OCTOBER 20, 2014 EARTH SCIENCE Watching El Niño See page 12 www.spacenews.com VOLUME 25 ISSUE 41 $4.95 ($7.50 Non-U.S.) PROFILE/22> A Decade into a New Spaceflight Era, REP. MIKE ROGERS A Mixture of Frustration and Optimism (R-ALA.), CHAIRMAN, JEFF FOUST, LAS CRUCES, N.M. U.S. HOUSE ARMED SERVICES STRATEGIC FORCES SUBCOMMITTEE en years after the com- pletion of the Ansari X TPrize appeared to open a new era of commercial human spaceflight, company executives INSIDE THIS ISSUE and government officials at a commercial space conference CIVIL SPACE expressed a mixture of optimism about the future of the industry and impatience at the perceived Obama Taps MIT Professor for NASA Deputy lack of progress over the last Dava Newman, President Barack Obama’s choice to succeed Lori Garver as NASA deputy admin- decade. istrator, still needs to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. See story, page 5 “I’m actually quite frustrated with the pace of commercial space,” said Brett Alexander, NASA Pulling the Plug on Sunjammer Mission director of business development Instead of the light-propelled Sunjammer spacecraft it signed up for, NASA will have only blueprints and strategy for Blue Origin, when it lets a 4-year-old contract for the solar sail mission lapse in December. See story, page 4 the privately funded spaceflight company led by Amazon.com LAUNCH INDUSTRY founder Jeff Bezos. “It really has been frustrating Alaska Puts Up $21M To Lure Launch Business to be 10 years into commercial The operator of an underutilized Alaska launch site is offering more than $20 million to launch space, 10 years from the X Prize, and not see a proliferation of companies in a bid to attract a larger class of launch vehicles. See story, page 7 activity, of people flying regu- larly,” he said in a presentation Aerojet Takes a Loss on AJ-26 Problems at the International Symposium Aerojet Rocketdyne took a $17.5 million loss last quarter because of issues with the AJ-26 en- for Personal and Commercial gine that it provides for Orbital Sciences Corp.’s Antares launch vehicle. See story, page 10 Spaceflight (ISPCS) here Oct. 15. Alexander was referring to the flights of SpaceShipOne Orbital Picks Provider But Won’t Say Who on Sept. 29 and Oct. 4, 2004, Orbital Sciences told investors it has selected a main-engine manufacturer for Antares launches that won the $10 million Ansari starting in 2017 but would not say who it is. See story, page 11 X Prize for vehicle developer Scaled Composites and the proj- SATELLITE INDUSTRY ect’s financial backer, Microsoft

co-founder Paul Allen. At the PHOTO BY HERIBERTO IBARRA

time, those flights appeared to > “It really has been frustrating to be 10 years into commercial space, 10 years from the X Prize, and Hosted Payload Program Lacks Military Users signal the beginning of a major not see a proliferation of activity, of people flying regularly,” Brett Alexander, director of business devel- A U.S. Air Force contracting vehicle for hosting payloads on commercial satellites likely will be expansion of commercial space opment and strategy for Blue Origin, said in his presentation at ISPCS. used exclusively for civilian missions for the first three to five years. See story, page 11 activities, including suborbital space tourism. George Whitesides said the about the next six months,” Argentina Takes a Seat at Satcom Table The company most closely company had just completed Whitesides said. The Ariane 5 rocket’s 62nd consecutive successful launch brings Argentina to the table of nations linked to that vision of commer- ground qualification tests of The ISPCS, marking its 10th that have built and operated their own geostationary-orbiting spacecraft. See story, page 14 cial spaceflight has been Virgin a new hybrid rocket motor for year, is itself an outgrowth of the Galactic, which announced its SpaceShipTwo. “We expect to get X Prize. The conference started plans to partner with Scaled back into powered test flight quite in 2005 as the International Composites on what would soon,” he said. Symposium for Personal >FEATURES become SpaceShipTwo shortly As is customary for the Spaceflight, a one-day event before those X Prize flights. At company, Whitesides did not held on the New Mexico State the time of the original announce- give a schedule for when commer- University campus here just before 3 NEWS BRIEFS/ ment, Virgin Galactic proposed cial SpaceShipTwo flights would the X Prize Cup, a space-themed starting commercial service as begin, although the company’s airshow held at the local airport. 17LAUNCH REPORT/ soon as late 2007. Those flights founder, Sir Richard Branson, said While the X Prize Foundation are still at least several months in September that he expected to ended the X Prize Cup after the 18COMMENTARY in the future. be on the first commercial flight 2007 event, the conference has In an Oct. 15 ISPCS speech, in February or March of 2015. “I, Virgin Galactic Chief Executive personally, am incredibly excited SEE COMMERCIAL PAGE 7

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www.spacenews.com 3 October 20, 2014 NEWS BRIEFS

Accountability Office Sept. 26. On Oct. Top Managers Ousted from 9, NASA lifted the order, citing “statutory authority available to it” in order to keep Silicon Valley Satellite Maker the program on schedule. Canopus Systems LLC, a small-satel- Mark Sirangelo, corporate vice president lite startup in Silicon Valley, underwent for Sierra Nevada Space Systems, said in an a shake-up in early October when Chief interview at the International Symposium Executive Tomas Svitek was fired and Chief for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight in Operating Officer Megan Nunes resigned. Las Cruces, N.M., Oct. 16 that the company Established in early 2013 to develop and went to court to keep NASA from getting too manufacture inexpensive small satellites, far ahead on the CCtCap contracts while the Canopus of Mountain View, California, is GAO reviews its protest. “We want to protect

affiliated with Dauria Aerospace, which has our interests,” he said. BALL AEROSPACE PHOTO its headquarters in Munich and offices in NASA justified the decision by warning Ball employee works on NASA’s Green Propellant Infusion Mission Mountain View and in Skolkovo, the high- that any delay in carrying out the contracts technology hub near Moscow. “poses risks” to the international space station Dauria Aerospace founder and President crew and could jeopardize operations of Green Propellant Mission To Host 3 DoD Experiments Mikhail Kokorich confirmed Svitek’s depar- the station. “NASA has determined that it A NASA mission aimed at developing a Research Laboratory mission to measure ture. “We value our collaboration with Tomas, best serves the United States to continue nontoxic propellant for satellite thrusters plasma densities and temperatures; and who is an excellent engineering mind, with a performance of the CCtCap contracts,” the will host three experimental payloads an Air Force Institute of Technology good sense of disruptive technologies in the agency said in a statement posted on the for the U.S. Defense Department when experiment that will test space collision satellite industry,” Kokorich said by email. commercial crew program website. it launches in 2016. avoidance measures. “As Canopus has now reached its next stages Sierra Nevada, in its court filings, argued The Defense Department’s Space Earlier versions of the Air Force of strategy development, we are currently that NASA had not made the case that the Experiments Review board has selected Academy and Naval Research Lab undergoing a process of optimizing the stop-work order should be lifted, and that three payloads to be hosted aboard payloads flew on the second Space Test management structure of the company.” it should therefore be reinstated while the NASA’s Green Propellant Infusion Program satellite, known as STPSat-3, Kokorich declined to say who would GAO protest continues. Mission (GPIM), according to an Oct. which launched in 2013. replace Svitek and Nunes. Svitek also declined “NASA’s override is arbitrary and capri- 15 press release from Ball Aerospace & The GPIM is part of the Air Force’s to answer questions but confirmed he no cious, an abuse of discretion, and is contrary Technologies Corp., the program’s prime STP-2 mission package slated to launch longer works for Canopus. to law,” Rogers Joseph O’Donnell, the law contractor. Boulder, Colorado-based Ball on the second flight of the Falcon Svitek remains president of Stellar firm representing Sierra Nevada, argued in received a $3.4 million contract from Heavy rocket being developed by Explorations Inc. of San Louis Obispo, its request for an injunction. “The override NASA to integrate the payloads with the Space Exploration Technologies Corp. California, a company focused on scientific constitutes NASA’s unreasonable decision GPIM space vehicle, the press release said. of Hawthorne, California. SpaceX’s and space exploration projects, including the unnecessarily and unjustifiably to direct The selected payloads are: an Air Force public manifest shows the STP-2 mission Planetary Society’s LightSail, a solar-powered the awardees to proceed with contract Academy mission to characterize Earth’s launching in 2015, but Ball said it has spacecraft scheduled to launch in 2016. performance.” ionosphere and thermosphere; a Naval pushed to 2016. Space industry officials offered a variety Sierra Nevada’s full complaint, filed with of explanations for the shake-up, which the court along with the request for the claimed the jobs of four Canopus Systems restraining order and preliminary injunc- spaceplane is managed by the Air Force 10 separate beams. engineers in addition to Svitek and Nunes, tion, were not immediately available. The Rapid Capabilities Office and the program ABS Chief Executive Thomas Choi reducing the firm’s overall workforce from company requested that the complaint be performs “risk reduction, experimentation declined to comment on the anomaly, 25 to 19 employees. filed under protective seal since it contains and concept of operations development for saying the company is in negotiations with Canopus was experiencing some engi- information subject to a protective order in reusable space vehicle technologies.” insurers. GT Satellite Systems did not respond neering problems and delays in its satellite the ongoing GAO protest. to requests for comment. development projects, one official said. The The Court of Federal Claims was sched- official added, however, that this type of uled to hear Sierra Nevada’s request Oct. ABS Files $214M Claim for SEE NEWS BRIEFS PAGE 8 problem is common in space-related startups. 17. Sirangelo said it might be several days Canopus is focused on developing and before the court issues a ruling. Failure of Satellite Beam deploying its own Earth observation con- The failure of a key Russia-directed satellite stellations, Kokorich said. In June, Dauria beam aboard the ABS-2 satellite launched in launched two maritime surveillance cubesats, After Nearly 2 Years in Orbit, February will result in an insurance claim of Perseus-M1 and Perseus-M2, aboard a up to $214 million, an unusually large sum for Russian Dnepr rocket. Perseus-M1 and Secretive Spaceplane Lands a single beam that reflects its importance for Perseus-M2 carry Automatic Identification The U.S. Air Force’s unmanned X-37B the satellite’s owners, industry officials said. System payloads designed by Canopus to spaceplane — which had been orbiting Earth ABS-2, built by Space Systems/Loral of monitor maritime traffic for various cus- on a classified mission for 22 months — Palo Alto, California, suffered an unexplained tomers including the Russian Ministry of landed Oct. 17 at Vandenberg Air Force anomaly on its Russian beam this past summer. Transportation. Base, California. At the time, Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS) CELEBRATING 25 YEARS OF REPORTING Built by Boeing Space & Intelligence said it was only a partial failure of the beam, Systems of El Segundo, California, the X-37B and that the rest of the satellite was operating ON THE BUSINESS AND POLITICS OF SPACE SNC Sues To Reinstate Hold is a reusable unmanned orbital maneuvering normally. vehicle that launches atop an expendable The company, which operates a fleet of sat- On Commercial Crew Work rocket and returns to Earth much like NASA’s ellites, said it had restored customer services. (ISSN 2328-9376) In the latest round in the legal dispute now-retired space shuttle, gliding in for a ABS-2A, which like ABS-2 will operate at Is published weekly, except for one week in August and two weeks in December, by SpaceNews Inc., 1414 Prince Street, Suite 300, Alexandria, regarding NASA’s commercial crew contracts, runway landing. 75 degrees east in geostationary orbit, is Va. 22314-2853, USA. SpaceNews is not a publication of NASA. Annual subscription rates: $209 U.S. Domestic mail; $229 Canada; $279 Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC) filed suit in The X-37B touched down at 9:24 a.m. scheduled for launch in 2015. But industry International mail. Periodicals postage paid at Alexandria, Va., and at other mailing offices. Postmaster: Send all UAA to CFS. (See DMM 707.4.12.5); federal court Oct. 15, seeking to overturn a local time, wrapping up its third classified officials said since then that the entire beam NON-POSTAL AND MILITARY FACILITIES: send address corrections to NASA decision to lift a stop-work order on trip to orbit since 2010. is affected to varying degrees. SpaceNews, P.O. Box 16, Congers, NY 10920-0016. SpaceNews is registered with the British Postal System and Canada Post International Publications contracts it awarded to two other companies. A fourth mission is planned for 2015, The Russia beam is partly owned by Mail (Canada Distribution) Sales Agreement No. 546046. To order Space News, to change an address or for subscription information, call our toll In filings with the U.S. Court of Federal the Air Force announced after the landing. GT Satellite Systems S.A. of Moscow and free number (in the U.S.) 866-429-2199, or write to SpaceNews, Customer Service, P O Box 16, Congers, NY 10920-0016 or email spacenews@ Claims in Washington, Sierra Nevada filed “We’re pleased with the incremental Luxembourg, which in 2011 contracted with cambeywest.com. For changes of address, attach an address label from a requests for both a temporary restraining progress we’ve seen in our testing of the ABS to book a large portion of the Russia recent issue. Telephone numbers: Main: 571-421-2300; Circulation: 866-429- 2199, fax 845-267-3478; Advertising: 571-356-9618. Photocopy permission: For order and a preliminary injunction to reusable space plane,” Col. Keith Balts, 30th beam in a deal valued at $125 million by permission to reuse material from SpaceNews Inc., ISSN 2328-9376, please access www.copyright.com or contact the Copyright Clearance Center, overturn a NASA decision Oct. 9 lifting an Space Wing commander, said in an Oct. 17 both companies. GT Satellite Systems leases Inc. (CCC), 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400. CCC is a not-for-profit organization that provides licenses and registration order stopping work on Commercial Crew press release. capacity on a half-dozen satellites, most of for a variety of uses. For bulk reprint requests of more than 500, send to Transportation Capability (CCtCap) con- The X-37B launched Dec. 11, 2012, from them operated for customers in Russia and SpaceNews Attn: Reprint Department. tracts awarded Sept. 16 to Boeing and Space Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, the former Soviet Union. Exploration Technologies Corp. atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket. ABS-2 carries 89 transponders — 51 in NASA had issued a stop-work order shortly Since then, the Air Force has been tight- Ku-band, 32 C-band and six Ka-band — after Sierra Nevada filed a protest regarding lipped about the program’s mission. In the and is designed to provide 16.7 kilowatts the CCtCap awards with the U.S. Government press release, officials said only that the of power to its payload. The satellite has 4 www.spacenews.com October 20, 2014 NASA Nixes Sunjammer Mission, Cites Integration, Schedule Risk DAN LEONE, WASHINGTON Citing a lack of confidence in its contrac- tor’s ability to deliver, NASA has abandoned plans to fly a solar-sail mission in 2015 after investing four years and more than $21 million on the project. The Sunjammer mission, including the spacecraft and a deployable 1,200-square- meter solar sail, was being developed by L’Garde Inc. of Tustin, California, under a contract awarded in September 2011. The contract is slated to expire this coming December, and NASA has no plans to continue the work, according to an internal memo circulated at NASA headquarters here the week of Oct. 7. “NASA is working with L’Garde to de-scope the existing contract to close out the docu- mentation and deliver completed work to the Agency by the end of 2014,” the memo reads. PHOTO

NASA spokesman David Steitz said L’GARDE problems with the program surfaced a year Sunjammer’s solar sail ago. “During the annual review last October NASA identified key integration issues that with procuring and integrating spacecraft. increased the schedule risk,” he said via email Barnes said that in 2011 he reached out Oct. 7. to several NASA centers and companies that Nathan Barnes, president of L’Garde, he believed could build the spacecraft and said in an Oct. 17 phone interview that the leave L’Garde free to focus on the solar sail. company’s final delivery to NASA will be a None of those he approached — he only design for a spacecraft module and solar sail identified NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory that in theory could propel a small spacecraft in Pasadena, California — took him up on by harnessing the energy of photon strikes. the offer. L’Garde will turn over its design in a Critical Rather than give up on the opportunity Design Audit scheduled for Nov. 7, he said. to land a NASA contract, L’Garde decided After that, L’Garde will lay off about 16 to bring the spacecraft development in employees, all of them in Tustin, cutting house. It did not work out, and as of Oct. 17, the company’s head count roughly in half. the company had taken delivery of about L’Garde employed some 35 people when the $2 million worth of spacecraft hardware Sunjammer project was in full swing. including a hydrazine tank from ATK Space The mission had been manifested as a Systems of Commerce, California, and four secondary payload aboard a Space Exploration mono-propellant thrusters from Aerojet Technologies Corp. Falcon 9 rocket scheduled Rocketdyne of Sacramento, California. to launch the National Oceanic Atmospheric Sunjammer would have used its propel- Administration’s Deep Space Climate lant-free solar sail to maintain its intended Observatory in 2015. orbit, but it still would have needed a As designed, Sunjammer’s solar sail — chemical propulsion system to reach that measuring only about 0.005 millimeters orbit, Barnes said. thick — would generate about 0.002 pounds NASA is “not ruling out possible oppor- of thrust, or roughly equivalent to the amount tunities for flight of the sail in the coming of energy a packet of artificial sweetener exerts years,” Steitz said. on an upturned palm. But even that would Steitz would not speculate on the timing have been enough for Sunjammer to perform of a future mission, but Barnes said it would station-keeping maneuvers in near-perpetuity have to be a launch profile similar to the one at its intended solar orbit roughly 3 million Falcon 9 will provide to get NOAA’s Deep kilometers away from Earth. Space Climate Observatory on its way to the The craft was being designed to serve as an gravitationally stable Earth-sun Lagrange experimental space weather buoy and would Point 1. have used a pair of U.K.-funded instruments “The closest date we were hearing bantered to detect so-called coronal mass ejections about was 2018,” Barnes said. from the sun that upon reaching Earth can Sunjammer enjoyed a run of good pub- disrupt sensitive electronic systems, including licity during its development, including on spacecraft. Capitol Hill, and one Republican on the NASA’s current early warning system for House Science Committee said he was disap- these events is the 16-year-old Advanced pointed to learn NASA had put the brakes Launch Smart Composition Explorer. on the project. Barnes admitted L’Garde underper- “Obviously, I’m very disappointed that we formed relative to the work it promised in won’t complete this,” Rep. Dana Rohrabacher Arianespace successfully delivered Intelsat 30, hosting the the 2011 proposal, “Beyond the Plum Brook (R-Calif.) wrote in an Oct. 17 email. “We DLA-1 payload for DIRECTV, and ARSAT-1 to geostationary Chamber; An In-Space Demonstration of a never seem to be able to afford these small Mission-Capable Solar Sail,” that won it the technology development projects that can transfer orbit from the Spaceport on the Equator. The Sunjammer contract. have potentially huge impacts ... but we can October 16 launch marked Ariane 5’s 62nd consecutive L’Garde proposed to develop and build find billions and billions of dollars to build flawless mission over the past 11 years. Satellite both the experimental solar sail — which a massive launch vehicle with no payloads, would have been the largest ever built — and no missions,” he said, referring to NASA’s operators the world over know how to launch smart. and the spacecraft that would carry it to its Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket. operating orbit. The company has built novel “It looks like it just wasn’t big enough for space structures before, such as the Inflatable us to afford it,” Rohrabacher added. @arianespace Antenna Experiment that flew aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour’s STS-77 mission Twitter: @Leone_SN in 1996, but has no experience whatsoever Email: [email protected] www.spacenews.com 5 October 20, 2014 NASA Official: More Science Bound for Station than Crew Can Handle DAN LEONE, WASHINGTON specimens from the station back to scientists — two or three days, There are more science experi- compared with about four hours ments headed to the international for the shuttle, Jones said. space station than NASA astro- But at the other end of the nauts have time to conduct, an pipeline, it takes less time these agency official said here Oct. 7 days to get an experiment to orbit at a meeting of the U.S. National than it once did. If an experimental Research Council’s committee on payload is ready to fly, it can get on biological and life sciences in space. the manifest as soon as six months “If you ask me, we’re at a crew- before a scheduled Orbital or time max,” Rod Jones, manager of SpaceX delivery, Jones said. NASA’s ISS Research Integration “When I started in the office Office at the Johnson Space Center seven years ago it was a two-year in Houston, said at the meeting. cycle to fly anything,” Jones told “We are literally going into an the NRC panel. “But now we’ve increment coming up where we moved to a whole new paradigm have allocated to us 875 hours [of where we’re trying to operate more research time], and I have about like a laboratory.” 1,400 hours of research.” And NASA is the only entity This increment, known inter- with access to that laboratory. nally as 43/44, is scheduled to By law, half of all resources in the

begin in March with the arrival PHOTO U.S. segment of the space station —

of veteran cosmonaut Gennady NASA crew time, electrical power, volume

Padalka and fellow Expedition 43 > Crews active in the U.S. side of the international space station for an operating period known as increment 43/44 will dedicate about a fifth of their time in and equipment, to name a few — crewmates Mikhail Kornienko and orbit to science but leave more than 20 days’ worth of research undone by the time they return to Earth. must be available for non-NASA NASA’s Scott Kelly, and end in late research. Non-NASA research, September or early October when station habitable and flight-worthy. The extra seats on the com- — and how long the station keeps which includes projects led by other Padalka flies space tourist Sarah NASA officials from Jones to mercially operated systems will flying. The White House said in U.S. government agencies and the Brightman and Danish astronaut William Gerstenmaier, the agency’s allow NASA to send four of its January that it wants to continue private sector, is managed by the Andreas Mogensen back home top human spaceflight official, own astronauts at a time to station operations through at least 2024. Melbourne, Florida-based nonprofit after the first-time spacefliers’ have long said there are not enough (Russia will continue to fly Soyuz, The U.S. agency’s 15 international Center for the Advancement of brief visit (Kornienko and Kelly hands on deck to support all the so NASA’s commercial partners partners, signatories of a 1998 Science in Space, or CASIS. The will remain behind for another research NASA wants to do on will not need to launch every intergovernmental agreement that group gets $15 million a year from six months, completing the first station. Following the loss of the crew member headed to station), formalized the station partnership, NASA, including $3 million a year one-year stay at ISS). Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003, increasing weekly hours available are still working to secure commit- to directly fund research projects. NASA and its partners stagger ISS was staffed by two-person crews for science operations on the U.S. ments to continue through 2020. According to its website, the Soyuz arrivals and departures to until the space shuttle resumed side of ISS to nearly 70 from the In the meantime, the agency group has gotten 16 science maintain a standing crew of six, regular space station visits in 2006. current 35, Jones said. The fourth is making do with what it has: the payloads to station since January, including three for the U.S. side The ISS gradually returned to six- crew member would work almost cargo version of SpaceX’s Dragon when Orbital delivered the first of the space station and three for person operations, which is the exclusively on science, Jones told capsule, Orbital Sciences’ expend- CASIS-sponsored experiments to the Russian side. current upper limit given that only the National Research Council able Cygnus space freighter, and fly in space. Counting experiments With an 875-hour allotment two Soyuz capsules — the only panel. roughly 35 hours of crew time a that have yet to fly, and ground- for 1,400 hours of research, crews spacecraft able to send crews to “We’re looking at what we think week dedicated to research. based research, CASIS has so far active in the U.S. side of station and from station since the shuttle our max throughput is,” Jones said. Of the two commercial cargo funded about $10 million worth of for increment 43/44 will dedicate flew its final mission in 2011 — are “When we get the fourth crew, we craft, each of which is on the hook science, spokesman Patrick O’Neil about a fifth of their time in orbit docked at the outpost at a time. think it’s going to be about 5.5 to deliver 20 metric tons of cargo wrote in an Oct. 14 email. CASIS to science but leave more than 20 Competing crewed spacecraft metric tons [of science payloads through 2017, only SpaceX’s can eventually hopes to get nongovern- days’ worth of research undone in development at Boeing Co. and a year], sustained.” return experiments to researchers ment sources of funding for the by the time they return to Earth. Space Exploration Technologies How long NASA can sustain on the ground. Compared with research it sponsors, but that has The vast majority of the crew’s Corp. would seat as many as seven, that pace will depend on when the shuttle, which landed on a not happened yet. remaining waking hours are the maximum number space commercial transportation systems runway at NASA’s Kennedy Space consumed by the routine main- station is designed to accommo- become available — the agency Center in Florida, the sea-landing Twitter: @Leone_SN tenance tasks required to keep date for long-duration stays. has said no sooner than late 2017 Dragon takes much longer to get Email: [email protected] Obama Nominates MIT’s Dava Newman To Be NASA Deputy Administrator JEFF FOUST, WASHINGTON will add a unique perspective to the agency In 2008, she contributed to a report on the and a fresh look at the space program at a future of human spaceflight prepared by the U.S. President Barack Obama has nominated critical time.” Space, Policy, and Society Research Group at Dava Newman, a Massachusetts Institute of Newman joined the faculty of MIT’s MIT. That report, completed before the Obama Technology professor with experience in both Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, administration took office, endorsed the then- space technology and policy, to become the informally known as AeroAstro, shortly after impending retirement of the space shuttle next deputy administrator of NASA. receiving a doctorate in aerospace biomedical and an extension of the international space The White House made the announcement engineering from the department in 1992. Her station to 2020. It also called for a “balance” in an Oct. 16 press release. research has focused on how humans can more in resources for exploration of the Moon, Mars The position of NASA deputy administrator effectively work in weightlessness and reduced and other destinations. has been vacant since Lori Garver stepped gravity environments. More recently, Newman served on the down in September 2013 to become general Newman is best known for research on technical panel that supported the National manager of the Air Line Pilots Association. form-fitting spacesuits that use mechanical Academies’ Committee on Human Spaceflight. News of Newman’s potential nomination to the counterpressure to provide greater freedom of That panel helped develop several different post was first reported Oct. 8 by NASA Watch. motion for astronauts than conventional suits. “pathways” for human space exploration, all Garver praised the Obama administration’s “Ultimately, the big advantage is mobility, and a leading to the long-term goal of humans on pick to succeed her. very lightweight suit for planetary exploration,” the surface of Mars, featured in the commit- “I am so pleased to hear of Dr. Newman’s Newman said in a Sept. 18 press release from tee’s final report published in June. nomination for NASA Deputy Administrator. MIT about her group’s research. If confirmed, Newman would be the second Her nomination shows the Administration’s She has also been involved in science and faculty member from MIT’s AeroAstro depart- strong continued commitment to NASA and technology policy. She has a master’s degree ment to join NASA’s upper echelons in the last PHOTO our government’s investment in development in technology and policy from MIT and since year. In March, NASA named David Miller, a MIT

of cutting edge technology and innovation,” 2003 has served as director of its Technology professor of aeronautics and astronautics there, > Dava Newman has served as director of Garver said in a statement to SpaceNews. “Dava and Policy Program. as the agency’s chief technologist. MIT’s Technology and Policy Program since 2003. 6 www.spacenews.com October 20, 2014 Airbus Signs $1.7 Billion Contract for Six Metop Weather Satellites PETER B. de SELDING, PARIS meteorological satellites to offer a more-efficient use of the three Airbus Defense and Space on systems. Oct. 16 signed a $1.7 billion contract Francois Auque, director of to build six polar-orbiting meteo- space systems at Airbus, said all rological satellites for European six satellites will use variations of the governments, a deal in which guar- company’s AstroBus platform, which anteeing strict work-share equality stretches from several hundred kilo- between Germany and France was grams in launch mass for simpler almost as important as the satellite optical Earth imaging satellites technology involved. to the 4,000-kilogram range for For Airbus, the contract for the the Metop Second Generation Metop Second Generation satellites spacecraft. was a kind of revenge match against ESA and Eumetsat had agreed to the same Thales Alenia Space-OHB postpone the final contract award to AG team that had bested Airbus for give time to industry to design the Europe’s third-generation Meteosat Metop Second Generation satellites geostationary-orbiting satellites. with enough fuel to assure their

Airbus and Germany protested CORAVAJA controlled atmospheric re-entry putting Thales Alenia Space of over the South Pacific. STEPHANE

France rather than Germany’s OHB BY Each satellite will carry more in charge of managing the Meteosat than 600 kilograms of fuel, two- PHOTO contract, and the German govern- ESA thirds of which will be reserved to

ment dragged its heels for months > The contract signing ceremony included (from left): Eric Beranger, head of space systems programs at Airbus Defence and Space; ESA Earth Observation perform the deorbit maneuver at before accepting the European Director Volker Liebig; Genevieve Fioraso, French secretary of state for higher education and research; and ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain. the end of their 7.5-year mission life. Space Agency’s decision. The deorbit is needed to remove the To avoid a replay of that, France facilities in both nations and, as an did” for the Meteosat satellites, ESA 3.2 billion euros for its share of spacecraft from their 831-kilometer and Germany in 2012 agreed that integrated company, can fine-tune Earth Observation Director Volker the first satellite models, the con- polar low Earth orbit, a heavily traf- each would take a 27 percent stake work assignments. Liebig said during the contract- struction of the remaining four, ficked orbital region, to eliminate in the Metop Second Generation As described by ESA Director signing ceremony. the launch of all six satellites, the their risk as space debris. contract, and that whoever won General Jean-Jacques Dordain Europe’s meteorological satel- ground infrastructure and 20 years Dordain and Ratier said the would divide the work evenly during the contract signing lite organization, the 30-nation of operations starting in 2020. 30-year cooperation between ESA between the two nations, with ceremony, Airbus and ESA have Eumetsat of Darmstadt, Germany, The Metop satellites will grad- and Eumetsat, in which neither the other participating nations carved out a program that is about is responsible for operating the ually take over from the current seeks to usurp the other’s role, — Britain, Italy, Spain and Sweden as evenly distributed as possible. satellites and for financing most of Metop spacecraft, whose orbits is one reason Europe’s meteoro- — taking lesser roles. For the 1.3168 billion euros their construction and all of their are coordinated with similar logical satellite program is rarely The fact that the Metop contract ($1.71 billion) in firm, fixed-price launches. satellites operated by the U.S. controversial, even when European was for two different payloads, with contract value, Dordain said, The 20-nation ESA, as design National Oceanic and Atmospheric governments are facing tight sounding and imaging instruments, Germany will get 658.6 million overseer, pays a 70 percent share Administration to provide morning budgets. For the Metop Second made it easier to split the program euros in work share, and France will of the first two satellites’ construc- and afternoon passes over the Generation program, ESA gov- down the middle to let the German get 658.2 million euros. “Germany tion. ESA has also paid for the early equator. ernments actually oversubscribed, and French teams each build three wins,” he said. “But not by much.” phase design work, bringing its Eumetsat Director-General forcing the agency to reduce some satellites. “It’s nice to see good coopera- total Metop Second Generation Alain Ratier said China, which nations’ roles. Accomplishing this task would tion between France and Germany contribution to some 808 million now duplicates part of what NOAA always be easier for Airbus, which without having to go through euros. does, appears ready to shift the Twitter: @pbdes maintains large satellite production another big political dispute as we Eumetsat expects to spend some orbit of its next-generation polar Email: [email protected] Controversial ‘Space Protocol’ on Agenda for ITU Conference PETER B. de SELDING, PARIS Unidroit’s reasoning is that, once adopted, and manufacturers in Europe, the United the Space Protocol will reduce the cost of States and Japan — said space commerce is A proposed international convention on financing “as a result of the increased level developing well and needs no new bureau- space-asset identification and legal treatment of transparency and predictability for finan- cracy to add complexity and cost. has survived near-unanimous vilification ciers,” the organization said in its document “No satellite financings have failed to by large satellite fleet operators, satellite backing the protocol. proceed, or been unduly expensive, due to manufacturers, launch service providers, “Such an instrument will, in particular, impediments over granting and perfection insurers and financiers, and is on the agenda help bring much-needed financial resources of security interests,” the group said. The for international regulators meeting Oct. 20 to the NewSpace community, namely those Space Protocol “would introduce new and in Busan, South Korea. small start-up companies that have emerged unnecessary regulation for the financing of PHOTO

The International Telecommunication as a result of the booming commercial space satellites ... impairing the real-world business ITU Union (ITU) Plenipotentiary Conference will sector,” it said. of the critical infrastructures we represent.” Yvon Henri specifically address the question of whether Unidroit assembled 40 nations in early Unidroit, the group said, “has consistently the Geneva-based ITU, a United Nations 2012 to a conference hosted by the German disregarded the views of the satellite manufac- Services Department in the ITU’s agency that regulates radio frequency use government to debate the protocol. Twenty- turing, operator and financing communities.” Radiocommunication Bureau, said that while and orbital slots, should be charged with five of these nations, including some of those Despite the small turnout of signatories, many larger satellite fleet operators opposed supervising the proposed Convention on most reserved about the protocol, signed a the protocol survived by virtue of its endorse- the protocol, the smaller players did not. International Interests in Mobile Equipment statement that ostensibly endorses at least its ment, albeit vague, by 25 of the 40 nations In any event, he said, the ITU is acting on Matters Specific to Space Assets. ideal. Signatories included the United States, attending the Berlin conference. following the Berlin majority vote but is only In an Oct. 13 briefing on the Busan con- France, Russia, Luxembourg, Italy and the Many details of the protocol remain to debating the ITU’s eventual role as a super- ference, ITU officials said they expected 28-nation European Union. be decided. Many nations appear unclear as visor, and not the wisdom of the protocol itself. 3,000 delegates to the three-week meeting, Nations were then asked to sign initial to what the ITU would do if it became the “A majority of administrations at the Berlin which occurs every four years and sets the approvals to start the protocol’s adoption by protocol’s Supervisory Authority, and how conference agreed to the protocol,” Henri strategic direction for the ITU. As of Oct. their governments. Only Germany and three much such a role would cost the ITU. said, adding that the ITU is aware of the 13, 161 nations had agreed to send delega- other nations — Burkina Faso, Saudi Arabia In a testament to the longstanding dif- antagonism of many operators to the protocol. tions. Other international organizations, plus and Zimbabwe — signaled their support. ficulty of the ITU with issues of transparency Since the protocol was first proposed industry, will also be in attendance. The Berlin conference’s results came and openness, the government of Japan in around 2009, a growing number of developing The Space Protocol, as the conven- despite a coordinated effort by a broad range April wrote the organization to complain nations have launched their own national tion is known, is backed by Unidroit, the of space industry interests to drive a stake that Japanese officials could not clear ITU telecommunications or Earth observation International Institute for the Unification into the heart of the Space Protocol. document-access barriers to determine how satellites. Many were financed by low-cost of Private Law, a Rome-based organization In a letter addressed to Unidroit, this the ITU views the protocol and its eventual loans and guarantees from export-credit that wants to apply rules developed for rail group — which included Riyadh, Saudi cost. agencies in the United States, France, Japan, and aircraft commerce to the space sector. Arabia-based Arabsat and the major satellite Yvon Henri, chief of the Space China and Canada. www.spacenews.com 7 October 20, 2014 Alaska Offers Incentives to Attract Medium-class Launchers JEFF FOUST, LAS CRUCES, N.M. requirements, although neither vehicle has yet flown and the company has not The operator of an underutilized announced any orders for those vehicles. Alaska launch site is offering more than Orbital Sciences, which currently $20 million to launch companies in a bid launches its Antares rocket from Wallops to attract a larger class of launch vehicles, Island, Virginia, has been interested even as it continues to assess damages in a West Coast launch site, but has yet from a failed missile test there in August. to commit to using either Kodiak or The Alaska Aerospace Corp. issued a California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base. request for proposals (RFP) Oct. 2 for com- Steele said several other companies par- panies interested in conducting commercial ticipated in an industry day held at Kodiak launches of “medium class payloads” from Sept. 24. the state’s Kodiak Launch Complex. Such Alaska Aerospace is currently working launches are defined in the RFP as those on an environmental assessment for a capable of placing payloads heavier than medium-class launch site, called Launch 1,500 kilograms into a 1,000-kilometer Pad 3, at Kodiak, an effort that has included sun-synchronous orbit. a series of public meetings in Alaska in Companies responding to the RFP have recent weeks. Steele said that companies to demonstrate their technical capabilities could instead propose to use instead the as well as their ability to conduct at least existing Pad 1, which could significantly three launches from Kodiak by 2020. The reduce the overall investment needed to RFP states that the number of launches support their vehicles. and “long term viability” of the proposal is Pad 1, however, suffered damage when the most important factor in the selection a U.S. Army missile failed during an Aug. process, with the number of jobs created in 25 launch there. The missile’s flight termi- Alaska the second most important factor. nation system was triggered four seconds Alaska Aerospace will award the winning after liftoff during a test for the Advanced company a $21 million fixed-price contract Hypersonic Weapon program. Photos to develop those launch services. The of the launch site taken after the failure launch provider, though, will be respon- showed damage to the exterior of the sible for providing any additional funding launch service structure at the pad and needed to develop the launch site infra- to a nearby building. structure to support those launches. PHOTO An assessment of the damage and the

The $21 million comes from a $25 CORP. cost to repair it is ongoing, John Cramer, million appropriation by the Alaska State vice president of administration for Alaska

Legislature in 2012 to develop a medium-lift AEROSPACE Aerospace, said in an Oct. 15 email. A pre-

capability at Kodiak, explained Matt Steele, ALASKA liminary report is due from engineering

vice president of business development for > Alaska Aerospace will award the winning company a $21 million fixed-price contract to develop a medium-lift capability at firm BRPH in the next two weeks, after Alaska Aerospace, in an Oct. 15 interview Kodiak Launch Complex (above). Companies have to demonstrate their ability to conduct at least three launches from Kodiak by 2020. which he said they will draw up plans to during the International Symposium for begin repairs. Personal and Commercial Spaceflight launch services from Kodiak, as the state the middle of December. Those repairs will not affect any (ISPCS) here. That funding was originally did not require that the $25 million be used The two leading contenders for the upcoming missions from the pad, which intended as a down payment for the con- explicitly for constructing a launch facility. funding are Lockheed Martin Space has supported fewer than 20 orbital and struction of a new launch pad at Kodiak Steele added that if those delays con- Systems of Denver and Orbital Sciences suborbital launches since it opened in 1998. to support larger vehicles. tinued, the corporation was concerned that Corp. of Dulles, Virginia. “We do not currently have any launches However, delays in identifying a the legislature might decide to withdraw Lockheed Martin has been interested scheduled for the next 12 months, which is customer for the new pad had left the the funding. “We needed to add some in launching its upgraded Athena vehicles the anticipated time frame for the construc- money unspent. Steele said Alaska urgency to the process,” he said. Proposals from Kodiak, but has not previously been tion work to be completed,” Cramer said. Aerospace decided to instead offer the are due to Alaska Aerospace by Nov. 25, able to work out a deal. The proposed funds as an incentive to companies that and Steele said he anticipates the state- Athena 2S and Athena 3 rockets would Twitter: @jeff_foust would commit to providing medium-lift owned corporation to make an award by both meet Alaska Aerospace’s medium-class Email: [email protected]

COMMERCIAL FROM PAGE 1 intersection is through the 16. “If you can do that, we have a operation of communications associate administrator for human Experimental Spaceplane 1 (XS-1) sustainable solution. If we can’t, satellites. exploration and operations. continued, diversifying into other program at the Defense Advanced then we’re just another space “I find the depth and breadth “The question is, can we use aspects of commercial spaceflight. Research Projects Agency. Three program.” of the things being worked on the space station as a government That diversification has companies — Boeing, Masten In an Oct. 16 speech here, right now in the commercial entity to show others that there included a greater presence by U.S. Space Systems and Northrop George Nield, associate admin- sector to be really exciting, and is a market out there that is inde- government officials in their roles Grumman — received phase one istrator for commercial space they frankly give me hope for the pendent of the government and is of both regulating and incentiv- contracts this year to begin initial transportation at the Federal nation’s future in space,” he said. worth their investment?” he asked. izing commercial space efforts. At Some of those partnerships this year’s conference, they argued have moved faster than even that the growing capabilities of Alexander expected. “Who the commercial space industry “The question is, can we use the space station as a government entity to would have thought 10 years are becoming increasingly critical ago that we’d be talking about to civil and military space efforts, show others that there is a market out there that is independent NASA funding two commercial and overall national space power. crew providers, flying their own “I see a collision coming of the government and is worth their investment?” astronauts on privately owned between commercial space and and operated vehicles?” he said. defense space needs,” Douglas “I thought then it would take a Loverro, deputy assistant secre- William Gerstenmaier lot longer than that.” tary of defense for space policy, “This progression that we’ve said in an Oct. 15 speech here. had over the last decade from That intersection of needs and design work on a reusable lower Aviation Administration, outlined Much of that hope is pinned fully government activities to requirements, he said, could stage that could be used to place a dozen “mission areas” where to the future of the international hybrid government-commercial mitigate reductions in government satellites weighing up to 2,250 industry is playing, or plans to space station, including both com- activities to now some fully com- spending by allowing agencies to kilograms into orbit for less than play, a major role, from launching mercial transportation to and mercial activities has been exciting make greater use of commercial $5 million per launch. satellites to space tourism to space- from the ISS and commercial to watch,” Alexander said, “but capabilities. “This is the way the “We are trying to build a capa- based resource extraction. That, research performed there. That the pace of it has been a little bit U.S. will stay ahead of others in bility that is useful to the military, he said, is a major change from 10 near-term work on the ISS may be frustrating.” space,” he said. but do it on the backs of commer- to 20 years ago, when commercial critical in developing demand for One way the Defense cial space,” Jess Sponable, DARPA space activities were largely limited future commercial space stations, Twitter: @jeff_foust Department is supporting that XS-1 program manager, said Oct. to the construction, launch and said William Gerstenmaier, NASA Email: [email protected] 8 www.spacenews.com October 20, 2014 NEWS BRIEFS NEWS BRIEFS FROM PAGE 3 the delegation agreement, and the com- mission’s signature just weeks away, a chief Airbus concern about the financial viability Sierra Nevada To Build of the data-relay service appears to have been resolved.

STPSat-5 for Pentagon Airbus is still waiting on the second of PHOTO Sierra Nevada Corp.’s Space Systems its two concerns — a demonstration of the division will build an experimental space laser-relay system using the first Copernicus

environment monitoring satellite for the satellite, Sentinel-1A, launched earlier this NASA/JPL-CALTECH U.S. Department of Defense under a contract year, which became operational Oct. 6. Canister holding SMAP is offloaded at Vandenberg Air Force Base announced Oct. 14 by the company. ESA officials said Sentinel-1A should have The STPSat-5 spacecraft will carry four fully demonstrated the laser-relay service government-supplied payloads designed to through the AlphaSat satellite in geosta- NASA Soil-mapping Craft Delivered to Launch Site characterize the space environment and is tionary orbit by sometime in November. NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive and the radar, while NASA’s Goddard slated for a late-2016 launch to low Earth AlphaSat has a commercial L-band mobile (SMAP) satellite on Oct. 15 arrived at Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, orbit aboard an unspecified rocket, Sierra communications payload used by Inmarsat of Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, Maryland, built the radiometer. Northrop Nevada said. London but includes several ESA-furnished where it will be mated with the United Grumman’s Astro Aerospace business Louisville, Colorado-based Sierra Nevada technology demonstration packages, Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket slated to unit in Carpinteria, California, built a Space Systems said the contract was competi- including the laser communications terminal. launch it into a near-polar orbit Jan. 29. reflector boom assembly. tively awarded but did not divulge its value. Airbus had asked ESA governments to SMAP, an Earth observatory designed SMAP data will provide insight into The Air Force did not respond by press time set aside an unplanned 20 million euros to to produce a global map of soil moisture the global water and carbon cycles, aiding to a request for the contract value. reimburse Airbus in the event the laser relay every two to three days over a three-year weather forecasters, farmers, foresters The STPSat-5 satellite platform will did not work as planned, and in case the primary mission, will operate in a 685-kilo- and emergency planners, among others, leverage infrastructure and design prac- delegation agreement with the commission meter, near-polar, sun-synchronous orbit according to NASA. The mission will cost tices from the SN-100 platform, which Sierra was indefinitely delayed. that crosses the equator around 6 a.m. around $915 million to build and launch, Nevada is supplying for the second-generation and 6 p.m. local time. SMAP will pass the U.S. Government Accountability Orbcomm asset-monitoring satellite constel- over the same spot every eight days. The Office said in an April report, “NASA: lation, according to John Roth, vice president Construction of ISS-bound spacecraft’s synthetic aperture L-band Assessments of Selected Large Scale of Sierra Nevada Space Systems. STPSat-5 will radar and L-band radiometer will observe Projects.” be about two-thirds the size of the Orbcomm Cold Atom Lab Set for 2015 in a 1,000-kilometer measurement swath SMAP is one of the major missions satellites, six of which were launched in July, A $52 million physics experiment NASA and gauge the moisture of the top two endorsed by scientists in a 10-year Earth with 11 more undergoing final preparations plans to send to the international space inches of Earth’s surface, NASA said. science plan known as a decadal survey for launch, Sierra Nevada said. station in 2016 is scheduled for a critical NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the National Research Council published STPSat-5 is the latest in a series of experi- design review — the last milestone before Pasadena, California, built the spacecraft in 2007. mental satellites funded by the Defense hardware construction begins — in January. Department’s Space Test Program, a long- “We just went through preliminary design, running activity that finds rides to orbit for and we’re marching to critical design review scheduled a science definition workshop for $200,000 to $300,000, Patrick O’Neil, promising experiments and technologies in January of next year, a few months from the follow-on physics project. spokesman for Melbourne, Florida-based developed within the Pentagon. The program now [with] launch in September 2016,” Mark CASIS, wrote in an Oct. 15 email. Winning is managed by the Air Force Space and Missile Lee, fundamental physics science lead at experiments were selected from among those Systems Center and based at Kirtland Air NASA headquarters in Washington, told Lockheed Ships GOES-R that replied to CASIS’s February request Force Base, New Mexico. the National Research Council’s committee for proposals for “Enabling Technology on biological and physical sciences in space Global Lightning Mapper to Support Science in Space for Life on Oct. 7. Lockheed Martin Space Systems shipped Earth.” The experiments have not yet been ESA Agrees To Manage The Cold Atom Lab is being built the Global Lightning Mapper instrument it scheduled for launch. by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in built for a next-generation geostationary U.S. Grant recipients, and their experiments, Copernicus Program Pasadena, California, and will be carried weather satellite to Denver from Palo Alto, according to CASIS’s Oct. 15 press release, The European Space Agency on Oct. 16 to the ISS aboard a Space Exploration California, for integration with its host space- are: formally approved a convention with the Technologies Corp. Dragon capsule. Once craft, which the company is also building, n Jayfus Doswell of Juxtopia in Baltimore, European Commission that will give ESA it is unpacked, astronauts will install the according to an Oct. 15 press release. who will develop and evaluate a wearable the management authority over Europe’s science payload inside one of the space sta- The instrument is powered by a high- goggle computer similar to Google’s Glass Copernicus series of environment-monitoring tion’s standardized Express experiment racks. speed camera with a 1.8 megapixel focal and called the Juxtopia Context-Aware Mobile satellites. The Cold Atom Lab is designed to be plane and can capture images at 500 frames Mixed Assistive Device. The goggles will Under the agreement, which is formally operated remotely from Pasadena. The a second, Lockheed said. The camera will provide virtual assistance, in the form of called as a delegation agreement and is experiment, slated to run at least one and track lightning flashes from geostationary written and other instructions visible to the expected to be approved by the commis- as many as five years, will take advantage of orbit from the Geostationary Operational wearer, “to improve the speed and accuracy sion within two weeks, the 20-nation ESA microgravity to cool atoms to temperatures Environmental Satellite (GOES)-R spacecraft with which astronauts perform science experi- will receive 3.148 billion euros ($4.1 billion) impossible to reach in Earth gravity, Lee said. the company is building for the National ments aboard station,” according to CASIS. from the commission between 2014 and “In space, you can have a very stable, Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, n Scott Green of Controlled Dynamics 2020 to run the Copernicus space segment. stationary atom. With that, this atom is very which operates U.S. civilian weather satellites. in Huntington Beach, California, who seeks The commission has budgeted some cold. When an atom becomes very cold, it GOES-R is slated to launch in early 2016. to develop a vibration-dampening insert 4.3 billion euros during the period for the becomes a quantum system. It’s not a regular Lockheed is building four GOES-R series for existing ISS hardware where research is entire Copernicus program. The remaining atom. By doing that in the microgravity, we satellites under a NOAA contract now worth stored. The insert could improve space experi- funds will be used for the program’s ground really can probe very deep into the atom, about $1.4 billion, following the government’s ments in crystallization; cell, tissue, and plant network and to stimulate a wide range of and other fundamental physics,” Lee said. 2013 decision to exercise options for a pair of culturing; and other studies, CASIS said. services provided by Copernicus to European Cold atom physics is the type of research satellites. The GOES-R satellites are expected n Mason Peck, former NASA chief tech- governments and to the private sector. for which former U.S. Secretary of Energy to ensure continued coverage of the Western nologist and current Cornell University The delegation agreement is several Steven Chu won a one-third share of the 1997 Hemisphere’s weather through 2036. professor, who with NanoRacks of Houston months late in coming, a fact that had caused Nobel Prize in physics. NASA’s contribution will adapt a spacecraft-on-a-chip experimental Airbus Defence and Space to ask for special to the field will be funded by the agency’s satellite platform called Sprite to eventually cash guarantees from ESA as Airbus invests Human Exploration and Operations Mission CASIS Awards $800,000 in be programmed and deployed from ISS in a satellite data-relay service for which the Directorate, Lee told the NRC panel. “to provide a low-cost, rapidly-deployable, European Commission, through Copernicus, In January, NASA spread $12.7 million Grants to Boost ISS Science crew-configurable, small-satellite platform is the anchor customer. among seven Cold Atom Lab science inves- The Center for the Advancement of for science and technology development,” The data-relay program will use laser- tigations under the Research Opportunities Science in Space (CASIS), the nonprofit CASIS said. optical terminals onboard several of in Fundamental Physics program, and the manager of non-NASA science aboard the By law, CASIS manages any research Copernicus’ low-orbiting Sentinel observa- agency is already looking ahead toward international space station, spread about aboard station performed by non-NASA tion satellites to speed delivery of data to building the next Cold Atom Lab. $800,000 in grant money among three experi- government agencies and the private sector. users by relaying the data through satellites However, the first discussions about Cold ments aimed at improving scientific research The group, which was created in 2011, gets in higher, geostationary orbit. Atom Lab 2 will not begin until December aboard the orbital outpost. $15 million a year from NASA, including With ESA’s ruling council now endorsing 2015, Lee said, when NASA has notionally Individual awards range in value from $3 million earmarked for funding grants. www.spacenews.com 9 October 20, 2014

huge milestone in a GPS satellite’s journey, Former Boeing Exec Named confirming that it’s been put through its paces and all looks good,” Dan Hart, vice To New USAF Launch Post president of government space systems at India Launches Third The U.S. Air Force has created a new Boeing Network & Space Systems, said in a senior executive service position at its prepared statement. Navigation Satellite primary space acquisition headquarters The GPS 2F satellites provide better India on Oct. 16 successfully launched to improve what it describes as the “business accuracy and resistance to jamming than the third of seven planned satellites for of launch.” the previous generation of GPS satellites, its Indian Regional Navigation Satellite Claire Leon, a former Boeing executive, is most of which are still in operation. The System (IRNSS), which is expected to be the new director of launch enterprise at the next satellite in the series, the GPS 2F-8, fully operational in 2015. Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center is expected to launch Oct. 29 from Cape In a nationally televised launch, India’s at Los Angeles Air Force Base, according Canaveral aboard an Atlas 5 rocket. Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle lifted off to an Oct. 3 email obtained by SpaceNews. at 1:32 a.m. local time from the Satish The move comes as the service begins the Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota competitive phase of its launch program. Mars Probe Beams Home carrying the 1,425-kilogram IRNSS-1C Leon retired from Boeing Space & satellite. The satellite was injected into Intelligence Systems in 2013 as vice presi- ‘Tantalizing’ First Results an elliptical orbit with a perigee of 282 dent of national programs, a euphemism NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile kilometers and an apogee of 20,670 kilo- for classified intelligence systems. She had Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft, which began meters as intended. previously served as vice president of the orbiting Mars in late September to probe In the coming days, IRNSS-1C will be company’s navigation and communication the planet’s thin atmosphere and help scien- raised to its assigned geostationary-orbit systems and as program director for the tists understand what caused the planet to slot at 83 degrees east longitude over the Wideband Global Satcom system, on which change from a warm, wet world to the cold Indian Ocean, the Indian Space Research Boeing is prime contractor. and dry one it is today, has already beamed Organisation announced. Leon will “continue the focus” of Scott back some important new data. When fully deployed, the IRNSS Correll, the Air Force’s former program MAVEN is still in the “commissioning constellation will feature five virtually executive officer for space launch, who now phase” of its mission, meaning the probe has identical satellites: three in geostationary works as vice president for acquisition and not started collecting science full-time. The orbit, meaning fixed above the equator; government policy at Aerojet Rocketdyne, new data were gathered as the spacecraft’s two in geosynchronous orbit inclined the email said. ground controllers began turning on its at 29 degrees; and two spares. The first Currently, virtually all operational U.S. instruments after the probe entered into satellite in the constellation, IRNSS-1A, national security missions are launched orbit around the red planet Sept. 21. was launched July 2, 2013, and IRNSS-1B by Denver-based United Launch Alliance, MAVEN officials said Oct. 14 that the followed April 4, 2014. established in 2006 by the once-competing first few weeks of instrument testing has ISRO said the system is designed to launch business of Boeing and Lockheed already enabled mission scientists to create provide position-location information Martin. But the Air Force is in the process of some of the most complete maps of atomic with an accuracy of better than 20 meters certifying Space Exploration Technologies hydrogen, oxygen, carbon and ozone in to users in India as well as the region Corp.’s Falcon 9 rocket to launch national the martian atmosphere ever made. One of extending as many as 1,500 kilometers security missions, which will reintroduce MAVEN’s instruments even collected data as from its boundary. Two types of services competition to the market. energetic particles blasted out by a massive are available — a standard positioning “We will be busier than we have been solar eruption made it to Mars. service open to all users, and a restricted in almost 20 years with acquisition efforts “What we’re seeing so far is really just a service with encrypted signals in the L5 emphasizing increased opportunities for tantalizing teaser of what’s to come,” MAVEN (1176.45 megahertz) and S (2492 mega- competition and qualifying new launch Principal Investigator Bruce Jakosky of the hertz) bands for authorized users. providers,” Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves, the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space A rubidium atomic clock and corner PHOTO

SMC commander, said in the email. Physics at the University of Colorado, ISRO cube retro reflectors for laser ranging Boulder, said during a NASA news confer- IRNSS-1C being assembled with PSLV rocket are part of the payload. ence to announce the initial results. Boeing Hands Over Seventh Scientists working with MAVEN were not able to see exactly how the solar energetic Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory said The probe should begin its primary science GPS 2F Satellite to Air Force particles (SEPs) affected Mars’ atmosphere in a statement. “An SEP event like this typi- mission around the end of October, NASA Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems of Sept. 29 because the instruments neces- cally occurs every couple weeks. Once all officials said. El Segundo, California, has handed over the sary for that kind of observation were the instruments are turned on, we expect The $671 million MAVEN mission is also seventh in the GPS 2F series of positioning, not functioning in tandem at that time. to also be able to track the response of the gearing up to watch a comet make a close navigation and timing satellites to the U.S. MAVEN researchers expect, however, that upper atmosphere to them.” flyby on Oct. 19. Air Force, according to an Oct. 13 press the spacecraft’s instruments will be ready Scientists think that solar weather events Comet Siding Spring is set to give Mars release from the company. to observe the atmosphere during the next could be partially responsible for the loss of a close shave when it flies within 140,000 The satellite launched Aug. 1 from Cape Mars-directed solar event. the martian atmosphere over time. kilometers of the planet. NASA’s fleet of Canaveral Air Force Station Florida. Initial “After traveling through interplanetary Ground controllers are now moving spacecraft on and around Mars are planning activation and checkout took five days, the space, these energetic particles of mostly MAVEN into its lower, science orbit in order to make observations of the comet’s flyby. release said, and the Air Force took control protons deposit their energy in the upper to take more observations of the planet’s MAVEN should be able to see how the of the satellite Aug. 8. atmosphere of Mars,” SEP instrument lead upper atmosphere and find out how some comet’s flyby might affect the martian “Handover to the 50th Space Wing is a Davin Larson of the University of California, of it might be escaping into outer space. atmosphere, researchers have said. Former NASA Deputy To Join FAA Commercial Space Office Shana Dale, who served as NASA deputy NASA. She worked for two-and-a-half years as administrator during Michael Griffin’s tenure a senior vice president at Dell Inc., leading the as administrator, is starting a similar position Science, Engineering, and Technology Services at the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s business sector that the company acquired in 2009 commercial space office in November. from the former Perot Systems. She served as a George Nield, the FAA’s associate admin- principal policy adviser for the House Science istrator for commercial space transportation, Committee for most of 2012, and most recently announced in an Oct. 10 memo that Dale will has been a senior fellow at the Potomac Institute join the agency as deputy associate adminis- for Policy Studies, an Arlington, Virginia-based trator, effective Nov. 3. Nield described her as think tank devoted to technology policy issues.

HART “a long-time supporter of commercial space” Prior to becoming NASA deputy adminis- in the memo. trator, Dale worked for the White House Office DOMINIC

BY Dale is best known in the space community of Science and Technology Policy as chief of staff

PHOTO for serving as deputy administrator of NASA and general counsel, and as the staff director for from November 2005 to January 2009. In that the House Science space subcommittee. CENTER position, she was responsible for day-to-day At the FAA, Dale succeeds George Zamka,

RESEARCH operations of the space agency. She also took a former astronaut who served as deputy asso-

AMES on several strategic initiatives, including work ciate administrator from March 2013 until July

NASA on a global exploration strategy. 2014. Zamka left the FAA to take a position at Shana Dale served as NASA deputy administrator from November 2005 to January 2009 Dale has held several positions since leaving Bigelow Aerospace. 10 www.spacenews.com October 20, 2014 Leaner, More-commercial Comtech Eyes U.S. Army BFT Upgrade PETER B. de SELDING, PARIS and revenue for this division was down again, by 27.5 percent to $27.7 Satellite ground equip- million, for the year ending July 31. ment provider Comtech In the conference call and in a Telecommunications Corp. is filing with the U.S. Securities and positioning itself to return to the Exchange Commission, Comtech winner’s circle with the U.S. Army’s — which has always said it would next-generation satellite-based pounce on any BFT-2 performance friendly forces tracking system. weakness to return as the Army’s Four years after it lost the contractor — said it will “aggres- contract to build the second- sively pursue” an Army request generation Blue Force Tracking for information from prospective (BFT-2) system, Comtech now sees bidders for a BFT-2.5 system. an opening as the Army looks to In its filing, Comtech said the an upgrade. transceivers used in BFT-2 have The loss of BFT-2 to rival ViaSat “certain shortcomings,” which the Inc. of Carlsbad, California, was a company did not spell out, that blow to Melville, New York-based could provide an opening for Comtech and was part of a general Comtech. Comtech’s main com- slide in U.S. government business C3T petitors in this market are ViaSat that resulted in a multiyear slide PEO and Northrop Grumman Corp. of in revenue and operating profit. Falls Church, Virginia. During that time, a slimmer SCHWERIN, The Army has continued to pay CLAIRE

Comtech emerged with a customer BY $10 million per year to Comtech set turned upside-down from where for intellectual property related it was before the BFT-2 loss: In 2010, PHOTO to BFT-1 as part of a “sustainment” ARMY the U.S. government accounted for U.S. contract that spans three years

71 percent of Comtech’s revenue, > The U.S. Army has continued to pay $10 million per year to Comtech for intellectual property related to the first-generation Blue Force Tracking system. ending in March 2015 and should with international customers at provide $68 million in revenue. 23 percent and domestic non-U.S. and had $154 million in cash as For the moment, Comtech is is providing hardware to outfit Thousands of tanks, aircraft and government at 6 percent. of July 31. With Comtech now focusing on growing its business Royal Caribbean Cruises ships with other vehicles carry BFT tech- For the year ending July 31, U.S. half its former size — revenue in with international sales of its higher-throughput satellite links. nology, designed to reduce so-called government customers accounted 2010 was $778 million — and the commercial satellite Earth station Royal Caribbean is one of several friendly fire incidents. for 28 percent of Comtech revenue, U.S. Defense Department budget equipment and its solid-state power companies, in markets including Comtech said it has been international customers were 59 still under heavy pressure, it was amplifiers and traveling-wave tube commercial shipping and offshore informed by the Army, if only percent and domestic customers, perhaps inevitable that Comtech amplifiers for satellite ground energy production, that are testing informally, that the BFT-1-related 28 percent. would seek a strategic transaction. equipment. Comtech has told inves- different satellite communications business will continue for several More importantly, Comtech In August, the company confirmed tors that its 500-watt Ka-band power technologies in Ku- and Ka-band. more years. The Army’s obliga- reversed the decline in total that it was looking at alternatives amplifier is well placed in the com- Kornberg said the company’s tion to pay the annual $10 million revenue that since 2010 cut sales including selling itself or making mercial satellite communications overall business will grow again license fee for Comtech BFT tech- in half. For the year ending July a large acquisition. market, where multiple fleet opera- during the current fiscal year, by nology ends in March 2017, after 31, revenue was $347.2 million, In an Oct. 10 conference call tors are moving to high-throughput about 4 percent. Most of the satellite which the Army will have nonex- up 8.6 percent from the previous with investors, Comtech Chief spacecraft, many in Ka-band. Earth station business opportuni- clusive use of the technology free year. Operating income was 12.6 Executive Fred Kornberg declined In an example of new markets ties, he said, are international. of charge. percent of revenue, up from 10.8 to comment on the ongoing process opening for companies like Comtech’s Mobile Data percent a year ago. beyond saying that it may come to Comtech in satellite commu- Communications business has not Twitter: @pbdes The company is debt-free nothing. nications terminals, Comtech yet recovered from the BFT-2 loss Email: [email protected] Aerojet Rocketdyne Takes $17.5 Million Loss on AJ-26 Engine Problems JEFF FOUST, WASHINGTON delivered, repairs to the test stand and costs Programs Group, said investigators had it would acquire ATK’s Aerospace group in associated with delayed engine deliveries. narrowed down the failure to two potential a deal expected to close before the end of The parent company of Aerojet Aerojet Rocketdyne has a contract with root causes, but did not discuss them. Both the year. Rocketdyne announced Oct. 10 that it took Orbital to provide 20 AJ-26 engines, two of potential causes can be screened for during Culbertson said Orbital would make a a $17.5 million loss in its latest fiscal quarter which are used in the first stage of the Antares engine inspections, he said. decision before it submitted a proposal to because of issues with the AJ-26 rocket engine launch vehicle. Aerojet has delivered 10 of Repairs to the Stennis test stand, NASA for the follow-on to the Commercial that it provides for Orbital Sciences Corp.’s those engines, including the two installed Culbertson said, have been completed, and Resupply Services contract for delivering Antares launch vehicle. on the Antares scheduled to launch Oct. 24 engine tests are scheduled to resume in cargo to the international space station. The Rancho Cordova, California-based proposal deadline is Nov. 14. GenCorp Inc. reported a net loss in the com- GenCorp’s SEC filing made no mention pany’s fiscal third quarter, which ended Aug. of two other recent developments affecting 31, of $9.5 million. In filings submitted to the “We had to replace a number of components, the company. On Sept. 17, United Launch U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Alliance announced a partnership with Blue (SEC) after the markets closed Oct. 10, the but everybody worked hard to turn that around Origin to develop a new engine to replace company also reported a net loss for the year the RD-180 used on the Atlas 5 rocket’s first to date of $61.8 million. so we could get back to testing.” stage. Aerojet has been shopping its own GenCorp singled out the AJ-26 engine, a RD-180 alternative, dubbed the AR1, which refurbished version of the Soviet-era NK-33, it says could be ready to fly within four years as a major reason for the loss. The company Frank Culbertson at a cost of less than $1 billion. said it took pretax contract loss of $17.5 On Sept. 29, Aerojet Rocketdyne said it million on the program in the latest quarter, signed a contract with ULA for studies of and $31.4 million loss on the program for several engines, including the AR1 the year to date. from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport October. “We had to replace a number of Both announcements took place after the In its SEC filing, GenCorp blamed the loss at Wallops Island, Virginia, on a resupply components, but everybody worked hard company’s fiscal third quarter ended Aug. 31. on “the cost to repair or replace engines as mission to the international space station. to turn that around so we could get back to Despite the loss the company reported necessary in light of the previously reported Neither Aerojet nor Orbital has disclosed testing,” Culbertson said. for the third quarter, GenCorp stock was engine test failures,” a likely reference to a May details regarding the cause of the May test The future of the AJ-26 is unclear. Orbital up nearly 3 percent on the New York Stock 22 test-stand failure of an AJ-26 engine at the failure. Speaking at the 65th International is considering several possible replacement Exchange at the close of trading Oct. 13. NASA Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. Astronautical Congress in Toronto Sept. 30, alternatives, including solid-rocket motors The company also cited the costs of increased Frank Culbertson, executive vice president from ATK, for the next block of Antares Twitter: @jeff_foust hardware inspections of engines yet to be and general manager of Orbital’s Advanced vehicles. Orbital this year announced that Email: [email protected] www.spacenews.com 11 October 20, 2014 Orbital Says It Has Chosen Future Antares Engine, Offers No Specifics PETER B. de SELDING, PARIS He said the cost to modify Antares for the new engine “will Rocket and satellite builder occur over a couple of years” and Orbital Sciences Corp. on Oct. will not be materially impor- 16 teased investors about the future tant to the company’s financial of its Antares rocket program, performance. saying the company had selected Thompson said Orbital has an Antares main-engine manufac- secured enough AJ-26 engines to turer for launches starting in 2017 cover Antares demand through but would not say who it is. mid-2017 in case of a schedule slip Many industry officials expect for the new engine. Orbital to use a solid-fueled Having said all that, Thompson motor built by ATK Aerospace declined to disclose the manufac- and Defense of Magna, Utah, turer or the engine, saying there with which Orbital is merging in is a large launch competition a deal scheduled to clear regula- expected in the coming weeks and tory approval late this year or early that Orbital does not want to show next year. Orbital also had been its hand before then. considering two Russian suppliers, Orbital has told investors including the current main-engine that its eight-launch, $1.9 billion provider, but a Russian choice Commercial Resupply Services given the current state of relations contract with NASA for space between Russia and the United station cargo delivery would States would carry risks, industry become more profitable as the officials said. PHOTO company demonstrated the service In a conference call with and moved management reserves investors, officials from Dulles, SCIENCES to the profit line once risks were

Virginia-based Orbital also said ORBITAL eliminated.

one of the company’s first two > Orbital Chief Executive David W. Thompson said the company has settled on a long-term Antares engine solution, which as expected will give the vehicle “a That has begun to happen. upgraded telecommunications little higher level of payload performance, which will be helpful in a variety of applications.” Orbital Chief Financial Officer satellite designs recently sold would Garrett E. Pierce said during the employ electric propulsion for orbit employ electric propulsion to help interested in electric propulsion for other government customers conference call that the operating raising. raise it from its rocket drop-off are eyeing many combinations of and the commercial market as well. profit margin on the contract is The GeoStar-3 satellite line is a point in transfer orbit into final chemical and electric propulsion The rocket’s first stage features now 6.25 percent compared with higher-power version of the compa- geostationary position. as they assess the trade-off between a Russian engine that has been 5.5 percent a year ago. It likely will ny’s GeoStar-2 and puts Orbital in There are several electric-pro- weight savings and the early start out of production for years. For climb to around 7 percent in 2015, a position to compete in a broader pulsion technologies, all sharing of operations. Antares, the engine is refurbished irrespective of any follow-on CRS market segment. The GeoStar-2 the advantage over chemical pro- Thompson said Orbital is to Orbital specifications by Aerojet contract, he said. product delivers as many as 5 kilo- pellant of substantial weight savings pricing the GeoStar-3 satellites Rocketdyne of Sacramento, Thompson said Orbital watts of power to the payload; the — as much as 40 percent of a satel- so as to gain market traction for California, and renamed the AJ-26. would be submitting to NASA in GeoStar-3 is as many as 8 kilowatts. lite’s weight — that can be used to the new product and is willing to Aerojet has said it could restart November a proposal for cargo- Orbital Chief Executive David purchase a lower-cost rocket or to book lower profit margins as a engine production if Orbital made supply missions starting in late W. Thompson said both orders add revenue-generating payload. result. “It’s going to take a couple a big order. 2017 or 2018 and continuing to for the GeoStar-3 feature electric But electric propulsion’s lower of years” for the new satellite design Thompson said the company 2024, when the station may be propulsion for satellite station- thrust means it takes months to to generate the same profit margin has settled on a long-term Antares retired. NASA is expected to sign keeping, meaning small maneuvers propel a satellite from its transfer as the veteran GeoStar-2, he said. engine solution, which as expected new supply contracts by mid-2015, throughout a satellite’s 15-year life orbit to its final station, compared Orbital sees its Antares rocket, will give the vehicle “a little higher he said. to maintain it stably in its geosta- with a couple of weeks for a satellite now used to carry cargo to the level of payload performance, tionary orbital slot. with chemical propellant. international space station under a which will be helpful in a variety Twitter: @pbdes One of the satellites also will Satellite fleet operators NASA contract, as having potential of applications.” Email: [email protected] U.S. Air Force Hosted Payload Program Missing One Thing: Military Users MIKE GRUSS, WASHINGTON Jim Simpson, vice president of business architectures, possibly incorporating hosted to service satellites in orbit. development for Boeing Network and Space payloads, the service is conducting multiple Industry officials said the Air Force A new U.S. Air Force contracting vehicle Systems of El Segundo, California, said it is studies to determine what comes next. None has much to gain by incorporating hosted for hosting government payloads on com- “disappointing” that the Air Force has not of the studies is expected to be completed payloads into its space portfolio sooner rather mercial satellites likely will be used exclusively made hosted payloads part of its routine before the end of this year, however, meaning than later. Chuck Cynamon, vice president for civilian scientific missions for three to approach to fielding space capabilities. their results likely cannot be factored in to of U.S. government business development five years, a service official said Oct. 15. “I’m impatient,” Simpson said here during the Defense Department’s 2016 budget plans. for satellite maker Space Systems/Loral of The Defense Department’s slowness to utilize the Hosted Payload Summit organized by But panelists repeatedly said during the Palo Alto, California, said hosted payloads its own contracting vehicle, known as Hosted Access Intelligence. “It just needs to happen conference that Air Force program managers could provide a “try-before-you-buy” option, Payload Solutions, or HoPS, is a source of quicker.” still have yet to fully embrace the idea that allowing the Air Force to test new tech- frustration among some in industry who Lt. Col. Mark Brykowytch, former chief of Defense Department missions can stray nologies and architectures before making initially had high hopes for the program. the hosted payload office at Air Force Space from the status quo and are viable hosted expensive long-term decisions. Through HoPS, the Air Force has created and Missile Systems Center in Los Angeles, payload candidates. Myland Pride, director of legislative and a contracting vehicle to standardize the pro- which manages the HoPS contract, said “We brought them the vehicle,” government affairs at Intelsat General Corp. cesses and interfaces for placing dedicated he could not offer a specific timetable for Brykowytch said. “It should be much more of Bethesda, Maryland, said industry must military capabilities aboard commercial satel- when the service would use it for a Defense enticing.” continue to press policymakers to include lites. In June, the service awarded contracts Department mission. But he said three to Industry executives questioned whether hosted payloads in their future architec- to 14 space companies, effectively qualifying five years was a reasonable expectation. Air Force space program managers have ture plans. Pride also suggested the U.S. them to provide certain services and hardware One reason for the long wait is uncertainty any incentive to leverage hosted payloads. intelligence community embrace hosted in support of hosted payload missions. about the Air Force’s future satellite architec- While hosted payloads are a low-cost way of payloads, which he said would be hard for As expected, NASA is the inaugural user ture, panelists said. With the exception of a augmenting or plugging gaps in existing adversaries to locate if secretly deployed of the HoPS contracting vehicle. In July, the new-generation weather satellite system, all capabilities, they still introduce new expen- in large numbers on commercial satellites Air Force, acting on NASA’s behalf, awarded of the Air Force’s major constellations are ditures and risks. platforms. Currently most dedicated intel- three commercial telecommunications under contract, with most of those in the “We need people who are champions ligence satellites, while classified, can be satellite makers contracts to design accom- midst of deployment. to push projects toward hosted payloads,” located and tracked after launch. modations for an atmospheric sensor, known Facing budget pressures and an evolving said Craig Weston, president and chief as Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of threat environment that some defense offi- executive of Vivisat, a joint venture of ATK Twitter: @Gruss_SN Pollution, or TEMPO. cials believe requires different constellation Aerospace and U.S. Space LLC that aims Email: [email protected] 12 www.spacenews.com October 20, 2014 EARTH SCIENCE and Climate Monitoring

Jason-2 Data Foretell an El Niño That’s More ‘Gecko’ than

2014 DEBRA WERNER, SAN FRANCISCO rainfall tends to occur over the warmest water, El Niño affects This image of the Pacific Ocean fter three years of severe precipitation. was produced in mid-October drought, California water Although satellite observations using sea surface height mea- managers hoping for sig- captured in mid-October show surements from the Jason-2 A nificant rainfall during the coming water levels in the eastern Pacific Ocean Surface Topography Mis- winter are unlikely to get the relief Ocean are higher than average, sion. Although these satellite they seek from El Niño, a disruption the temperatures are not as warm observations show water levels in the normal weather patterns as those observed during years in the eastern Pacific Ocean of the tropical Pacific Ocean that when El Niño triggered signifi- are higher than average, the changes the course of the jet stream cant increases in precipitation in temperatures are not as warm and can have a dramatic impact the southern third of the United as those observed during years on temperature and precipitation States and warmer-than-normal when El Niño triggered significant levels in North America. conditions in much of the rest of increases in precipitation in the One of the primary instru- the country. southern third of the United States ments researchers use to gauge Earlier this year, Pacific Ocean and warmer-than-normal conditions the likelihood of El Niño is the water temperatures were similar in much of the rest of the country. space-based altimeter flying to those of 1997, when El Niño IMAGERY

JPL on the Jason-2 Ocean Surface brought record winter rainfall to Topography Mission, launched in California. In the spring and early 2008 by the French space agency, summer of this year, however, the CNES; NASA; the U.S. National trade winds resumed their normal Oceanic and Atmospheric pattern and temperatures in the Administration; and Europe’s eastern Pacific Ocean moved closer meteorological satellite agency, to normal. Patzert now anticipates Eumetsat. Researchers use a weak to moderate El Niño. Jason-2’s altimeter to measure “Everybody thinks of El Niño sea levels in the eastern equatorial these days as the great wet hope, Pacific Ocean. but there are lots of puny ones,” Jason-2 data are compared with said Patzert, who has studied ocean temperature, current and El Niño since the 1960s. “For a wind measurements gathered sustained multi-month soaking, by NOAA’s moored Tropical you can’t beat a Godzilla El Niño Atmosphere Ocean buoys. The like 1997-1998.” In comparison, multiple daily measurements current climate conditions appear provided by the buoys complement more likely to produce a “gecko,” the satellite data, said Michelle he said. L’Heureux, a meteorologist in L’Heureux is not surprised by NOAA’s National Weather Service recent changes in Pacific Ocean Climate Prediction Center in sea surface temperatures. NOAA College Park, Maryland. “Satellites officials refrain from making any give you greater coverage and the El Niño forecasts early in the year buoys provide data corrections,” because sea surface temperature she said. data obtained in March and April When water levels in the “are historically unreliable,” she eastern equatorial Pacific are said. higher than their long-term NOAA officials prefer to wait average, indicating unusually until June or July when they can warm temperatures in the upper see whether warming ocean ocean, forecasters begin to look temperatures are producing an for El Niño. atmospheric response, such as “El Niño has a great signal in changes in trade winds. Even when sea level height,” said William that occurs, the agency couches Patzert, a climatologist at NASA’s forecasts for what it refers to as Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the El Niño Southern Oscillation Pasadena, California. in terms of probability. As of El Niño occurs every few Oct. 9, the consensus opinion years when the trade winds that of NOAA forecasters was a 65 normally blow from east to west percent chance of El Niño occur- across the Pacific Ocean relax ring between November 2014 and or reverse course, moving warm January 2015. water from the western equatorial Southern Oscillation refers PHOTO

JPL Pacific region eastward. Because to changes in air pressure often

The> Jason-2 satellite was launched in 2008. www.spacenews.com 13 October 20, 2014

than ‘Godzilla’

associated with the ocean condi- tions named El Niño by South American fishermen who noticed warm currents that sometimes appeared around Christmas. El Niño means “little boy” in Spanish and is a term often used to refer to Jesus. NOAA forecasters also avoid predicting the strength of El Niño because “it’s a moving target,” L’Heureux said. When pressed, she said that as of early October, the most likely outcome for the coming winter is a weak El Niño. Throughout the year, meteo- rologists monitor sea surface temperatures using Jason-2, which, like its predecessors — the Topex- Poseidon mission and Jason-1, launched in 1992 and 2001 respec- tively — carries an altimeter to bounce microwaves off the ocean’s surface and measure their travel time to create a detailed map of ocean height around the world every 10 days. Because warm water has greater volume than cold water,

researchers can track changes in IMAGERY water temperature by noting varia- JPL tions in sea surface height. The Jason-2 altimeter gathers data at two frequencies to negate 1997 the affect of Earth’s ionosphere on

the microwave signal. In addition, This> > image of the Pacific Ocean, produced using measurements taken by the U.S.-French Topex/Poseidon sat- the sea level measurement missions ellite, shows sea surface height relative to normal ocean conditions on Oct. 3, 1997, as the warm water associated employ microwave radiometers to with El Niño (in white) spread northward along the coast of North America from the equator all the way to Alaska. determine the water content of the atmosphere, which can have a significant impact on the speed microwaves travel. By gathering data from with Topex-Poseidon, Jason-1 and Jason-2, researchers have compiled a 22-year series of global obser- vations. That series is expected to continue with the scheduled March 2015 launch of Jason-3 on a Space Exploration Technologies Corp. Falcon 9 version 1.1 rocket, NASA spokesman Stephen Cole said by email. “NASA, NOAA and CNES have maintained the continuity of these missions because they are so powerful,” Patzert said. “We have seen overall sea level rise of nearly three inches as well as regional changes and, of course, these missions are great and powerful El Niño monitors.”

Email: [email protected] CONCEPT

A> 22-year series of global observations is expected to continue ARTIST’S

JPL with the scheduled March 2015 launch of Jason-3 (above). 14 www.spacenews.com October 20, 2014 Ariane 5’s 62nd Straight Success Puts Argentina in Satcom Saddle PETER B. de SELDING, PARIS was an unhappy experience with the pri- vately owned NahuelSat, which operated Europe’s Ariane 5 heavy-lift rocket on a satellite and, according to Arsat, nearly Oct. 16 placed two telecommunications caused Argentina to lose its rights to the satellites into orbit in the vehicle’s 62nd geostationary arc as registered by the consecutive success, a launch that brought International Telecommunication Union, Argentina to the table of nations that a United Nations agency.

have built — and operated — their own MARTIN “During the 1990s, private foreign geostationary-orbiting spacecraft. SAN hands managed the orbital positions DE Argentine officials said after the launch assigned to Argentina by the specialized that their nation is determined not to United Nations agency,” Arsat Chief UNIVERSIDAD

repeat its previous experience in which OF Executive Matias Bianchi said after the non-Argentine commercial interests nearly Arsat-1 launch. “Decisions were often made caused the nation to lose access to the COURTESY from a foreign perspective or mindset, and

geostationary belt in which most telecom- PHOTO much of our [orbital-access] sovereignty

munications satellites operate. > “Decisions were often made from a foreign perspective or was about to be lost.” Launched from Europe’s Guiana Space mindset, and much of our [orbital-access] sovereignty was about Arsat subsequently leased a satel- Center on the northeast coast of South to be lost,” Arsat Chief Executive Matias Bianchi said. lite owned by fleet operator SES of America, the Ariane 5 ECA vehicle com- Luxembourg to help preserve the nation’s pleted the fifth of a planned six launch consumer of foreign satellite capacity into rights to the 71.8 degrees west orbital slot PHOTO CSG campaigns for 2014. a nation that builds its own spacecraft — where Arsat-1 will operate. Sitting in the vehicle’s upper berth was Arsat 2 is scheduled for launch aboard an Argentine officials have said that VIDÉO the Intelsat 30/DLA-1 satellite owned by Ariane 5 in 2015 — and operates them. Arsat-1, which including the launch and OPTIQUE Intelsat of Luxembourg and, following The state-owned INVAP company ground infrastructure cost about $270 its recent move, McLean, Virginia. The is Arsat-1’s prime contractor and both million, will usher in a series of domestic satellite’s 72 Ku-band transponders will Arsat and INVAP assumed responsibility satellite programs while allowing the be used by DirecTV Latin America, a unit for managing the satellite as soon as it nation to save about $25 million per year

of Los Angeles-based DirecTV Group. separated from the Ariane rocket. Arsat now paid, in hard currency, to non-Argen- ESA-CNES-ARIANESPACE/PHOTO

DirecTV typically manages its own satellite officials said it is the first time a Latin tine companies with satellites covering > The Ariane 5 ECA vehicle sits on the launch pad with the programs but lacks Ku-band frequency American nation has taken control of a Latin America. Intelsat 30/DLA-1 and Arsat-1 satellites. access over Latin America, which accounts satellite from the start. Argentine officials have said they would for the relationship with Intelsat. The Arsat-1 payload was built by Thales like to use their newly developed expertise Kirchner, who succeeded her husband in Intelsat 30, built by Space Systems/ Alenia Space of France and Italy, which is to create a federation of nations in Latin 2007 — he died in 2010 — has continued Loral of Palo Alto, California, weighed also providing the Arsat-2 payload. America to maximize their investment in to support the Arsat program. She closely 6,300 kilograms at launch and is designed Arsat-1 weighed 2,985 kilograms at space technology. Venezuela has a satellite followed the launch and tweeted its success. to provide 20.1 kilowatts of power to its launch and is designed to provide 4.2 program, but it was purchased in China. Norberto Berner, Argentina’s state sec- payload, which includes 10 C-band tran- kilowatts of power to its payload of 24 Brazil has a major program as well, but retary for communications, attended the sponders to be used by Intelsat to bolster Ku-band transponders. purchases satellites in Europe and the launch and said his nation views Arsat-1 its own Latin American portfolio. Arsat, which like INVAP is state-owned, United States. with as much national pride as was the The satellite will be co-located with has said it is already working on designs Colombia is planning to procure an case when Argentina developed its first Intelsat’s Galaxy C spacecraft at 95 degrees for Arsat-3. Earth observation satellite, and both Peru nuclear power plants a half-century ago. west. Arsat was created in 2006 by then- and Chile have done likewise, all buying Arsat-1 is Argentina’s flagship program Argentine President Nestor Kirchner in European technology. Twitter: @pbdes that transforms the nation from a the wake of what Argentine officials say Current Argentine President Cristina Email: [email protected] NASA To Ship Formation-flying Heliophysics Craft Soon DAN LEONE, WASHINGTON them out for integration with Atlas 5. billion James Webb Space Telescope During its two-year primary — a long-delayed astrophysics tele- The four identical spacecraft con- mission, MMS, the fourth in NASA’s scope whose every developmental stituting NASA’s Magnetospheric Solar Terrestrial Probes program, hiccup earns NASA a dressing-down Multiscale (MMS) mission are under- will study how the magnetic fields from Congress — cut in line for going final preshipment tests at of Earth and the sun interact. The thermal vacuum chamber tests at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight mission has dealt with the occasional Goddard. As a result, the four MMS Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, bump in the road since development spacecraft were bounced to the U.S. and are expected to reach Cape started in 2009. Naval Research Laboratory here for Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, In spring 2013, NASA discov- thermal vacuum tests, which finished in November in preparation for a ered component defects during in July, Davis said. March launch. routine tests of MMS’s Fast Plasma MMS is one of the three big helio- The four formation-flying space- Instrument suites, construction physics missions NASA will have craft, built for a combined $875 of which was overseen under a to launch before the agency can million, will ship in pairs by truck roughly $225 million fixed-price begin to refocus its solar physics to the Cape. The first pair is sched- contract awarded in 2004 to the program to include more smaller uled to ship Oct. 27 and the second Southwest Research Institute in San missions, as scientists serving on the pair Nov. 12, Gary Davis, Goddard- Antonio. The failures prompted National Research Council’s solar based spacecraft systems engineer NASA to replace some of the com- and space physics subcommittee for MMS, said Oct. 6. Launch aboard ponents, electrical devices known recommended in a 10-year planning a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 is as optocouplers. document published in 2012 called scheduled for March 12, according MMS was also hindered by “Solar and Space Physics: A Science to ULA spokeswoman Jessica Rye. the two-week partial government for a Technological Society.” In the meantime, the MMS craft shutdown in October 2013. Engineers The other two missions are Solar are undergoing a final battery of tests were locked out of Goddard while Probe Plus, a $1.5 billion observa- at Goddard to ensure the identically MMS development was in full swing, tory set to launch in 2018, and Solar instrumented satellites are properly setting the mission on course to Orbiter, a roughly $1 billion collabo- balanced. As of Oct. 6, two of the overrun the $850 million develop- ration led by the European Space four MMS spacecraft had completed ment cost NASA committed to in Agency to which NASA is contrib- these tests, Davis said. MMS obser- 2009 by more than $25 million, the uting a pair of instruments and an vatories will spin at three rotations U.S. Government Accountability Atlas 5 launcher. ESA is targeting a per minute during on-orbit science Office wrote in an April report. 2017 launch for Solar Orbiter.

PHOTO operations, so engineers at Goddard Just prior to the partial shutdown

NASA are subjecting them to spin-table last October, MMS was forced to let Twitter: @Leone_SN Four MMS spacecraft stacked for transport to test chamber tests in Greenbelt before shipping the core science module for the $8.8 Email: [email protected] View on 10.27.2014 at www.spacenews.com

SPONSORED BY

The Future of SATCOM in Support of DoD: A Commercial Perspective, What’s Next After WGS?

Skot Butler Vice President, Intelsat General Corporation

Register for Luncheon at www.wsbr.org 16 www.spacenews.com October 20, 2014 Astronaut Conclave Provides Showcase for China’s Station Plans LEONARD DAVID, GOLDEN, Colo. nations to take part in its space station program. Space travelers from around “And the way things are the globe recently got a firsthand shaping up, that’s about the sense of China’s blossoming time that our international space plans to explore Earth orbit station may be destroyed, retired and beyond. — whatever you want to call it,” At the 27th Planetary McCandless said. Congress of the Association of The international space sta- Space Explorers (ASE), held in tion’s modules have been on orbit September in Beijing, China’s since 1998 with ISS assembly space industry leaders extended continuing into 2011. NASA is an open invitation for other working with its international nations to take part in China’s partners to extend the station’s emerging space station program. orbital life through 2028, but “We reserved a number of the orbiting outpost will eventu- platforms that can be used ally be retired and intentionally for international cooperative destroyed by burning up in projects in our future space Earth’s atmosphere. station when we designed it,” Although China is inviting Yang Liwei, deputy director widespread participation in its of China Manned Space space station plans, it probably Engineering and China’s first does not include the United astronaut, said at the event, States, “the way we’re addressing which was held in China for CONCEPT the situation,” McCandless said,

the first time. “In addition to ARTIST’S referring to the current lack

collaboration in applied experi- CMSE of U.S.-China cooperation on

ments, we also designed adapters > China has initiated a multistep space station program. Tiangong 1, its first space lab, was sent into orbit in 2011. Tiangong 2 is set to launch in 2016. The Shen- human spaceflight. “It would be that can dock with other nations’ zhou 11 crewed spacecraft and Tianzhou 1 cargo spacecraft would then be launched to dock with that facility. The station would be fully operational by about 2022. very politically powerful” if China spacecraft.” were to include the United States China has initiated a mul- Corp.“The ASE Congress was included the nation’s first crewed serves as chairman emeritus of in that invitation, he said. tistep space station program, very successful; the Chinese are flight, first spacewalk and first the B612 Foundation, a nonprofit Outside of the ASE assembly, sending the Tiangong 1, its energetic, welcoming, friendly dockings to a space lab — which dedicated to planetary defense McCandless said he got tours of first space lab and still-oper- and intent on exploring and are significant, Walker said. against asteroids. China’s neutral buoyancy tank, ating spacecraft, into orbit in developing space,” Walker said. “They very clearly tout [these “There was great interaction a look at Shenzhou and space September 2011. The Chinese myth about missions] as leading up to the and terrific contact with all the station training hardware and The liftoff of China’s the beautiful young woman, fully assembled station by 2022,” Chinese astronauts — and very a visit to a neighboring school. Tiangong 2 space lab, scheduled Chang’e, and her jade rabbit, he said. “And they are very clear warm,” he said, commending “We did get a tour of the for 2016, is intended to sharpen Yutu, going to the Moon has in offering partnerships and user China’s request for international Beijing Space City, which is, in China’s space station construc- made for a great connection relationships in that space station participation. “I don’t know yet my opinion, roughly equivalent to tion skills. A Shenzhou 11 crewed with the Chinese people. All program.” whether there are more specifics the NASA Johnson Space Center,” spacecraft and a Tianzhou 1 of China’s lunar missions to In fact, Walker said, young on that, but there’s no doubt that McCandless said. “The missions cargo spacecraft would then date have been named for the Chinese engineers and scientists it is sincere.” that they have undertaken have be launched to dock with that Chang’e Moon maiden. working on spaceflight activities included a spacewalk, [and] the facility. “They seem intent on lunar seem just as excited and deter- The Politics of Space first Chinese and second Chinese Yang told the ASE delegates exploration and exploitation mined as the Americans working Also attending this year’s ASE woman in space. They did the that by about 2022, China’s first through some or all the scenarios on the Mercury, Gemini and Planetary Congress was Bruce teacher-in-space broadcast to space station would be fully of which we are familiar,” Walker Apollo programs in the 1960s. McCandless, a veteran of two classrooms, apparently to great operational. said. “The U.S. found reasons, ways space shuttle flights and the success, and they have repeatedly Space travelers from around China is maintaining its and means to cooperate with the first person to make an unteth- docked with their space lab. the world attended the event momentum with missions to low Soviet Union in space, so the U.S. ered spacewalk, using a Manned “Those things we have seen hosted by ASE, an interna- Earth orbit, Walker said. “Their must do so with China today. Maneuvering Unit. have all seemed to be executed tional nonprofit professional human spaceflight program is Europe is already walking that McCandless said China’s invi- quite competently. It seems to me and educational organization maturing quickly and deliber- path,” Walker said. tation to other nations reminded that they would be an appropriate of nearly 400 astronauts from 35 ately,” he said. Former Apollo astronaut him of Interkosmos, a former collaborator or partner in future nations. One of them was Charles Russell “Rusty” Schweickart also Soviet Union initiative that gave efforts. If we are not interested in Walker, who flew three space China’s Space Advances attended the ASE event and said nations on friendly terms with working with them, they probably shuttle missions in the 1980s as It is important to note the he was impressed. Schweickart is the Soviets access to human have the national conviction and a payload specialist employed success of China’s manned also the founder and past presi- and robotic space missions. He the funding to just keep moving by the McDonnell Douglas Shenzhou missions — which dent of the ASE and currently too highlighted China’s call for ahead by themselves.” PHOTO PHOTO CMSE CMSE > Former NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless, a veteran of two shuttle flights and the first person to make an untethered spacewalk, shares his experiences > Yang Liwei, deputy director of China Manned Space Engineering, said, “We reserved a number of platforms with Chinese students. “We did get a tour of the Beijing Space City, which is, in my opinion, roughly equivalent to the NASA Johnson Space Center,” he said. that can be used for international cooperative projects in our future space station when we designed it.” www.spacenews.com 17 October 20, 2014 LaunchReport

OCTOBER LAUNCHES Date Launch site Vehicle and provider Payload and owner Outcome or purpose

Oct. 16 Satish Dhawan Space Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, IRNSS-1C, ISRO Launched the third spacecraft in the Indian Center, Sriharikota, India Indian Space Research Regional Navigation Satellite System. Organisation

Oct. 16 Guiana Space Center, Ariane 5, Arianespace Intelsat 30, Intelsat; Launched a direct-to-home television satellite and Kourou, French Guiana Arsat-1, Argentina a communications satellite.

Oct. 21 Baikonur Cosmodrome, Proton M, Khrunichev State Express AM6, Russian To launch a communications satellite. Kazakhstan Research and Production Satellite Communications Co. Space Center

Oct. 24 Mid-Atlantic Regional Antares, Orbital Sciences Orb 3, Orbital Sciences To launch a commercial resupply mission to the Spaceport, Wallops Island, Corp. Corp. international space station. Virginia

Oct. 29 Cape Canaveral Air Force Atlas 5, United Launch GPS 2F-8, U.S. Air Force To launch a navigation satellite. Station, Florida Alliance

Oct. 29 Baikonur Cosmodrome, Soyuz, TsSKB-Progress Progress 57P, Russian To launch a cargo delivery ship to the Kazakhstan Federal Space Agency international space station.

NOVEMBER LAUNCHES Date Launch site Vehicle and provider Payload and owner Outcome or purpose

Nov. 18 Guiana Space Center, Vega, Arianespace Intermediate Experimental To test technologies and critical systems for Kourou, French Guiana Vehicle (IXV), European future automated re-entry vehicles. Space Agency

Nov. 23 Baikonur Cosmodrome, Soyuz FG, TsSKB-Progress Soyuz TMA-15M, Russian To launch new crew members to the Kazakhstan Federal Space Agency international space station.

Nov. 30 Tanegashima Space H-2A, Mitsubishi Heavy Hayabusa 2, Japan To launch an asteroid sample return mission. Center, Japan Industries Aerospace Exploration Agency

The Indian Space Research Organisation launches the IRNSS-1C navigation satellite on

PHOTO a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle from Satish

ISRO Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, India. 18 www.spacenews.com October 20, 2014 COMMENTARY < EDITORIAL > Rendezvous at Mars he Sept. 24 capture of India’s first interplanetary space- dian governments also are working to coordinate their respec- craft into Mars orbit marks another significant achieve- tive satellite navigation systems and will open up a dialogue Tment for the rising space power. Indian, U.S. Probes Herald on space situational awareness and space collision avoidance. The Mangalyaan probe, like India’s Chandrayaan-1 lunar Substantive ties between the U.S. and Indian space pro- orbiter that flew in 2008, symbolizes the expanding frontiers Closer Ties in Space grams have been a long time coming. Although there has been and potential of a space program that grew up on down-to- collaboration dating back to the early 1960s, the relationship Earth applications like resource mapping, weather monitoring has been hampered by larger geopolitical issues including and communications. The Indian Space Research Organisation, CONCEPT India’s nuclear tests, most recently in 1998, India’s ties with which developed Asia’s first successful Mars mission at an ARTIST’S the former Soviet Union and U.S. dealings with Pakistan. estimated cost of roughly $70 million, is to be congratulated. MARTIN China’s growing power, coupled with the Sept. 11, 2001,

Perhaps by coincidence, Mangalyaan’s arrival came LOCKHEED terrorist attacks, gave impetus to U.S. efforts to strengthen just three days after that of the latest U.S. visitor to the ties with India. In 2004 the two sides unveiled the Next Steps red planet, NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution in Strategic Partnership initiative under which they pledged to (MAVEN) probe. pursue cooperation in civil space and other high-technology The probes themselves are quite different. Mangaly- areas. aan is first and foremost a technology pathfinder with a Tangible progress had been painstakingly slow, however. secondary science mission, while MAVEN is 10 times more Until now. expensive and carries a sophisticated instrument package Earth observation has long been an obvious area of that will provide clues about the evolution of the martian cooperation between India and the United States. To cite just atmosphere and climate. one example, ISRO’s repeating series of Indian Remote Sens- But together they made space exploration history: ing broad-area mapping and mineralogy satellites could host Never before had two probes — let alone two launched by U.S. sensors, while the U.S. Landsat imaging satellites offer a different countries — reached the same distant planetary similar opportunity for Indian instruments. destination at roughly the same time. Given the challenges NASA has faced in securing funding Even more significantly, their arrivals set the perfect for Landsat and other Earth observation missions, it should be stage for the signing, on Sept. 30, of accords to expand aggressively exploring all opportunities to partner with other Indo-U.S. cooperation in space activity. nations, including India. Unlike so many other space cooperative pacts, which Mars exploration represents a new possibility. Obviously tend to be vague and noncommittal, the accords signed by the gap between U.S. and Indian capabilities is far greater NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and ISRO Chairman K. in planetary exploration than in remote sensing, but some Radhakrishnan during the International Astronautical Con- fundamental requirements — launch, for example — would MARBURGER gress in Toronto are concrete and substantive. They call for H. seem to fall within ISRO’s proficiency zone. LANCE

NASA and ISRO to jointly conduct a radar Earth observation BY In so many space activities — ranging from Earth observa- mission launching in 2020 and to examine opportunities to tion to planetary exploration, to space surveillance and even collaborate in Mars exploration, possibly beginning with ILLUSTRATION human spaceflight — the United States and India have much coordinated observations MAVEN and Mangalyaan. PHOTO to gain and little to lose in working more closely together. This is the latest and most significant product to date of The two have had their differences over the years — they CONCEPT an ongoing dialogue that goes beyond civil space cooperation. SPACENEWS still persist in the commercial space arena — but the latest PHOTO; ARTIST’S NASA According to a U.S. State Department fact sheet, the U.S. and In- ISRO accords are a big step in the right direction.

WASHINGTON OFFICE Senior Staff Writer Subscriber Services Kennedy Space Center, Fla. San Francisco Debra Werner 1414 Prince Street Jeff Foust Toll free: +1-866-429-2199 Irene Klotz 180 29th Ave., Suite 300 [email protected] Tel: +1-845-267-3023 Kennedy Space Center Felix H. Magowan San Francisco, CA 94121 Alexandria, VA Tel: +1-571-421-2300 Fax: +1-845-267-3478 Launch Complex 39 Press Chairman [email protected] 22314-2853 U.S.A. Site [email protected] Kennedy Space Center, Fla. Tel: +1-415-412-5819 Tel: +1-303-443-4360 Tel: +1-571-421-2300 NASA, Policy CORRESPONDENTS: Dan Leone India 32899 News Editor [email protected] K.S. Jayaraman [email protected] Canada William A. Klanke Tel: +1-321-422-3431 David Pugliese President & Publisher Todd Windsor Tel: +1-571-356-9531 D-208 Jardine Block [email protected] [email protected] Brigade Gardenia Enclave [email protected] Tel: +1-571-385-0234 Tel: +1-571-356-9773 Military Space J.P. Nagar 7th phase Japan Tel: +1-250-592-8354 Mike Gruss Bangalore 560078 Paul Kallender-Umezu Warren Ferster Art Director [email protected] India 150-0002 Shibuya Ku Executive Editor Lance H. Marburger Tel: +1-571-356-9022 [email protected] 150-0002 Tokyo-To [email protected] [email protected] Tel: +91-80-2696-6579 Shibuya Ku Tel: +1-571-356-9623 Tel: +1-571-356-9601 PARIS OFFICE Shibuya 1-20-17 Paris Bureau Chief Israel Mitake Hime 607 Brian Berger Copy Editor/Web Producer Peter B. de Selding Barbara Opall-Rome Japan Editor, SpaceNews.com Clinton Parks [email protected] 51A Ben Yehuda St. paul.kallender@ Deputy Editor, SpaceNews [email protected] Paris Herzeliya 46403, Israel newstandardjapan.com [email protected] 6 Square Théophile Gautier [email protected] Tel: +81-03-3499-0422 SPACENEWS is a registered Tel: +1-571-356-9957 trademark of Space News Inc. Tel: +1-571-356-9624 75016 Paris, France Tel: +972-9-951-8258 www.spacenews.com 19 October 20, 2014 Winds of Change for Weather Data < U.S. REP. JIM BRIDENSTINE > ven limited-government conserva- weather prediction models that will enable space ventures, the government should be Additionally, hurricane path forecasts tives, like me, would concede that us to improve weather forecasting. Second, involved in the initial phases of developing will be degraded, resulting in false-alarm Ethe federal government has a role NOAA is exploring options to utilize unproven technology, but once the risks evacuations that could cost the country in weather prediction, at the very least commercial satellite companies. and rewards are quantified, private busi- billions of dollars annually. For people for military operations and national se- The United States can dramatically nesses can step in and provide better and from tornado-prone states like Oklahoma curity. In fact, it was the U.S. Army and improve weather forecasting, save taxpayer cheaper solutions. NOAA and Congress or hurricane-prone states on the East Navy that launched TIROS-1, America’s dollars and reduce risk by empowering can help facilitate this transition, but it Coast or Gulf of Mexico, this risk must first low Earth orbit weather satellite, in the commercial weather and satellite will happen either way. be mitigated. 1960. As a Navy pilot who has flown com- industries. This is why I introduced the The historic government monopoly of We should not rely on data from China, bat missions in Afghanistan and Iraq as Weather Forecasting Improvement Act. weather satellites and associated data is Russia or even Europe for our forecasts. well as counterdrug missions in Central I am so grateful for the leadership of now at the point of creating unnecessary Doing so would introduce a very real and South America, I have relied heavily Chairman Chris Stewart (R-Utah) and costs, delays and risks that could dramati- vulnerability to our security and result on weather forecasting provided by the Ranking Member Suzanne Bonamici cally degrade U.S. weather forecasting. in the export of American tax dollars, U.S. government. When forecasting is private capital and jobs. incorrect, the result can be dangerous A JPSS gap mitigation analysis of and even fatal situations. alternatives was called for by NOAA, the Beyond military applications, the The United States can dramatically improve weather Government Accountability Office, the American economy has come to depend Department of Commerce Office of the on accurate forecasts, including trans- forecasting, save taxpayer dollars and reduce risk Inspector General, and the $4 billion-per- portation, utility companies, agriculture, year U.S. commercial weather industry. financial services, tourism and more. by empowering the commercial weather The report made many recommendations As population centers have grown, the to mitigate the gap but didn’t address its devastating economic and human impact and satellite industries. underlying cause: shrinking congressional of severe weather events has also grown. budgets and a slow-to-react government The May 20, 2013, tornado that struck monopoly of weather satellites. Moore, Oklahoma (my home state) took (D-Ore.) who guided this important As the Suomi NPP satellite comes to The taxpayer is underserved by the 24 lives and destroyed $2 billion worth legislation through the House Science the end of its life and the Joint Polar government monopoly in three ways: of property. environment subcommittee. Because Satellite System (JPSS)-1 is delayed, inflexibility, increased risks and higher Unfortunately, the United States ranks of their bipartisan leadership, the bill NOAA has indicated there will likely be costs. just fourth in accurate and timely weather passed through the Science Committee a gap in afternoon weather data from our First, flexibility is necessary to benefit forecasting despite spending much more and the House of Representatives without polar-orbiting sun-synchronous satellites. from rapid technological advancement than the rest of the world combined. opposition. If it does not pass the Senate According to NOAA, if the gap is not and shifting priorities. When a gov- The National Oceanic and Atmospheric this session, I look forward to quickly mitigated, it will “erode everyday weather ernment monopoly purchases a single Administration is doing some good things reintroducing it next year. forecasts and expose the nation to a 25% multibillion-dollar satellite at the limit to correct this situation. First, NOAA is This bill will help weather data follow chance of missing extreme event forecasts of its budget, it lacks the flexibility to investing in high-performance computing, the classic transition from the govern- that matter most.” That includes tornadic which is necessary for the numerical ment to the private sector. As in other thunderstorms, floods and winter storms. SEE BRIDENSTINE PAGE 21 ULA, Blue Origin and the BE-4 Engine < ANTHONY YOUNG > lmost overshadowed by and/or launch system materiel immediate future, considering will maintain the key heritage Rocket Engine Maker.” The NASA’s long-awaited an- options that could deliver cost- the multiyear research, develop- components of ULA’s Atlas and article stated that ULA was Anouncement of its Com- effective, commercially-viable ment and certification of such Delta rockets that provide world Energomash’s most important mercial Crew Transportation solutions for current and future an engine. class mission assurance and reli- customer and noted that the Capability (CCtCap) awards National Security Space (NSS) Congress has expressed its ability — will be announced at RD-180 is built for no other on Sept. 16 to Boeing and launch requirements.” Air Force initial support in this effort by a later date.” launch vehicle but the Atlas 5; Space Exploration Technolo- Space Command, the document allotting funding in the House However, ULA posted this on in particular, it is not used on gies Corp., totaling $6.8 bil- stated, “is considering an acqui- and Senate versions of a fiscal its Twitter account: “We intend any Russian launch vehicles. lion, was another significant sition strategy to stimulate the year 2015 defense appropria- to use a pair of BE-4s on the Bruno and Bezos surely announcement made the next commercial development of tions bill. base Atlas with even better anticipated the accusations that day. Jeff Bezos, founder of Blue booster propulsion systems and/ The companies issued performance.” In addition, the would be leveled at the BE-4 Origin, and Tory Bruno, the from supporters of the RD-180. new president and chief execu- Their statements regarding this tive of United Launch Alliance, could not have been clearer, but held a joint press conference in The phrase “next generation vehicles” was almost universally those with vested interests in the Washington. ULA has signed superb Russian rocket engine an agreement with Blue Ori- overlooked in the media. Simply put, the Blue Origin BE-4 engine is being were not appeased. gin for the development of a The phrase “next generation liquid-oxygen (LOX)/lique- primarily developed for a new ULA launch vehicle or vehicles. vehicles” was almost universally fied natural gas (LNG) booster overlooked in the media. Simply engine with 550,000 pounds of put, the Blue Origin BE-4 engine thrust. or launch systems for Evolved statements to try to dispel the handout for the BE-4 states the is being primarily developed This announcement followed Expendable Launch Vehicle perceived purpose of the Blue engine will be built for “meeting for a new ULA launch vehicle months of debate in Washington (EELV)-class spacelift applica- Origin BE-4 engine: “The BE-4 both commercial requirements or vehicles. With this under- over the supply vulnerability of tions. The Air Force has relied is not a direct replacement for and those of the U.S. Air Force’s stood, the efforts by the Air the Russian-built RD-180 used upon foreign sources for the the RD-180 that powers ULA’s Evolved Expendable Launch Force to seek a replacement to on ULA’s Atlas 5 rocket. In the booster propulsion systems in Atlas V rocket, however two Vehicle (EELV) program.” the RD-180 for the Atlas 5 may last several months, debate has the past.” BE-4s are expected to provide The Moscow Times entered the be on an entirely separate track. heightened. The Air Force has stated it the engine thrust for the next fray and trained its sights on Certainly, Aerojet Rocketdyne In August, the U.S. Air Force is determined to replace the generation ULA vehicles. The Blue Origin’s founder with the would want that plum contract to issued a request for information RD-180 “as soon as practicable.” details related to ULA’s next blaring headline: “Jeff Bezos regarding “booster propulsion However, that won’t be in the generation vehicles — which Strikes Down Russian Space SEE YOUNG PAGE 20 20 www.spacenews.com October 20, 2014 MARKETPLACE

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YOUNG FROM PAGE 19 Blue Origin and its BE-4 that the BE-3 would undergo its first are upcoming milestones. Full the company’s statement. is already under development. flight test soon. engine testing is scheduled to Both Delta 4 and Atlas 5 supply engines for the Atlas, but That choice surprised some in “We have been focused begin in 2016. launch vehicles use variants won’t be supplying the engines another way, in that ULA chose on the suborbital mission as of the venerable LOX/liquid for the new ULA booster. to go with an engine using the the starting point to serve A New Generation hydrogen RL10 engine built Statements by Bezos and unique propellant of LNG. as practice for later develop- Of Launch Vehicles by Aerojet Rocketdyne. On Bruno were particularly ment of our orbital launch The BE-4 is being developed the Delta 4, the second stage revealing as to what to expect Evolution of BE Engine Series system,” Rob Meyerson, Blue for the next generation of ULA employs an RL10B-2 having from this alliance. As a commercial aerospace Origin’s president and program launch vehicles. The company 24,750 pounds of thrust. The “We are going to do for corporation, Bezos’ Blue Origin manager, told Aviation Week & is continuing the trade studies RL10A-2 as part of the Centaur space, and for your lives, what is a much smaller and lower- Space Technology in December. of the size and scope of those upper stage on the Atlas 5 has a the Internet has done for the profile company than Musk’s “That way, we intend to prove launch vehicles, seeking to range of 16,500–22,300 pounds information age,” Bruno boldly SpaceX. The company has not out underlying technologies bring down their cost relative of thrust. proclaimed. benefited from government while building out a very to the company’s Atlas 5 and For Bezos, these new launch “Blue Origin is methodically largesse to the same degree small and innovative company Delta 4. Clearly, the SpaceX vehicles will provide the orbital developing technologies,” Bezos as SpaceX, although it has capable of repeated successes.” Falcon 9 and future Falcon capability for his biconic Space said in a released statement, “to received small awards from What Meyerson did not Heavy have had a profound Vehicle. The Boeing CST-100 enable human access to space NASA with respect to commer- reveal at the time was that effect in shaking up ULA’s and the SpaceX Dragon V2 at dramatically lower cost and cial development. The Kent, Blue Origin had been working status quo. will eventually be joined by increased reliability, and the Washington-based firm has on development of the much At the press conference, another human spaceflight BE-4 is a big step forward.” been working for more than larger BE-4 for nearly two-and- members of the media tried capsule, built by Blue Origin, Space Exploration a decade on the design and a-half years. The existence of several times to get Bruno to in low Earth orbit. ULA will Technologies Corp. founder development of launch vehicles the BE-4 was not made public describe the configuration the probably use existing launch Elon Musk responded to the and spacecraft for suborbital until the joint press conference new launch vehicles would take. sites in Florida and potentially news of the ULA and Blue and orbital missions. It has test in Washington. The engine He deflected the questions, California rather than build Origin partnership with relish. flight facilities in Texas. features an oxygen-rich staged saying the trade studies were new launch pads. Conceivably, “Competitors ganging up The most powerful rocket combustion cycle. The only still ongoing but he looked Space Launch Complex 41 at against you is the sincerest form engine Blue Origin has built dimensional information on forward to describing these Cape Canaveral Air Force of flattery,” he told Bloomberg and tested to date is the BE-3. the engine came from Bezos, launch vehicles at a future date. Station, Florida, which will have News. This LOX and liquid hydrogen who said it was roughly 3.7 One key way to dramatically a crew service structure for the It would appear, based on engine has performed over meters tall. lower launch vehicle costs is by Boeing CST-100 atop the Atlas these statements, that the BE-4 160 starts with a combined Blue Origin has built and using a reusable booster. Bezos 5, would be adaptable to Blue and its intended launch vehicle engine operation of more than recently commissioned a new has stated the BE-4 is designed Origin’s vehicle. or vehicles will be for commer- 10,000 seconds. It has a thrust facility near Van Horn, Texas, to be reusable, so by extension At the press conference, cial purposes, possibly human of 100,000-110,000 pounds. for development testing of the the booster itself may also be Bezos explained his motivation spaceflight. Blue Origin has not The engine has completed a BE-4. The test stand is capable reusable. ULA has no expe- and passion about spaceflight. been vague about what its plans suborbital mission duty cycle of handling thrust levels in rience with reusable first or “If you’re not passionate about are for suborbital and orbital in support of Blue Origin’s excess of 1 million pounds. second stages, which explains space, go figure out something human spaceflight, and Bruno’s New Shepard capsule. The BE-4 engine component testing why trade studies are ongoing. else to do,” he said, “because veiled statement supports this. engine ran at full thrust for has been taking place in Kent Bruno did make clear, this business is too hard if Bruno also stated in the press 145 seconds, then shut down for and in Texas. Blue Origin however, that ULA intended you’re not passionate about it.” conference that, yes, there had 4.5 minutes to simulate a coast has revealed that testing has to employ existing upper stages been discussions with other sequence. This was followed by been conducted of a subscale of the Atlas and Delta rockets Anthony Young is the author of “The Saturn V stakeholders in the engine eval- the engine’s restart and throt- oxygen-rich preburner as well for these new launch vehicles. F-1 Engine: Powering Apollo into History,” pub- uation process, which naturally tling to 25 percent of rated as staged combustion testing This was what was meant by lished by Springer-Praxis. He is a consultant included Aerojet Rocketdyne. It thrust to mimic a re-entry of the preburner and main “which will maintain the key and speaker on commercial space business, and is clear, at this point, ULA was profile for the reusable subor- injector assembly. The BE-4 heritage components of ULA’s can be reached at [email protected]. not totally satisfied with what bital booster, while the capsule LOX impeller and turbine have Atlas and Delta rockets that This article originally appeared in The Space Aerojet Rocketdyne presented, lands via parachutes. Bezos been machined; turbopump provide world class mission Review, a SpaceNews affiliate, for which Young and chose instead to go with stated in the press conference and valve development testing assurance and reliability” in has been a contributor since 2004. www.spacenews.com 21 On The October 20, 2014 BRIDENSTINE FROM PAGE 19 The data purchase model for www.spacenews.com weather would mitigate the data be responsive when the budget gap, leverage the nimbleness and PRESIDENT & PUBLISHER shrinks or the costs increase. innovation of the private sector, William A. Klanke ADVERTISEMENTS — Call 571-356-9618 Tel: +1-571-385-0234 Horizon Programs are canceled or other spread the risk and costs among programs are cannibalized to private equity, private compa- Email: [email protected] cover the costs. A recent example nies and foreign governments, BUSINESS MANAGER OctOber December is the cancellation of the National and relieve the pressure on John H. Dawson Polar-orbiting Operational NOAA’s budget — of which half Tel: +1-571-385-1509 Environmental Satellite System is spent on government-owned Email: [email protected] October 23 even after massive taxpayer and -operated satellites. With WSBR Luncheon investment. Taxpayers are tired numerous companies launching Panel: The Future of SATCOM of investing billions of dollars into multiple smaller satellites, we can REPRESENTATIVES in Support of DoD: A Commercial programs that never materialize. expand the amount of data avail- Perspective, What’s Next After WGS? Second, the government able, collect data more frequently, NORTH AMERICA Washington, DC monopoly on satellites is incen- deliver data more quickly, spread www.wsbr.org tivized to exacerbate risks, the cost and risk, and allow the ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER, STRATEGIC PRODUCTS not alleviate them. NOAA has private sector to innovate rapidly. & MANAGER, ADVERTISING SALES reduced costs by packing many We can achieve better weather Candance “Candy” Maness October 27-30 sensors onto a single satellite to prediction at a lesser cost and Cell: +1-318-550-1727 CASBAA 2014 Hong Kong be launched by a single rocket. risk. Email: [email protected] December 16-18 www.casbaaconvention.com This is how the $11 billion JPSS The private sector is ready. BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER DoD Commercial Satcom Workshop program has been designed. If PlanetiQ and GeoOptics are Co-sponsored by SIA and the already delayed JPSS-1 is com- raising private capital and Paige McCullough Tel: +1-571-385-0302 U.S. Strategic Command pletely removed as a result of a could launch numerous GPS Email: [email protected] Crystal Gateway Marriott Hotel launch failure, a power system radio occultation satellites to Arlington, VA problem or space debris, the mitigate the data gap in about OUTSIDE NORTH AMERICA www.dodsatcom.com United States would be left with two years. Tempus Global Data no polar-orbiting satellites until and GeoMetWatch are in a similar CHINA, GERMANY, INDONESIA, ISRAEL, JPSS-2 is ready to launch many position planning to launch KOREA, MALAYSIA, RUSSIA, TAIWAN, years later. Eighty percent of the hyperspectral sensors. SINGAPORE, AUSTRIA, DENMARK, FINLAND, October 27-30 data that go into our numerical As a cost comparison, JPSS is INDIA, NETHERLANDS, BELGIUM, LUXEMBURG, Wernher von Braun Memorial Sympo- 2015 weather prediction models come an $11 billion program that will NORWAY, SOUTH AFRICA, SWEDEN, sium - “Moving Forward In Exploration” from the polar-orbiting satellites. serve from mid-2017 until 2025 SWITZERLAND, UNITED KINGDOM UAH Campus, Huntsville, AL JaNuary If we lose the only satellite in at an annualized cost of over This symposium will feature a progress Tony Kingham the afternoon sun-synchronous $1.4 billion. PlanetiQ plans to report on SLS and Orion; ISS utilization KNM PR and Publishing January 18-21 orbit, weather forecasts would sell GPS radio occultation data and exploration; perspectives from sen- 4a High Street, Pacific Telecommunications Conference severely degrade. Given the for $40 million per year. This is ior industry leaders; future exploration Edenbridge, (PTC 2015) human and economic stakes in merely an example, but that is Kent, TN8 5AG, UK mission planning; advanced propulsion Honolulu, HI today’s population centers, the only 3 percent of the cost with Tel: +44 (0) 20 8144 5934 technologies; Washington D.C. perspec- www.ptc.org risks are too high for this all-or- no money required up front. The E-mail: tony.kingham@ tives and insights from the millennial nothing approach. government only has to pay for worldsecurity-index.com generation. Finally, in a government the data it receives. www.astronautical.org February monopoly all costs are spread To be fair, private-sector FRANCE, ITALY, SPAIN across the single customer: the data will be used differently Defense & Communication February 3-5 U.S. taxpayer. in weather prediction models. Emmanuel Archambeaud NOvember To be clear, I am not sug- Data assimilation systems and Fabio Lancellotti AFCEA’s Defending America Cyberspace gesting that JPSS-1 or JPSS-2 numerical weather models will 48 Boulevard Jean-Jaures, Symposium be canceled. The federal gov- need to be adjusted to account 92110 Clichy, France November 4-6 Colorado Springs, CO ernment has a role in weather for the new and additional Tel: +33(0)1 4730 7180 Global MilSat Com www.afceacyberspace.com prediction and the JPSS program data from private companies. Cell : +33(0) 6 1103 9652 London, UK Fax: +33(0)1 4730 0189 www.smi-online.co.uk includes sensors and capabili- NOAA can test the effectiveness march ties that the private sector is not of the various types of weather E-mail: earchambeaud@ defcommunication.com prepared to replace. But going data using Observation System November 12-13 March 2-5 forward, NOAA should adopt Experiments and Observation SATCON 2014 the Department of Defense’s System Simulation Experiments. JAPAN Ground System Architectures Workshop New York, NY principles of disaggregation To unleash the commercial Kazuhiko Tanaka Los Angeles, CA www.satconexpo.com as a method of risk mitigation. weather satellite industry, we Shinono International, Inc. Call for Participation — Deadline Smaller satellites riding on more need NOAA to send a signal that Akasaka Kyowa Building 2F Extended to Oct. 13 1-6-14, Akasaka, Minato-ku http://gsaw.org rockets result in greater resiliency it will purchase data from the Tokyo 107-0052 Japan and less risk. Sensors can also private sector. This could be as Tel: 81 03 (3584) 6420 ride on other satellites as hosted simple as a letter of intent. Better Fax: 81 03 (3505) 5628 March 10-12 payloads to reduce both cost and yet, following the success of the Email: [email protected] November 18-20 CABSAT 2015 risk. The DoD has already imple- DoD, NOAA could spend a small University of Maryland Dubai, UAE mented this model with satellite amount to be an anchor customer SUBSCRIBER SERVICE 2014 Orbital Debris Workshop www.cabsat.com communications and satellite of data for small, emerging Tel: Toll free in U.S. Center for Orbital Debris Education and imaging. NOAA should adopt companies. +1-866-429-2199 this model for weather data. As the commercial sector for Fax: +1-845-267-3478 Research Outside North America College Park, MD March 16-19 NOAA can accomplish this by weather data grows and better Satellite 2015 +1-845-267-3023 Collaboration, research and education to purchasing data from a robust forecasting and cost savings Washington, DC Fax: +1-845-267-3478 address critical issues in orbital debris and diverse weather data col- are achieved, NOAA can use its www.satshow.com Email: spacenews@ policy, mitigation and remediation. lection industry. In this model, internal resources to advance cut- cambeywest.com the government would buy ting-edge technologies, conduct www.coder.umd.edu/workshop data rather than hardware and experimentation and testing, AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT unleash the creative and innova- improve the data assimilation Mark Rosen tive power of competition and systems and invest in high-pow- Tel: +1-203-822-7789 entrepreneurial capitalism. If ered computing and numerical Email: mrosen@ the private sector can provide weather models. In order to circulationspecialists.com the data, then the government maximize its impact, NOAA should not interfere. The DoD should unleash the creativity, SEND ADVERTISING MATERIAL TO: adopted this model for satellite innovation and nimbleness of Christine Frazee imagery a decade ago, and the the private sector where the Tel: +1-571-356-9618 private sector developed applica- technologies have already been Email: [email protected] tions previously never imagined. proved, and allocate its resources Now our economy uses this tech- where the private sector is not SpaceNews nology for Google Maps, energy yet willing to go. 1414 Prince Street, Suite 300 development, real estate devel- Alexandria, Va. 22314 USA opment, agriculture and much, U.S. Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.) serves on the much more. House Science and Armed Services committees. 22 www.spacenews.com October 20, 2014 PROFILE U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) CHAIRMAN, HOUSE ARMED SERVICES STRATEGIC FORCES SUBCOMMITTEE

hange is afoot for the U.S. military space program as the Air Force con- C templates an overhaul of its satellite Managing Change constellation architecture while gearing up for the introduction of competition in na- tional security launches. The House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee, which oversees military space and missile defense programs, appears to have reservations about both trends. The panel has drafted defense authorization bill language that would put the brakes on some of the Air Force’s proposed space modernization initiatives, while its chairman, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), has questioned the readiness of Space Exploration Technologies Corp. to launch billion-dollar national security payloads. Currently national security launches are the near-exclusive province of Denver-based United Launch Alliance, the Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture whose main rocket production facility is in Decatur, Alabama. ULA has a perfect track record, but its high prices have fueled a groundswell of support, particu- larly in the Senate, behind SpaceX’s bid to topple its monopoly. Amid a decline in U.S.-Russian relations, ULA also faces questions about the future availability of the Russian-made RD-180 engine that powers the first stage of its Atlas 5 rocket, one of the company’s two workhorses. Though skeptical of new programs, Rogers and his sub- committee are keen on developing a U.S. alternative to the RD-180 and have recommended spending $220 million on the effort next year. Rogers also has been a vocal advocate for reforming how the Defense Department buys commercial satellite bandwidth and has raised the possibility of introducing legislation to advance that cause. The legislation likely OFFICE ROGERS’ MIKE OF COURTESY PHOTO www.spacenews.com 23 October 20, 2014

would seek to ease U.S. government Would you be comfortable with SpaceX launching a missile warn- product he comes up with, but I’m leaving the technical accounting rules that make it difficult ing satellite or payload for the National Reconnaissance Office? components to him. for the military to enter into long-term What kind of work do you hope to get done with Air Force leases for commercial satellite capacity, If the Department of Defense said it was certified and capable of doing it with great success. We’ve had wonderful Space Command and its new commander, Gen. John Hyten? as opposed to the yearlong leases that successes with our launches. I want to keep it that way, are the norm today. Commercial satellite notwithstanding who the vendor is. The big thing that I’ve been focused on is we’ve got to do more partnerships with the commercial sector to get assets operators say long-term leases are more What was your reaction to the partnership between ULA and in space. As we’re realizing now, we don’t have enough eyes cost efficient and would better enable in the sky. The commercial world would like to have us as Blue Origin to build a new engine to replace the RD-180? a customer. We’ve got some problems here with budget them to better match their fleets to the I’m very excited about that. Since I’ve been made aware scoring in trying to allow us to enter into long-term agree- military’s requirements. of how reliant we are on the RD-180, I’ve been calling for ments with some of these commercial satellite companies. us to get some domestically produced alternatives, so now These commercial companies have to go to Wall Street to In the missile defense area, Rogers comes this venture. Along with what Aerojet Rocketdyne get the money and if you’ve only got a one-year contract, supports initiatives for a redesigned kill is doing, that means that on the horizon we’ve got two that’s a problem. But if you can go to Wall Street and say entities working at a pretty good clip coming up with a you’ve got a five-year contract with an option for another vehicle for the nation’s primary shield domestically produced option that will mature about the five years, it makes it a lot easier to get the money and make and for a long-range radar that would same time we exhaust the current inventory of engines. it happen. It’s just a difficult process, mainly because of It’s great news. the budget scoring process here, the methods we have to better discriminate between warheads use. It may take some legislation to resolve that conflict. and decoys. Both efforts have been cited Are you hopeful an engine can be done before 2019? That’s what I’m working on now. We have a need for more capability in space and we as top priorities by Navy Vice Adm. James That will be up to these companies. But what both of don’t have the money to do it all at one time. The private Syring, director of the Missile Defense them are saying is when you look at the timeline it takes sector wants to get more assets up there and have us as to mature one of these, you’re looking at another three a customer. We have to find a way to make that happen. Agency. to four years. Hopefully they can speed it up. Rogers, who is expected to win re- Will we see legislation in the coming years that removes the election this November, spoke recently Would you be interested in devoting more dollars to the cause barriers to entering into long-term service contracts with with SpaceNews staff writer Mike Gruss. to accelerate the pace? satellite operators? I would. And we demonstrated that in our authorization. Hopefully. We’re working on it. I’ve met with acquisition folks from all the services and tried to get them to come Why do you believe there needs to be a third interceptor site up with language. We’re going to see if we can’t get it done short of legislation, but I’ll be bringing legislation next The Senate Armed Services Committee has included language for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system and why does year to get it done if that’s what it requires. in its version of the National Defense Authorization Act for it need to be near the East Coast of the United States? Your subcommittee has not been enthusiastic in supporting 2015 that bans the Defense Department from using launch With the growing concern about Iran, we need that East companies that rely on Russian suppliers. Will you be focusing Coast site. That’s been known for years. The fact that we’re new satellite development programs. Are you concerned that doing this preliminary site development is just required. I the Defense Department is not getting enough out of its in- on that language when you meet with members of that com- think you’re going to see an East Coast site. It is absolutely mittee in conference to hash out a final version of the bill? essential. More and more people are going to recognize vestments in the existing systems? that fact as Iran continues to develop its threat. That’s exactly where I am. I don’t want to start anything That language, the way I understand the military inter- new until we’ve taken care of what we got. And we’re not preting it, would basically say they can’t use the RD-180s, The East Coast site seems to be taking a while to come to- taking care of what we’ve got now. New programs just suck even the ones we already have. That’s just not an option. all the oxygen out of the place. We’re going to have to work in conference with the [Senate gether. What’s holding things up? Armed Services Committee] members to try to find a We have all sorts of challenges. Political challenges are a Are there specific programs you’d like to get more out of? way to remedy that so the Air Force doesn’t feel like their big part of it. Money’s a challenge as much as anything. hands are tied and to at least to use the engines that we’ve We’ve got all sorts of modernization problems throughout got while we continue to go forward with new options. Are you happy with the current rate of system testing at the the enterprise. It’s not one in particular. Any of my hearings, we talk about modernization constantly. It’s a real chal- You’ve raised questions about the Air Force’s process for Missile Defense Agency? lenge for us. Satisfied. I wouldn’t say I’m happy but I’m satisfied. certifying SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket to carry national security What should we expect to see from your subcommittee in the payloads. Are you comfortable with how that is going? What are your expectations for the new or redesigned kill ve- next 12 months? I am. I want the military to tell me when they’re certified, hicle the Missile Defense Agency is working on? You’re going to see me continue to talk about modern- when they’re able to launch, and when they can get the job ization and more public-private partnerships to get our done. Since we’re spending so much money and so much I’m very pleased with it. Adm. Syring is the perfect guy to needs, particularly in space, met. on the payload, I want the military to say they’re capable be pursuing that. He has it as a top priority on his agenda of doing it. I think the certification process is important. of to-dos, and that’s where it needs to be. I have such Twitter: @Gruss_SN I think it’s reasonable. confidence in him. I’m going to be thrilled with whatever Email: [email protected] 70 years of achievement just sets the stage for the next act.

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