| | | | |  Jeff Foust — With the space program's past as a backdrop, Vice President Mike Pence vowed Oct. 5 to reinvigorate the nation's future in space through policies developed by the National Space Council, including a renewed emphasis on human missions to the moon.
Pence, chairing the first meeting of the Council since its reestablishment by an executive order in June, specifically instructed NASA to develop plans for human missions to the moon that will serve as a step toward later expeditions to Mars. The Council accepted a recommendation by Pence that the U.S. "will lead in the return of humans to the moon for long-term exploration, followed by human missions to Mars and other destinations," he said. That recommendation will be incorporated into a decision memo to be submitted to the president. | | Now Acce pting Nominations - SpaceNews is establishing an annual awards program this year to recognize individuals, companies and organizations for excellence and innovation.
- Winners will be featured in the Dec. 18 issue of SpaceNews.
- We seek to honor headline-grabbing breakthroughs as well as outside-the-limelight innovations that may have escaped our attention.
| | |  Jeff Foust — The new chief executive of Blue Origin told the National Space Council his company is in discussions about certifying its New Glenn rocket for government missions, a shift in strategy that could put the company in competition with a customer.
In a presentation to the first meeting of the reconstituted National Space Council at the National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center here Oct. 5, Bob Smith said that the New Glenn rocket the company is developing could be used for both commercial and government missions, the latter requiring the company to go through a certification process with agencies like NASA and the U.S. Air Force. "Our New Glenn launch vehicle will be more capable than existing launch vehicles flying today, and can be used not only for human spaceflight and other commercial missions, but also for civil and national security payloads," he said. "Therefore, we are in early discussions with the national security community and NASA about how to certify New Glenn for their use." | | |  Caleb Henry — Europe's upcoming Ariane 6 rocket, though designed to be expendable, could one day sport a reusable engine, according to Patrick Bonguet, head of the Ariane 6 program at ArianeGroup.
Whether or not the rocket would ever use that engine, called Prometheus, depends on whether Ariane 6 manufacturer ArianeGroup, formerly Airbus Safran Launchers, finds enough benefit for the European launch sector. So far, the merits of reusable rockets to ArianeGroup are unclear at best, Bonguet said, but the company is researching the technology to be ready for implementation should it prove worthwhile. "We could replace Vulcain 2.1 by Prometheus," Bonguet told SpaceNews. "Or Prometheus can be the first break to build the next generation. We will see where we are in 2025 or 2030, and then decide on the right time whether to go one way or the other." | | |  Sandra Erwin — The House legislation that spins off portions of the U.S. Air Force into a dedicated space corps may not survive upcoming negotiations with the Senate, which has not endorsed the move. Regardless, there is broad agreement in Congress that military space has not received proper attention from an aviation-focused service, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, told reporters Thursday.
"I think there is absolutely no disagreement among anybody, including the Air Force, that space is not going well," said Thornberry. "The only question is what is the right answer?" The Senate's defense policy bill that has yet to be reconciled with the House version does not call for a space corps but directs the Pentagon to appoint an information-warfare officer to oversee cyber and space. "Our view is that culturally we have to have some separation from the rest of the Air Force in order to ensure there are enough resources, and ensure there is a war fighting mentality" in the space business, said Thornberry. "It's a different domain than the Air Force." | | |  Sandra Erwin — As Congress debates a contentious proposal to create a military "space corps," some of Washington's top experts say the U.S. government should promote more civility and less bellicosity in the cosmos.
Shifting the management of military space programs from the Air Force to a separate space corps is an idea that has long been talked about but never acted upon until this year, when the House Armed Services Committee inserted language in the House version of the 2018 defense policy bill. The Senate did not include the provision in its version of the bill so the outcome of the space corps is still uncertain. Air Force leaders oppose it, claiming that such a drastic reorganization would be disruptive and counterproductive. Some space industry insiders worry that it will send the wrong message at a time when a war in space seems more likely than it has in decades. | |  Matthew Bodner — Just over 30 years after the Soviet Union launched the world's first satellite, Sputnik 1, the nation that opened the space race stood on the precipice of a second golden age of space exploration. A major program, the Energia heavy booster rocket and the Buran space shuttle, was nearing completion — making its maiden flight in November 1988. Another three decades later, on the 60th anniversary of Sputnik 1, the Russian space program is a shadow of its Soviet predecessor. The Energia-Buran project, its last major accomplishment, flew just once before the fall of communism gutted Moscow's space program. For nearly three decades now, the Russian space industry has been in a state of triage, teetering on collapse.
But the Russian space program has consistently defied the dire predictions of those foretelling an imminent end to the program. Today, amid a major effort to reform and reorganize the Russian space industry under the new Roscosmos state corporation, there are signs that the bleeding has been slowed. But major questions about Russia's future in space linger. | | |  Caleb Henry — MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates completed its $2.4 billion purchase of DigitalGlobe Oct. 5, and will rebrand the combined company as Maxar Technologies.
Jeffrey Tarr, DigitalGlobe's chief executive for the past six years, is stepping down, taking an advisory role until January. MDA Corp.'s president and chief executive Howard Lance will lead the newly created space hardware, imaging and geospatial giant. Canada-based MDA and U.S.-based DigitalGlobe overcame an extended review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) after refiling merger paperwork in July. The interagency committee, which reviews potential national security risks from foreign buyers of American businesses, ultimately found no issue with the merger. | | | | | | |
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