Since the successful return to flight of Falcon 9 in December, the recent launch to the International Space Station marks the 8th consecutive successful launch and the ninth commercial resupply mission for the company. SpaceX also attempted and successfully landed its first stage back in Cape Canaveral, making it two for two for ground landings and five out of ten landing attempts. Among its cargo, it carried the International Docking Adapter for the ISS, TangoLab-1, radiation-eating fungi, Nanoracks Plate Reader-2, a DNA sequencer, and heart and bone cell experiments. Following the arrival of Dragon to the station, NASA announced an order for a second crew Dragon, matching the two orders Boeing has received. SpaceX is also planning to expand their landing pad selection. Image from NASA
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Reaction Engines Ltd. announced a €10M contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) to develop a grounded demonstrator for their SABRE engine. The SABRE engine is a novel combined cycle engine that could potentially help single stage to orbit (SSTO) flight brecome a reality. This funding represents the last piece of a UK Space Agency grant that Reaction Engines earned in December 2015. Franco Ongaro, Technical Director of ESA said, "Reaction Engines and ESA have been working together since 2008 to make the SABRE concept a reality. This new contract marks an important milestone in our continued collaboration to mature the SABRE engine design. It should take us to a point where we can expect to be testing a demonstrator engine in 2020." Image from BBC
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NASA has issued a request for information (RFI) on how "limited availability, unique International Space Station capabilities" could support commercial development in orbit. In particular, NASA is looking for proposals for future use of the aft docking port on the Tranquility Module. Bigelow Aerospace's BEAM is currently mounted here, but only has the space for two years. After which, NASA wants to open the port for commercial use. "We essentially have one of the ports on the space station that we're going to make available to the private sector to go utilize how they want," said Bille Gerstenmaier, NASA Associate Administrator. Robert Bigelow has stated that although the BEAM test is only planned for two years, the company is still in discussion with NASA about installing a more permanent B330 module on the station.
Image from NASA
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Terminal Velocity Aerospace (TVA) has received a NASA Phase III Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract for "Low-Cost Small Reentry Devices to Enhance Space Commerce and ISS Utilization." TVA will be launching three RED-Data2 devices to the ISS on an upcoming Cygnus cargo vehicle. As the vehicle burns up in the atmosphere, the devices will break off and reenter on their own, collecting data for TVA. Image from TVA
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On Blue Origin's most recent flight, the company intentionally failed one of the craft's three parachutes. With only two chutes remaining, the craft descended nearly 50% faster than normal. As the craft approached the ground, its retrorockets fired as expected, trimming most of the speed before impact. Upon impact, the craft's crushable bumper ring took the remainder of the force, distorting by less than 10%. Blue Origin says they've designed the craft to land safely with two chutes failed. Though they haven't tested that scenario yet, the company is now much more confident that an astronaut could safely land with one failed chute.
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On July 12, Planet Labs contracted three dedicated launches from Rocket lab's Electron launch vehicle. These three launches will be used to increase the size of Planet's flock of Dove satellites that monitor the surface of the Earth for agricultural, humanitarian, and intelligence purposes. Launches are expected to begin in 2017. Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck stated that, "Rocket Lab's priority for Electron has always been to enable our customers by providing the affordable and frequent service they need to meet their objectives."
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XCOR Aerospace has signed a strategic Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with spaceplane design company Orbital Access Limited as well as Glasgow Prestwick Spaceport. This partnership is supported by Scottish Enterprise, the Scottish government's economic development agency. The MoU paves the way for the establishment of manned launch services at Prestwick using XCOR's Lynx spacecraft with support from existing Scottish aerospace organisations. The space launch service would be run by Orbital Access Limited as the first of a network of similar services at emerging horizontal launch spaceports worldwide.
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"This collection of papers identifies a number of important policy questions that will be of rising importance as NASA transitions human spaceflight in LEO to the private sector, as well as a number of economic analysis methods for addressing those questions. Life off of the Earth is a new field of social and economic organization that will have vast implications for our evolution and our future. Economic development in orbit is necessary for that future growth. It is our hope that this volume may serve to guide decisions and spark the intellectual curiosity of space policy makers, NASA program managers, economic researchers, and all others interested in the continued economic development of human spaceflight." - Steele, D. (Ed.). (2016, July 11).
Economic Development of Low Earth Orbit. Retrieved July 24, 2016, from [Link]
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Following its first cooperation agreement with ESA seven years ago, Cyprus signed the European Cooperating State Agreement on July 6. The objective of the new agreement, which has a duration of five years, is to associate Cyprus with ESA programs and activities for possible future accession to the ESA Convention. The country has demonstrated capabilities specifically in the Earth observation area, including water resources, forest monitoring, agricultural mapping, maritime surveillance, environment protection and urban development. Space science, navigation, telecom and integrated applications, and space situational awareness are other areas for potential projects.
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Christine Anderson Steps Down [Link]
Alan Stern Stamp to Pluto [Link]
New Commercial Spaceflight Federation Website [Link]
Nanoracks' New Plate Reader
[Link]
Manufacturing Optical Fiber on Orbit
[Link]
Baylor College NASA Institute [Link]
Bezos, Pahlka, Tyson Named to Defense Innovation Advisory Board [Link]
Orbital, ECAPS Sign for Green Propulsion Tech [Link]
Intelligence Agencies Announce New Cooperation on Commercial Imagery [Link]
OneWeb Hires Airbus Veteran as CEO [Link]
SpaceIL Tests Lander Engine [Link]
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This month, Bob Zubrin of The Mars Society, and Kim Holder of Moonwards.com
share their respective
newspace initiatives with Dr. David Livingston on The Space Show.
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OTHER COOL THINGS
A Year on Earth From a Million Miles Away
[video]
Marvel Rocket Groot Patch for ISS
[Link]
Mouser ISS Challenge
[Link]
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UPCOMING LAUNCHES
Aug 14
Falcon 9 - JCSAT 16
Aug 19
Delta 4 - AFSPC 6
Aug 22
Antares - OA-5
Aug 24
Ariane 5 - Intelsat 33e, 36
Aug 28
GSLV - Insat 3DR
Aug TBD
Long March 2D - Quantum Science Satellite
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NEWSPACE MENTIONS IN THIS ISSUE
APT
Aerojet Rocketdyne
Airbus
Airbus Safran Launchers
Arianespace
Bigelow Aerospace
Blue Origin
Boeing
Commercial Spaceflight Federation
Glasgow Prestwick Spaceport
Goonhilly Earth Station
Moon Express
Nanoracks
OmniEarth
OneWeb
Orbital Access
Orbital ATK
Planet Labs
Reaction Engines
Rocket Lab
Safran
Sierra Nevada Corp
Space Florida
Space Systems Loral
SpaceIL
SpaceX
Surrey Satellite Technology
Terminal Velocity Aerospace
UrtheCast
Vector Space
XCOR Aerospace
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