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ROCKET LAB R SHOW DAILY SHOW Aug. 7, 2019•Visitusat239T stage’s performance during recovery. to survive reentry to measure the 16, will carry a data recorder designed Electron, scheduled tolaunch Aug. Electron flight June 29. Thenext instrumentation on theprevious early this year, includingadding recovery andreuse of thefirststage get that down toone aweek.” Electron every 30days. “We needto pany’s factory current produces one enough rockets,” hesaid.Thecom- having toexpandits factory. the company’s launch rate without launch prices but instead increase the goal of thiseffort isnottoreduce Rocket Lab,saidinaninterview that and launched again. that theycanbeeasily refurbished caught in midair by a helicopter so with theultimate goal of having stages survive reentry at hypersonic speeds, Electron firststagessothat theycan work toinstrument andmodify first stage of Electron launcher Rocket Labtoattemptreuse OFFICIAL SHOW DAILY OF THE33RD AIAA/USUCONFERENCE ON SMALLSATELLITES its launch rate. it toallow thecompany toincrease several months, eventually reusing small launch vehicle over thenext DAY 2 DAY The company started to pursue The company startedtopursue “At themoment we justcan’t build Peter Beck,chief executive of The company hasalready started the first stage of its Electron the firststageof its Electron 6 it will attempt torecover ocket Labannounced Aug. JEFF FOUST stage, descending under a parachute, stage, descending under aparachute, recovery, which involves catching the move into thesecond stageof the said Rocket Labwill immediately New Zealand launch site. downrange from thecompany’s stage splashingdown intheocean stage by the endof theyear, with the possible torecover anElectron first scenario, Beck said it might be to support recovery. In abest-case will include adding components “block upgrade” of therocket, which eighth —Rocket Labplanstodo a tron —theupcoming launch isthe such maneuvers. carry the extra propellant needed for argued, doesn’t have themargin to launch vehicle like theElectron, he engine firingstoslow down. Asmall Electron firststagewon’t do a series of that, unlike SpaceX’s Falcon 9,the proprietary technology. He didnote down because it involves theuseof about how exactly the stage will slow phenomenal.” of energy you have to dissipate is hard to do,” he said. “The amount in 75 seconds. “That is really, really, goes from Mach8.5tonearly zero first stage during reentry, when it wall”: thesudden deceleration of the to getthrough what hedubbed “the Once that is accomplished, Beck Once that isaccomplished, Beck After the10thflight of theElec- Beck declined togo into detail The key challenge, Becksaid,is tems to the Electron first stage should tems totheElectron firststageshould in afactory.” easy to double your production rate said. “That’s amassive win.It’s not essentially double production,” he “Even ifIonly fly it once more, I times eachstagecould beflown. declined tospeculate how many stage andlaunch it again.Beck Rocket Labtoquickly refurbish the to gettingthrough thewall,” hesaid. helicopter piece iseasy, compared helicopter pilot, Icantell you the “skyhook” attachment. “As abudding with ahelicopter equipped with a The sceneat Rocket Lab’sboothat the SmallSat ConferenceonTuesday afternoon. The additional of recovery sys- The midairrecovery will allow have toeat my hat.” is one of those occasions where I going to do reusability,” he said. “This reconsider it. tion, ledhimandthecompany to the pressure to increase produc rocket’s performance, along with of abetterunderstanding of the a small launcher. Thecombination reusability wouldn’t befeasible for performance. overall improvements intherocket’s would likely becounteracted by on the vehicle, which Beck said have only a“marginal payload hit” “For along time, Isaidwe weren’t Beck saidhepreviously believed DAY 2|SPACENEWS SHOW DAILY |1 S N - S debut later thisyear. 2 |SPACENEWS “It’s going tobeahuge boon for theindustry.” and accommodating towork with,” henoted. to Spaceflight and other customers, is “flexible the Indian venture that ismarketing theSSLV to go tospecific orbits. NewSpace India Ltd., a time,meetingneedsof customers that need flight can afford topurchase several vehicles at what’s out there,” headded. of small launch vehicles, it’s much better than bit better”thanrideshares on PSLV. “In terms disclose pricing, Blake saidtheprice is“a little kilograms toSSO. While thecompany didn’t to mid-inclination low Earth orbits and300 especially tosun-synchronous orbit.” is a shortage of launch capacity right now, the Conference on Small Satellites. “And there executive of Spaceflight, inaninterview during good size,” saidCurtBlake, president andchief attractive price point and, for us,it’s areally mance andits cost. of its customers basedon thevehicle’s perfor believes theSSLV will beanideal fit for many services on awide rangeof launch vehicles, with Spaceflight’s announcement. deployed into two orbital planes,consistent The applications said the satellites would be would launch on theSSLV inNovember 2019. sought alicense for four of its satellites it said by Earth imaging company BlackSky Global the Federal Communications Commission customer for themission, aJuly 25filing with than September. a demonstration launch expectednoearlier year and will be thesecond for the SSLV after (PSLV). Thelaunch is scheduled for later this existing, larger Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle Launch Vehicle (SSLV), aderivative of the customer on aflight of theSmall Satellite for anundisclosed U.S. satellite constellation flight of new Indiansmalllauncher Spaceflight buys first commercial SHOWDAILY That price, hesaid,islow enough that Space SSLV will be able to carry up to 500 kilograms “I thinkits hugely exciting because it’s an Spaceflight, which provides rideshare While thecompanies didn’t announcethe Spaceflight saidit will launch payloads new Indian vehicle scheduled tomake its purchase thefirstcommercial launch a paceflight announcedAug. 6that it will JEFF FOUST AD A 2 DAY - - of wrong,” hesaid. by utilizing every bit of capacity there iskind that notoptimizing tobringyour costsdown larger rocket. “Launch issuch ascarce resource anticipated more rideshare missions on that said that even with theintroduction of SSLV he ellites on several previous PSLV launches, and come of the investigation and plans for return satellite for theUnited ArabEmirates. failure of aVega rocket carryinganimaging of theongoing investigation into theJuly 10 September but will likely be postponed because ellites overall. That launch wasscheduled for small launch vehicle, which will carry42 sat- Small Satellite Mission Service flight of the Vega the nextElectron launch, scheduled for Aug. 16. tron launch June 29, and will fly three satellites on seven smallsats on theprevious Rocket LabElec and rideshare smallsat services. The company flew hicles to meet the growing demand for dedicated Spaceflight hasflown more than100sat- Blake saidhewasawaiting toheartheout The company also has payloads on the first Spaceflight isusingawide rangeof launch ve - - - “There is a shortage of isashortageof “There SpaceNews staff writer Caleb Henry contributed contributed Washington. Henry from Caleb article writer this to staff SpaceNews vehicles out there,” hesaid. demand. “We just need more small launch including newsmall launch vehicles, tomeet the failure wasstill at work. the board of inquiryconvened toinvestigate had no updates on the status of the Vega, as officials at theconference saidAug. 5that they asked tobemoved off theflight. Arianespace to flight, but that none of hiscustomers had yet out there.” small launchvehicles now…we just needmore launch capacityright executive Curt Blake, Spaceflightpresident andchief Spaceflight isalso looking for other options, S N

KEITH JOHNSON FOR SPACENEWS

KEITH JOHNSON FOR SPACENEWS U.S. military eager to take advantage of smallsats at scale — if price is right

he U.S. military is eager to take advantage of small satellite constellations Tif the technology proves it can fulfill military requirements and the price is right. If the cost of performing a mission with small satellites in low Earth orbit is seven times as expensive as performing the mission in a different orbit that would be a problem, Col. Dennis Bythewood, U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center program executive officer for space development, said Aug. 5 at the Small Satellite Conference. The Air Force is working with government and industry partners to reduce the cost of small satellite sensors. Companies are developing innovative satellite buses and leading the way on autonomous spacecraft operations, but the military still is looking for missile warning, tac- tical satellite communications and intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance payloads it can “afford to proliferate at the numbers we are after,” Bythewood said during a conference panel, “SmallSats at Scale.” The U.S. Army also sees promise in large constellations of small satellites. Since 2010, the Army has sent more than a dozen experimental small satellites into orbit. “People in the Army are starting to believe this Jim Pruneski of the Army Space and Missile Defense Command, right, and Col. Dennis Bythewood of the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, left, at the Small Satellite Conference on Monday. might actually have some serious operational utility in terms of resilience and persistence,” said Jim Pruneski, Army Space and Missile De- make sense of the flood of data coming from For small satellite manufacturers like Maxar fense Command space and strategic systems large numbers of high-resolution imaging Technologies one of the biggest challenges director. “We are very interested in working satellites, said Jim Crawford, Orbital Insight in producing the spacecraft at scale is cost. with industry to identify new innovative ap- CEO and founder. Government agencies and The cost of some satellite parts is dropping plications, payloads, sensors and communi- companies like Orbital Insight rely on artificial since companies like OneWeb and SpaceX cations capabilities.” intelligence to track objects including rail cars, are ordering thousands of components. Still, Operating large numbers of small satellites trucks, cars and shipping containers. small satellite production doesn’t involve also presents challenges. As more Earth observation satellites begin numbers large enough to apply many of the “One of the biggest things that keeps me delivering higher resolution imagery, gov- industrialization techniques of the automo- awake at night is managing these constella- ernment and commercial customers could bile industry. tions,” Pruneski said. “It’s one thing to task half turn to artificial intelligence to gain a deeper Automakers produce hundreds of thousands a dozen electro-optical or infrared sensors.” understanding of economic conditions and of cars. In contrast, Maxar has built 19 SkySat In the future, military organizations might military activity. Earth observation satellites for Planet. Even be working with much larger remote sensing With artificial intelligence, an agency could SpaceX plans to ultimately launch as many as constellations. Instead of tasking individual count every kind of vehicle at every military 12,000 satellites. satellites, the organizations will have to learn base, every kind of vehicle on every border and “Finding the right balance of industrializa- to employ artificial intelligence to task the identify new airfields and military bases. “We tion versus keeping the best of what we know constellation. would get a much more holistic picture that from legacy space as far as manual construction Artificial intelligence also is necessary to would change the way we think about what and rigorous testing is what we’re looking for,” our adversaries are doing and what’s going on said Ben Randolph, Maxar senior director of DEBRA WERNER militarily in the world,” Crawford said. smallsat production. SN KEITH JOHNSON FOR SPACENEWS KEITH JOHNSON FOR SPACENEWS

DAY 2 | SPACENEWS SHOW DAILY | 3 N 4 |SPACENEWS the moon tomap thelocations andabundance such bodies form. Lunar Trailblazer would orbit two binaryasteroids tobetterunderstand how the Martianatmosphere. Janus would fly past would study theinteraction of thesolarwindwith celeration andDynamics Explorers (EscaPADE) for furtherstudy June 19.Escape andPlasmaAc and have acostnomore than$55million. 180 kilograms, enabling launches as rideshares, required proposed missions tobenolarger than forward with theSIMPLExprogram. That program small spacecraft.” planetary science cancredibly be done with 19 selectedfor studies. “Yes, infact,excellent “tremendous,” with 102proposals submitted and the Conference on Small Satellites. executive for SIMPLEx,during anAug. 4talk at science?” saidCarolyn Mercer, NASA program feasible for deep spacemissions todo excellent selves inplanetaryscience, are smallsats really SmallSats (PSDS3). “We really had to ask our earlier program, PlanetaryScience DeepSpace Exploration, or SIMPLEx,program. part of its Small Innovative Missions for Planetary planetary smallsat missions for furtherstudy as demonstrated in June, when NASA selected three smallsats more feasible. That was mostrecently have made astrophysics andplanetaryscience as well asincreased launch opportunities, operating beyond Earthorbit. science missions had the added challenge of didn’t fit into very small satellites, while planetary ten required larger instruments andoptics that smallsats. Astrophysics missions, however, of requirements fit into traditional limitations of ence whose power, communications andother they canoperate inEarthorbit andperform sci- made useof cubesats andmicrosatellites because tably Earthscience andheliophysics, have long for such missions still facechallenges. considered unsuitable, but efforts tousesmallsats in NASA’s scienceprograms Smallsats gainwideracceptance SHOWDAILY NASA selectedthree missions under SIMPLEx The results of thosestudies ledNASA togo The response from scientists, shesaid,was The SIMPLEx competition came out of an Advances in smallsat technologies, though, Some parts of NASA’s science portfolio, no- where such spacecraftwere previously missions isexpanding to disciplines ASA’s useof small satellites for science JEFF FOUST A 2 DAY - - - of water ice there. were going togetreal good science missions,” positive that, at the$55million costpoint, we SIMPLEx competition. “We weren’t absolutely the quality of theproposals submitted for the science division, saidshewasimpressed with limit of 180kilograms. studies, with acostcap of $35million andsize 2018, NASA selected ninemission concepts for similar smallsat mission concepts. In September they’re mature enough tofly.” opportunity to fly all three if theycanall show ics programs tofundmore. “We may have the with NASA’s lunarexploration andheliophys - may become available through cooperation sion for flight. However, Glaze said funding has fundingtoselectonly one SIMPLExmis- at leasthalf of themwere really outstanding.” July 24. “But we had adozen proposals, and she said at the NASA Exploration Science Forum half ofthemwerereallyoutstanding.” sciencedivision. “Butsions,” saidLoriGlaze,directorofNASA’s wehadadozenproposals,andat least planetary “We weren’tabsolutelypositivethat, at the$55millioncostpoint,weweregoingtogetrealgoodsciencemis- Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s planetary The astrophysics division isalso studying NASA’s planetaryscience program currently astrophysics program.” additional piece of breadth for abalanced during theAAS conference. “It would addan physics division, at aNASA town hall meeting level,” said Paul Hertz, director of NASA’s astro compelling astrophysics at the$35million million depending on thecategory of mission. missions, with costcaps of $35million to$75 the agencyincluded theoption for smallsat Explorers program of astrophysics missions, ence at very modest costs.” clusters. “That will allow us to push for big sci- would perform infrared observations of galaxy of Caltech, who ledthestudy of asmallsat that nically feasible andscientifically useful. concluded that such missions were bothtech- cosmology. Astronomers who ledthestudies Louis, spantopics rangingfrom exoplanets to of theAmerican Astronomical Society inSt. Those studies, presented at aJune meeting “It would begreat ifwe could do really In NASA’s latest call for proposals for its Small “The timefor thisisnow,” sandYun Wang -

NASA

KEITH JOHNSON FOR SPACENEWS TriSept, Millennium, Rocket Lab to demonstrate de-orbit technology

riSept Corp., a launch inte- unfurls the tether with the one that gration and mission man- does not, mission partners will be Tagement company based able to measure how the Terminator in Chantilly, Virginia, announced Tape increases drag and shortens a launch services agreement Aug. the satellite’s on-orbit life span, said 5 with Rocket Lab and Millennium Jason Armstrong, TriSept launch Space Systems for Dragracer, a mis- and integration services director. sion to demonstrate technology to Armstrong predicts one of the de-orbit satellites at the conclusion payloads will reenter Earth’s atmo- of their missions. sphere in two to four weeks, while Rapid growth of the small satellite the other will remain in orbit for industry is raising concerns about eight months to a year. Through the debris in low Earth orbit, making the upcoming flight, mission partners Dragracer mission very timely, TriSept also will learn how large Terminator CEO Rob Spicer told SpaceNews. Tapes need to be for spacecraft of Millennium, a Boeing subsidiary, various sizes, he added. is designing and building the 25-ki- TriSept plans to integrate the logram Dragracer satellite, which is Dragracer spacecraft with the scheduled to launch in early 2020 launch vehicle and procure the TriSept CEO Rob Spicer says the smallsat industry’s rapid growth is raising concerns on a Rocket Lab Electron launch small satellite dispenser. TriSept about debris in low Earth orbit. vehicle to a 400-kilometer circular also is working with Millennium sun synchronous orbit. and Rocket Lab to obtain the nec- Scardera, Millennium Space Systems the potential of the Terminator Once in orbit, the Dragracer essary regulatory approvals from advanced concepts vice president, Tape to reduce space debris. “There satellite will split into two payloads. government agencies in the United said in a statement. “It is the first in needs to be a way to take a satellite One will unfurl Tethers Unlimited’s States and New Zealand. a series of critical project missions out of orbit without adding a lot Terminator Tape, a conductive tape “The Dragracer mission is all we expect to launch with TriSept. of cost and complexity,” he said. designed to produce enough drag about providing an affordable, By working with such a seasoned Since it was founded in 1994, to lower the satellite’s orbit. effective and scalable solution to support crew, we can focus on TriSept has integrated more than By comparing the payload that the orbital debris challenge facing building the best flight solutions 200 satellites on 20 different the LEO small satellite market and for today’s challenges in space.” launch vehicles at 13 launch sites, DEBRA WERNER the global space industry,” Mike Armstrong is optimistic about Spicer said. SN

Cost and launch issues cost databases, the cost was much with that much higher cost cap, of NASA’s Psyche mission. Smallsat science missions face higher, breaking the $35 million cap. some proposed missions found Glaze, speaking at a meeting difficulties, though. Among them “The worry we all have is that it difficult to stay within it. of the Mars Exploration Program is how missions are priced using this goes in, gets evaluated, and For the SIMPLEx competition, Analysis Group July 26, said plan- existing cost models for NASA they use their standard models NASA set a cost range of $15–55 etary smallsats would largely be missions. At the AAS meeting, and it comes in at $60 million,” million. “We were expecting to limited to rideshare opportunities some astronomers complained said Jack Burns of the University make selections across that range on other NASA missions. “Within they had difficult fitting their of Colorado, who led a study of of costs to encourage people to planetary, this is a real challenge,” missions within the $35 million cosmology mission called DAP- come in lower,” she said. “The short she acknowledged. cost cap. PER. “That’s a major risk on cost, answer is they didn’t.” Despite those challenges, Glaze Michael Shao of JPL, who led a and you’re done.” Launch is also a challenge, said she was convinced smallsats study of an exoplanet search mis- Cost is also a problem for the particularly for planetary science could play an important role in sion called MicroArcsecond Small planetary science smallsat mis- missions. While Lunar Trailblazer NASA’s overall planetary science Satellite, said that one estimate, sions. Mercer said that, in the can launch on any mission to program. “I will admit I was not based on quotes from various PSDS3 studies, teams were given a geostationary transfer orbit, both one who really saw there was a vendors, came in at $24 million. cost cap of $100 million to loosen EscaPADE and Janus plan to fly as future there,” she said. “I’m now KEITH JOHNSON FOR SPACENEWS But using more traditional NASA constraints on concepts. But even secondary payloads on the launch becoming a convert.” NASA KEITH JOHNSON FOR SPACENEWS SN

DAY 2 | SPACENEWS SHOW DAILY | 5 SHOW DAILY DAY 2 FCC’s streamlined licensing rules seen as boon for smallsat industry

“The FCC put a The new licensing adopted Aug. 1 mean smallsat operators won’t very clear box have to weigh those regulatory cons around the type when deciding on the U.S. as a home country or seeking market access. of assets that Christian Zur, council executive this will cover, for the Chamber of Commerce’s Procurement and Space Industry and by doing Council, said the licensing should that it made the be implemented quickly, but noted the FCC has a statutory 90-day con- licensing process gressional notice and wait period for quite cheap, changes to fee schedules. quite easy and Operators will be able to use the streamlined licensing for satellites hopefully quite that, weigh 180 kilograms or less, quick.” operate below 600 kilometers (or have propulsion) and will deorbit Dara Panahy, head of Milbank’s within six years, among other criteria. transportation and space group “The FCC put a very clear box around the type of assets that this will cover, and by doing that it made he U.S. Federal Commu- the licensing process quite cheap, nications Commission’s quite easy and hopefully quite quick,” streamlined licensingAD rules Panahy said. During the Obama administration, Ajit Pai called the FCC’s satellite licensing rules T a relic from the 1960s. On Aug. 1, the FCC chairman delivered on his promise to for small satellites sailed through The biggest burden, he and others streamline regulations for satellites weighing 180 kilograms or less. a vote Aug. 1, establishing a path said, has been the $472,000 fee to for companies to secure spectrum obtain a spectrum license. rights much faster and cheaper than “I have talked to some of the licenses could take six months or less evaluating potential signal interfer- current regulations allow. companies that have filed outside because of their reduced oversight. ence to gauging the risk of creating Under the optional licensing of the United States and they have Swarm, the smallsat operator that orbital debris — incurs costs that regime, which stands to take effect noted that the fees and cost of filing was fined last year for launching four the FCC passes on to applicants, this year, smallsat operators with in other jurisdictions is a factor to go satellites without an FCC license, has experts said. spacecraft that meet certain criteria ahead and incorporate elsewhere,” said the slowness and complexity “When it comes to regulatory re- will be able to obtain a spectrum said Satellite Industry Association of the FCC’s process was partly to gimes, the U.S. tends to be the most license about twice as fast and President Tom Stroup. blame. Swarm’s hockey puck-sized sophisticated and stringent, and that pay only $30,000 instead of nearly Experts said reducing the fee to spacecraft, however, are too small includes the FCC,” Greenfield said. $500,000. A maximum of 10 satellites $30,000 will encourage startups to to qualify for a streamlined license Other countries, according to at a time can be licensed under the stay in the U.S. since the new rules require satellites Panahy, often lack the FCC’s en- streamline process. How long streamlined licenses to measure at least 10 centimeters gineering acumen, and can’t vet For the past few years, smallsat would take to process is not yet on their smallest side. satellite operators as diligently. By companies in remote sensing, asset known, but the expectation is that creating a separate regime for smallsat tracking and telecommunications it will be much shorter than a tradi- WHY SO EXPENSIVE? licenses that don’t require as much have been making rounds among tional 47 CFR Part 25 license used Before Ajit Pai became chairman due diligence, the FCC won’t have federal regulators in Washington for non-geosynchronous satellite of the FCC in 2017, he was on the to do as much work, and can lower expressing a “measure of frustra- systems. Those can take a year or record for wanting simpler satellite its fees accordingly, he said. tion” about how difficult regulations more, said SmallSat Alliance Pres- regulations. As a commissioner “There’s tremendous value in make it to deploy a low-cost system ident Steve Nixon, which can be during the Obama administration, what the FCC does,” added Nixon. in space, said Dara Panahy, head of especially burdensome for startups Pai called the FCC’s satellite licens- “I’m glad they made what seems Milbank’s transportation and space relying on outside investment, rather ing rules a relic from the 1960s, long to be a real attempt to improve group. than revenue, to fund operations. overdue for modernization. their application fees and try to Milbank associate Lafayette Green- But the level of scrutiny the FCC accommodate the differences with CALEB HENRY/SPACENEWS EXOLAUNCH CALEB HENRY field said he expects streamlined gives traditional applications — from small satellites.” SN

6 | SPACENEWS Exolaunch qualifies, begins selling microsatellite separation system

erman launch services provider Exolaunch sees strong demand for the microsatellite Gseparation system, CarboNIX, it qualified on the July 5 Soyuz rideshare mission. Exolaunch integrated 28 of the 32 small satellites that traveled to orbit alongside Russia’s Meteor M2-2 weather satellite. In the past, Exolaunch relied on its own EXOpod cubesat deployer and EXObox cubesat sequencer but purchased separation systems from other companies. Exolaunch has integrated 84 microsatellites flown on rideshare missions to date. Based on its experience, the company designed a “shock-free separation system” for microsatellites weighing 15 to 150 kilograms, said Connor Jonas, Exolaunch project manager. “This shock-free system reduces the risk that sensitive electronics are damaged or delicate optical instruments become misaligned.” Exolaunch’s CarboNIX is a “shock-free separation system “ for microsatellites weighing 15 to 150 kilograms. Exolaunch plans to rely on CarboNIX for its Exolaunch plans to rely on CarboNIX for its own rideshare customers. own rideshare customers.“Having our own microsatellite separation system gives us control “We have already received strong interest in system. “Our lab in Berlin can support individu- over production and lead times, reducing the risk CarboNIX from microsatellite manufacturers in alized qualification campaigns for our custom- of delays,” Jonas said by email. Since Exolaunch North America, Europe and Asia,” Jonas said. er’s microsatellites, including a separation test,” produces CarboNIX in-house, the company can “We had a number of pre-orders before the flight Jonas said. accept satellites for rideshare clusters close to a qualification and now we’re ready to deliver these For the July 5 Soyuz flight, Exolaunch inte- launch date, he added. units to our customers.” grated 28 microsatellites on the Fregat upper In addition to employing CarboNIX for its own Exolaunch designed and manufactures Car- stage for customers from Germany, France, the flights, Exolaunch is selling the separation system boNIX in Germany. As a result, it’s not subject to United States, Israel and the United Kingdom. to other launch service providers. stringent export regulations that can delay pur- The smallest satellite Exolaunch integrated on the chases, Jonas said. rideshare mission was only 2.5 centimeters on a DEBRA WERNER CarboNIX is designed to adapt to any launch side and the largest were 16-unit cubesats. SN

In a first, Morpheus electric thrusters changed attitude of University Würzburg cubesat he University Würzburg announced at the which combine a liquid gallium propellant with challenging to produce is a miniature propul- Small Satellite Conference that onboard a chip-based neutralizer, for slightly more than sion system. T electric thrusters changed the attitude of six minutes. “The challenge lies partly in the electronics a cubesat measuring 10 centimeters on a side, a While the thrusters fired, the satellite’s rotation and partly in the materials,” Lőrincz said. Nano- first for such a miniature satellite. increased from approximately 1.7 degrees per sec- FEEP thrusters generate high voltage in a very “This was the official proof that our thrusters ond to more than 4 degrees per second, according small space.” work in space,” said István Lőrincz, co-founder to a paper University Würzburg presented at the During the recent on-orbit demonstration, of Morpheus Space, a spinoff of the Institute of Small Satellite Conference. the Morpheus thrusters did not produce thrust Aerospace Engineering of Technical University In the weeks ahead, the University Würzburg in a single direction as expected. A portion of the Dresden. plans to continue testing the miniature thrusters. ion plume created by the thrusters hit the cubesat The University Würzburg Experimental Sat- “There are a lot of test planned including orbit antenna, creating “a torque in an undesired di- ellite 4 has four 160-gram Morpheus Nano Field change and also a simulated collision avoidance rection,” according to the paper. Effect Electric Propulsion (NanoFEEP) thrusters maneuver,” Lőrincz told SpaceNews. Despite that issue, the paper notes, “A milestone integrated in its rails, facing the same direction. Companies are racing to develop miniature in the 1U cubesat development was reached with CALEB HENRY/SPACENEWS EXOLAUNCH In May, mission controllers fired the thrusters, technologies for cubesats. One of the most the activation of an electric propulsion system.” SN

DAY 2 | SPACENEWS SHOW DAILY | 7 and letthecountdownbegin. anyone seriousaboutspace.Grab thepopcorn in onthemust-seerealisticspace moviesfor Apollo 11, To of helpcommemoratethe50thanniversary 8 |SPACENEWS rated 94%fresh by review-aggregator Rotten Academy Awards includingBestPicture and find out what theywant. Nominated for eight contact with the seven-limbed ‘heptapods’ and Renner) are recruited by themilitary tomake Adams) and physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy around the globe, linguist LouiseBanks (Amy liths sinc When adozen of themostmysterious mono 11. Arrival (2016) anyone seriousaboutspace 11 must-see spacemovies for SHOWDAILY e 2001: A Space Odyssey Space A 2001: e SpaceNews A 2 DAY drop anchor asked readers toweigh - on who you asked. For Homer Hickam Jr. and or apointless science experiment, depending Sputnik waseither aharbingerof Soviet doom To asmall town of West Virginia coal miners, 10. OctoberSky(1999) who don’t like movies about aliens.” buster” anda“movie about aliens for people language lesson masquerading asablock Tomatoes, Arrival has been described as “a - roads for rocket parts,launching DIY rockets than holdshovels. Between scavenging rail- hope that theycould do more with theirlives his friends, thefirstartificial satellite instilled Sky American movies released before 2005, Film Institute’s top 100listof most inspiring coal-miner father. Nominated for theAmerican relationship between himandhisintractable it isfor thechallenging yet farfrom monolithic portrayal of Homer’s risetospacenotoriety as NASA, for on the true story of how Hickam went to work of down at theirdwindling coal reserves. Based a dying town tolook upward tospaceinstead Hickam and hisbandof misfit friends inspired endary rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, striking up a pen-pal relationship with leg on sometimes frightening trajectories, and remains afavorite of spaceenthusiasts. October Sky October isjustasrevered for its October October -

ALL PHOTOS VIA MOVIESTILLSDB

9. Gravity (2013) Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong” by James then a near future with rotating space stations The Kessler Syndrome gets the Hollywood R. Hansen. The film, which won an Academy visited by Pan Am space shuttles, a moon base, treatment in this low-Earth-orbit thriller star- Award for best visual effects, follows Armstrong and a mission to Jupiter — as well as a mysteri- ring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney as from a 1961 test flight of the X-15 spaceplane to ous black monolith and a murderous computer. Hubble repair astronauts stranded in space the conclusion of the Apollo 11 mission. (According to Michael Benson’s recent book when a Russian anti-satellite missile sets off While focusing on Armstrong’s spaceflight Space Odyssey, Kubrick originally wanted the a thrilling but unrealistically swift sequence career, First Man depicts the astronaut’s grief monolith to be clear, but the resulting Plexiglass of orbital debris strikes that cripple the duo’s after the death of his two-year-old daughter design had a greenish tint. At a designer’s sug- space shuttle and leaves LEO looking like a 20- Karen and close friends Elliot See and Ed White. gestion, Kubrick decided to make the monolith car pileup. Despite Gravity’s sometimes flimsy First Man also explores the toll the inherent black.) Although some aspects of the film seem physics and technical goofs, it also manages to danger of early space program took on the dated now — like those Pan Am shuttles — the get enough details right to make it a SpaceNews astronauts, their wives and families. film remains a cinematic masterpieces more reader favorite. Critics loved it, too, which helps than a half-century after its debut. explain how this visually stunning drama about 5. Interstellar (2014) isolation, fear and survival won seven Oscars, This mind-bending, dystopian thriller from 2. The Martian (2015) the most of any movie that year. Christopher Nolan (Inception, The Dark Knight) Waking up stranded from everyone you know stars Matthew McConaughey as an astronaut and forced to plant potatoes in your own fe- 8. Contact (1997) turned farmer recruited to find a new home ces to survive would be a bad day on Earth, let For decades, astronomers have been scan- planet for a dwindling population struggling alone Mars. But that’s what happens to NASA ning the skies for radio signals from other to survive global crop failures and freaky dust astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) in The civilizations. What happens when they find storms. Nothing is quite what it seems in this Martian when a massive dust storm forces his something? That’s the tale of Contact, which not-too-distant future where humankind has team of scientists to leave him behind on the Red stars Jodie Foster as Ellie Arroway, a radio as- beaten its spaceships into plowshares, NASA Planet. Based on Andy Weir’s bestselling book tronomer compelled since childhood to look has gone underground and children are taught of the same name, Watney elects to “science the for signals from alien worlds even as others the Apollo moon landings were faked. Stunning sh*t” out of his situation, literally and figura- warn that she is throwing away a promising visual effects won an Oscar for this sci-fi epic tively, to survive in an abandoned outpost until scientific career. When that search does find praised by notoriously nitpicky Neil de Grasse rescue. Recognized for its gripping storytelling an extraterrestrial signal, she’s thrust into de- Tyson for its scientifically sound depiction of and a dedication to getting its scientific details cidedly terrestrial conflicts about deciphering wormhole travel, black holes and relativity. (mostly) right, The Martian was nominated for the message and using it to make contact seven Oscars and listed among the American with whoever, or whatever, sent it from the 4. The Right Stuff (1983) Film Institute’s top 10 movies of 2015. star Vega. The film is based on a novel by Carl This 1983 historical drama, based on Tom Sagan, who modeled Arroway after real-life Wolfe’s book of the same name, contrasts 1. Apollo 13 (1995) SETI astronomer Jill Tarter. the exploits of Chuck Yeager and other test “Houston, we have a problem.” That’s not exactly pilots flying rocket-powered planes over the what Jim Lovell said after an explosion rocked 7. Hidden Figures (2016) California desert in relative obscurity with his Apollo 13 spacecraft en route to the moon in Capturing, as the name suggests, the story the national celebrity of the Project Mercury 1970 (“Houston, we’ve had a problem,” is what of those not seen, this retelling of Katherine astronauts. The Right Stuff shows the gruel- he actually said) but that version, uttered by Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn and Mary Jackson’s ing medical and physical tests the Mercury Lovell (Tom Hanks) in the movie, became an work at NASA spotlights their vital contribu- Seven endured to qualify for spaceflight and instant catchphrase that lives on in the public tion as mathematicians to getting John Glenn highlights the dangers they faced in the early consciousness to this day. (Similarly, “Failure to space and back in one piece. These three space program. is not an option” was invented for the movie African American women, and many of their The film was criticized by some Mercury and remains popular today, although flight colleagues, calculated trajectories and other Seven astronauts for historical inaccuracy but director Gene Kranz liked the phrase so much critical numbers for the Mercury program praised by film critics who were at a loss to he used it several years later as the title of his while overcoming segregation and sexism explain its lackluster box office returns. The autobiography.) Those dialogue inaccuracies in the early 1960s. Though not as famous as Right Stuff was nominated for eight Academy aside, Apollo 13 hews closely to the real-life the astronauts they helped reach orbit, the Awards including best picture. It won four Os- events of that mission as Lovell, Fred Haise mathematicians gained belated notoriety cars for sound, original score, sound-effects (Bill Paxton) and Jack Swigert (Kevin Bacon) through the Oscar-nominated film. Among editing and film editing. fight to bring their crippled spacecraft back its champions is NASA, whose headquarters to Earth with the support and ingenuity of now lies on Hidden Figures Way, and whose 3. 2001: A Space the Mission Control team led by Kranz (Ed software validation facility in West Virginia Odyssey (1968) Harris, who also played John Glenn in The bears Katherine Johnson’s name. An epic, if at times enigmatic, saga that took Right Stuff.) The gripping drama showed that, director Stanley Kubrick years to complete, while Apollo 11 may have achieved the goal of 6. First Man (2019) 2001: A Space Odyssey goes from humanity’s landing humans on the moon, the rescue of Ryan Gosling stars as Neil Armstrong in this origins in Africa to a “Starchild” at the end. It’s Apollo 13 may have been, as Kranz says in the 2018 biographical drama based on the book “First best known, though, for its time in what was movie, NASA’s finest hour. ALL PHOTOS VIA MOVIESTILLSDB SN

DAY 2 | SPACENEWS SHOW DAILY | 9 SHOW DAILY DAY 2

Q&A Buoyed by buyout, Cobham in hot pursuit of megaconstellation work Cobham accepted a U.S. private equity group’s $5 billion offer July 25 to take the “This may be the time British defense and aerospace contractor private. The buyout comes as Cobham’s Advanced Electronic Solutions group, which derives 25% of its revenue from space that Space 2.0, or and counts OneWeb as a customer for approximately 40,000 waveguides, is gearing NewSpace, takes off.” up to support more broadband constellations. Shawn Black, president, Cobham SpaceNews staff writer Caleb Henry spoke with Cobham Advanced Electronic Advanced Electronic Solutions Solutions President Shawn Black, a Leonardo DRS veteran promoted last month from chief operating officer, to find out what’s in store for CAES’s spacecraft component business and where it sees itself in the growing small satellite market.

How do volume requirements of megacon- been starts and stops in the past, but I think meet on-time delivery. CAES has been very stellations impact your business? one of the differences this time is there’s lots good with quality. That’s a strong point. We We’ve invested in capital equipment to be of big private money going into the market. don’t want to sacrifice quality. We are on a able to handle the volume of OneWeb and Not everyone will survive, but we’ve prepared journey to improve on-time delivery. We’ve constellations like OneWeb, and to be able early. OneWeb is obviously a big deal for us, made improvements and we want to continue to handle more than one at a time. We have as are the others we’re pursuing. We are bet- to do that, and it’s through focusing on these several factories around the United States that ting that this goes, but we don’t want to do areas: how we execute contracts, how we do can offload the burden depending on what anything that would disrupt our traditional planning, continuous improvement initiatives, happens with the market. customer set. all those types of things. We do have the capacity, and there’s alternate manufacturing techniques for the technologies One of Cobham’s goals is to make CAES more Where is CAES investing its R&D funding? we’re providing that allow us to scale faster and profitable, like its other divisions. What is Our focus has been primarily around SWAP-C deal with the volumes. We’re investing in new your strategy to do that? improvements — space, weight, power and cost ways to manufacture. It’s defining an operational framework. Some — to enable that market. We are leveraging our of the tenets of that strategy involve putting packaging capabilities and our Gallium Nitride Geostationary satellite orders seem to bids together with more thorough due diligence processing technologies into our architecture. be doing a little better this year. Do you based on estimates, and identifying risks and The need for higher data rates is driving a need have more hope in those, or in broadband fully understanding all the requirements we’re for higher frequencies, and we’re focused on the megaconstellations? being asked to address with our bid. technologies that support those things. There We want to balance both, but we think this Another is associated with operational are several things associated with engineering may be the time that Space 2.0, or NewSpace, improvements within manufacturing, sales, and manufacturing that are going to enable us takes off. It’s still in its infancy and there have operations planning, and how we work to to support the megaconstellation market. SN COBHAM ADVANCED ELECTRONIC SOLUTIONS

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