SpaceNews This Week | Blue Origin's BE-4 • Bridenstine's new beginning • Boeing on the bench for GPS 3

April 20, 2018 View this email in your browser presented by Blue Origin expects BE-4 qualification tests to be done by year's end Jeff Foust, COLORADO SPRINGS — The chief executive of Blue Origin says he expects the company's BE-4 engine to complete qualification testing by the end of the year as the company ramps up work on its New Glenn orbital rocket. In an April 19 interview during the 34th Space Symposium here, Bob Smith said testing of the BE-4 engine, which uses methane and liquid oxygen propellants, was going well as the company stepped through a methodical process of increased durations and thrust levels. "We continue to progress along the lines of changing the power levels and going from various throttle settings," he said. That includes, he said, a test the company announced in March when the engine fired for 114 seconds at 65 percent of rated power. That duration is about half a typical mission duty cycle for the engine. More launch industry headlines Arianespace to launch Japanese broadcast satellite DARPA announces responsive launch prize competition Proton launches Russian defense comms satellite Falcon 9 launches NASA exoplanet hunter Technical issue delays next Rocket Lab Electron launch S7 closes Sea Launch purchase, future rocket TBD Spaceflight books launch slots on two Arianespace Vega missions Orbital ATK selects Aerojet Rocketdyne's RL10C for newly christened OmegA rocket Sierra Nevada weighing options for launching future Dream Chaser missions Stratolaunch planning first aircraft flight this summer China reveals cause of Long March 5 failure; lunar sample mission to follow return-to-flight   Sponsored Message: Maxar Technologies is a leading global provider of advanced space technology solutions, delivering unmatched capabilities in satellites, Earth imagery, geospatial data and analytics. The world's foremost businesses and governments trust Maxar Technologies and its commercial space brands (SSL, MDA, DigitalGlobe and Radiant Solutions) to solve their most mission-critical challenges with confidence.   Boeing bows out of GPS 3 competition Sandra Erwin, COLORADO SPRINGS — Boeing has decided to not challenge Lockheed Martin for the next production lot of up to 22 GPS 3 satellites. "We have not put in a proposal for GPS 3," said Rico Attanasio, Boeing's director of Department of Defense and civil navigation and communications programs. Bids were due this week. "As you can imagine, this was a very difficult decision for us," Attanasio told SpaceNews in an interview during the 34th Space Symposium. Boeing built earlier versions of GPS satellites but Lockheed has been the only producer of the GPS 3 version and is now under contract to build 10 satellites. The Air Force made it known it wanted to open up the program, awarding pre-production contracts in 2016 to Boeing, Northrop Grumman and Lockheed. More military space headlines Air Force and NRO forge close ties overall and for SSA One way to measure China's rise as a space power: Patent applications Harris says its weather sensors fit Air Force budget, schedule Boeing to accelerate production of WGS satellites Missile defense engineer takes over Lockheed Martin's space technology lab SMC 2.0: Air Force begins major reorganization of acquisition offices International SSA agreements could pave the way for further space cooperation, panelists said Air Force moves to expand international military space coalition Kitay: U.S. leadership in space requires 'whole of government' strategy Military leaders: National security space shown the love NRO aims to move fast by relying on commercial products, expanding internal research and development Raytheon says VIIRS could meet DoD weather requirements without further development A year later, a new political reality for military space Space as a national security concern is hard to explain Pentagon procurement chief Ellen Lord cautiously optimistic about OCX Senate votes to confirm Bridenstine as NASA administrator Jeff Foust, COLORADO SPRINGS — The most contentious nomination process for a NASA administrator in the agency's six-decade history came to an end April 19 when the Senate voted to confirm Jim Bridenstine. The Senate voted 50–49 to confirm Bridenstine, a Republican congressman from Oklahoma, as the agency's 13th administrator. The party-line vote for a NASA administrator is unprecedented, as past administrators have been confirmed by the Senate with little or no dissent. The vote brought an end to a nomination process unlike any other since NASA was established in 1958. The White House formally nominated Bridenstine for the position Sept. 1 after a months-long search during which he was widely seen as a front-runner. The nomination had the support of much of the space industry. More civil space headlines Lockheed Martin working to lower Orion costs Op-ed | P3 or not P3: What can space ventures learn from terrestrial infrastructure projects? Taco Bell Space Station? It's possible, panelists say NASA Exploration Campaign opens new opportunities for science Lightfoot calls for enlightened approach to risk management at NASA House committee approved revised NASA authorization bill Op-ed | In space, no one is powerful enough to boldly go alone Commerce Department ready to add space traffic management to growing space role Op-ed | Back to 'back to the moon' Op-ed | The importance of thinking internationally on space collaborations Op-ed | Dear National Space Council: Please keep doing what you're doing Commerce to take responsibility for space traffic management under new policy Startup with SoftBank, Airbus investment planning video constellation with several hundred satellites Caleb Henry, WASHINGTON —A satellite startup that today announced SoftBank, Airbus, Bill Gates and OneWeb founder Greg Wyler as investors says it has plans to field a constellation of hundreds of satellites to provide global video of the Earth, but provided few details on how it will accomplish that goal. EarthNow spun out of the business incubator Intellectual Ventures last year with a mission to record the planet and provide video in real time to users on the ground. Airbus is the company's manufacturing partner, using production lines made to build thousands of telecom satellites for OneWeb in Toulouse, France and Exploration Park, Florida. Russell Hannigan, EarthNow's founder and chief executive, told SpaceNews the company will provide 20 frames per second video at a "highly competitive" resolution in full color "and a little bit more." "We live in a world where people increasingly want immediacy," Hannigan said. "I want it now, I don't want it in three or four days time. That's what we are addressing." More commercial space headlines  Global VSAT Forum's David Hartshorn resigning Eutelsat completes 302 million euro Hispasat divestiture Dutch firm Cosine releases first images from hyperspectral camera aboard nanosatellite York Space Systems to use Ruag Space small satellite payload adapter As space business grows, Ruag ramps up U.S. manufacturing Open Cosmos raises $7M in Series A funding round Op-ed | For active debris removal, today's concern is tomorrow's opportunity Rise of the megaconstellations breathes life into active debris removal schemes FCC commissioner questions regulator's omission from National Space Council Companies look to Trump administration to further ease export rules for space technology AsiaSat CEO Andrew Jordan stepping down British startup Earth-i shares first color video from its VividX2 satellite, a prototype for imagery constellation Why Sierra Nevada's owners are betting big on Dream Chaser Twitter LinkedIn Facebook Advertise with Us | Privacy Policy | Subscribe Copyright © 2018 SpaceNews Inc., All rights reserved. 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