alternative explanations that don’t require life. The discovery becomes far less convincing.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4984/1
74) Why we are so scared of space, and how this fear can drive conspiracy theories
by Tony Milligan Monday, May 12, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4985a.jpg)
Some people worry about the threats asteroids pose to Earth, while others worry about the threat posed by efforts to prevent such impacts (credit: ESA)
There are many home-grown problems on Earth, but there’s still time to worry about bad things arriving from above. The most recent is the asteroid 2024 YR4, which could be a “city killer” if it hits a heavily populated area of our planet in the early years of the next decade.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4985/1
75) Russian and Chinese development of radiofrequency directed energy weapons (RF DEW) for counterspace
by Markos Trichas and Matthew Mowthorpe Monday, May 12, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4986a.jpg)
The Numizmat satellite launched by Russia in 2022 includes a UWB and HPM payloads[4]
High-power microwave weapons deployed in space have been under research and development by both Russia and China for the last three decades. Their devastating potential has perhaps not received as much attention as other ASAT capabilities that, in our assessment, are further behind in development. This is despite the launch by Russian of the Numizmat satellite, which is considered to be a possible developmental radiofrequency directed energy weapon.[1]
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4986/1
76) Budget cuts and the fraying of international partnerships
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 12, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4987a.jpg)
The White House's 2026 budget proposal would cancel the lunar Gateway, a NASA-led program with contributions from Canada, Europe, Japan and the UAE. (credit: NASA)
Even if you know the axe is falling, it doesn’t make it any less painful.
It was clear for weeks that the White House would propose major cuts to NASA in its fiscal year 2026 budget request. The leak of the near-final “passback” budget from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in April revealed plans to cut NASA’s science funding by nearly 50%, cancelling several major missions (see “All of the above, or none?”, The Space Review, April 14, 2025). Even before that, it appeared likely that some parts of Artemis, like the Space Launch System and lunar Gateway, would also be threatened, perhaps as part of a promised redirection of human spaceflight from the Moon to Mars.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4987/1
19/V 2025 [77-80]
77) Opportunities for New Zealand as geopolitics reshapes the space economy
by Peter Zámborský, Christian Dietrich, and Denis Odlin Monday, May 19, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4988a.jpg)
New Zealand’s space industry is most closely associated with Rocket Lab, but the country is looking for ways to grow its industry. (credit: Rocket Lab)
The space economy is being reshaped—not just by innovation, but by geopolitics. What was once dominated by state space agencies, and more recently by private ventures, is evolving into a hybrid model in which government priorities and commercial capabilities are intertwined.
The rise of protectionist policies, tariff wars, export controls and national security concerns is forcing space firms to adapt their strategies—and, in many cases, to rethink where and how they operate.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4988/1
78) Space mining: corporate autocracy or global solidarity?
by Nikola Schmidt and Martin Švec Monday, May 19, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4074a.jpg)
Developing international mechanisms governing space mining could prevent a single country or company from amassing too much power in space. (credit: ESA)
This text was originally written in the Czech language as a policy paper at the Institute of International Relations in Prague and has been slightly adapted for a broader global audience.
As a result of rapid advances in space technologies and improved understanding of the composition of celestial bodies, the mining of mineral resources in outer space has increasingly become a topic of discussion at international forums. In particular, the growing commercial opportunities in space related to the utilization of space resources have led to reflections on the urgent need to resolve the legal uncertainty surrounding the legality and conditions under which mineral resources in outer space may be exploited. The current debate on the future regulatory regime for space mining primarily revolves around two opposing principles: the “first-come-first-served” approach and the concept of the “common heritage of mankind,” which emphasizes the shared benefit of all states regardless of their level of economic development, or indeed the benefit of humanity as a whole.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4989/1
79) An asteroid’s threatened impact may still impact planetary defense
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 19, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4990a.jpg)
NASA’s NEO Surveyor mission is set to launch as soon as the fall of 2027 to search for near Earth asteroids. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
It says something about the state of the world that, for a brief time earlier this year, the prospect of death from the skies was a welcomed distraction. In January, observations of the near Earth asteroid 2024 YR4, discovered near the end of last year, showed a small chance that it would hit the Earth in December 2032. Such odds are not that uncommon for near Earth objects, or NEOs, that have just been discovered and with limited data that can be used to project an orbit. Usually, within a few days the odds fall to zero as the orbit is refined.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4990/1
80) Spinning in the black: The Satellite Data System and real-time reconnaissance
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, May 19, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4991a.jpg)
Launch of the first Satellite Data System satellite in 1976 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. These satellites served as relays for reconnaissance satellites flying over the Soviet Union, beaming their signals directly back to a ground station outside Washington, DC. (credit: Peter Hunter Collection)
Next year marks the 50th anniversary of the launch of one of the most secretive communications satellites ever built, a satellite that received images from a reconnaissance satellite transmitted at a frequency that could not be detected from the ground, and then beamed them down to a ground station located outside of Washington, DC. Although many details of the satellite system remain secret to this day, enough is known about it to indicate that it was highly unusual, both in its design and the way it was developed.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4991/1
Note: Because of the Memorial Day holiday, next week’s issue will be published on Tuesday, May 27.
20/V 2025 [81-84]
81) Review: From the Laboratory to the Moon
by Jeff Foust Tuesday, May 27, 2025
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From the Laboratory to the Moon: The Quiet Genius of George R. Carruthers
by David H. DeVorkin
The MIT Press, 2025
paperback, 456 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-262-55139-7
US$75.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/026255139X/spaceviews
Some time this fall, a Falcon 9 will launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center carrying three heliophysics spacecraft for NASA and NOAA. Among the satellites on that shared launch is a spacecraft that will observe the Earth at ultraviolet wavelengths looking for emissions from the “geocorona,” a part of the upper atmosphere, to study how space weather interacts with it. The spacecraft was originally known as the Global Lyman-alpha Imager of the Dynamic Exosphere, or GLIDE, but in December 2022 NASA formally renamed it as the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4992/1
82) Raiders of the Lost Venus Probe: a post-mortem of an interesting reentry and the confusion it left
by Marco Langbroek and Dominic Dirkx Tuesday, May 27, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4384a.jpg)
A museum replica of the Venera 8 descent craft that reentered earlier this month. (credit: NASA)
It caused an unexpected media storm in the first week of May 2025: the uncontrolled reentry, on May 10, of the 53-year-old lander module of a failed Soviet Venera mission from 1972. Called the Kosmos 482 Descent Craft (COSPAR designation 1972-023E, SSC catalogue number 6073), it was the subject of an earlier article one of us wrote here (see “Kosmos 482: questions around a failed Venera lander from 1972 still orbiting Earth (but not for long)”, The Space Review , May 16, 2022). The lander, which was supposed to go to Venus but got stuck in Earth orbit, was designed to survive reentry through the Venus atmosphere. Thus, it is therefore very likely that it survived reentry through Earth’s atmosphere intact, before impacting at an estimated speed of 65 to 70 meter per second after atmospheric deceleration. Not your standard reentry!
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4993/1
83) The origins and evolution of the Defense Support Program (part 3): The hangar queens and DSP-1
by Dwayne A. Day Tuesday, May 27, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4994a.jpg)
The Defense Support Program infrared missile warning satellites were designed to detect the heat of ballistic missile launches. The first satellite was launched in 1971, and several remain in operation today. Over the decades they were modified and adapted to detect a wider range of thermal targets. Here a DSP satellite is carried in the Space Shuttle payload bay during the 1991 mission of STS-44. (credit: NASA)
The Defense Support Program (DSP) satellites had entered development in the mid-1960s with the primary goal of detecting Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) launched from fixed silos in the Soviet Union, and a secondary goal of detecting atmospheric nuclear explosions based on the flash they made in the atmosphere. The satellites were large cylinders with an off-axis infrared telescope pointed out of their top: as the satellite spun at six rotations per minute, the telescope would sweep the face of the Earth, detecting heat sources. As the heat source moved, the data could be processed to reveal launch site, trajectory, velocity, and other information. By the 1980s, DSP’s capabilities were expanding even more, both in space and on the ground.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4994/1
W rosyjskim programie kosmicznym bez zmian, czyli zmagania z uciekającą nowoczesnością, ale...
84) The more things change…
by Bill Barry Tuesday, May 27, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4995a.jpg)
Yuri Borisov, former head of Roscosmos (Source: Kremlin.ru)
With everything else going on recently, you may have missed what has been happening in the Russian space program since the start of 2025. There have been substantial changes beginning in February which will impact US-Russian space relations. The first public evidence of the internal upheaval was when Yuri Ivanovich Borisov, head of Roscosmos since 2022, was suddenly replaced by Dmitry Vladimirovich Bakanov on February 6. Reports in the Russian space press suggest that this change in leadership came as a complete surprise to those in the industry. The Kremlin simply announced on social media that morning that Borisov had been relieved of his duties. When pressed on the issue later that day, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Sergeyevich Peskov said that there were no complaints about Borisov’s work. Peskov characterized the change as simply a regular staff “rotation.”[1] While Borisov was generally considered a steady and effective leader, especially after the antics of his mercurial predecessor Dmitry Rogozin, his tenure was plagued by continuing problems. (...)
The day before the launch of Soyuz MS-27, the new head of Roscosmos met with NASA Associate Administrator Ken Bowersox at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Bowersox was the senior NASA official at the launch. As has generally been the case since 2022, NASA press reports made no mention of the meeting with the head of Roscosmos. However, numerous Russian press sources covered the meeting. According to the Russian reports, Bowersox and Bakanov discussed cooperation on the ISS, launches from the Baiterek facility under construction at Baikonur, and “plans to commemorate the upcoming Soyuz-Apollo anniversary.”[27] In early May, Roscosmos Director General Bakanov announced that “…we’ll be speaking with [NASA Administrator nominee] Jared Isaacman soon.”[28]
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4995/1
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21/VI 2025 [85-88]
85) A new model helps to figure out which distant planets may host life
by Daniel Apai Monday, June 2, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4996a.jpg)
Future telescopes, like the proposed Nautilus, could help search the skies for habitable planets. (credit: Katie Yung, Daniel Apai /University of Arizona and AllThingsSpace /SketchFab)
The search for life beyond Earth is a key driver of modern astronomy and planetary science. The US is building multiple major telescopes and planetary probes to advance this search.
However, the signs of life—called biosignatures—that scientists may find will likely be difficult to interpret. Figuring out where exactly to look also remains challenging.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4996/1
86) What future for SpaceX?
by Claude Lafleur Monday, June 2, 2025
Is Elon Musk’s company as promising as it seems?
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4997a.jpg)
A Falcon 9 lifts off May 30 from Cape Canaveral carrying a GPS 3 satellite. (credit: SpaceX)
The least we can say is that in less than ten years, SpaceX, founded in 2002 by Elon Musk, has transformed the space domain. It now dominates space activities worldwide.
By the numbers
Over the past ten years, SpaceX has sent into space nearly three-quarters of all spacecraft launched worldwide (Table 1), while nearly a third of all rockets launched have been its own (Table 2). Since 2020, SpaceX has carried out the majority of launches, now sending more than 80% of all spacecraft.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4997/1
87) The origins and evolution of the Defense Support Program (part 4): DSP forever?
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, June 2, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4998a.jpg)
The Defense Support Program missile warning satellites first started operating in 1971. They were equipped with an infrared telescope that scanned the Earth as the satellite spun in geosynchronous orbit. Several are still operational today, over two decades since the last launch. (credit: Northrop Grumman)
The first Defense Support Program satellite was launched in 1971, followed by 17 more during the next two and a half decades. They provided the United States with a key component of its missile warning system, and each of the satellites added capabilities and had increased lifetimes. The ground systems had also evolved to the point where the satellites could send data to mobile ground stations to provide localized warning of missile attack. The satellite mission had grown beyond simply providing warning of strategic missile attack to become part of various tactical missile defense systems. They also provided intelligence around the world, detecting explosions, fires, and other thermal events. But after two decades, the technology at the heart of DSP was no longer cutting edge.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4998/1
88) NASA’s future in the balance
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 2, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4999a.jpg)
Jared Isaacman was days away from being confirmed as NASA administrator, and taking on the largest budget cuts in the agency’s history, when the White House pulled his nomination May 31. (credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
At the end of last week, the space community was gearing up for more bad news. While there was no formal announcement, NASA was widely expected to release more details about its fiscal year 2026 budget proposal. The White House had released top-level details in a “skinny” budget released in early May (see “Budget cuts and the fraying of international partnerships”, The Space Review, May 12, 2025), but NASA would go into details about how the cuts in the skinny budget would be implemented: which missions and programs would be cancelled or scaled back, and which few lucky ones would be increased.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4999/1
22/VI 2025 [89-92]
89) Review: Out of This World and Into the Next
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 9, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5000a.jpg)
Out of This World and Into the Next: A Physicist’s Guide to Space Exploration
by Adriana Marais
Pegasus Books, 2025
hardcover, 368 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-63936-881-5
US$29.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1639368817/spaceviews
One of the few growth areas in NASA’s fiscal year 2026 detailed budget proposal, released May 30, was in Mars exploration. While NASA’s overall spending was cut by nearly 25%, and science and space technology were cut by about 50%, the budget includes new lines for a Commercial Moon to Mars (M2M) Infrastructure and Transportation Program and a promise of more than a $1 billion devoted to human Mars exploration, from work on Mars-specific spacesuits to robotic precursor missions (see “NASA’s future in the balance”, The Space Review, June 2, 2025).
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5000/1
90) Space-based solar power: A new frontier in US energy security
by David Steitz and Sowmya Venkatesh Monday, June 9, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5001a.jpg)
As other countries study space-based solar power, advocates of the technology want the United States to step up its efforts. (credit: ESA)
Space-based solar power (SBSP) represents a crucial component for meeting tomorrow’s global energy needs. At a congressional staff briefing in Washington last fall hosted by the Space Frontier Foundation, experts warned that the United States risks falling behind China in this emerging technology while highlighting how SBSP could revolutionize energy production.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5001/1
91) Starship setbacks and strategies
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 9, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5002a.jpg)
SpaceX’s Starship/Super Heavy lifts off May 27 on its ninth test flight. (credit: SpaceX)
It takes a lot to overshadow a Starship launch, but Washington managed to accomplish that at the end of May. The release of the detailed fiscal year 2026 budget proposal for NASA, enumerating cancelled and curtailed missions, followed 24 hours later by the surprise withdrawal by the White House of Jared Isaacman’s nomination to be NASA administrator, were all that people in the space industry were talking about a week ago (see “NASA’s future in the balance”, The Space Review, June 2, 2025).
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5002/1
92) The long road to near-real-time satellite reconnaissance: a chronology
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, June 9, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5003a.jpg)
Russian strategic bombers destroyed by Ukrainian drones. This image was taken by a Maxar commercial imagery satellite and transmitted to the ground soon after. This capability was first developed by the United States National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) in the 1970s. (credit: Maxar)
In late 1976, the United States Air Force launched a revolutionary top secret satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base. Known as the KH-11 KENNEN and managed by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), it was the first near-real-time reconnaissance satellite capable of transmitting imagery from around the globe nearly instantaneously. Up to this time, American reconnaissance satellites used film to take their photographs, meaning that it could be days to weeks from when an image was taken to when it was seen by intelligence analysts in Washington.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5003/1
23/VI 2025 [93-96]
93) Developing and testing China’s Guowang constellation
by Greg Gillinger Monday, June 16, 2025
(http://A Long March 5B launches a set of Guowang satelites. (credit: Xinhua))
A Long March 5B launches a set of Guowang satelites. (credit: Xinhua)
One of China’s top priorities is the fielding of its state sponsored Guowang Proliferated Low Earth Orbit (pLEO)
constellation. Since December 2024, China has conducted four launches carrying a combined 34 operational Guowang satellites. We know very little about the capabilities of these satellites, however China has released some information on the constellation’s architecture. According to Chinese news sources, Guowang plans to launch a total of 12,992 satellites. Of those, 6,080 will be in an extremely low orbit of 500 to 600 kilometers while the other 6,912 satellites will orbit at 1,145 kilometers.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5004/1
94) The NASA Foundation: A method for privately funding NASA science
by Thomas L. Matula Monday, June 16, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4930a.jpg)
A “NASA Foundation” modeled on the National Park Foundation could allow the public to fill gaps in the NASA budget, like for the Roman Space Telescope. (credit: NASA/Chris Gunn)
Recently Jared Isaacman posted on X that, if he had become NASA administrator, he would have made up the shortfall in funding for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope by personally funding its launch. It is a sentiment that is likely shared by many space advocates who wish there was an option to keep a program going by donating money to NASA to support it. This raises a question: why isn’t there a mechanism that would allow the public to contribute money to NASA? Although numerous organizations exist that are focused on lobbying Congress for a larger NASA budget while building public support for greater NASA funding, there are none that allow individuals to contribute money to fund NASA programs.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5005/1
95) How NASA’s proposed budget cuts are felt across the Atlantic
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 16, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5006a.jpg)
A proposal to end Orion after Artemis 3 is causing ESA and European industry to study alternative uses of the Orion service module it currently provides. (credit: NASA/ESA/ATG Medialab)
The focus of the discussion about the 2026 NASA budget proposal has primarily been the effect of the request on the agency itself. The proposal, if enacted, would cancel dozens of missions and programs and lay off thousands of employees, radically reshaping NASA.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5006/1
Teraz piłka jest po stronie Kongresu
96) NASA’s 2026 budget in brief: Unprecedented, unstrategic, and wasteful
by Casey Dreier and Jack Kiraly Monday, June 16, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4769a.jpg)
The Chandra X-Ray Observatory is one of dozens of missions threatened by the administration’s fiscal year 2026 budget proposal for NASA. (credit: NASA)
The full details of the President’s fiscal year (FY) 2026 budget request for NASA were released in the late afternoon on Friday, May 30. To date, NASA has held no press conferences or public briefings regarding the dramatic changes included in the budget request. There have been a limited number of perfunctory briefings to congressional committees and industry stakeholders, apparently with little detail beyond what has already been released publicly.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5007/1
24/VI 2025 [97-100]
97) Commercializing India’s SSLV rocket
by Ajey Lele Monday, June 23, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4435a.jpg)
India’s Small Satellite Launch Vehicle lifts off on its inaugural, but unsuccessful, first launch in 2022. (credit: ISRO)
Since its inception in the early 1970s, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has recognized that, for any independent space agency aspiring to develop indigenous capabilities in rocket launching and satellite building, the most critical area of investment is the launch vehicle sector. India became a spacefaring nation on July 18, 1980, when its Satellite Launch Vehicle 3 (SLV-3) successfully placed the Rohini satellite into orbit. Since then, India has designed and developed various categories of launch vehicles to place satellites into different orbits. In recent years, India developed the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV), and very recently, ISRO identified an agency for the technology transfer of this vehicle. This marks an important step toward India realizing its vision of space commercialization.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5008/1
98) Intellectual property challenges in the space economy
by Phil Merchant Monday, June 23, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5009a.jpg)
Space technologies have long been patented, but how can those patents be protected when the technologies in space? (credit: USPTO)
Across the upstream and the downstream in the space industry, patentable technologies are being developed, and companies of all sizes are seeking to secure patent protection for their inventions. Patents are being granted for novel thruster designs, software algorithms for space debris mitigation, spacecraft launch systems, AI technologies for satellite image processing, and many other innovations.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5009/1
99) Strategies for lunar development
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 23, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5010a.jpg)
How should lunar infrastructure be established, and what would it be used for? (credit: ESA/P. Carril)
For advocates of lunar development, these are uncertain times. NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration campaign, which had seemed like a foundation on which a sustained lunar presence for research and commercial activities, is at an inflection point as the White House proposes terminating many elements of the effort and turning them over to commercial capabilities in ways the agency has yet to define. The administration also now appears more focused on Mars (which may or may not survive Elon Musk’s departure from the administration’s good graces) with proposed major investments in Mars, potentially at the expense of a sustained presence at the Moon.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5010/1
100) Propelling and navigating South Korea’s space ambitions
by Jennifer Hong Whetsell and Seokjin Yun Monday, June 23, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5011a.jpg)
South Korea’s KSLV-II, or Nuri, rocket lifts off on its third flight in 2023. (credit: KARI)
As the global space economy enters a new era marked by both competition and collaboration, South Korea is emerging as a serious contender with ambitions to lead. Once constrained by Cold War-era missile restrictions and dependent on foreign partnerships, South Korea is now steadily building sovereign space capabilities as a core pillar of its national strategy. With the creation of the Korea Aerospace Administration (KASA) in 2024, Seoul is signaling a decisive shift toward integrating space into its broader goals for technological innovation, economic growth, and national security.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5011/1
25/VI 2025 [101-104]
101) Review: More Everything Forever
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 30, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5012a.jpg)
More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley’s Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity
by Adam Becker
Basic Books, 2025
hardcover, 384 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-5416-1959-3
US$32.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1541619595/spaceviews
Earlier this month the National Space Society held its annual International Space Development Conference (ISDC), sharing a sprawling Orlando hotel with an AMVETS meeting, a religious group, and the “Ms. Corporate America” contest. As in past years, ISDC had tracks for topics of long-running interest for space enthusiasts, from space solar power and space elevators to Moon and Mars exploration.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5012/1
102) Assigning an identification to a satellite, revisited
by Charles Phillips Monday, June 30, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4795g.jpg)
Launches of multiple payloads, like this Falcon 9 rideshare mission last year, share a characteristic that links those payloads together. (credit: SpaceX)
This is another article about a useful technique to analyze satellites’ orbits, a technique that should be used to avoid mistakes in tracking these satellites. I have written several articles about this technique but wanted to keep them short (see “Assigning an identification to a satellite”, The Space Review, May 20, 2024), but want to go back and add more details here.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5013/1
103) Taiwan’s satellites: A lawfare vulnerability and an option to cure and enhance deterrence against the PRC (part 1)
by Michael J. Listner Monday, June 30, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5014a.jpg)
Taiwan is building up its space capabilities, including the upcoming FORMOSAT-8 imaging satellites. (credit: TASA)
Taiwan continues to be at the crux of a geopolitical dance over its autonomy and promises by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) for reunification since the loss of its statehood.[1] The threat posed by the PRC to Taiwan takes place with the backdrop of diminishing support geopolitically as the PRC ratchets up a hybrid warfare campaign to pave the way for reunification. In the shadow of this looming threat, Taiwan seeks to bolster its autonomy politically and by augmenting its defense to deter an invasion while holding onto dwindling geopolitical support.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5014/1
104) Guardians on the West Coast: The Space and Missile Technology Center and Vandenberg museum
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, June 30, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5015a.jpg)
The Space and Missile Technology Center is located on the former Vandenberg base golf course, known as Marshallia Ranch. In addition to several museum buildings, there are plans for other uses of the site. (credit: D. Day)
On June 24, a new space and missiles museum opened in California. The Space and Missile Technology Center is located at Marshallia Ranch, on the former golf course of Vandenberg Air Force Base, now known as Vandenberg Space Force Base. The museum features exhibits, models, photographs, and artifacts about the history of Vandenberg, which was first established in the late 1950s as a missile test and rocket launch site, and in recent years has become much more active as SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets launch over the Pacific into high-inclination orbits.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5015/1
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26/VII 2025 [105-109]
105) Guardians on the West Coast: The Space and Missile Technology Center and Vandenberg museum (part 2)
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, July 7, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5016a.jpg)
The site of the new museum is the former Vandenberg Air Force Base golf course clubhouse. The building had been closed for many years, requiring the removal of dozens of dumpsters of overgrown scrub. (credit: D. Day)
On June 24, a new space and missiles museum opened in California. The Space and Missile Technology Center is located at Marshallia Ranch, on the former golf course of Vandenberg Air Force Base, now known as Vandenberg Space Force Base. The museum features exhibits, models, photographs, and artifacts about the history of Vandenberg. (See “Guardians on the West Coast – The Space and Missile Technology Center and Vandenberg museum,” The Space Review, June 30, 2025.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5016/1
106) The first Indian on the ISS
by Ajey Lele Monday, July 7, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5017a.jpg)
Shubhanshu Shukla photographing the Earth from the cupola on the ISS during the Ax-4 mission. (credit: Axiom Space)
On June 26, 2025, Indian astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla entered the International Space Station (ISS), becoming the first Indian to do so. He is part of a mission known as Ax-4, organized by Axiom Space, an American private space infrastructure company founded in 2016. Axiom Space has partnered with SpaceX to launch commercial astronauts to the ISS using the Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5017/1
107) The long recovery from a launcher crisis
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 7, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5018a.jpg)
An Ariane 6 lifts off on its second, and to date most recent, launch in March. (credit: ESA-CNES-ARIANESPACE-ArianeGroup/Optique vidéo du CSG - P PIRON)
A year ago, Europe appeared to have solved its “launcher crisis.” The first Ariane 6 lifted off from the European spaceport in French Guiana on a mostly successful test flight. The only glitch came at the end of the mission, when the upper stage failed to perform a final burn to deorbit, stranding it in orbit. Had that glitch occurred on an operational mission, it would not have prevented payloads from being deployed into their planned orbits.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5018/1
108) Taiwan’s satellites: A lawfare vulnerability and an option to cure and enhance deterrence against the PRC (part 2)
by Michael J. Listner Monday, July 7, 2025
Part 1 of this three-part series was published last week.
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5014a.jpg)
Taiwan is building up its space capabilities, including the upcoming FORMOSAT-8 imaging satellites. (credit: TASA)
Taiwan’s legal standing in international space law
The Republic of China played a role in the development of outer space law, specifically the OST, when it was recognized as a sovereign state and a member of the UN. Taiwan (then the Republic of China) signed the OST on January 27, 1967, and ratified the treaty on July 24, 1970.[1] The ROC was abrogated from the OST 15 months after UN Resolution 2758 was voted on, but Taiwan stated it would continue to hold itself legally bound by the OST and the US continued to regard Taiwan as being legally bound as well.[2]
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5019/1
109) It’s the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine): The persistence of the alien invasion film
by Dwayne Day Monday, July 7, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5020a.jpg)
Alien invasion movies and TV shows have long been part of American culture. They represent one way in which we grapple with the great unknown of the universe. (credit: 20th Century Fox)
A few days before July 4, a telescope detected a massive object heading from deep space into the inner solar system. That’s the start of the 1996 alien invasion flick Independence Day. It also happened last week, when the University of Hawaii’s NASA-funded ATLAS telescope in Chile detected an object, later classified as 3I/ATLAS, the “I” standing for “interstellar.” This was only the third time an interstellar comet has been detected passing through our solar system, after the much more famous and lyrical ’Oumuamua was discovered in 2017, and then 2I/Borisov in 2019. Better telescopes will certainly detect many more.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5020/1
27/VII 2025 [110-113]
110) Taiwan’s satellites: A lawfare vulnerability and an option to cure and enhance deterrence against the PRC (part 3)
by Michael J. Listner Monday, July 14, 2025
Part 2 of this three-part series was published last week.
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5014a.jpg)
Taiwan is building up its space capabilities, including the upcoming FORMOSAT-8 imaging satellites. (credit: TASA)
A lawfare strategy to protect Taiwan’s satellites
Freeing Taiwan’s satellites from the lawfare snare created by its legal status is not a quick fix and requires an audacious political strategy and the willingness by the US to engage in lawfare. The lawfare conundrum that Taiwan’s satellites are caught in can be liberated though a lawfare stratagem that involves a page taken from the pages of Operation Earnest Will.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5021/1
111) War in space is not a future problem: it’s happening now
by Christopher Stone Monday, July 14, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5022a.jpg)
Gen. Stephen N. Whiting, head of US Space Command, said at the Space Symposium conference in April that space was a “warfighting domain” and that the US needed to prepare accordingly. (credit: Space Foundation)
Space is not a place where war will happen in the future, it’s a place where war is happening now! Major powers now vie for dominance in this vital warfighting domain, with China and Russia actively challenging the United States’ long-standing leadership. Evidence suggests these nations are not merely testing space weapons but are actively engaged in a low-intensity warfighting campaign to undermine US and allied interests in orbit, while preparing for further, more destructive and aggressive actions in space.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5022/1
112) Superman and the Skylab rescue
by Dwayne Day Monday, July 14, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5023a.jpg)
In 1972, NASA began planning in case a crew became stranded at the Skylab space station. The plan was to use the next-in-line Saturn IB and Apollo Command and Service Module, equipped with extra seats, to launch two astronauts to rescue the three in orbit. A major aspect of the plan was to recover as much mission data as possible. (credit: NASA)
The 1969 movie Marooned is not one of Gene Hackman’s best roles. The story, adapted from a 1964 book by the prolific Martin Caidin, features an Apollo spacecraft that separates from its Skylab space station only to suffer an engine failure, stranding the astronauts in orbit, unable to return to Earth or their station. Hackman played an astronaut who took over after his commander committed suicide to save his crew. Although it was fictional, the concept was based in fact, and only three years later, in 1972, NASA studied what to do if astronauts became stranded in space at Skylab if their Command and Service Module (CSM) failed. NASA engineers assumed that the failure would happen while the spacecraft was still attached to Skylab, and the space station was equipped with a second docking port, allowing a rescue vehicle to arrive.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5023/1
113) A Japanese automaker’s small hop towards reusable rockets
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 14, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5024a.jpg)
A reusable launch vehicle demonstrator built by Honda on a June 17 test flight. (credit: Honda)
Last month, a small vehicle ignited a rocket engine and lifted off from a pad. Retracting its landing legs, it rose to an altitude of about 270 meters. It immediately started a controlled descent, extending four grid fins near the nose while deploying the landing legs again. Roughly a minute after liftoff, it landed back on the same pad. In one video, the vehicle disappears in a plume of vapor immediately upon landing, adding a bit of drama for several seconds until the plume disperses, showing the vehicle standing intact on the pad.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5024/1
28/VII 2025 [114-117]
114) Review: Cosmic Fragments
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 21, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5025a.jpg)
Cosmic Fragments: Dislocation and Discontent in the Global Space Age
by Asif A. Siddiqi (ed.)
University of Pittsburgh Press, 2025
hardcover, 416 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-8229-4843-8
US$65
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0822948435/spaceviews
The space community is often accused of talking amongst itself rather than reaching out to broader audiences, a criticism that is far from baseless. The industry has its own events and its own journals, conversing in a jargon that can be difficult for those outside the field to understand. There’s often discussion about public opinion and interest in such fora, but without the participation of the public.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5025/1
115) The National Cathedral Version of the Space Force Hymn: “Creator of the Universe”
by James F. Linzey Monday, July 21, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5026a.jpg)
The US Space Force has an official song, sene here performed in 2022, but also an unofficial hymn. (credit: US Air Force photo by Eric Dietrich)
In early 2020, I stepped into a dusty brick building in Coffeyville, Kansas—home to the Dalton Gang Museum, which I bought. Amid aging memorabilia stood an upright piano with cracked keys and faded varnish. Sitting before it, I searched for a melody that had been stirring in my spirit since I first heard the Trump administration propose the creation of a sixth armed service branch: the United States Space Force.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5026/1
116) Beams in the sky, part 1: the Grumman Beam Builder
by Dwayne Day Monday, July 21, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5027a.jpg)
Before the Space Shuttle began flying in 1981, there were numerous proposals for using it to construct large structures in space. NASA evaluated various technologies for manufacturing these structures, including proposed flight tests. Grumman Aerospace was one of the contractors that studied technology for building large, lightweight beams in space. (credit: Grumman Aerospace)
While NASA was racing to the Moon in the 1960s, some agency contractors were studying the assembly of large structures in space. Many concepts involved launching large, pre-built components on Saturn V or even bigger rockets like the Nova, and some envisioned connecting them in orbit to form multi-module space stations. But there were limits to these types of structures, and by the mid-1970s, as NASA and contractors undertook studies of solar power stations, communication platforms, and space manufacturing facilities, they began considering possible in-space manufacturing of structures.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5027/1
Projekt DRACO (Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations) został anulowany.
Miał on być demonstracją NTP (nuclear thermal propulsion).
117) Making a new case for space nuclear power
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 21, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4631a.jpg)
NASA and DARPA had selected Lockheed Martin and BWXT in 2023 to develop a nuclear thermal propulsion demonstration spacecraft for NASA/DARPA’s DRACO program, but DARPA recently pulled the plug on the effort. (credit: Lockheed Martin)
Like so many space projects, DRACO started with a bang but ended with a whimper. (....)
A DARPA official later said that several factors contributed to DRACO’s demise. Rob McHenry, deputy director of DARPA, said at a recent webinar by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies that the agency started DRACO before what he called a “precipitous decrease in launch costs” by SpaceX as well as a reevaluation of whether NTP was the best approach. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5028/1
29/VII 2025 [118-122]
118) Inspiring Star Trek and NASA
by Dwayne Day Monday, July 28, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5029a.jpg)
Inspired Enterprise: How NASA, the Smithsonian, and the Aerospace Community Helped Launch Star Trek
by Glen Swanson
Schiffer, 2025
hardcover, 288 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-7643-6936-0
US$35
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764369369/spaceviews
In spring 1967, only a short time after the devastating Apollo 1 fire, Leonard Nimoy, who played Mister Spock on Star Trek, visited NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland where he was greeted enthusiastically by NASA employees. Although demoralized over the tragic deaths of the astronauts, many at NASA were fans of Star Trek and thought of the Enterprise and its crew as the NASA of the future, a positive future of humans exploring the stars. This is one of the many connections that the show had to NASA at the time that is recounted in a new book by my friend Glen Swanson.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5029/1
119) Mission Gaganyaan: optimism and criticism
by Martand Jha Monday, July 28, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5030a.jpg)
Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla on the International Space Station during the recent Ax-4 mission. (credit: Axiom Space)
The Indian space program is over six decades old. It has seen many great chapters in its history. The one chapter it wants to add soon in that glorious history is India’s first human spaceflight mission. The chapter is currently being written with a lot of preparation and hope. Discussion about this mission started a decade ago, and gained strength by the year 2017–18. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced it to the world on India’s Independence Day on August 15, 2018, when he declared in his address to the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort that India would send its own human spaceflight mission exactly four years later. He told the audience present there and viewers across the globe that when India would celebrate its 75th Independence Day in 2022, that day would also mark the launch of Mission Gaganyaan.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5030/1
120) The value of space studies programs in higher education
by Nathan Tat and Vivian Tat Monday, July 28, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5031a.jpg)
While a few institutions , like the International Space University, focus on interdisciplinary education in space, there are opportunities for others to follow suit. (credit: ISU)
Countless individuals dream of majestic careers in space, striving for the stars and beyond. Humanity was awed when Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins made history with Apollo 11. Decades later, the space sector routinely propels rockets and their payloads past the Kármán line, launches astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), and explores the universe beyond with spacecraft. In this era of rapid advances, students and professionals often voice interest in joining this industry and yearn to explore pathways into this realm.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5031/1
121) Space traffic coordination’s threat of derailment
by Jeff Foust Monday, July 28, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4866a.jpg)
The Traffic Coordination System for Space, or TraCSS, is intended to ultimately take over civil space traffic coordination work from the Defense Department, if it retains its funding. (credit: Office of Space Commerce)
Debates about federal spending typically involve figures in the billions or even trillions of dollars. Take, as one recent example, the recent budget reconciliation bill that Congress passed early this month. Senators added nearly $10 billion for NASA human spaceflight programs, extending a lifeline to the Gateway and Space Launch System, among other efforts. That was such a small part of the overall bill—which the Congressional Budget Office projects to add $3.4 trillion to the national debt over the next decade—there was little public debate about its inclusion.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5032/1
122) Beams in the sky, part 2: General Dynamics, Grumman, and composite materials
by Dwayne Day Monday, July 28, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5033a.jpg)
In the late 1970s, General Dynamics conducted a detailed study of technology to manufacture beams made out of composite materials in space. Although the company did not build demonstration hardware, it did consider how the manufacturing would be tested using a Space Shuttle in low Earth orbit. (credit: General Dynamics)
Starting in the early 1970s, NASA and aerospace contractors undertook studies of space solar power satellites. The spacecraft would have to be huge, creating construction and logistical challenges unlike any ever faced during the early space age. The large structures would be composed of beams, and even though contractors like Boeing proposed very large rockets to carry construction materials into orbit, it seemed impractical to engineers at the time to carry prefabricated structures. They soon turned to in-space manufacturing, including machines that could create or assemble beam structures. This led to Grumman Aerospace proposing a beam builder using aluminum alloy beams. NASA funded Grumman’s initial work, including a ground test unit that would demonstrate automatic beam construction (see “Beams in the sky, part 1: the Grumman Beam Builder,” The Space Review, July 21, 2025.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5033/1
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30/VIII 2025 [123-127]
123) Commercial space at the National Air and Space Museum
by Jeff Foust Monday, August 4, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5034a.jpg)
The renovated Milestones of Flight Hall at the National Air and Space Museum features many of the same exhibits as before, but with a more spacious layout. (credit: J. Foust)
The National Air and Space Museum is in danger of losing its biggest space artifact. A provision of the budget reconciliation bill signed into law a month ago includes $85 million for NASA set aside for what it calls a “Space Vehicle Transfer.” The “space vehicle” in question, according to the bill, is one that that has flown in space with astronauts. The “transfer” is to a NASA center “involved with the administration of the Commercial Crew program” with the vehicle put on public display at an entity in the same metropolitan area as that center.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5034/1
124) Why science at NASA?
by Ajay Kothari Monday, August 4, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5035a.jpg)
Artist Impression of planet Proxima B orbiting the red dwarf Proxima Centauri. It is in its star’s “Goldilocks Zone”. (credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser; CC BY-SA 4.0)
One hopes that the Congressional restoration of a large chunk of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) budget will occur when all is said and done. But the attempt to cut NASA’s budget, especially that of SMD, has brought forth the importance of it, not just for the country or even humanity, but for life on Earth. This is not hyperbole: it is closer factually than would be apparent. This demands that we not stay just in the “rocket lane,” in NASA lane, but make a case to all humanity, at least to all Americans at this juncture, and make it as soon as possible so that SMD would not face the same fate again and again.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5035/1
125) A NASA-ISRO joint radar satellite finally launches
by Ajey Lele Monday, August 4, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5036a.jpg)
A GSLV Mark II rocket lifts off July 30 carrying the NISAR spacecraft. (credit: ISRO)
The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite was successfully launched by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) on July 30. The launch was carried by a vehicle ISRO’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark II (GSLV Mk II). This is a three-stage vehicle (with four strap-on boosters) with a last stage as a cryogenic upper stage, or CUS. The CUS is an indigenously developed stage that uses liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen as propellants to provide increased thrust and efficiency. This vehicle is capable of putting about 2,500 kilograms of payload into geostationary transfer orbit and around 5,000 kilograms to low Earth orbit. With this launch this vehicle has, for the first time, put a 2,392-kilogram satellite into a Sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 747 kilometers.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5036/1
126) Where is the dream?
by Dwayne Day Monday, August 4, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5038a.jpg)
The 2015 movie The Martian was praised by many for its allegedly realistic depiction of spaceflight. Despite its heroic story, the hero barely escapes death. Even highly regarded movies about space travel usually show it as dangerous and unpleasant. (credit: 20th Century Fox)
“Space may be the final frontier, but it's made in a Hollywood basement.” — “Californication”, Red Hot Chili Peppers
Why are people interested in space exploration and settlement even though movies and TV shows portray it so negatively? Can interest in spaceflight proliferate if the popular culture does not support it?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5038/1
127) “God is in control”: A field report from the Ark Encounter’s “Astronaut Encounter”
by Deana L. Weibel Monday, August 4, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5037a.jpg)
The Astronaut Encounter Q&A explored how science and scripture align, as framed by Answers in Genesis. (credit: D. Weibel)
Earlier this summer, three NASA astronauts addressed a crowd at the Ark Encounter, a theme park devoted to biblical literalism. This article analyzes the event and what it reveals about public distrust of science and scientific authority.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5037/1
Note: The Space Review will be on a reduced schedule in August, and will not publish an issue the week of August 11. The next issue will be Monday, August 18.
31/VIII 2025 [128-134]
128) A museum exhibition on Japanese spaceflight
by Jeff Foust Monday, August 18, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5039a.jpg)
Visitors explore the “Deep Space - To the Moon and Beyond” exhibition at Miraikan in Tokyo. (credit: J. Foust)
Museums offer a window into how societies recognize and assess spaceflight. For example, renovations at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum include new galleries where commercial space takes a more prominent role than before, with artifacts ranging from spacesuits to rocket engines (see “Commercial space at the National Air and Space Museum”, The Space Review, August 4, 2025). There is still plenty of NASA artifacts in the museum, but the update shows that the space agency is increasingly sharing the stage with other space players.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5039/1
129) Frank Strang and SaxaVord: Europe’s first fully licensed vertical launch site
by Steve Fawkes Monday, August 18, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5040a.jpg)
The site of SaxaVord Spaceport in the Shetland Islands. (credit: S. Fawkes)
Last week saw the sad news of the passing of a little-known but important space pioneer: Frank Strang, MBE. Frank was the founder and CEO of SaxaVord, the first fully licensed vertical spaceport in Europe. His energy, determination, and drive took the idea of a spaceport in the remote Shetland Islands from a crazy idea through to an operating facility which is scheduled to host its first orbital launch later this year. In the words of his friend and colleague Scott Hammond:
When we first identified the prospects for a spaceport at Lamba Ness in Unst, Frank would not take no for an answer and broke through barriers that would have deterred lesser people. He was a real force of nature, and his vision and his grit got us to where we are today, bringing the Unst and Shetland communities, investors, and government with us.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5040/1
130) In memoriam: R. Cargill Hall
by Dwayne Day Monday, August 18, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5041a.jpg)
R. Cargill Hall was a space historian and a key figure in writing the history of satellite reconnaissance. (credit: R. Cargill Hall)
Space historian R. Cargill Hall passed away on April 10, 2025, at the age of 88. Cargill was a space historian and a key figure in writing the history of satellite reconnaissance. In the 1960s, Cargill accepted a position with Lockheed Missile and Space Division in Sunnyvale, California. While working at Lockheed, Cargill attended California State University at San Jose, receiving an MA degree in 1966. He later went to work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5041/1
131) The new Italian law on the space economy: regulatory framework and incentives for businesses
by Italo de Feo, Annalisa Pistilli, and Pasquale Distefano Monday, August 18, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5042a.jpg)
The new Italian space law gives the Italian space agency ASI new responsibilities for overseeing national space activities. (credit: ASI)
For several years, the space economy has been one of the most promising strategic sectors for economic growth, technological innovation, and security. The drive towards the exploitation of Earth’s orbits and the commercial use of space technologies is part of a dynamic geopolitical and scientific context. In this context, Italy is positioning itself as a leading European player in the sector.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5042/1
132) The future of data storage? Look up
by Sebastien Jean Monday, August 18, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5043a.jpg)
The Lonestar Data Holdings data center (black box) mounted on the IM-2 lander before launch. (credit: Lonestar Data Holdings)
In March of this year, the world’s first hardware data center landed successfully on the Moon. The size of a shoebox, that one small bit of hardware represented a giant leap for the future of data storage and processing in space. And it was no publicity stunt. It was proof that off-world data storage is technically possible.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5043/1
133) The LEO toll road: How the constellation gold rush is paving over the path to the planets
by Vaibhav Chhimpa Monday, August 18, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5044a.jpg)
A Falcon 9 lifts off earlier this month carrying a set of Amazon Project Kuiper broadband satellites. (credit: SpaceX)
The dawn of the 21st-century space age is being widely celebrated as an era of unprecedented access and democratization. Driven by reusable rockets and the promise of global connectivity, a new generation of commercial titans is launching thousands of satellites into Low Earth Orbit (LEO), building vast megaconstellations that promise to reshape the global economy.[1] This LEO boom, championed by its architects as a venture to connect the unconnected and accelerate human progress, is presented as a net positive for all space endeavors.[3]
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5044/1
134) The commercial case for Mars
by Jeff Foust Monday, August 18, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5045a.jpg)
Blue Origin has proposed a Mars telecommunications orbiter based on its Blue Ring spacecraft, versions of which could also be used to transport payloads to Mars under commercial service agreements. (credit: Blue Origin)
On August 7, the Italian space agency ASI announced it had signed an agreement with SpaceX to send payloads to Mars on what it said would be the first Starship missions designed to transport commercial payloads to the planet. Those payloads would include a radiation sensor, plant growth experiment, and weather monitoring station.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5045/1
Note: The Space Review will be on a reduced schedule in August, and will not publish an issue the week of August 25. We will resume our normal weekly publication schedule on Tuesday, September 2.
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32/IX 2025 [135-139]
135) Review: The Space Launch System
by Jeff Foust Tuesday, September 2, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5046a.jpg)
The Space Launch System: NASA’s Heavy-Lift Rocket and the Artemis I Mission
by Anthony Young
Springer Praxis, 2025
paperback, 220 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-3-031-92654-9
US$32.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/3031926544/spaceviews
For a brief time this spring, it looked like the end was coming for the Space Launch System. The administration’s fiscal year 2026 budget proposal released in May called for ending both SLS and Orion after the Artemis 3 mission. The vehicles, the proposal stated, would be replaced with “more cost-effective commercial systems that would support more ambitious subsequent lunar missions.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5046/1
136) India unveils its space vision to 2040
by Ajey Lele Tuesday, September 2, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5047a.jpg)
India’s space plans include the Gaganyaan human spaceflight program. Here, a prototype capsule is prepared for a drop test. (credit: ISRO)
India became the fourth country to land on the Moon and the first to reach its south polar region on August 23, 2023, now celebrated as National Space Day. The second celebration was marked by the presence of Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, the second Indian in space and the first to visit the ISS during the Axiom-4 mission. This mission, launched on June 25, also enabled the Indian space agency ISRO to conduct microgravity experiments aboard the ISS.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5047/1
137) The intersection of cultural beliefs and mythos with non-governmental space activities and its potential impact to national interests and great power competition
by >Michael J. Listner Tuesday, September 2, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5048a.jpg)
Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander didn’t make it to the Moon, but it did trigger a debate on how cultural beliefs should be considered when reviewing lunar missions. (credit: Astrobotic)
The January 8, 2024, inaugural launch of the United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket marked not only the first flight of a new US launch vehicle but also the first attempt by the US in more than 50 years to soft-land a space vehicle on the lunar surface. This mission a milestone in terms of returning to the Moon as well as the first attempt by a US non-governmental to do so. Astrobotic Technology’s Peregrine lander was to be the first in a series of missions under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. Aside from its five payloads for NASA, the lander also carried cremated human remains for Celestis and Elysium Space, which are companies that provide memorial services by transporting human cremated remains into outer space.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5048/1
138) Flashpoint Cyprus 1974: Cold War satellite reconnaissance and peripheral wars
by Dwayne A. Day and Harry Stranger Tuesday, September 2, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5049a.jpg)
Turkish armed forces invaded Cyprus on the morning of July 20, 1974, landing at Kyrenia on the northern coast. Here multiple landing craft are visible unloading troops. (credit: Via Harry Stranger)
The politics of the Eastern Mediterranean are, to put it mildly, complex, and one of the key areas of dispute over millennia has been the island of Cyprus. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, located in the eastern Mediterranean 65 kilometers south of Turkey, 100 kilometers west of Syria, and 800 kilometers southeast of mainland Greece. The capital is Nicosia. An important British signals intelligence base and accompanying British forces are located there.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5049/1
Po 3. nieudanych lotach oraz zniszczeniu górnego stopnia Starshipa podczas przygotowań do statycznego testu nastąpił dłużej oczekiwany sukces.
Zostały osiągnięte wszystkie najważniejsze cele podczas prawie bezbłędnego testu suborbitalnego.
10 testowych lotów zostało wykonanych w okresie 20.04.2023-26.08.2025.
Kolejne etapy jednak ulegają opóźnieniu.
Ważnym krokiem będzie przetestowania autonomicznego transferu paliwa kriogenicznego między Starshipami.
Elon Musk widzi potrzebę udoskonalenie systemu tankowania na orbicie.
"No one has ever demonstrated [cryogenic] propellant transfer in orbit," he said. "This will be propellant transfer at very large scale. But with full reusability and propellant transfer, those are the key technologies needed for building a city on Mars. And I'm confident the SpaceX team will achieve these goals."
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/spacex-super-heavy-starship-test-flight-launch/
139) Back in the win column
by Jeff Foust Tuesday, September 2, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5050a.jpg)
SpaceX’s Starship performing a final burn before splashdown in the Indian Ocean on its August 26 flight. The discoloration is white insulation from deliberately removed tiles and oxidation from a metallic test tile. (credit: SpaceX)
SpaceX has had, in many respects, a remarkable year so far. The company has performed more than 100 launches of its Falcon 9 rocket, putting the company on a pace to end the year with at least 150 launches, well above a record set last year. The company has been the single biggest customer of those launches, putting more than 1,900 Starlink satellites into orbit that provide services to more than seven million customers worldwide. (...)
She didn’t indicate when NASA now expected that propellant transfer test to take place, but it is essential to later milestones, including an uncrewed test flight of the Starship lander, touching down on the Moon and then taking off again. Completing that mission will require multiple Starship “tanker” launches to fill the lander’s propellant tanks with liquid oxygen and methane: perhaps 15 to 20, some argue, although neither NASA nor SpaceX have provided an updated estimate. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5050/1
33/IX 2025 [140-145]
140) Review: Beyond Earth, The Soviet Drive Into Space
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, September 8, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5051a.jpg)
Beyond Earth, The Soviet Drive Into Space: Decoding their Satellite Launch Efforts, 1957-1975, A Very Personal View
by Saunders B. Kramer
Spacehistory101.com Press, 2025
paperback, 398 pp.
ISBN 978-1-887022-89-7
US$34.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1887022899/spaceviews
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union concealed much of its space program. Although the US government used various high-tech methods to collect information about Soviet missiles, rockets, and spacecraft, the general public was often in the dark. A small group of enterprising space sleuths, mostly located in the United Kingdom and the United States, sought to determine what the Soviets were up to. Jim Oberg was the most famous sleuth in the United States. In the UK, the self-described eccentrics of The Kettering Group achieved their own degree of fame, sometimes reporting on the launch of Soviet rockets before the Soviets did.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5051/1
141) The forms of space entrepreneurship
by Alexander William Salter Monday, September 8, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5050b.jpg)
Starship/Super Heavy takes off on its tenth test flight. (credit: SpaceX)
After several explosive setbacks, SpaceX’s next-generation rocket is back on track. The tenth test launch of Starship on August 26 accomplished all major objectives. Space exploration for fun and profit continues apace.
SpaceX is obviously important—the most important space business, in fact. It’s already lowered launch costs by a factor of ten from the Space Shuttle era, and Starship could do it again. But it’s hardly the only actor worth watching in the ongoing commercial space revolution. Although SpaceX’s executives (to say nothing of Elon Musk) have plenty of commercial savvy, its smaller, scrappier cousins often provide a clearer view of entrepreneurial forces at work.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5052/1
142) Go faster, somehow
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 8, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5053a.jpg)
Former NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine discussing his concerns about the Starship lunar lander for Artemis at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing September 3. (credit: Senate Commerce Committee webcast)
It was a blast from the past. On Wednesday, Jim Bridenstine returned to the same Senate room where, nearly eight years earlier, he testified in the confirmation hearing for his nomination to be NASA administrator. He would return several times through 2020 as NASA administrator to discuss and defend agency programs and budgets. He was back last week as a private citizen, but it was easy to flash back to those earlier times, right down to the placement of his signature drink—a bottle of Diet Mountain Dew—on the witness table.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5053/1
143) More than machines: When AI explores the stars without us
by Alex Li Monday, September 8, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5054a.jpg)
What is the role of astronauts in a future where artificial intelligence plays a greater role in space exploration? (credit: NASA)
Exploration is in our nature. We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still.
— Carl Sagan
When Carl Sagan spoke these words, he was addressing one of humanity’s deepest desires: our drive to know, to discover, to push the limits of our knowledge. But implicit in his invitation was a crucial assumption: that we, humans, would be the ones doing the exploration; that human consciousness would be the primary vessel through which the incredible cosmic expanse would be perceived and understood.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5054/1
144) Golden Dome dilemma: Diplomatic and military risks of space-based missile defense
by Carlos Alatorre Monday, September 8, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5055d.jpg)
One concept for the Golden Dome missile defense system with space-based elements. (credit: Redwire)
On January 27, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order authorizing the implementation of the Iron Dome for America, essentially a request for the Department of Defense (DOD) to develop a “reference architecture…for the next-generation missile defense shield.” Inspired by the eponymous Israeli missile defense system, the renamed “Golden Dome” project would provide a protective nationwide shield against ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missile attacks of conventional or nuclear warheads.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5055/1
145) Gemini’s wing and a prayer (part 1): Rogallo Wings, the Paresev, and crashes in the desert
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, September 8, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5056a.jpg)
In the early 1960s, NASA undertook an extensive flight research program to develop a land recovery system first for the Mercury and then the Gemini spacecraft. It used a design known as the Rogallo Wing, or paraglider. NASA conducted hundreds of test flights of both unmanned and piloted vehicles over several years. (credit: NASA)
In the early 1960s, NASA had an extensive flight test program to develop a land touchdown capability for the Gemini spacecraft. NASA and its contractors conducted hundreds of test flights, crashing both unmanned and piloted test vehicles. Several NASA test pilots were injured.[1]
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5056/1
34/IX 2025 [146-149]
146) Review: The Martians
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 15, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5057a.jpg)
The Martians: The True Story of an Alien Craze that Captured Turn-of-the-Century America
by David Baron
W.W. Norton, 2025
hardcover, 336 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-324-09066-3
US$29.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1324090669/spaceviews
Last week, NASA once again announced the discovery of life on Mars. Or, rather, potential evidence of past, primitive life on Mars. This possible biosignature was in the form of dark “leopard spots” seen in a rock by the Perseverance rover whose elemental compositions led scientists to conclude they contained two minerals that, on Earth, are created by microbes consuming organic matter.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5057/1
147) The greatest story on planet Mars: the sequel
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, September 15, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5058a.jpg)
News that scientists claimed to find evidence of past Martian life in a meteorite leaked out before NASA’s planned formal announcement. (credit: NASA)
On Wednesday, September 10, NASA held a press conference to announce that scientists had found evidence consistent with past life on Mars. If you’re old enough, you might have experienced a bit of déjà vu. In August 1996, President Bill Clinton held a press conference at the White House to announce that scientists had found evidence in a Mars meteorite consistent with past life on Mars. That suspected discovery had a profound impact on American space science policy. But the story had leaked to the press even before the White House announcement. Later that year, I published an article in the journal Quest about how the Mars news had become public. Thanks to former Quest editor Glen Swanson, I am republishing that 1996 article here. The story involves an intrepid reporter, a sleazy White House advisor, and a high-paid prostitute.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5058/1
148) Gemini’s wing and a prayer (part 2): Parachutes, paragliders, and more crashes in the desert
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, September 15, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5059a.jpg)
A March 1962 tow test of a wing configuration. Note that the struts along the side are inflated. (credit: NASA)
In the early 1960s, NASA was undertaking an extensive series of tests in the Mojave Desert to develop the capability to bring its new Gemini spacecraft to a gentle landing on the ground rather than at sea. In 1961 and 1962, test pilots and at least one astronaut began flying a flimsy-looking craft called the Paresev to evaluate a new type of wing—called a Rogallo Wing, or paraglider—that could be folded up inside a compartment on Gemini. It would then be deployed at high altitude to unfold and provide lift and controllability to enable Gemini to land on a dry lake bed. After the Paresev I was destroyed in a crash, NASA developed the Paresev I-A, which also occasionally crashed. At this time, NASA fully intended to land Gemini using the paraglider technology—if it could be made to work (see “Gemini’s wing and a prayer (part 1): Rogallo Wings, the Paresev, and crashes in the desert,” The Space Review, September 8, 2025.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5059/1
149) I’m a former astronaut: NASA workers are afraid, and safety is at risk
by Garrett Reisman Monday, September 15, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5060a.jpg)
Former astornaut Garrett Reisman at the Johnson Space Center (credit: the author)
Every year, former astronauts like me are invited back to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, to get a flight physical. NASA is still collecting data from us to better understand the long-term effects of human spaceflight. I look forward to this trip every year as an opportunity to enjoy the comradery of my former NASA colleagues and our shared optimism about our future in space.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5060/1
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35/IX 2025 [150-154]
150) Review: Rocket Dreams
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 22, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5061a.jpg)
Rocket Dreams: Musk, Bezos, and the Inside Story of the New, Trillion-Dollar Space Race
by Christian Davenport
Crowm Currency, 2025
hardcover, 384 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-593-59411-7
US$32.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0593594118/spaceviews
Last Friday, NASA announced a surprise: the VIPER lunar rover mission was being revived. More than a year ago, NASA said it had to cancel the mission because of cost and schedule overruns, even though the rover itself was nearly complete. That led to various efforts to explore commercial partnerships to take over the mission, but on Friday NASA was going back to its original approach to get VIPER to the Moon. This time, it awarded a task order through its Commercial Lunar Payload Services program to Blue Origin to take VIPER to the south polar region of the Moon in late 2027 on the company’s Blue Moon Mark 1 lander.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5061/1
151) For too long, colonial language has dominated space exploration. There is a better way.
by Art Cotterell and William Grant Monday, September 22, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5010a.jpg)
Is a “race” to go to the Moon and beyond the best perspective for space exploration? (credit: ESA/P. Carril)
At an internal staff briefing earlier this month, acting NASA administrator Sean Duffy declared the United States has a “manifest destiny to the stars”, linking this to the need to win the “space race.”
This rhetoric is not new: it directly echoes US President Donald Trump’s inaugural address from earlier this year. The phrasing invokes US nationalism that’s historically been used to justify colonial expansion and empire-building.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5062/1
152) Astroelectricity: America’s national energy security imperative
by Mike Snead Monday, September 22, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4481l.jpg)
Space-based solar power, or “astroelectricity,” may be the only renewable power option to meet American energy needs in the coming decades. (credit: ESA/Andreas Treuer)
In July, President Donald J. Trump announced a trade deal with the European Union (EU) in which they will purchase $750 billion of US energy resources over the next three years. At a price of $60 per barrel of oil, this would buy about 12.5 billion barrels of American oil. In terms of energy content, this would roughly equal one year’s worth of consumption of oil and natural gas used in America. With the presumption that this purchase will predominantly be oil and natural gas, it would substantially increase the demand on US oil and natural gas production—and this is without adding any other exports such as to Japan, South Korea, and China.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5063/1
153) Shhhhhh!!! Pay no attention to the Big Bird…
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, September 22, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5064a.jpg)
Cover of Aviation Week & Space Technology for October 9, 1972 with a photo of a HEXAGON reconnaissance satellite launch, which the magazine referred to as the "Big Bird." Reporter Phillip Klass was apparently the first to use this term in print, although it probably originated with somebody working at Vandenberg Air Force Base in 1971. (credit: Aviation Week)
In the first half of 1971, it was becoming clear that something big was about to happen at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Workers had prepared a launch pad for a new, larger rocket, the Titan IIID. This was to be the biggest, most powerful rocket ever launched from the West Coast, equipped with two solid rocket motors on its side. Previously, the Air Force had planned to launch the Titan IIIM with the Manned Orbiting Laboratory from Vandenberg. It would have been more powerful than the IIID, but it was canceled in 1969. There was no way to keep the large rocket secret—when it rose up over the low mountains, people in nearby Lompoc would see it, people to the south in Santa Barbara would see it, and people in much more populated Los Angeles would also probably see it.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5064/1
Pozostają do rozwiązania kwestie techniczne związane z umieszczeniem reaktora jądrowego na powierzchni Księżyca.
154) From advice to action on space nuclear power
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 22, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5065a.jpg)
A Lockheed Martin concept for a nuclear reactor on the Moon, a concept that has gained new life with an agency directive issued weeks after a recent report recommending rapid development of such systems. (credit: Lockheed Martin)
NASA gets no shortage of advice. These range from formal recommendations from advisory committees chartered by the agency to outside assessments tossed over the transom with little expectation of an acknowledgement, let alone a response.
But there are exceptions. This summer, a report commissioned by the Idaho National Lab (INL) recommended NASA take a new approach to developing space nuclear power systems. The US had not flown a space nuclear reactor in 60 years despite billions invested in various projects. The report offered two scenarios for developing nuclear power systems with the goal of an in-space demonstration by 2030 (see “Making a new case for space nuclear power”, The Space Review, July 21, 2025).
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5065/1
36/IX 2025 [155-159]
155) Last of the dinosaurs: Admiral Nakhimov sails again under satellite eyes
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, September 29, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5066a.jpg)
September 2025 Airbus satellite image of the nuclear-powered battlecruiser Admiral Nakhimov. Originally launched in the 1980s, the ship spent nearly 30 years in mothballs but has recently been upgraded. (credit: Airbus)
Recently, a commercial imagery satellite photographed the Russian nuclear-powered battlecruiser Admiral Nakhimov at pierside after undertaking new sea trials. The satellite imagery provides new details about the ship’s modernization after a very long and expensive refit period. It reveals the large number of missiles that the ship is now equipped to fire, making it, by some measures, the most powerful surface warship in the world. The ship first came to the attention of Western intelligence agencies in satellite photos taken more than 40 years ago, but then it posed a greater threat than it does today.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5066/1
156) NASA needs to qualify, not certify. commercial space stations
by Steve Hoeser Monday, September 29, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5067a.jpg)
Starlab is one of several commercial space stations in development for potential use by NASA. (credit: Starlab Space)
With the retirement and decommissioning of the International Space Station (ISS) just five years away, NASA—partnered with selected industrial partners—is entering the final stages of deploying fully commercial space stations. However, simply applying the programmatic approaches and practices from the previous Commercial Crew Program (CCP) overlooks both the dramatic advances in technology and the fact that the resulting products and services will be entirely owned and operated by private enterprises. Therefore, NASA must recalibrate its perspectives and business practices, recognizing that qualification, rather than certification, is the appropriate framework for determining the suitability of these commercial space stations for NASA’s use.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5067/1
157) The economic reality of lunar competition: beyond the space race rhetoric
by John P. Christie Monday, September 29, 2025
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The Orion spacecraft being prepared for Artemis 2. (credit: NASA/Glenn Benson )
NASA acting administrator Sean Duffy’s recent declaration that “we are going to beat the Chinese to the Moon” captures the political zeitgeist perfectly. But buried within his own remarks lies a more troubling economic reality: “At $4 billion a launch, it becomes very challenging to have a moon program”. This tension between political imperative and fiscal mathematics reveals a fundamental disconnect in how America approaches lunar competition—one that may ultimately undermine the very goals it seeks to achieve.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5068/1
158) The present and future of NASA human spaceflight
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 29, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5069a.jpg)
NASA’s newest astronaut class was introduced September 22 at the Johnson Space Center. (credit: NASA/Helen Arase Vargas)
Last week at the Johnson Space Center, the future was the opening act for the present.
On Monday, NASA announced its newest class of astronauts: ten men and women selected from a pool of 8,000 applicants, who will soon begin two years of training. They were, in some respects, like many previous astronaut classes: a group of pilots, doctors, engineers, and scientists who excelled in their fields.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5069/1
159) Gemini’s wing and a prayer (part 3): boilerplates and El Kabong
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, September 29, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5070a.jpg)
One of the Tow Test Vehicles during a flight test. The TTVs were towed behind ground vehicles and later aircraft to test the controllability of the Rogallo Wing. The tow line is barely visible at the front of the vehicle. NASA conducted many tests of different size vehicles and wings. (credit: NASA)
NASA officials had planned to incorporate the paraglider into early Gemini flights, but problems during testing had led to its first operational test being moved back to later flights. By late March 1963, the paraglider was rescheduled for the tenth Gemini mission, but program leaders thought that they still might make the seventh Gemini flight, then planned for October 1965. However, North American’s contract would run out in April 1963. (See “Gemini’s wing and a prayer (part 1): Rogallo Wings, the Paresev, and crashes in the desert,” The Space Review, September 8, 2025, and “(part 2): parachutes, paragliders, and more crashes in the desert,” The Space Review, September 15, 2025.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5070/1
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37/X 2025 [160-164]
160) So you want to go to Mars: Where do you start?
by Jonathan Coopersmith Monday, October 6, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5071a.jpg)
The Planning and Execution of Human Missions to the Moon and Mars
by Michelle Poliskie (ed.)
AIAA, 2023
694 pp.
ISBN 978-1-62410-653-8
US$144.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1624106536/spaceviews
Before embarking on a long trip to a new destination, experienced travelers plan their itinerary and, if seasoned enough, think about what might go wrong also (and, if old enough, take their paper maps, just in case.). Similarly, before you—either as an astronaut, supporting worker, or ordinary taxpayer—dedicate spending years and tens of billions of dollars to send astronauts, cosmonauts, taikonauts and gaganyatri (aka vyomanauts) to Mars, consider acquainting yourself with The Planning and Execution of Human Missions to the Moon and Mars.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5071/1
161) Gemini’s wing and a prayer: Postscript
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, October 6, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5072a.jpg)
A C-119J “Flying Boxcar” at Ellington Air Force Base in the 1960s. The C-119J was originally used to catch returning spacecraft reentry vehicles over the Pacific Ocean. In late 1961, the aircraft were transferred to Texas, where some of them were used for dropping Mercury and later Gemini boilerplate vehicles for parachute tests. (credit: NASA)
NASA’s effort to develop a land recovery system for the Gemini spacecraft in the early 1960s was an extensive program eventually involving hundreds of test flights and different variants of piloted and unpiloted vehicles.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5072/1
162) How China Is preparing to dominate the world
by Claude Lafleur Monday, October 6, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5073a.jpg)
Are we already at war with China? Some say yes. That’s why US Space Force officials talk about preparing for battles in orbit. But perhaps China is playing a subtler game. Not dogfights among satellites, but something more insidious: a trade war fought with irresistible technology. Services so abundant and sophisticated they could make resistance futile.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5073/1
163) Opening lines of communications for space safety
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 6, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5074a.jpg)
NASA acting administrator Sean Duffy (right) discusses the agency’s plans with International Astronautical Federation presdient Claw Mowry at the IAC September 29. (credit: J. Foust)
The International Astronautical Congress is billed as one of the largest global space conferences and an opportunity for countries to come together to discuss key space issues. And, during this year’s event in Sydney, there were such discussions. Host country Australia used the event to announce new partnerships and agreements with both the United States and Europe in space, while 39 of the 56 nations who have signed the Artemis Accords met to talk about implementing aspects of the agreement.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5074/1
164) Carriers—and battleships—from space (part 3): The Mighty O and the Mighty Mo
by Dwayne A. Day and Harry Stranger Monday, October 6, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5075b.jpg)
HEXAGON reconnaissance satellite image of Naval Air Station Alameda in July 1973 showing the aircraft carriers USS Oriskany, USS Ranger, and USS Enterprise. The U.S. Navy rapidly diminished in size during the 1970s. Oriskany was retired in 1976, but in 1980/81 there were proposals to reactivate the ship. (credit: Harry Stranger)
In summer 1980, an American reconnaissance satellite flew over the Soviet Union’s Severodvinsk shipyard and for the first time photographed a new, large nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine, eventually designated the Oscar I, and a massive nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine designated the Typhoon.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5075/1
38/X 2025 [165-169]
165) Review: Reinventing SETI
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 13, 2025
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Reinventing SETI: New Directions in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
by John Gertz
Oxford University Press, 2025
hardcover, 240 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-19-780041-6
US$34.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0197800416/spaceviews
Earlier this month, the interstellar object designated 3I/ATLAS passed close enough to Mars—about 30 million kilometers—that spacecraft orbiting Mars turned their cameras towards the object. An initial analysis released by ESA last week confirmed that an instrument on its ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter imaged the object, detecting a coma expected as the icy object outgassed. (NASA has not released any information about observations by its spacecraft because of the ongoing government shutdown.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5076/1
166) The other space race: why the world is obsessed with sending objects into orbit
by Tony Milligan Monday, October 13, 2025
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SpaceX launched a Tesla Roadster on the first Falcon Heavy launch, but it’s hrady the only unusual object sent into space in recent years. (credit: SpaceX)
Beyond the race for scientific, commercial and military purposes, there is another space race of a more curious sort. A race to be the first to send various objects up there. But why?
In December 2024, Buddhist monks from Japan attempted unsuccessfully to send a small temple on board a satellite into orbit. The Kairos rocket did make it more than 110 kilometers from Earth, making it the first time the Dainichi Nyorai (the Buddha of the Cosmos) and the mandala were transported into outer space. The monks hope to try again in the future.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5077/1
167) The Golden Dome framework for rethinking the triad
by Justin Fu Monday, October 13, 2025
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The Golden Dome missile defense system could offer an opportunity to rethink how to maintain a nuclear deterrent. (credit: Lockheed Martin)
The dogma of the nuclear triad has given Americans a false and incredibly expensive sense of security since the end of the Cold War. Yet, the 2022 Nuclear Posture Review[1] recommended fully funding modernization and platform replacement programs for all three legs—sea, air, and land—involving intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), nuclear-capable strategic bombers, and submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs).
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5078/1
168) This spacecraft will self-destruct in 5, 4, 3, 2…
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, October 13, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5079a.jpg)
In 1972, pieces of a top secret GAMBIT reconnaissance satellite similar to the ones being assembled here at Eastman-Kodak in Rochester, fell in England. They were retrieved and taken back to the United States. (credit: NRO)
In July 1959, one of the key figures in the establishment of the CORONA reconnaissance satellite program, CIA Deputy Director for Plans Richard M. Bissell, Jr., wrote a memo to Roy Johnson, Director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency, about putting self-destruct devices on satellite reentry vehicles that returned top secret film from orbit. Bissell was replying to Johnson about the need for security in case the vehicle fell into the wrong hands. Bissell explained that CORONA contractor Lockheed had prepared estimates and designs for a destruct system. He wrote that they would soon have the results of Lockheed’s work, particularly how much it would weigh—a critical factor given how little mass margin was left on the vehicle.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5079/1
Start ze Starbase do lotu testowego IFT-11 RN Super Heavy/Starship (B15.2/S38) nastąpił 13.10.2025 o 23:23:45 UTC i był ostatnim z tej wyrzutni.
Był to również piąty i ostatni start wersji "Block 2".
Podczas startu 1 silnik Raptor w B15.2 nie zadziałał przy ponownym uruchomieniu.
Zadziałał on jednak przed fazą "wodowania".
Zostało uwolnionych 8 symulatorów Starlink V3 z ładowni Starshipa, które nie weszły na orbitę i spłonęły w atmosferze.
Został zademonstrowany ponowny zapłon silnika Raptor w przestrzeni kosmicznej.
Wykonano manewr nazwany dynamicznym manewrem przechylenia (belly flop maneuver), który ma naśladować trajektorię, po której będą wracać Starshipy do Starbase, by ustawić się w odpowiednio z wieżą w celu przechwycenia.
Będzie to jedno z priorytetowych zadań następnego etapu testowania Starshipa zaplanowanego na 2026 rok.
Około 66 minut po starcie doszło do zaplanowanej próby wodowania na Oceanie Indyjskim po pokonaniu ok. 3/4 trajektorii wokół Ziemi.
S38 osiągnął ha=192 km.
Następny rok może przynieść kolejne przełomowe osiągnięcia rozwojowe Starshipa.
Starship w wersji 3 zostanie wystrzelony z nowej wyrzutni w Starbase.
Data startu nie została ogłoszona.
169) Promising to be a good neighbor (https://www.forum.kosmonauta.net/index.php?topic=6641.msg202128#msg202128)
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 13, 2025
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Starship lifts off from Texas October 13 on its 11th test flight. (credit: SpaceX)
On Monday night, Starship lifted off from Starbase, Texas, on its 11th test flight. Like the previous flight—and, notably, unlike the three before that—all appeared to go well. Both the Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage completed all their planned tests, many similar to those conducted on Flight 10 in late August. The flight ended with a “soft splashdown”, followed by a deliberate explosion, of Starship in the Indian Ocean about 66 minutes after liftoff.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5080/1
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39/X 2025 [170-174]
170) India’s challenge: building a ready-to-launch space security system
by Payal Hora Monday, October 20, 2025
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India’s Small Satellite Launch Vehicle lifts off on its inaugural, but unsuccessful, first launch in 2022. (credit: ISRO)
“He who is vigilant and swift does not perish.” — Mahabharata (Vidura Neeti)
India has delivered high‑profile space missions and low-cost launch capabilities that draw global attention. Yet a vital operational gap persists: India cannot presently prepare and launch replacement or mission-specific satellites at short notice. That gap limits India’s ability to respond to sudden security or humanitarian requirements.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5081/1
171) Unleashing hell: the R-16 ICBM
by Dwayne A. Day and Harry Stranger Monday, October 20, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5082a.jpg)
In early 1966, a GAMBIT reconnaissance satellite took excellent quality photos of Soviet SS-7/R-16 ICBMs outside their horizontal hangar. The missiles did not have warheads attached, but the photos enabled accurate measurements of the missiles. The R-16 was the first practical Soviet ICBM, and approximately 200 were in service by this time. (credit: Harry Stranger)
In early 1966, an American reconnaissance satellite overflew the Soviet Union and hit the jackpot: during several passes over the Yurya ICBM complex, it captured Soviet SS-7 ICBMs sitting outside, apparently being transported to or from their launch pads. In a summary report, a photo-interpreter described the imagery as “excellent quality.” The photographs enabled experts to accurately measure the ICBMs.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5082/1
172) New Zealand looks for its place in the global space industry
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 20, 2025
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Dawn Aerospace brought its Aurora spaceplane to the exhibit hall at the conference. (credit: J. Foust)
The protestors were no match for breakdancing stormtroopers.
In the days leading up to the New Zealand Aerospace Summit earlier this month, signs appeared on walls in downtown Christchurch. “No War Profiteers in Aotearoa!” they declared, using the Māori name for New Zealand. “Blockade the National Aerospace Summit”.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5083/1
173) EUROSPACE and the European spaceplane (part 1)
by Hans Dolfing Monday, October 20, 2025
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Figure 1. Brochure from “Le Bourget”, Paris, France, 1965, with the French-German “Le Mistral” concept.
In 1964, when Frank Sinatra sang “Fly Me to the Moon,” he was not entirely sure whether he wanted to ride a rocket or a spaceplane but it was clear was that he counted on a first-class ticket. The dream to fly into space on an airplane is old. In the last 100 years, the most well-known concepts include Eugen Sänger’s 1933 “Amerika-Bomber” and later “Silbervogel” followed by many similar concepts from the 1950s and later. [17, 34]
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5084/1
Przegląd historycznych opracowań załogowych misji na Marsa.
Dla "Deep Space Habitat" potrzebna była rakieta zdolna do wyniesienia na LEO ładunku o masie co najmniej 75 ton.
Do rozpoczęcia pierwszej ekspedycji potrzebne byłyby 24 starty RN i 20 startów wahadłowców (miały być wykorzystywane do niektórych zadań związanych z montażem na orbicie).
Interesującą propozycją był pomysł „Mars Direct” Roberta Zubrina.
Dzisiaj w obliczu problemów z pracami nad mniej złożonymi projektami (MSR), kolejne podobne koncepcje mogą pozostać na dłużej przedmiotem jedynie dyskusji.
174) Spinning, spinning, spinning to Mars
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, October 20, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5085a.jpg)
In 1984, a workshop at The Case for Mars II conference produced a proposal for a human mission to Mars that would use Mars resources and lead to a permanent presence on the red planet. Artist Carter Emmart illustrated the various phases of the mission and his illustrations appeared in numerous publications over the years. (credit: Carter Emmart)
In 1984, a group of scientists, engineers, and graduate students meeting in Colorado for a conference and led by a core group of enthusiasts who a journalist nicknamed the “Mars Underground,” developed a concept for a human mission to Mars. Because the group included an artist named Carter Emmart who sketched and later illustrated the phases of the Mars mission, for at least a decade or longer that Mars concept appeared in books and even novels as the way that humans would explore the Red Planet. It influenced both the culture and thinking about human missions to Mars.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5085/1
40/X 2025 [175-179]
175) Review: Facing Infinity
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 27, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5086a.jpg)
Facing Infinity: Black Holes and Our Place on Earth
by Jonas Enander
The Experiment, 2025
hardcover, 368 pp., illus.
ISBN 979-8-89303-085-3
US$30
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0DT396H24/spaceviews
Black holes have an attraction for science writers that rivals their gravitational influence on spacetime. Hundreds of books have been written over the decades about these objects, covering the theory behind them and efforts to study them with various telescopes. However, while black holes are a staple of science fiction and even of broader culture, they have remained largely abstract: as distant astrophysical phenomena, they have little direct influence on our lives.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5086/1
176) The P-Camera Experiment
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, October 27, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5087a.jpg)
In 1963, the Itek Corporation quickly created a small but powerful camera to fit into an existing reconnaissance satellite to take photographs of a suspected anti-ballistic missile facility in Leningrad. This rocket was prepared for launch in early June 1963 equipped with a mockup to test if the satellite could carry the camera. This flight was successful. (credit: Peter Hunter Collection)
The early years of the American satellite reconnaissance program, particularly the photo-reconnaissance satellites, have been declassified for some time now. We know the history up through the mid-1970s and the CORONA, GAMBIT, and HEXAGON programs, as well as more obscure projects like ARGON and LANYARD and Samos. However, there are still some minor mysteries from this early era, and one of them concerns something known as the “P-Camera Experiment.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5087/1
177) EUROSPACE and the European spaceplane (part 2)
by Hans Dolfing Monday, October 27, 2025
Figure 1. The British 3+1 cluster variant of “MUSTARD”, roughly 1964. [7,13] Concept art with permission from and © by Daniel Uhr https://duhraviationart.com/
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5088a.jpg)
[Part 1 was published last week.]
While the North American X-15 spaceplane program was in full swing, and Apollo picking up speed, the USAF Dyna-Soar X-20 space glider was cancelled in December 1963. [20,31] This part two about Eurospace and European spaceplanes studies follows the technical aspects of the European studies between roughly 1962 and 1966. The European engineers were well aware of the contemporary efforts in the United States and there are several detailed comparisons. [26,27]
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5088/1
178) Is Starfleet military or scientific? Yes.
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, October 27, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5089a.jpg)
From the very beginning, Star Trek had military influences, but the ship and crew were on a mission of exploration. This conflict between the military and science has persisted throughout sixty years of the franchise, and is similar to aspects of the American space program, where military and civilian goals sometimes conflict. (credit: Paramount Pictures)
Glen Swanson, in his recent book Inspired Enterprise: How NASA, the Smithsonian, and the Aerospace Community Helped Launch Star Trek, explored the connections between Star Trek in the 1960s and various institutions such as NASA, the Smithsonian, and the aerospace industry. Swanson noted that Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry modeled much of the show on the Navy. Although Roddenberry had been a pilot in the Army Air Corps during World War II, “I was always rather envious of the Navy and rather wished I had joined that service instead,” Roddenberry once wrote. The show used military ranks and hierarchy, and was heavily modeled upon the US Navy, such as the names of the starships that appeared or were mentioned throughout its three seasons. But the Starfleet in Star Trek had a scientific mission that at least rivaled its military one. The Enterprise’s mission wasn’t power projection or border enforcement, it was to “seek out new worlds and new civilizations.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5089/1
179) Space sustainability comes down to Earth
by Jeff Foust Monday, October 27, 2025
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The growing number of launches, and eventual reentries of the satellites on board, have prompted concerns about how they may affect the upper atmosphere. (credit: SpaceX)
The growth of spaceflight activity has resulted in several recent major milestones. Earlier this month, SpaceX launched its 10,000th Starlink satellite, of which more than 8,700 are currently in orbit. Over the weekend, SpaceX also performed a Falcon 9 launch doubleheader, bringing its total orbital launches so far this year to 136. In less than ten months, Falcon 9 conducted more launches than the Space Shuttle did in its 30-year flight history.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5090/1
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41/XI 2025 [180-184]
180) Why Mars is America’s next strategic imperative
by Alexander William Salter Monday, November 3, 2025
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Mars exploration provides a focus for an American strategy to remain competitive with geopolitical rivals. (credit: SpaceX)
Space is the defining strategic frontier of the 21st century. America’s space leadership depends on harnessing the private sector to create wealth and focusing the public sector on limited yet critical security and scientific objectives. While achieving supremacy in cislunar space (the region between the Earth and Moon, including the Moon’s surface) must be our immediate aim, it lacks the strategic coherence to sustain American leadership across decades. We need long-term goals to define success and clarify tradeoffs. A human mission to Mars can do both.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5091/1
181) Above us, always: Chronicling humanity’s home in space, in real time
by Emily Carney Monday, November 3, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5092a.jpg)
SS in Real Time chronicles historic events aboard the space station as they unfolded, including the world's first all-woman spacewalk, performed by astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir in 2019. Image credit: ISS in Real Time.
The International Space Station (ISS) program seems to run so silently and efficiently that not many people, save for space fans, remember that it has been functioning in orbit since 2000 (or really 1998, the year the first US and Russian segments were joined). By the numbers, the ISS program is staggering: as of July 2025, 290 people from 27 nations have visited or lived aboard the space station, conducting thousands of experiments. During its time in orbit, the ISS has witnessed the end of the 30-year Space Shuttle program and the dawn of the Commercial Crew Program. In short, the ISS has encompassed a massive block of space history.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5092/1
182) Live, it’s the Big Bird! The HEXAGON satellite and near-real-time reconnaissance
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, November 3, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5093b.jpg)
The HEXAGON reconnaissance satellite entered service in summer 1971. HEXAGON had two powerful cameras and used film that was recovered in reentry vehicles. In 1970, the camera manufacturer Perkin-Elmer proposed adding a capability to provide near-real-time imagery from orbit for the satellite after it had completed its primary mission. This proposal was not pursued, but by the 1980s, the last several satellites had a star tracker system that could be used to provide infrared imagery of targets on the ground. This is the engineering model, currently on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force. (credit: Dwayne Day)
In late 1970, the Perkin-Elmer Corporation made a rather bold proposal to modify the HEXAGON film reconnaissance satellite to enable it to conduct near-real-time reconnaissance. It was unusual because HEXAGON had not yet launched and was behind schedule after suffering a series of delays and cost overruns in the previous several years. But the company was responding to an ongoing discussion within the intelligence community about the need for more timely satellite imagery. Perkin-Elmer’s proposal was not accepted at the time, but a decade later, the company included such a capability in its satellites.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5093/1
183) The (possibly) great lunar lander race
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 3, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5094a.jpg)
SpaceX is developing a version of Starship to land astronauts on the Moon, but there are concerns the company is well behind schedule. (credit: SpaceX)
This was the year—one of the years, anyway—that humans were supposed to return to the surface of the Moon.
After the dust settled from NASA’s selection in April 2021 of SpaceX’s Starship for the Human Landing System (HLS) program and subsequent GAO protest and lawsuit from losing bidders, NASA said it expected to use Starship on the Artemis 3 mission in 2025. That was already a delay from 2024 that the agency blamed on that extended litigation (see “Resetting Artemis”, The Space Review, November 15, 2021.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5094/1
184) Stilsat-1: A Russian-owned and Chinese-built satellite watching Ukraine (part 1)
by Bart Hendrickx Monday, November 3, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5095a.jpg)
Taijing-3-02, a Chinese-built satellite that is possibly being operated by Russia under the name Stilsat-1. Source
A satellite owned and operated by Russia has been snapping high-resolution images of Earth since last year, mainly to support the country’s war effort in Ukraine. The Russians call it Stilsat-1, but no satellite by that name has been officially announced as such after launch or registered with the United Nations. The reason is that it was built and launched by China and turned over to Russia on a turnkey basis. Although Russian officials have quietly acknowledged this, they have provided conflicting information on the satellite’s design and not revealed its exact launch date or its official Chinese name.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5095/1
42/XI 2025 [185-189]
185) The case for a kinetic anti-satellite test ban between the US and China
by Jimin Park Monday, November 10, 2025
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Launch of an SM-3 missile from the cruiser USS Lake Erie in February 2008 on an intercept course with a disabled American reconnaissance satellite. (credit: US Navy)
The United States should pursue a new space-related arms control treaty: a ban on high-altitude direct-ascent anti-satellite (DA-ASAT) missile tests with China. First, kinetic ASAT capabilities heighten risks from space debris and endanger space assets. Second, a bilateral test ban could curb debris creation by restricting kinetic ASAT tests. Finally, while critics may argue that this proposal is too narrow in scope and limits US military advantages, a test ban represents a targeted, pragmatic, and interim solution that enhances security for all parties without undermining the military.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5096/1
186) From missions to activities: the defining space policy shift
by Namrata Goswami Monday, November 10, 2025
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A Long March 2F rocket lifts off October 30 carrying the Shenzhou-21 crewed spacecraft, part of China’s expanding space efforts. (credit: Xinhua)
The global space policy landscape is undergoing a profound conceptual transformation: a shift from missions to activities. For much of the space age, policy frameworks were driven by specific, mission-focused goals: launch a satellite, land a rover, achieve human spaceflight, conduct Mars missions, and demonstrate prestige. These missions, often animated by Cold War competition and national symbolism, defined space as a domain of episodic achievement. Yet, in the 21st century, the structure of global space governance, strategy, and policy is evolving toward consistency: ongoing activities in, from, and to space that combine civil, commercial, and military aspects into a unified, coherent system.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5097/1
187) Isaacman’s second chance
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 10, 2025
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An undated image posted by Jared Isaacman after his renomination was announced Nov. 4 of a meeting with President Trump in the Oval Office. (credit: X @rookisaacman)
The timing of the announcement was a surprise, even if its content was not unexpected.
Last Tuesday at 5:42 pm Eastern, President Trump posted on social media. “This evening, I am pleased to nominate Jared Isaacman, an accomplished business leader, philanthropist, pilot, and astronaut, as Administrator of NASA,” he wrote. “Jared’s passion for Space, astronaut experience, and dedication to pushing the boundaries of exploration, unlocking the mysteries of the universe, and advancing the new Space economy, make him ideally suited to lead NASA into a bold new Era.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5098/1
188) Stilsat-1: A Russian-owned and Chinese-built satellite watching Ukraine (part 2)
by Bart Hendrickx Monday, November 10, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5099a.jpg)
The Russian version of Stilsat. Source
As outlined in part 1, Stilsat-1 is a Chinese-built remote sensing satellite which was turned over to Russia on a turnkey basis after having been placed into orbit by a Chinese launch vehicle. It is presumably the satellite that was orbited by China on January 23, 2024, under the name Taijing-3-02. Manufactured by Beijing-based MinoSpace, it has an optical system with a resolution of 0.5 meters in panchromatic mode and 2 meters in multispectral mode.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5099/1
Przegląd koncepcji wahadłowców kosmicznych.
189) Blue wings into space: the Air Launched Sortie Vehicle
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, November 10, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5100a.jpg)
In the early 1980s, several aerospace contractors studied concepts for a small space shuttle vehicle. This vehicle would have been carried atop a 747 and then launched into space. (credit: Boeing)
Recently, NASA and Sierra Space announced that the Dream Chaser spacecraft would not be used to resupply the International Space Station but would instead fly on a standalone mission, blurring its path to commercial viability. Small winged spacecraft do not have a storied record—the European Space Agency’s Hermes spaceplane and the US Air Force’s Dyna-Soar were both canceled during development. Some small experimental spaceplanes such as the Soviet Bor and the Air Force’s PRIME had limited test flights.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5100/1
43/XI 2025 [190-193]
190) Review: The Launch of Rocket Lab
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 17, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5101a.jpg)
The Launch of Rocket Lab
by Peter Griffin
Blackwell & Ruth
hardcover, 300 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-473-74122-8
US$60
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0473741229/spaceviews
Rocket Lab has a certain aesthetic, and emphasis on aesthetics. That is evident in Launch Complex 3, the launch pad the company built for its Neutron rocket under development. The company eschewed the traditional concrete pad and metal tower in favor of a black pedestal with red accents, the company’s color scheme. All the connections between ground equipment and the rocket are made through the base of the vehicle, tucked away out of sight and eliminating the traditional gantry or strongback.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5101/1
191) America needs a National Astroelectricity Energy Security Transition Policy
by Mike Snead Monday, November 17, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4481l.jpg)
Space-based solar power, or “astroelectricity,” may be the only renewable power option to meet American energy needs in the coming decades. (credit: ESA/Andreas Treuer)
This article builds on my previous article here, “Astroelectricity: America’s national energy security imperative”. In this article, I explain why the Trump Administration—specifically, the National Space(faring) Council under the leadership of Vice President JD Vance—should formulate a National Astroelectricity Energy Security Transition Policy to guide America in undertaking an orderly transition to space solar power-supplied astroelectricity. I also propose a presidential executive order that would task the National Space(faring) Council to prepare such a policy for presidential approval.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5102/1
192) DARPA’s real lunar opportunity: Build the operating system, not the outpost
by Michael B. Stennicke Monday, November 17, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5010a.jpg)
For the Moon, DARPA’s strengths are not in developing infrastructure but instead architectures for interoperability. (credit: ESA/P. Carril)
When DARPA announced new programs on lunar logistics and autonomy, most headlines focused on spacecraft and hardware. Yet the real frontier the agency can shape is architectural, not mechanical.
The organization that once seeded the Internet can now do something comparable for the Moon by defining the protocols that will allow autonomous systems to coordinate, account, and trade without continuous human supervision.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5103/1
Historia satelitów rozpoznawczych.
Amrom Katz był jednym z ojców amerykańskiego programu satelitów rozpoznawczych.
W 07.1946 stacjonował na atolu Bikini, gdzie przygotowywał się do fotografowania testu bomby atomowej.
193) Mapping the dark side of the world (part 1): The KH-5 ARGON geodetic satellite
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, November 17, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5104a.jpg)
Launch of the first ARGON mapping satellite in February 1961. (credit: Peter Hunter)
Maps are in many ways the most basic of intelligence documents. They are powerful tools necessary for commanding an army. At the very least they tell a commander where the military objective is located and the best means of reaching it. Detailed maps can enhance an army's power many times, by allowing it to use the terrain itself as a weapon or a defense.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5104/1
44/XI 2025 [194-197]
194) How AI is making spacecraft propulsion more efficient
by Marcos Fernandez Tous, Preeti Nair, Sai Susmitha Guddanti, and Sreejith Vidhyadharan Nair
Monday, November 24, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5105a.jpg)
NASA studied nuclear propulsion in the 1960s in the NERVA program. New efforts to advance that technology could leverage artificial intelligence to improve designs. (credit: NASA)
Every year, companies and space agencies launch hundreds of rockets into space, and that number is set to grow dramatically with ambitious missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond. But these dreams hinge on one critical challenge: propulsion.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5105/1
195) Space is the front line and not the final frontier
The United States should prioritize developing proactive norms of space warfare
by Magdalena T. Bogacz Monday, November 24, 2025
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Developing norms of space warfare may require voluntary actions by some leading countries rather than binding treaties. (credit: UN)
A popular view of space as a sanctuary officially expired at least half a decade ago when countries such as the United States and China designated space as a distinct and unique warfighting domain. Unofficially, the vision of space as having potential to be free from all conflicts was always destined to fail before it could realize. A brief and shallow survey of the history of humanity reveals that war is not something we wage, but rather, war is something we are. Our proneness to competition and conflict mixed with our ambitions to discover, conquer, and overcome, both ourselves and our friends and foes, paints a clear picture: human nature is violent. Or, as Thomas Hobbes put it Leviathan, the condition of man is a condition of “war of everyone against everyone.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5106/1
196) Mapping the dark side of the world (part 2): supplementing, and supplanting, the ARGON geodetic satellite program
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, November 24, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5107a.jpg)
An ARGON mapping satellite image of the Gulf of Oman returned in 1964. (credit: Via Harry Stranger)
In February and April 1961, the first two KH-5 ARGON mapping satellite missions were unsuccessful due to reentry malfunctions. The next two missions, in June and July, suffered launch failures. Despite this poor record for ARGON, by December 1961, the United States had conducted ten successful CORONA reconnaissance flights over the Soviet Union. In addition to detecting numerous new military facilities within previously “denied territory,” analysts had also begun using CORONA’s photographs to measure the size and relative location of these intelligence targets. This measurement was known as “mensuration” and involved the development of numerous new techniques and equipment for accurate measuring. Even if ARGON was not yet producing mapping data, CORONA could cover some of the requirement (see “Mapping the dark side of the world (part 1): the KH-5 ARGON geodetic satellite,” The Space Review, November 17, 2025).
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5107/1
197) Revisiting the Wolf Amendment after 15 years
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 24, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5108a.jpg)
A Long March 2F lifts off late November 24 (US time) carrying an uncrewed Shenzhou-22 spacecraft to the Tiangong space station. (credit: Xinhua)
China has been going through what is arguably the biggest crisis in the history of its human spaceflight program in the last few weeks. In early November, the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO) called off the planned return of three astronauts on the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft after reporting that inspections showed evidence of micrometeoroid or orbital debris strike on the spacecraft, which had been at the Tiangong space station since late April. The crew returned November 14—but on the Shenzhou-21 spacecraft that had just delivered a new three-person crew to the station at the end of October. Those astronauts remained on Tiangong with the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft, which CMSEO said suffered damage to a window.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5108/1
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45/XII 2025 [197-201]
197) Chandrayaan-3 successfully undertakes lunar flybys
by Ajey Lele Monday, December 1, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5109a.jpg)
The Chandrayaan-3 propulsion module, seen here below the lander in pre-launch preparations, is providing insights long after the end of the lander mission. (credit: ISRO)
Indian space agency ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 mission, which was launched in July 2023, is in news again, this time for a successful lunar flyby on November 6 and another five days later. Two years ago, this mission performed a successful lunar touchdown on August 23, 2023. This mission had perfectly soft-landed the lander and rover unit on the lunar surface, thus making India only the fourth country in the world to achieve this distinction. This landing was done close to the lunar South Pole. a region where no other country had landed in the past.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5109/1
198) Our best energy and efforts
by Robert G. Oler Monday, December 1, 2025
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Commercial vehicles like Blue Origin’s proposed upgrade to its New Glenn rocket, the New Glenn 9x4, should play a role in any revised lunar exploration strategy. (credit: Blue Origin)
Decades ago, when we are told the US was great, President Kennedy gave his rationale under the hot Texas sun for the lunar goal. The goal will “organize the best of our energies and skills,” he said. It did.
The success of Apollo confirmed the organization chosen. If Congress decides the goal is to return Americans to the Moon before others arrive first, we need to find the equivalent of that organization again.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5110/1
199) Mapping the dark side of the world (part 3): Replacing ARGON, the SAMOS E-4, and mapping the Moon
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, December 1, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5111a.jpg)
A HEXAGON Mapping Camera image of Thailand, taken in 1976. (credit: Via Harry Stranger)
Throughout the early 1960s, there was a constant bureaucratic turf battle over which service would control satellite mapping. While ARGON was in development and beginning launches, the Air Force was trying to produce a follow-on system, in the hopes that it would succeed ARGON and eventually push out the Army, which had a lead role in ARGON in cooperation with the CIA, and place the Air Force in overall charge of mapping and geodesy from space. The CIA’s position was primarily that mapping requirements should not interfere with gathering reconnaissance photos. By the second half of the decade, these arguments would result in compromises that ultimately led to the DISIC camera system, which also eventually made it to the Moon (see “Mapping the dark side of the world (part 1): the KH-5 ARGON geodetic satellite,” The Space Review, November 17, 2025).
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5111/1
200) Burning Falcon: the death of a Russian laser ASAT plane
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, December 1, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5112a.jpg)
On the night of November 24, Ukraine launched an attack on a Russian airfield, damaging aircraft maintenance facilities and destroying two aircraft, including the A-60 aircraft equipped with an experimental laser ASAT system. The plane is identifiable by the structure atop the fuselage aft of the wing. (credit: Russian internet)
In the darkness of the early morning of November 25, Ukrainian drones and missiles hit the Russian Taganrog airbase. Russian social media soon lit up with videos of the attack, including an intriguing one showing a missile exploding above a large, oddly-shaped airplane. By early in the day on November 25, commercial satellite photos of the airbase became available, showing what many observers already suspected—that one of the airplanes destroyed at the base was a retired laser testbed, apparently for developing systems for attacking American satellites. Named “Falcon Echelon,” it is now a pile of rubble. But its mysteries remain.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5112/1
201) A big win for European space
by Jeff Foust Monday, December 1, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5113a.jpg)
Ministers from ESA’s member states gather in Bremen, Germany, November 26 to debate agency funding levels for the next three years. (credit: ESA/Ph. Servent)
It turns out there can be a little too much European unity in space.
During last week’s European Space Agency ministerial conference in Bremen, Germany, ESA officials passed out a book titled Elevation highlighting the agency’s long-term strategy and various programs intended to implement that strategy—programs that ESA was seeking funding for at the ministerial. Rather than just distribute a PDF or other electronic document, Elevation was a hardcover book lavishly illustrated with images of those programs.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5113/1
46/XII 2025 [202-206]
202) Review: The Pale Blue Data Point
by Jeff Foust Monday, December 8, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5114a.jpg)
The Pale Blue Data Point: An Earth-Based Perspective on the Search for Alien Life
by Jon Willis
Univ. of Chicago Press, 2025
hardcover, 256 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-226-82240-2
US$26.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0226822400/spaceviews
Astronomers study stars, galaxies, and other astronomical phenomena. Planetary scientists study planets and their moons as well as asteroids and comets. Heliophysicists study the Sun and its interaction with the Earth’s magnetic field. Astrobiologists study life beyond Earth.
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0226822400/spaceviews
203) In defense of Mark Kelly
by Steve Lindsey and Garrett Reisman Monday, December 8, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5115a.jpg)
Mark Kelly speaks at his 2023 induction ceremony into the Astronaut Hall of Fame. (credit: NASA/Chris Chamberland)
We’re astronauts. Both of us have flown with Senator Mark Kelly aboard the Space Shuttle and entrusted him with our lives. He is beyond reproach as an American patriot, and we never expected to hear him called a traitor or investigated and threatened with a court martial.
While at NASA, we did not bring politics into the cockpit. Service to the country always comes before politics. Comparing notes now, we realize that we have voted on opposite ends of the political spectrum. But this moment transcends politics and goes directly at the heart of our shared American values.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5115/1
204) Beyond launch: How in-space propulsion markets will determine winners in the $1 trillion space economy
by Malik Farkhadov Monday, December 8, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5090a.jpg)
While the space industry has focused on addressing the cost and frequency of launch, in-space propulsion remains a major obstacle to growth. (credit: SpaceX)
When SpaceX achieved a cost breakthrough of $2,700 per kilogram to low Earth orbit while competitors remained above $10,000 per kilogram, it didn’t merely create a pricing advantage. It fundamentally restructured the orbital infrastructure value chain. This dramatic cost reduction exposed a deeper economic paradox: while launch costs plummeted by 95% over three decades, the propulsion systems that determine satellite utility and longevity in space remained locked in suboptimal economic equilibria. The global space economy, valued at $613 billion in 2024 with 78% commercial participation, now faces a strategic inflection point where in-space propulsion economics, not launch capability, will determine which players capture value in the projected $1.8 trillion market by 2035.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5116/1
205) The long arm of a European space law
by Jeff Foust Monday, December 8, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5117a.jpg)
Andrius Kubilius, the EU commissioner for defense and space, unveiled the draft EU Space Act in June. (credit: EC Audiovisual Service)
Relations between the United States and the European Union aren’t exactly at a high point right now. Last week, the White House released its National Security Strategy that criticized unspecified activities of the EU “and other transnational bodies that undermine political liberty and sovereignty,” and warned of the “stark prospect of civilizational erasure.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5117/1
206) NASA Goddard and the dawn of international cooperation in space
by Trevor Williams Monday, December 8, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5118a.jpg)
Replica of First British/US satellite Ariel 1. (credit: NASM)
The International Geophysical Year (IGY) that ran from July 1957 to December 1958 was the largest international scientific effort ever conducted to that date [1, p. 34]. Both the United States and the Soviet Union developed plans to launch satellites in conjunction with the IGY: indeed, Sputniks 1–3; Explorers 1, 3, and 4; Vanguard 1; and Pioneers 1 and 3 were launched during it. British scientists contributed to the IGY by tracking Sputnik and using the data to deduce atmospheric density and gravity harmonics of the Earth [1, p. 40], as well as by making ionospheric studies using the new Skylark series of sounding rockets [1, p. 46].
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5118/1
47/XII 2025 [207-210]
207) Space books! Get your space books! New space books you can get for Christmas
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, December 15, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5119a.jpg)
If you’re like me—and I know I am—then you’re always looking for new space books to add to your Big Pile of Unread Books That You Intend to Read Some Day Soon. So here are a few suggestions of books published in 2025. Caveat: I only own a few of these, and have read even fewer, so this is not a review of these books. Rather, this list has been compiled based upon recommendations I have received and read for these books.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5119/1
208) “Sovereign capacity” of private and public space programs
by Alexander Wallace Watson Monday, December 15, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5120a.jpg)
Launch is an area where Europe had to rebuild its sovereign capacity in recent years. (credit: ESA/P. Carril )
Space is a strategic industry due to widespread civilian and military dependency on its operations. Besides developing technological capacity, states must maintain commercial and political control of their space programs. The sovereign capacity of space operations is the sum of economic, legal, and political leverage a space program has over its supply chain.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5120/1
209) Huntsville and the Final Frontier
by Dwayne A. Day, photographs by James Kruggel Monday, December 15, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5121a.jpg)
The US Space and Rocket Center first opened its doors in 1970, soon after Apollo 12 had landed on the Moon. For years, the center—really a museum—had impressive displays about the history of US rocketry, focusing primarily on the subject of rockets rather than spaceflight. It also became the home of the first US Space Camp in the early 1980s. But by the 2000s, the museum had become a bit tired and dated, and its hagiographic depiction of Wernher von Braun was very out of date.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5121/1
210) SpaceX, orbital data centers, and the journey to Mars
by Jeff Foust Monday, December 15, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5122a.jpg)
SpaceX may leverage its Starlink constellation to branch out into orbital data centers, something that may require billions of dollars of capital but could tap in even larger markets. (credit: spaceX)
In May 2018, CNBC interviewed SpaceX president and chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell when the network placed the company atop its “Disruptor 50” list of private companies, ahead of Uber, Airbnb, and Lyft. At the time the company was valued at $28 billion and was just starting to demonstrate the potential of booster reuse to lower its costs, paving the way for the Starlink constellation.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5122/1
48/XII 2025 [211-214]
211) Huntsville and the Final Frontier (part 2)
by Dwayne A. Day, photographs by James Kruggel Monday, December 22, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5123a.jpg)
In 2008, the US Space and Rocket Center opened a major new addition, The Davidson Center. It is filled with a Saturn V rocket and various artifacts and displays associated with its development and missions. These include rocket engines, instruments, wind tunnel models, a flown Apollo Command Module, and many others, such as the gravesites of squirrel monkey Miss Baker and her husband, Big George. A recent visit to the museum revealed all that it has to offer (see “Huntsville and the Final Frontier,” The Space Review, December 15, 2025.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5123/1
212) State-owned enterprises and commercial space in China
by Owen Chbani Monday, December 22, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5124b.jpg)
A Long March 4B lifts off earlier this month. It is built by one of several Chinese state-owned enterprises in the space industry. (credit: Xinhua)
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the United States Government.
Although it is convenient to adapt American conceptions of “new space” commercial entities pitted against “traditional” aerospace primes to the Chinese aerospace landscape,[1] Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) play a much different role in their commercial ecosystem. China has had a long history of state-owned commercial space activities, beginning in 1990 with the launch of AsiaSat-1 by the China Great Wall Industries Corporation
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5124/1
213) The Artemis Accords at five
by Jeff Foust Monday, December 22, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5125a.jpg)
Representatives of 39 nations who have signed the Artemis Accords met at the International Astronautical Congress in Sydney in September. (credit: NASA/Max van Otterdyk)
At an event in Washington earlier this month, government and industry officials celebrated the fifth anniversary of the Artemis Accords, now endorsed by 59 nations. Or is 60?
The uncertainty is linked to Latvia, which is in something of a liminal state when it comes to the Accords. The Latvian government announced in October that it would sign the Accords, seeing it as a step towards being a bigger player in the global space community.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5125/1
Długa historia obserwacji satelitarnych bombowców Backfire.
214) The Backfire bomber controversy
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, December 22, 2025
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5126a.jpg)
The Backfire can carry internal and external bombs, as well as cruise missiles, including anti-ship missiles. (credit: Dmitry Terekhov Wikimedia Commons)
On June 1, 2025, Ukrainian drones launched as part of Operation Spider’s Web destroyed at least four Tu-22M Backfire bombers and damaged at least one more during an attack at Belaya Air Base near Irkutsk. Drone video footage released later showed the swing-wing aircraft out in the open, burning, and within a day, satellite imagery revealed the wreckage of the medium-range bombers.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5126/1
Note: The Space Review will not publish the week of December 29. Happy Holidays!
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1/I 2026 [1-6]
1) Review: Gemini: Stepping Stone to the Moon
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 5, 2026
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5127a.jpg)
Gemini: Stepping Stone to the Moon, the Untold Story
by Jeffrey Kluger
St. Martin’s Press, 2025
hardcover, 304 pp.
ISBN 978-1-250-32300-2
US$32
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1250323002/spaceviews
It is almost an article of faith in the space community that the Gemini program has been overlooked and undercovered. It was the middle child of NASA’s early human spaceflight programs, sandwiched between the Mercury missions that put the first Americans in space and the Apollo missions that landed the first humans on the Moon. Gemini, space enthusiasts argue, didn’t get its due.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5127/1
2) See you on the other side: What Jim Lovell’s Apollo 8 mission taught a divided world
by Kathleen Bangs Monday, January 5, 2026
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5128a.jpg)
This will be the first New Year of the Space Age without Jim Lovell. The legendary astronaut, who died in August at the age of 97, is most remembered for his steady command of Apollo 13’s crippled spacecraft. But as we enter 2026, it’s his December 1968 Apollo 8 mission that offers a perspective to reconsider.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5128/1
3) Buck Rogers in the 20th century
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, January 5, 2026
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5129a.jpg)
Buck Rogers in the Twenty-Fifth Century premiered as a movie in spring 1979 and then on the NBC network in September 1979. It last two seasons. It was not very good. (credit: Universal Studios)
Actor Gil Gerard passed away on December 16, 2025, due to what his wife described as a “rare and viciously aggressive form of cancer.” He was 82. He was most well-known for playing Buck Rogers in the 1979–1981 TV show “Buck Rogers in the Twenty-Fifth Century.” If some television shows, particularly Star Trek, inspired people to go into scientific and engineering fields, or at least to become interested in spaceflight, Buck Rogers did not really inspire anybody, and was at best a lost opportunity, at worst, the non-Star Trek. The show did not last, and indeed, the character of Buck Rogers has not made it out of the 20th century. This wasn’t Gil Gerard’s fault. He was a better actor than the show deserved.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5129/1
4) Houston deserves a Space Shuttle, but not like this
by Maxwell Zhu Monday, January 5, 2026
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5130a.jpg)
The shuttle orbiter Discovery at its current home, the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center. (credit: J. Foust)
For nearly 15 years, the Discovery space shuttle has rested at the Udvar-Hazy Center of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Millions of schoolchildren have wandered underneath, imagining the roar of its three RS-25 engines as it escapes Earth’s gravity, gazing up at the weathered silica tiles that once protected against the heat of atmospheric re-entry, marveling at its airframe that ferried 184 pilots, scientists, engineers—astronauts all—to and from Earth.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5130/1
5) Innovative, affordable, and expedited
by Robert Oler Monday, January 5, 2026
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5131a.jpg)
An alternative approach to returning humans to the Moon could involve Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 1 lander. (credit: Blue Origin)
It’s January 20, 2029, and Jared Issacman’s term as NASA administrator is over. Was it a success or failure? Answer: who is first to land on the Moon this century? If it’s China, then it’s a failure. If it’s US and our allies, he is a miracle worker. In the US, the game so far has been badly played but a few cards are still in hand; they need to be played aggressively.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5131/1
6) The Isaacman era begins at NASA
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 5, 2026
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5132a.jpg)
Jared Isaacman speaks at a NASA town hall December 19, a day after he was sworn in as NASA administrator. (credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
After a year-long roller coaster of a nomination and confirmation process, the finale was decidedly anticlimactic. On December 17, the full Senate took up Jared Isaacman’s nomination to be NASA administrator, about six weeks after he was renominated (see “Isaacman’s second chance”, The Space Review, November 10, 2025). After senators voted 67–30 on a cloture motion, two hours of debate were reserved for senators to discuss the nomination.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5132/1
2/I 2026 [7-10]
7) Safe passage in the stars: The next Bretton Woods
by Alex Li Monday, January 12, 2026
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5010a.jpg)
Commerce involving lunar bases and other space facilities will require protection by some nation or group of nations. (credit: ESA/P. Carril)
“Whoever Commands The Sea Commands The Trade; Whoever Commands The Trade Of The World Commands The Riches Of The World, And Consequently The World Itself.” — Sir Walter Raleigh
Dedicated to the loving memory of my maternal grandmother, who taught me that strength comes from perseverance.
Even during the Age of Exploration, Sir Walter Raleigh understood one of the major factors of global influence: control of vital maritime trade routes. More than four hundred years later, this fact still rings true. With the Houthis Red Sea shipping attacks in 2023 and 2024 leading to supply chain disruptions, shipping delays, and insurance rate spikes, they reminded the world just how vital these trade routes remain for the global economy.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5133/1
8 ) Building empires in the sky: Effectuating off-Earth territorial expansion using existing legal frameworks
by Camisha L. Simmons Monday, January 12, 2026
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/4074a.jpg)
Companies that want to mine the Moon or asteroids could follow legal approaches used in oil and gas exploration on Earth. (credit: ESA)
Throughout human history on Earth, various world powers have sought territorial expansion. We currently see territorial expansion efforts by Russia with respect to Ukraine and China’s desire to wrest ownership of Tawain. Though these attempts at territorial expansion on Earth are significant, the next seismic territorial expansion will occur off-Earth in outer space.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5134/1
9) Japanese commercial firms as drivers of Japanese space policy
by Owen Chbani Monday, January 12, 2026
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5135a.jpg)
Satellite servicing startup Astroscale is part of a growing Japanese commercial space industry that benefits from policy changes. (credit: Astroscale)
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the United States Government.
The rise of America’s commercial space industry has become a key enabler of ambitious programs across the U.S. government and private sector. NASA’s Artemis Program, Golden Dome, and megaconstellations like Starlink and Kuiper all depend on the capabilities of America’s commercial space industry. Since the passage of Japan’s Basic Space Law in 2008, key Japanese firms have acted as key drivers of commercial-enabling policy, leading to a push within Japan for market-enabling regulations, legislation, funding schemes, and a quasi-commercial civil space program. This has also led to the recentering of aspects of the US-Japan space alliance to commercial-led ventures.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5135/1
3/I 2026 [11-15]
11) Apollos anew
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, January 19, 2026
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Many aspects of American space history have been extensively covered by historians. There are dozens of books about the Mercury and Gemini programs, and dozens more about the Apollo program. There are books about the missions themselves, astronaut biographies and autobiographies, official histories and technical histories. There are numerous documentaries and podcasts. Thus, it is almost impossible to produce something that is unique and new and adds substantively to what has already come before. In 2019, for the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, the BBC World Service produced the amazing podcast “13 Minutes to the Moon…” which told the story of the final minutes before the landing so well, with so much detail, that it reshaped the listener’s understanding of what happened. That podcast proved that we could still be surprised.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5137/1
12) The successful development of Russia’s counterspace activities in LEO and GEO
by Matthew Mowthorpe and Markos Trichas Monday, January 19, 2026
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5138a.jpg)
The launch of Cosmos 2589, a spacecraft with a likely counterpsace mission. (credit: Russian MoD)
Russia has continued to develop its arsenal of counterspace capabilities. This has been undertaken often under the guise of developing experimental space systems. This research and development once in orbit and successfully proven has become operational. This includes co-orbital ASAT (Nivelir) systems described as space domain awareness and space-based situational systems.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5138/1
13) A hell of a character: the late, great, Martin Caidin
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, January 19, 2026
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Martin Caidin, who died in 1997, was a prolific aviation and space author. (credit: Wikipedia)
There was a time when novelists—not all of them, but some of them—were larger than life versions of the characters they wrote: hard-drinking, cigar-chomping manly men who tried to out macho their literary rivals. They treated their typewriters as weapons and had reputations that were legendary. Hemmingway and Norman Mailer were the epitome of that stereotype.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5139/1
14) The PSLV-C62 failure marks a setback for India’s space ambitions
by Ajey Lele Monday, January 19, 2026
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5140a.jpg)
The PSLV rocket before the launch of the ill-fated PSLV-C62/EOS-N1 mission. (credit: ISRO)
On January 12, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) experienced a setback when its PSLV-C62/EOS-N1 mission failed to reach the designated orbit. While the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) performed nominally during its first two stages, an anomaly occurred during the third stage of the launch. Notably, on the previous PSLV mission, C61, launched in May 2025, also failed to reach orbit because of a problem with the third stage. Since September 1993, there have been 64 PSLV launches and, among them, five missions have failed. Because the PSLV has built an excellent track record over the years, the recent failures represent a serious concern.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5140/1
15) Liftoff for European launch startups
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 19, 2026
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The second Spectrum rocket built by Isar Aerospace is scheduled to launch as soon as January 21. (credit: Isar Aerospace)
It was a little after six o’clock on a Friday evening and the factory was quiet. A little too quiet, perhaps.
“Where is everyone?” asked Stefan Brieschenk as he took a visitor on a tour. It was clear that, despite it being late on a Friday, he expected more people to be at work on the company’s rocket. There were, in fact, some people still working: installing cabling in the rocket’s first stage, assembling subsystems, putting equipment into test cells.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5141/1
4/I 2026 [16-20]
16) Review: The Islands and the Stars
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 26, 2026
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5142a.jpg)
The Islands and the Stars: A History of Japan’s Space Programs
by Subodhana Wijeyeratne
Stanford University Press, 2026
paperback, 352 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-5036-4478-6
US$35
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1503644782/spaceviews
Japan’s space industry suffered a setback last month with an unusual—maybe unique—launch failure. An H3 rocket lifted off carrying the Michibiki 5 navigation satellite, but the upper stage malfunctioned and reentered within hours, presumably with the satellite still attached. A report last week said that pressure in the upper stage’s liquid hydrogen tank dropped, causing reduced thrust of the stage’s engine on the first burn and a failure to ignite on the second. That loss of pressure started when the payload fairing separated. Investigators believes a shock from the fairing separation damaged the satellite and its payload adaptor, which fell into the upper stage and damaged propellant lines, creating a leak. The satellite itself, it appears, never made it to space: images show it falling off the upper stage when it separated from the first stage.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5142/1
17) Kazakhstan’s space strategy: can its high-tech assets propel it to Eurasia’s new broker?
by Zhaslan Madiyev, Olaf J. Groth, and A.B. Sinchev Monday, January 26, 2026
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5143a.jpg)
A new opportunity may be dawning for Kazakhstan in space beyond its role as a launch site. (credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Kazakhstan’s skies have long been a launchpad for the country’s dreams of advancement, and today, they may serve as a testing ground for a new model of regional cooperation. For decades, the country has balanced legacy connections with future-oriented ambitions. As space technology, advanced materials, robotics, and AI remake the global economy, Kazakhstan faces a rare opportunity: it can leverage its world-class infrastructure and growing innovation ecosystem to position itself as Eurasia’s “New Broker” of technological collaboration.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5143/1
18) How superheavy-lift rockets could transform astronomy by making space telescopes cheaper
by Martin Elvis Monday, January 26, 2026
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5080a.jpg)
Starship lifts off from Texas October 13 on its 11th test flight. (credit: SpaceX)
After a string of dramatic failures, the huge Starship rocket from SpaceX had a fully successful test on October 13, 2025. After a couple more test flights, SpaceX plans to launch it into orbit.
19) When satellites are hacked: the legal gray zone of non-kinetic space attack
by Aakansh Vijay and Udit Jain Monday, January 26, 2026
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International space law has struggled with how to deal with non-kinetic antisatellite weapons. (credit: UN)
Satellites are the foundation of modern civilization. Global navigation systems, aviation safety, financial transactions, disaster management, and defense operations all depend on space-based services. As dependency on space infrastructure has increased, attacks on it show the emergence of a new silent modern conflict. During the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, Russia jammed GPS signals that were used by civilian aircraft and iinterfered with the Starlink satellite internet service in Ukraine. The commercial satellite network has been experiencing jamming, spoofing, and cyber-attacks, thus indicating a new mode of warfare that is glaringly unregulated.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5145/1
20) Inching towards launch
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 26, 2026
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The SLS/Orion stack for Artemis 2 emerges from the Vehicle Assembly Building January 17. (credit: J. Foust)
The faithful turned out by the hundreds to see the rocket, and given the timing and conditions, they had to be really faithful.
Before sunrise on Saturday, January 17, employees and the families drove onto the grounds of the Kennedy Space Center, picking out prime viewing spots near the Vehicle Assembly Building. Besides being early on a Saturday morning, it was also unseasonably cold—for Florida—with temperatures in the low 40s Fahrenheit. Bundled up in winter coats, knit hats, gloves, and blankets, they looked like they were heading to an NFL playoff game in Chicago or Denver.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5146/1
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5/II 2026 [21-25]
21) From pacifism to pragmatism: Japan’s evolving space security policy
by Safia Mansoor Monday, February 2, 2026
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Japan is developing national security space capabilities thorugh programs like the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System. (credit: Cabinet Office, Government of Japan)
The transformation of Japan from a hardcore pacifist state to a security-conscious space actor signifies the co-existence of national security imperatives and normative restraint. The shift from unique position on international space law and constitutionalism pacifism is driven by regional geopolitics and strategic contestation in outer space.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5147/1
22) Dragonship: China builds a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier while satellites watch
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, February 2, 2026
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5148a.jpg)
China's newest aircraft carrier under construction. Two large square compartments visible in satellite photos are most likely reactor compartments. (credit: ChinaPLA via X)
In the fall of 2025, China commissioned its first indigenously-designed and built aircraft carrier, Fujian, named after a Chinese province. The commissioning ceremony was photographed from overhead by Western commercial reconnaissance satellites, but of course China proudly released their own photographs of the ceremony. The conventionally powered aircraft carrier is large and impressive. Although not quite as big as the US Navy’s Nimitz-class or Ford-class carriers, Fujian sports modern equipment, such as electromagnetic catapults and arresting gear.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5148/1
23) Suborbital’s descending trajectory
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 2, 2026
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Blue Origin’s New Shepard lifts off January 22 on the NS-38 mission, the last for New Shepard for at least two years. (credit: Blue Origin)
January 22, 2026, may turn out to be a pivotal day in the history of Blue Origin, but not for reasons that were obvious that day.
“Wow! Wow! Wow!” Stiles said after landing. “Oh my gosh!”
In West Texas, the company conducted the latest launch of its New Shepard suborbital vehicle. The NS-38 mission was a typical flight for the company, the tenth in less than 12 months for the program. The one thing that stood out at the time is that one of the six customers who was named to the flight fell ill.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5149/1
24) Normalization of deviance
by Robert Oler Monday, February 2, 2026
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The Orion heat shield from the Artemis 1 mission, whose erosion led to a lengthy investigation that has significantly delayed Artemis 2. (credit: NASA)
With all forms of motion, there exist the risk of errors committed in the execution process that are not trapped, coupled with flawed decision-making processes where threats are underestimated, played down, or inaccurately mitigated. Usually, errors in the decision-making process become more of a threat than the threats that are known to exist.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5150/1
25) High Jump: the JUMPSEAT signals intelligence satellite
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, February 2, 2026
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The JUMPSEAT satellites began operations in 1971 and the program was finally shut down in 2006. The satellites provided signals intelligence information from orbits high over the northern hemisphere. (credit: NRO)
On March 21, 1971, a new and unusual rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the California coast. It was a night launch and nobody viewing the rocket climb into the cold Pacific sky could tell that it was different than other Titan rockets that had launched from there many times before. But anybody at the base who saw it knew that it was new. Previous Titan rockets had narrow, pointy noses half the diameter of the Titan core stage. But this rocket had a thicker fairing, the same diameter as the core, indicating a new and bigger payload. The fairing was also tall, meaning that something long was packed inside. Once it reached orbit, anybody who had access to the orbital data could tell that rather than a low Earth orbit, it had instead headed into a highly elliptical orbit highly inclined to the Equator, one that took it low and fast over the southern hemisphere and then high and slower over the northern hemisphere, perfect for staring down on the Soviet Union for longer periods of time.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5151/1
6/II 2026 [26-30]
26) Review: To See Far
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 9, 2026
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To See Far: Conflict and Cooperation on the Space Frontier
by James Van Laak
Ballast Books, 2005
hardcover, 392 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-966786-71-9
US$31.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1966786719/spaceviews
The history of the International Space Station is a surprisingly long one. As much time has elapsed from the 1993 decision to work with the Russians on what would be the ISS to the present day as has elapsed from that decision back to Alan Shepard’s 1961 suborbital spaceflight. With the ISS a constant presence for a generation of human spaceflight, its early history can seem as distant to some as the era of Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5152/1
27) Much needed cargo for the Moon
by Ajay Kothari Monday, February 9, 2026
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5153d.jpg)
Upper stages from heavy-lift rockets like Falcon Heavy could be aggregated in orbit to provide a low-cost way of transporting cargo to the Moon. (credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)
As noted at a House space subcommittee hearing last year, the Space Launch System (SLS) does not offer a sustainable or cost-effective option for lunar settlements. SpaceX’s Starship Human Landing System (HLS) has the problem of needing 8 to 15 refueling (and getting it human rated for Artemis III) and also having too high a fineness ratio (FR) of about 5.5 to 6 for safe landing on possibly uneven and slanted surfaces at the lunar south pole. New Glenn may be available for Commercial Lunar Payload Service (CLPS) missions with the Blue Moon Mark I launcher soon and for human return with Mark II, which has a much lower FR of around 2.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5153/1
28) The Solar System Internet: Envisioning a networked future beyond Earth
by Scott Pace and Yosuke Kaneko Monday, February 9, 2026
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5154a.jpg)
The future of interplanetary communications means moving from traditional systems like the Deep Space Network (above) to more networked concepts. (credit: NASA)
As humanity’s ambitions extend beyond Earth—evidenced by NASA’s Artemis program and burgeoning commercial lunar and Martian ventures—the limitations of current space communications are increasingly apparent. Traditional point-to-point links, reliant on scheduled radiofrequency (RF) contacts and specialized protocols, struggle with the challenges of interplanetary distances such as propagation delays exceeding 20 minutes one-way to Mars, frequent line-of-sight disruptions, and asymmetric data rates where uplink capacities can be orders of magnitude lower than downlink. In response, researchers have been working to enable a Solar System Internet (SSI), a visionary architecture leveraging Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN) using the Bundle Protocol (BP) to create a standardized, overlay network akin to (but distinct from) the terrestrial Internet.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5154/1
29) Breaking dishes: the space facility at Yevpatoriya
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, February 9, 2026
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The 70-meter dish at Yevpatoriya photographed by an American reconnaissance satellite during the Cold War. In 2025 this dish was attacked by Ukrainian drones. (credit: Harry Stranger)
In August 2025, the Ukrainian military released a short video showing a drone attack on some domes at a satellite tracking station in Russian-occupied Crimea. In late September, they did it again, releasing a video showing a drone approaching a very large communications dish before the video went blank. In both cases, the targets were at a sprawling satellite tracking and communications facility known as Yevpatoriya. After illegally occupying Crimea in 2014, the Russian military reactivated at least part of the Yevpatoriya facility, which had been built during the Cold War as a major space communications facility and earned a bit of fame for the Soviet space program.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5155/1
30) The dominance of Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 9, 2026
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5156a.jpg)
Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and neighboring Kennedy Space Center hosted 109 launches in 2025, a record. (credit: Airman 1st Class Samuel Becker)
Around 2018, the Air Force’s 45th Space Wing announced an initiative dubbed “Drive for 48” intended to support an increased launch rate at the Eastern Range, which includes the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The goal, as the name suggested, was to support 48 launches a year: one per week, with two two-week maintenance periods. It was an audacious goal at a time when the range was hosting only a couple launches a month. The initiative took on an auto racing theme, including an illustration of a stock car emblazoned with the number 48.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5156/1
7/II 2026 [31-35]
31) Review: Webb’s Cosmos
by Christopher Cokinos Monday, February 16, 2026
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Webb’s Cosmos: Images and Discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope
by Marcin Sawicki
Firefly Books, 2025
hardcover, 304 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-2281-0573-2
US$49.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0228105730/spaceviews
Spectacular images of galaxies, nebulae, stars, and more from the James Webb Space Telescope are readily available online. But having hundreds of them available in a single book is deeply satisfying. One can linger with them, with no distractions. Marcin Sawicki and a team of editors and designers at Firefly Books have produced a gorgeous, well-designed and informative book that gives us a record of JWST’s first years.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5157/1
32) Tame the wolf, release the panda: The case for US-China space cooperation
by Jimin Park Monday, February 16, 2026
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5158a.jpg)
A Long March 10A booster performs a soft splashdown near a recovery ship after a launch last week, the latest sign of China’s growing space capabilities. (credit: Xinhua)
The United States should repeal the Wolf Amendment and pursue a cooperative space relationship with China. First, China’s space program is motivated by prestige, rather than global domination. Space cooperation could satisfy China’s pursuit of status recognition, thereby improving US-China relations. Second, the Wolf Amendment prevents genuine engagement between the two countries, limiting opportunities for trust-building. Finally, while critics argue that space collaboration poses national security risks, engagement could promote more responsible behavior by fostering mutual understanding and restraint in space activities.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5158/1
33) Seattle’s lessons for rocket reusability
by Robert Oler Monday, February 16, 2026
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New Glenn on its second launch last November. Blue Origin is again considering ways to reuse the rocket’s upper stage. (credit: Blue Origin)
Modern Seattle is known for the victorious Super Bowl LX Seahawks, a vibrant lifestyle, and manufacturing of infrastructure that sustains the nation’s and the world’s economies. Today’s reality is a long journey from 1853 when what would become Seattle was a bunch of settlements on what would become known as Puget Sound.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5159/1
34) Musk’s Moon mania
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 16, 2026
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5160a.jpg)
In a presentation to xAI employees, Elon Musk described establishing a “Moonbase Alpha” that would build AI data center satellites and launch them using a mass driver. (credit: xAI)
What has been the most surprising development in space in the last year? Perhaps it was the saga of Jared Isaacman’s nomination to be NASA administrator. That was an unprecedented ordeal, with Isaacman’s nomination suddenly withdrawn only for him to be renominated months later. But in the end, the result was what most expected a year ago: Isaacman leading the space agency.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5160/1
35) When second best is good enough: The Initial Defense Satellite Communications System
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, February 16, 2026
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5161a.jpg)
The US military’s first operational communications satellite system was designed to be relatively simple and fast, after a much more complicated program failed. Here Initial Defense Satellite Communications System (IDSCS) satellites are integrated into their payload dispenser in 1966. (credit: USAF)
The US Air Force pioneered military satellite communications in the early space age. But its path to getting there was not direct or smooth. In the late 1950s, the Army Signal Corps was placed in charge of developing a military satellite communications capability, with the Air Force supplying the launch vehicle. The Army program was named Advent, and it was a highly ambitious plan to put a large satellite in geosynchronous orbit at a time when the United States was having difficulty launching even small satellites into low Earth orbits.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5161/1
8/II 2026 [36-40]
36) AI and Army astronauts: A judge advocate’s solution to protecting the soldier-astronaut
by Mitch Y. Topaloglu Monday, February 23, 2026
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5162c.jpg)
When a member of Crew-11 suffered a medical issue in January, the crew could easily return to Earth, an option that won’t exist for futre missions to the Moon and Mars. (credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
The United States Army is the most formidable and versatile fighting force in human history. Some of the greatest pioneers of our Republic have come from the Army. In the spirit of CPT Lewis and 2LT Clark, the Army continues a legacy of trailblazers, found in the ranks of the soldier-astronauts. These astronauts are among the best and brightest our republic has to offer. As they forge a path to the future, the Army owes a responsibility to protect these pioneering soldiers and prioritize their well-being.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5162/1
37) When Iran took the Internet hostage, Elon Musk held the keys
by Bharath Gopalaswamy Monday, February 23, 2026
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5163a.jpg)
Starlink has enabled Iranian protestors to keep in contact with the outside world, but raises policy issues. (credit: SpaceX)
As protests spread across Iran in early 2026, the government reached for one of its most reliable tools of control. Internet access was sharply restricted, mobile data was slowed or cut, and international connections were disrupted. For years, such shutdowns allowed authoritarian states to fragment protest movements and choke off the flow of information beyond their borders. This time, the blackout did not fully hold.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5163/1
38) We can build cities on the Moon—but who will govern them?
Amid a global lunar rush, will we land peaceful norms alongside our spacecraft?
by Rachel Williams and Jatan Mehta Monday, February 23, 2026
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5164a.jpg)
Illustration of a SpaceX Lunar Starship taking off from a Moonbase. (credit: SpaceX)
Earlier this month, SpaceX and its founder Elon Musk flipped their stance on the Moon from treating it as a distraction to positioning it as central to their idea of preserving our civilization—after more than two decades of emphasizing Mars as the primary destination . The stated rationale for change and the catalyst involves building a Moonbase and a self-growing city within ten years that can power lunar factories and launch orbital AI data centers, the latter part being the backdrop to SpaceX’s acquisition of xAI.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5164/1
39) Prometheus bound: The legacy of the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, February 23, 2026
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5165a.jpg)
The Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO) program was started in 2002 and canceled in 2005. It would have sent a large spacecraft to orbit Jupiter. It would have been insanely expensive. (credit: NASA)
In 2002, NASA began one of the most ambitious robotic projects the agency ever considered, a large, nuclear-powered spacecraft to explore the icy moons of Jupiter. Known as the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter, or JIMO, it would have used a nuclear reactor and a powerful electric propulsion system to reach and orbit Jupiter, visiting and studying Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. But two and a half years later, JIMO was canceled after spending $463 million, with no hardware built.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5165/1
40) “We failed them”: NASA grapples with Starliner
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 23, 2026
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5166a.jpg)
Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner docked to the International Space Station during the CFT mission in 2024. (credit: NASA)
In briefings before the launch earlier this month of the Crew-12 mission to the International Space Station using a SpaceX Crew Dragon, reporters asked NASA officials about the status of the other commercial crew vehicle, Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner. That vehicle has been grounded since its flawed crewed test flight in mid-2024 that led NASA to bring the spacecraft back without the two astronauts who launched on it. Those astronauts, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, returned last March on a Crew Dragon, an eight-day test flight that turned into an eight-month expedition.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5166/1
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9/III 2026 [41-45]
41) Review: Becoming Martian
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 2, 2026
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5167a.jpg)
Becoming Martian: How Living in Space Will Change Our Bodies and Minds
by Scott Solomon
MIT Press, 2026
hardcover, 280 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-262-05151-4
US$29.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0262051516/spaceviews
Books can benefit, or suffer, from good or bad timing outside of the control of the author or publisher. Take, for example, Robert Zubrin’s The Case for Mars, which had the benefit of being published three decades ago around the time NASA announced evidence of past primitive life on Mars found in a Martian meteorite. Zubrin’s ideas for human Mars exploration, while not new to the space community, found a receptive audience in a broader public energized by the life discovery. That boosted book sales and helped lead to the formation of The Mars Society, which has far outlived the Martian meteorite discovery that the scientific community has since largely debunked.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5167/1
42) Gala time! The Chinese New Year narratives of the space program
by Krzysztof Karwowski Monday, March 2, 2026
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5168a.jpg)
A fragment of the 2026 show showing Chang’e with her companion, the jade rabbit Yutu, greeting the Taikonaut on the surface of Swan Lake in Hefei, the capital of Anhui. (credit: CCTV-1, screened by K. Karwowski on February 16, 2026)
On February 16, 2026, China marked the end of the Year of the Snake, celebrating its own New Year’s Eve. In the hundreds of millions of homes, alongside red decorations, festive dishes, and family celebration, one element usually dominates the evening: Chunwan (春晚). It is a special New Year Gala directed by the China Media Group (CMG), a state conglomerate supervising television, radio, and press operators across the country, and broadcast globally by China Central Television (CCTV). The Gala typically runs for four hours and, in 2018, was recognized by Guinness World Records as the most-watched television program worldwide, attracting over one billion simultaneous viewers, with cumulative streaming figures reaching into the tens of billions in subsequent years.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5168/1
43) All’s well that’s Roswell
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, March 2, 2026
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5169a.jpg)
A crashed flying saucer? No, an aeroshell for NASA’s Voyager-Mars program tested in the desert. (credit: NASA)
On February 19, the president stated that he had directed the government to “begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs).” In the mid-1990s, political pressure resulted in the release of information and the production of two reports on the so-called “Roswell Incident” of 1947. These reports added substantively to the historical record of Cold War aerospace programs. Hopefully, the new efforts will also be productive in opening up the history.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5169/1
44) The ghost in the orbit: how hybrid surveillance reshapes risks
by Zohaib Altaf Monday, March 2, 2026
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5170a.jpg)
GHOST-R is a successor to the GSSAP program of GEO surveillance satellites, this time with a greater commercial role. (credit: US Space Force)
On February 5, 2026, the formal expiration of the New START Treaty removed the final terrestrial guardrail of nuclear transparency between the United States and the Russian Federation, leaving global security in a state of strategic blindness. This treaty, which for 14 years limited deployed strategic nuclear warheads and allowed for rigorous on-site inspections, lapsed without a follow-on agreement. While diplomatic proposals for extensions surfaced in late 2025, they lacked the critical verification measures that historically defined the treaty’s success.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5170/1
45) Accelerating Artemis
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 2, 2026
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NASA administrator Jared Isaacman (left) visits the Artemis 2 stack at Launch Complex 39B after the latest problems with the rocket led the agency to roll it back to the Vehicle Assembly Building for repairs. (credit: NASA/John Kraus)
When NASA rolled out the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft to Launch Complex 39B in mid-January, officials were optimistic the rocket could launch in a window in early February (see “Inching towards launch”, The Space Review, January 26, 2026.) Those hopes were dashed when a wet dress rehearsal was cut short because of hydrogen leaks similar to those seen during preparations for Artemis 1 in 2022.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5171/1
10/III 2026 [46-50]
46) Review: Why Space?
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 9, 2026
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Why Space?: The Purpose of People
by Rick Tumlinson
Manuscripts LLC, 2025
paperback, 288pp.
ISBN 979-8-88926-421-7
$19.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0FXD6NY8G/spaceviews
If you’ve been at any space advocacy event of some kind in the last 30 years or so, you have probably seen a talk by Rick Tumlinson. One of the co-founders of the Space Frontier Foundation, Tumlinson has long been one of the most passionate advocates for what became known as NewSpace, the more commercial, entrepreneurial approach to space that contrasted with, and often clashed with, traditional aerospace contractors and government programs. He would often start his talks with a simple declaration: “Welcome to the revolution.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5172/1
47) Robert Goddard and the dawn of the rocket age
by Bruce McCandless III and Emily Carney Monday, March 9, 2026
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Robert Goddard poses with liquid-fueled rocket before its historic launch on March 16, 1926. (credit: Esther Goddard, Courtesy of Clark University)
His full name was Robert Hutchings Goddard. Born on October 5, 1882, in Worcester, Massachusetts, the father of American rocketry was a frail child, often ill, fussed over by an adoring grandmother. He showed an early fondness for building gadgets, and he seems to have been interested in just about everything. He set off firecrackers and Roman candles, performed rudimentary experiments with electricity, and organized a team of neighborhood youths to dig a tunnel to China, which was apparently never completed.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5173/1
48) Big wing bird: NASA’s WB-57 gets grounded
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, March 9, 2026
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5174a.jpg)
One of NASA’s three WB-57 high-altitude research aircraft made a gears-up landing in late January. The aircraft were developed during the Cold War to perform intelligence missions. (credit: KHOU)
On January 27, 2026, NASA 927, a big-winged WB-57F with an elegant white and blue paint scheme, performed a gear-up landing at Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base, trailing sparks and smoke as it slid down the runway, making a horrible sound until it slid to a stop. The WB-57F is not the easiest aircraft to land, because its wings generate so much lift that it wants to be in the air, not on the ground, but fortunately both crew members onboard survived with no injuries. The aircraft, N927NA, sustained significant damage and remains grounded. NASA operates three WB-57Fs, high-altitude scientific research aircraft that have long had many connections to the agency’s space programs. The planes are the legacy of a mysterious Cold War era program that in some ways owed its existence to the U-2 spyplane.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5174/1
49) Reforging Vulcan
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 9, 2026
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A ULA Vulcan Centaur lifts off February 12 on the USSF-87 mission. The launch was a success but one of the rocket’s four solid boosters suffered a “significant performance anomaly” in flight. (credit: United Launch Alliance)
The Ariane 6 and Vulcan Centaur have remarkably intertwined launch records. On August 12, an Ariane 6 lifted off from French Guiana less than 20 minutes before a Vulcan lifted off from Cape Canaveral. The launches were the third for each vehicle, each of which had suffered years of development delays before making their first launches in 2024.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5175/1
50) McDonnell’s Military Test Space Station (MTSS)
by Hans Dolfing Monday, March 9, 2026
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Figure 1: MTSS report by McDonnell Aircraft “Configuration selection”.[1]
Between 1959 and 1962, the United States Air Force studied a space station named the Military Test Space Station (MTSS). This was part of the System Requirement (SR) study SR 17527, Task Nr 7969, and discussed in depth in an earlier article.[1]
Five contractors were selected in April 1960 to study the MTSS and contracts were awarded in August of the same year. The contractors were McDonnell Aircraft Corporation (MAC), General Electric (GE), Lockheed, Martin, and General Dynamics/Astronautics (GD/A).
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5176/1
11/III 2026 [51-55]
51) Golden domes, fragile firms: the business risks of AI-enabled space infrastructure
by Bharath Gopalaswamy and Daniel Dant Monday, March 16, 2026
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Satellite constellations increasingly use AI to allocate capacity and resources, creating business risks. (credit: OneWeb)
Imagine a sudden escalation involving Iran that disrupts regional communications, energy flows, and military signaling across the Middle East. Commercial satellite operators providing broadband connectivity, imagery, and radiofrequency sensing are quietly pulled into the crisis. Traffic spikes as governments, humanitarian organizations, and energy firms compete for bandwidth. At the same time, jamming, cyber interference, and regulatory pressure constrain capacity. No minister or general is manually allocating satellites. Instead, artificial intelligence-driven routing systems decide within milliseconds whose data moves, whose images are refreshed, and whose connections degrade. To affected states, these constellations look like strategic infrastructure. To their owners, they remain revenue generating platforms with finite capacity, investor expectations, and fragile balance sheets.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5177/1
52) Artemis via the ISS? A breakout opportunity for kickstarting a sustainable cislunar economy
by Madhu Thangavelu Monday, March 16, 2026
Execution is the chariot of genius – William Blake
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The International Space Station could help anchor the development of a more sustainable lunar exploration effort, tapping into commerce as well as exploration. (credit: Maxar)
NASA has a new administrator, the youngest to hold that office, who won a lopsided approval from the US Senate. Under the watch of the interim administrator, NASA had a 20% reduction in its workforce, something not seen in many decades. Along with recommendations from the inspector general’s office, from prior administrations as well, Isaacman noted that the Space Launch System (SLS) costs are unsustainable. Congress has approved a 2026 budget that reinstates much of the budget, overriding cuts requested by the current administration with a caveat that SLS be preserved as core of the Artemis program, with Artemis 2 being prepared for launch as soon as early April.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5178/1
53) The next phase of space ambitions in Texas
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 16, 2026
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An illustration of a lunar testing facility that will be located in the Texas A&M Space Institute, set to open this fall. (credit: United Launch Alliance)
In 2023, the Texas state government made a big bet on growing the state’s space industry. It appropriated $350 million for state space projects, including the creation of the Texas Space Commission. The commission was charged with disbursing $150 million of that funding for companies and organizations in the state (see “A whole other spacefaring country”, The Space Review, March 10, 2025.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5179/1
54) If China returns to the Moon first, will Americans care?
by Dante Sanaei Monday, March 16, 2026
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China has plans to land people on the Moon by 2030. (credit: CCTV)
It is 2030.
Chinese astronauts step onto the lunar surface under the flag of the People’s Republic—the first humans to return since Apollo. The United States had pledged to be there first. Its lander is still not ready.
The race is over. China has won.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5180/1
55) Jupiter on the Space Shuttle and the Titan II: the FARRAH signals intelligence satellites
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, March 16, 2026
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5181a.jpg)
The first publicly released photo of the FARRAH V signals intelligence satellite, launched in 1992 to detect electronic signals—mostly radars—on the ground. (credit: NRO)
In 1980, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) determined which of its satellite programs would transition to use the Space Shuttle and which would continue to use existing expendable launch vehicles.[1] With the KENNEN near-real-time photo-reconnaissance satellite now operational, the GAMBIT and HEXAGON photo-reconnaissance satellite programs were both scheduled to retire during the 1980s and thus would not be modified to fly on the shuttle. Because smaller Program 989 electronic intelligence (ELINT) satellites like URSALA, RAQUEL, and FARRAH had launched off the side of HEXAGON satellites, they would need a new way to reach orbit after the end of the HEXAGON program. Two FARRAH satellites, FARRAH I and II, were already planned for HEXAGON launches, but any further FARRAHs would need a new trip to orbit.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5181/1
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12/III 2026 [56-60]
56) Review: Stuck in Space
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 23, 2026
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Stuck in Space: An Astronaut’s Hope Through the Unexpected
by Butch Wilmore
The Heirloom Press, 2026
hardcover, 240 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-967496-04-4
US$32.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1967496048/spaceviews
Throughout the saga that started in the middle of 2024 with the crewed test flight of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, NASA bristled at any suggestion that the two astronauts on that flight, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, were “stuck” or “stranded” in space. They could leave the station at any time in an emergency, either on Starliner itself or a Crew Dragon spacecraft, the agency reiterated, even as officials ultimately decided it was not safe enough for the two to perform a normal return to Earth on Starliner.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5182/1
57) The legal aspects of outer space settlers and settlements
by Dennis O’Brien Monday, March 23, 2026
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Any future settlements on Mars or elsewhere beyond Earth face legal challenges. (credit: SpaceX)
We have reached the point in human history when advances in technology, finance, and law have made the utilization of outer space resources feasible. In response, the UN’s Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) created the Working Group on Legal Aspects of Space Resource Activity. For similar reasons, it is time to focus on the legal aspects of outer space settlers and settlements.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5183/1
58) Zarya: the Super-Soyuz that only lived twice
by Maks Skiendzielewski Monday, March 23, 2026
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Left: “Reusable manned spacecraft Zarya: 1. Descent module 2. Cargo 3. Landing engine 4. Work compartment 5. Pressure vessel 6. Porthole 7. Star sensor 8. Ejection seat 9. Control panel 10. Antenna of the rendezvous equipment 11. Engine compartment 12. On-board equipment 13. Docking and orientation engines 14. Heat shield shock absorber 15. Doppler velocimeter 16. Refueling and propulsion system 17. Expendable compartment 18. SEP and EKhG 19. Wall-mounted radiator”. Right: landing of the Zarya spacecraft. Semyonov (ed.), 1996, scanned and processed by the author.
In the late 1980s, with the development of the first modules of Mir nearing its end and their launches on the horizon, NPO Energia started work on the station’s successor. It was to be another generational step after Salyut-6 introduced multiple docking ports allowing continuous crewed operation and resupply missions and Mir became the first truly modular station, drastically expanding the available volume and bringing specialized modules to the mix.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5184/1
59) NavIC: India’s “jinxed” navigational program, or a cornerstone of India’s misplaced space priorities?
by Ajey Lele Monday, March 23, 2026
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The NVS-02 navigation satellite before its ill-fated launch last year. (credit: ISRO)
India’s NavIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation) is a regional satellite navigation system developed to provide accurate positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) services across India and up to 1,500 kilometers beyond its borders, with plans for a further extension out to 3,000 kilometers. Originally known as the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), it has been designed, developed, and operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5185/1
60) The science of Artemis 2
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 23, 2026
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Artemis 2 returns to the pad early March 20, ahead of a launch as soon as April 1. (credit: NASA/Brandon Hancock)
The next humans to leave Earth orbit may launch as soon as next week. Just after midnight Friday, the Space Launch System rocket, with its Orion spacecraft on top, reemerged from the Vehicle Assembly Building, making an 11-hour trek back to Launch Complex 39B. The vehicle had spent the last three weeks in the VAB to fix a blockage of helium in the upper stage that caused NASA to call off a launch in an early March window, along with other maintenance.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5186/1
13/III 2026 [61-65]
61) Artemis 2, Project Hail Mary, and the risks and benefits of human spaceflight
by Scott Solomon Monday, March 30, 2026
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Project Hail Mary is showing one aspect of human spaceflight at the same time Artemis 2 prepared to go around the Moon. (credit: Amazon/MGM Studios)
The central premise of the blockbuster film Project Hail Mary is a long-shot mission with a familiar goal: Save humanity from extinction. While the details of the threat facing humanity are new to this story, moviegoers are used to bingeing on popcorn while watching a heroic quest to save the Earth from certain doom. And like so many popular movies of this genre, from Armageddon to Interstellar, the hero’s journey involves a seemingly impossible mission into space.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5187/1
62) From advantage to arena: space power 1991–2026
by Bharath Gopalaswamy Monday, March 30, 2026
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Space operations have gone from the edges to the core of modern American military efforts. (credit: US Air Force)
On February 28, 2026, Operation Epic Fury opened not with bombers over Tehran but with space and cyber forces blinding Iranian sensors and severing its military communications network before a single aircraft crossed the border. Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dan Caine described it plainly: the first movers were US Space Command and US Cyber Command. Space did not support the opening of the campaign. Space was the opening of the campaign. That is a threshold that has no precedent in the history of space enabled warfare, and understanding what produced it requires going back 35 years to a different desert, a different adversary, and a very different relationship between space and conflict.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5188/1
63) Convair’s Manned Astronomical Research Station (MARS)
by Hans Dolfing Monday, March 30, 2026
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Figure 1: Astronaut with MARS, March 20, 1961. [1]
In 1960, Convair in San Diego was an independent division of General Dynamics/Astronautics (GD/A) and employed experienced engineers such Krafft A. Ehricke and Karel J. Bossart under the directorship of James R. Dempsey.[10] Work from 1959 to 1961 resulted in a mockup space station to evaluate many aspects of confined life in space.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5189/1
64) A little more light in the shadows: the NRO and the Space Shuttle in 1976
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, March 30, 2026
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Significant money and effort was spent by the Air Force in the early 1980s to develop a shuttle launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Many National Reconnaissance Office satellites required this launch site. (credit: USAF)
There are few gaping holes in American space history, subjects that have not received the coverage they deserve. But an important and still neglected history subject is the National Reconnaissance Office’s role in the Space Shuttle program. Much of that history remains classified, but bit by bit, the NRO, which manages and operates the United States’ fleet of intelligence satellites, is releasing more information about the office’s two-decade involvement in the Space Shuttle program. It was an often-rocky relationship.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5190/1
65) Igniting a new vision for NASA
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 30, 2026
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An illustration of a proposed lunar base, the centerpiece of the NASA Ignition event. (credit: NASA)
On January 14, 2004, President George W. Bush spoke in the auditorium at NASA Headquarters to discuss what became known as the Vision for Space Exploration. It was one of the biggest space policy announcements of the post-Apollo era: retiring the Space Shuttle in 2010 after completing the International Space Station, with a human return to the Moon no later than 2020 (see “Looking beyond vision”, The Space Review, January 19, 2004.)
Last week, in the same auditorium, was one of the biggest announcements since then. Rather than a brief presidential speech, NASA leadership spent a full day going through a major revamp of its exploration, science, and space technology plans. Some of the announcements at the “Ignition” event were surprising, while others were widely anticipated. The combination, though, represented the effort by NASA’s administrator, Jared Isaacman, to quickly put his stamp on the agency just months after being sworn in, with the backing of the White House.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5191/1
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14/IV 2026 [66-70]
66) Review: Return to Launch
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 6, 2026
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Return to Launch: Florida and America’s Space Industry
by Stephen C. Smith
University of Florida Press, 2026
hardcover, 348 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-68340-656-3
US$38
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1683406567/spaceviews
During a press conference last Monday in the windowless briefing room at the Kennedy Space Center Press Site, the discussions about preparations for the Artemis 2 launch were interrupted by a rumble. The first thing that came to mind was thunder—it’s Florida, after all—but there were no storms in the vicinity. The rumbled continued far longer than one expected for any storm. A reporter calling into the briefing, unaware of the commotion, continued to ask his question while those in the room smiled, aware of what was going on.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5192/1
67) Ownership without oversight: Australia’s on-orbit supervision gap
by Jeremy Kruckel Monday, April 6, 2026
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An image of a Chinese satellite taken by Continuum-1, a satellite now owned and operated by Australian company HEO. (credit: HEO)
When HEO acquired full title and operational control of an in orbit satellite from Satellogic in late 2025, Australia gained its first dedicated asset under Australian ownership. The satellite, renamed Continuum-1, was launched years earlier by the United States on a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral. Australia played no role in its launch and is not a launching state under the Liability Convention.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5193/1
68) Thirty years later, Mars 96 has not been found
by Dante Sanaei Monday, April 6, 2026
Unprecedented scientific collaboration, catastrophic failure, and an uncertain final resting place
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Concept illustration of Mars-96 penetrators descending toward the Martian surface. (credit: NPO Lavochkin / Russian Academy of Sciences, via NASA SP-4515)
On the night of November 16, 1996, a strange light moved slowly across the skies of Chile. Observers in remote mountain regions described a brilliant object traveling horizontally along the horizon, far brighter than any star and leaving behind a luminous trail that lingered in the thin air. Unlike a meteor’s sudden flash, this phenomenon endured. For nearly a minute it crossed the darkness, shedding faint fragments that glowed briefly before fading from view. In the Andes, a landscape defined by silence and vast distances, the event felt both unmistakably real and deeply uncertain—something that did not belong in the usually peaceful night sky.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5194/1
69) Pinning the tail on the Moskva: POPPY and the dawn of satellite ocean surveillance
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, April 6, 2026
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5195a.jpg)
The Moskva's Top Sail radar was new and unique to that ship when it conducted sea trials in the Black Sea in 1967, making it possible for American signals analysts to connect the radar emissions to a specific vessel. This demonstrated that it was possible to track ships at sea from space. (credit: US Navy, modified by Benjamin Claremont)
In 1963, American reconnaissance satellites overflew a shipyard in Mykolayev, Ukraine, on the Black Sea, and photographed evidence of a new large vessel under construction. But it was not until 1965 that satellite photographs revealed it to be “an unusual ship,” in the words of a CIA report. Later that year, it became clear that it “was a helicopter platform, with either an ASW or amphibious assault mission.” It was launched in 1967 and began sea trial inside Soviet waters. This was a time when the Soviet Union was beginning to send its fleet further out to sea, challenging the US Navy, and any new large warship was of great interest to the Navy admirals.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5195/1
70) Artemis eclipses
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 6, 2026
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Artemis 2 lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center April 1. (credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
At the final pre-launch briefing for the Artemis 2 mission March 31, a reporter asked NASA senior test director Jeff Spaulding if he was aware of any planned pranks for launch day. The launch, after all, was scheduled for April 1—April Fool’s Day—and astronauts have a long track record of practical jokes.
15/IV 2026 [71-75]
71) A tale of two Martian cities
by Thomas Gangale Monday, April 13, 2026
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How should future Martian settlements be governed? (credit: SpaceX)
“Quid est enim civitas nisi concors hominum multitudo?” — Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Republica 1.39
“For now we see through a glass, darkly.” No Hari Seldon, as in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation, stands ready with psychohistory to predict humanity’s future on the Red Planet. Yet the choices we make today about governance, rights, and human nature will shape the first permanent settlements on Mars in the 2040s and 2050s—and, by extension, the long-term trajectory of our species beyond Earth. The early decades of the colonial period on Mars will not arrive with a finished constitutional order already in place. Instead, two distinct settlements are likely to emerge, each still in the process of formation.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5197/1
72) Who watches the birds? Cold War era launch vehicle photographs
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, April 13, 2026
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5198a.jpg)
The first HEXAGON reconnaissance satellite sits on its pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base in 1971. Twenty of these schoolbus-size satellites were launched, with one failure. They photographed huge amounts of territory during each mission, enabling photo-interpreters to detect and assess adversary weapons capabilities. (credit: Peter Hunter Collection)
During the Cold War, the US Air Force launched hundreds of rockets from both the East and West Coasts. Usually, the military made some kind of announcement that a launch had occurred, or was about to occur, without releasing any further details, and for many years, rarely releasing any photographs. The result was that many military space launches—probably a significant majority of them—had no public photographic evidence that they happened. But starting in the late 1990s, an Australian space enthusiast by the name of Peter Hunter began collecting photographs of United States Thor, Delta, Atlas, and eventually Titan launches. Hunter was a 747 pilot for Qantas, and during his long layovers in Los Angeles he visited an archive of launch vehicle photos near San Diego. He was able to gain access to it through his professionalism, charm, and Australian accent. Over many years of hard work, he produced a collection of high-resolution scans of as many launches and launch vehicles as possible, later providing copies to multiple museums and historians.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5198/1
73) Strategic celestography and lunar competition: Artemis, CLEP, and the struggle for positional advantage
by Glenn Scofield Monday, April 13, 2026
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The Moon and Earth seen during the Artemis 2 mission. (credit: NASA)
Human exploration of the Moon is often presented as a scientific endeavor, but the scale and scope of contemporary lunar exploration programs suggest that great power competition is expanding into the broader Earth–Moon system. As the United States and China expand their presence beyond geocentric orbit, lunar resource distribution and cislunar orbital dynamics are shaping a new phase of strategic competition. This rivalry increasingly revolves around two evolving lunar architectures: the US-led Artemis campaign and the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program (CLEP) with its Chang’e series of missions. Both programs seek to expand access, presence, and operational reach throughout the Earth–Moon system, and both will grow more capable as commercial launch systems and autonomous spacecraft operations continue to mature.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5199/1
74) Opening the path to the lunar surface
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 13, 2026
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The Orion spacecraft Ingenuity splashes down to conclude the Artemis 2 mission April 10. (credit: NASA/Josh Valcarcel)
The timeline for the Artemis 2 mission included a six-minute blackout during reentry as the Orion spacecraft, entering the atmosphere at nearly 40,000 kilometers per hour, created a plasma sheath the cut off radio communications. Engineers determined exactly when the blackout would begin and when it should end, allowing for communications to resume.
That didn’t mean, though, that controllers weren’t nervous. “Blackout, there’s really no beating around the bush with that,” Rick Henfling, entry flight director, said at a press conference Friday night. “It’s a difficult time because the flight control team wants to see data. We want to look at the data, we want to provide input to the flight crew on how to fly their spaceship. And when we don't have data, we’re trying to figure out what to do with ourselves.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5200/1
75) Artemis 2, Apollo 8, and the problem with history
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, April 13, 2026
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5201a.jpg)
In December 1968, the crew of Apollo 8 flew a risky mission to orbit the Moon for the first time. Was the decision to fly this mission primarily because the LM was not ready and NASA did not want to lose time and momentum, or was it because the CIA concluded that the Soviet Union might attempt such a mission before NASA? (credit: NASA)
Last week, as the Artemis 2 crew looped around the Moon, taking spectacular photos and deftly handling media inquiries, numerous podcasts and news programs had on experts to explain why NASA was conducting this mission, and why it was pursuing the Artemis program to land people on the Moon. The answers were, of course, diverse. There were claims that NASA wants to find and use resources on the Moon like water ice and helium-3. There were statements that this was about competing with China. There were those who pointed out the pork-barrel politics aspects of the program. And, of course, there were the ones who claimed that this was about vision, about exploration, about boldly going where no one has gone before (at least since 1972, anyway.) None of these rationales was convincing, and all of them together are vaguely accurate but unsatisfying. What is lacking today is the clarity of the Cold War and the Apollo program. But even Apollo was a bit less clear than we think.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5201/1
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16/IV 2026 [76-80]
76) Who watches the birds? Cold War era launch vehicle photographs (part 2)
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, April 20, 2026
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Launch of the first KH-11 KENNEN electro-optical satellite in December 1976 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. This satellite established a new and revolutionary capability for the US intelligence community. (credit: John Hilliard Collection)
Starting in the late 1990s, an Australian space enthusiast by the name of Peter Hunter began collecting photographs of United States Thor, Delta, Atlas, and eventually Titan launches. Over many years of hard work, he produced a collection of high-resolution scans of as many launches and launch vehicles as possible, later providing copies to multiple museums and historians.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5202/1
77) When the orbital layer is the kill chain
by Bharath Gopalaswamy Monday, April 20, 2026
AI and drones are getting all the credit. Space is doing most of the work.
(https://www.thespacereview.com/archive/5203a.jpg)
While AI and drones have received most of the attention in the ongoing confict with Iraq, space capabilities have played a critical role. (credit: US Central Command)
In the weeks since Operation Epic Fury began on February 28, 2026, the public debate about artificial intelligence in warfare has focused almost entirely on Maven, on Palantir, on whether an AI model selected the targets struck in Minab, and on the legal and ethical implications of machines operating inside a kill chain. These are real and urgent questions. But they are the wrong questions if what you want to understand is what has fundamentally changed about the character of modern conflict and what is most at risk in the conflict that follows this one.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5203/1
78) Commercial space station developers make their business case to NASA
by Jeff Foust Monday, April 20, 2026
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Commercial space station developer Vast showed off its plans at the 41st Space Symposium while making the case there are sufficient markets for such stations. (credit: Space Symposium)
The general mood of last week’s Space Symposium conference in Colorado Springs was one of celebration of Artemis 2. With splashdown happing the Friday before the conference started, NASA and others used the event to take a victory lap for the first crewed flight to the Moon in more than half a century. (Organizers also likely breathed a sigh of relief that the mission ended before the conference began, ensuring that top NASA officials, including administrator Jared Isaacman, could attend.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5204/1
79) Big little rocket: The N1 Moon rocket and the cognitive dissonance of spy satellite photography
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, April 20, 2026
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Satellite photo of an N1 rocket on its launch pad at Baikonur. The United States tracked the development of the Soviet lunar program primarily using reconnaissance satellites. (credit: via Harry Stranger)
Throughout the 1960s, American reconnaissance satellites overflew the sprawling Soviet launch complex in Kazakhstan, photographing construction and equipment, looking for changes and new developments indicating new Soviet rocket and missile projects. The CIA designated the facility Tyuratam (sometimes Tyura-tam), but the Soviets called it Baikonur. In 1963, a CORONA reconnaissance satellite detected the first signs of a big new construction project, and it would become a key target for American intelligence collection for the remainder of the decade—and remain a bit of an enigma for decades longer.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5205/1
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80) Mirroring mango salad: How ISS culture shaped Artemis 2
by Deana L. Weibel Monday, April 20, 2026
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Astronauts on the ISS (left) and Orion during a ship-to-ship call as part of the Artemis 2 mission, as seen from Mission Control. (credit: NASA JSC/Robert Markowitz)
Artemis 2 has frequently been described as humans returning to the Moon,[1] and it has sometimes been seen as an attempt to pick up where the Apollo missions left off. In truth, however, the Artemis missions, specifically Artemis 2, aren’t exactly either one of those things. The Apollo missions took place in a completely different time period, with a different level of access to technology and during an era when space exploration itself was still new. More than 50 years later, the Artemis 2 mission reflects a transformation that is not just about the use of new programming and equipment but also a significantly changed culture.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5206/1