SpaceNews This Week | Falcon Heavy's big debut; SES allies with Intelsat, Intel; NASA studying commercial crew contingencies

February 9, 2018 View this email in your browser SpaceX successfully launches Falcon Heavy Jeff Foust, KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — A SpaceX Falcon Heavy successfully launched on its inaugural flight here Feb. 6, placing a demonstration payload into orbit and boosting the company's interplanetary ambitions. The Falcon Heavy lifted off at 3:45 p.m. Eastern from Launch Complex 39A here, after more than two hours of delays due to high upper-level winds. The two side boosters landed at pads designated Landing Zone 1 and 2 at the former Launch Complex 13 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The one setback for the launch was the failure to land the center core booster. The center core attempted to land on a drone ship downrange, but Musk said that the landing failed when only one of three engines ignited for the final landing burn. The upper stage performed two burns that placed itself and its demonstration payload, a modified Tesla Roadster, into an elliptical orbit of about 180 by 6,950 kilometers. A final burn about six hours after launch placed the vehicle into a heliocentric orbit that will take it roughly as far from the sun as Mars.  More launch headlines Don't expect deep discounts on preflown SpaceX boosters   ESA awards five smallsat launcher study contracts   Sierra Nevada gets NASA approval for first Dream Chaser ISS cargo mission   SES allies with Intelsat, Intel on revised US C-band proposal Caleb Henry, WASHINGTON —  Satellite fleet operator SES has agreed to join Intelsat on an amended proposal to let 5G networks use some of the satellite industry's coveted C-band spectrum for next-generation cellular systems in the United States. The modified proposal, building on a submission Intelsat and computer chip-maker Intel made to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission in October, would allow mobile networks to use one-fifth of satellite-designated C-band. SES had stipulated in November that, while considering Intelsat and Intel's plan, the operator could not support opening the full 500-MHz of U.S. satellite C-band. With SES on board, Intelsat now has the support of its most needed partner to advance the proposal. Intelsat and SES together control more than 90 percent of the C-band spectrum licensed in the U.S More satellite telecom headlines  SoftBank interested in more satellite, OneWeb-related investments   International ground stations tricky for smallsat operators to license   Judge rejects motion to dismiss SSL-Orbital ATK suit NASA studying commercial crew contingency plans Jeff Foust, WASHINGTON — NASA is beginning to study a contingency option for maintaining access to the International Space Station should commercial crew vehicle development experience delays, one that would turn test flights of those vehicles into operational missions. Speaking at the Federal Aviation Administration Commercial Space Transportation Conference here Feb. 8, Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator for human exploration and operations, said using the planned crewed test flights as crew rotation missions was one option under consideration should neither Boeing nor SpaceX be certified for regular crew rotation missions by the fall of 2019, when NASA's access to Russian Soyuz spacecraft ends. "Those test flights might be able to be extended a little bit, fly a little bit longer, maybe fly a little bit of crew, and they could be kind of an operational mission," he said in response to a question after a luncheon speech at the conference. "That's something we're beginning to discuss with both SpaceX and with Boeing." In a later interview, Gerstenmaier said those changes would involve extending the length of the crewed test missions, currently planned for two weeks, to bridge whatever schedule gap until at least one company has a NASA-certified vehicle ready for regular missions. More civil space headlines The still-unrealized promise of commercial Earth science data   JWST optics and instruments arrive in California   SpaceX no longer planning crewed missions on Falcon Heavy   A changing Earth science decadal for a changing Earth   Military certification the next big test for Falcon Heavy Sandra Erwin, WASHINGTON — The inaugural launch on Tuesday of the world's most powerful rocket sets the stage for SpaceX's Falcon Heavy to begin the qualification process to compete for lucrative U.S. government contracts. The U.S. Air Force has already booked the massive rocket for a June launch of a test payload. But the Falcon Heavy may have to nail many more missions before it passes the threshold to Air Force certification. Certification could take as many as 14 or as few as two flights, a spokesperson for the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Command, in Los Angeles, told SpaceNews. For new rockets like the Falcon Heavy, there are many variables at play, such as the confidence the government has in the design and its record flying commercial payloads into orbit. More military space headlines Lockheed Martin posts satellite data online to lure space entrepreneurs   At White House briefing room, Mattis appeals to Congress to pass two-year budget deal   Mattis incensed there's still no budget – DepSecDef at Space Command – Military pulling for Falcon Heavy Twitter LinkedIn Facebook Advertise with Us | Privacy Policy | Subscribe Copyright © 2018 SpaceNews Inc., All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: SpaceNews Inc. 1414 Prince St, Suite 204 Alexandria, VA 22314