News : Q&A on Ingenuity’s past and future — Rocket Lab takes step towards reusable rockets — The U.S. is on ‘borrowed time’ to address orbital debris, executive warns

Friday, April 9, 2021

Q&A on Ingenuity’s past and future — Rocket Lab takes step towards reusable rockets — The U.S. is on ‘borrowed time’ to address orbital debris, executive warns

Apr 09, 2021

Quick Fix

— The Ingenuity helicopter's first flight is "thrilling, exciting and terrifying" for the NASA team, a top NASA manager tells us.

— Rocket Lab readies for a second booster recovery test to prepare for long-term goal of mid-air recovery.

— Astroscale is pushing the Biden administration to implement an R&D plan for orbital debris that was presented to the Trump White House.

WELCOME TO POLITICO SPACE, our must-read briefing on the policies and personalities shaping the new space age in Washington and beyond. Email us at jklimas@politico.com or bbender@politico.com with tips, pitches and feedback, and find us on Twitter at @jacqklimas and @bryandbender. And don't forget to check out POLITICO's astropolitics page for articles, Q&As, and more.

EVENT ALERT: The Atlantic Council on Monday is unveiling a new 30-year strategy for securing America's interests in space with Jacqueline moderating a panel featuring Airbus U.S. Space and Defense, H4X Labs, the XPRIZE Foundation, the Center for Security and Emerging Technology, and the Prague Security Studies Institute. Register here.

Space Spotlight

NO PIXIE DUST NEEDED: NASA is preparing to make history — again. When the Perseverance rover landed on Mars in February, it brought along a four-pound helicopter that will hopefully carry out the first powered flight on another planet this weekend. The aircraft, which must spin its rotors five times faster than here to soar through Mars' thin atmosphere, is expected to lift off Sunday night for a flight to just 10-feet high lasting no longer than 90 seconds. Engineers will not find out whether the flight was successful until Monday morning due to the communications delay.

The idea actually dates back to the 1990s when the space agency sent its very first rover to Mars, Robert Hogg, who is leading the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab team that sends Perseverance its daily Martian instructions, told us this week in a Q&A. "We landed this microwave-sized rover and it was the first time we roved on another planet," he said. "There was discussion in various corners of JPL about what about a flying machine?"

The helicopter will be active for just a month, but the hope is that after proving the technology NASA will be able to take on more ambitious projects, including possibly exploring parts of the Red Planet not reachable with a rover or tasking an autonomous aerial drone to scout for astronauts.

"This is the next level of achievement I'm describing, being able to fly something in 1 percent of Earth's atmosphere on the surface of another planet that's 150 million miles away," Hogg said. "These are mind boggling engineering achievements we're dealing with here."

If you're an early bird, NASA plans to livestream the Ingenuity team analyzing the flight data starting at 3:30 a.m. on Monday. We'll be tuning in to the post-flight briefing at 11 a.m.

Related: Selfie on Mars shows Perseverance watching over Ingenuity , via Space.com.

Industry Intel

CATCH AND RELEASE: Small launch company Rocket Lab announced Thursday it will make its second attempt to bring an Electron booster rocket back to Earth in May. The mission, which will launch from the company's New Zealand complex, will send into orbit two Earth-observation satellites for Black Sky before the first stage deploys a parachute to reenter the atmosphere and land softly in the ocean.

This is the second of three planned ocean splashdown tests. Rocket Lab eventually intends to try recovering the used rocket boosters by catching them in mid-air with a helicopter. The company is also developing a Neutron rocket that will land vertically on a platform floating in the ocean, similar to SpaceX's Falcon 9.

TAKING OUT THE TRASH: The space industry is working in a "combat zone" of debris, says Charity Weeden, vice president of global space policy at Astroscale U.S., the American arm of a Japanese space company developing ways to remove space junk. It's as simple as this, Weeden said: All of the talk about a trillion dollar space economy, or people living on the moon, won't happen if there is trash whizzing around threatening to destroy satellites or kill people.

She shared with us some ideas for how the White House can address the problem and who should lead the effort:

What can the Biden administration do to solve this problem?

There are a couple big things the Biden administration should be doing. It should commit to actually managing the space environment … and it should establish logistical infrastructure in space.

No one is in charge of space environmental management. There are lots of agencies operating in space, but no one puts it all together and manages the process. … The Biden administration should look across the board and determine who needs to be the grand organizers of space environment management.

Who should that be?

It's too early to say exactly who. ... If the National Space Council is continuing, that could be a place where this is debated and decided.

Do you think the White House is interested in taking this on?

We're on borrowed time as it is. ... There was a research and development plan for orbital debris that was presented at the end of the Trump administration. I say let's implement that. We can update if we need and just get going on that.

How can you get people to care about garbage in orbit?

We get a lot of collision warnings … and then we forget about it. This is an opportunity to move forward and not put our heads in the sand waiting for the next event to happen. … Everyone is in the same boat. National security space, industry, science and human spaceflight will all be affected if there are collisions in orbit. … There's no political debate. In space, we all suffer.

ICYMI: Astroscale's first commercial satellite to clean up space junk is about to get to work, via Space.com.

Making Moves

Jim Bridenstine, former NASA administrator, joins the advisory board of Voyager Space Holdings.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK: Congratulations to Arthur Sauzay, senior associate at Allen & Overy LLP in Paris, for being the first to correctly answer that the Transit 5B-5 is the oldest spacecraft still transmitting a signal.

This week's question: Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space 60 years ago on April 12, 1961. How tall was the military pilot?

The first person to email jklimas@politico.com gets bragging rights and a shoutout in the next newsletter!

Reading Room

— NASA's space shuttle leaves a "mixed legacy": Houston Chronicle

— The James Webb Space Telescope's first year to-do list revealed: Scientific American

— The myth of Stephen Hawking: Scientific American

— Caves on the moon could be homes for future astronauts: Popular Science

— The European and Chinese space agencies met to outline future plans in orbit: Space News

— How Russian cosmonauts trained for spaceflight: BBC

— The UAE's space program is about more than just oil: Equal Times

— The Space Force's acquisition arm is staying in LA: Los Angeles Times

— Lockheed buys up to 58 launches from rocket builder ABL space: CNBC

— SpaceX landed a rocket booster five years ago and it changed everything: Ars Technica

Event Horizon

TODAY: A Russian Soyuz spacecraft is expected to launch to the International Space Station.

TODAY: NASA holds a pre-flight briefing on the Ingenuity helicopter's first flight on Mars.

MONDAY: NASA will hold a post-flight briefing on the Ingenuity flight if it occurs as planned on Sunday.

TUESDAY: The Wilson Center hosts an event on the 60th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's flight to space.

WEDNESDAY: The Senate Commerce Committee holds a hearing on expanding and diversifying the talent pipeline for science, technology, engineering and math.

WEDNESDAY: The Washington Space Business Roundtable hosts a virtual event with Derek Tournear, director of the Space Development Agency.

WEDNESDAY: The Space Foundation holds an event on space technology.

THURSDAY: Astronauts on the International Space Station hold a ceremony in which cosmonaut Sergey Ryzhikov transfers command to astronaut Shannon Walker.

THURSDAY: Lockheed Martin hosts an event on NASA's long-term goal to bring samples from Mars back to Earth.

THURSDAY: Analysts from the Center for Security and International Studies and the Secure World Foundation will speak at an event about how to protect assets in space.

FRIDAY: Three people aboard the International Space Station — astronaut Kate Rubins and cosmonauts Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov — are expected to return to Earth.

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