SpaceNews This Week | Gogo sparks war of words over lease vs. owner model

07.21.17 View this email in your browser Gogo sparks war of words with Inmarsat, ViaSat over lease vs owner model Caleb Henry — Inflight connectivity provider Gogo is causing sparks to fly over its claim that leasing capacity is superior to owning satellites and that proponents of pure satellite ownership are only promoting ownership models to protect their business.  Gogo Chief Executive Michael Small defended the Chicago company's Ku-band leasing strategy during a May 4 company earnings call, describing leasing capacity as "far more cost-effective" than owning satellites. In the weeks following, Gogo and Inmarsat put out material taking aim at each other's claims. A Gogo op-ed published June 28 targeted both Inmarsat and ViaSat, causing the competitive operators, which themselves are sparring in court over the legality of Inmarsat's European Aviation Network, to bury the hatchet long enough to counter the company's claims. SpaceX drops plans for powered Dragon landings Jeff Foust — SpaceX no longer plans to have the next version of its Dragon spacecraft be capable of powered landings, a move that has implications for the company's long-term Mars plans. SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk, speaking at the International Space Station Research and Development Conference here July 19, confirmed recent rumors that the version of the Dragon spacecraft under development for NASA's commercial crew program will not have the ability to land on land using SuperDraco thrusters that will be incorporated into the spacecraft primarily as a launch abort system. "It was a tough decision," he said when asked about propulsive landing capability during a question-and-answer session. "Technically it still is, although you'd have to land it on some pretty soft landing pad because we've deleted the little legs that pop out of the heat shield." Mishap threatens to delay launch of NASA communications satellite Jeff Foust — NASA is continuing to investigate an incident during launch preparations for a communications satellite that threatens to delay its launch next month. In a July 20 statement, NASA said it and spacecraft manufacturer Boeing were reviewing plans to replace an omnidirectional S-band antenna on the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) M spacecraft. That antenna was apparently damaged July 14 during final closeout activities at an Astrotech Space Operations payload processing facility in Titusville, Florida. TDRS-M was, at the time of the incident, being prepared for encapsulation into a payload fairing and installation onto a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket. That rocket is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, Aug. 3. Planet wins second NGA satellite-imagery contract Caleb Henry — Planet has won a second contract to provide satellite imagery to the U.S. National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA), beating out contenders UrtheCast, Orbital Insight and Sky Hawk Drone Services. The one-year, $14 million contract follows a seven-month, $20 million pilot contract that began in September to assess ways San Francisco-based Planet's "persistence and global coverage capabilities could most effectively support the NGA mission," according to a July 19 agency statement. NGA said none of the other companies it considered could offer an imagery subscription service with a high enough revisit rate on a global basis. NGA said the agency requires the ability to monitor changes across large geographic areas for humanitarian and intelligence missions. Luxembourg adopts space resources law Jeff Foust — The government of Luxembourg has passed a bill giving companies the rights to space resources they extract from asteroids or other celestial bodies. The parliament of Luxembourg, a unicameral body known as the Chamber of Deputies, voted 55 to 2 in favor of the space resources law July 13. Passage of the bill means the act will become law on Aug. 1. "Luxembourg is the first adopter in Europe of a legal and regulatory framework recognizing that space resources are capable of being owned by private companies," Étienne Schneider, deputy prime minister and minister of the economy, said in a statement. "The Grand Duchy thus reinforces its position as a European hub for the exploration and use of space resources." Former XCOR CEO blames company problems on lost contract Jeff Foust — The former chief executive of XCOR Aerospace told a Senate committee July 18 that the company's recent financial problems, which led to a layoff of all of its employees last month, could be blamed on a terminated engine development contract. John H. "Jay" Gibson was asked about the financial problems that befell the suborbital vehicle and engine developer during a confirmation hearing for his nomination announced June 16 to become the Deputy Chief Management Officer of the Department of Defense. Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, asked Gibson about the "financial difficulties" experienced by past companies he was involved with and the lessons he took from them that would give senators confidence that Gibson could "basically manage the Department of Defense." 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