Space Corps will be revived in defense bill Presented by Northrop Grumman

With Connor O’Brien

— Rep. Jim Cooper says Space Corps proposal from 2017 is getting a second life.

— Blue Origin unveils lunar lander that founder Jeff Bezos said could help the administration put humans on the moon in 2024.

— The Trump administration is letting commercial space industry pursue missions once considered too sensitive, one aerospace expert tells us.

A message from Northrop Grumman: Space can seem impossibly far away but we see it as closer than ever. Our rockets deliver reliable, affordable access to orbit, while our satellites deliver powerful communications and early warning capabilities. Because at Northrop Grumman, bringing space down to Earth is all in a day’s work. Learn more

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IN ORBIT

SPACE CORPS DEJA VU. The House Armed Services Committee is reviving its plan to stand up a Space Corps under the Air Force during consideration of the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, according to Rep. Jim Cooper, the chairman of the strategic forces subcommittee that oversees the nation’s space and nuclear missions. “I think the issue should be handled the way the committee handled it two years ago,” the Tennessee Democrat told us, noting that the White House plan to stand up a Space Force within the Air Force is “80 percent similar” to the House’s Space Corps plan that overwhelmingly passed the House by a vote of 344-81 in 2017.

One big hurdle? Keeping the issue — one of President Trump’s favorite talking points — apolitical, Cooper said. To keep the 117 Democrats who supported the plan in 2017 onboard, Cooper told us he is reminding lawmakers “this is not the president’s proposal we’re talking about. This is as close as we can get to the original Space Corps.” The president’s support, however, could help it pass the Republican-controlled Senate, which pushed back against the plan in 2017 and ultimately stripped it out of the final compromise bill. “I think the president’s support of this general concept will help us with some Republican senators, but the Senate is a very unpredictable body,” Cooper said.

Another "undoubtedly" hot issue will be the procurement of national security launches during the June NDAA markup, Cooper said. The Air Force, which released a request for proposals last week, is preparing to select two companies to split its upcoming launch manifest despite objections from some in Congress that it should pick three companies to foster competition. Air Force officials have argued that it does not have enough launches to support three companies, but Cooper said that’s not the Air Force’s decision to make. “If a company wants to take the risk and risk going under, is that the Air Force’s problem?” Cooper said. “We need to make sure we have survivable assured access to space, but is three an unreasonable number? Is four?

'BLUE MOON' ARRIVES. Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos unveiled the company’s new moon lander, Blue Moon, which he said has been under development for three years and will hel build the infrastructure required for humans to eventually live off Earth. The lander is designed to bring scientific payloads to the lunar surface and already has a number of academic customers, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab. He did not say when the lander would fly for the first time.

Blue Moon could help the administration land humans on the moon by 2024, Bezos said, noting the company could tweak the lander to develop a “stretch version” that includes an ascent vehicle. “We can help meet that timeline but only because we started three years ago,” he said. “It’s time to go back to the moon, this time to stay.”

Bezos made the announcement in a dimly lit ballroom flanked by black walls illuminated with twinkling star lights. He unveiled Blue Moon with a dramatic flourish, a black curtain being whisked away to reveal the lander behind him on stage. He also unveiled the company’s new BE-7 engine, which will power the lander and conduct its first hotfire test this summer.

SPACE Q&A

PULLING BACK THE CURTAIN. The Trump administration is willing to work with industry to launch space capabilities previously deemed too sensitive for the private sector, according to Melanie Corcoran-Freelander, the chief technology officer at Ursa Space Systems, which gathers intelligence for companies on everything from oil levels to ship movements using images captured by synthetic aperture radar satellites. The company relies on some foreign satellites since the U.S. commercial industry does not currently have this capability, but five domestic companies are getting ready to launch their own SAR satellites.

“In the last three years, [the administration has considered] things that they previously would have rejected flat out,” she said. “A company like HawkEye 360, [a radio frequency company that monitors transportation from space,] some would joke they’re a baby [National Security Agency.] There’s no process for how you get approval for that, because no one has ever tried to put a signal intelligence satellite up in commercial space, but the U.S. government has worked very well with them, giving them guidelines.”

One driver for the change is keeping pace with the international market, Corcoran-Freelander said. “So much of the capability is live and already in space from foreign companies that we’re now playing catch up because of policy choices,” she said. “When a foreign government has already put up a satellite with the capability and selling the product, then if [the U.S. government] says it’s a security risk, you can say, well isn’t it a security risk if we don’t have an industrial base?” Read the full Q&A here.

GREAT LAKES REGION LOOKS TO THE MOON. The region’s deep knowledge of mining and manufacturing should enable it to play an outsize role in America’s return to the moon, which will focus on mining the lunar surface for water and other resources, according to one aerospace expert. “Who knows how to take raw materials and move them and turn them into high value products better than the people in the Great Lakes? … We should be at the forefront of mining the moon,” John Sankovic, the president of the Ohio Aerospace Institute and former chief technologist at NASA’s John H. Glenn Research Center, said this week at a panel moderated by Jacqueline at the Council of the Great Lakes Region Economic Forum in Cleveland. “We know more about water than anyone else, especially frozen water.”

TOP DOC: The future of in-orbit servicing. The Aerospace Corporation is shining a light on the prospects of being able to repair or modernize satellites in orbit in the latest paper in its “Game Changer” series that takes an in-depth look at future technologies. In addition to being able to continually refuel or update satellites, the ability to handle assets in orbit could also allow for large structures, like habitats or telescopes, to be assembled in space instead of being launched in one piece.

TOP DOC II: The state of the satellite industry. The satellite industry had a strong year in 2018, recording a 26 percent revenue increase in satellite manufacturing and a 34 percent revenue increase in launch, according to an annual report from the Satellite Industry Association.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “You heard it here first: The UAE is the next major space power coming to the world. I would not be surprised if in 20 years or so, the UAE’s space program rivals space programs that have been around for decades.” — Jared Stout, a policy advisor at Venable and former deputy executive secretary of the National Space Council, speaking at the Council of the Great Lakes Region Economic Forum on Tuesday.

READING ROOM

— The big space missions coming up over the next decade.

— The Hubble space telescope has reached its limit.

— NASA still doesn’t know how it is getting to the moon in 2024.

— Wind storm on Mars cleared dust from InSight’s solar panels.

— Is there life on Mars today?

— NASA needs to modernize its 30-year-old space suits.

— SpaceX’s Crew Dragon parachutes failed in recent test.

— Elon Musk’s space company is launching “dozens” of Starlink satellites next week.

— Japan had its first private rocket launch this week.

— Astronaut on International Space Station honors Chewbacca actor.

EVENT HORIZON

TUESDAY: NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine will testify on the emerging space environment before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Subcommittee on Aviation and Space.

THURSDAY: The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology holds a hearing on the Event Horizon telescope that took the first photo of a black hole last month.

FRIDAY: The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology holds its members’ day hearing.

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Dave Brown @dave_brown24



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