| | | | |  Debra Werner, SAN FRANCISCO – A new edition of an international space exploration planning document to be released early next year will offer an updated plan for human missions to the moon and Mars, emphasizing the role that NASA's proposed Deep Space Gateway could play.
In January, NASA and 14 international space agencies plan to publish their common goals for exploration, including an extended presence in low Earth orbit, a cislunar habitat, moon missions and eventual excursions to Mars, in an updated Global Exploration Roadmap being drafted by the International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG).
| | |  Sandra Erwin, WASHINGTON — Rising military powers like Russia and China have built an elaborate network of sensors to monitor regions of the world that are of strategic importance to the United States. A mix of military and commercial surveillance and targeting technologies is helping both Russia and China extend the reach of their long-range weapons, undermining U.S. access and influence in regions such as Eastern Europe and the South China Sea.
That was the takeaway from a year-long wargame funded by the Defense Department and Pentagon contractors.
| | |  Jeff Foust, WASHINGTON — NASA officials said Nov. 29 that they have given their approval, as expected, to SpaceX's use of a previously flown Falcon 9 first stage on the next Dragon cargo mission to the International Space Station.
Speaking at a meeting of the human exploration and operations committee of the NASA Advisory Council at the Kennedy Space Center, Sam Scimemi, director of the International Space Station at NASA Headquarters, said the Dec. 8 launch of a cargo resupply mission known as SpX-13 will use the booster from the June launch of another Dragon mission, SpX-11.
| | | Caleb Henry, WASHINGTON — Satellite manufacturer Orbital ATK on Nov. 28 shipped Yahsat's long-awaited Al Yah 3 high-throughput satellite to French Guiana for an Ariane 5 launch now scheduled for January.
The hybrid satellite, equipped with a chemical propulsion system to reach orbit and electric thrusters for station-keeping once in place, slipped almost a year past its initial completion date, a delay Orbital ATK attributed to Al Yah 3 being the first of its kind. | | | Jeff Foust, WASHINGTON — The businessman nominated by the White House to be the next administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Nov. 29 it will be a priority for him to maintain the agency's network of weather satellites.
In a confirmation hearing held by the Senate Commerce Committee, Barry Myers, the chief executive of weather forecasting company AccuWeather, also expressed interest in alternative commercial weather data sources that NOAA is currently testing the utility of. | | | Caleb Henry, WASHINGTON — The European Space Agency on Nov. 30 committed 89.7 million euros ($106.7 million) split between a new advanced iteration of the Vega launcher and the successor to a spaceplane demonstrator that flew in 2015. Italy's space industry, notably Vega's manufacturer Avio and Thales Alenia Space Italy, will both lead consortiums for Vega E and Space Rider, respectively.
Avio's contract for Vega E — short for Vega Evolution — is worth 53 million euros, and jumpstarts development of the new launcher alongside Vega C, which has yet to fly. ESA awarded 36.7 million split between Avio and Thales Alenia Space Italy for Space Rider, an unmanned reusable spaceplane capable of lifting 800 kilograms to LEO for missions up to two months. | | | Jeff Foust, WASHINGTON — The White House announced Nov. 29 it plans to nominate the treasurer of the state of Arizona to be NASA's next chief financial officer.
In a statement issued late Nov. 29, the Trump administration said it plans to nominate Jeffrey DeWit to the post, one of four at NASA that requires Senate confirmation. Such announcements normally precede a formal nomination by a few days.
DeWit has a strong background in finance, but none in space. He founded the trading company ECHOtrade in 1999 and served as its chief executive until being elected as treasurer of Arizona in 2014. Before founding ECHOtrade he worked as Smith Barney and the Chicago Board of Trade. | | | Jeff Foust, WASHINGTON — U.S.-New Zealand launch vehicle developer Rocket Lab announced Nov. 29 it plans to conduct the second launch of its Electron small rocket in December.
The company said a 10-day launch window for the launch, dubbed "Still Testing," will open Dec. 8 at 2:30 p.m. local time from the company's New Zealand launch site (8:30 p.m. Eastern Dec. 7). Unlike the first Electron launch, the second will be livestreamed, the company said.
Unlike the first launch, which carried only instrumentation, this mission will carry payloads from two companies. Planet will provide a single Dove imaging cubesat, while Spire will provide two Lemur-2 ship-tracking and weather satellites that will be placed into an orbit by the Electron. | | | Jeff Foust, WASHINGTON — Nineteen satellites launched on a Soyuz rocket Nov. 28 are now widely assumed to be lost, with one of the companies involved in the mission stating that the launch was a failure.
The Soyuz-2.1b rocket lifted off from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia's Far East early Nov. 28. After initial reports of a successful launch, the Russian state space corporation Roscosmos said it could not contact the vehicle's primary payload, the Meteor-M No.2-1 weather satellite, because it was not in its planned orbit. | | | | | | |
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