The Space Review

[Orionid]

46/XI 2020 [216-220]

216) Review: Spacepower Ascendant
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 23, 2020



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


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


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


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


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

[Orionid]

47/XI 2020 [221-225]

221) Review: Black Hole Survival Guide
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 30, 2020



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



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


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


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


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

[Orionid]

48/XII 2020 [226-230]

226) Review: Operation Moonglow
by Jeff Foust Monday, December 7, 2020



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



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


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


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


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

[Orionid]

49/XII 2020 [231-235]

231) Review: How to Astronaut
by Jeff Foust Monday, December 14, 2020



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


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


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


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


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

[Orionid]

50/XII 2020 [236-240]

236) Review: Cosmic Odyssey by Jeff Foust
Monday, December 21, 2020



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


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


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


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


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!)

[Orionid]

1/I 2021 [1-4]

1) Review: Stephen Hawking: A Memoir of Friendship and Physics
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 4, 2021



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

2) Why I’m flying to space to do research aboard Virgin Galactic
by Alan Stern Monday, January 4, 2021


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

3) Catalonia’s space ambitions
by Marçal Sanmartí Monday, January 4, 2021


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

4) Can space bridge a widening partisan divide?
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 4, 2021


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

[Orionid]

2/I 2021 [5-8]

5) Review: Extraterrestrial
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 11, 2021



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

6) Arecibo telescope’s fall is indicative of global divide around funding science infrastructure
by Raquel Velho Monday, January 11, 2021


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.


https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4102/1

7) What will space security look like in 2021?
by Nayef Al-Rodhan Monday, January 11, 2021


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

8 ) European space in a time of transition
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 11, 2021


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

[Orionid]

3/I 2021 [9-12]

9) A possible Biden space agenda
by Roger Handberg Monday, January 18, 2021


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

10) A review of space strategy worldviews (part 1): 2011 National Security Space Strategy
by Christopher M. Stone Monday, January 18, 2021


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

11) Comparing the 2010 and 2020 National Space Policies
by Laura Brady and Charles Ellsey Monday, January 18, 2021


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

12) Green Run, yellow light
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 18, 2021


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

[Orionid]

4/I 2021 [13-17]

13) Review: Envisioning Exoplanets
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 25, 2021



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

14) In memoriam: Kellam de Forest, who gave us Stardates and the Gorn
by Glen E. Swanson Monday, January 25, 2021


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

15) Terrain analysis for space warfare
by D. Grant Greffey Monday, January 25, 2021


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

16) Soyuz plans unclear as the 60th anniversary of Gagarin’s flight approaches
by Tony Quine Monday, January 25, 2021


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

17) Smallsat launch: big versus small
by Jeff Foust Monday, January 25, 2021


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

[Orionid]

5/II 2021 [18-21]

18) What to do with that olde space station
by Eric Choi Monday, February 1, 2021


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

19) A long journey but a short stay on Mars
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 1, 2021


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

20) The secret history of Britain’s involvement in the Strategic Defense Initiative
by Aaron Bateman Monday, February 1, 2021


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

21) “Space ethics” according to space ethicists
by James S.J. Schwartz and Tony Milligan Monday, February 1, 2021


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

[Orionid]

6/II 2021 [22-25]

22) Review: The Mission
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 8, 2021


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

23) It is very cold in space: Season 2 of “For All Mankind”
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, February 8, 2021


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

24) How can you improve the Outer Space Treaty?
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 8, 2021


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

25) EKS: Russia’s space-based missile early warning system
by Bart Hendrickx Monday, February 8, 2021


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

[Orionid]

7/II 2021 [26-29]

26) Review: Cosmic Careers
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 15, 2021



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

27) Global navigation satellite systems: a Symbiotic Realist paradigm
by Nayef Al-Rodhan Monday, February 15, 2021


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

28) Reflecting core American values in the competition for the final economic frontier
by Josh Carlson Monday, February 15, 2021


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

29) Space investors head to the exits, at last
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 15, 2021


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

[Orionid]

8/II 2021 [30-33]

30) In memoriam: Taylor Dinerman
by Christopher M. Stone Monday, February 22, 2021


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

31) The promise of return on investment does not disappear in cislunar space and beyond
by Vidvuds Beldavs Monday, February 22, 2021


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

32) NASA tests the perseverance of some space enthusiasts
by Svetoslav Alexandrov Monday, February 22, 2021


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

33) It only looks easy: Perseverance lands on Mars
by Jeff Foust Monday, February 22, 2021


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

[Orionid]

9/III 2021 [34-38]

34) Review: Liftoff
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 1, 2021



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

35) Review: Apollo 11: Quarantine
by Christopher Cokinos Monday, March 1, 2021



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

36) India’s foray into the commercial space market
by Ajey Lele
Monday, March 1, 2021


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

37) Don’t move US Space Command
by Matthew Jenkins Monday, March 1, 2021


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

38) Waiting is the hardest part
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 1, 2021


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

[Orionid]

10/III 2021 [39-42]

39) Review: First Light
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 8, 2021



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

40) The enduring fantasy of space hotels
by A.J. Mackenzie Monday, March 8, 2021


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

41) The new era of private human orbital spaceflight
by Jeff Foust Monday, March 8, 2021


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

42) Putting the SpaceX-FAA dispute in context
by Wayne Eleazer Monday, March 8, 2021


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