Main Engine Cut Off - T+134: Headlines (with news on Orion, NEOCam, and more)

Episode Date: September 27, 2019

I’ve got a special preview of MECO Headlines for the main feed this week, with news on Orion, NASA’s FY2020 budget, NEOCam’s legacy, Starship, and more.This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 39 executive producers—Kris, Pat, Matt, Jorge, Brad, Ryan, Nadim, Peter, Donald, Lee, Chris, Warren, Bob, Russell, John, Moritz, Joel, Jan, David, Grant, Mike, David, Mints, Joonas, Robb, Tim Dodd the Everyday Astronaut, Frank, Rui, Julian, Lars, Tommy, Adam, Sam, and six anonymous—and 272 other supporters.HeadlinesOff-Nominal Events: Meetup in DC—Sunday, October 20th!NASA Commits to Long-term Artemis Missions with Orion Production | NASASenate appropriators advance bill funding NASA despite uncertainties about Artemis costs - SpaceNews.comNASA to develop mission to search for near-Earth asteroids - SpaceNews.comElon Musk on Twitter: “Three Raptors on a Starship”Elon Musk on Twitter: “Adding the rear moving fins to Starship Mk1 in Boca Chica, Texas”BocaChicaGal photosLauncherOne: Shaping Up and Shipping Out | Virgin OrbitSoyuz ferries three crew members to space station – Spaceflight NowFresh batteries, experiments on the way to the International Space Station – Spaceflight NowTwo more satellites launched into China’s Beidou navigation fleet – Spaceflight NowRussia launches missile warning satellite – Spaceflight NowKeep an eye on upcoming launches with rocketlaunch.live.Show InfoEmail your thoughts, comments, and questions to [e-mail] @WeHaveMECOListen to MECO HeadlinesJoin the Off-Nominal DiscordSubscribe on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, Spotify, Google Play, Stitcher, TuneIn or elsewhereSubscribe to the Main Engine Cut Off NewsletterBuy shirts and Rocket Socks from the Main Engine Cut Off ShopLike the show? Support the show!Music by Max Justus

Hello, welcome to Main Engine Cutoff. You might think this is a weird start to the show, and it is, but I have a special announcement I want to make sure that you hear. Are you going to be at IAC in Washington, D.C. this year? It's from October 21st to the 25th. Well, if you're in town for IAC, or if you just live near Washington, D.C., we're going to be having a meetup on October 20th. It's a Sunday in Washington, D.C. You can come hang out with me, Jake from the Wee Martians podcast, and all of your other off-nominal friends. On Sunday at 10 a.m., we're going to be at the Udvar-Hazy, Udvar-Hazy, however you say that. We're going to be there at that wing of the Air and Space Museum,

checking out all of the things they have over there. It's out near Dulles. There's Space Shuttle Discoveries there. There's an SR-71. There's a Concorde. There's so much good space nerdiness there. So we're going to walk through the museum together, hang out, and have a good time for the morning and afternoon. And then at 7 p.m. back in downtown, we're going to be at the DACA Beer Garden. It's just about a 10-minute walk away from the convention center where IAC will be held. So if any of that sounds interesting to you, head over to events.offnominal.space, and I will see you in a couple of weeks in D.C. Now, to continue with my weird intro, I'm doing something special here on the

main feed today. If you are a supporter over at mainenginecutoff.com support, if you're a supporter there for $3 a month or more, you get access to something special that I call Miko Headlines. Every single weekend, I run through all of the stories that happened that week and give you some thoughts on the stories. A lot of times, there's stories that come up that I don't have 20 or 30 minutes of thoughts on, and I end up talking about those in headlines, not so much on the main feed or in the blog. They just don't warrant as much attention, but there's still some interesting tidbits there.

So that's the kind of thing that you get in MECO Headlines. It's a great way to support the show and stay up to speed on space news. So I'm giving you a special preview of MECeko Headlines this week, where I talk about the fiscal year 2020 budget for NASA. I talk about that 15 years of development of Orion that led to 12 Artemis missions, the contract extension, if you will, for Lockheed Martin on Orion. And I talk about near-Earth asteroids. Give a couple of thoughts on that and the Starship updates coming up. So it's packed with some good stuff in there and a lot of launch news and everything else.

So give it a listen. If you like what you're hearing, head over to mainenginecutoff.com slash support like 311 people do already, including 39 executive producers. Thank you to Chris, Pat, Matt, George, Brad, Ryan, Nadeem, Peter, Donald, Lee, Chris, Warren, Bob, Russell, John, Moritz, Joel, Jan, David, Grant, Mike, David, Mintz, Eunice, Rob, Tim Dodd, TheEverDashNut, Thank you for making this episode possible.

And now let's get into the headlines. Welcome to Main Engine Cutoff Headlines for September 27th, 2019. We've got some good and bad politicking happening this week, so let's start with, maybe start with the bad news and lead up to the good news. The bad news is that NASA has kind of arbitrarily awarded an extension of the Orion contract to Lockheed Martin. And this is the ongoing saga of Texas and Alabama fighting each other over Artemis. So what NASA announced here is that they're going to be getting as many as 12 Artemis missions in addition to what they've already got booked with Lockheed Martin. They're starting with a minimum order of six spacecraft, and it could be an extension up to 12. So these are four missions, Artemis 3 through 5, and then 6 through 9, 8. Where am I at? I can't even count.

6 through 8 at that point. Now, the thing that's causing a lot of arguments on the internet is the fact that this is a cost plus contract. And previously, NASA was talking about how fixed price contracting would be the way that they go for most things, especially in the known realm. And the fact that the Lunar Lander is likely going to be developed on a fixed price contract. And then Orion, the thing that has been in development for, you know, 15 years at this point is still on cost plus is causing a lot of, uh, you know, hesitation out there in the space world as it should. Orion's life support system is not even done yet. That is still being worked because they just didn't need it yet. So they kind of delayed work on it. Uh, obviously there's some weird situations there with how that

was managed up to this point, but there's still a bunch of work to go on life support and a bunch of other, um, kind of, uh, human hab of human habitation related concerns. And obviously, anything that would interact with the gateway or lander or something that might change the scope of Orion would be new development. Obviously, if you had a fixed price contract, you could do change orders for that. So it's really not excuses, but that's kind of the rationale there. Now, the real rationale is that when the lander contract for Artemis was said to be managed by Marshall over in Alabama, Houston, contingent of the political supporters of NASA, got kind of their feathers ruffled a little bit. Some of them didn't show up to events announcing that lander program management. Some of them put out very

harsh statements about it being taken away from what they considered its rightful home at Johnson Space Center. So this is kind of more of that politic and game to throw Texas a bone. But I think what's really sad about this is just how plain it puts out there on display that the politicians and decision makers behind a lot of this stuff really just want to see stuff developed and built, but not really have anything to do. You know, they're extending this up to 12 missions. I don't know what the hell any of those things are going to do because we haven't officially decided what they're going to do at this point. They're more focused on the fact that they exist at all rather than what they would do in space. And the fact that that's kind of the cart leading the horse or whatever other kind of saying you want to use there, it's just so obvious how this stuff works. And it makes it

so evident that it's really quite depressing to a certain point. Now, in the grand scheme of things, how much does this really matter? I don't know. I mean, you and I both complain a lot about how worthless NASA plans are out beyond a couple of years. You know, we've had 18 different variations in as many years at this point. So how much do future things matter, you know, especially when you're getting out towards the 2030s? I don't know. It really depends how much money is put down today from this year's budget for NASA to spend on future Orions,

when these things actually start getting ordered officially, and when money is committed. I didn't see any of that in the announcements from NASA. I'll be on the lookout for when the first dollar from this announcement actually gets paid out. If that's a couple of years down the line, this to me is a lot like trading some draft picks in two or three years, hoping that you'd get a championship run in the next year or two. You're kind of trading away your future for your present. Maybe that's the situation here. Maybe it's the fact that we know, you know, in a couple years time, everything will look vastly different. So if we have to throw Texas a bone at this point,

so be it. That's kind of where things are at with Ryan. And honestly, I don't really know what else to make of it other than that. Now on that future plan front, we did start to see some of the fiscal year 2020 budget this week. So the Senate Appropriations Committee, this is not even the full Senate. This is just the Appropriations Committee. They approved the budget that includes NASA and they sent it up to the full Senate. It still has to make its way through the full Senate and it still has to be squared up with whatever the House does. Now, until these things pass, none of this is going to be enacted.

We're going to be in a continuing resolution, which means we're going to stick around with the 2019 budget numbers until we get these 2020 budget numbers passed. But in this bill that the Senate Appropriations Committee passed, that included $700 million for the lunar lander. NASA requested $1 billion, but they were only given $744 million. Now, this bill also included $300 million, the exact amount left out of that $1 billion for lunar lander work, to be committed to the exploration upper stage. This is the upgraded upper stage for SLS that nobody at NASA really wants, but Alabama really wants, and Boeing really wants.

And there was a bunch of politicking that we talked about last week in the actual Congress about the EUS and how much it would be useful for NASA's future plans, says politicians and the Boeing lobbyist. So there's still a lot going on here, even within the Senate. And obviously, Richard Shelby is kind of being laid to blame for that. But it does feel like a very artfully done middle finger here to say, we're not going to give you a billion. We're going to give you 700 million. And we're also going to take 300 million for the EUS that we really want. We'll see what happens.

I don't think that's going to stay intact the way it is once it makes it through the full Congress and where it goes from there. Who knows? But there is some movement in the 2020 budget area, and it it goes from there, who knows. But there is some movement in the 2020 budget area, and it doesn't look terrible, but it doesn't look great for Artemis. Now, in what I think is the best news of the week, NASA has announced that they're going to be developing a space-based telescope for near-Earth asteroids. If that sounds familiar, you are right. There was a concept called NEOCAM, the Near Earth Object Camera, that was part of the Discovery Program that was in competition for Discovery Programs, which are the smaller scale planetary

missions. They're going to be reviving that. That didn't win the Discovery Competition, but they're going to be reviving it in the NEO Surveillance Mission. JPL is going to lead development of this mission under NASA's Planetary Defense Program. It'll be directed by NASA, but not led by NASA, but not led by NASA, which is kind of an interesting clarification. And the goal here is to discover at least 90% of the near-Earth asteroids, at least 140 diameters or greater. And that'll take place over, I think it was over a decade. So it'll be launched in 2025. And over the next decade, we'll find up to 90% of them, I guess, that we can in the solar system.

But all in all, we'll see how this shakes out once things get moving here. But I do think this is a really important mission. It feels like we can all bicker about what we think government should or shouldn't spend money on. But tracking potentially hazardous asteroids feels like a really good use of pooled resources to me, considering how terrible it would be if something did happen in that department. So it's a really good use of pooled resources to me considering how terrible it would be if something did happen in that department. So it's a really good sign that this did get approved. I think this has a lot to do with some really heavy lobbying for all intents and purposes

by the Planetary Society. They've been fighting for this mission for a long time. So if you're a fan of this, then props to them. If you're not a fan of this, blame them, I guess. But overall, I'm excited to see this mission in development, and I'm curious to follow along with it to see how it develops from here. All right, so we've got some launch vehicle update stuff to talk about before we get into ISS news and launches. So let's start with the dizzying pace down in Boca Chica. And obviously, everything I say here is going to be quickly outdated, because if you're listening to this on Friday, tomorrow the 28th, there's going to be a presentation by SpaceX. They said at 8 p.m. Eastern. We'll see when it actually happens, but they're going to be doing an unveiling of the new, you know, yet new and improved

version of Starship, which we've been seeing come together in ridiculous pace down in Boca Chica. There are three Raptors on board this new Starship. There are two big wings or fins on the lower portion of Starship and two fins up towards the tip of it. They are, as I speak, lifting this to be joined today and they'll be stacked for this presentation tomorrow. So we're going to hear a bunch about what Starship is shaping up to look like. But, you know, it doesn't look like we're too far away from seeing some activity with those Raptor engines that are mounted underneath. So very exciting stuff happening down in Boca Chica. I'm obviously going to be talking a lot about whatever Elon Musk talks about with Starship. So keep your eyes peeled for a show on the main feed in the coming days.

for a show on the main feed in the coming days. And over in California, Launcher One has been shipped out from its Long Beach factory over to Mojave for the first test launch. So they've completed the first test vehicle. That's the one that's going to actually light its engine for the first time and fly away from the plane up to orbit, hopefully. But they're shipping it over to Mojave. It's going to undergo a couple of different tests there,

then a captive carry flight, and then the launch attempt. So there's still a few weeks or months out from that thing flying, but they are finally making progress towards that first launch in the visible sense that we can see. So I'm very excited to watch how they do on the tail end of their test program here. All right, now we've got some ISS and launch news. The most interesting launch of the week was a crewed launch, which is always fun to have. So this is Soyuz MS-15. It was carrying NASA astronaut Jessica Meyer, cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka,

and the UAE's first astronaut, which is a thing that we'll debate in a second, Hazar Ali Al Mansouri. They launched to the ISS, docked successfully, and now we're in that weird state where the ISS has 15 people, 15 people, Soyuz MS-15. That would be crazy if there's 15 people. Nine people on board the space station. Hasn't been that way since back in 2015, so it's something that's kind of rare. Won't stay that way for long, though, because in just about a week, Al-Mansouri will be coming home on a flight with, I believe it's Nick Haig and Alexei Ovchinin. And then we'll be back to the usual six crew members on the ISS. But that's a good launch. Now, the whole astronaut debate.

Al-Mansouri flew for the UAE. They're the first UA. Now, the whole astronaut debate, Al Mansouri flew for the UAE. They're the first UAE citizen, I guess, to go to space. So it would be their first astronaut. NASA calls them a spaceflight participant because he booked the flight. Well, I guess he didn't book it, but UAE booked the flight the same way that like a Richard Garriott or somebody would book a flight to the ISS, not actually through, you know, a partnership. So it's not like a, I don't know, this is weird bickering about is it only governmental astronauts? Can you be a private astronaut? I think he's an astronaut. Who cares, really? But he's in space, he's in orbit, he's in the space station. That's rad. So good flight there for Soyuz MS-15. On the cargo side of the space station, HTV-8 finally lifted off on that h2b rocket from japan

this was the one that had the fire on the launch pad not too long ago but it did get off successfully at this point and that is delivering another batch of fresh batteries for the iss a bunch of other cargo and all in all was a good flight for hV. Then over in China, we did have two launches this week. A Long March 3B launched two more Baidu satellites. So these are the navigation satellites that China has been launching at a ridiculous pace over the years. These two were heading to a circular orbit about 21,800 kilometers above Earth, inclined 55 degrees to the equator. So there's been a bunch that have headed to that kind of orbit. And that's kind of one of their main orbits for the Baidu fleet. And then they also launched an environmental satellite. This headed up to a 760 kilometer

sun synchronous orbit on board a Long March 2D. This one was called the Yunhai, what number was it? Yunhai 102. So another good launch there for China. And then over in Russia, they launched a Tundra satellite, which is their missile warning satellite. So similar to some of the satellites that the US launches for missile warning purposes. This was launched on a Soyuz-21B with a forgot upper stage from the Plesets Cosmodrome. And that one is heading up to the Molnia orbit, which is that strangely elliptical orbit that spends a lot of time lingering over one of the hemispheres. So it's kind of because of Russia's high latitude, they developed that orbit back in the day, really, to linger over their

territory for a long time or over somebody else's territory for a long time in places that geostationary orbit doesn't quite reach with the same efficiency. So that's a very typical orbit for Russia to fly to. So all good launches this week. Five of them. It's pretty busy in the launch department this week, but not so next week. This is the part of the show where I usually tell you about upcoming launches via rocketlaunch.live, but if you head over there right now, there is nothing going on in the next week. So the launch frenzy is paused for a little bit, and then it picks back up in October with maybe a flight of Pegasus finally. Maybe it's last one. Who knows? But for now, that is all for this week. Those are your headlines.

Thank you so much for listening, and for everyone on the Patreon. Thank you so much for your support. To everyone else in the main feed where this is also going out today, hope you enjoyed this kind of thing. And once again, if you like it, hop in at mainenginecutoff.com slash support and look forward to this every single weekend. Thank you all so much for listening. I'll talk to you next week.