MARCH 15, 2018
Arianespace Successfully Launches Ses Satellite
Space News (3/9, Subscription Publication) reported that an Arianespace Soyuz rocket successfully delivered four telecommunications satellites for SES. The rocket departed from a spaceport in French Guiana March 9 “after a 33-minute delay caused by high altitude winds.” The launch is Arianespace’s second of the year and the “first since an inertial navigation system with incorrect launch data led an Ariane 5 rocket slightly off course in January.” The successful launch and deployment will bring SES’ constellation to “16 high-throughput Ka-band satellites.”
MARCH 15, 2018
Orbital ATK Unveils New Satellite Servicing Vehicle.
Space News (3/14, Subscription Publication) reports that Tuesday at the Satellite 2018 conference, Orbital ATK “company executives announced plans to develop the Mission Robotic Vehicle and Mission Extension Pods, which would handle stationkeeping for geostationary satellites that are running out of fuel.” The new offerings are intended to “provide more flexibility to customers while also moving the company closer to more advanced in-space servicing.” The systems are based on Orbital ATK’s Mission Extension Vehicle (MEV), which will dock with satellites and assume maneuvering responsibility, “including stationkeeping as well as relocation and disposal into graveyard orbits.” As part of a new strategy, Mission Robotic Vehicles will carry between 10 and 12 Mission Extension Pods, approaching customer satellites and using a “robotic arm to attach a pod to that satellite,” which would then “take over stationkeeping, proving up to five years of additional life.” The systems would provide solutions for customers that “don’t need the full-fledged capabilities of the MEV,” including attitude control. The new systems are to be available for service in 2021.
The Orlando (FL) Sentinel (3/14) hosts video as part of its coverage.
FEBRUARY 20, 2018
Trump Administration Hopes To Privatize International Space Station.
The Washington Post (2/11) cites “an internal NASA document” which it claims shows that the Trump Administration “wants to turn the International Space Station into a kind of orbiting real estate venture run not by the government, but by private industry.” According to the document, the White House plans “to stop funding the station after 2024, ending direct federal support of the orbiting laboratory” and is “working on a transition plan that could turn the station over to the private sector.” The Administration budget request to be released Monday “would request $150 million in fiscal year 2019, with more in additional years ‘to enable the development and maturation of commercial entities and capabilities which will ensure that commercial successors to the ISS – potentially including elements of the ISS – are operational when they are needed.’” The push to privatize the ISS “is likely to run into a wall of opposition” from lawmakers.
FEBRUARY 13, 2018
Musk: “Fully Expendable” Falcon Heavy To Cost $150 Million.
Reuters (2/12) reports that SpaceX is even further “ahead of the rest of the space industry than previously thought, according to CEO Elon Musk.” SpaceX had previously “said the cost of each Falcon Heavy launch starts at $90 million,” but Musk added on Monday in a tweet that a “fully expendable Falcon Heavy...is $150M.” This cost makes the Falcon Heavy around “$250 million cheaper than the closest competition,” the Delta IV Heavy. A fully expendable rocket “is the maxed-out version, in which SpaceX would not try to conserve fuel or weight to recover parts.”
FEBRUARY 20, 2018
NASA To Use 3D Lidar System Aboard Restore-L Satellite Servicing Demonstrator.
ExecutiveGov (2/14) reports that NASA has decided to use a “three-dimensional light detection and ranging system for an agency project that seeks to demonstrate an autonomous satellite servicing platform.” The agency “said Tuesday its Satellite Servicing Projects Division baselined the Kodiak lidar system to transmit images and distance-ranging data during the Restore-L demonstration.” Restore-L intends to extend the “lifespan of satellites through an in-orbit servicing method.” Restore-L will also “implement a second Kodiak component that features micro-electro-mechanical scanner and photodetector technologies.”