Pull the plug (6/26/23)

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you’re all staying cool as summer heats up.

In today's edition...
🔌 NASA axes the X-57
🌍 Climate & diversity event roundup
🗓️ The week ahead

Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here.

NASA Axes its Electric Aircraft

NASA is pulling the plug on its experimental all-electric X-57 Maxwell aircraft before it ever hits the air, the agency announced on Friday. Officials cited safety concerns as the reason for the cancellation, but the decision comes at a time of overall belt-tightening at NASA, with budget pressures coming down the pike.

Electric plane: The goal of the X-57 program was to build a zero-carbon emissions aircraft. Development of the 14 electric motor aircraft had made significant progress over the years, and was nearing first flight.

• Despite ongoing efforts, the program was plagued by persistent technical setbacks. Ultimately, mechanical issues late in the life cycle sealed its fate.

While X-57 never achieved flight, its R&D will help inform future electric-propulsion-focused designs.

“While we prepare to finish this project later this year, I see a long list of achievements to celebrate and an industry that’s better today because of their work,” said Brad Flick, head of NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center.

Green pushback: The cut comes at a time when NASA faces increased congressional scrutiny regarding budget allocations and whether climate technology and sustainability should fall within NASA's purview.

• The White House’s FY24 NASA request includes a $500M earmark for ‘Green Aviation’ to help the aviation community achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Cost pushback: NASA also faces criticism over its massive budget overruns across multiple programs. Last month, NASA’s Inspector General issued a scathing report on $6B of Artemis SLS engine and booster cost overruns.

As the federal debt limit deal threatens to put downward pressure on NASA's budget, internally, officials are already exploring ways to streamline its budget. With the Artemis program likely to be prioritized, programs such as green aviation and the Mars sample return program are at risk of being impacted.

Mars sample delays: The Mars sample return program aims to collect samples from Mars and bring them back to Earth for detailed analysis. Program leaders recently briefed NASA officials last week, revealing that projected costs for the program have doubled from $4.4B to nearly $9B, according to a report from Ars Technica.

To limit budgetary impacts, NASA officials may look to slim down the Mars sample program’s technical scope, enlist commercial partners, and slow-roll the program, pushing back the mission to after 2030.

Sponsored

Deterrence by Observation: How Commercial Satellites Galvanize a New Era of Geospatial Intelligence

Why should government agencies keep up with the commercial space race? Between 2006 and 2022, the number of commercial Earth Observation satellites in orbit increased from 11 to nearly 600.

Planet is uniquely positioned to empower government’s geospatial intelligence services to keep pace with technological advances in space.

From battling misinformation to improving decision-making on the battlefield, we’re helping to improve transparency and create a new era of geospatial intelligence.

Planet’s new whitepaper, Deterrence By Observation, dives into:

• How and why the commercial satellite industry has grown so rapidly

• What makes Planet’s agile aerospace methodology highly resilient and reliable

• Planet’s role in making the war in Ukraine the most digitally documented invasion in history

• How daily imagery can be used to automatically detect changes in land cover, road and building construction, and vessel and aircraft location

• Why Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) and private-public collaboration is essential

Read the White Paper to get the full story.

Biden Administration Highlights Climate, DEI Efforts

The Biden administration hosted a pair of events last week showcasing two of its top priorities for space: fighting climate change and promoting diversity in the industry.

A warming climate: On Wednesday morning, NASA hosted a ribbon cutting for its Earth Information Center, an interactive exhibit at the space agency’s HQ in DC that’s been in the works for about a year, according to an agency spokeswoman.

“The Biden-Harris administration has given us marching orders that the data ought to be more understandable, to be more accessible, to be more usable for everyone,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said. “Today, we are opening this Earth Information Center, but it’s only the beginning.”

The highlights: The center, which is intended for tourists and school groups to visit, includes a video wall of real-time EO data, an interactive presentation that highlights the vulnerability of Earth and unity of humankind, and an “Earth pulse” feature that uses lights to represent the data being sent to and from NASA satellites in real time.

Black Space Week: Later on Wednesday, the National Space Council hosted an event to celebrate Black Space Week with a high-profile guest list that included astronaut Mae Jemison, who as the first African-American woman to go to space, and Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the United Nations, who talked about how space can help address a number of problems on Earth.

“Let’s just start with one of my pet projects at the United Nations and that is dealing with issues of food insecurity and how we address the rising levels of hunger, how we address famine in south Sudan, how do we help the women farmers of Ghana know where to put their fertilizers,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “That information can be facilitated by what we do in space.”

Africa’s space legacy: Jemison and Thomas-Greenfield also both highlighted Africa’s long history of involvement in the space program, including hosting a runway in The Gambia for space shuttle landings in case of an abort during launch.

“We don't recognize…how much Africa and other developing countries were part of space exploration way before now,” Jemison said.

“Gumbo diplomacy”: The airport runway in The Gambia had to be extended and improved to be ready for the shuttle, a deal that Thomas-Greenfield said she helped negotiate while serving as a diplomat there.

“I worked with a lot of astronauts back in those days,” she said. “The NASA engineers who would come to visit…would always ask us what they should bring. And I always asked for celery because you couldn't find it. It’s the one thing that if you’re a Louisiana cook you need, and they brought me a whole suitcase of celery, like 30 heads of celery, that I was able to share.”

In Other News

• The US government has limited rules protecting tourists when they venture into extreme environments, such as the deep sea or space.

• A price tag that has doubled to $8-$9B could spell trouble for the Mars Sample Return mission.

• Rocket Lab ($RKLB) will attempt another sea splashdown booster recovery on its next launch.

• Ariane 5's final launch is now slated for July 4.

• SpaceX is planning a funding round at a $150B valuation.

• ULA’s first Vulcan launch has been postponed again due to modifications needed on Centaur.

• SpaceX will use hot staging on Starship's next flight, lighting its upper stage engines before shutting down all of its booster engines.

The View from Space

Astronaut Woody Hoburg tweeted this photo of Tunisia at night that he took from the ISS.