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For lunar exploration advocates, the moon
is closer now than at any time
since Obama took office
NOVEMBER 21, 2016BUSINESS | POLITICS | PERSPECTIVE
I N S I D E
n What Trump means for spacen ESA ministerial previewn Lending smallsat firms a hand
VISIT SPACENEWS.COM FOR THE LATEST IN SPACE NEWS
Back to the moon, again?
An Ariane 5 ES flawlessly injected four Galileo spacecraft into a Medium
Earth Orbit from the Spaceport in French Guiana on November 17. This
was the 75th success in a row for the Ariane 5, surpassing the Ariane 4’s
streak of 74 consecutive missions. With this record-breaking feat,
Arianespace brought Europe one step closer to navigational autonomy.
HISTORIC
SPACENEWS.COM | 1
ABOVE: NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, 56, became the oldest woman in space when she launched Nov. 17 toward the International Space Station on a Russian Soyuz capsule with ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
ON THE COVER: THE SUPERMOON IS SEEN FROM WASHINGTON AS IT SETS BEHIND BUILDINGS IN ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA, ON NOV. 14. CREDIT: NASA/JOEL KOWSKY
C O N T E N T S 1 1 . 2 1 . 1 6
DEPARTMENTS
FEATURES
06ESA’s goal: aim high, hope for best ESA will ask for 11 billion
euros when its members
meet in December.
12Back to the moon, againFor lunar exploration
advocates, the moon appears
closer than it has since
Obama took office.
08SSL lends a hand to smallsat startups Satellite maker sets itself up
as a one-stop shop for the
smallsat crowd.
164 satellite-industry hopes for TrumpSatellite industry officials
weigh in on what it wants
from President-elect Trump.
11What NewSpace wants from TrumpRegulatory certainty and the
freedom to fail, for starters.
@SpaceNews_Inc youtube.com/user/SpaceNewsInc linkedin.com/company/spacenewsFb.com/SpaceNewslncFOLLOW US
3 QUICK TAKES
19 OPEN LETTER
Courtney Stadd A transition vet offers
tips to Trump’s NASA
transition team
22 MY TAKE Jim Muncy
Space transitions
aren’t just about NASA
anymore
24 FIRST PERSON Lori Garver
Why this Democrat is
giving Trump a chance
on space (if not much
else)
25 COMMENTARY Michael Listner
How a Trump space
policy could transform
outer space security
28 COMMENTARY Dean Cheng
China’s move to cis-
lunar space
30 BOTTOM LINE Enough satellites to
darken the skies
32 FOUST FORWARD Key NASA issues for the
Trump administration
Go to spacenewsmediakit.comfor more information
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2 | SPACENEWS 11.21.16
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VOLUME 27 | ISSUE 23 | $4.95 ($7.50 NON-U.S.)
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SPACENEWS.COM | 3
COU
RTES
Y O
F D
OD
QUICK TAKES
The U.S. Defense Department is more
open to international partnerships in sat-
ellite communications than it used to be,
according to a Canadian officer. Lt. Col. Abde
Bellahnid, who negotiated Canada’s entry into
the U.S. Wideband Global Satcom system, said
at the Global Milsatcom conference Nov. 10
that the U.S. has been more open to work-
ing with allies as it develops an analysis of al-
ternatives for future satellite communications
requirements. Bellahnid said he hopes that co-
operation extends to another satellite commu-
nications effort for polar regions that Canada is
currently studying in cooperation with the U.S.,
Denmark and Norway.
NATO is so far behind in planning for a
next-generation military satellite commu-
nications system that it may have to extend
an existing contract. Gregory Edwards, director
of infrastructure services at the NATO Com-
munications and Information Agency, said at
the Global Milsatcom conference Nov. 10 that
extending the current contract, which expires
in 2019, isn’t desirable because of growing
bandwidth requirements, particularly in spec-
trum bands like EHF and Ka-band not included
in that contract. Edwards said he hopes NATO
has its satellite communications requirements
in place by early 2017 to then solicit contracts
from member nations.
DISA URGES ALLIES TO USE IRIDIUMThe Defense Department is encouraging allies to join a program that provides unlimited use of
Iridium satellites. The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) is in the middle of a five-year,
$400 million contract with Iridium that provides the Pentagon with unlimited capacity on Iridium,
with all traffic routed through a special gateway in Hawaii. While several allied nations already
take advantage of the contract, a DISA official said Nov. 9 at the Global Milsatcom conference in
London that other allies are welcome to join, paying a fixed fee for unlimited access.
Australia, Britain, Canada and New Zealand “have unlimited access to the Iridium constellation through our gateway. Like Department of Defense agencies, they pay us a fixed rate. In return, they canadd as many devices as they want to the network, provisioned by us.”
—CLARE GRASON, DoD’s Enhanced Mobile Satellite Services program manager
OHB illustration of Heinrich Hertz
11The number of applications for global satellite internet constella-tions the FCC received by the Nov. 15 deadline it set for companies to declare their intentions to seek li-censing for systems that, in some cases, would number several thou-sand satellites.
32The number of days Chinese astro-nauts Jing Haipeng and Chen Dong spent aboard Tiangong-2 before re-turning to Earth Nov. 18. The mis-sion was the longest crewed flight to date by China.
$7.6MThe value of the non-cash impair-ment charge UrtheCast is taking on the two Earth-observation cameras mounted on the International Space Station’s Russian segment. Urthe-Cast said the write-down was driven by strained relations with Rus-sia, which wants to renegotiate its agreement with UrtheCast.
SIGNIFICANT DIGITS
$330MThe size of the contract OHB ex-pects to receive from the German government for full development of the experimental communications satellite dubbed Heinrich Hertz.
“We reluctantly leased a lot of satellite communications. We reluctantly allowed people to image for commercial purposes …We have successfully now changed that thinking around.”
— DOUG LOVERRO, THE U.S. DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR SPACE
POLICY, SPEAKING NOV. 15 AT THE MARYLAND SPACE BUSINESS ROUNDTABLE ABOUT THE
PENTAGON’S EVOLVING EMBRACE OF THE COMMERCIAL SPACE SECTOR.
4 | SPACENEWS 11.21.16
QUICK TAKES
ARIANE 5 CONDUCTS ITS FIRST GALILEO LAUNCH
AFTER TRUMP, NASA STUMPS FOR EARTH SCIENCENASA used a briefing about an
upcoming mission to make the
case for the agency’s overall
Earth science efforts.
“NASA’s work on Earth sci-
ence is making a difference in
people’s lives all around the
world every day,” Thomas Zur-
buchen, associate adminis-
trator for science, said at a
beginning of a briefing about
the CYGNSS hurricane-track-
ing mission.
Those comments come
after the election of Donald
Trump, whose space policy
has proposed cutting fund-
ing for Earth science programs
in favor of space exploration
efforts.
Republicans in Congress
in recent years have also pro-
posed cutting Earth science
funding, although those ef-
forts have largely been
unsuccessful.
THOMAS ZURBUCHEN at NASA
“I’m not really very interested in this solar system. I always thought it was kind of boring.”
— PETE WORDEN, CHAIRMAN OF THE BREAKTHROUGH PRIZE FOUNDATION, DISCUSSING
THE FOUNDATION’S BREAKTHROUGH STARSHOT PROJECT TO DEVELOP TECHNOLOGIES
FOR AN INTERSTELLAR PROBE DURING A NOV. 16 TALK AT THE SPACECOM CONFERENCE
IN HOUSTON. THE FOUNDATION IS ALSO FUNDING EFFORTS TO DETECT SIGNALS FROM
EXTRATERRESTRIAL CIVILIZATIONS.
Europe’s Ariane 5 rocket,
debuting a new satellite-dis-
penser system, on Nov. 17
successfully placed four Euro-
pean Galileo navigation satel-
lites into medium-Earth orbit.
It was the 75th consec-
utive success for Ariane 5,
breaking the tie with its pre-
decessor, the Ariane 4.
Launching from Europe’s
Guiana Space Center, the Ar-
iane 5 ES version, with a stor-
able-propellant upper stage
instead of the usual cryogenic
stage, separated the four
716-kilogram Galileo space-
craft two at a time about four
hours after liftoff.
The launch was the first
time Ariane 5 had been used
for Galileo. All previous
launches were by European-
ized Russian Soyuz rockets,
which carry two Galileo satel-
lites at a time.
Ariane 5 prime contractor
Airbus Defence and Space
provided the 435-kilogram
structure that releases two
satellites at a time in an in-
terval of about 20 minutes.
Because this was the first use
of the system, the separation in
orbit provided the most tense
moments of the four-hour
mission.
Germany’s OHB and pay-
load provider SSTL of England
are under contract to build 22
Galileo satellites, 14 of which
are now in orbit. The eight
remaining satellites will be
launched by Ariane 5 rockets in
2017 and 2018.
The Galileo system now has
18 satellites in orbit ( including
four in-orbit-validation satel-
lites). The European Commis-
sion, Galileo’s owner, expects
initial service to begin by the
end of the year.
The commission and the
22-nation European Space
Agency, which acts as program
technical manager for the
commission, ultimately want
30 Galileo satellites in orbit —
24 operational spacecraft plus
in-orbit spares.
To get to that total, ESA is
managing a competition to
build at least eight, and up to
14, additional Galileo satellites.
An announcement of one or
more winning bidders is ex-
pected in the coming weeks.
An Ariane 5 rocket deploys its Galileo payload in this ESA artist’s concept
NAS
A
CR
SPACENEWS.COM | 5
QUICK TAKES
TANK TESTS HAVE SPACEX BURSTING WITH JOYSpaceX says a giant propellant tank it developed as part of its Mars mission architecture
passed a key early test. The carbon-fiber tank completed a set of pressure tests performed on a
barge the week of Nov. 7, according to a brief statement from the company. SpaceX CEO Elon
Musk said in October that the test would take the tank up to two-thirds of its burst pressure. The
tank is a key element of the interplanetary spaceship, capable of landing on Mars and carrying up
to 100 people, that Musk unveiled in a talk in September.
Another SpaceX tank test at its McGregor, Texas, test site startled local residents and prompted
a response from the fire department. The blast attracted the attention of local residents Nov. 16
and the city’s fire department responded, but there were no injuries or damage reported. SpaceX
said that residents heard “the result of a pressurization test” at its test site that “was part of the on-
going testing being conducted by our Accident Investigation Team” into the Sept. 1 Falcon 9 pad
explosion.
Expedition 50 crew boards Soyuz
WHITSON SETS RECORDA Soyuz spacecraft with three
new space station crew mem-
bers launched Nov. 17. The
Soyuz rocket lifted off from the
Baikonur Cosmodrome in Ka-
zakhstan and placed the Soyuz
MS-03 spacecraft into orbit.
The spacecraft was scheduled
to dock with the ISS on Nov.
19. The Soyuz is carrying ESA
astronaut Thomas Pesquet,
Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg
Novitskiy, and NASA astro-
naut Peggy Whitson who, at
56, is the oldest woman to fly
to space.NAS
A/SP
ACEX
/BLA
CKSK
Y
U.S. House GOP leaders plan
introduce a stopgap spend-
ing measure to fund the gov-
ernment through next March
rather than try to push through
one or more 2017 appropri-
ations bills during the lame
duck session. The government
is currently operating under a
continuing resolution that pro-
vides funding through Dec. 9.
FIRST IMAGES FROM BLACKSKY’S PATHFINDER-1Spaceflight Industries’ BlackSky division showed off the first images from its first satellite Nov. 14.
The images from the Pathfinder-1 spacecraft, launched in September on an Indian PSLV rocket, in-
dicate that the satellite is operating as planned, taking images with a resolution of about two meters
per pixel. That resolution will improve as calibration of the spacecraft’s camera continues, the com-
pany said, calling the demonstration spacecraft a success. BlackSky ultimately plans to deploy a con-
stellation of 60 satellites providing images with a resolution of one meter.
“Successfully tested the prototype Mars tank last week,” SpaceX tweeted Nov. 16. “Hit both of our pressure targets – next up will be full cryo testing.”
The BlackSky Pathfinder-1 satellite captured this view of mountains around Kandahar in Afghanistan.
6 | SPACENEWS 11.21.16
ESA MINISTERIAL
THE 22-NATION EUROPEAN SPACE
AGENCY in December will ask its gov-
ernments to fund a broad suite of pro-
grams in science, Earth observation,
telecommunications and exploration
for the coming several years — even
though it knows some of the propos-
als will be rejected out of hand.
ESA Director-General Jan Woerner
said the agency always comes in with
a wide list of initiatives that ultimately
prove too costly for some member states.
NORWAY’S THREAT, AND BRITAIN’S FOREIGN EXCHANGE ISSUEOf special concern this year is the threat-
ened sharp reduction in Norway’s con-
tribution to ESA’s optional program.
Norwegian officials have talked about
a possible 75-percent cut — a remark-
able decision that Norwegian Space
Agency officials are at pains to explain
to their counterparts.
Also of concern is the British pound’s
drop relative to the euro, which might
reduce Britain’s ability to fund ESA mis-
sions. Britain in recent years has become
a major ESA player in telecommunica-
tions and Earth observation.
More than 80 percent of ESA’s spend-
ing is from voluntary contributions from
their member states. These nations re-
view a program, evaluate the potential
for their domestic industry, and de-
termine how much to invest, know-
ing that 90 percent of their investment
will return to their territory in the form
of contracts to their national industry.
ESA has been chipping away at what
is called “fair return” for years to make
it more flexible, but it remains perhaps
the most important glue binding 22 na-
tions together.
The science program is the major ex-
ception to this rule. Science, not to be
confused with exploration, is funded by
mandatory contributions by each na-
tion based on its gross domestic prod-
uct. Woerner said he will be seeing a
modest increase in the science budget.
For the Dec. 1-2 ministerial conference
in Lucerne, Switzerland, ESA is asking for
about 11 billion euros ($12 billion) to cover
the agency’s activities over the next three
to five years. Some of the funding would
stretch out much beyond that.
Because this headline figure stretches
over different periods, Woerner said it
is not easy to read. “These numbers by
themselves have no real meaning,” he
said. “They cover different periods. What
is most important for us is our annual
budget of about 3.5 billion euros, plus
funds from the European Commission.”
With Europe’s Ariane 6 rocket now
fully funded and scheduled to launch
starting in 2020, ESA will not need to
present it to its ministers. But the multi-
year funding of Europe’s Guiana Space
Center spaceport, and the ongoing sup-
port for the Ariane 5 and Vega rockets,
will be on the agenda.
MARS EXPLORATION AND INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION FUNDING The two large-budget programs to be
debated at the ministerial conference
are likely to be the ExoMars explora-
tion program with Russia and Europe’s
continued participation in the Interna-
tional Space Station.
ESA is asking its governments for a
final payment of 300 million euros to
complete the ExoMars mission with Rus-
sia. The two-launch mission included
a Mars orbiter, now in place around
Mars; and an entry, descent and land-
ing package that performed most of its
work but crashed as it was closing in
on the surface, apparently following a
computer malfunction.
The second half of ExoMars includes
a Russian landing package and a Eu-
ropean rover to drill beneath the Mars
surface in search of signs of life.
Government and industry officials
say ExoMars is actually short 400 mil-
lion euros, but that Woerner has agreed
to absorb 100 million euros of that by
trimming other programs at ESA.
LIAR’S POKER ON INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATIONEurope’s participation in the Interna-
tional Space Station depends on an
agreement between Germany, France
and Italy. In recent ministerial confer-
ences, these three governments have
occasionally suggested they no longer
viewed ISS as a priority. Whether this re-
flected government policy or was only
a way of extracting greater contribu-
tions from the other partners is unclear.
French officials routinely say their
role in ISS depends in part on German
enthusiasm.
ESA’s goal: aim high and hope for the best
6 | SPACENEWS 11.21.16
PETER B. de SELDING
SPACENEWS.COM | 7
ESA
ESA’s EOEP-5 BUDGET Cost Percentage (in millions of euros)
BLOCK 1 - FUTURE MISSIONS 197 14% 1 Mission prep. and instr. predev. (incl. 90 million euros for Sentinel Evolution) 197
BLOCK 2 - MISSION DEVELOPMENT 695 49% 2 EE-7 / Biomass 60 3 EE-8 / FLEX 285 4 EE-9 / New Call 200 5 Sentinel Evolution 90 6 SAOCOM-CS 60
BLOCK 3 - MISSION MANAGEMENT 235 17% 7 Mission Management 235
BLOCK 4 - EO SCIENCE FOR SOCIETY 200 14% 8 Scientific Data Exploitation 60 9 Eo Application Platform 115 10 Eo for Sustainable Development 25 11 CONTINGENCIES 83 6% TOTAL EOEP-5 1,410 100%
12 EarthWatch - GMECV+(a.k.a. CCI+) 90 13 EarthWatch - Incubed 40 14 EarthWatch - Altius 105
TOTAL EOP OPTIONAL PROGRAM ELEMENTS 1,625
BASIC ACTIVITIES - EOP ELEMENTS (TBC) 142.5 14 Earthnet 87.5 16 LTDP+ 55
Source: ESA SPACENEWS
ESA governments will decide Dec. 1-2 whether to accept a proposed fifth Earth Observation Envelope Program, EOEP-5, which would cover the period 2017-2021.
EOEP-5 is budgeted at 1.41 billion euros ($1.51 billion). The package covers the 7th and 8th Earth Explorer missions, Biomass and Flex, as well as funds for a ninth Earth Explorer to be selected later.
Also included was ESA’s participation in the Argentine government’s Satcom mission with a Saocom companion satellite. Both are to be launched together in 2019.
Europe’s Copernicus program features a series of satellites called Sentinels. ESA pays for the development of the first of each Sentinel series, with the European Commission financing the balance. ESA has budgeted 180 million euros for preparing the next generation of Sentinels, called Sentinel Evolution.
ESA’s own past satellites, notably the ERS and Envisat radar missions, produced a huge amount of data that ESA is now charged with maintaining in what it calls the Long-Term Data Preservation program.
Sentinel-1A, launched in 2014, carries a synthetic aperture radar for Earth observation
ESA SEEKS LONG-TERM EARTH OBSERVATION FUNDING
Despite the launch of a French astronaut
to the space station Nov. 17, France has been
hesitant to commit to maintaining ISS fund-
ing to 2024, which is the proposal on the ta-
ble at Lucerne.
As with ExoMars, the embarrassment of
ending Europe’s participation in ISS before
the United States, Russia, Japan and Can-
ada is likely too great for ESA governments.
While Europe’s ISS supporters are getting res-
tive — what comes after ISS? How does ISS
play into lunar or Mars exploration? — they
are unlikely to walk away early.
ASCHBACHER ON EARTH OBSERVATION ESA’s Earth observation program is the agen-
cy’s biggest, accounting for 30.5 percent of
its budget in 2016.
This year, the agency is presenting its
fifth Earth Observation Envelope Program
(EOEP), budgeted at 1.41 billion euros. To this
is added some 200 million euros in opera-
tional programs, including a proposed pub-
lic-private partnership with industry, called
InCubed, and the Belgian-led Altius satellite
for atmospheric sounding.
Other missions in EOEP-5 include the
Earth Explorer missions Biomass (EE-7) and
Flex (EE-8) environment-monitoring sat-
ellites and a proposed EE-9 mission yet to
be decided.
ESA Earth Observation Director Josef
Aschbacher said the ministers will be asked
to sign off on EOEP-5 as a whole. “No cher-
ry-picking,” he said. If the full funding com-
plement is not available, then one or more
of the proposed missions will need to be
scrapped to fit within the confirmed fund-
ing commitments.
Aschbacher said ESA governments have
endorsed the content of EOEP-5 but it will
be complicated to secure all the necessary
funds. For example, if no other major contrib-
utor joins Belgium for Altius, Belgium likely
will divert resources from EOEP-5.
“Member states have told us we have a
solid program,” Aschbacher said. “But there
is certainly a chance we will not receive 100
percent of what we’re asking for.”
In that case, does he have a Plan B with a
list of which missions to cut?
“No,” Aschbacher said. “If you have a Plan
B, that means your Plan A is dead.”
8 | SPACENEWS 11.21.16
BUILDING SMALLSATS
Space Systems Loral, a company best
known for building geostationary tele-
communications satellites as big as school
buses, is expanding its role in the small
satellite business by offering its assistance — and
that of its parent company MDA Corp. of Can-
ada — to startups.
“No matter what you are trying to do, if it touches
space we can work with you to build a mission,”
Hale Reynolds, Space Systems Loral business de-
velopment director, said Nov. 16 at a Silicon Val-
ley Space Center TechTalk. “We have competency
in any kind of space hardware manufacturing as
well as on the business side and the data-distri-
bution side.”
SSL has contracts to build 21 satellites for low
Earth orbit, including 13 for Google’s Earth-obser-
vation subsidiary Terra Bella, seven for customers
it cannot yet name due to non-disclosure agree-
ments and one for Telesat, the Canadian satellite
communications company planning to build a
constellation of at least 117 satellites to provide
internet access. Six of the satellites SSL cannot
yet discuss are being built for a single customer.
Telesat, which is owned by Loral Space and
Communications of New York and Canada’s PSP
Investments pension fund, awarded contracts in
April to SSL and Britain’s Surrey Satellite Technol-
ogy Limited to each build a single prototype Ka-
band satellite for its planned constellation. The
prototypes are scheduled to launch in 2017.
This is not SSL’s first foray into low Earth or-
bit constellations. MDA purchased SSL from Loral
SSL lends a hand to smallsat startups
in 2012. When it was part of Loral, SSL built more
than 70 satellites for Globalstar, a satellite telephone
network conceived in the 1990s that struggled to
attract investment and filed for Chapter 11 bank-
ruptcy protection in 2002 due in part to the rapid
expansion of cellphone service.
After that experience, there was a bit of reluc-
tance at SSL to embrace low-Earth-orbit constel-
lations, “but lower spacecraft and launch costs
are now allowing more business cases to close,”
Reynolds said.
In 2014, Terra Bella, then called Skybox Im-
aging, hired SSL to build 13 satellites weighing
roughly 100 kilograms to gather high-resolution
still and video imagery from low Earth orbit. Un-
der the terms of the deal, SSL obtained an exclu-
sive license to market the small satellite bus.
Since 2014, SSL has been building small sat-
ellites in a dedicated manufacturing facility at its
Palo Alto headquarters. The firm set up parallel
production lines to speed work on Terra Bella sat-
ellites. Unlike the enormous geostationary tele-
communications satellites that often take years
to design and build because each is unique, SSL
could build some small satellites in a matter of
weeks, Reynolds said.
For a new constellation, SSL might spend “a
number of months” building the first satellite,
“but we can get that down to build-times mea-
sured in weeks if we are pumping out dozens,”
Reynolds said.
In addition to building satellites under fixed-
price contracts with defined delivery schedules, SSL
is offering to help startups acquire Federal Com-
munications Commission and National Oceanic
From technical assistance to access to financing, a satellite shop sets itself up as smallsat one-stop
DEBRA WERNER
SPACENEWS.COM | 9
SSL
ARTI
ST’S
CO
NCE
PT
and Atmospheric Administration licenses, find
launch vehicles and financing, navigate the U.S.
regulatory process, operate satellites in orbit and
sell Earth-observation data.
“If, for example, you are interested in an Earth-ob-
servation mission, we have groups that can help
with ground systems, satellite operations, data
downlink, production and distribution,” Reyn-
olds said. SSL has access to a global network of
resellers for space-based remote-sensing data
and ties to the U.S. government agencies that buy
data, he added.
Through its parent company, SSL also can help
startups access financing through Export Devel-
opment Canada, an important advantage since
the U.S. Export-Import Bank cannot currently
approve loans of more than $10 million because
Congress has blocked nominees from joining the
bank’s board, which prevents the quorum the bank
board needs to approve large loans.
“Often startups have great ideas and interesting
business cases but they need a proven company to
stand behind their concepts and demonstrate their
feasibility and manufacturability to equity and debt
financiers,” Reynolds said. “SSL is accustomed to
helping startups attract financing this way.”
For example, SSL supported Terra Bella’s busi-
ness plan before the company, then known as
Skybox Imaging, was purchased in 2014 by Goo-
gle, SSL spokeswoman Wendy Lewis said. MDA
also helped San Francisco-based Earth-observa-
tion constellation operator Planet with business
planning as part of its role as prime contractor
for the RapidEye mission, she added. In 2015,
Planet acquired Berlin-based BlackBridge and
its five-satellite RapidEye medium-resolution
imaging satellites.
Most startups have set their sites on low Earth
orbit, but SSL also is offering transportation to
companies planning to send spacecraft into more
distant orbits. “Our large geostationary telecom-
munication satellites are so big that we actually
have extra capacity,” Reynolds said.
“If you have a small satellite you want to go to
geostationary orbit or geostationary transfer orbit,
we can host you as a rideshare out to those areas
and then deploy your spacecraft.”
Four of the 13 SkySats that SSL is building for Terra Bella launched in September on
an Arianespace Vega rocket.
SPAC
EX
SPACENEWS.COM | 11
and commercial space stations. The
Outer Space Treaty requires the U.S.
government to provide “authorization
and continuing supervision” of space
activities, but no agency has clear au-
thority today to handle those non-tra-
ditional missions.
Jim Muncy of PoliSpace suggested
the new administration take a light-
touch approach to such oversight except
in cases where those missions might
interfere with other activities. “People
who are launching satellite refurbish-
ment or other things that are going to
be in the busier areas of low Earth orbit
or geosynchronous orbit should have
a slightly more muscular” regulation,
he said. “But if you’re going beyond
Earth orbit, it could be just a registry.”
Others hope that regulatory reform,
one overall policy theme from the Trump
campaign, is also applied to commer-
cial space. “It is time to modernize and
upgrade regulations” in areas like com-
mercial remote sensing, said Courtney
Stadd, who dealt with space policy at
the White House and several agencies
and now works for TIP Technologies.
Caryn Schenewerk, senior counsel
and director of government affairs at
SpaceX, agreed, saying that any effort
The commercial space indus-
try hopes the administration
of U.S. President-elect Don-
ald Trump pursues regulatory
reforms and continues existing efforts
to support the industry’s growth.
A panel at the Spacecom conference
Nov. 16 in Houston offered a wish list
of issues they hope the next adminis-
tration addresses in the next two years,
largely following ongoing discussion
on topics such as regulatory oversight
of new commercial space activities and
space traffic management.
George Nield, associate administra-
tor for commercial space transportation
at the Federal Aviation Administration,
said a major issue for him was shifting
space traffic management work from
the U.S. Air Force to a civil agency such
as his. “That would focus on enhancing
the safety of space operations and pre-
serving the space environment,” he said.
A recent report prepared by the De-
partment of Transportation at the re-
quest of Congress concluded that it
would be feasible to hand over safe-
ty-related space situational awareness
work for non-military satellites to the
FAA. The agency also held an indus-
try day in October to discuss how that
transition might take place, provided
both the administration and Congress
approved that shift.
Another current issue the industry
hopes the new administration will take
up is oversight of so-called “non-tra-
ditional” commercial space activities,
such as lunar landers, satellite servicing
to update regulations is a long-term
process that should start sooner rather
than later. “If we don’t start that process
today, every day we don’t start it is a day
longer that companies are trying to fit
square pegs into round holes,” she said.
A related issue, she said, was ensur-
ing FAA’s commercial space transpor-
tation office, whose budget is less than
$20 million a year, has sufficient re-
sources to oversee the industry without
delaying launches and related activi-
ties. “I plan on spending some of my
time explaining to people in D.C. why
Dr. Nield’s team needs increased re-
sources to undertake these activities,”
she said.
While some seek reforms and new ini-
tiatives, others want the new administra-
tion to maintain current efforts in other
areas, such as government partnerships.
Chad Brinkley, a business development
executive with NanoRacks, noted his
company has benefited from Space Act
Agreements with NASA regarding use of
the International Space Station.
“What we’re hoping to see going
forward in the new administration is
continuing that trend,” he said, such
as greater commercial use of the sta-
tion.
REGULATORY REFORM
What NewSpace wants from President-elect Trump
JEFF FOUST
“If we don’t start that process today, every day we don’t start it is a day longer that companies are trying to fit square pegs into round holes.”
CARYN SCHENEWERK, SPACEX SENIOR COUNSEL
AND DIRECTOR OF GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS
12 | SPACENEWS 11.21.16
NAS
A
MAKE THE MOON GREAT AGAIN
beat Dewey in 1948.
For scientists and other ad-
vocates of lunar exploration,
the moon appears closer than
it has in years in a different
way. A change in presiden-
tial administrations is giving
them new hope that the moon
will become more prominent
in NASA’s human exploration
plans, and that the govern-
ment will support commer-
cial lunar efforts as well.
“It’s an important time,
given what’s going on in the
United States right now,” said
Clive Neal, a University of
Notre Dame planetary sci-
entist who chairs the Lunar
Exploration Advisory Group
(LEAG), at the group’s annual
meeting Nov. 1 — a week be-
fore Election Day — in Co-
lumbia, Maryland.
“We need to start putting
rubber to the road” by demon-
strating the interest in, and
capabilities for, lunar explo-
ration, he said. “We’ve been
there — Buzz [Aldrin] has been
there — but we certainly ha-
ven’t done that.”
That deliberately echoed
President Barack Obama’s
famous “been there, done
that” dismissal of the moon
as a destination for human
spaceflight. “I understand that
some believe that we should
attempt a return to the sur-
face of the moon first, as pre-
viously planned,” he said in an
April 2010 speech at the Ken-
nedy Space Center to discuss
his space exploration plans.
On Nov. 14, the
public celebrated
the “supermoon,”
an astronomincal
phenomenon where the full
moon appears a little bigger
and brighter than usual be-
cause it is slightly closer to
the Earth.
This supermoon received
extra attention because it
was the closest the moon
has been to since Truman
Back to the moon, again?
JEFF FOUST
For lunar exploration advocates, the moon appears closer now than at any time since Obama took office
“But I just have to say pretty
bluntly here: We’ve been there
before. Buzz has been there.”
That speech, and the pas-
sage of a NASA authorization
bill six months later, brought
an end to NASA’s plans for a
human return to the moon
announced by President
George W. Bush in 2004. But
even before the outcome of
the 2016 election, many at the
LEAG meeting were hoping
that the next administration
would stoke renewed interest
in lunar exploration.
Follow the water In preparation of a potential
transition, some have been
dusting off and updating their
concepts. In 2011, Paul Spu-
dis of the Lunar and Planetary
Institute and Tony Lavoie of
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight
Center published a proposal
to create a base at the lunar
poles. That base would be
developed by robotic space-
craft to later support human
crews, while mining water
ice to turn into propellant for
use both to support the base
and for other applications.
At the LEAG meeting,
Spudis presented an up-
dated version of that plan.
The original plan made use
of only commercial launch
vehicles, like the Atlas 5; the
revised version uses NASA’s
still-in-development Space
Launch System heavy-lift
SPACENEWS.COM | 13
“Personally, I think going to the moon as part of an extended presence in space is vital. It’s a destination just a few days away where we’ll learn a lot about humans being able to live in an extremely hostile environment.”
ROBERT WALKER, TRUMP SPACE POLICY ADVISERWEX
LER
WAL
KER
rocket for carrying heavier
payloads to the lunar sur-
face. Commercial crew ve-
hicles would carry crews into
low Earth orbit, with reusable
spacecraft ferrying them, and
cargo, to lunar orbit and then
to the surface.
The new approach costs
effectively the same as the
previous one: $88 billion
over 16 years, versus $87 bil-
lion of the original plan. “We
hope to get leverage from
both international partners
and commercial partners,”
he said, with those partners
contributing components
that cover $16 billion of that
overall cost.
The base would produce
propellant that could be used
to support various activi-
ties in cislunar space. “Ef-
fectively, we’re focusing on
benefits, real payback rather
than public excitement,”
Spudis said, contrasting his
strategy with NASA’s Mars
exploration plans, which
he believes are not sustain-
able with projected budgets.
“Effectively, you’re going to
dream about a manned Mars
mission forever, and you’re
never going to do it.”
Spudis’ proposal, and other
concepts that make use of
water-ice deposits on the
moon, require first finding
those deposits and determin-
ing how feasible it is to mine
them. NASA has quietly been
working on one such mis-
sion: Resource Prospector
(RP), a 300-kilogram rover
that would launch in 2020
to land at the lunar poles and
look for water-ice deposits
in parts of craters that are in
permanent shadow.
The mission, funded
through the Advanced Ex-
ploration Systems division
of NASA’s human explora-
tion and operations director-
ate, has been making steady
progress, and is on track for a
system requirements review
in 2017, said Tony Colaprete
of NASA’s Ames Research
Center at the LEAG meeting.
“We’re really getting into the
nit and grit” of mission plan-
ning, he said.
The $250 million Resource
Pathfinder could play a key
role in determining the fea-
sibility of mission concepts
that require use of lunar
water. “It’s about under-
standing whether or not it’s
economical,” Colaprete said.
“That’s ultimately what RP is
all about.”
Spudis agreed. “We’re at a
level of nearly complete ig-
norance as to the nature of
the polar deposits,” he said. “I
look at Resource Prospector as
the first dart on the dartboard.
It’s going to give us a first-or-
der answer to some of the big
questions, but it’s not by any
means going to be the only
mission we need.”
Making the moon great againAt the LEAG meeting, attend-
ees hoped that whoever won
the presidential election, he
or she would give more at-
tention to lunar exploration.
Many, though, expected a cer-
tain outcome. “There’s been
very little talk about space
and space policy, but with
the potential for this country
to elect its first female pres-
ident,” Neal said, “it begs the
question to ask that first fe-
male president who will be
the first woman to walk on
the moon.”
With Donald Trump’s vic-
tory a week after the LEAG
meeting, that question will
be put on hold indefinitely.
Instead, the space commu-
nity is trying to determine
how a return to the moon
might fit into a Trump ad-
ministration space policy.
The policy statements the
Trump campaign issued in
the weeks prior to the elec-
tion made no explicit men-
tion of the moon — or of Mars,
for that matter — instead en-
dorsing a renewed emphasis
on human space exploration
in general. However, Robert
Walker, the space policy ad-
viser to the Trump campaign,
did indicate that, at least in
14 | SPACENEWS 11.21.16
“From the discovery of water ice on the moon until this day, the
American objective should have been a permanent outpost of rovers and
machines at the poles with occasional manned missions for science and
maintenance.”U.S. REP. JIM BRIDENSTINE (R-OKLA.)
SPAC
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SPACENEWS.COM | 15
his opinion, going back to
the moon made sense.
“Personally, I think going
to the moon as part of an ex-
tended presence in space is
vital,” he said at an Oct. 26
meeting of the Federal Avi-
ation Administration’s Com-
mercial Space Transportation
Advisory Committee. “It’s a
destination just a few days
away where we’ll learn a lot
about humans being able to
live in an extremely hostile
environment.”
As it turned out, one of the
speakers at the LEAG meet-
ing was someone who could
have considerable influence
on a decision for a human re-
turn to the moon. U.S. Rep.
Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.)
gave a keynote speech at
the meeting, touching upon
issues of lunar exploration,
including the discovery of
lunar water ice.
“This single discovery
should have immediately
transformed America’s space
program,” he said, citing its
use both to support crews
and as propellant. “From the
discovery of water ice on
the moon until this day, the
American objective should
have been a permanent out-
post of rovers and machines
Playing the NASA administrator name gameHere’s a quick rundown of some of the names making the rounds as NASA administrator candidates under Trump:JIM BRIDENSTINEBridenstine has been active on space issues since fi rst being elected to the House of Representatives in 2012, serving on the House Science Committee and House Armed Services Committee. Those posts have given him a voice on both civil and national security space policy issues. He is best known for the introduction in April of the American Space Renaissance Act, a comprehensive space policy bill that covered topics in national security, civil and commercial space. The bill was designed to provide what he called a “holistic” approach to space policy, rather that treating those topics separately.
EILEEN COLLINSAnother name circulated as a potential candidate for the job is former astronaut Eileen Collins, who spoke briefl y at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland July but stopped short of formally endorsing Trump. Collins, in that speech, said that the nation needed “leadership that will make America’s space program fi rst again.”
MIKE GRIFFINWould Mike Gri� n, who served as NASA administrator under President George W. Bush, be willing to reprise that role under President Trump? Washington insiders say Gri� n, who earlier in his career worked for the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization and ran the CIA-backed venture capital fund In-Q-Tel, is being considered — along with Bridenstine — for Secretary of the Air Force. NASA administrator could make a nice consolation prize for either one.
Here are a few tongue-in-cheek suggestions of our own:ELLIOT PULHAMThe former Space Foundation boss is such a hard-core Trump supporter he may have been fi red for it. Pulham’s only problem is that he’d take big cut in pay and would look askance at having to travel on less than Air Force One.
IGOR KOMAROVWith Trump’s belief that the Russians do everything better than the U.S., the the head of Roscosmos would be ideal, except for the fact that he doesn’t speak English and has a Russian passport.
PETER THIELTrump’s biggest fi nancial backer is a spacenut and FOE (friend of Elon), but SpaceNews would be reluctant to report on him given his proclivity to sue media into bankruptcy over unfavorable ink.
HILLARY CLINTONOn the Lincolnesque theory of keeping your enemies close, Obama employed her as Secretary of State. Clinton certainly has the management chops for the job, but Trump would probably rather send her on a one-way trip to Mars.
at the poles with occasional
manned missions for science
and maintenance.”
Bridenstine was invited
to speak at LEAG because
of his space policy work in
the House, including ef-
forts to clear up regulatory
issues regarding commer-
cial lunar missions (he was
introduced by Bob Richards,
chief executive of Moon Ex-
press, one company work-
ing on lunar landers). But
a little over a week later,
Bridenstine emerged as a
leading, if early, candidate
to be NASA administrator in
the Trump administration,
which could give his views
about the moon more prom-
inence as a Trump adminis-
tration space policy slowly
takes shape.
At the conclusion of his
LEAG speech, Bridenstine
called the risks facing the
United States in space, from
growing orbital debris to
potential threats by China,
a “Sputnik moment” for the
nation that lunar explora-
tion and resources could
help solve. “America must
forever be the preeminent
spacefaring nation, and the
moon is our path to being
so,” he concluded.
16 | SPACENEWS 11.21.16
SPAC
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ALEB
HEN
RY
4TELECOM WISH LIST
“U.S. competitiveness should be
highlighted in the form of a full board
of directors at the Ex-Im Bank,” said
David Logsdon, executive director of
the CompTIA Space Enterprise Council,
a Washington trade group representing
companies involved in commercial, civil
and national security space.
The Ex-Im Bank needs only one
additional board member to meet
the required three-member quorum
U.S. President-elect Donald
Trump’s objectives for
his first 100 days include
shaping trade policy, boosting
investment in U.S. infrastructure, and
expanding military investment. While
space is not specifically mentioned in
these plans, actions taken in the early
days of the new administration will very
likely have an impact on the industry
further down the line.
The satellite telecommunications
industry also has hopes for what the
Trump administration will do once it
focuses on this sector.
Based on interviews with several
industry officials, SpaceNews compiled
the top four wants the satellite industry
has for the next four years.
1. FULL RESTORATION OF EX-IM BANK
Congress reauthorized the Export-Import
Bank of the United States’ charter in
December 2015 following a five-month
lapse during which it couldn’t issue new
loans. However, the export credit agency
still isn’t in a position to finance new
satellite deals. That’s because three of
the five seats on its board of directors
are currently vacant. Without a quorum,
Ex-Im cannot vote to approve new deals
valued at more than $10 million.
The U.S. Export-Import Bank hasn’t been able to finance new satellite deals for more than a year.
satellite-industry hopes for the Trump administration
for approving new, big-ticket deals.
Senate Banking Committee Chairman
Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), who opposes
export-credit financing as a form of
corporate welfare, has been blocking
Obama administration nominee Mark
McWatters, a former staffer for the
Republican-led House Financial Services
Committee, since January. Shelby, who
was re-elected Nov. 8 to a sixth term
in the Senate, could continue to be a
roadblock under Trump.
The satellite industry, however, CALEB HENRY
SPACENEWS.COM | 17
hopes the Trump administration, with its promise
to promote domestic manufacturing, will find a
way around Shelby and restore the bank’s ability
to support satellite and launch projects.
“Supporting a full board of directors at the
Export-Import Bank would put U.S. manufacturers
on more-even ground, giving [customer from]
other nations access to upfront satellite costs
that would be built in the U.S.,” said Tom Stroup,
president of the Satellite Industry Association,
which advocates on behalf of U.S. satellite operators,
service providers and their suppliers
According to the Aerospace Industries Asso-
ciation — the Arlington, Virginia-based trade
group representing roughly 300 major aerospace
and defense companies and their suppliers — the
Ex-Im Bank provided more than $900 million in
financing to the satellite and launch sectors in 2014.
“That has completely gone away,” said Frank
Slazer, AIA’s vice president of space systems.
Slazer said critics of Ex-Im often refer to export
credit financing as a dilution of free-market
principles. However, other nations, notably France
and China have export credit agencies of their
own that continue to finance satellite projects.
Canada-based MDA Corp. has also leveraged its
home country in order to use Export Development
Canada for support of its U.S.-based manufacturer
Space Systems Loral. Multiple satellite orders with U.S.
manufacturers remain stalled, with manufacturers
citing the lack of export-credit-agency funding
as the principal reason.
“It’s a small industrial base,” said Slazer. “We are
not talking about the automotive industry; these
are serious sales and serious impacts. Also, Ex-Im
makes money. It’s been a contributor to the bottom
line for the U.S. government. If people want to get
rid of export financing’s impact on the economy,
we should come up with a treaty and get rid of
them around the world, not unilaterally disarm.
That’s just crazy.”
2. MORE ITAR REFORM
The satellite industry wants still-looser regulations
when it comes to exporting space-related tech-
nologies to other countries. Industry has regularly
complained that widely available technologies
are still being classified as weaponry under the
United States Munitions List, even though other
countries have long since developed the ability to
produce the same items on their own.
Reforms to the International Traffic in Arms
Regulations (ITAR), which dictate what can and
cannot be sold to other nations, eased the rules for
36 countries in 2014, but the effects of ITAR remain
strongly felt in the U.S. and around the world.
“The satellite industry needs regulatory agility
— predictable and supportive regulations and
licensing that encourage growth of the U.S.
satellite industry and attracts investment in new
technologies and applications — all the while
ensuring space is a safe and secure environment
The Obama administration shifted export licensing for most — but not all — satellites and satellite components back to the U.S. Department of Commerce.
CREA
TIVE
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18 | SPACENEWS 11.21.16
in which to operate,” said SIA’s Stroup.
AIA’s Slazer pointed to electric-propulsion
systems as an example of a technology that
once seemed appropriate to have on ITAR, but
no longer deserves such treatment.
“Back in 1998, that was cutting edge. But now
it’s available globally commercially. It makes no
sense to have that classified as weapons-related,”
he said.
Slazer said it has been almost two-and-a-half
years since AIA submitted a list of ITAR-black-
listed technologies for reevaluation. The Obama
administration could still evaluate these claims
before Obama leaves office Jan. 20. If it doesn’t,
further ITAR reform will be up to the Trump
administration.
3. SAVE SPECTRUM FOR SATELLITES
Federal Communications Commission Chairman
Tom Wheeler, who told the satellite industry last
winter to get used to the idea of sharing Ka-band
spectrum with future terrestrial wireless providers,
didn’t exactly smooth things over this summer
when he warned the industry not to publicly
criticize the FCC’s decision to open up some
of that spectrum to 5G services.
Wheeler, a Senate-confirmed Obama appointee
holding an especially plum position, is almost
certain to be replaced when Trump comes to town.
David Hartshorn, secretary general of the
London- and Washington-based Global VSAT
Forum, said the incoming Trump administration
should know the satellite industry wants to bury
the hatchet from last year’s World Radiocom-
munication Conference (WRC-15), where the
wireless and satellite industries fought fiercely
over spectrum rights.
“We’ve said this many times before, and
now we will need to say it again to the Trump
administration: it is not our intent to detract
from the success of the wireless industry. On
the contrary, they are one of our most important
users, and we look forward to working as
partners to enable the broader introduction
of 5G through, among other means, satellite
backhaul,” said Hartshorn.
Wheeler’s blunt comments to the satellite
industry in March that it would be “far more
practical to get on the [5G] train than to be run
over by it,” were made in response to the satellite
industry’s oppositional stance at WRC-15. Aarti
Holla-Maini, secretary general of the EMEA
Satellite Operators Association — a Brussels-based
trade group representing operators in Europe,
the Middle East and Africa — said it is important
to see how commissioners at the FCC will treat
satellite businesses in the future. Current ongoing
matters, such as the Spectrum Frontiers Notice
of Proposed Rule-Making, which could cede
satellite industry spectrum to mobile network
operators for the upcoming 5G standard, will
unfold during Trump’s four-year term.
“So far, the U.S. has decided to go its own
path and identify for 5G frequency bands that
the [International Telecommunication Union]
made clear were not available for such purposes
on a worldwide basis,” said Holla-Maini. “How
the incoming Trump administration will decide
to proceed in its preparation towards WRC-19
on the selection of 5G bands will be of great
interest to the satellite industry.”
4. DON’T FORGET ABOUT THE SATELLITE INDUSTRY
That the Trump administration simply remembers
the satellite industry outside of just military or
civil space applications is essential to making
sure all other policy objectives don’t fall by the
wayside, industry representatives said.
Along with access to export credit, further
export reform and enough spectrum to do
business, industry representatives said satel-
lite communications providers also want to be
assured a seat at the table when the Trump ad-
ministration makes plans to address U.S. tele-
com needs.
“Under the Trump administration, there is
bound to be a large infrastructure stimulus
package,” said the CompTIA Space Enterprise
Council’s Logsdon. “Broadband connectivity
provided to the infrastructure industries in
the remote [and] rural areas will be essential.
Much of that connectivity can be provided
by the satellite industry. It will be essential
that the Trump administration capitalizes on
the unique attributes of satellite broadband
connectivity.”
Holla-Maini of the EMEA Satellite Operators
Association said the worldwide satellite industry
will also be watching for how much emphasis
is put on international collaboration, given the
global nature of satellite technology.
“We look forward to working with the Trump
administration on implementing policies that
are technology neutral, advance connectivity
to the entire nation, and results in innovative,
high-quality broadband services as well as the
supporting the future growth of the U.S. space
industry sector,” she said.
“How the incoming
Trump administration
will decide to proceed in its
preparation towards
WRC-19 on the selection
of 5G bands will be of great
interest to the satellite
industry.”CR
EATI
VE C
OM
MO
NS
SPACENEWS.COM | 19
A transition vet offers tips to Trump’s NASA transition team
At the time of publication, there were conflict-
ing reports on whether or when there will be a
NASA transition team and, if so, how many in-
dividuals will compose such a team. On the
assumption that some sort of “landing party” —
however structured or short-lived — eventually
is assigned to the agency, the following unso-
licited advice is offered.
Dear NASA transition team member:
I have no doubt you are feeling
elated at playing a part in history,
while feeling profoundly stressed
with so much to do in so little time.
I can relate.
After the hotly contested 2000 race, I was
honored to lead George W. Bush’s NASA transition
team. I remember the excitement of playing a
role, however modest, in laying the foundation
for a new president and his team. Remember
as you enter NASA Headquarters, the political
leadership and the civil servants will be taking your
measure just as much as you will be measuring
them. And if you have ambitions to work in the
new administration, the added stress comes from
knowing that your performance is equivalent to
a very intense job interview.
My own experience was overall positive. With
very few exceptions, NASA officials and support
staff worked with us in the spirit of doing what
was right for the country. With that said, I am
hopeful your team will include someone with
appropriate inside knowledge of the agency. If
not, you are vulnerable to numerous ways the
system can hide issues that should be known
upfront to the new team. For example, it was
several months before NASA officials volun-
teered details on an internal space exploration
initiative that had been developed without the
knowledge of the previous administration. They
were afraid premature disclosure would lead
to its termination. It was a program worthy of
support. If we’d been briefed earlier, we could
have provided greater support for it.
It is a heady time. After filling out the paper-
work to get the necessary temporary clearances
and other personnel-related administrivia
and receiving the marching orders from the
transition leadership on the major policy
themes they want emphasized, you and your
comrades-in-arms are now set to pay your
initial visits to the agency.
RUMOR MILLS AND SUDDEN FRIENDSYou will also be subject to many rumors.
Information is power in D.C. Any tidbit of
information, no matter how trivial, is worth
something to the consultants, lobbyists,
journalists, bloggers, and self-appointed social
media space policy mavens who are constantly
trying to demonstrate their inside knowledge.
And many people with an interest in the issues
within your portfolio are not beyond greatly
exaggerating their level of access.
I’ve lived and worked in the nation’s capital
for 40 years and can attest to the hypocrisy that
has always been a growth industry within the
Beltway. But I have to say that in the wake of
this election, I have never seen anything like
the hypocrisy among the political class. The
very people who disdained Donald Trump on
the Monday before the election were currying
for political favor within 24 hours of Hillary
Clinton’s concession phone call. By now, I am
sure you have discovered many “friends” you
never knew existed the day before the election.
Information is power in D.C.
Any tidbit of information,
no matter how trivial, is worth
something to the
consultants, lobbyists,
journalists, bloggers, and
self-appointed social media space-policy
mavens constantly
trying to demonstrate
their inside knowledge.
COMMENTARY Courtney Stadd
20 | SPACENEWS 11.21.16
DRINKING FROM THE FIRE HYDRANTThe other phenomenon you will experience is
that your world suddenly becomes very narrow.
While there will be much speculation on your
team’s activities by blog sites, trade publications,
general press and rumor mongering, you and
your team will be blissfully oblivious to it all. You
are tasked with a momentous job: drinking from
a fire hydrant of information from the agency,
along with other high-pressure streams from
Congress, industry and academia. Believe me,
between the schedule pressures imposed on you
by the president-elect’s team and coming up to
speed on the agency’s policy, programmatic,
budgetary, and personnel challenges, you
will have no time to absorb what uninformed
outsiders are saying.
When you come to NASA, you and your team
will be assigned a location at NASA Headquar-
ters, which will become your transition office
for processing agency materials and meeting
with your team and select agency officials. I
recommend you choose to meet officials in
their offices and treat the transition office as a
hide-away for the team to collect its thoughts
and lay out future plans.
Bureaucracies relish process and paperwork,
so prepare yourself to be offered a lovely set
of tabbed notebooks (in physical or electronic
form). These will include background on all
the major programs, position descriptions of
all senior officials at HQ and the field centers,
budget history and out-year projections. It is
worth poring through, but don’t forget the
notebooks represent what the bureaucracy and
the outgoing administration want you and the
new administration to see.
As useful as these materials may be, the
personal discussions with NASA Administrator
Charlie Bolden, his senior staff, and the asso-
ciate and assistant administrators will be the
most insightful in terms of highlighting the
challenges that lay in wait. Bolden is gracious
and hospitable and has no doubt instructed his
staff to put aside personal views and to be as
forthcoming and cooperative as possible. Also,
you’d be wise to talk to project-level people to
get a feel for operations and culture. Most will be
genuinely interested in assisting the new team.
You will also want to do what I and my tran-
sition team colleague, Scott Pace, did which was
walk around headquarters unaccompanied for
informal chats with NASA employees. You will
likely pick up useful nuggets that may provide
additional “color” and insight into what you
are hearing from the administrator’s ninth
floor offices. These informal chats will also
give you and the team a sense of the morale
in the agency as the civil servants anxiously
await major leadership changes.
PERSONNEL MATTERSOne of the most salient challenges you will
be facing will be recruiting talented personnel
to fill the senior political ranks of the agency.
In NASA’s case, there are only a handful
of political positions to fill. This entails the
Senate-confirmed positions (Administrator,
Deputy Administrator, Chief Financial Officer,
Inspector General) and seven or so Schedule
C, or non-Senate-confirmed positions. Most
of NASA’s senior positions are non-political
and there are specific statutes and regulations
governing the career Senior Executive Service
ranks during a political transition. Because
NASA’s pool of political appointees is small
compared to other agencies, it means that
who you select to fill those positions to carry
out the new president’s policies is all the
more critical.
President-elect Trump is also the first modern
president to come to office beholden to so few
campaign loyalists looking for jobs. That means
that the administration will be less constrained
in reaching out to new sources for talent. Fur-
thermore, the political reality is that given the
nature of the Senate confirmation process, it
is likely that President Trump will not have his
new administrator named and confirmed before
spring. That means the transition team will be
suggesting a Schedule C (likely a member of
the transition team), combined with an Obama
hold-over or non-career SES as acting NASA
administrator, to manage the agency between
Inauguration Day and when the new boss enters
headquarters.
Because NASA’s pool of political
appointees is small compared
to other agencies, it
means that who you select to fill those positions
to carry-out the new president’s
policies is all the more critical.
SPACENEWS.COM | 21
THE VETTING PROCESSHaving experienced the transition of two NASA
administrators, the challenge of finding the
right person to serve is not trivial. If you opt
for a talented business executive, it’s easy to
tantalize them with the prospect of running
the world’s preeminent space agency. But the
fantasy usually falls flat as they contemplate the
torture of filling out reams of confirmation-related
paperwork. Depending on the complexity of their
finances and background, they will have to hire
a pricey law firm to assist them. FBI field agents
will canvass their neighbors and colleagues to
ensure that what has been stated on the forms
aligns with what others have to say about them.
If the nominee survives those vetting stages,
they then have to deal with the “joy” of the
Senate confirmation process, which has its
own detailed questionnaires that the nominee
or their attorneys will need to complete (They
will need the attorneys to ensure that they
are not inadvertently perjuring themselves).
And if they manage to survive that process
they can expect the added joy of having
twenty-something-year -old staffers doing
a deep dive into their documents, as well as
anything and everything that has ever been
written or said about them. If they have lived
a full and interesting life, they have probably
said or done some things that may qualify
as dumb or slightly embarrassing. If they’ve
forgotten about any of that, they need not fret.
Believe me, a Senate staffer will eventually
find it. And depending on the political agenda
of the chairman and ranking member of the
Senate Commerce Committee, which conducts
confirmation hearings for NASA nominees,
or the desire of anonymous staff sources to
make mischief, be assured the embarrassing
disclosure will become public.
This is why finding anyone willing to make
the leap from industry to life in public service
can be challenging.
Your job is not to recruit talent, but the tran-
sition team will be asked to define the criteria
for the administrator candidates that the White
House should consider. That is where you should
lay out the range of political, administrative and
technical skills that an administrator should
possess. If such skills cannot be found in one
person, it is important to suggest how the
division of skills might be allocated between
the administrator and the deputy.
As a former staffer of the National Space
Council, I am pleased to hear that the incom-
ing administration wants to re-establish it
under the leadership of Vice President-elect
Mike Pence. You would be doing him and the
future council staff a great service by identi-
fying those strategic space issues that need
attention. One of those issues is the need to
have an interagency understanding of how
NASA’s Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket
can be deployed as both a civil and military
asset. I am also hearing informal talk among
those who claim to be close to the vice presi-
dent-elect about potential interest in a review
regarding whether and how NASA can achieve
efficiencies and cost savings through closing
or consolidating certain NASA field centers.
The issue of closing down or privatizing some
centers crops up every few years. If your team
ultimately decides to recommend that issue for
consideration, you need to be sure that the pros
and cons are thoroughly assessed and that the
administration is prepared for the inevitable
political backlash.
In the commercial space sector, the in-
coming administration is the beneficiary of
decades of effective pro-commercial space
policies and regulations. Although there are
areas that need urgent improvements (e.g.
modernizing licensing procedures governing
commercial satellite imagery), the space
industry needs to be assured, sooner than
later, that the new administration will build
on its predecessor’s commitment to a robust
private space industry.
On behalf of those of us, regardless of
political affiliation, who believe in strong
American civil and commercial space sectors,
we are all vested in your success.
COURTNEY A. STADD WAS HEAD OF GEORGE W.
BUSH’S NASA TRANSITION TEAM. HE IS CURRENTLY AN
AEROSPACE MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT.
Although there are areas that need urgent improvements,the space industry needs to be assured … that the Trump administration will build on its predecessor’s commitment to a robust private space industry.
NAS
A/BI
LL IN
GAL
LS
22 | SPACENEWS 11.21.16
MY TAKE Jim Muncy
WHILE NASA AND THE AIR FORCE STILL
dominate federal spending on space
activities, the growing importance of
public-private partnerships and the ex-
plosion of business-to-business space
commerce are creating an outsized role
for the small regulatory and promotional
agencies inside the Departments of
Transportation and Commerce.
While U.S. President-elect Donald
Trump will likely submit his proposed
cabinet-level secretaries of those depart-
ments within a few weeks, the question is
whether those secretaries and their early
hires as undersecretaries and Schedule
C positions will even know that among
their statutory responsibilities is licens-
ing and promoting vital segments of the
U.S. commercial space industry. And that
those responsibilities are carried out by
civil servants (frequently on an acting
basis in commerce’s case) buried sev-
eral layers inside one of the many agen-
cies under their jurisdiction.
That suggests that America’s national
security reliance on commercial space
communications, overhead imagery,
and launch services — plus our civil-
ian exploration and scientific missions
in space — are all further dependent on
three tiny offices inside Commerce and
Transportation, plus the Satellite Divi-
sion of the International Bureau of the
independent Federal Communications
Commission. So getting value for the
taxpayer from over $40 billion in fed-
eral space investments depends in part
on the effectiveness and productivity
of less than $30 million to $40 million
in regulatory and promotional offices.
Space transitions aren’t just about NASA anymore
Of course, the global commercial space
marketplace is nearly 10 times larger
than U.S. government space spending.
Presumably, ensuring U.S. commer-
cial providers have a streamlined path
to compete for a share of $400 billion is
of some economic relevance to the na-
tion… and even minor political consid-
erations like job creation.
Among these critical small offices,
perhaps best known is the Federal Avi-
ation Administration’s Office of Com-
mercial Space Transportation. FAA/AST
has seen a marked growth in budget and
staffing as well as extraordinary pub-
lic discussion of expanded authority
in recent years. That’s partly driven by
increasing launch activity, including
SpaceX, Orbital ATK, and soon many
others winning back launch market
and resuplying the International Space
Station. But it is also a reflection of both
new space applications (satellite servic-
ing, on-orbit manufacturing) and new
approaches to existing applications
(remote sensing and big LEO internet
constellations) that are collectively en-
abled by cheaper and more plentiful
launch capabilities.
While AST’s total resources have in-
creased (to nearly $25 million in the 2017
budget), so has its workload, with much
more ahead of them. AST’s launch reg-
ulations, for example, reflect primarily
The FAA’s office of Commercial Space Transportation licenses all commercial U.S. launches, including the cargo missions Orbital ATK and SpaceX fly to the Internatonal Space Station on NASA’s behalf.
SPACENEWS.COM | 23
the ICBM-heritage expendable launch
vehicles of the 1990s. As U.S. commercial
launch rates increase from a dozen or
so a year to a hundred and more, many
carrying not one but perhaps dozens of
payloads, the current licensing process
will grind to a halt. Old process-based
rules will need to be replaced with stream-
lined performance-based ones, and that
will require an increase in both technical
and legal expertise at AST to understand
the latest technologies and operational
realities of industry.
But the reality is that AST, which
rests uneasily next to the leviathan air
safety, air traffic, and airports offices in-
side the FAA, isn’t in a position to con-
trol its own destiny. So it will be critical
that the new Secretary of Transportation
vest some of his or her political capital
in AST, perhaps dual-hatting the As-
sociate Administrator for Commercial
Space Transportation as an Assistant
Secretary of Transportation. Ideally, it
will mean restoring AST as a direct re-
port to the Secretary, eventually as its
own modal agency.
The Commerce Secretary’s role in
commercial space is no less critical, but
is much less visible, focused or funded
than Transportation’s. The Office of
Commercial Remote Sensing Regula-
tory Affairs, which oversees space-based
collection of geospatial data under a law
and regulations codified at the tail end
of the Cold War, has about four people
and no permanent director to process
a flood of applications for remote sens-
ing constellations. The Office of Space
Commerce, whose roots go back to the
Reagan administration, has languished
without a director for over eight years.
Yet it has the job of hosting the govern-
ment’s Space-Based Position, Navigation
and Timing National Executive Com-
mittee, as well as promotion of remote
sensing and other issues. Additionally,
there are some heroic individuals that
serve in export promotion and export
control agencies within Commerce.
Both of these offices, though, are bur-
ied within NOAA’s National Environ-
mental Satellite, Data, and Information
Service. That’s right, the organizations
responsible for promoting and regulating
commercial remote sensing are beholden
to the organization that buys and oper-
ates its own environmental satellites and
gives away the data.
Fortunately, in its last budget pro-
posal the Obama administration finally
increased the funding for both of these
offices … to a whopping $2 million each.
So once an omnibus appropriation is
passed next spring, the new Secretary
of Commerce will be able to combine
them together, and move them up to
at least the office of the Undersecre-
tary for Oceans and Atmosphere, and
charter them with leading an aggres-
sive department-wide space business
promotion agenda.
The Trump administration should
model its organization of space policy
on lessons from the Reagan and first
Bush administrations. Commerce and
Transportation need to play a revitalized
role, as they did in the 1980s and 1990s,
in influencing space launch, human
spaceflight, and remote sensing poli-
cies — sometimes over the objections
of NASA or the Department of Defense.
And restoring the National Space Council,
which Vice President-elect Mike Pence
committed to when he spoke at a space
coast rally in Floriday a few weeks ago,
will help harness all U.S. space agencies
(and their investments), large and small,
to pursue our national space agenda.
JIM MUNCY IS A FORMER CONGRESSIONAL
STAFFER AND PRINCIPAL OF POLISPACE, AN
ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA-BASED SPACE-POLICY
CONSULTANCY.
America’s national security reliance on commercial space communications,
overhead imagery, and launch services … are all dependent on three tiny offices
inside Commerce and Transportation, plus the Satellite Division of the International Bureau of the FCC.
24 | SPACENEWS 11.21.16
FIRST PERSON Lori Garver
Throughout the 2016 campaign,
I told people I didn’t think the
election outcome would make
a huge difference for NASA. I
knew the people involved on both sides
and we had similar views on several ma-
jor aspects of what needs to be done to
advance the exploration and develop-
ment of space.
Every government agency and estab-
lished pool of contractors believes their
agency is on the right path and shouldn’t
have to change, but that is not what new
leadership is about. Even if you believe
Hillary Clinton’s team would have come
in without a change mandate, the oppo-
site is likely true for Donald Trump, who
campaigned on change. Trump’s NASA
transition team is likely being given sim-
ilar direction to what we were given in
2008 – learn everything you can about
what is going on in the agency and how
we can make improvements.
A lot has been made of how little
Trump and Clinton said about space on
the campaign trail — and the Trump tran-
sition team’s late start setting up shop at
NASA Headquarters. Don’t mistake any
of this for a lack of an intention or ap-
petite to address NASA and space issues
in the four years ahead.
The cherished refrain that “space is
not partisan” is going to be put to the
test in the Trump administration. Dem-
ocrats and Republicans have traditionally
found common cause when it comes to
civil space, forging bipartisan alliances
to protect jobs in their districts (which
is why I’ve often said space is more pa-
rochial than partisan). Over the past few
years, however, partisanship has been
creeping into congressional funding
decisions for NASA and the broader U.S.
Why this Democrat is giving Trump a chance on space (if not much else)
space program. This Capitol Hill combo
of partisanship and parochialism has
severely undermined NASA’s ability to
advance meaningful and sustainable
science and technology objectives. The
Trump administration, with Republican
majorities in both the House and Senate,
is likely to ratchet up partisanship. But it
also has the opportunity to limit the neg-
ative effects of parochialism.
Presidents are, by design, less paro-
chial than Congress. They don’t represent
a particular congressional district and are
driven to advance ideas and budgets that
are, at least in theory, good for America
— at least those parts of America likely
to re-elect them. President Obama’s first
NASA budget request was focused on ad-
vancing the long-term objectives of the
agency over parochial interests. Even
thought it would be politically difficult,
he proposed canceling Constellation in
order to advance a more sustainable and
beneficial future for space.
Congressional attacks on Obama’s
initial budget request were both partisan
and parochial – but primarily parochial.
Although not unexpected, these attacks
came just as the Obama administration
was focused on holding 60 votes in the
Senate for health care and other high-
er-priority issues. As an astronaut and
self-proclaimed Washington outsider,
NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden’s per-
ceived lack of enthusiasm for the White
House agenda fueled the opposition. With-
out a champion at NASA or White House
willingness to take on these special inter-
ests, the administration made a Faustian
bargain to secure congressional support
for Earth sciences, technology and com-
mercial crew, in exchange for support of
Constellation’s SLS and Orion programs.
While these parochial interests still
exist, the Republican-controlled Con-
gress, increased political will and influ-
ential leadership could give the Trump
administration the ability to more ef-
fectively advance their agenda in space.
Former House Speaker Newt Ging-
rich is one President-elect Trump’s most
senior advisers. I don’t know what role
Speaker Gingrich will play in the Trump
administration, but his passionate com-
mitment to space settlement is bound to
be part of their space agenda. Former
Congressman Robert Walker and for-
mer National Space Council executive
director Mark Albrecht are also very se-
nior and seasoned on space issues. Even
more importantly, they are like-minded
on several key issues:
• NASA’s bureaucracy and infrastruc-
ture is too large and expensive
• NASA shouldn’t be spending so much
money on Earth science
• The moon is a better and more im-
portant next destination than Mars
• Entrepreneurial space should play a
larger role in all aspects
• Space activities cut across international,
civil, military and commercial arenas
and should be run out of the White
House, by a National Space Council,
reporting to Vice President-elect Mike
Pence.
The Trump administration has the
very real opportunity to move its agenda
forward in Congress. That in itself could
change the trajectory of the agency — at
least some of it for the better.
LORI GARVER LED THE OBAMA
ADMINISTRATION’S NASA TRANSITION TEAM
AND SERVED AS NASA DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR
FROM 2009 TO 2013.
SPACENEWS.COM | 25
COMMENTARY Michael J. Listner
The surprising election of U.S. Presi-
dent-elect Donald J. Trump touched
off numerous presuppositions about
the future of international diplomacy
and the foreign policy of the United States.
The topic of space policy has not been spared
this uncertainty. While op-eds and speculation
abound about the effect President-elect Trump’s
approach to space policy may have on civil and
commercial space, little has been discussed about
what its future national-security space policy
may look like.
Of course, any glimpse of a policy would be
prognostication based on the President-elect’s
statements and posturing post-election, yet the
potential exists for the incoming administration
to formulate a space policy that will enhance outer
space security.
The Trump administration will approach nation-
al-security space policy based on the worldview of
geopolitics instead of globalism. That is not to say
the U.S. won’t embrace international cooperation
and interaction, but the Trump administration will
put U.S. interests first — instead of giving priority
to the politically favorable optics of international
“cooperation” at the expense of U.S. interests.
The nexus between policy towards the creation
of norms for security in outer space, the security
of space assets and the current body of interna-
tional space law is fundamental. Consequently,
how the Trump administration positions itself in
its National Space Policy and/or National Security
Space Strategy is important since both the docu-
ments will communicate U.S. positions to allies and
geopolitical adversaries alike. Opening with the
National Space Policy, the Trump administration
can learn from both President George W. Bush’s
2006 policy and President Barack Obama’s 2010
policy. Consider the stance these two policies take
on the issue of the creation of norms.
How a Trump space policy could transform outer space security
First, Bush’s 2006 National Space Policy:
The United States considers space capabilities — including the ground and space segments and supporting links — vital to its national inter-ests. Consistent with this policy, the United States will: preserve its rights, capabilities, and freedom of action in space; dissuade or deter others from either impeding those rights or developing capabilities intended to do so; take those actions necessary to protect its space ca-pabilities; respond to interference; and deny, if necessary, adversaries the use of space capabilities hostile to U.S. national interests.
The United States will oppose the development of new legal regimes or other restrictions that seek to prohibit or limit U.S. access to or use of space. Proposed arms control agreements or restrictions must not impair the rights of the United States to conduct research, devel-opment, testing, and operations or other activities in space for U.S. national interests.
The Bush administration chose an nationalist
posture and drew a red line where the United
States would deter, and if necessary, deny the use
of space by adversaries. This elicited geopolitical
and soft-power outrage, not only from China
and Russia but also from the lesser developed
and non-spacefaring nations. The soft-power
indignation was compounded with the 2006
National Space Policy closing the door to any
26 | SPACENEWS 11.21.16
that emphasizes deterrence, but also opens the
door for the creation of norms and dialogue with
the international community. Consider this po-
tential policy stance:
The use of and access to outer space is critical to the national and eco-nomic security of the United States and its allies. The U.S. will deter a potential adversary — and any non-governmental entities under the adversary’s jurisdiction — from interfering with that access. The United States will pursue a bottom-up approach to norms that encourage responsible actions and the peaceful use of outer space. The United States will consider legally binding and non-legally binding bilateral agreements and multilateral agreements if they are equitable, effectively verifiable, and do not harm the national security and economic activities of United States and its allies, or inhibit U.S. and allied use of outer space. The United States recognizes tech-nologies used for outer space ac-tivities are dual-use in nature and will henceforth reject international norms and measures, legally bind-ing or otherwise, that are designed to limit technologies as opposed to how those technologies are utilized by state actors.
This posture towards outer space security would
allow the Trump administration to strike a geopolit-
ical tone towards outer space policy, reestablish the
concept of deterrence for outer space assets, take
leadership in the creation of norms for outer space
activities and close off the arms-control approach
and the subsequent soft-power influence enjoyed
by China and Russia. Supplementing this approach,
the Trump administration could further enunciate
in its National Space Policy, or its own version of
the National Security Space Strategy, a U.S. focus
international legal accord that was designed to
limit U.S. access to or use of outer space and arms
control measures that would impair U.S. national
security activities without offering another avenue
of negotiation.
The Obama administration’s 2010 policy swung
the pendulum from the Bush administration’s
nationalist posture to a globalist approach by
eliminating the National Security Space Strategy
found in the 2006 policy and creating a passive
approach to space security by centering on
international cooperation. This approach to a
“cooperative” environment to create space secu-
rity culminates with the use of transparency and
confidence-building measures (TCBMs) to address
outer space security issues and the willingness to
consider legally binding treaties:
The United States will pursue bilat-eral and multilateral transparency and confidence-building measures to encourage responsible actions in, and the peaceful use of, space.The United States will consider proposals and concepts for arms control measures if they are eq-uitable, effectively verifiable, and enhance the national security of the United States and its allies.
While both policies address their stance on
deterrence (or non-deterrence as the case may
be), each finds itself addressing the concept of
arms control in outer space as opposed to behavior
with the Bush policy specifically rejecting arms
control measures and the Obama policy embracing
arms control through TCBMs and an openness
to legally-binding treaties.
The Trump administration is distinctively primed
with the willingness to change the paradigm of
arms control in the international community as
it relates to outer space and promote an activi-
ty-based policy much in the same way it changed
the archetype of U.S. presidential elections. The
Trump administration could accomplish this by
taking the Bush and Obama space policies as
bookends and promote not only a security stance
SPACENEWS.COM | 27
on deterrence. Consider the “layered-approach”
to “deterrence” in the unclassified summary of
Obama’s 2011 National Security Space Strategy:
We will support diplomatic efforts to promote norms of responsible behavior in space; pursue interna-tional partnerships that encourage potential adversary restraint; im-prove our ability to attribute attacks; strengthen the resilience of our architectures to deny the benefits of an attack; and retain the right to respond, should deterrence fail.
This passive approach to deterrence, which
relies on unrealistic and otherwise ideological
assumptions about potential adversaries, could
be supplanted by the Trump administration with
an approach that relies on a form of existential
deterrence but also provides for open dialogue
between state actors. A potential policy statement
might read as follows:
The United States will assert its right to self-defense as permitted by international law in the event any of its space assets or space activities, including those of a non-governmental entity under the jurisdiction of the United States, are interfered with by a state actor or a non-governmental entity under its jurisdiction. The United States will monitor its space assets and space activities and respond with appropriate force if it determines a state actor, or a non-governmental entity under its jurisdiction, is in-terfering with U.S. space assets or space activities, including those of a non-governmental entity under U.S. jurisdiction. To ensure a state actor, or a non-governmental en-tity under its jurisdiction, does not unintentionally interfere with outer space assets or outer space activities
and those of a non-governmental entity under U.S. jurisdiction, and thus trigger a response, the United States will open bilateral dialogue with space-faring nations to facilitate accord and communication with regards to norms and behavior as it relates to outer space activities and interaction with space objects under their respective jurisdiction.
The combination of the threat of force first
followed by diplomacy is the antithesis of the
“layered approach, ” which is passive “deterrence.”
The layered approach depends on scattering a
multitude of resilient-but-less-capable space
assets and the hope an adversary’s willingness
to test the United States’ resolve won’t outlast
those assets — or will otherwise be discouraged
by diplomacy.
Reinstating a policy of active deterrence and
opening a diplomatic dialogue from a position of
strength would reinforce the United States’ resolve
and enable a channel to potentially prevent unin-
tentional or even willful interference with space
assets and space activities under its jurisdiction.
This would result in effective space security for
all state actors. In essence, the potential exists for
a Trump administration national-security space
policy to throw down the gauntlet and then build
on diplomacy.
As with all policy positions of the soon-to-be
Trump administration, the policy position for
national security for space activities is speculative.
However, the president-elect’s posture of ‘America
first’ — combined with his experience and skills
as an international businessman — provides a
glimpse how his administration might approach
the thorny issue of outer space security and pro-
vide an effective solution that has eluded prior
policies thus far.
MICHAEL J. LISTNER IS AN ATTORNEY AND THE FOUNDER
AND PRINCIPAL OF SPACE LAW AND POLICY SOLUTIONS, A
THINK-TANK AND CONSULTING FIRM. HE IS ALSO EDITOR
OF THE PRÉCIS, A SUBSCRIPTION SPACE LAW AND POLICY
NEWSLETTER.
28 | SPACENEWS 11.21.16
China’s move to cis-lunar space
Since China launched its Shenzhou-11 manned crewed spacecraft to dock
with the Tiangong-2 space lab, spec-
ulation about where China’s space
program is heading has only grown.
Various Chinese officials have been quoted
suggesting Beijing may pursue human mis-
sions to the moon and Mars. Those efforts
were given a boost witht the successful, long-
awaited Nov. 3 test launch of Long March 5,
China’s new heavy-launch vehicle.
Meanwhile, the Chinese are proceeding
with their efforts at lunar exploration. At pres-
ent, it is expected that the Chang’e-4 mis-
sion will be launched in 2018. This will entail
landing a rover on the far side of the moon
to take samples. While the side of the moon
permanently facing away from Earth has
been photographed, no one has ever landed
there. This will be a major first in terms of lu-
nar exploration.
In the course of undertaking this mission,
China will also be deploying a relay satellite,
necessary in order to communicate with the
lander. Reports indicate that this is currently
expected to be a communications satellite de-
ployed to the L2 Lagrangian point, a spot far-
thest from Earth on a line connecting the sun
and Earth. China had previously routed the
Chang’e-2 lunar probe through the L2 point.
The deployment of a relay satellite to L2 will
mark the first deployment of a communica-
tions or relay satellite to a Lagrangian point.
Other residents of these key points in space
(where the overlapping gravitational fields of
the Earth, moon, and sun allow a satellite to
maintain a fairly stable position) are largely
scientific satellites such as the Solar and He-
liospheric Observatory and the European
Space Agency’s Gaia satellite.
Such a development is a major feat, and
demonstrates the ability of the Chinese space
community to innovate.
At the same time, however, it also should
serve as a caution. China is demonstrating
that the most valuable real estate in space is
no longer limited to the geostationary belt.
Instead, Beijing is indicating that it intends
to establish a foothold for its space systems
at the Lagrangian points and elsewhere in
cis-lunar space, the region between the geo-
stationary belt and the moon. As important, it
will be deploying not only scientific payloads,
but more-immediately useful systems as well.
Such efforts have strategic implications.
CIS-LUNAR STOMPING GROUNDSLike satellites in geostationary orbit, sys-
tems placed at the Lagrangian points can have
extended lifespans, as they do not expend fuel
in order to remain in position. Thus, Chinese
satellites deployed there can function so long
as they have power — and China is also work-
ing on servicing satellites that will allow the
refueling and repair of systems.
Even more important, however, the open-
ing of cis-lunar space will expand signifi-
cantly the volume of space that will have to be
China is demonstrating that the most valuable real estate in space is no longer limited to the geostationary belt.
COMMENTARY Dean Cheng
SPACENEWS.COM | 29
monitored and observed. It may be possible
to “lose” satellites and other systems deployed
beyond geostationary orbit, especially if they
maintain a low profile (e.g., minimal output).
Conversely, objects coming from cis-lu-
nar space will also be less likely to be detected.
Thus far, the focus of avoiding conjunc-
tion events has been on tracking debris and
satellites from geostationary orbit inwards.
However, a payload coming from beyond
geostationary would, again, have a substan-
tial volume of space within which to operate
— and may come from different angles than
commonly presumed.
The cis-lunar region might therefore offer
a convenient location for not only operating
communications satellites, but in-orbit spares
and reserves, to replace damaged or lost sys-
tems. For key systems such as strategic com-
munications satellites, missile-early-warning
systems and meteorological systems, it may
be useful to deploy additional satellites be-
yond the geosynchronous belt, allowing the
constellations to be more resilient in the event
of conflict.
As important, in the longer run, it might
serve as a useful region to consider deploy-
ing anti-satellite systems. A direct-ascent,
anti-geosynchronous satellite system would
still take several hours to reach its target from
Earth, potentially allowing time for evasion or
even interception. But anti-satellite systems
lying dormant in the region beyond geosyn-
chronous orbit could reach their targets in less
time, or at least be less likely to be detected.
Ironically, the Chinese are expanding their
operations to cis-lunar space at almost the
same time that the United States has publi-
cized its Geosynchronous Space Situational
Awareness Program. GSSAP was intended
to allow the U.S. to characterize satellites in
the geosynchronous region, and has been
characterized as the equivalent of a “neigh-
borhood watch.” China’s ability to exploit
the cis-lunar region may effectively out-
flank that effort.
A combination of efforts, including direct
ascent, co-orbital, and cis-lunar systems, as
well as cyber and other soft-kill measures,
could prove highly effective at establishing
what Chinese strategists term the “space dom-
inance” necessary for fighting and winning
“local wars under informationized conditions.”
It would behoove American analysts to
carefully observe the activities of China’s
newest military service, the People’s Libera-
tion Army Strategic Support Force, which is
assuming control of space, network, and elec-
tronic warfare efforts. This new service will
be looking for synergies among these various
elements in establishing “information domi-
nance,” a longstanding focus for the People’s
Liberation Army, and considered a keystone
for winning future conflicts.
DEAN CHENG IS A SENIOR RESEARCH FELLOW IN
THE ASIAN STUDIES CENTER AT THE HERITAGE
FOUNDATION.
30 | SPACENEWS 11.21.16
BOTTOM LINE Peter B. de Selding
But when it comes to offering global
satellite internet connectivity with hun-
dreds, even thousands, of satellites, those
with long memories could ask: Haven’t
we seen this film before?
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission
(FCC), having received the OneWeb application
to launch 700-plus satellites into low Earth orbit,
asked other companies proposing global internet
constellations to declare themselves by Nov. 15.
And did they ever! Eleven different propos-
als covering a multitude of orbits — LEO, HEO,
GEO with special sauce, polar, inclined, equa-
torial — made applications in an extraordinary
show of enthusiasm for the satellite communi-
cations business.
Filing a proposal to the FCC is only a first step.
The agency’s receipt of the filing does not con-
stitute approval. Anyone with a lawyer and an
engineer can make a filing.
The trick is to find out which of them have
solid enough financial backing or superior fre-
quency-reservation rights at the International
Telecommunication Union, the U.N. organiza-
tion that allocates orbital slots and frequencies.
Here are the companies whose proposals made
it by the FCC deadline: Audacy, Boeing, Karousel,
Kepler Communications, LeoSat, O3b, Space Nor-
way, SpaceX, Telesat, Theia Holdings and ViaSat.
A couple of them make reference to their back-
ers, but most do not, and none includes specific
capital cost estimates.
At least one — SpaceX, whose 4,425 satellites is
the biggest of the bunch — has asked the FCC to
Enough satellites to darken the skies
waive its requirement that systems be launched
and in service within six years of receiving a li-
cense. SpaceX says initial service using 800 sat-
ellites could be fielded in that period, but that it’s
not realistic to expect them to build and place
into service 4,425 satellites just 72 months after
receiving a license.
Phased array antennas are everywhere in
these filings, both on board the satellites and on
the ground, and optical inter-satellite links are
also numerous. It will be interesting to see what
these companies assume as the size and weight
of these laser communications terminals and
how that affects the per-launch satellite mass.
Those who really miss the days of Teledesic,
Celestri, ICO and SkyBridge of the late 1990s will
be glad to know that with these new systems and
OneWeb’s, equivalent power-flux density metrics
are again at center stage.
The ITU has set rules preventing new constel-
lations to interfere with established ground and
satellite systems operating in the same frequen-
cies. OneWeb, for example, has said it will basi-
cally switch off power as its satellites cross the
equator so as not to disturb transmissions from
geostationary-orbit satellites directly above and
using Ku-band frequencies.
Expect a fresh round of filings to the FCC by
telecommunications network operators claim-
ing that one or more of the proposed constel-
lations poses a clear risk to established services.
The ITU, for its part, has said repeatedly that
its rules prevent frequency interference and sys-
tems like OneWeb should be allowed to proceed.
How many systems could be licensed? That’s dif-
ficult to know given the variety of orbits and ser-
vices that are contained in these filings.
A final point: Many of the proposals take pains
to assure the FCC that they will do what’s needed
to prevent collisions in orbit and to deorbit their
satellites at the end of their service lives. This is
not an easy commitment for a satellite operator
to make if its satellites are being retired after only
five years or so.
Nonetheless, at a time when many otherwise
good-citizen fleet operators do not respect interna-
tional guidelines about orbital debris, the satellite
world will be watching to see if the FCC is willing
to force these new systems into compliance.
A LONG LINE OUTSIDE THE CINEMA
IS A SIGN OF A POPULAR FILM…
DECEMBERDATE EVENT PLACE
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6-7Space Resiliency Summit 2016dsigroup.org
Alexandria, VA
8–10Global MilSat Comwww.smi-online.co.uk
London, UK
9–10SATCON 2016www.satconexpo.com
New York, NY
15–17SpaceCom — the Space Commerce Conference and Exposition
www.ntpshow.comHouston, Texas
15–17Center for Orbital Debris Education and Research 2016 Workshopwww.coder.umd.edu/coder2016
College Park, MD
JANUARY
15-18Pacific Telecommunications Conference (PTC 2017)www.ptc.org
Honolulu, HI
SPACENEWS.COM | 31
ON THE HORIZON
TO PLACE AN ADVERTISEMENT CALL 571.385.0234
http://dycoss.iaaweb.org
30 May-01 June 2017 Moscow, Russia
International Academy of Astronautics 3rd IAA CONFERENCE ON DYNAMICS AND CONTROL
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MARCHDATE EVENT PLACE
6-9Satellite 2017
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21-23CABSAT 2017
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24European Space Generation Workshop 2017 (E-SGW 2017)
www.spacegeneration.orgParis, France
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ExploreMars.orgWashington, DC
23-25Humans to Mars Summit
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32 | SPACENEWS 11.21.16
FOUST FORWARD Jeff Foust
Policy statements issued by the Trump
campaign ahead of the election pro-
vided only broad outlines of what a
Trump space policy might look like.
The post-election transition has shed little light
beyond speculation of who the next NASA ad-
ministrator could be.
Regardless of who takes over NASA, he or she
(perhaps in coordination with a reconstituted Na-
tional Space Council) will face some key issues
early in the next administration. What decisions
they make will shape civil space policy for at least
the next four years, and perhaps much longer.
Whither ARM?Perhaps the least-loved element of NASA’s “Jour-
ney to Mars” plan is its Asteroid Redirect Mission.
Since its introduction in 2013, it’s faced skepticism
from scientists and criticism from Congress about
its effectiveness in supporting long-term plans for
human missions to Mars. A House version of a 2017
spending bill for NASA withholds funding for ARM.
Even before the election, many speculated that
the next administration might cancel ARM, per-
haps to put more emphasis on lunar missions. The
Trump campaign’s space policy was silent on this
topic, but it could be an early test for the new ad-
ministration: NASA is set to award a contract for
the bus for the ARM robotic spacecraft in March.
Earth science in the balanceOne thing that was clear in the campaign’s space
policy was a desire to shift NASA’s emphasis from
Earth science to exploration. That’s a position that’s
shared by many Republicans in Congress who’ve
Key NASA issues for Trump’s administration
criticized NASA for asking for increased Earth sci-
ence funding and suggested other agencies were
better suited to do that work.
Any effort to reduce NASA Earth science fund-
ing will face obstacles, though, particularly in the
Senate, where past efforts to cut Earth science
have failed. Should the Trump team go through
with such a move, it might not free any money
for exploration: even the campaign’s policy ad-
viser, Robert Walker, acknowledged there would
need to be “budget adjustments” if Earth science
work moved to an agency like NOAA.
SLS and OrionCritics of NASA’s two flagship exploration pro-
grams, Orion and the Space Launch System, note
the campaign’s policy made no mention of either.
That’s read as a sign the Trump administration might
be open to revamping or even canceling them.
In the near term, at least, that seems unlikely.
Members of the president’s own party in partic-
ular Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), a key appropri-
ator and defender of the SLS, would oppose the
move. A more probable approach may be to let the
programs continue for at least a couple of years,
through the first SLS launch in late 2018, and see
how well they are doing in terms of budget and
schedule before revisiting them.
The future of the ISSAssuming ESA formally approves an extension
at next month’s ministerial meeting, all of the In-
ternational Space Station partners will have finally
endorsed keeping the station going through 2024.
Given it took nearly three years to win a four-year
extension, the new administration may soon have
to start thinking about a further renewal.
That could open the door for greater commer-
cial participation in ISS, especially if any interna-
tional partners decide not to continue past 2024.
NASA is already studying offering one docking port
on the ISS for a commercial module. Another ISS
extension could allow a more gradual transition
to commercial space stations, but also potentially
compete with them as well.
While these may appear to be some of the key
issues for NASA in the next administration, there’s
no guarantee they’ll act on them. After all, conven-
tional wisdom hasn’t done so well this year.
IN THE DAYS SINCE DONALD TRUMP’S ELECTION,
THERE’S BEEN INTENSE SPECULATION ABOUT WHAT A
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION WILL DO ABOUT SPACE.
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