SPACE reported that there is no timeline as to when all the James Webb Space Telescope’s “observatory components will meet their operating temperatures.” Webb Deputy Senior Project Scientist Jonathan Gardner said Thursday the telescope’s mirrors “are not quite there yet.” All “of the observatory’s instruments are at their final temperature, including the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), which is super-sensitive to heat and gets some help from a cryocooler to stay around 7 degrees Kelvin (minus 447 degrees Fahrenheit or minus 266 degrees Celsius).”
Full Story (SPACE)
Tag: space industry
Space Industry Sees 10-Year High in Employment, But Worker Numbers May be Insufficient
Space News reports that at a briefing at the 37th Space Symposium Monday, “the Space Foundation released new data on the size of the core space industry workforce in the United States. That research found that there were 151,797 people working in the industry in 2021, an 18.4% increase over the last five years.” The average space industry salary is “more than double the overall average private sector salary,” but there is a shortage in skilled labor positions, particularly in precision manufacturing
Full Story (Space News)
James Webb Space Telescope Begins Alignment Process
SPACE reports that the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) mission team members “have begun the three-month process of aligning the $10 billion Webb.” For the first time, “photons from distant stars traveled through the entire telescope and were detected by Webb’s Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) instrument.” NASA officials wrote Thursday, “This milestone marks the first of many steps to capture images that are at first unfocused and use them to slowly fine-tune the telescope. This is the very beginning of the process, but so far the initial results match expectations and simulations.” The alignment process involves seven phases, “which will key on imagery Webb captures of the bright star HD 84406.”
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AIR Receives Pre-Orders for Over 50 eVTOLs
Aviation Today interviews Avionics International CEO and co-founder Rani Plaut on the company’s “approach to designing its personal aerial vehicle and achieving FAA certification by the end of 2023.” AIR has already “received pre-orders for over 50 units” of its AIR ONE eVTOL.
Full Story (Aviation Today)
James Webb Space Telescope Completes Deployment of All Mirrors
SPACE reports that the James Webb Space Telescope has deployed all 18 primary mirror segments and the secondary mirror as of Wednesday.
Full Story (SPACE)
Space Industry Private Investment Hit $14.5B in 2021
CNBC reports that space infrastructure companies “received $14.5 billion of private investment in 2021, a new annual record that was up more than 50% from 2020.”
Full Story (CNBC)
AIAA Statement on the Successful Virgin Galactic Unity 22 Mission
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 11, 2021 – Reston, Va. – The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) congratulates our corporate member Virgin Galactic on its successful flight test of SpaceShipTwo Unity today. AIAA Executive Director Dan Dumbacher made the following statement:
“On behalf of the 30,000 professional and student members of AIAA, we are excited to congratulate Sir Richard Branson and the Virgin Galactic team on their accomplishments today! The successful Unity 22 mission marks a major step forward in humanity’s quest to extend the human neighborhood beyond planet Earth. Virgin Galactic is helping move us closer to the day when space travel is widely accessible to people everywhere.
We especially congratulate Unity 22 Mission Specialist Sirisha Bandla on her part in this flight. In addition to serving as a Unity 22 crew member, Sirisha is a member of our ASCEND Guiding Coalition. The ASCEND Guiding Coalition is the executive board of advisors for ASCEND, the global community focused on building humanity’s off-world future faster. Sirisha exemplifies the community experience of space because no one goes to space alone.
We commend the pioneering role of Sir Richard Branson in accelerating the nascent space tourism industry. Today’s mission would not have been possible without his long-term vision and risk taking. He has courageously led the Virgin Galactic team through challenges and tragedies to get here. Their collective perseverance is admirable, reminding us of how we must accelerate innovation in space with the utmost focus on safety and our shared humanity.
We recognize the countless professionals in the aerospace industry involved in making this mission a success, from design, to fabrication, to testing, and now to operations. We salute and applaud the Virgin Galactic team for pursuing their dreams with determination and making important contributions to shaping the future of aerospace.”
Media Contact: Rebecca B. Gray, [email protected], 804-397-5270 cell
About AIAA
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is the world’s largest aerospace technical society. With nearly 30,000 individual members from 91 countries, and 100 corporate members, AIAA brings together industry, academia, and government to advance engineering and science in aviation, space, and defense. For more information, visit aiaa.org, or follow AIAA on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.
Global Collaboration for Aerospace Companies is Result of Market, Brings Advantages
Panelists: Moderator James G. Maser, Pratt & Whitney; Jean-Paul Ebanga, CFM International; Leslie J. Kovacs, United Launch Alliance; Richard “Ric” Parker, Rolls-Royce; Marc Vales, Airbus Safran Launchers; Bernard Zimmerman, Pratt & Whitney
By Hannah Godofsky, AIAA Communications
The global collaboration panel at the 2015 AIAA Propulsion and Energy Forum, moderated by James G. Maser, vice president of strategy, marketing and business development with Pratt & Whitney, asked representatives from global aviation and space industry companies to discuss their experiences in international collaborations or joint partnerships.
Marc Vales, head of future programs with Airbus Safran Launchers, said Airbus and Safran collaborated to better align with the newly competitive nature of the commercial space launch industry. It was a response to market demand, he said, elaborating that it is not easy to fund space ventures without international partners.
Vales said budgets are decreasing throughout Europe and that it is not possible for all European countries to maintain their previous levels of support for space ventures. It takes a more efficient venture with a supply chain spread to provide some needed agility, he said.
“Collaboration is essential in the aero engine industry. Perversely, so is competition,” said Richard “Ric” Parker, director of research and technology with Rolls-Royce. He said Rolls-Royce has collaborated with nearly every major manufacturer of aircraft engines to power products as diverse as the Concorde supersonic airliner, military aircraft, small civilian vehicles and helicopters.
“New competitors are just new partners you haven’t yet figured out how to work with,” Parker said.
Parker stressed that Rolls-Royce is able to create an engine without collaboration but that “we must compete as if there is no collaboration and collaborate as if there is no competition.”
Bernard Zimmerman, vice president of group strategy and development with Pratt & Whitney, said his company pursues collaboration to produce the most high-quality engines possible. “Each of the partners develops and manufactures a piece of the engine,” he said. “This gives us what we call ‘best-of-the-best’ technology.”
Zimmerman highlighted other benefits of collaboration, including access to government funding and university partnerships, and stressed that collaboration has led to the safest possible aircraft engines.
“The best part about being partners is that it makes us all better,” he said, explaining that companies can be friends, competitors or suppliers, but ultimately, they’re all colleagues.
Jean-Paul Ebanga, president and CEO of CFM International, talked about the competitive advantage that a close relationship between aerospace and government can represent. He said France and Snecma had a strong alignment, but GE Aviation could not count on the same level of support from the U.S. He characterized the U.S. government’s reaction toward technology sharing as being fearful.
“The French alignment between the government and the private sector was key,” he said. “… having a strong alignment between the government and the private sector can be a decisive factor.”
Leslie Kovacs, director of Washington operations for United Launch Alliance, a joint partnership between Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co., explained that the launch market was not large enough to support the redundant capabilities provided by separate launches from the two partners. The U.S. Air Force asked them to consider merging that part of the space business.
All was going well, Kovacs said, and a stable business that has made nearly a hundred successful launches was created. The Russian invasion of Crimea, however, created a serious disruption to the supply chain that had made ULA so successful. ULA had been using an RD-180 engine designed by Russian engineers, and the cost to build that same engine domestically, as the Pentagon requested, worked out to be $800 million.
“Unforeseen political forces are undermining the greatest launch vehicle in the United States,” Kovacs said, stressing that the fixed size of the national security launch market makes it a difficult business.